Well, another close game before hand. I wouldn’t object to another OT.
I’m curious to see how Pitt will adjust to Louisville this second time around.
9:45: Well, whatever the original plan was, it just got altered with Gray out early with 2 fouls.
10:20: Gray on the bench for all but 3 minutes. No 3s hit. And Pitt is right in this game.
10:26: Bad gamble by Dixon to put Gray in for the final minute. Pitt couldn’t do anything on offense to make it worthwhile and then Gray had to essentially stand far from the basket on defense to avoid any more fouls.
Totally disrupted Pitt’s spacing on defense. It ended up costing 6 more points. Up to that point, Pitt wasn’t in bad shape considering the situation.
Now Pitt down 37-26 at the half.
I’m not saying Pitt should be relying on the 3, but they have to knock some down. 0-6 is not promising.
10:44: To: Antonio Graves
Re: hitting some 3s.
Thank you for those first two.
37-32 Louisville in less than a minute into the second half.
10:53: Seems Antonio Graves found his stroke. Thankfully.
Can’t believe they called Gray for that foul.
11:04: More consistency from the refs, as Padgett keeps getting away with wrapping and yanking players. When did Cook get his nose bloodied?
11:22: Well, this has just gotten ugly. Has anyone scored in the last couple minutes? Gray has missed 3 straigh FTs. Still 52-51 Pitt, 3:29 left.
11:37: 65-59 PITT WINS!!!
WHOOO-Hoo!!!!!!!!!
11:39: Here’s the added bonus. What are the odds of seeing Burr and Higgins again tomorrow?
12:06: Some postgame thoughts. Gray had 8 points and 0 rebounds in 14 mintues, and Pitt won. Yeah, I saw that coming.
Graves found his stroke and his confidence in the second half. 23 points, 2 blocks, 4 assists and a steal.
Mike Cook had 13 points and 8 rebounds along with 2 steals.
Pitt only had 6 turnovers in the game. A second straight low turnover game against teams that got Pitt to fumble the ball away.
17 assists on 20 baskets.
20-31 on FTs. It could be better, but it has been worse.
It wasn’t that Pitt wasn’t getting whistles. It was the sheer unpredictability of what would be called that gets on the nerves.
Big thanks to Louisville for panicking early in the second half, launching shots without any real plan. Forcing your coach to burn all but one of your timeouts in the first 5 minutes.
Really, I don’t know what happened to Louisville in the second half. They seemed to panic the minute Pitt sank a 3. May not have been Pitino’s best halftime speech.
