The local South Bend paper has an article on the game. Chris Quinn admitted afterwards that he just felt like he hit the zone:
Heckled by the home crowd late in regulation and hounded by a host of defenders all night, Quinn was actually having a quiet, but efficient evening before getting going late in the second half. At one point during a 3:27 stretch, he scored 16 consecutive points, including a four-point play. That helped the Irish slice a nine-point deficit to three with 33 seconds remaining in regulation.
It got to a point where everything he tossed up — runners down the lane, floaters from the baseline and 3-point shots well behind the NBA line — found the net.
“Oh, man,” Gray said afterward when asked of Quinn’s 13-of-23 shooting display. “You’ve just got to marvel at him.”
It was, Quinn said afterward, a feeling and a focus he had not had since high school back in Dublin, Ohio. Every time he rose up, whether he had a hand in his face or not, Quinn felt the ball was going to drop.
“The only way we were going to get back in it was if we forced some stuff and score pretty quickly,” said Quinn, who scored 30 of his 37 in the second half and the extra sessions. “I didn’t pay attention (to the fans). Everywhere you go, you’re going to hear stuff from the fans.
“I just continued to play my game.”
With little working for the Irish in the low post, Brey finally decided to put four perimeter players around Quinn and let the senior guard go for it.
That last sentence, by the way folks, is why Graves was out there and Biggs, DeGroat and Benjamin did not see a lot of time especially near the end of the game and OT. With a small, guard-laden line-up and playing out on the perimeter, Pitt couldn’t have forwards who the guards could get a step on or around. Pitt needed to play the guards who could keep the players in front of them, not get burned or commit the foul.
The article alludes to fan abuse of Quinn, as did Keith — who seemed quite bothered by what he heard. I couldn’t catch it, so I have no solid opinion.
Inexplicably, there is nothing about Torin Francis riding the pine for most of the second half. The color guy on the ESPN feed, commented after Francis got blocked cleanly by Gray — again — early in the second half that it looked like Francis completely lost confidence in his shot. That he didn’t want to try again, even though he had scored on 2 of their first 3 possessions to start the second half. The more I think about it, the more that seems to be what Mike Brey saw from the sidelines. Yet another big guy with skill, but soft inside.
Frank Burlison for Fox Sports/Scout.com had a column prior to the game last night giving some love to Pitt.
What makes this potentially the best offensive team Pitt has had since the revamping of the Panthers by Howland and Dixon is the fact that there are so many places Dixon can turn to for offense.
In 7-foot, 260-pound Aaron Gray, the Panthers have a guy who has evolved into one of the best low-post threats in the conference while averaging 11.6 points, 10.2 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.7 blocked shots per game.
And the two classes of recruits signed by Dixon and his staff after Howland left have both proven highly productive.
Among those six players, Dixon is getting a cumulative 33 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists per game.
And, even with guards Devan Downey of Cincinnati and Dominic James of Marquette having marvelous non-conference performances, Dixon — in 6-foot-6 Sam Young — has a player who could be rated the Big East’s best freshman by the time conference tournament action rolls around in March.
With this win, Pitt is, at the moment, 6th in the RPI. Pitt’s overall strength of schedule is now a close to respectable, 83. It will be interesting about how the SOS for the non-con looks closer to the end of the season. Right now, it is in the same ball park as Ohio State, Florida, Illinois and BC. Teams, that are all ranked ahead of Pitt in the polls. If that continues to remain so, it will be harder to ding Pitt for its non-con while not making the same complaints regarding the others.
UPDATE: Remember that the non-con RPI is likely to fall a bit. A lot of the teams Pitt played are in mid-major conferences where once they play each during the season it will serve to drag down their RPI and by extension Pitt’s RPI and SOS. So remember, root for St. Peter’s, Coppin St., Robert Morris, Auburn, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Maine, Vermont, St. Francis (NY), Duquesne and maybe even an upset or two for PSU.
Still for comparison’s sake, Pitt’s non-con SOS in 2005 was 262, in 2004 — 234, and in 2003 — 226.
