I heard a bit after the game that Krauser wasn’t just getting his lip cleaned up, following the collision in the game. He had 2 teeth knocked out. He came back and scored 5 of Pitt’s final 6 points in the game to give Pitt the win. After a performance like that, anyone that questions Krauser’s drive, determination, toughness or will is nuts. He may not play like a classic point guard, but he gets the wins and he leads this team. Box Score and Game log.
College GameDay spent most of the time talking about the Duke-Maryland game and ancillary things. Digger Phelps was wearing his green tie. About 10 minutes to 12 they get to the ND-Pitt game. Phelps picks ND, but he was “nervous” about this pick. Jay Bilas goes with Pitt.
The game starts in the usual way for Pitt. Disjointed and not in rhythm. It takes Pitt 2-and-a-half minutes to score (3 missed shots). Troutman just muscled inside for an easy jumper.
Notre Dame had scored first on a 3 but wasn’t exactly lighting it up. 1 for their first 6, and 5 of the shots were 3s. Amazingly, ND was 1-7 on 3s early in the game. The problem for Pitt was that the Irish quickly found their stroke. ND hit 5-6 3s in the rest of the half and shot 50% on 3s in the second half (8-16).
The officiating was to Pitt’s liking. The officials weren’t calling much underneath the basket except over the back or (some) pushes. A foul wasn’t called until 16:17 in the half when Kendall was fouled going up for his shot. That was the start of a Pitt 9-0 run. Pitt up 11-5.
ND answers with a tough, but pretty pull-up jumper from Chris Thomas (he does have a sweet looking shot). Pitt then commits the turnover allowing ND to break and Latimore slams it in. 77-9 Pitt, under 11 in the half.
The turnover was charged to Krauser, but it was caused because Benjamin was handling the ball, but got no one to come and help him when he started getting trapped. He had no one coming to him so he could pass out of it. Team mistake. Benjamin is still a freshman, and he is going to make that mistake. The rest of the team compounded things by not recognizing and going to help.
Ramon was on early. He hit 2 straight 3s to give Pitt a 17-9 lead at 9:48. He had 8 of the team’s points. ND kept missing and only getting one shot, and Pitt stretched the lead to 21-9 by 8:33.
Then Cornette hit an open 3. The start of the point where ND just could not miss on their 3-point shot. At first, Pitt responded and then some. The lead was stretched to 13, 3 different points. The last at 4:29 left when Graves dropped a short jumper to make it 30-17.
The player keeping ND even that close was Chris Quinn. He answered again with another 3 to make it 30-20 and Quinn had 11 of ND’s points. Pitt committed at couple turnovers to help ND to a 7-0 run.
Len Elmore around the 3 minute mark, noted that Taft was not making a great effort so far in the game. Taft had 5 rebounds to lead everyone at that point, but he missed a couple shots and just seemed slow.
ND kept hitting 3s and got the game close as the half neared the end. It was 33-30 , Pitt with 40 seconds left. Pitt was holding for a shot near the end, and Krauser got fouled as he started an initial drive with 11 seconds left. Neither team was in the bonus so Pitt could get the last shot after inbounding. Krauser again, drives inside and hits a nice runner. ND has no chance to score. 35-30 Pitt at the half.
If officiating stayed as loose in the second half as it did in the first, there is no excuse for Pitt not to win and pound inside.
Unfortunately, Pitt got away from its game in the second half. The first 8 minutes of the second half saw Pitt blow the lead and go down 49-44. In that stretch, Chris Thomas was on fire, scoring 12 of ND’s 19 points. He was just abusing Antonio Graves. Shulman and Elmore were all over Graves’ defense.
Pitt also just couldn’t score. Missing outside and some inside. But mostly, not getting the ball inside. Instead, the perimeter guys were trying to answer ND with 3s of their own.
Taft was pulled just after the TV time out under 12 minutes left in the game. He played 3 minutes in the second half total. Maybe it was just me, but he looked worn down. Aaron Gray was sick during the week, as was Krauser and DeGroat. It seems likely to me that Taft was ill. He was still the leading rebounder for the game, and one of Pitt’s best players. I don’t think this was the game that Dixon simply had enough and said Taft was done. He hasn’t all season, I don’t see it happening now. Of course I could be dead wrong.
DeGroat and McCarroll start getting some minutes. McCarroll played almost half of the second half and DeGroat got his usual 2 minutes. Still, they both played vital roles that didn’t really show up. DeGroat, in particular, the last few games has shown something. He isn’t trying to throw the ball up any longer. He is trying to fit in on defense and get rebounds. He committed a very important hard foul at 9:43 on Torin Francis to keep him from getting an easy slam. Instead, Francis had to shoot free throws and was only 1-2. This kept the ND lead to only 3.
McCarroll was making a good effort after inadvertently hitting Krauser in the mouth. McCarroll was going for a rebound, and was pushed into Krauser, but there was no call on anything. At that point, Elmore and Shulman said they thought it was a cut lip on Krauser that was being worked on. Hope they retrieved the teeth.
While Krauser was out, Pitt came back and got the lead with an 11-0 run. Ramon had a great 3 in the corner that bounced all over the rim before falling in, and was fouled. DeGroat outfought a Domer for a rebound. At the other end, McCarroll got a solid put back and the foul. Couldn’t convert, though.
Krauser returned, and committed the dumb foul on Colin Falls shooting a 3. Falls was the one guy not hitting 3s (thankfully, or Pitt would have been toast). Falls made all 3. Troutman got a basket. Then Cornette hit another 3 when left alone. That was Cornette’s last contribution. A minute later he committed his 5th foul as Krauser was driving. Krauser only hit 1-2. 61-56 Pitt, with 4:09 left.
The teams exchanged misses. Then Quinn hit a jumper at 2:48 to bring ND to within 3. Pitt wasn’t ready when ND decided to go with full court pressure and Graves turned it over and Quinn dropped another jumper, 61-60 with 2:26 left. This time Pitt got the ball up, but Quinn — again — stole the ball from Ramon and layed it in to give ND the lead 62-61. 2:01 left. That’s 6 points and a steal in 47 seconds. Not exactly Reggie Miller versus the Knicks but pretty damn painful.
Pitt took a 30 second timeout to regroup from that minute of hell. Pitt then worked the clock down, and Krauser from the top of the key drained a perfect 3 to make it 64-62.
Colin Falls continued his bad shooting missing a 3, but ND got the rebound. Krauser, though, stole the ball from Cornett, and got the ball to Troutman on the breakaway. Cornett then committed the intentional foul. Troutman drained the first. Then Len Elmore spoke of how Troutman has become such a good freethrow shooter. Right on cue, he misses the second.
Since it was an intentional foul, Pitt gets the ball back. Latimore commits the quick foul on Troutman again 1:02 left. Troutman again misses. The second FT attempt gets waived off because Pitt committed a lane violation. According to the game log, it was Krauser who was guilty.
ND brings the ball up and Quinn from beyond NBA 3-point range, drains a clutch 3 at the key to tie the game with 42 seconds left.
Pitt brings the ball up court, and calls a time-out with 17.2 seconds left. Krauser takes the ball and drives and shoots it rolls around the rim and in! Pitt up 67-65 with 9.6 seconds left. Apparently that wasn’t what he was supposed to do.
Krauser wasn’t supposed to take the shot. He got open when 6-foot-7 Chevon Troutman created a lane to the basket.
“I was supposed to look inside for Chevy but he was covered and was giving me a great screen,” Krauser said. “If I missed it, our guys were underneath to get a tip-in.”
Aggressiveness and driving to the basket creates more opportunities.
When ND got the ball down court, McCarroll made a good foul on Cornett. Cornett didn’t look happy going to the line, and even less so after he airballed his first FT attempt. He made the second, and no one was sure if he was supposed to miss or not.
Pitt got the ball to Ramon who got free on a screen. He was quickly fouled with 2.5 seconds left. Ramon missed the first shot, but got the second. 68-66. He should have missed the second on purpose, ND had no timeouts left.
It became moot when the inbound pass sailed high and Chris Thomas could only put a finger on it before it landed in Kendall’s chest. Game over.
Wow. Pitt needed that. Knew this would be a close game. Both teams made runs, but being aggressive and going inside gives better shots and got Pitt to the free throw line much more than a perimeter shooting team. Pitt shot 14-22 at the line while ND only had 6-10.
ND was actually shooting better and more from the 3-point line than inside. 14-29 (48.3%) on 3s, and only 9-28 (32.1%) everywhere else.
Pitt had very balanced scoring. 4 players with 10 or more points, and one more with 9 points.
Pitt only had 13 turnovers (lower than their average), and got ND to commit the same amount (above their average).
Now time to get ready for Syracuse.
