Recapping. Game notes, Only a couple box scores and some game logs to keep the facts straight.
Only a couple minutes of pregame, since they were showing important speedskating action earlier. Dick Vitale in a goldish jacket to blend with all the “Oakland Zoo” t-shirts behind him. Subtle.
Pitt controls the tip. No rushing. Miss a shot, UConn can’t push it up court. Pitt scores first when Taft slams home a missed shot. UConn ties it, but then a technical is called on UConn coach Jim Calhoun. What? Later in the game, Vitale said he thought the call was premeditated by the officials. Sadly that makes sense. Calhoun is a screamer at the refs for an entire game. As I recall from the last time Pitt and UConn played, both coaches kept coming out of the box, screaming at the refs. Looks like the refs are trying to keep the coaches from pushing it today.
Krauser sinks both the shots, and then Page nails a big 3 pointer. Pitt takes a 7-2 lead.
At about 17 minutes, Pitt lets the pace pick up, and UConn looks like it is ready to break out. Chevy Troutman picks up his second foul in under a minute. Not good. Troutman has to come out, McCarroll in. At least he fouled Okafor, who can’t make a FT to save his life.
Pitt still keeps the lead, 11-6 in a slow game, but at 13:57 Taft picks up a foul and comes out of the game for Torree Morris. Troutman and Taft out? There is no reason for Okafor not to dominate, or at least get a lot of shots from the FT line. Sure enough, Okafor grabs an offensive rebound and puts it in for an easy 2.
Page, though, buries another 3. Okafor doesn’t seem comfortable. He misses a couple close shots. UConn looks completely out of sorts. No reason, they are not comfortable being forced to play half-court. Pitt actually builds a 21-11 lead without Troutman and Taft by 10:32. McCarroll has 3 boards and 9 points, shooting very well. Morris is doing his job of committing a couple fouls and standing around.
The thing about McCarroll that keeps him from getting more playing time, though, is his defense. It isn’t there. He doesn’t get in good position, and he isn’t fast enough to get away with that. He ends up getting blown past to the basket too often.
Okay, who the hell is the big slow white guy for Pitt that just scored on the nice pass from Brown? Looking at the box score, it’s a 7′ freshman named Aaron Gray from outside of Allentown. This was the 13th game he’s made an appearance in, but the first one I’ve seen.
UConn has been shooting horribly from the FT line and the field. Pitt better keep a good lead, because I can’t believe UConn will shoot that bad in the second half.
At about the 5 minute mark, there is a Yuri Demetrius sighting. Hey, he gets a rebound and gets to the FT line. Sinks them both. Statistical relevance today. 27-20 Pitt.
As the half winds down, UConn is pressing to get close and get above 30 points. Villanueva tries to drive quickly and commits the offensive charge. An easy call. Pitt gets the last shot. Sunk by McCarroll for a 36-28 lead at the half. McCarroll was huge in the first half with 11 points on 5-6 shooting. Okafor led the Huskies with 12, but only sank 2-7 FT, missing two front-ends of a 1-and-1. UConn went only 5-13 from the line. I worry about Pitt losing a game because of FT, but UConn is worse statistically, and definitely today.
After the half, UConn seems to have picked up the pressure. They have stepped out to stop giving Pitt so much of the perimeter to pass and set up. Pitt travels twice and a blocked shot on their first 3 possessions. Dixon calls a smart timeout at 17:40. UConn’s within 4, 36-32.
The timeout seems to have helped Pitt. At 16:08, the lead is back to 8, 42-34. UConn has just not been able to make the adjustments against Pitt to play half court, slow, physical play. They desperately want to run a fast break, press and push, but can’t. Pitt keeps pushing them back, every time they start to get closer.
Denham Brown of UConn, who has been slumping terribly, still can’t find his shot and it is wearing on him. He commits 2 fouls halfway through the second half and misses a shot in between, forcing Calhoun to pull him with 4 fouls.
Pitt suddenly is up 52-43 with 9:50 left. You can see the whole UConn team start to press. Instead, Pitt keeps going, and Okafor gets whistled for a cheap foul trying to block Krauser, his 4th. I think Vitale and Musberger were sure that would send Calhoun into the fit needed to get his second technical and ejection. Nope. Considering Calhoun had complained about the lack of emotion from his team earlier in the week, maybe he should have, just to try and fire them up.
At 7:44 Pitt has expanded to a 58-43 lead. It just seems that Pitt wants it more, everytime.
At 4:17, Troutman scores in what basically shows how much the game is just going Pitt’s way. He put the ball up, and it bounced on the rim a couple times, then for a split second that seemed longer, balanced there perfectly, before falling into the hoop. 62-51.
The final 2 minutes take the longest. 66-57 at that point. UConn commits 8 fouls in the final 2 minutes. Up to this point, Pitt was having the best FT shooting game of the season. One of the stories of the game should have been the fact that Pitt had gone 15-17 from the free throw line. But, Pitt went 9-16 down the stretch. Jamie Dixon remarked after one game that Pitt made the FT when they had to. In this case, making them early, meant there wasn’t the same pressure to make them later. Funny about that.
During the final 2 minutes, they looked to foul Pitt’s worst FT shooter, Jaron Brown. Amazingly, it didn’t work. Brown was an astounding 6-6 from the line, he finished with 17 points to lead Pitt. That said, I didn’t notice his scoring until looking at the box score.
Final Score 75-68 Pitt.
Pitt never trailed in the game. It was only tied twice: 0-0 and 2-2.
Looking at the box score, this was an amazing game for Pitt. 4 players in double digits (Brown (17), McCarroll (15), Krauser (13) and Page (11)). Just a pure team effort by Pitt. UConn actually outrebounded Pitt 33-28, primarily because Josh Boone was a monster on the offensive glass — 9 offensive boards.
Ben Gordon kept putting the ball up for UConn, he just couldn’t sink enough — 8-21 for 23 points. Okafor had a respectable 16 points, but it’s surprising he only got 13 shots. For UConn, it seemed they were too willing to settle for the outside shot, if they couldn’t run the floor with their big guys.
Look forward to reading the media stories.
