The problem with visiting family over the holiday weekend is that there just so many times you can say, “screw you guys, I’m going to be on the computer listening to the game.” My time ran out last night, so I didn’t get to tune in to the Maine-Pitt game. Judging by what I am reading, that turned out to be a good thing.

The game was less than perfect.

After three games, Pitt remains undefeated, but not all is rosy with these young Panthers. For the second consecutive game they allowed an inferior opponent to hang around for much longer than they should have.

On Wednesday, Robert Morris was within one point of Pitt early in the second half before the Panthers pulled away for a 27-point victory. Last night, Maine made it much more interesting, keeping the contest to single digits for most of the second half after Pitt had built a 20-point lead in the first half.

“A lot of guys are trying to get comfortable and used to the rotation that coach is using right now,” senior guard Carl Krauser said. “But we can’t allow a team like that to hang around. Our defense was there. We just made some bad decisions and we weren’t knocking down shots.”

Maine played a soft-zone against Pitt. Allowing outside shots but clogging the passing lanes and making it hard to go inside. That forced Pitt to settle for jumpers. As has been the case, previously, that is not Pitt’s game. Krauser, Fields and Ramon combined to shoot 5-25 including 3-15 on 3s.

As usual, Coach Jamie Dixon went into positive-spin coachspeak.

Opening remarks:

“Maine played very well, they’re a good team, a good program. They do a very good job and have guys that can score. I thought we did a good job on Turner, I thought Carl (Krauser) did a very good job, as did Antonio. We did well, we did some good things, especially defensively. We had a couple breakdowns, that will happen but I thought we did pretty well defensively. Ball pressure was good. I thought we passed the ball very well. We have 18 assists on our 22 baskets, which shows we had very good passing and open looks. I think we could have shot the ball better, I think that was something we didn’t do as well tonight. I think that allowed Maine to stay around.”

On Pitt’s guards shooting 5-25 from the floor:

“We took good shots, had good looks.”

On his playing rotation:

“We had good production out of guys and good things out of everybody. We could have played better but we did a lot of good things. This was not our best shooting night and still we came away with a 13 point win.”

I want to believe that Dixon knows statements like, “I think we could have shot the ball better,” just invites eye-rolling and frustration from fans but is determined to protect his players. At times, though, I think he just doesn’t think. There was no need to add a modifier like “think” to the statement. The team shot under 40% and didn’t put this team away. Clearly Pitt did not shoot well and it allowed Maine to stay in the game.

Pitt did win this game early, by playing a tough defense that not only kept Maine from shooting much above 21% in the first half but also allowed Pitt to take 7 more shots than them.

Gray had a solid game.

“We didn’t have a lot of energy at some points in the game,” Pitt center Aaron Gray said. “We missed a lot of wide-open looks.”
…
The 7-foot Gray led three Pitt scorers in double figures by posting his second double-double of the season and of his career. Gray scored 15 points to go with career-highs of 13 rebounds and four blocks. Antonio Graves added 12 points and Keith Benjamin tied his career-high with 10 for the Panthers.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon continued to show support for his players, even in the aftermath of this latest adventure. He insisted that Gray is steadily getting comfortable.

“He’s playing well,” Dixon said. “It’s funny — 15 points and 13 rebounds — he would tell you that he would have felt he could have knocked down a few more shots. Overall, I thought we took good shots.”

Gray’s going to take a lot of criticism because at 7′ he is expected to be very dominant inside, but he isn’t near the expectations right now.

A big reason Pitt won is that the Pitt bench provided half their scoring, while Maine got next to nothing (6 points).

Keith Benjamin had a solid game, with 10 points off 4-5 shooting, 4 assists, 1 steal and 2 rebounds.

Final addition, the NY Times had a piece on the bloated Big East. Not that interesting.