I’ll try to keep this brief (unlike the last two posts?), because there isn’t much time to bask in this win. Pitt will be facing a beyond desperate Providence team that has managed to go 0-6 in the Big East, which shocked even me who thought they weren’t going to do well in conference but not this bad. Reminder, the game will be on ESPN2 at 9 pm.

Lots of articles, though. Beating a top-4 team will get some attention.

Start with some local recaps.

It’s not a formula Pitt coach Jamie Dixon is going to want to patent: Play poorly early, watch your opponent go up by double digits, and then stage a heroic comeback.

Sound coaching strategy? No. Successful? In the past two games, yes.

For the second consecutive game against the best the Big East Conference has to offer, Pitt got behind by 17 points early in the first half only to rally for a thrilling comeback victory.
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“I don’t know if we’ll keep that one in our game plan,” Dixon joked. “But it was not a panic situation. The guys responded well and made plays throughout. It’s a great sign for us.”

Strangely, McNamara seems to be in denial that Krauser took him completely out of his game.

“I just didn’t force shots,” McNamara said. “If they’re going to take me away like that, then we should have other guys to make plays. [Krauser] didn’t do anything. I just wasn’t as aggressive after they went to that zone. In the first half, I was getting by him and making plays. It’s kind of tough to do that against a zone because it’s so spread out.”

1) you forced some shots in the second half; and 2) once Krauser started playing you, not just helping out, your scoring disappeared. He’s right, though, about having other guys make plays.

Another recap gives some love to the new kids who stepped up.

While Krauser was the linchpin, he received a lot of help from some familiar and not-so-familiar faces. Senior forward Chevon Troutman pounded inside for 18 points (on 7-of-9 shooting from the field) and nine rebounds. He’s contributed 47 points and 21 boards the past two games.

Sophomore forward Levon Kendall, making his first career start, scored all nine of his points on 3-pointers. He also added five rebounds in 29 minutes. Freshman guard Keith Benjamin, who’d been hampered by ankle injuries all season, posted a career-high 10 points (including a key floater and 3-pointer in the first half), to go with five rebounds, two assists and two steals in 21 minutes.

“I feel like I almost played the perfect game,” Benjamin said.

Benjamin had a right to feel good about his game.

Keith Benjamin, a seldom-used freshman guard who had scored only two points in Pitt‘s previous 13 games, keyed the comeback by coming off the bench for 10 points – as many as he had all season.

“It’s been a long wait to go out there and show what I could do,” said Benjamin, who was slowed earlier by a foot injury. “Coach (Jamie Dixon) gave me an opportunity and I wanted to bring some energy to the team.”

And he did. Even the Cleveland Plain Dealer sent a reporter to cover this game. He came away impressed and points to something I can only dream of happening.

Judging from the size and exuberance of the Pitt student section, a potential 150-mile trip to Cleveland, where opening-round NCAA Tournament games (March 17 to 19) are set, will not be a problem.

Oooohhh. Right in my own backyard.

The decision to stick Krauser all over McNamara in the second half, that was not exactly Dixon’s idea. It provided some redemption.

Over the past few weeks, questions have arisen about Krauser’s ability to lead the Pitt basketball team. His Bronx streetball training began to seep out. He was criticized for being too wild and rarely under control. He was turning over the ball. His passes weren’t crisp. His shots were rarely true.
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Krauser needed a jumpstart. He had asked coach Jamie Dixon if he could cover Syarcuse sharpshooter Gerry McNamara before, but Dixon ignored him. Krauser decided to ask again. Dixon acquiesced, a bit easily considering McNamara had 10 points in Syracuse’s 22-5 spurt to open the game.

“We knew there would be situations where Carl would be guarding him at time,” said Dixon.

He just didn’t think those situations would be so early, so often.

Krauser needed to prove things to his critics and maybe some things to himself, as well. He may not be the team’s best defender, but he was for one 10-minute stretch.

By the time the Panthers switched to the very effective 2-3 zone of defense, McNamara scored four points over the final 10 minutes of the first half. Krauser had been effective one of the top point guards in the nation.

McNamara was so disturbed, so frustrated, that he didn’t make another field goal until 2:10 remaining in the game.

“In big games, I want to guard the best players,” Krauser said. “It’s a big mental and physical challenge. I just wanted to show that I did have that passion and that will.”

Krauser really channeled his energy and game into the defense. Defense is about control. By putting that first, it seemed his offense and game direction fell into place.

One Syracuse player knew Krauser would be up for the game.

As Pittsburgh staged a furious rally to erase a 17-point early deficit against Syracuse in the Petersen Events Center on Saturday, SU guard Louie McCroskey was not at all surprised at who was leading the Panthers’ comeback charge. It was Pittsburgh’s flamboyant point guard Carl Krauser, who hails from the same neighborhood in the Bronx as McCroskey.
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“We know that he’s a great player,” McCroskey said. “He’s one of the top guards in the Big East. He’s going to make plays. He runs their team. When he goes well, they go well. They were still in the game without him scoring and then in the second half, they got open looks and he made them.”

When Krauser wasn’t scoring, he was making life tough for SU guard Gerry McNamara on the defensive end. Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon switched Krauser onto the SU guard midway through the first half after McNamara scored 11 points in the first nine minutes.

But Krauser really didn’t make a difference according to McNamara. Also turned out that Coach Dave Wannstedt and Bill Cowher were at the game. How could ESPN show so many shots of McNamara’s parents, but miss Wanny and Cowher?

Even the Syracuse players know they brought nothing to the game.

The remaining seven SU players combined to score just 18 points, or 2.6 points per man.

“A two-person team is not going to win many games,” said senior Craig Forth. “We’ve been lucky the past 22 games that somebody has always stepped up. Tonight we didn’t step up. Nobody stepped up, other than Gerry and Hak. The rest of us have to do a better job of stepping up or doing something out there or else we’re just not going to do that well the rest of the season.”

The loss is the first of the Big East season for No. 4-ranked Syracuse (20-2 overall, 7-1 Big East).

Syracuse had survived the last five league games with key contributions from the seven players – Forth, Josh Pace, Louie McCroskey, Demetris Nichols, Darryl Watkins, Billy Edelin and Terrence Roberts – besides the two stars.
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“Our balance wasn’t good tonight,” said SU coach Jim Boeheim. “We can’t win with two guys. We tried that at the end of last year. It wasn’t something that worked for us. We’ve got to get better balance. Our younger guys, who are getting some opportunities, they have to step up and convert those opportunities.”

Pace and Forth are both Seniors. It wasn’t just the young guys who didn’t step up.

When Pitt started playing their own version of the 2-3 zone, it was what Syracuse wanted.

In preparation for its game with Pittsburgh, the Syracuse men’s basketball team hoped the Panthers would play a zone defense. SU head coach Jim Boeheim – the zone’s master architect – figured his team would have its best chance for victory against a defense that it employs, and practices against, regularly.

And just as the Orange hoped, Pittsburgh eventually used a zone Saturday night at the Petersen Events Center.

The one problem being, the Orange couldn’t score against it.

After Syracuse squandered a first-half lead that ballooned to 17 points, Pitt switched to a zone defense for which SU had no answers. Ultimately, Orange players watched the Panthers snap off a 13-0 second-half run across a six-minute span. That scoreless spout sent No. 20 Pittsburgh to a 76-69 victory over No. 4 Syracuse in front of 12,508, handing the Orange its first Big East loss and ending a 13-game Syracuse winning streak.

“We didn’t attack the zone,” Boeheim said. “When you don’t make shots against the zone, you’re not going to beat it. Offensively, we didn’t play well enough to win on the road.”
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Even so, SU’s high-scoring duo was far from superb. Though McNamara led all scorers with 26 points and Warrick chipped in 25, much of the scoring came in junk time with the game out of reach.

But as the zone silenced McNamara and Warrick, SU’s bench players – most notably sophomores Louie McCroskey and Nichols – failed to hit open shots.

“If they made (the change from man to zone) so someone else would have to beat them, it worked,” McNamara said.

McNamara better have a really good rapport with his teammates. He may be dead on about how the other players need to step up, but you just don’t call out your guys like he did. Leave that to the coach. So, here I have to disagree with RS’s love of McNamara, a bit. You are one of the star players on the team, you have to shoulder more responsibility for the loss whether it really should be on you or not.