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February 22, 2007

A Day Off

Filed under: Basketball,Big East,Conference,Injury,Opponent(s) — Chas @ 9:27 am

Aaron Gray didn’t practice yesterday. But then there was no practice yesterday.

Some of the players spent the normal practice time yesterday at Petersen Events Center anyway, holding personal shoot-arounds or lifting weights.

Coach Jamie Dixon is at least publicly indicating Gray is at best 50-50 for Saturday (Insider subs.).

“The swelling didn’t go down that much,” Dixon said Tuesday. “They were still telling me Sunday he would play Monday but I wasn’t so sure. I am worried about Saturday.”

If Gray can’t go then the Hoyas will have a clear advantage in the post, especially with the way center Roy Hibbert has turned-up his game on of late, save the win at Villanova last Saturday. In the three previous games — all wins — Hibbert had 20 points and 11 boards at Louisville, 23 points and 11 rebounds over Marquette and 20 and six boards in a win over West Virginia. Hibbert scored 11 points and had two boards in the five-point loss at Pitt while Gray scored 11 points and had four rebounds, essentially negating each other.

There is no doubt Pitt needs Gray to have a good chance against Georgetown. To be honest, though, the guy who most worries me for this game is Jeff Green.





I would be absolutely shocked if Gray doesn’t play on Saturday. He hasn’t played in a week, there is no fracture and no ligament or tendon damage. If he isn’t ready to go, then the injury is much more serious than what has been reported.

Comment by Omar 02.22.07 @ 9:57 am

down the stretch we come with… “this guy”…. link to pittblather.com; link to youtube.com

Arguably a chronic masturbator ….

Thanks for the re-introduction, Chas. And the reminder of classy tradition there at Appellation State U

Comment by Neil 02.22.07 @ 12:04 pm

totally un-related question:

does anybody have advice for pitt alumni that want to buy tix for the big east tourney?

Comment by anon 02.22.07 @ 12:55 pm

I played bball yesterday with Maurice Polen (our walk-on). He said that he thinks Gray will play saturday, because he has been feeling better.

Comment by Chris 02.22.07 @ 1:16 pm

You don’t want Pitt to be top seed???? If top seed they are Big East Regular Season Champs. A very big feather in the cap considering a 16 team conference. And a ring for the team so sure they don’t feel that. Who cares what time they play. As far as Big East tourney … resale sites (stubhub razorgator) are good for early games…once you get there it is pretty easy to get tickets from fans of teams that lose without paying too much over face value. Any Pitt fans who want to get rid of Wednesday’s tickets and save the 15% from stubhub? I’ll be in New York early.

Comment by BL 02.22.07 @ 2:22 pm

Totally unrelated to hoops: Kevan Barlow got cut by the Jets link to sports.espn.go.com

Comment by frankinchicago 02.22.07 @ 4:25 pm

factoid: BE has 5 teams in Top 25, ACC and PAC-10 & Big 12 have 3ea, Big Ten 2 (1&2). Thought this was suppose to be a down year for the Big East!!

Comment by TMGPanther 02.22.07 @ 7:19 pm

Dokish is reporting that Gray is out for Saturday. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Comment by Omar 02.22.07 @ 8:17 pm

I’m thinking the committee won’t care as usual about how many teams we have in the top 25, i bet we have to win out (all 3 regular, and all 3 BE tournament games) just to get a 2 seed; otherwise, we’ll get punished/disrespected again with a 3 seed at best. I see big 11 winner, UNC, UCLA, Florida, and MEMPHIS (remember last year – the committee LOVES to reward terrible conferences and they’ll be 30-3 again) fighting over 1 seeds, leaving big 11 runner up, big 12 winner, Southern Illinois (more commmittee dumb shit) and the BE winner fighting over the 3 remaining spots in 2 seeds. If we don’t win out, we’ll be left out of the 2 slots, and be down on the 3 line, no respect as usual.

No gray this weekend bumps the chances of a 3 seed from an almost certainty to an absolute certainty.

Comment by Stuart 02.22.07 @ 9:21 pm

Stuart is right. No possibility of a top seed. We have a stigma. We could sweep the final 3 but if we don’t win the BE tourney (and probably with blowouts) it wouldn’t happen. Conversely, if we lose even one of the final 3, it wouldn’t happen even if we win the tourney. Face it, we’re going to have to get to the Elite 8 or better to overcome the stigma that we are a mundane grinding team that can’t beat anybody that’s really good. I’d rather not risk Gray this weekend just to chase an elusive fantasy. This team and it’s fans should just assume the 3 now and resolve itself to play out of its minds no matter how “dissed” we might feel.

Comment by geeman2001 02.22.07 @ 9:58 pm

As gratifying as it would be to see our Panthers win a regular season Big East title, I’d glady trade that for a hale and hearty Gray come both tournaments.

Still…, poopy… 🙁

Comment by Shawn 02.22.07 @ 10:35 pm

Oh, let me correct this a little – when i said “No gray this weekend bumps the chances of a 3 seed from an almost certainty to an absolute certainty,” I meant a three seed AT BEST. It all depends on what seed georgetown gets, if they get a 2 we get a 3, and if they get a 3 we get a 4. (Remember when we got dropped a line cause Uconn won the tournament over us, and the committee didn’t think it’d be “fair” for us to be on the same line?) Honestly, I’m just praying for a 3 seed right now. Please no lower….

Stuart

Comment by Stuart 02.23.07 @ 2:08 am

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