A little less than 2 hours to tip time.

Comment freely.

HALFTIME UPDATE: Pitt leading 40-27.

Wish it was more, but that would be being greedy. Kent State got off to a start of not hitting anything and Pitt couldn’t miss. A little run the other way, as the intensity slipped and almost all of the starters getting a blow. Still, plenty of good so far.

Gray slamming the ball, passing well out of double and triple teams. Perimeter shots falling. Sam Young showing some great hands on defense. Krauser with some great interior passing. Ramon hitting shots and passing so well.

Good defense.

FINAL UPDATE: Pitt wins 79-64.

Give Kent some credit for biting, scratching and clawing their way at times. I think the near give away by Pitt to Louisville helped Pitt withstand the run and press from Kent.

Only bad thing out of this win, there is no way Kansas or Bradley will take Pitt lightly on Sunday.

ADDENDUM: It’s Bradley. One of the Missouri Valley Conference teams. They are now playing with house money. All pressure will be on Pitt.

Quick info. Very strong defensive team. Here’s more stats on them. Up until this win, their toughest non-con foe had been Western Kentucky

The Fittipaldo Q&A is really not worth it this week. The whole thing can be summarized like this:

Q: Did Pitt get screwed over in the polls and the NCAA Seeding? Why?

A: Yes. I don’t know.

Vague recruiting talk as a Duquesne recruit is allowed out of his early written commit. The kid would love to come to Pitt or a legit Div. 1 school, but doesn’t have the game. Might go to Hargrave Military in Virginia for a year to work on it.

Focus on Herb Pope the biggest Western PA b-ball prospect since Danny Fortson. And like Fortson, J.O. Stright will decide where he goes.

Pope said the person handling much of his recruiting is J.O. Stright, founder of the Pittsburgh JOTS AAU team. Pope plays for the JOTS. Stright also was heavily involved in Fortson’s recruiting. Fortson played at Shaler with Stright’s son, Justin.

“There’s no question Herb is the most highly recruited player around here since Danny Fortson,” Stright said. “His recruiting is all over the map. Even North Carolina is interested now. They haven’t offered, but they’re interested.

“You look at him with his size, athleticism and ballhandling skills, and he’s a unique player.”

Pope has offers from Louisville and UConn as well. Huggins is Stright’s close friend. Bob Huggins — who is rumored for nearly every open job — is now a possibility for the increasingly desperate Kansas State.

[Editor’s Note: A version with more explanation as to the stats meanings and how they work was posted to NEO Babble yesterday. Since most of you already have read that stuff before, I’m keeping it limited to the vitals.]

Here are the basic numbers for Pitt and Kent State:

Pittsburgh — Key Team Stats — Kent State
72.5 ——– Points scored —– 72.5
62.8 ——- Points allowed —– 65.5
.452 ——— FG% own ——- .449
.402 —– FG% opposition —– .439
.352 ——— 3PT% own ——– .357
.344 —– 3PT% opposition —– .332
406 ——- Off Rebounds ——– 363
809 ——- Def Rebounds ——- 738
1312 —– Total Rebounds —– 1211
1.2 ——- Assist/Turnover —— 1.0
17.1 —— Fouls Per Game —– 20.1

Here are the advanced numbers for Pitt and Kent State.

——— Pitt ——-Kent St.
FG% —- 45.2 ——- 44.9
FT% —- 68.8 ——- 71.6
3FG% — 35.2 ——- 35.7
PPWS — 1.09 ——- 1.10
eFG% — 50.8 ——- 51.1
Poss/40 — 68.5 ——- 69.4
O-Rating — 105.8 —– 103.9
D-Rating — 91.9 ——- 94.9
RPG —- 36.1 ——- 30.0
BPG —- 3.8 ——— 2.5
APG —- 16.5 ——- 13.4
SPG —- 6.4 ——— 7.8
FPG —- 17.0 ——- 20.1
A/TO — 1.2 ——— 1.0
TO Rate — 19.7 ——- 18.8
A/B% — 65.3 ——- 55.0
B/PF — 0.2 ——— 0.1
Floor% — 53.3 ——- 49.8
FT Prod — 27.9 —— 29.2

FG% (Field Goal %); FT% (Free Throw %); PPWS (Points per Weighted Shot); eFG% (Effective FG %); A/TO (Assist-Turnover Ratio); B/PF (Blocks-Fouls Ratio); BPG (Blocks Per Game); FPG (Personal Fouls Per Game); APG (Assists Per Game); TOPG (Turnovers Per Game); SPG (Steals Per Game); RPG (Rebounds Per Game); 3FG% (Three-Point FG %); O-Rating (Offensive Rating (Points per 100 possessions)); D-Rating (Defensive Rating (Points allowed per 100 possessions)); Floor% ((FGM + OR) / (FGA + Turnovers) FTProd Free Throw Production (FTM / FGA) ); TO Rate (Turnover Rate (TO/Poss)) A/B% (Assisted Basket Pct. (Assists/FGM))

Points Per Weighted Shot (PPWS), goes to understanding the efficiency of players and teams in translating shot and free throw attempts into points.

PPWS = PTS/(FGA + (0.475 x FTA))

Obviously, the higher the number, the better. Kent St. is actually 70th in the country (out of 334 teams) and Pitt is at #88. Not a significant difference.

Both Pitt and Kent St. have similar numbers, with Kent St. shooting a little better.

The possession/40 number (explanation here). That goes to explaining the pace played by the team. The average pace for a NCAA game is somewhere around 69.0 possessions. So, you can see that Pitt plays a slightly slower pace than the average while Kent St. plays slightly faster.

The offensive/defensive ratings (O-Rating and D-Rating) are based on points per 100 possessions. Despite Pitt playing a slightly slower pace, they do more with their possessions than Kent State. On defense, Pitt is clearly better.

Kent St. is a very respectable team in their adjusted numbers, but Pitt is one of the best defensive teams in the country and an excellent offensive team.

Another area of significant difference is the assists to baskets made % (A/B%). This is simply the percentage of baskets that come from an assist. In other words, teams that pass and find the open man versus teams that have individuals creating their own shot. Pitt has excelled all season at making the extra pass and finding the open shot. It is no surprise then, that at 65.3%, Pitt is 10th best in the country in that number.

Kent is respectable at 55% (186th), but they are more likely to pull up for shots more or come off of screens and pass less. This means that they have players creating or taking their own shot more often.

If the team needed any reminding that the seeding doesn’t matter once the games start, they saw it in their hotel rooms.

Since 1989, No. 12 seeds have knocked off No. 5 seeds 24 times in 68 games. That’s 35 percent. The upsets have been more frequent in recent years. Since 2001, No. 12 seeds had won 9 of 20 games (not counting this tournament), including three in 2001.

Those are the odds Pitt is up against today when it plays No. 12 seed Kent State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

“I think a lot of teams think too far ahead,” junior guard Antonio Graves said. “All it takes is one mishap. These teams are just waiting to upset people. We have to think every team is UConn or Duke.”

Already half the 5 seeds went down this tournament.

In the MAC Tournament, Kent was shooting very well. They try to play up-tempo with players often trying to create their own shot. Expect a lot of 3s from Kent tonight.

But while Pitt (24-7) is the better rebounding team, the Panthers have shown some weaknesses guarding the outside.

Earlier this week, Panthers coach Jamie Dixon described his team’s perimeter defense as “not where we want it to be, but getting better.”

The Flashes average nearly 20 3-point attempts per game (hitting on 35.7 percent).

Dixon noticed how the Flashes’ offense utilizes a lot of ball screens and handoffs as it tries to create scoring opportunities.

Pitt has, to be kind, been inconsistent when it comes to fighting through screens and not getting burned.

On defense, they play a man-to-man, but try to trap in the post by doubling down.

The trapping in the post on big men was born out of necessity. Nate Gerwig is their biggest player at 6’9″, but continued to be injury-prone this season.

In December, KSU was dog-paddling through the season at 5-3 when senior center Nate Gerwig injured his knee in the first game of the two-day St. Mary’s Tournament in California. He would not be able to play against St. Mary’s, an NCAA Tournament team from the previous season that had a pair of 6-10 players under the hoop.

Before the game, Kent head coach Jim Christian decided he would start swing man Mike Scott, a 6-6 sophomore being groomed to play in the backcourt, at power forward. At 175 pounds, Scott had no bulk for the inside combat of post defense and rebounding.

But Scott was tall enough and had long enough arms to harass a taller post player into passing the ball back to the perimeter.

In the land of the 49ers, Kent struck gold.

“He had 16 points in that game and he trapped his butt off,” KSU assistant coach Rob Senderoff said.

“Even though we lost [61-59], we played our best game to that point, certainly our best for long stretches in a game,” Christian said. “It just fell into place.”
…
With Scott’s athleticism, he was able to rotate out of the double-team and cover an open man quicker than most players. Even if Scott was late, his 7-0 wingspan would help make up for his tardy feet.

As we all know, Gray has struggled against the double team. Len Elmore, during the Big East Tournament, often pointed out that Gray was all too often dropping the ball too low with his hands. That could be a problem. They way to eleviate that, though, is for the guards to knock down some open shots and mid-range jumpers.

With Kent not being a particularly big team, they rely on leaping and mistakes by their opponents to grab rebounds. This is where boxing out will be very important for Pitt. An area, Sam Young has struggled when around the glass. Kendall could be very important in that respect.

Krauser is Pitt’s motor, and everyone knows it starts verbally.

“He gets us going,” for Levon Kendall said. “The team tends to go how he goes… It gets him going and gets us going.'”

Expect crowd shots featuring San Diego Charger Antonio Gates tonight, as well as the expected flashbacks to the 2002 game.

Someone did press UCLA Coach Ben Howland about the possibility of facing Pitt in the Tournament.

UCLA, which is coached by recent Pitt head coach Ben Howland, is the No. 2 seed and Gonzaga is the No. 3 seed.

UCLA will be the favored opponent Pitt advances to the elite eight.

“It would obviously be great for us to play Pitt since it would mean we would both be advancing far into the tournament,” UCLA coach Howland said.

“Jamie (Dixon) has done a great job with the program since I left.”

Something to help confuse perception further, in a brief Sam Young Q&A, Young says that John DeGroat is the toughest person to go against him in practice.

Finally another Krauser piece, but this is one of the better ones I’ve read.

Krauser has a fondness for language, although it hasn’t always manifested itself in the most polite and conventional fashion. Earlier this month, in a Sports Illustrated poll of the major college basketball conferences, Kraser was named the biggest trash talker in the Big East (and yes, Syracuse’s Gerry McNamara was picked as the most overrated player).

He’s actually proud of the designation. Krauser, a 6-foot-2 senior insists sts he doesn’t cross the line on the floor. He doesn’t swear or insult an opponent’s appearance or his family. He’s a passionate guy who never stops competing and never shuts up. He likens his competitive style to that of his boxing hero, Muhammad Ali.

“Ali fights with passion and keeps his mouth moving,” said Krauser. “He throws his opponent off and gets him frustrated. Then he attacks and he beats you. That’s it. Game.”

Krauser doesn’t have the most elegant game. He has been skewered on the Pittsburgh talk shows for his 39.9 percent shooting. But in the one stat that truly matters – wins – he has few peers in the college ranks. The Panthers (24-7) have won 103 games in his four years. He is one of three Pitt players to win 20 games in four straight seasons.
…
Krauser nearly moved on after his junior year. He worked out at some NBA draft camps, but scouts told him he needed to become a more consistent shooter and wasn’t likely to be drafted. He moved from point guard to off guard, but had the worst shooting year of his career, percentage-wise. Still, Krauser said he has no regrets about returning for his senior year.

“I looked at myself and said, “Hey, you’ve got the opportunity to come back to Pittsburgh and be a better father, a better student/athlete, a better person,’ ” Krauser said. “I got to share my experiences with these young guys who needed my leadership. “I learn from them,” he said, “and they pick up things from me. So I wanted to come back and do those things. I love teaching and I love learning at the same time, and I love working with young people.”

Should have mentioned this story earlier, but I was late to notice.

Everyone’s favorite walk-on, Charles Small, a Detroit-area native, actually got a nice piece in USA Today yesterday.

His role has remained the same since the day he walked onto campus. But that hasn’t stopped him.

“It’s a family-type setting,” he says. “I know I have to work a little harder. You have the team backing you, so it’s a good feeling.

“I understand my role is just as important as the next person. I encourage my teammates, work hard at practice and feel just as part of the team as anybody.”

Small, a fan favorite, is one of the shortest Division I players. “I’ve been hearing it my whole life,” he says. “It’s just added motivation. I keep working hard and prove people wrong that I can go out there and play.”

Keith Benjamin joined the team in Auburn Hills, but isn’t practicing with them right now. It seems unlikely he will play tonight.

Benjamin, a sophomore who was projected to be in the Panthers’ starting lineup, remained behind in Pittsburgh on Wednesday with what was presumed to be the flu. He arrived yesterday at the team hotel but continued to be evaluated.

“We’re still trying to figure out what it is,” Dixon said. “I’m not sure where he stands as far as playing.”

It is the time of year that Benjamin told teammates he has struggled with similar symptons, which include vomiting, shaking and chills. The Mount Vernon, N.Y., native placed a call to his mother for support Tuesday night.

My allergies usually overload me, leading to a sinus infection this time of the year. This seems a little different.

Tyrell Biggs, like Benjamin, will probably not see any action tonight unless absolutely necessary with his injured right calf. The good news is that Levon Kendall’s back hasn’t flared-up again and feels good. The bad news, Sam Young is now dinged a little.

Freshman forward Sam Young jammed his right thumb in practice Wednesday. He had the thumb wrapped during the workout yesterday afternoon. The injury did not appear to hamper his shot or movement throughout the 45-minute walk-through.

Aaron Gray seems to be feeling much better now.

Because Pitt was in the primary 9pm TV slot in the Big East Tournament with all the interest in the bloated BE, ratings had a spike and Pitt gets to claim some credit.

The Big East championship between Pitt and Syracuse on ESPN drew a 2.58 rating, the highest for a championship since 1996. The Pitt-West Virginia quarterfinal game drew a 1.47 for the highest quarterfinal rating since ’96. And the Pitt-Louisville first-round game drew a 1.37 for the highest rating for a first-round game.

Along with expectations that Pitt will be one of the best in the BE next season, that should be an additional reason to expect a lot of Pitt’s BE games will be televised on ESPN.

Let’s get the human interest stuff out of the way.

An AP story on Carl Krauser. standard points hit: boxed briefly, he’s old, from the Bronx. Krauser does make every Pitt fan cringe by talking about a possible game in the Elite Eight.

“The game I’m looking forward to is UCLA,” he said.

To have a chance to face the Bruins and former Pittsburgh coach Ben Howland, the Panthers would have to get to the Oakland Regional final. That’s one step beyond the round of 16 the Big East power has advanced to in three of the past four years.

“I want to play against coach Howland, and say a little something, talk a little trash to him,” Krauser said. “That would be so fun, and kind of weird to play your old coach.”

It’s not that we disagree, it’s just that you are not supposed to do or say that. It’s one game at a time. You’re only supposed to be talking about the game right in front of you.

The day after Joe Starkey said that Aaron Gray needs to have a great Tournament for Pitt to do anything, Smizik agrees but with his usual strawmen.

Still, it’s those nagging layups and short jumpers that fell short, clanged off or rolled around and came out night after night after night in the Big East tournament last week that people most remember.

Try to tell people that Gray is a fine shooter with a deft touch from 10 feet and in, and they’ll laugh.

Memories in sports are short. What people most remember about Gray is that he converted 18 of 51 field-goal attempts last week, which isn’t bad if the shots were coming from beyond 3-point range. But they mostly were coming from the 3-foot range. It was stupefying. Gray made four of 13 against Louisville, seven of 17 against West Virginia, two of nine against Villanova and five of 12 against Syracuse as Pitt lost in the title game.

That wasn’t the Gray who was a dominant player during the regular season, when he made 55 percent of his shots. He looked tired, which he was, and he looked bereft of confidence, which he insists he wasn’t.

Does Smizik’s circle of friends include head trauma victims with only short-term memory? Everyone knows he has been shooting well most of the season. It’s now, that he’s struggling that the screams are loudest for him to just throw it down, to deal with the misses. There was some amusement in the way he described how Coach Dixon addressed Gray’s play at the BET.

Coach Jamie Dixon was at his contrarian best, almost refusing to acknowledge that Gray wasn’t up to standard in the Big East tournament.

“He had a great tournament,” Dixon said with a straight face. “He played very well. You know, we really don’t look at shooting as it is the last thing we look at.”

Continuing with the premise that all was well in New York, Dixon said, “He’s been very good for us all year and he’s going to be good for us tomorrow. I’m sure.”

Smizik, of course, knows contrarian — ususally. But if it hasn’t been made abundantly clear by now, Coach Dixon simply will not criticize his individual players to the media. He will always be positive and act as if all is well. It’s frustrating, annoying and makes you want to scream; but it is the philosophy of Dixon not to tear down players in the press.

Finally a nice article about Coach Dixon’s father travelling back and forth to see Pitt and the Army women play basketball for the last few weeks.

In case our Philly viewers were wondering, the Kent St.-Pitt game will be the featured game in the Philly market.

Aresco said the Bucknell game would be shown in 43 percent of the country. The Villanova game will be aired in 17 percent, mainly in the Northeast. The Penn game will be broadcast to 16 percent of U.S. homes, and the Pittsburgh contest to 12 percent.

Even though Pittsburgh is a Pennsylvania school, interest in the Panthers is not overwhelming for many in the Philadelphia area.

“We are aware that Pitt doesn’t resonate in eastern Pennsylvania, but if there was a game of more interest, we would have considered it,” Aresco said. “You are a Big East city, and with Pitt in the Big East, we felt there would be interest.”

People in those markets won’t be able to watch the game on the computer.

I assume that all of Pennsylvania and Ohio will see the game to make up the majority of the viewership. West Virginia also seems likely to see the game. Looking at the choices at the 7 pm time slot, I am guessing most will get the NC St.-Cal game. Sorry DC-area. Looks like that or perhaps George Mason-Michigan St.

Pitt is favored by 6.5 over Kent State. WVU is only a 3.5 point favorite over Southern Illinois. Kansas by 7.5 over Bradley.

And I know many of you have already seen this article about Kent St.’s game.

History and tragedy repeated themselves on the Kent State campus Thursday as 12th-seeded MAC champion Kent State Golden Flashes were decimated in front of a chanting, screaming home crowd by the superior offensive firepower and tactical game plan of the fifth-seeded Ohio National Guard in the very first round of this year’s NCAA tournament.

“It was an absolute bloodbath,” said Kent State head coach Jim Christian, who said he was “still in shock” from the on-court massacre. “We certainly weren’t ready for what happened out there. It seemed like one minute we were getting ready to square off, and the next they were just taking shot after shot. They kept shooting all day long, and we just couldn’t defend against them out there.”

Don’t mess with the ONG.

Marquette continued the bad start for the Big East with a surprisingly bad first half against Alabama. They battled back but were not able to seal the deal. Think Steve Novak will be seeing that missed wide open 3 in his sleep for the next week, month or year? Now, with all apologies to our friends at Cracked Sidewalks, and I know I should close ranks with BE teams…

But there was some small, venal part of me smirking at the fact that Marquette lost to a team they were better than, because one opposing player took over the game, made his shot seemingly at will, and was clutch. Jean Felix will not be a name thought well of in Milwaukee. The Big East is off to a bad start.

Winthrop was unable to pull of the semi-upset of the overseeded Tennessee Volunteers. Last minute, off-balance, 9.5 on degree of difficulty shot gave Tennessee the win.

Good news for Pitt, a 5-12 upset occurred today as Nevada went down hard to the Montana, uh, Plains(?)

Florida started slow then blew out South Alabama.

UCLA similarly mistreated Belmont, only the slow start ended sooner and the blowout was bigger.

LSU had a huge second half to make it look like a laugher against Iona. LSU fans had to be sweating a bit.

UNC-Wilmington fell short in getting over on GW. Not that it really matters. The reward is to be sacrificed to Duke.

Sean Miller and Xavier looked like they were going to get the upset over Gonzaga. Then Adam Morrison went off, and started getting the NBA star treatment from the refs early.

Illinois let Air Force stay close, but never really had the game in doubt.

Never really in doubt, still Duke never seemed to fully put away Southern.

Syracuse was doomed versus Texas A&M when McNamara’s groin gave.

San Diego St. snatched defeat from the jaws of victory against Indiana. They had the game then gave it away on some dumb plays at the end.

Washington handled Utah St. Most people (including me) were sleeping by then.