Sorry, just a long day.

Here are the articles from the Pittsburgh papers.

Is it time for the Pitt men’s basketball team to hit the panic button? Stay tuned, because it just might be.

The Panthers lost for the third time in five games Tuesday night, as Daryll Hill led St. John’s to a 65-62 upset victory at Madison Square Garden.

How bad was this one?

Consider this: The 21st-ranked Panthers (12-3, 2-2 Big East) not only lost to a team that was picked to finish dead last in the conference, but they lost at a place they call their “second home.”
…
And, even if a Panthers player wanted to argue, nobody would have known after the game. The Panthers were rushed to the team bus and kept from meeting with the media, the first time that has happened in recent memory.

Coach Jamie Dixon was the lone representative for Pitt, which has lost all three of its games in the final minute. His team clearly lost its New York swagger last night.

“We need to get better in a number of areas,” said Dixon, who was forced to use a new starting lineup because of the suspension of guard Yuri Demetris, who was charged Sunday with two counts of burglary and one count of simple assault on his ex-girlfriend. “We are obviously not where we want to be.”

I think the fact that Dixon had the team duck the media is absolutely stunning and unnerving. It makes me wonder what he was afraid they would say? Finger pointing at each other? More false bravado? What? It just isn’t good.

The play-by-play of the game reveals a typical scenario for Pitt. Play okay in the first half, but not great defense. Then have a big lull in the second half where the opposing team either builds its lead or makes a huge comeback. Then Pitt finally regroups to either pull it out or fall short.

Since I didn’t see the game, I can only go by what I’m reading from others, the play-by-play and the box score. The box score shows an almost even match of the teams overall numbers. My sense from everything, overall, though, is that Pitt just didn’t want the game as much as St. John’s. That is something you hate to even think about your team. That the effort, the desire is not there.

Krauser may have shot well, but he turned the ball over a whopping 8 times. Either his game is regressing, or he is having even more problems with that shoulder than he cares to admit.

Ramon, played more minutes off the bench than all of the starters except Krauser. I actually see Ramon as the closest thing to a bright spot in this game. He may have only been 2-5, but he had 5 steals and 3 assists. The downside is that he was a hideous 1-4 on FTs. That final 3-point shot he took on the pass from Krauser, rimmed out of the basket. It was a good shot.

As for the NY media. A lot of it was about St. John’s. How the team is acting and playing with class — an attitude brought by new head coach Norm Roberts. About how the program is taking steps back to where it wants to be. This was the first win of the season in the Big East for St. John’s. Still there had to be some smack:

The Pittsburgh Panthers, loaded with players from The Bronx to Brooklyn, came to the Garden last night looking for some home cooking.

They head back to the Steel City eating crow.

This is not their town. The Garden is not their home court. And most of all, the Panthers no longer are a beast of the Big East.

St. John’s saw to that.

“Ever since Ron Artest and those guys left St. John’s, we’ve played in Big East title games and won regular-season games there,” said Pittsburgh’s Carl Krauser of The Bronx. “We own the Garden.”

Don’t tell that to the Red Storm.

“We own the Garden,” said guard Daryll Hill of Queens, who played a complete game with 26 points, five boards, three assists, two steals and one blocked shot. “It’s our house.”

No one at Pitt is in any position to argue with any of that right now. Pitt has another shot at St. John’s at home on February 8.

I think I’ve lost the will to go on about this for a little while.

Grife. This is absurd. Pitt has now lost to the two teams projected to be at the bottom of the Big East. Only saw the last 25 seconds when ESPN cut in to show it. Glad I didn’t even blow some money to listen on the internet.

5 straight losses in NYC to St. John’s. There is no excuse for these performances. Pitt has more talent than any of their last 5 opponents and has gone 2-3. The two wins came with second half collapses to nearly cost those games. This is looking like an issue of heart, not ability. Pitt is lacking intangibles right now. Focus. Mental toughness. Something.

I’ll have more later. After I see some accounts of the game and better stats and play-by-play stuff.

Kevin Gorman, the Trib’s high school recruiting reporter does a puff piece on new Pitt Offensive Coordinator Matt Cavanaugh, and his expected impact in local recruiting.

In other tidbit news, Pitt may round out its non-con schedule with a Division I-AA opponent. This time, it would be the Youngstown State Penguins. What? Villanova wasn’t available?

And Defensive Coordinator Paul Rhoads might be on the move, after all. He’s up for the defensive coordinator position at Auburn. Three good years, mostly with previously recruited talent, and then two bad years. Failing upwards.

For St. John’s there is some sense of optimism. They may be 6-7, but they have played very well lately. They upset a then ranked NC State and had tough, close road losses at ND and WVU. They see no reason why they can’t pull off a home win against Pitt.

In fact when I look at the undermanned Red Storm — just 8 of the team are scholarship players — I can’t help but see a little of the old Pitt Panthers that played in the first couple years under Howland. The malcontents and problems were being weeded out, and there was this Pitt team that had no depth but was battling every night. That is what St. John’s seems to be doing, battling hard every game. And sooner or later, they are going to get more than a moral victory. Pitt better be ready.

With Yuri Demetris suspended, Pitt is going to go with Senior Forward Mark McCarroll in the starting rotation.

The player who will fill Demetris’ role in the starting lineup is forward Mark McCarroll, a 6-foot-10, 220-pound senior, who might have been the starter at the swing position all along had he not injured a hamstring in August. As it turned out, Demetris seized the starting role and never let go, making it difficult for McCarroll get many minutes through the first 14 games.

“Mark is obviously the guy we’ve probably played the most at that position,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “That’s the situation we’re looking at. Antonio [Graves] has played there as well. Mark has been getting healthier. He had the hamstring injury that kept him out for two months in the preseason. He had a concussion that kept him out for a week [in December]. The last game was the first time we’ve seen him healthy all year. I’m looking forward to him playing well. Mark has done a lot in the last couple of weeks.”

It’s unlikely Pitt will be abandoning use of 3 guards, considering the way Ronald Ramon has played. I think Dixon, though, likes bringing him off the bench. Freshman Guard Keith Benjamin has still been bothered by an ankle injury and likely won’t be available until next week.

That means Pitt will have no choice but to give more minutes to Forwards John DeGroat and/or Dante Milligan. Both haven’t played a lot of minutes, and haven’t showed much yet.

As for the Demetris situation, the team is dealing with it. Giving support to a friend and teammate, while acknowledging that he can’t be on the squad.

“He’s my best friend,” senior forward Chevon Troutman said. “I’m going to miss him.”
…
“Right now, we’re just going to respect his space,” junior point guard Carl Krauser said. “We want to respect him and his family and worry about this game on Tuesday.”
…

“As far as the team, we care for him and there’s a lot of personal matters that we really can’t go into,” said second-year coach Dixon, who’s been part of a Pitt program that’s been relatively controversy-free since arriving as an assistant to Ben Howland more than six years ago. “So, that’s really how it stands. … I’ve talked with him and he cares deeply about the team. We just need to show care for Yuri and his well being.”

Added Troutman: “We’re just trying to get him some help, and whatever he needs, we’re going to support him 100 percent.”

Demetris definitely needs some help. Otherwise, the team is trying to use the Demetris incident as something to help them circle the wagons. Hopefully better and more focused play for an entire game.

I mentioned the ESPN The Magazine article on Chris Taft last week. It is now on the ESPN site, but only for subscribers. Here’s some excerpts.

The next night against Memphis, he backs up his worldview – for a while, anyway. In the game’s first four minutes, he outjumps two Tigers for a putback, draws a foul as he faces up along the baseline and takes a pass as he streaks down the lane for a layup. He finishes the half with nine points, yapping the whole way, to lead Pitt to a double-digit lead.

But then, with the game in hand early in the second half, he suddenly shuts up and shuts down. After Tigers forward Joey Dorsey drives past Taft on consecutive possessions, Panthers coach Jamie Dixon pulls his big man. Dixon sends him back in a few minutes later, and Taft drops a couple of buckets, but soon his disinterested D has him back on the bench. Pitt still wins big and Taft finishes with his first double-double of the year (13 and 10), but he’s the first to admit it wasn’t exactly a star turn. “I know, I know, I stopped talking,” he says. “But we were up 20. Get them fools outta here.”

Trouble is, that game is an all-too-familiar snapshot of Taft’s career. When he’s feeling it, and letting everyone know he’s feeling it, he can roll over anyone. But when he gets bored, he gets beat. It’s why, as tightly as he controls every other aspect of his life, he knows better than to censor his words.

His mouth will lead the way. Who knows if his game will follow?
…

Still, none of that explains why Taft often slips into neutral. In one of the team’s few tight games this season, a nine-point victory over Richmond in late December, Taft held back a Spiders rally with two monster blocks on consecutive stands. In between those plays, though, Taft backed down his man in the low post, but instead of breaking off one of those new moves for a game-busting bucket, he dished to freshman guard Ronald Ramon. Pitt failed to score. “We’ve tried to make it clear to him that he can’t take plays off,” says Dixon. “We need him and his intensity from start to finish.”

What’s so frustrating is Taft is always dropping tantalizing clues in practice of what could be. Like when he jumps for a layup, then resurfaces on the other side of the hoop to put back his miss before the rest of the team has left the ground. Or when he rides his 35-inch vert to throw down a tomahawk, looking down at his giggling teammates from above the rim as he finishes. “He’ll sometimes leave us wondering two things,” says assistant Pat Sandle. “How he did it, and why doesn’t he do it for a whole game? No one’s really seen what he can do.”

It’s that mix that will still make him a high draft pick, but with lots of risk.

Pitt’s game notes are out (PDF). There are the usual storylines for Pitt going to NYC — all the Pitt players from the 5 boroughs.

The other storyline, you won’t find any official mention of, is the stripper incident last year between several former St. John’s players in Pittsburgh. There is the odd parallel that Yuri Demetris gets arrested and suspended just before Pitt plays St. John’s this year. Or maybe that’s just me.

In the spirit of speaking positively about St. John’s, their dance team placed 3rd in national competition.

Seriously, though, St. John’s will give Pitt a battle. They may have lost their last two games to WVU and ND, but it was by a total of 5 points. Pitt has to adjust its starting rotation and how it uses its bench. Since Coach Dixon hasn’t tinkered nearly as much as one might expect with a team that has struggled at points, it might be more of a challenge then expected.

They appear to require an internet subscription to listen to their game, but you can track the game live here. Otherwise the game is on Fox Sports Pittsburgh or via ESPN Full Court.

Moving awkwardly from the sordid details as to why Demetris was suspended to what this means to the team. My first thought was that Freshman Guard Ronald Ramon would move in to start for Demetris. The other possibility is that Pitt goes back to just starting 2 guards, and Senior Forward Mark McCarroll starts. McCarroll who seemed to be losing minutes and confidence all season had a bit of a breakthrough against Seton Hall. It seems, Pitt was already looking to try that option.

I just never understood this sort of craziness.

Pitt basketball player Yuri Demetris was arrested early yesterday morning after an altercation at a woman’s apartment in Oakland.

Demetris was arraigned and charged with two counts of burglary and one count of simple assault. He will have his preliminary hearing at 1 p.m. Thursday at Pittsburgh Municipal Court.

Demetris, a senior guard who has started all 14 games for the nationally ranked Panthers (12-2), was suspended indefinitely from the team.

Demetris twice entered the apartment of Rebecca Emmers, 21, without her permission. Emmers described Demetris as an ex-boyfriend, according to a University of Pittsburgh police report.

Demetris forced his way through Emmers’ bedroom window at midnight. The alleged victim heard noises in the bedroom and found Demetris there, at which time she told him to “get out.”

Demetris, a 23-year-old graduate of Shaler Area High School, became argumentative with her. She said she would call police if he didn’t leave, at which time he pushed her and left the apartment. He returned at 1:45 a.m., entering again through the bedroom window. He was physically and verbally abusive toward her and struck her in the chin with a closed fist and left the scene again.

According to the police report, the victim had redness on her chin. She did not have to go to the hospital and declined a protection-from-abuse order. She was asked if she wanted to prosecute Demetris three times and responded “yes.” Campus police arrested Demetris at the Bouquet Gardens apartment building on Oakland Avenue.

Coach Dixon has Demetris suspended indefinitely from the team, and I’m not sure how he can let him rejoin the team after this. I do agree with Dixon in trying to get him support and help needed. Clearly he needs it. Still, this program had some major problem players at the end of the Willard era, and I don’t think anyone in the Pitt basketball program wants to even come near that kind of controversy again.

I mean, jeez… What do you say? What can you think? He’s a senior. He’s 23, not some young kid with a dodgy past that the school ignored. To this point, there were no stories out there about Demetris having these kind of issues. But he broke into an ex-girlfriend’s apartment. That alone just crosses too far over to the disturbed and scary zone.

A lot of people have complained that Demetris doesn’t bring much offensively, and shouldn’t be starting. Well, it looks like Ronald Ramon will be starting for Pitt, by default:

Pitt senior guard Yuri Demetris has been suspended indefinitely for disciplinary reason, head basketball coach Jamie Dixon announced today.

“Effective immediately, Yuri Demetris is suspended from the team and will not play or participate in any team-related activities,” Dixon said in a prepared statement. “Discipline and proper behavior must remain the foundation of our program. Even though he is not formally with the team at this time, we will ensure that he receives the appropriate support from the university and athletic department.”

Dixon gave no further details of the suspension.

The P-G said there will be more in tomorrow’s paper. As I recall, last season Demetris nearly quit the team. Reportedly over a lack of playing time, but now I can’t help but wonder if it was something else, and whether this is related.

That’s what I dubbed the group of four “blonde” hotties who park themselves in the front row of the Zoo near half court (so as to maximize TV exposure). You’ve seen them – each is clad in a sleveless white t-shirt that is several sizes too small, with a letter painted on in blue (as well as a small number, I assume for their favorite player) to spell out “P-I-T-T”. Home made t-shirts to honor their university and its team – it’s the kind of enthusiasm that brings joy to my heart.

I was at the Seton Hall game Saturday, sitting in the lower level at half court (great seats), directly across from the group of girls. They are conspicuous in their refusal to wear the gold Zoo t-shirts like nearly everyone else; their ensemble screams “Look at us! We have something important to say!” as they gently sway and bounce during the game. All are white, blonde, and clad in hip hugger jeans. They are not fat, but they aren’t thin either.

That’s when inspiration dawned on me – they are the kind of girls Chevy Troutman would enjoy spending time with (not like the rest of us would not enjoy spending some time, but you get my drift). Thus, I named this group: Chevy’s Bevy.

They appear to be the same girls who park themselves just next to the away tunnel at Heinz Field in the student section – within close binocular distance from our seats. I’m not 100% sure it’s them, but I’m going to assume they are the same group.

As the game continued, I noticed that each had a small number painted on their t-shirt; the “P” had a 23, the “I” had 2, the first “T” a 21 and the final “T” a 2 as well. I assumed they were references to Taft (23), McCarroll (21) and Chevy (2).

I don’t know if we can get this to catch on or not; most girls would probably not want to be associated with such a group anyway, especially if they were to become members of a “bevy” of some sort. Still, I’m proud of my creativity.

As for the game, I thought Taft and Krauser got off to extremely slow starts. I know I hated going to games that started at noon when I was a student, and I wasn’t even playing. Perhaps they were up late Friday night studying? As the game went on, they both performed better (although Krauser is still too much of a ball-hog). Taft really came on strong with the blocks in the last five minutes.

I was happy to see DeGroat finally get some minutes. He took a bad foul, but I thought that was the refs calling the game too closely. In fact, they called it too close all game – this is Big East basketball, not Argentina v. Sweden in the Olympics! If the rest of the season is called this way Pitt is in trouble – we are still suspect in foul shooting.

Aaron Gray needs some extra coaching in catching the ball. If Pitt can only get the ball to him down low, AND have him hang on to it, he could score almost at will.

I did notice that Cerniglia guy from SH doing the “X” move – that got the student’s all riled up.

All in all, I was happy to see Pitt stiffen up and come back. I hope the 2 home losses brought this team down to earth and reminded them they have to work hard to beat average teams.

The stories in the Pittsburgh papers tried to accentuate the positive in Pitt’s blow-the-big-lead-but-then-come-back win.

Pitt was in desperate need of some senior leadership, and Chevon Troutman stepped forward and delivered. Troutman scored 10 of his season-high 23 points in the final five minutes and led the Panthers to a 67-63 comeback victory before 10,103 at the Petersen Events Center.

“He’s done it before, but this one probably tops the list,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said after Pitt outscored the Pirates, 16-5, in the closing minutes to erase a 58-51 deficit.

“He made every big play down the stretch.”
…
The frontcourt had free reign because Seton Hall coach Louis Orr decided to concentrate on stopping Pitt’s outside shooters. The Panthers shot just 3 for 10 from 3-point range, but the strategy left Troutman and Taft with single coverage for much of the contest.

That’s an unusual strategy for defending Pitt. Most of the time, teams concentrate on collapsing inside against Pitt. Wish I’d seen the game to see why Troutman and Taft didn’t have even bigger games.

There was also some wierdness going on in the final 11.5 seconds of the game with the clocks.

The clock started when the official handed the ball to Seton Hall for the inbounds play. At least five seconds ran off the clock before the ball was put into play. By the time Andre Sweet attempted a 3-pointer the buzzer had sounded.

Orr was unaware of the mistake at the time but acknowledged afterward that time seemed to go by quickly on the final shot.

“It did didn’t it,” said Orr, who was made aware of the mistake by reporters afterward.

Orr said he was so focused on the play on the court that he didn’t look at the clock.

Dixon didn’t see the clock start early, either, but also acknowledged that time ran off fast. The clock starts when the officials trigger it to start, not the timekeeper who is employed by Pitt.

Not exactly homecooking, so much as a ref who must have wanted time to see the football game perhaps?

Troutman, of course, was the hero for Pitt. He was feeling good after the game:

“I think I’m the best power forward in the country,” the brawny senior said Saturday, moments after carrying the Panthers to a down-to-the-wire, 67-63 victory at Petersen Events Center. “I really believe that.”
…
“I felt like it I needed to take over a little there,” said Troutman, who had 15 points in the second half, including 10 in the final five minutes.

He did that and more. The 6-foot-7 bruiser had no intention of letting his team lose on this afternoon, particularly with a chance for the senior class to clinch its 100th victory and with his parents sitting proudly among the crowd of 10,103.

“Sometimes, I have to remind myself to score more,” Troutman said. “And at the end of the game, I knew that’s what I needed to do. The three three-point plays were right there for me, and I had to make sure I finished them off.”

The game was also, the 100th win for this senior class. They need 8 more wins to pass last year’s class for the most wins ever by a class of Pitt players. The win was also Coach Jamie Dixon’s 50th game as head coach. His record is now 43-7.

I really hate complaining after a win. Especially after a game I didn’t get to see or hear. I’m sorry, looking over the box score and play by play (PDF version here), though, and seeing the ticker go by as I watched some other games I have to vent a little first. This was very much like the Rutgers game only more extreme.

Pitt built a solid 10 point halftime lead. Took it up to 14 points with almost 14 minutes left in the second half. Then let the Pirates go on a 24-3 run, including 15 straight points. The Panthers found themselves looking at a 7 point deficit with 5:12 left! Thankfully, Troutman went on a tear to get 10 of Pitt’s next 15 points, and Seton Hall collapsed — getting only 5 points the rest of the way.

It just shouldn’t have come to that. Pitt had Seton Hall on the ground and should have stepped on their necks. Instead, they let the Pirates get back up and start taking swings. Pitt once more dropped their intensity levels. Just lost focus. Fell out of their game. Whatever you want to call it. Look at the numbers. During the 24-3 run that went from 13:43 to 5:12, an 8:31 stretch. Pitt:

• Committed 5 of its 13 Turnovers
• Committed 8 of its 21 Fouls
• Went only 1-3 on Free Throws
• Took only 6 shots, making only 1
• Grabbed only 4 Rebounds

You can’t just say Pitt went cold and/or Seton Hall got hot. Pitt got out of its game and stopped trying. I don’t know what to say. Coach Jamie Dixon has to do something to get this team playing a full 40 minute game. Something I don’t think they have done this season. He has to know that Seton Hall wasn’t just this:

“I think we had some turnovers and they made some shots. It was a combination of things. We have to recognize that it comes down to decisions. We knew they weren’t done and that they were going to battle back. That’s a part of Big East play and what we’re used to. They did a great job battling and competing and teaching us things that we need to get better on. We will continue to work on those things.”

As an added concern, Pitt continued to shoot poorly on Free Throws. 16-28 overall. Even Krauser, the best FT shooter went 5-9.

On the players:

Chevy Troutman went for 23 points on 9-14 shooting. Only 3 rebounds.

Chris Taft had a solid game 14 points (7-12), 7 rebounds and 5 blocks.

Carl Krauser was a mixed bag. He limited his shots to only 4 and made 2. He had 6 assists and 8 rebounds. The negatives, though, included th afforementiond FT shooting and 5 turnovers.

Mark McCarroll showed life in 13 minutes off the bench. Scoring 8 points on 3-5 shooting and 2-3 on FTs. He also grabbed 3 rebounds.

John DeGroat is either not ready for primetime or is pressing. In 5 second stretch he committed 2 fouls after missing 2 shot attempts. All of which happened during Pitt’s collapse. He was in for a total of 2 minutes.

Ronald Ramon played 36 minutes off the bench for Demetris and Graves. Only 1-5 shooting, but 3-3 on FTs (6 points). He did grab 5 rebounds and had 2 steals along with 2 assists. Ramon would seem to be the best fit so far on Pitt’s team from this recruiting class.

Antonio Graves played only 16 minutes, getting into foul trouble (4). He had 5 points on 2-5 shooting.

Yuri Demetris missed his only shot attempt, but did grab 6 rebounds in 21 minutes.

Aaron Gray needs to work on his free throws (2-5) and holding onto the ball — 2 turnovers. He played only 8 minutes.

For the game, Pitt shot 50% (24-48) and held Seton Hall to 40.4% (23-57). Pitt was helped by Seton Hall hitting only 6-14 FTs in the first half.

Pitt has a game on Tuesday at St. John’s, who they cannot afford to look past before the Saturday Night Showdown with UConn.

Lots of work needed.

Here’s the Pitt press release on the Cavanaugh hiring.

Newspaper articles building on press release are here and here.

Sorry, limited time today.

Two well-documented home losses at what once seemed like a place of invincibility, to teams Pitt was heavily favored to defeat, will change things. As first posted here courtesy of one of our spies readers, Pitt has put up signage for the Oakland Zoo. It also posted a line from a TV commercial that every team uses now.

Signs with life-size photo montages of the Oakland Zoo were installed around the corridor of the student entrance at Petersen Events Center.

Prominently displayed among the images of Pitt fans was the team motto: We Must Protect This House.
…
“We always talk about winning your home games and doing what we have to do,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I’m sure our guys understand and have thought about it. They think about every loss. We haven’t had a lot of them, but we’ve had two and I’m sure that’s what’s on their mind.”

Winning at home is the overriding theme for this game, as most of Pittsburgh is likely treating this as something to watch in between commercials for extended pregame and tailgating for the Jets-Steelers playoff game at 4:30 pm. And it seems that the team has noticed some of the national doubting.

The fact that some doubt has mounted outside the program among the Pitt faithful is something that has not gone unnoticed by players.

Point guard Carl Krauser, coming off the worst game of his career at Rutgers, said the Panthers are taking an us-against-the-world mentality into the game.

“I’m looking forward to this game,” Krauser said. “A lot of people out there see the two losses. It’s like they don’t even see the 11 wins. A lot of people out there talk about the negatives and not the positives. We started off great. Then when we started losing and everyone was saying we were terrible. We don’t pay attention to any of that. We’ll stay together. We’re building a force field around our team.”

Not that Pirate faithful have total confidence in their team right now. The local coverage is lacking in part because of the Jets, I’m sure. But also because basketball in NJ as a whole is not exactly hot this season.

Not sure if I’ll be able to see or hear the game. Visiting the parents in Lebanon, Pennsylvania this weekend — part of the Penn State area so it seems likely the ESPN Regional game they show will be Michigan-Penn St. rather than Pitt. Plus, my parents are on dial-up so I can’t listen via the internet.

I have to believe Pitt will come out strong in this game. Don’t underestimate Seton Hall, though. They are desperate to show something. Anything. I expect something within single digits, but a Pitt win.

The Pitt News offers its preview of tomorrow’s game ‘twixt Pitt and Seton Hall.

On the Seton Hall side of things, the article highlights the absence of Andre Barrett from the Pirates and the subsequent need for John Allen and Kelly Whitney to step up and take the reins.

With regards to the Panthers, Jamie Dixon admits that there’s some work that needs to be done. Specifically, that ” ‘We need to play team defense against them; it can’t come down to one guy,’ ” Dixon said of Allen and Whitney. “[Seton Hall] runs Allen and Whitney off screens, making it difficult to defend. We also need to play better transition defense.”

It’s also Jamie Dixon’s 50th game as Pitt’s head coach.

Beyond that, I’ve not seen much about this game. Then again, given that both western Pennsylvania and northern Jersey are fixating on the Jets/Steelers playoff game, this is hardly surprising.