Blogger is driving me crazy this week. I’m really starting to consider a move to a new platform.
Since I’m sure most of you read the stories in the Pittsburgh papers, I’ll skip the excerpts from non-columns.
In New York, the Times has a perfunctory report commenting on balanced scoring and making free throws by Pitt. Newsday takes subtle digs at the Hoopies in their summary.
Back where its thrilling hayride to the Elite Eight began, West Virginia entered this year’s Big East Tournament as nobody’s Cinderella. But the third-seeded Mountaineers will need to jump-start an NCAA Tournament run without the benefit of a terrific conference tournament. They lost to sixth-seeded Pittsburgh, 68-57, last night in the quarterfinals.
Finally the Daily News goes with the hometown feel.
Carl Krauser grew up in New York City, so he really understands about how playing basketball on the Garden floor can be a higher calling. He also knows how special it is to win a championship on it, having done so three years ago when Pittsburgh captured the Big East Tournament title.
“Those of us from New York get it,” he said. “It’s on us to spread the word about how good it can get.”
Krauser was there spreading the word to his Panther teammates last night at halftime of their Big East quarterfinal against West Virginia. They’d been lackluster for 20 minutes and trailed at times by more than 10 points. But inspired by Krauser’s words and his Bronx-born glare, Pittsburgh jumped all over the fourth-seeded Mountaineers in the second half and soared into the Big East semifinals with a 68-57 win.
“Carl had this look on his face,” Sam Young said, describing the scene in the locker room. “I didn’t want to let him down.”
Sam Young, did far from let anyone down in his first start.
Out in the trailer parks, the mood is not so joyous.
This loss was more than just a single game in a single tournament. The way this season is ending is the very antithesis of last year.
In 2005, the Mountaineers headed into the NCAA Tournament having won seven of nine. This year? They’ve lost five of seven.
“We lost five of seven because we lost to lights-out teams,” said WVU Coach John Beilein following the Pitt loss Thursday night.
Still …
Yeah, you think we were getting down on Pitt. The mood is starting to sour South of Pittsburgh.
The loss was another disappointment in a string of recent ones at the end of this season. West Virginia has lost six of nine to fall to 20-10. Still, the Mountaineers are a lock to be invited into the NCAA tournament field Sunday afternoon, although their seeding has no doubt taken a big hit.
West Virginia could have gone a long way toward recovering momentum and a stronger NCAA seed, but like top-ranked Connecticut and Marquette earlier in the day the third-seeded Mountaineers failed even to win their first game after getting a first-round bye. The only one of the top four seeds that won in Thursday’s quarterfinals was Villanova.
It seems, now that WVU is losing more, the concern about that rebound differential looms bigger (much like Pitt and turnovers).
For one half, it didn’t seem that way. The Panthers held a rebounding advantage in the first half, but it was slim — Pitt had 18 to West Virginia’s 17.
“That was the main thing I said at halftime,” Dixon said. “It shows these kids knew what had to be done.”
Dixon must have been very persuasive. The Mountaineers only grabbed seven rebounds in the second half. Pitt had 26.
There’s your ballgame.
“It gave them some extra possessions,” WVU Coach John Beilein said. “We didn’t get them to turn it over the way we did earlier.”
Beilein was referring to West Virginia’s win two weeks ago over the Panthers in Morgantown. In that game, Pitt also had a big rebounding advantage.
The Mountaineers forced 17 Pitt turnovers then, only coughing it up six times themselves.
In last night’s game, Pitt only had 11 turnovers.
Smizik echoes many Pitt fan’s wish that Pitt would play a complete 40 minutes. I don’t know if they can. This is still a team that is learning. Coach Dixon, to his credit, won’t use youth as an excuse at this point, but I will. I also think the complete 40 minutes is just incredibly rare. You shoot for it, but even the best teams are going to have 5-10 minutes of off play. It’s an issue of just keeping up at least one end of the game during those stretches, i.e., not losing it on defense when the offense struggles. Like what Pitt did in the first half last night. It kept them in the game, and in a position to win when the offense started clicking.
Joe Starkey wrote a swell column on the beauty that was Pitt’s win and the BET yesterday.
And now from Ray Fittipaldo’s Q&A for the week.
Q: I thought Jamie Dixon out-coached John Beilein last night. What do you think of the adjustments Dixon made?
Fittipaldo: I agree with you, John. Dixon’s insertion of Levance Fields at the beginning of the second half gave the Panthers a distinct quickness advantage. He also mentioned moving Aaron Gray closer to the basket, which got him in better position to catch the ball and score. Beilein is a great coach, but Dixon is proving that he can coach with the best of them.
The whole game plan was very good last night. Pitt contained them in the first half defensively. They just couldn’t convert the shots. Pitt wasn’t even committing many turnovers in that first half after Sam Young made a couple very early ones.
