Tonight the Panthers (23-4, 10-2 Big East) travel to play Seton Hall (12-13, 3-9) at 8 p.m. at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J. Coming home with a win would mean keeping their record away from the Pete at a perfect percentage.
There is a belief in the Big East Conference that the team which wins all of its home games and splits its road games can claim the regular-season title.
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon subscribes to that theory, even if his Panthers are going about it backward. They are 5-0 on the road and 5-2 at home in conference play.
After No. 1 Florida’s loss Saturday at Vanderbilt, No. 7 Pitt is the last major-college program in the country to be undefeated on the road in conference play.
It’s an interesting enough stat when seeing we’ve been able to win at places like Syracuse and Morgantown. Tonight doesn’t seem like the night to have that record put to the test either. Seton Hall has actually played us tough the last eight times we went up against them but the teams that beat us in 2003 and 2004 were much better than the Pirates of 2007.
The toughest part of tonight’s game could be the full court press that Seton Hall is likely to use on us, especially after watching what Louisville was able to do to us. Listening to a SHU reporter talking on local radio, he said the press will probably cause us some trouble but not for the entire game.
Then there’s the issue of the big guy. As you’ve probably heard/read by now, Aaron Gray sat out yesterday’s practice.
Sounds like we’ll be waiting for a game time decision on his status. If he’s out, the shooting will need to be better. We can’t continue to shoot threes like we have the last two game which have combined for a total of 7 for 36. As Chas mentioned in his last post, no one is worried about it.
“It’s not a concern,” Fields said. “We’re getting good shots. A couple of mine [on Saturday] were in and out. We’re not going to let that get to us. That’s not going to bother us.”
Small forward Mike Cook, who broke out of a scoring slump against Washington with 15 points, is not worried about the shooting woes, either.
“It’ll come together,” Cook said. “Those guys are great shooters. We’re not worried about it. I hope teams think they can let us shoot from out there because we’ll take advantage of that. Our guys will start making them again.”
That’s what we need to win, but for what SHU needs to pull off a huge upset, PirateCrew.com gives us these two keys.
• Stan Gaines will have to duplicate his effort put forth against West Virginia. That will be much more difficult given Pittsburgh’s style, but Gaines at least has to be a presence on the boards. This is also a game that John Garcia should see significant minutes in. He must put forth an effort similar to those against Providence and Villanova.
• Larry Davis and Jamar Nutter will both have to immediately snap out of their slumps. Davis and Nutter combined to shoot 12 of 25 against Villanova and 7 of 13 from behind the arc. Since then, the duo is a combined 7 of 33 from the field and 4 of 21 from the arc. Their production has been beyond dismal, especially in a week where you play 2 road games and are battling late in the second half. Fortunately, both shoot much better at home.
Much easier said than done.
