O.K., I griped about the lack of in-depth coverage on espn last Sunday night but apparently they do actually like us. Thank you Dickie V! Of course, being a native yinzer, I now worry about how this praise will jinx Pitt’s chances in the coming weeks.
I was going to take the day off from PSB, but Shawn inspired me.
How long had Pitt basketball been down? Think about it. Pitt was off the radar for the better part of the 90s. A brief flash in the early part of the decade then nothing — other than the occasional police blotter. Pitt didn’t actually show anything worthy of notice until the Big East Tournament in March 2001. Pitt, maybe 6 deep, went on a run in the tournament in Howland’s second year. They were carried by Senior Ricardo Greer all the way to the Big East Championship game, where they had nothing left in the tank and lost to BC.
That was only 3 years ago. Pitt has been one of the best teams in the Big East since that time. But it has only been 3 years. The national media fawns over teams like Duke, Stanford, UNC, Kentucky, Arizona, Kansas and so on because they have been good/great teams for a long time in the past and show no signs of not being the same in the future.
St. Joe’s gets attention this year because it has two things going for it that Pitt doesn’t. 1) That one great player that carries the rest of the team and is clearly the best player (the best player on Pitt’s team is debatable — Krauser, Page, Brown, Taft — because Pitt is a more complete and balanced team). Jameer Nelson is a focal point, it makes the story easier to tell. 2) They are unbeaten. Another storyline, and it gives writers a chance to be lazy and do comparisons to the runs of Indiana or UCLA.
Last month I excerpted something which commented on Pitt’s soft non-con schedule. Here’s the salient note.
Pitt doesn’t have the luxury of being an established commodity like Syracuse, and a couple of big-time games on national TV would do wonders for elevating the program.
Right now, Pitt fans are feeling underloved. They are letting national sportswriters know. That commenting on the non-con got a lot of response
I won’t go tit-for-tat with every team whose fans wrote to complain, but it’s clear there are plenty of people rooting for Pittsburgh and Wake Forest who believe their teams warrant a “Buy.”
And apparently they continued to badger Seth Davis at SI.com. A little aside in his column — where Jaron Brown was listed as “captain” of his “All-Glue Team.”
Yes, Pittsburgh fans, I should never have sold your stock a few weeks back.
Sticking with the SI.com writers, Grant Wahl listed 8 teams he thought played team ball and could win the national championship a few weeks ago. Pitt wasn’t one of them. He got some mail on the subject.
Sorry guys. My eyes glazed over from all the mail about last week’s Magic EightTM. If the ‘Bag had one of those electronic light-board maps that Google uses to measure worldwide traffic, it would’ve been Christmas-treeing in the Pittsburgh area.) Before I let the readers speak, some points:
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3. Pittsburgh is a nice team. Pittsburgh is a nice team. Pittsburgh is a nice team. There. I said it. Still don’t think the Panthers will win it all, but they do play Team Ball and they could go far in the tournament.While we got plenty of arguments for Mississippi State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Saint Joseph’s, by far the most responses came on behalf of Jamie Dixon’s Panthers in the wake of their drubbing of Syracuse in the Carrier Dome last week. One of the more sane takes was that of reader Patrick Lister of Jersey Shore, Pa., who writes:
Does any team exemplify Team Ball more than the Pittsburgh Panthers? When five players are averaging 10 points a game or more for the majority of the season and your team has one of the best scoring defenses in the nation (holding Syracuse to a Carrier Dome-low 45 points) and you’re coming off a strong showing in back-to-back road games against ranked opponents, I think you deserve a little recognition. Need I mention the 19-1 record? But if you’re looking for the perfect definition of team ball, look to the loss to UConn at the Hartford Civic Center. With three seconds left, down three, and the ball in the team’s top scorer’s hands, what would most teams do? (Hint: Not dish the ball out to an unheralded freshman averaging 2.8 points a game.) THAT is team ball. I look forward to seeing that picture of you in Panthers gear.
Patrick: Thanks for the points. I like the Panthers a lot, and they’ve certainly taken a leap forward in many eyes after the win at Syracuse. You’re also right about winning over converts with the loss in Hartford. For me, though, the real tests will come on Feb. 15 (at home against UConn) and March 2 (at Providence).
Is Pitt sophomore point guard Carl Krauser already better than Brandin Knight was as a senior? Krauser shoots better, scores more and plays solid defense. As much as Knight helped establish Pitt as a burgeoning program, could Krauser help the Panthers take the next step? — Jason Wawrzeniak, Melbourne, Fla.
Good question, but don’t sell Knight short here. Keep in mind that statistics mean less when evaluating point guards than with other positions. The only stat that really matters is winning percentage in March, and Knight has a pretty good one. Head to head, though, Krauser has advantages over Knight’s senior stats in points per game (15.1 to 11.2), field-goal percentage (.472 to .367) and free-throw percentage (.786 to .575). Meanwhile, Knight leads Krauser in assists per turnover (2.07 to 1.86) and steals per game (2.12 to 1.56). Krauser may not be better than Knight was last year, but he is certainly in the same discussion, which is very good news indeed for Pitt.
The following week, his column disclosed the location and occupation of Pitt legend Jerome Lane.
Another factor that helps with media coverage — the coach. Pitt has a newbie, Jamie Dixon, and is boring copy. He does the total coachspeak thing. Longtime, successful coaches have built up relationships with national media that has covered them — Roy Williams (UNC, formerly Kansas), Bob Knight (Texas Tech), Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim, Gary Williams (Maryland), Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Tom Izzo (Mich. St.)Rick Pitino (Louisville) and so on.
The nature of the coverage in general is to ignore until they are sure the team will be around for a while, and then continue the coverage even if the team doesn’t merit it.
A bit late, but the kid has a cold.
Let’s start with the personal POV. Over at the Courtside Seats, Mike is frustrated. Mike has been totally stand-up in calling the Huskies as he sees ’em, and was gracious in the defeat of his team. Obviously, I haven’t heard his radio broadcasts, but if he is even half that professional in his broadcasts, then I expect I will hear him in the future.
The Hartford Courant probably has the most and best overall coverage. They even provide a recap of the 5 biggest games over the last 6 years. There was no common theme to the reporters coverage, which is nice. Each had their own take. For one, it was the fact that Pitt just manhandled UConn.
There is nothing subtle about the Pittsburgh experience.
Especially at the Petersen Events Center.
The Panthers climb inside your brain with their talk. Then they climb inside your uniform to make it stick.
Not the greatest mental image to have, but you get the point. For the column piece it was all about poise. UConn is lacking it. Plenty of compliments for Pitt, but ultimately the column is a critique about the soft play of UConn.
UConn’s biggest rival in this season of grand expectation is Poise State.
The Huskies’ toughest opponent is Patience A&M and patience in the p.m., too.
Their most dreaded competitor is mental toughness.
Until they find – what is it the French call it? – that certain sang-froid, UConn isn’t going to win the national championship.
UConn’s 75-68 loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday was merely further proof.
Make no mistake, Pitt is the best thing to happen to UConn athletics in recent years and the Petersen Events Center is one of the best things to happen to Big East basketball in a long time.
St. John’s and Georgetown may prompt tales of romance in our neck of the woods, but the hard fact is Pittsburgh, with its long football history and hardscrabble, non-negotiable basketball team, is where the future action is for our state.
Then there’s the issue of Okafor’s second half disappearing act. It seems, that Pitt has his number.
Okafor, UConn’s national player of the year candidate, has had his struggles in the past with the Panthers’ physical style. They have found ways to rattle him throughout his career, whether riding him out of the post so he doesn’t get good position to score, or surrounding him with multiple players down low.
For the record, I don’t disagree that Okafor got hosed on that call for his 4th foul. It was clearly a block, but if you believe Pitt won because of that, you’re just too far gone. Even Calhoun has conceded that wasn’t the reason UConn lost.
The toughness and ability of Pitt to finish was admired.
The Huskies weren’t exactly out-toughed as they held a 38-31 rebounding advantage — led by Josh Boone’s 13, nine of which came on the offensive end — but every time UConn needed a big basket, it failed to convert.
Pitt led 36-28 at the half, but the Huskies got the deficit down to four points on a Gordon 3-pointer with 13 minutes, 11 seconds remaining. After two Brown free throws for Pitt, Boone tipped in a miss to get it back to four points at 47-43 with 11:41 left.
But that’s when Pitt took over on separation Sunday in the Big East.
The Panthers scored the next 11 points, the first seven coming on free throws, to take a commanding 58-44 lead. The run was capped on a Chris Taft dunk with 7:41 remaining
“That run was about it for us,” Boone said. “But no matter if they’re up seven or down seven, they’re still going to run their stuff and keep taking time off the clock.”
The reporters covering the Huskies have to be commended for their fairness. There wasn’t whining about Pitt bullying or bad calls in the coverage I have read. There was, in fact, admiration for how well Pitt did what it had to against UConn.
Other Coverage
Number 4 vs. #5 gets attention, having one of the teams being UConn means the NYC papers will pay a little more attention. The New York Times write-up, came courtesy of one of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnists (Chuck Finder). Guess their guys were all in LA for the NBA all-star game.
NY Daily News columnist Dick Weiss, definitely felt Pitt is just the tougher team.
The Panthers were just too physical for Connecticut in a 75-68 victory, leaving Calhoun to lament his team’s lack of toughness afterward.
“This team doesn’t show any emotion,” he said. “I’m trying to remember the last time our kids came into the locker room and just went crazy … maybe two years ago against Arizona. We beat Oklahoma by 40 points and it’s, ‘Oh, well. Ho-hum.’ We have a bunch of nice kids on this team, kids you’d like to take home with you. What I’d like to have is a couple kids I wouldn’t want to take home.”
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Calhoun was like that as a player and is like that as a coach. But aside from senior point guard Taliek Brown or defensive specialist Shamon Tooles, no one on this talented Connecticut roster falls into that category.No one on the Huskies (19-5, 7-3 Big East), especially 6-10 All-America center Emeka Okafor, wanted to address the subject of country club living right now. “They beat us, so I can’t say anything,” he said.
But that’s what separates these two teams right now. And it is why Pitt (23-2, 9-2) has emerged as the team to beat in this conference.
This is a team that plays with a chip on its shoulder.
Fun With Personal Biases
A couple articles caught my eye, because the bias is so blatant.
Take this from the Philadelphia Inquirer writer, who has clearly decided that local St. Joe’s has the player of the year in Jameer Nelson.
One nationally televised opportunity for Connecticut center Emeka Okafor to show that he – not that point guard from the little Philly school – is college basketball’s player of the year is gone now, lost in the frenzied Petersen Events Center.
Pitt fans can only shake their heads. This was the sort of thing that was written after the loss to Miami regarding Fitzgerald and the Heisman. That, “see, I knew it,” line of crap.
Sadly, the Altoona Mirror only offers a tease of Lee’s favorite columnist. I hope Lee will provide a full, frontal Fisking of this.
The collapse of the Big East has created a dark cloud over the Pitt football program.
But the basketball team has given the Panther faithful plenty to cheer about, and even with the 2005-2006 additions of powers Louisville and Cincinnati to the Big East, it’s clear the road to future conference prominence will continue to run through here.
Finally, for those UConn fans who seem to wonder why Pitt still seemed pissed about Calhoun’s talent vs. team comment from last year, I’ll try a quick explanation. When Pitt won last year, Calhoun made it in a very backhanded compliment sort of way along with a lot of complaints about how Pitt wasn’t getting called for fouls like UConn was. In the context of the stories, Calhoun seemed almost dismissive of Pitt. Coach Howland played up the talent comments in part to stick up for his players, but also to keep them fired up about UConn, considering the Big East Tournament was only a week or so away. Considering what Pitt did against UConn in the Big East championship, I’d say it worked.
While the local media are tittering like schoolgirls who’ve just met their crush in person, the national media are perhaps a tad more agnostic about us. Last night’s Sports Center covered our victory in a very perfunctory manner. Granted, it was on a weekend during which a blockbuster baseball trade was being mulled but Dale Jr. and N.C. State also got much, much more airtime as well. Again, I will grant that it was the weekend of the Daytona 500, the ‘Super Bowl’ of the left-turn crowd (I guess I’m un-American for not getting into this ‘sport.’) and that the Wolfpack pulled off a huge upset but the tone of our coverage was still tepid. And it was the ho-hum tone that grabbed me. Yes, these are worthy and exciting stories, but Pitt vs. Uconn was as well. I mean, this was #4 vs. #5, a battle for first place in one of the country’s premier basketball leagues, a possible preview of the Big East’s tournament, and a possible NCAA tournament preview as well. Something doesn’t add up here…
Seems to be a veritable avalanche of stories now. Big Wins will do that. Expect some follow through for a couple days.
The Horse’s Mouth
Pitt put out a list of key quotes from interviews following the game. Jamie Dixon is totally boring coachspeak. Compare it to Calhoun, and you can get part of why the Husky fans love him. He is blunt and direct. He actually says things that are worth quoting.
Opening Remarks:
“Congratulations to Pittsburgh on their win today, they played great defensively as a team. They wore us
down because of how physical they were. Pittsburgh deserved to win this game.”Comments on the Built up to the Game:
“I was really excited about this game, but the team wasn’t at least they didn’t show it. This team really
doesn’t show emotion, but I wish they did, I’m a very emotional person.”Comments on Pittsburgh offense:
“No matter how good we played defense, Pittsburgh still executed offensively. This is because Pittsburgh
has great basketball I.Q. and believes in the system that Coach Jamie Dixon has brought to the team.”
Expect the lack of emotion from the UConn team to be a continuing theme. Especially up in Storrs.
Coverage
The game itself — payback or roughhousing. The payback article, is practically giddy about Pitt.
It might be premature to make reservations to San Antonio, site of the Final Four, but Pitt sent a statement heard around the nation Sunday afternoon with a resounding 75-68 victory over Connecticut at Petersen Events Center.
Given the disappointments of the past in Pitt sports, there is a part of me that cringes at seeing things like this.
Looks like the desperation from UConn, and their inability to keep it together was seen by more than just me.
Every time the Huskies made a run, the Panthers did not panic, but rather responded with a run of their own and never relinquished the lead. In almost every crucial situation down the stretch, according to Gordon, the Huskies crumbled under the pressure.
“You have to be poised out there and we weren’t,” Gordon said. “I think if there is one weakness in our game it is being poised in certain game situations. If we look back on this game, there were a number of times we had a chance to make something happened and didn’t. We got out of our game a little bit at times.
“Pitt seemed to take one possession at a time and they were consistent at it. A combination of their defense and us just not being mentally focused enough to stay with what we do, even if a shot wasn’t there, hurt us. We have to be more patient and use the whole shot clock if that is what it takes to get a basket.”
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Boone said the Huskies never got into a rhythm and every time they made a mistake, Pitt would make them pay for it.“It is heartbreaking when we get within four points there in a critical possession and something happens like we turn the ball over,” Boone said. “Then they come down and score to make it a four-point swing. Moments like that have really killed us. It is a matter of us keeping our heads together, keeping our composure. We need to settle down, run our offense, run our fast break and play good defense.
“We got rattled but we’re going to have a lot of tough games in the Big East tournament and the NCAAs and so we need to learn how to play through that.”
Well, at least they recognize there is a problem.
UConn believes there will be a Round 3 in less than a month. There’s a good chance.
One focus article on McCarroll’s game. Apparently he had a good practice on Saturday.
Then there was the atmosphere leading up to the game. Tickets were at a premium
It was the hottest ticket in town, with sets of tickets on eBay listed anywhere from $50 to $600 the weekend before the game. Ticket scalpers were out in full force, wearing their “I Need Tickets” signs and cutting deals in the shadow of the Pete.
“Wouldn’t you rather sell them to students?” said Megan Kelley, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a ticket scalper as they both leaned into the open window of a car in which two men were trying to sell two game tickets.
In the end, the men didn’t care for Kelley’s $200 offer or even the scalper’s bid at $250. Her boyfriend, Mark Esterheld, 26, of the South Side, was somewhat dismayed because he recognized one of the men in the car as a former high school basketball coach of his. But his old coach showed no favoritism for him on that day.
“It all comes down to money,” said Kelley, 26, of the South Side, now an elementary school teacher.
Undaunted, they continued their quest.
“Anybody want to sell tickets? $200,” she said.
Ticket scalpers reported business was “going good, REAL GOOD!”
A man who identified himself only as Scalper Dan said ticket scalpers were working every corner within a quarter-mile radius of the Pete and getting upwards of $100 a ticket.
Opinions
Speaking of giddy, Ron Cook is so far on the bandwagon it’s hilarious.
It’s all there for Pitt with five regular-season games left. The inside track to a Big East championship. The top seed for the conference tournament next month. And, if things go well in New York, a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.
A team needs that high seed and so much more to have a real chance. It needs strong guard play. Great team defense. Depth. Toughness. Senior leadership. Big-game experience. Poise.
Pitt looks like it has it all.
Two weeks ago, the guy was calling for a little perspective. So much for that.
Here, the win means the glass is half full.
Technically speaking, Pitt and UConn have split a pair of basketball games this season, just as the Penguins technically ended a losing streak by losing in overtime the other night.
These are the situations that scream for a “Yeah, but … ”
In the case of Pitt and UConn, despite how hard both sides were trying to sell the split angle after the Panthers’ 75-68 win Sunday afternoon, this felt much better than a split for Pitt, much worse than a split for UConn.
Yeah, they’ve split, but the teams have played four halves of basketball this season, and Pitt has been the better team in three of them.
Still comes down to the final score, though.
Finally, a little mean-spiritedness to the losing team.
And the Huskies, the nation’s No. 1 team in the preseason, are in damage-control mode when they ought to be peaking.
“We split with them,” Calhoun said, citing UConn’s 68-65 win over Pitt on Jan. 19, when the subject of psychological fallout was broached. “I’ll sell it that way.
“I can lie with the best of them.”
He’ll have to if the Huskies are to rebound from the drubbing they absorbed at the Petersen Events Center.
Calhoun will have to lie like a rug to shake the malaise from his current collection of underachievers in time to save Connecticut’s season (given the talent and expectations, only a trip to the Final Four can accomplish that).
Like I said, Calhoun’s a great quote. Not many other coaches would take shots at his own team. That shows a little bit of their own toughness, in being able to take the public criticisms from their coach.
Final thoughts
Pitt has some tough games ahead. The season isn’t over.
The let down game isn’t until Saturday at West Virginia. A week of lionization of the team, before going to face a desperate bunch of Mountaineers.
At Georgetown after that. Then Syracuse and at Providence in the space of 3 days. Then ending the season with Villanova — who always seems to give Pitt trouble.
Plenty of possible slip-ups.
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.
Not a lot of time today. As luck would have it, Erie, PA has the Pitt game. Friends of my wife get both Cleveland and Erie stations out in Geneva, OH. Geneva is about midway between Cleveland and Erie (roughly 50 miles either way) off of I-90. So we have to leave a little early, and still do some things around the house.
Here’s the news.
Pittsburgh beat
Tickets are going for as much as $500 dollars per. The winningest teams in the Big East the last 3 years. The loser is just about assured of not getting a #1 seed (for what it’s worth). This is probably the best article about the actual game from Pittsburgh papers. A little bias on the match-up breakdowns, perhaps, but not unexpected.
“It’s Round 2,” said Pitt freshman center Chris Taft. “We took a blow in Round 1, but we felt we could have had that game. It’s for first place.”
Said Pitt senior guard Julius Page: “It’s the top two teams in the league. We’ve been beating up on each other the last couple of years. The crowd will know it’s a big game, and everybody’s going to be watching. Let’s see who steps up to the challenge.”
Somehow, another Pitt beat reporter must have missed those quotes
While Pitt coach Jamie Dixon and his players shied away from calling this game any more significant than any of the other final five games on the regular-season schedule, Calhoun and his players reveled in the pregame hype and spoke openly about its importance.
“It’s definitely a big game for us,” Connecticut junior guard Ben Gordon said. “It’s not just another game. It’s a game we need, and we’re going to approach it like that.”
Pittsburgh Columns
Last year it was talent vs. toughness. The differences aren’t so clear this time. Paraphrase of the opening lines of the column, and the general gist. Pitt is more talented than last year, and UConn is tougher. Pitt is still a bit more physical, but UConn has a bit more talent. Pirusta is already thinking of a third game in Madison Square Garden.
Cook argues that Pitt-UConn is a rivalry. Sorry. No. It’s not. We all wouldn’t mind it becoming a rivalry, but rivalries are not made in a couple years. Rivalries take a couple decades, minimum with ebbs and flows — not one side dominating for a period while the other is in the doldrums. Time is a key component of any rivalry. Clearly that is missing. Otherwise, all you do is look back at a brief period and say, “yeah, those were some good games.” (I’m dangerously close to going off on a tangent I don’t have time for, so I’ll move on.)
Final column is a feature on Chevon Troutman. Kind of typical. Troutman is the soul of the team perspective. IT’s been done. With Page, Brown, and even Krauser.
UConn beat
Focusing more on the intensity between the two teams then the potential rivalry, is a good option. This piece sees the game being decided on tempo and fast break points for UConn, which jibes with their scouting report
he quickest way for UConn to quiet the crowd will be to stop Pittsburgh from scoring. If the Huskies can do that, they should be able to run. If the Huskies can get near 20 in fastbreak points, this one is over.
In another story, the key is also seen to be pace.
The Huskies will try and get a lead today by running their vaunted fast break at every chance.
“It’s about will,” Calhoun said. “If we make up our mind that we’re going to run after every basket, every time up the floor, we can set the pace.”
Pitt, meanwhile, loves to slow the game down and work the 35-second shot clock before shooting. The style suits their physical frontcourt, featuring 6-foot-11, 250-pound center Chris Taft, 6-7, 236-pound power forward Chevy Troutman and 6-4, 229-pound small forward Jaron Brown.
Dictating the pace is point guard Carl Krauser, Pitt’s leading scorer at 15.2 points.
“We did a good of controlling the pace the last time we played them,” Dixon said. “We know we have to limit their transition and that we have to grind it out and attack at the right opportunities.”
And one passage about this Pitt team that should makes every Pitt fan feel good
That’s Pittsburgh. Get the Panthers down and they don’t blink an eye. And when they have a big lead, you won’t see any chest bumping until the final horn sounds.
“They’re old-school,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “And that’s meant in a flattering way.
They never stop coming at you and that’s the most intimidating type of team to play. No matter what, they keep executing on offense and defense.”
Let’s Go Pitt!
Not much to report. On a personal note, the sports bars I have contacted have all told me they can’t get the regional ABC feeds. They can only show the local game from ABC. I was afraid of that. SOL. Looks like I’ll be calling friends for updates.
None of the stories are particularly interesting, or I’m just so pissed and bummed about not seeing the game that I can’t generate much interest in the pieces.
No.
They just aren’t that interesting.
Julius Page — One of the great Pitt defenders
Calhoun feels his team has lacked emotion at times.
Kind of surprised at the lack of stories. Guess they’ll all be in the Sunday papers.
I said this would be later.
UConn has its game notes out (PDF). Looking at it, the thing that stands out and makes me most jealous as a Pitt fan out of the Pittsburgh market — the number of national TV games. This is the reward for being a consistent top team in the country for a number of years: 9 games on ESPN/ESPN2 and 5 games on CBS and ABC. That’s the kind of national exposure that helps perpetuate the talent levels. Hey, I’d rather see them on TV than any more Duke and UNC.
The Hartford Courant has a notebook piece focusing on Denham Brown and his knee. In another notebook piece from the Connecticut Post there is a good passage about the rivalry with Pitt and the context.
So is Pittsburgh UConn’s No. 1 rival these days?
“No, I think Syracuse is,” Calhoun said flatly.
After his denial, however, Calhoun pointed to the magnitude the game has taken on in recent years.
“I was talking to a friend in Pittsburgh and he thinks from the game in which Khalid (El-Amin) came back and scored five points in the last 30 seconds to win the game and things were thrown and so on, it was just a heart-breaking loss for Pittsburgh,” the coach said of UConn’s 70-69 win at Fitzgerald Field House Dec. 12, 1998. “And it was an exhilarating win for us on the way to a national championship.”
That game, Calhoun says, made the Pitt players and fans hungry to get back at UConn.
“Since that time, Pittsburgh has felt the team it wants to beat is Connecticut,” Calhoun said. “And the fact that Pittsburgh beat us twice last year, clearly they’re a team we want to beat.”
UConn beat Pittsburgh 68-65 earlier this year in Hartford.
“So I would say that this season they are our greatest rival,” Calhoun said. “But I would still put Syracuse, over the last 10 or 12 years, as our biggest rival.”
First, it isn’t an insult to say the ‘Cuse are the biggest rivals of any team in the Big East. Syracuse has been on top in the Big East from day one. Everyone in the Big East wants to beat Syracuse. They’ve been here longer, and they’ve been on top the longest.
Next to the painful subject of that game at Fitzgerald. That was the last game I attended at Fitzgerald. Pat had gotten tickets invited me to come for the game. We went from the ecstasy of looking like Pitt was blowing them off the court to the agony of watching Pitt blow that game. That was the game that guaranteed that Ralph Willard wasn’t coming back. He never recovered from that game. Weeks later, after a Pitt loss, he would somehow bring that game up in the context of the team still working it through.
So, when I read this column on how Pitt is the big rivalry game with UConn, this passage didn’t ring true.
The rivalry was conceived before Pitt became a contender. The date was Dec. 12, 1998, and UConn’s Khalid El-Amin was being pelted with plastic bottles as he danced on the scorer’s table. El-Amin had just drained a buzzer-beating runner in the lane to give the Huskies a 70-69 victory at Fitzgerald, its first signature win during the national championship campaign.
Now of all the things that rained down on El-Amin — most of them were boos and insults (regrettably, some were of a racial nature — no excuse for that). Plastic bottles were not pelting him. That’s revisionist crap. Some bottles were thrown on the court, but if they were thrown at him, they were poorly aimed.
This article focuses on Pitt’s homecourt advantage, and quotes from Ben Howland.
It’s going to be a tough, physical game. That is really the only thing everyone can be sure of.
Sports Illustrated lists it as the marquee matchup and in its breakdown of the game, picks UConn. The pick to UConn seems to be decided on a nod to Calhoun’s history and coaching. He clearly has the advantage in track record, and so you have to give him the benefit of the doubt with coaching right now.
I can’t pick this game, because I can’t separate my heart from my head on this one.
Going to split this up, because I don’t know how long Sesame Street can keep my daughter distracted. For those UConn fans that seem to be showing up this week, welcome. During football season, with a week to build up to a game, I usually try to collect some of the stories in the media from both sides. Since there is extra time for both teams, I’m using the format for this game. (Go to the October or November archives for plenty of examples if you are so inclined.) I’ll get to the Huskie side later.
Pitt Athletic Department has it’s press release for the game, along with the game notes (PDF). Here are Pitt’s prepackaged storylines for the game:
Today’s game features the two winningest teams in the Big East over the last three years and is a rematch of the last two Big East Championship games.
Pittsburgh is 17-0 at home, owns a 39 home game win streak and is undefeated at the Petersen Events Center (33-0).
Pittsburgh enters the contest with a nation-leading 22 wins. The program reached the 20-win plateau for a school record third consecutive season.
Pittsburgh’s defense leads the way as it has held 16 of 24 opponents under 60 points and 21 of 24 under 70 points.
National Coach of the Year candidate Jamie Dixon is the first rookie head coach since Bill Hodges (1978-79) to begin a season with 18 consecutive wins. The national record is 33 consecutive wins by Hodges’ Larry Bird-led Sycamore team.
You do have to wonder about how the beat reporters cover the team. Do they get suggested stories from the school? Do they share their information? I don’t know. If only we had a guy with real experience in newspapers to share some inside information. A guy who even teaches at a j-school. Know anyone, John? The two papers each have two articles on the same topics, only slightly different.
Topic 1: Freshman Antonio Graves dealing with missing a game tying/winning shot again. The Trib is brief on the subject as the lead in the notebook. The P-G does a full article on Graves coping with it, and expressing his confidence that he will make the shot at some point.
Topic 2: Freshman Chris Taft, as one of the best centers in the country. This time the P-G has it as the short lead in it’s notebook column. The Trib runs it as a full story. Both stories quote Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who said,
“I think he’s in the top echelon of centers, not just in the (Big East), but in the country,” Boeheim said. “He’s one of the top four or five guys in the country at that position.”
So, the Trib story speculates a little more as to whether he could/should/would turn pro. An unnamed NBA scout said he would be at best a late first round pick — but more likely after all the Euro-players are included, he would end up somewhere in the second round. The scout agreed with Boeheim’s assesment, but added that it was another down year for centers in college basketball. Taft is still too raw, and needs more strength. Someone should put him in touch with Mark Blount. My guess, Pitt will get to keep him for one more year — barring an academic breakdown. There are no comparisons to Okafor of UConn in the articles — does that seem strange to anyone else?
There is a column talking about the meaning of this game in terms of seeding potentials for the NCAA Tourney. It’s an empty piece. Just skip it, unless you want to read something that will have no meaning in another week. Seeding discussions are fun in the bar, but any discussion now, assumes that the top dozen teams won’t lose again until the conference tournaments.
I missed this article earlier in the week. A rare freebie on Pitt Insiders about the Seton Hall game being a Pitt “worst case scenario.” A little overwrought and few mangled phrases (how can Page’s bad game be “insulting?”), but not necessarily wrong.
Finally, Coach Jamie Dixon was on ESPN2’s barely tolerable “Cold Pizza” this morning. Rather typical coachspeak regarding the game. Lots of props given — by name — to his assistants and the seniors.
One of our readers (yes, Lee, we really do have readers) Tony in the (Harris)burg sent me an e-mail with some comments. He also provided a link with some information about what Nike paid some of the top football programs a couple years ago.
FSU: $6 million, 5 years.
Michigan: $5.7 million, six years.
North Carolina: $4.69 million, four years.
Alabama: $2.9 million, five years.
Penn State: $2.6 million, four years.
Illinois: $2.5 million, seven years.
Idle thought: wonder whether Addidas, Pitt’s b-ball outfitter, whispered some numbers in AD Long’s ear.
It’s nice to see that the more things change in the Penn State football program, the more they stay the same. Like I always tell my wife, you don’t have to trick the Nittany Lions into making asses of themselves. You don’t even have to want the Nittany Lions to make asses of themselves. All you have to do is sit back, relax, and watch the Nittany Lions make asses of themselves. It will inevitably happen.
Perhaps this is just a big conspiracy to get Michael Robinson out of Morelli’s way on the depth charts?
You suck, State.
Crap, crap, crap. I expected this, but still, crap.
ABC/ESPN finally put out the map for what games will be shown where on Sunday (PDF). Naturally, the Cleveland market will have Wake Forest-Cinci (the wife will be happy).
It’s already Thursday, but the stories are still more internal, than about the game itself. The misleadingly titled Trib story, “Pitt hopes to avenge early loss to Huskies” is more about the media preparations, and dealing with having the game called by Brent Musburger and Dick Vitale — ugh. The P-G has a good puff piece on Tim Beltz the basketball strength and conditioning coach, and the impressive job done with Pitt b-ball players.
Up in Storrs, Connecticut, the Huskies head coach has given his team the silent treatment for a couple days. UConn sees itself as having had a target on its back all year, with its pre-season #1 ranking. Everyone gets up to play them. It’s part truth, part pity poor us sort of thing.
Tomorrow should start to build the talk of “rivalry” between the two teams and more game analysis.
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