I hope.

Mainly because I would rather stab my eyes with knitting needles than watch the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

Pitt came into the game with a solid game plan against WVU. On offense, draw defenders further out on the perimeter with good passing and penetration. With WVU’s unconventional 1-3-1 zone defense, the idea was to extend it further to create the space that otherwise would not be there. It took a while for Pitt to execute it, as evidenced by the 1st half rash of turnovers. Still it was a sound gameplan that actually started having an effect on WVU even in the first half. WVU is not a team that fouls much, but in the first half alone they were late to defend and ended up committing 10 fouls. It wasn’t a particularly sneaky or subtle offensive game plan, otherwise Dick Vitale wouldn’t have been able to explain it as he did during the game.

In the second half, the space on the court began to really open up, which allowed Pitt to make better passes and get the ball inside easier. Pitt didn’t launch early 3s, but because they did hit the good shots, it forced WVU to respect the perimeter shooters and Pitt got more comfortable playing the WVU zone.

The defensive game plan was actually quite simple — don’t leave your man. Pitt plays a man defense, but is always eager and ready to help if a player gets loose. In this game, Pitt players didn’t help. The Hoopies are a smart team. A precise team. They are not nearly that quick or athletic a team. They get their open looks by making the extra pass and moving without the ball. By staying with their man, no matter what, Pitt denied the pass to the open shooter and made every jump shot a contested one. The trade-off was allowing the occasional unmolested drive straight to the basket for an easy lay-in.

Coach Dixon prepared this team well, and while they struggled at first, they improved as the game continued. The bench was shortened in this game. While the usual 10 players saw time, only 7 made it to double figures.

Levon Kendall: A quiet but strong game. Did a lot of mucking inside while Gray stayed with Pittsnogle. 6 rebounds, 4 points (2-4) and 2 assists. More importantly, he didn’t turn the ball over. A solid defensive effort. Took a key charge/illegal screen from Frank Young in the final minute to force a WVU turnover.

Aaron Gray: Not a particularly good 1st half on offense. 5 turnovers as he did not handle the double team very well. Still, he stayed aggressive and got to the line several times, which carried over into an excellent second half. His confidence really seemed to grow from his defensive effort as he continued to stifle Pittsnogle.

He attacked the basket and worked through the double teams in the second half. Asserted himself inside. Finished with 16 points and 8 rebounds, though 7 turnovers as well. He still needs work on finishing. Keeps trying to simply bank it or roll it in, rather than throwing it down.

Ronald Ramon: Arguably the player of the game. Stayed tight on Mike Gansey the entire game, preventing him from getting any open looks. You could see Gansey visibly frustrated. Shot extremely well, but not excessively. Never seemed to be streaking or can’t miss. Just kept dropping key buckets throughout the game to help Pitt.

Carl Krauser: Played an unbelievably unselfish game. Out there for 37 minutes but only took 7 shots. He had 7 rebounds, 5 assists and only 2 turnovers. As the most experienced Pitt player against the 1-3-1, he often seemed to be running the offense from the shooting guard position.

Levance Fields: Looked very uncomfortable in the first half. The defense clearly had him worried about being trapped and committing a turnover. As a result, a little too eager to pass away. He grew more comfortable running the offense in the second half as he found space to dribble and time to see the play develop.

Sam Young: Like Fields, it took him a little time to start looking comfortable and understanding how WVU was playing. In the second half, he shot 3-5, scored 10 points (4-6 FTs), grabbed 3 rebounds, 0 turnovers, and 1 block, steal and assist. Like Kendall, he mucked around the basket. Young played 16 minutes in the second half.

Antonio Graves: Played a solid defense keeping after Beilein or Collins, and spelling Fields, Krauser and Ramon at different points. On offense, he only took 2 shots (missing both, including a wide open 8 footer but handled the ball well against the WVU defense. He finished with 1 rebound, 3 assists and 2 turnovers over 18 minutes.

John DeGroat: It’s painful to watch him regress over the last few weeks. I’ve never seen such happy feet from a basketball player. He starts to shuffle his feet when he gets the ball, like he is going to do some sort of hesitation dribble-drive. Unfortunately he keeps forgetting to dribble. 2 turnovers in 5 minutes. I feel bad that he is having his minutes falling faster and faster, but he is doing it to himself by being so wound-up when he touches the ball.

Keith Benjamin: There’s being aggressive against the 1-3-1 and then there’s running straight into it without being aware. Benjamin, unfortunately, fell into the latter. Only played 5 minutes in the first half and sat for the rest of the game. He had 2 turnovers in that time. As befitting his high energy, he also had 2 rebounds and an assist, but he simply looked lost on offense.

Tyrell Biggs: Pitt just didn’t have any spare minutes at the forward/center spots last night. At least that’s what it seemed. Biggs took and dropped a nice 15 footer in his 3 minutes of PT. Personally, I’d like to see him get worked into the line-up more often. The problem has been the teams Pitt has played lately are much more guard oriented. Biggs just isn’t quick enough or skilled to handle that on defense.

It’s hard to resist a story which includes the following passage:

My family has been my backbone through all of this. They support my decisions, and I respect their opinions. It’s no fathers dream to see his daughter pose nude in Playboy, but every photo has been tastefully done, because the last thing I would ever want to do is disgrace my family.

Wow. I’m not sure there is any single wise-ass remark that can do that justice. Plus pictures (though not from Playboy).

Here’s a reason to hate UConn. Their promotional video. Orson at EDSBS has another gut-wrenching analysis of the “Great Pick.”

All of this made us practically Orgeronnically mad, but then came…the expressions. The mugging, smug, self-satisified array of looks Six-Stringy Fucktardo gives the camera is enough to make us want to drive to UConn and beat anyone bearing the slightest resemblance to a quivering, blood-sopped pile of mush and flannel. He flashes them with the shoddy confidence of a man whose equation for every evening went something like this:

(“Hey”) + (“That’s so deep”) – (wingwoman)/ (patented smile) X (laugh) + (one rendition of “Your Body is a Wonderland”)+ (four beers) = skinny sub-smart blond education major down for the night.

We hate this guy, we hate him, we don’t even know him and we hate him. We hope all the bad things in life happen to him and only him. And associatively, we hate UConn and all its flannelly, shitty acoustic guitar playing kinda long haired self stands for.

As is almost standard when I link to something from EDSBS: read it all.

Earlier in the week, I pointed out the conference road/home splits for Pitt. I have to admit, I couldn’t have known how good Pitt was going to make me look for bringing it up.

Home numbers through the first 4 Big East games:

Home (4) — FG% — 3FG% —- 2FG% —– eFG%
Pitt ——— 46.4 —– 44.3 —— 47.1 ——– 52.1
Opponents — 42.5 —– 34.0 —— 47.2 ——- 48.6

Now for last night:

————- FG% — 3FG% —- 2FG% —– eFG%
Pitt ——— 46.3 —– 45.5 —— 46.6 ——– 52.4
WVU——– 34.0—– 22.2 —— 46.2 ——– 39.6

Offensively, Pitt ended up right about on it’s home average, and Pitt’s defense was about the same, except for the outstanding work on defending the 3s.

The same also applies to the free throws. Pitt got to the line against a team that doesn’t foul a lot. The game plan was to attack the 1-3-1 zone. Spread the floor outside to draw WVU out further to clear space for penetration and better passing lanes. Pitt struggled in the first half at times with that — part of the reason for the numerous turnovers — but the team was forcing WVU to foul — 10 fouls on WVU in the first half — by attacking and defenders having to run to the player and the ball. WVU averages around 12-13 fouls per game.

Not only did Pitt get to the line more than 20 times, but continued the not great home FT shooting, only 14-22. WVU shot 11-16 for 68.8%, which is below their near 75% FT shooting clip. I’m starting to wonder if there is something in the background of the baskets when teams shoot FTs at the Pete. I mean, WVU, ND and Marquette are very good FT shooting teams who had below average to abysmal FT shooting performances at the Pete. Then there is the discrepancy between Pitt’s FT shooting at home (59.7%) versus 72.4% on the road. Is it simply that Pitt focuses better on the road or something else?

Here are the advanced numbers:

Pitt
Poss 62.5 Pace Moderate
O-Rating 91.3 D-Rating 84.9 (Eff. Margin +6.4)
eFG% 52.4 PPWS 1.11
A/TO 0.8 TO Rate 28.8% A/B 73.7%
Floor Pct 44.1% FT Prod 34.1

WVU
Poss 62.6 Pace Moderate
O-Rating 84.7 D-Rating 91.1 (Eff. Margin -6.4)
eFG% 39.6 PPWS 0.87
A/TO 0.8 TO Rate 16.0% A/B 44.4%
Floor Pct 41.3% FT Prod 20.8

WVU leads the Big East in assists. In this game, they were completely taken out of that. Another reflection of the solid defense Pitt put out there. They kept WVU from making the backdoor passes or dishing off by not going to help on defense the way they usually do. That’s why players like Collins and Herber went absolutely uncontested to the basket for lay-ins at times. Pitt was (wisely) not stepping over to help, and leave another shooter with a wide open jumper.

Pitt, meanwhile had a better than average night on assists. In the first half, when Pitt was turning the ball over and not shooting that well, all 7 baskets came off of an assist.

Okay, Pitt already has another ESPN game added to the slate. The game down in Florida against Central Florida has been moved from Saturday, October 14 to Friday, October 13. It will be a Friday night, 8pm game on ESPN.

Paul Zeise let himself get fed some bad information:

The Big East Conference released its football schedule earlier this week and the one question many fans from Pitt and West Virginia had was why the Backyard Brawl was not being held on Thanksgiving Day this season. West Virginia and Pitt will play on a Saturday (Nov. 16). Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, who attended the basketball game last night, said the answer was simple. “The NFL is going to be playing in that Thursday night slot now and ESPN didn’t want that game on that night to go against it,” he said.

First off, November 16 is a Thursday. As for the info from Tranghese, it omits the fact that Miami and BC are scheduled for a tilt on Thanksgiving (though the time is still undetermined). If you want, parse what Tranghese said carefully, and you can read a lot into “…and ESPN didn’t want that game on that night to go against it,” [emphasis added] to have a very different meaning.

Interesting end note about Coach Dixon talking to the Oakland Zoo before the game.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon addressed the student section 90 minutes before game time. Dixon thanked the Oakland Zoo for their support and asked them to refrain from using bad language. Pitt officials were upset with the way the Connecticut student section treated Carl Krauser last week and wanted to ensure West Virginia’s players were treated with respect.

One more reason, to have wanted Pitt to have won against UConn. It would have been full circle if Krauser jumped on the scorer’s table at the end of the game with the arms crossed to form an “X” over his head to mock the crowd. Ah, well.

And of course, plenty of dignitaries at the game:

The Steelers were honored for their Super Bowl victory during halftime of the Pitt-West Virginia game Thursday night at Petersen Events Center. Included among the players attending were practice squad quarterback Rod Rutherford, a Pitt graduate, and safety Mike Logan, a West Virginia graduate. Others on hand were defensive end Brett Keisel, wide receiver Antwaan Randle El, kicker Jeff Reed, guard Kendall Simmons, cornerback Ike Taylor and long snapper Greg Warren, along with chairman Dan Rooney, president Art Rooney II and director of operations Kevin Colbert. Other faces in the crowd were Govs. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Joe Manchin of West Virginia and former Steelers great Lynn Swann, who is a Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania.

Really, it was just the first half that was that bad. Pitt couldn’t handle the ball and WVU couldn’t shoot. The second half was better for Pitt. They were about average on turnovers (6) and shot fine. WVU shot better, except when it came to shooting 3s, but for them turned the ball over a lot (6 times in the second half).

Ronald Ramon was huge in the game. With WVU looking to stop Krauser, try and clog the middle to make things hard to get the ball to Gray and prevent drives to the hoop, Ramon was hitting his jumpers. 16 points on 5-9 shooting (4-6 from 3-pt). That created space for Pitt on the floor to start getting the ball inside more.

Gray also had 16 points and 8 rebounds, but I wouldn’t call it a particularly good game for him on offense. He missed way too many easy baskets he should have thrown down. He was also responsible for 7 of Pitt’s 19 turnovers. He did not handle WVU’s defense very well in the first half. The last couple of games he has looked frustrated as teams are doubling down on him more frequently.

At the same time, I wonder if part of it was because of amount of energy he expended, effectively hounding Pittsnogle all over the court. Gray showed more energy and played an excellent defense against Pittsnogle, that I didn’t think he could do. He was able to come out on Pittsnogle but still moved back to the basket quickly. His rebounding numbers were limited more because of WVU shooting 3s, creating longer rebounds, than anything else.

The big story for Pitt, was the way they defended WVU.

“I can’t remember [Pittsnogle] getting an open look,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “Every shot he took was contested. We battled and battled and battled. Our defense was good for 40 minutes, and that’s hard to do.”

Pitt did a superb job of defending West Virginia in general. The Mountaineers had one of their worst shooting nights this season. They shot 34 percent and made just 6 of 27 3-point attempts. In West Virginia’s two victories against Pitt last season, the Mountaineers made 24 3-pointers.

“Pitt played tremendous defense on us,” West Virginia coach John Beilein said. “We did our best to open looks. It was hard to get them. They frustrate you.”

Mike Gansey, who averages 18 points a game, was held to six below his season average. He was 3 for 7 from the field. Ramon and freshman Levance Fields stuck to him like glue.

“[Ramon] hounded me everywhere I went,” Gansey said. “He’s a great defender.”

Despite Pitt’s defense and the way they got WVU totally out of their game — especially by getting contact and forcing WVU to foul much more than they usually do, Pitt could never quite get a comfortable lead. Part of that is simply what happens when you play a team that lives by shooting 3s. It tends to always keep the game within reach. Just one little burst and suddenly everything has changed.

Of course, with WVU the higher ranked team and the national spotlight more on them going into the game the questions are more about what the heck happened to their vaunted motion offense and precision.

“I don’t like the way we handled a lot of things, but we’re going to learn from this game,” coach John Beilein said of the Mountaineers’ first loss in nine Big East Conference games.

What some opponents might have learned was a game plan for shutting down Pittsnogle

What? Get a well-conditioned 7-footer to contest all of his shots? Play WVU while Pittsnogle is sleep-deprived. Sorry, don’t mean to harp on the issue of whether Pittsnogle is getting any sleep or not, but his wife just had a kid. And assuming they are sharing the same trailer apartment, he hasn’t gotten much sleep the last few days. I don’t care if you’re 22 or 32, that sleep deprivation the first few weeks after a kid is born takes its toll. Even if he isn’t actually getting up to change and feed Kwyn-ctzlplx, the noise and his wife doing it messes with the sleep.

Not that Pittsnogle used that as an excuse. Well, maybe he did. Who knows. He refused to talk to the media after the game.

Did it prove just how bad the Mountaineers can be, or how good?

Really, look at the numbers. In a game in which Kevin Pittsnogle would have contributed more by staying home, in which the Mountaineers shot a season-low 34 percent and missed 21-of-27 3-point tries, could it get any worse? Could this team play any more poorly?

Yet on the other hand, even with a performance like that– a game which the Mountaineers played the last 41/2 minutes without a center — the score was 51-48 with 40 seconds to play against the No. 13 team in the country.

Sure, it ended up a 57-53 Pitt win, handing the No. 9 Mountaineers (17-5, 8-1) their first Big East loss but keeping them in a three-way tie for first place with Connecticut and Villanova. But a performance like that should have resulted in the same kind of 82-46 pounding the Panthers put on West Virginia three years ago.

Another WV columnist decried the quality of the play on national TV. Look, unlike BE football, a less than pretty basketball game in the Big East is not going to cause a lot of national handwringing and complaints.

Pittsburgh was ranked No. 14? The team that committed 13 turnovers in the first half?

WVU was ranked, what, ninth? Aren’t they known for dissecting the opponent and hitting the 3 ball?

At one point in the first half, West Virginia was 2-of-18 from the floor. That’s 10 percent shooting. Ten. From Trey Land, the Mountaineers were 1-of-11. That’s 9.1 percent. Ouch.

Uh, 2-18 is 11.1%. If you are going to be using a decimal percentage in one part, it helps to use it in the other. Especially in the same paragraph (insert your own math and dumb West Virginian joke here).

“We lost our focus,” said WVU guard Patrick Beilein. “We didn’t execute our plays and we kind of got rattled. I haven’t seen us do that for a long time. We just were in kind of a funk offensively. We just couldn’t get Kevin going.”

Kevin, as in Pittsnogle, the Mountaineers’ brand. The senior center couldn’t have played worse intentionally. (See what happens when you don’t plan well and have babies in the middle of hoops season?) Oh-for-12 with four turnovers.

The foul troubles, lack of production and lack of depth for WVU suddenly has questions about how deep in the NCAA Tournament the Hoopies can actually go.

Let me be honest here. What? It was a bad game. WVU got incredibly stifled by a tough defense and their star player had a lousy night. It was one game. Yes, they lack depth. They still kept it close and could have easily stolen a win if a couple of their shots went down. It was their first loss in the Big East. They are 8-1 in the conference. This is kind of silly.