Comment before, during and after as is the custom.

HALFTIME UPDATE: Pitt losing 34-43

Not sure why Dixon got the tech. Rudy Gay is unstoppable — driving, pulling up, he’s just on. UConn is tremendous on the mid-range to deep jumpers. Everything inside the arc, but shots that are not exactly easy.

Gray playing a great game. Krauser not necessarily scoring, but his penetration is a problem for UConn. Graves is just looking sloppy.

UConn has been able to dictate the pace. They can move the ball upcourt so fast. Their guys inside leap and block so well it is disturbing.

I still have hope, just because I don’t see UConn shooting as well the entire game. Only thing that has me nervous. That bizarre score at the beginning where Gray and DeGroat somehow knocked the ball up and in for UConn on a rebound. Then later another strange tip just fell for UConn. When those happen, it isn’t always that good.

FINAL UPDATE: UConn wins 80-76.

Pitt got their kind of game going in the second half, with one major exception. The inability to knock down 3s. 2-19 just will not get it done. I mean, Pitt hit the foul shots. Battled inside, against superior overall size. Really picked up the defense in the second half to not let Gay get the uncontested baskets. or mid-range jumper

Frustrated, because Pitt had chances to snatch this one away.

Well, its not like they have much of a stake in this Superbowl, so more stuff on tonight’s game.

Josh Boone was the guy everyone seemed to have interviewed or made available to the media. That or he was doing the most talking about payback, redemption, whatever.

“This is just a battle throughout the game, from start to finish,” UConn center Josh Boone said in anticipation of tonight’s game (7:30, Ch. 20) at Gampel Pavilion against ninth-ranked Pitt. “There’s going to be a whole lot of pushin’ and a whole lot of shovin’, but that’s the type of games they like. And we do play well in those type of games. We’re a running team, but I think we’ve proved this year we can be a physical team as well.”

Being labeled as the toughest kids on the Big East block used to bother some at Pittsburgh, who thought their team’s talent was getting overlooked. But coach Jamie Dixon and his players have begun to embrace such talk. “Teams often talk about us playing like the Steelers or a football team,” Dixon said. “We look at it as a good thing. We’re proud of it.”

UConn coach Jim Calhoun, who was calling the Panthers tough guys long before it was fashionable, said he thought the program’s toughness might run out.

“We thought when some of those kids left … maybe it was just (Chevon) Troutman, maybe it was just (Jaron) Brown, maybe it was just (Julius) Page,” Calhoun said. “But the system continues.”

Said Dixon: “It is something we look for in recruiting. I also think that once you get to a program, you can become tougher by being around tough kids.”

Of course, one of those kids with toughness opted for UConn instead and will be back after a one-game suspension by the NCAA.

[Marcus] Williams, one of several UConn guards expected to defend Krauser tonight, said he actually admires how Krauser plays.

“He never gives up on plays. He stays there. He defends. He’s intense,” Williams said. “He’ll even talk to you. Not to say it’s a bad thing, but he’s so competitive.

“Everything about him is competitive,” Williams added. “It seems like he wants the spotlight on him when they’re down 15 with 10 minutes left. It seems like he likes that.”

On the flip side, Williams said, the return of 6-6 freshman Jeff Adrien will enhance UConn’s physical toughness against Pitt. Adrien sat out last Saturday’s 76-62 victory at Providence, after he was ejected for fighting against St. John’s on Jan. 25.

“I would hate for him to miss this game,” Williams grinned, nodding toward the locker room. “He’s in there drooling, right now. He can’t wait, the way the coaches are telling him that (Pitt’s) physical.”

The refs are going to have a lot to say about how this game is played. I give the over/under on when Calhoun gets a technical at 5:00 left in the first half.

The coaches and players, though, seem to have a lot of focus directed towards Aaron Gray. That means Pitt may have some chances at open 3s early in the game if they collapse quickly. Pitt will need Ramon and Krauser to take an early advantage of that.

Blame Canada

An article about how Canadians are taking over the Big East. Well, of course not, but there are more than a few in the conference like UConn’s Denham Brown and Levon Kendall. To read one of the Canadian coaches tell it, you would think Coaches Calhoun and Dixon not only don’t have a clue as coaches but are wasting some of the greatest talent ever.

No one is more surprised with how things have turned out than Leo Rautins, head coach of the Canadian national men’s team.

“The tough part with college basketball in the States right now is that it’s become very role specific,” Rautins said.

“Very few guys are just players,” Rautins said. “Every time I see Levon at Pitt I don’t recognize the player we had this summer. He sets screens, he rebounds, he draws charges and every once in a while they throw him a bone. With us he was part of the offence, hitting [three-point shots]. I just don’t think he’s developing as a player.”

Similarly, Brown hasn’t blossomed into the scorer he was projected to be when he left Toronto after having scored 111 points in a high-school game. Instead, he’s become more of a defender and distributor who is only occasionally relied on for his offence.

Leo Rautins’ son is a freshman playing for Syracuse. The article tries really hard to get Kendall and Brown to complain and whine about their situation. Instead the article does it for them and is unfairly heavy on implication that the players agree.

One Man’s Future

DraftExpress gives some love to Carl Krauser for his play in the previous week.

Krauser is a bruising combo guard, more likely to scrap for a rebound — he averages almost 5 on the season — or pick your pocket than he is to finesse dribble his way into the lane or dazzle with a crossover. Hard-nosed and energetic, the Pitt senior has thus far posted nearly identical numbers to last season, but without the upperclassmen as his supporting cast he enjoyed a year ago. He always seems to come up big in the biggest games, often in the clutch, most recently in a win at home over a ranked Syracuse squad.
…
Krauser is a second-round pick at best at this stage, if he’s even drafted. But he’s a winner with upside and a nose for the ball, something that can — and often does — transcend raw skill, athletic ability and size. Look for Krauser to try and prove his worth through summer league or training camp or go to Europe will he teams will love with his flaws and relish his ability to put the ball in the basket.

A Program’s Future

As for long-future verbals to the Pitt b-ball program, cautious in the level of excitement seems to be the view.

I would venture to say that more stock should be put into Jeannette sophomore Terrelle Pryor’s verbal commitment to Pitt than a similar one that Aliquippa junior Herb Pope made during his sophomore season.

While no one knows for sure what either one of the two local phenoms will do when it comes time to put ink to paper on future signing days, if you were going to Las Vegas and there was a line on whether they would ever wear a Pitt uniform, Pryor’s line would be about 2 to 1 while I’d set Pope’s at about 7 to 1.

Pope has his roaming history, not to mention what appears to be his AAU coach, J.O. Stright’s hooks into him.

If you are scorecard keeping at home, there are a few possible Pitt commits who won’t make a decision until tomorrow.

Tamarcus Porter apparently will decide between Pitt and Wake Forest.

Staying down in Florida, Audie Augustine is down to Pitt or NC State. This came out in an article on the number of players who have verballed early. That includes another Pitt verbal, Dexter Davidson. He’s still getting some pressure:

This season, quarterback Dexter Davidson committed early to Pittsburgh.

“We don’t want five hats out on the table,” North Broward Prep coach Maurice Dixon said. “But I also think that it’s probably a pressure thing. Dexter isn’t the type of kid to string a person out.”

In Davidson’s case, committing early might have added a little extra stress to the process. Louisville and Michigan made a late push for Davidson despite being previously committed to Pittsburgh. Davidson, a Kentucky native, grew up a Louisville Cardinals fan.

“You could just see the pressure start to build,” Dixon said. “In the matter of a week, I could see a ton of pressure on [Davison], and we went through everything. But he stayed true to his word, and he’s real happy with Pitt.”

Good to know.

Speaking of keeping up the pressure no matter what, the ‘Cuse are still pushing Kevin Collier.

Kevin Collier, the All-Greater Rochester football Player of the Year, said that University of Pittsburgh coaches can expect him to accept their college’s scholarship offer this week.

“It’s been over for a while,” Collier said Monday night. “I’m signing with Pitt.”
…
While Collier again said he did not change his mind, Syracuse coaches called him through last week in hopes that he will.Collier plans to formally accept Pittsburgh’s offer on Wednesday when the national signing period opens.

“(Pittsburgh coaches) are still worried about a lot of guys,” Collier said. “They want the whole thing to be over with and get ready for next year.”

Syracuse still plans to send Collier a letter of intent and the remaining paperwork, according to Churchville-Chili football coach Paul Dick.

I guess Syracuse really doesn’t want to see the local talent leave. Can’t say I blame them, but it’s getting creepy.

Back in the Pittsburgh area, Duquesne High is celebrating Elijah Fields going to Pitt as good news in the face of the reality that the high school may not exist next year.

Coach Wannstedt will be his media friendly self tomorrow, especially considering how good a class he has put together.

ESPN may have more platforms in which to distribute its signing day coverage, but College Sports Television has the most recognizable figure in recruiting news in its stable Wednesday.

Tom Lemming will head up a special three-hour edition of CSTV’s “Generation NEXT: National Signing Day” at 4 p.m. CSTV will also stream live on CSTV.com’s XXL subscription package. CSTV will use former Washington Huskies coach Rick Neuheisel as an analyst Wednesday, and live interviews are scheduled with Pitt’s Dave Wannstedt, Mack Brown of Texas, LSU’s Les Miles and Florida’s Urban Meyer, whose Gators are generally recognized as owning this year’s top national recruiting class.

CSTV’s show, should be viewable here.

Okay, we get it. This Pitt team has the chance to do what has done the previous 12 opportunities: beat the number 1 ranked team in the country.

“It’s a real big game,” Pitt senior Carl Krauser said. “It means a lot to us to go out there and try to get a win on the road. We really have to stick together.”

Connecticut (18-1, 6-1 Big East) retained the top spot in the national polls Monday and is braced for surprising Pitt (17-1, 6-1), which climbed back into the top 10, at No. 9, after a week on the outside.

“We have to compete as hard as we can,” Krauser said. “It’s going to definitely be a good test for us and it’s going to be a great game.”

These are the two winningest programs in the Big East over the last 5 years. It says so right in the Pitt game notes (PDF).

Pitt is a 9.5 point underdog.

Pitt is the only Big East team to regularly challenge UConn in the BE the last few years.

Connecticut has 19 losses against Big East foes since 2001, and Pitt is responsible for a fifth of those losses.
…
Krauser explained why the Panthers have been able to enjoy success against the Huskies. “I just think it’s our different style of play and the way we do things,” Krauser said. “We play physical. Not many other teams play as physical as we do. Our offense, our penetration and our shooting is different from a lot of people. We have a lot of athletes. Matching up with UConn won’t be a problem. We’ll just have to do a good job on the boards and cutting down on their fastbreak points.”

While the Pittsburgh media focuses on whether Pitt can beat a number#1 team, rather than simply beating UConn. Up in Connecticut they are addressing — wait, before I get to that, they wonder how much people in Pittsburgh are even paying attention to Pitt right now. The whole Super Bowl thing. Of course, the way they are looking at is mostly through media coverage.

“I think so,” said Panthers radio voice Bill Hillgrove. “It’s hard to get attention away from the Steelers this week, but people here know Pitt has a really good basketball team. There are people to whom this game matters. They know this team is doing very well. But, obviously, everybody’s focused on the Steelers this week.”

Hillgrove knows what he’s talking about. He is the senior member of WTAE-TV’s sports team and is in his 37th season as the radio voice of Pitt basketball. But it gets more interesting. Hillgrove is also in his 12th season as the voice of the Steelers. If he’s managing to shift his focus for one night, certainly others in Pittsburgh can do the same.

Maybe.

“We’ll have the game on, but if there’s a Super Bowl preview show on, we’ll have that, too,” said an employee at the Sports Rock Cafe, in Pittsburgh’s Strip District, who didn’t want to give his name. “Everybody knows how well the Pitt basketball team is doing, but this is the Steelers and the Super Bowl. That trumps everything.”

Interest may be limited to hard-core Pitt basketball fans, but that’s a pretty strong group. Pitt routinely sells out the Petersen Events Center and has one of the most raucous crowds in the Big East.

Interest in the game is hurt by the lack of national television and the hype that comes along with it. The two Pittsburgh newspapers — the Post-Gazette and Tribune-Review — have dominated their sections with coverage of the Steelers during the past week.

In fact, UConn has issued one credential to each of the Pittsburgh papers. It’s a big game that could go virtually unnoticed.

On the bright side, the local coverage is still better than anything Boston College ever sees.

Okay, up in Storrs UConn Coach Jim Calhoun has done his best to downplay any talk of a rivalry between Pitt and UConn in recent years. Not this time.

Coach Jim Calhoun clutched the scouting report in his hand while addressing the media Monday. Scribbled in bright red letters were the words, “Out-tough them.”

In no other regular-season game do those words carry more weight.

Ninth-ranked Pittsburgh, the top-ranked Huskies opponent tonight at Gampel Pavilion (7:30 p.m., Ch. 20), is the Big East Conference’s bully on the street corner waiting to take your lunch money. The Panthers (17-1, 6-1) have made a nice living in recent years with their toughness.

A year ago, the Panthers fought back from a 17-point first half deficit to walk out with a 76-66 win at Gampel Pavilion. A month later the Huskies won at Pittsburgh.

That’s the way it’s been between these two rivals. Pitt knocks UConn down. The Huskies get back up and return the favor. They’ve split the last eight meetings.

“Pittsburgh has turned into a rivalry game for us,” Calhoun said. “After five or six years of really having to fight Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh having to fight us to get some place, they have become a formidable opponent, obstacle, etc., for us to get to a (Big East) championship, seeding or get wins.”
…
Year to year, Pitt’s roster changes but its style remains the same. UConn killer Chevon Troutman is gone. Brash guard Carl Krauser, who attended St. Thomas More, remains, giving confidence to his teammates. Junior Aaron Gray, a mobile 7-foot, 270-pound center, is one of the most improved players in the league.

Yeah, I’d say they and the media up there are taking Pitt seriously. So are the players. They remember last year.

There are two games that stick out in Josh Boone’s mind from last season. The first, not surprisingly, was UConn’s season-ending loss to N.C. State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The second was the Huskies’ 76-66 meltdown against Big East rival Pittsburgh, a game in which Connecticut squandered a 43-26 lead at Gampel Pavilion.

“As long as I’ve been here, we don’t lose in Gampel,” said Boone, adding that he often reflected on Pitt’s comeback during his off-season workouts. “There were times when you wanted to stop (working) or when you didn’t think you could give any more and you’d just think about that Pittsburgh jersey and looking up at the scoreboard and seeing you’re down 10 at the end of the game. That gives you a lot of motivation.”
…
“It has become a healthy rivalry,” Calhoun said. “The kids know who Pittsburgh is. Their style is physical. They run their stuff exceptionally well, they’re deep, they’re pragmatic, they will fast break you and they’ll grind you away. They have a great belief they’re going to win as much as any team in this league. They’re tough.”

Indeed. Pittsburgh has limited 15 of its 18 opponents to 70 points or less, employs 10 players who average over 10 minutes per game and is 4-1 on the road. The Panthers have trailed at the half in five of their last six games.

“They out-tough people,” said Boone, a junior center. “From start to finish, there’s going to be a whole lot of pushing and a whole lot of shoving. That’s the kind of game they like. We do play well in those type of games. We’re a running team, but I think we’ve proved throughout this year that we can be a physical team as well.”

Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon admits he used to cringe every time “they talked about us playing like the Steelers, or a football team.”

“Now we embrace it, look at it as a good thing, and we’re proud of it,” said Dixon, whose Panthers returned just two starters and were picked seventh in the league’s preseason poll.

One advantage both teams have had this year that will be a wash in this game — depth. Using the deep bench to grind and wear down a team. UConn by running, Pitt by physical play. It won’t matter. Pitt goes 10 deep, UConn 9. Calhoun also favorably compares Carl Krauser to a hated UConn player.

“He’s not only a leader, he’s an emotional leader,” Calhoun said of Krauser, whom he likened to former UConn standout Khalid El-Amin. “He has some of what Khalid has, his strength and confidence level. … He gets fans involved.”

I don’t suppose that could entail him standing on the scorer’s table after the game at Gampel taunting the students this year, could it?

Defensively from UConn, you can expect man-to-man.

Denham Brown, who slowed Providence’s Donnie McGrath Saturday, will draw the main defensive responsibility, though he will have help. Krauser averages 16.8 points and 4.2 rebounds.

“He’s a confident player,” Brown said. “He’s real hard to guard. It’s just a matter of putting the effort out there. I don’t think he knows as much about me playing defense as I know about what he’s going to do offensively. He might see three or four guys on him. He’s going to play the same game. He’s gotten a lot better, but he still has the same personality. That makes him the same player.”

The Huskies have other concerns, such as Aaron Gray. He’s 7 feet, 270 pounds and agile.”He’s a big dude,” Josh Boone said. “He’s talented. He’s skilled. When you have a guy that big who can really play, it’s always a tough guy to handle. But we’re going to throw a couple of things at him. I’m going to try to big-to-big a little bit, just because he’s so big. Hopefully, we’re going to try to box him out a little bit and keep him off the boards.”

Hilton Armstrong will also guard Gray. Armstrong turned his left ankle in practice Monday. He walked the sideline for the last few minutes of practice, then walked off and suggested he will be ready to play.

The player that Pitt has to worry about is Rudy Gay. With his range and talent, he is the kind of athletic forward that Pitt has struggled mightily to contain. Gay’s talent remains unquestioned. It’s always and still a question of his heart and willingness to be physical.

Rudy Gay’s development into a more physical player continues with ups and downs. He took the ball to the basket with authority in a chippy game Wednesday against St. John’s, but faded Saturday against Providence.

That might be what holds him down in the Pitt game.

Final story. Everyone has an agenda. Not everyone admits it. Especially when it comes to personality clashes in the print media. We’ve seen the sniping that will go on for years at a coach (think Smizik on Walt Harris), but it’s rare to see an open declaration of opposition. Especially when it is an icon, a legend, a hall-of-famer. Jeff Jacobs at the Hartford Courant, has all but declared an open fight with Jim Calhoun. Interesting read.