They get no breaks. They finally seem to be coming together. Pulling off the big win against the now downward spiraling Friars, and it was a 9pm game meaning limited attention from the dailies. Plus, St. Joe’s the Philly darling all year long, actually gets blown out the same day stealing even more attention from their big wins.

I was fairly satisfied with Pitt’s performance in their first game. It wasn’t perfect, but I expected a little bit of nerves, rust and a slow start. The New York Times saw Pitt never truly threatened. I would hardly call it a “struggle.” The local media and players, though, seemed more upset.

The unanimous sentiment of the players was that if they put forth a similar effort tonight, they won’t get the chance to raise the trophy again.

“It has to start [today],” freshman forward Chris Taft said. “We can’t do that [today]. From now on, we’re going to try not to do that.”

Pitt was outrebounded by a Virginia Tech team (34-32) that was second-to-last in rebounding in the conference this season and slumped from the free-throw line, missing 15 of its 38 attempts, including 11 in the second half that helped keep the Hokies in the game.

The Panthers also had mental lapses on defense. Late in the second half, Virginia Tech scored on nine of 10 possessions and trimmed a 15-point deficit to six points with 2:26 remaining.

“We got up by 10 or 12, and I thought we backed off a little bit,” junior forward Chevon Troutman said. “You can’t make your teammates play hard all the time. Sometimes they take breaks and don’t even know it. We did that and it came back to bite us in the butt.”

“It’s frustrating because we were out there hurting ourselves,” sophomore point guard Carl Krauser said.

I was willing to attribute some of the rebounding and defensive problems to Pitt making a conscious effort to go inside on offense more, which meant less of a chance to get position for rebounds and get back on defense. But if the players are annoyed, good. They need to get amped to play BC, not revenge against Syracuse like some hoped. Instead, it will be BC looking for revenge.

“We’re anxious to see everybody we’ve played and lost to,” forward Craig Smith said after the sizzling Eagles failed to make a single shot outside of 10 feet but came from behind to beat No. 19 Syracuse, 57-54, yesterday in the quarterfinals. “Obviously, revenge is on our minds.”

Taft was poked in the eye in the second half while going for a rebound. He should be okay.

Julius Page was apparently annoyed by being asked about his shooting again. Mike Pirusta has a good answer for why the question keeps getting asked.

It wasn’t the last time Page was asked about his shot, his confidence and his overall comfort level as Pitt’s season careens into its most critical juncture.

“It’s making me sick, to tell you the truth,” Page said. “We keep winning games and everybody keeps talking about me missing shots. Who cares? I would like it if they just leave me alone, let us play.

“If we lose and I shoot bad, then say something about it. But as long as we keep winning, there’s no need to even address it. It’s a team game. As long as we win, who cares if I shoot 0 for 20? As long as we win, I don’t care.”
…
The media cares because it’s under the impression that Pitt, at some point, will need more from Page than it’s been getting of late if the Panthers are to advance to the Final Four. [emphasis added]

March may be about winning more than anything (St. Joseph’s would have loved to answer questions about poor shooting following another victory rather than an ambush yesterday), but it’s also about projecting what must change for the next game.

Dead on. No dancing around it. That’s why the question has to be asked.

When Pitt lost to Syracuse a couple weeks ago I ranted about how Pitt failed to go at Hakim Warrick more when he was in foul trouble in both halves. You have to wonder if a few people in Syracuse might be wondering the same thing about BC’s Uka Agbai near the end of the game.

Uka Agbai picked up his fourth foul with 4:35 left in yesterday’s game and told his coach not to take him out.

“I told (BC coach Al Skinner) to leave me in the game, don’t worry about it,” Agbai said after the Eagles’ 57-54 win against No. 19 Syracuse.

Agbai never fouled out and, twice in the final minute, forced Hakim Warrick to go left because “he can only go to his right.” The two stands helped secure BC’s second upset of a ranked team in less than a week.

On BC-Syracuse, as the NY Times said, “Syracuse began with more fans at Madison Square Garden yesterday afternoon, but Boston College finished with more points.”
BC is now officially the “hottest” team in the Big East. Pitt will need a very good game to win this one.

A big match-up will be inside between Agbai and Troutman. Dueling puff pieces from yesterday and today. Agbai by Bob Ryan, and Troutman by Ron Cook.

Finally, because I can’t resist, here’s Orangenation’s recap of the game. One of those, the refs were inconsistent in one-sided against us, but it wasn’t really their fault Syracuse lost things.