There’s plenty of Pittsburgh coverage, but I’m starting on the national level to keep perspective. Well, national can be relative. Especially when you go local like in the New York Times
On Carl Krauser’s muscular left arm, the tattoo mural begins with an image of forearms crossed to form the letter X in the manner that Krauser celebrates successful jump shots. It is the last letter of Bronx, the borough Krauser calls home.
The article is all about how Pitt is Krauser’s team, and he’s a local NYC product. And Pittsburgh papers get accused of being ridiculous at pressing the local angle. To be fair, a sports columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times also saw the Krauser tattoo and control of the team. She did it more in the context of how Wisconsin’s Devin Harris doesn’t have the kind of edge or will Krauser does. I’m not sure that’s totally fair or correct.
At the Chicago Tribune the game was an “instant classic.” Wisconsin players learned just how physical Pitt is,
“It was a battle from the opening tip to the final buzzer,” Badgers forward Zach Morley said. “There was never a play when they weren’t going after the ball.”
“People said going in, yeah, they’re physical,” said Dave Mader, the Badgers’ 6-foot-11-inch, 265-pound center. “Those people weren’t lying. They banged us good. They pushed and shoved us down low and we couldn’t counter that.”
That’s the sort of thing Pitt will have to do against Oklahoma State on Thursday.
From the Chicago Sun-Times comes this rather interesting set of comparisons
A sea of red hasn’t been this de-partied and dead since Charlton Heston went packing.
In front of a rabidly partisan University of Wisconsin throng at the Bradley Center, the Pittsburgh Panthers sustained poise, opportunism and brawn to the last millisecond Sunday, defeating the quasi-host Badgers 59-55 in a second-round game of the NCAA tournament.
The Panthers (31-5) deveined Big Ten player of the year Devin Harris, who failed to score in the game’s final 11:58 after repeatedly shooting Wisconsin into leads during the opening 28 minutes.
Someone got a thesaurus for Christmas. Why all the harshing on Harris? Pitt has been clamping down scorers all season. He got 21, it’s not all on him.
By the way, the “sea of red,” Moses and being “parted” theme is over done. Knock it off. Every paper looks to play up some local hook.
While far from a victory of biblical proportions, Pittsburgh proved its seeding and superiority by parting a red sea of Wisconsin fans.
…
“We recruit players who are winners and who are mentally tough,” said Pitt first-year coach Jamie Dixon, a guard on two Southwest Conference champions at TCU. “We didn’t waste time or energy on [where we were playing]. Our emphasis was on us.”
In Wisconsin
For the short end of the stick, look first to Green Bay. Can you believe a columnist there would use NFL references?
The University of Pittsburgh was strong, tough and physical.
And that was the mascot.
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon downplayed any edge his team might’ve enjoyed in the paint, but I suspect he was being kind. The last time I saw a Pittsburgh team this bullish in the trenches it was the Steelers in the mid-1970s.
The Badgers weren’t overwhelmed in a 59-55 loss to the Panthers in Sunday’s second round of the NCAA Tournament, but they were routinely overpowered.
His basic message was that Wisconsin needs to get bigger and stronger.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel had lots of stories. They have to wonder if Devin Harris will go pro. The notebook column also observed that Pitt shot more free throws than Wisconsin, which is important because Wisconsin was 22-0 when it shot as many or more FT than the other side. Who knew?
Another article focused on the offensive rebounding and second chance points for Pitt being the key.
The game story sees it as almost, what if, and damn. Their columnist saw it as simply running into a team that does everything Wisconsin does, just better.
They’ll have six months there to figure out what happened to them, but it shouldn’t take that long, because it’s exactly what they’ve been doing to everyone else. A 25-7 season built on defense, rebounding and rough handling ended because they ran into someone bigger, tougher and ruder than they were.
“We felt like we could bang. We felt like we could hang and do the things we normally tried to do,” said Bo Ryan, poet and coach. “They just were much more physical than us.”
Who saw that coming? On a day when the Bradley Center was decked in red, Pittsburgh’s collars were bluer than Wisconsin’s. It was steel mills over dairy farms, mind over mania, balance over star power.
We, the fans, get to bask in this for one more day. The Pitt players and coaches have to start work on getting set for Oklahoma St.
