If there is one team that Pitt has inexplicably struggled against in recent years it’s St. John’s. After that, however, it would have to be Seton Hall. The Pirates are 3-3 against Pitt since 2003.

Seton Hall’s style has just seemed to be one that gives Pitt problems, or Pitt has had some bad injuries. This year, both apply. The Pirates like to pressure full court and are pesky. They are also a streaky shooting team.

So, I’ll be liveblogging, but also a fair amount of pacing and moving around and away from the computer. And drinking. Plenty of drinking.

The broadcast crew is John Sanders and Mike Jarvis. I am continually amazed that the Big East tolerates the employment of Jarvis in color commentary for their conference games. The coach who managed to do grievous longterm harm to one of the original BE teams in the largest media market. The fact that he isn’t a particularly good analyst is yet another strike against him.

Jim Burr is the Ref with Curtis Shaw and William Bush the officials for this game.

2:11: Pitt up 9-2. The Panthers look like they will be able to go inside at will on the Pirates. Seton Hall looks a lot less sure of themselves than they did against Marquette. Not getting defensive stops or set up their pressure hurts them.

Blair does have to remember to occasionally kick it back out if he gets an offensive rebound but moves too far from the basket. He invites the double-team on him and has no good shot. It’s something I’m sure he’ll learn.

Young looks hot. Benjamin with a couple dumb mistakes. A bad pass for a turnover and fastbreak opp for SHU and trying to go 1-3 when he had the ball.

2:24: Biggs early does nothing to improve his standing with most Pitt fans. He gets a rebound but tries to toss it up directly underneath the basket. No room to shoot, easy block. Then runs into Wanamaker on the other end as he doesn’t seem to know where he should be going.

Young definitely seems to be feeling it this afternoon. Blair already has 6 rebounds. Ramon has 3 assists and 0 turnovers. Under 12 minutes to the half, Pitt leads 13-9 with Young going to the foul line.

2:32: Pitt up 18-13 with under 8 minutes. Biggs with a couple nice short jumpers open in the middle of the zone. Benjamin not shooting well today. Seton Hall’s defense really picked up once a couple shots went down. Gave them time to set and it makes a huge difference for them.

2:40: Pitt up 23-19 Blair going to the line for a 1-and-1. 3:39 until halftime. Pitt just entered the bonus. Ramon hit a floater in the lane, which were the first points for any of the Pitt guards. Otherwise all the scoring is from Young, Blair and Biggs.

Neither team is shooting well. Eugene Harvey is the scary player against Pitt to me. A guard who drives to the basket constantly. Weak defender, but provides the Pirates with needed points.

2:50: Pitt up 33-30. Having seen the Pirates’ last two games against UConn and Marquette, I’m not shocked. In both games they were leading at the half, but just couldn’t keep it up.

Laing and Nutter played the full 20 for SHU. Ramon and Young both played 19 minutes.

Young and Laing each have 15 points respectively. After that, Eugene Harvey has 9 points that came late in the 1st half. Otherwise, not much else.

Pitt is little better. Only 3 other players have scored. Blair already has 9 rebounds along with 9 points.
Benjamin is having a horrible game. Very jarring after not only playing well most of the year, but absolutely stepping up the past two games.

3:22: The outside shot had been there for Pitt, but now Pitt is making them. Suddenly Pitt is up by 11 with just over 13 minutes left.

Seton Hall is still struggling with its scoring. Something that has been a noticeable problem the second they started Big East play.

3:33: Seton Hall has already used its last TO with over 8 minutes left. That is going to kill them. They have Laing sitting with an injury he got going for a steal. Pitt is up by 14. Threes raining for Pitt now. Just would like to see Wanamaker make one for his confidence.

Benjamin hot now. Actually the guards in general have looked great this half. A spread court will do that.

3:45: I want to thank Seton Hall for making it look like I know what I’m talking about. I said at the half that the Pirates fade in the second half. Boy, did they. The defense fell off tremendously. Offense was still lousy.

70-54 with 3:42 left and Blair coming to the line after the break.

Sam Young has a career high 25 points. Blair has double (14 boards) double (17 points). Ramon has 11 points and 8 assists — and only 1 turnover.

3:53: Mike Davis was once a Pitt commit, but struggled to finish high school — anywhere. Seton Hall took a chance on the guy (he’s no longer a kid), yet he is still raw and a project. He fouled out in only 10 minutes of time.

4:08: Hysterical. Maurice Polen with his first basket of the season and McGhee gets a block before time expires. An 84-70 win.

22 assists on 28 baskets for Pitt.

Sam Young had 28 points. 4-4 on 3s but 6-12 on FTs — go figure. Blair had 20 points and 14 boards. Tyrell Biggs had 10 rebounds and 8 points.

Ramon had 14 points and 8 assists. Benjamin came alive in the second half and with the free throws in the final seconds finished with 12 points, 6 assists, 3 steals and 5 turnovers.

Just quickly through the stuff ahead of the game at 2pm.

Big East blog has a very good preview of the game.

Seton Hall has been an interesting team to say the least. They have already played in four overtime contests, including at home against Monmouth, Robert Morris and James Madison. At times, the Pirates play down to their competition and find themselves in HUGE holes, only to use their full court frantic pace to pull themselves out. Luckily, they do play more consistent against the better teams, because that style is not likely to find success against Big East teams when trying to climb out of a big hole.

Seton Hall was very successful in nearly stealing a road win at Marquette this week by settling back into a zone defense and working to keep the score in the 50’s against Marquette. To win on the road, you have to be willing to get your hands dirty and be able to grind it out in the half court. If they can do this and turn it into a posession by possession game in the last three minutes, the athletic ability and quickness of Eugene Harvey could give Pitt trouble on both ends of the floor. It might be a tougher task against Pitt as the Panthers will rebound the ball very strong and use their size against a smaller Pirate club, but that is probably the best strategy for Bobby Gonzalez to follow.

The last time Seton Hall won a road Big East game was the season finale in 2005 when Louis Orr was still their head coach — at the Pete.

Expect the Pirates to follow that tack. Gonzalez has already said as much.

“We’ve had trouble winning on the road. And I think that has to do with maturity and experience and toughness. We don’t have a lot of it right now. With Brian Laing and Jamar Nutter really our only two experienced players that have played in a Big East road win.

“It’ll be a tough game. I know PIttsburgh’s got their own injury problems. They’re still obviously a very good team, especially at home. They’re big, they’re physical and it’s going to be a very hard game.

This is the extent of the NJ media coverage of the game. A basic starting line-up and capsule summary. I guess most of the coverage is down in Dallas for the Giants-Cowboys. (You know, everytime I start to get annoyed about Pittsburgh media coverage of Pitt, I think about what happens to BC, ‘Nova and all the metro NY/NJ teams and realize how much worse it could be.)

Gary McGhee, naturally, got some attention in the media.

“I hope he continues to make people wonder why he wasn’t being played,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said after Pitt’s 79-66 victory at the Sun Dome in Tampa, Fla.

Guess he read Fittipaldo’s Q&A on Thursday. In the notes, Dixon said that Diggs is still struggling to get healthy from injuries.

McGhee in the rotation, means Pitt can and likely will throw out some more combinations on the floor.

This should shock no one. The Pitt coaches and players are saying that they have complete confidence in Ronald Ramon. Ramon and Pitt should be expecting plenty of pressure on Ramon when he brings up the ball versus Seton Hall.