That was a satisfying win. 81-57. The most points Pitt has scored on the road this season.
Pitt went full scrubs in the final 2 minutes. Frye had a 3, the Red Storm weren’t able to bring down from a complete and utter blowout.

It was a slow and steady blowout in the game. Pitt would build a lead, St. John’s would make a little run, then Pitt would make a bigger run to take a bigger lead. That repeated itself multiple times until Pitt was up by as much as 26 and it was time to clear the bench.

St. John’s was the team that had a key player get in early foul trouble, as Justin Burrell got in early foul trouble. It was great because he tried to get Blair an early foul in the first 2 minutes. He purposefully ran into him and seemed to roll over his back. Instead, he got whistled.

Early in the game, Pitt attacked the basket. They knew the Red Storm lacked an inside presence, so that was where they were attacking. It really opened things up. It also meant Pitt didn’t just draw fouls, but shooting fouls.
While the Red Storm didn’t try and go full-court press, they did put a man on Ramon to try and pressure and slow him the entire way up the court — Ramon handled it well.

Scary sight 5 minutes into the game — Tyrell Biggs and Gary McGhee on the court together. Awkward doesn’t begin to describe it.

Gilbert Brown had a solid first half offensively. He hit a three, drove to the basket and just looked confident. He knew he could beat his man.

Anthony Mason, Jr. played an outstanding game. He was the only thing keeping the Red Storm in the game. In the first half, he went 6-7 and made the Red Storm’s only 3-point basket. The rest of their team shot 6-17. He wasn’t quite so hot in the second half, “only” shooting 6-10 and finishing with 29 points as he did everything he could to keep his team in it. The rest of his teammates could only add 28 points.

Of course, Pitt had more than enough of an answer, but Sam Young seemed to match him the entire second half. Young went for 26 and looked outstanding.

You can complain that Pitt didn’t stop Mason, but he was hot. His shots were falling and he is a very good player. I can’t really complain about the defense unless you think Pitt should have done something dirty to try and stop him. Same thing with Young. Sam was feeling it and attacking especially in the second half. St. John’s had little answer.

The funniest sequence in the game involved Biggs early in the second half. At about 15:45, he gets the ball just past the free throw line. He clears out the defender as he sweeps with the ball. Both teams freeze as the St. John’s player goes down. Everyone is expecting an offensive foul called — especially Biggs. Nothing. Biggs, almost shrugs as he realizes there’s no call, and no one is coming to defend him. He takes and makes the short jumper. The play-calling crew couldn’t even contain their laughter at that.

Pitt completely controlled the second half. They shot nearly 60% in the second half. Ronald Ramon had another great game — 16 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds and 1 turnover.
A solid and important win for Pitt as Pitt goes to 4-2 in conference, and gets to 2-2 in BE road games.

Offline world duties keeps me from liveblogging tonight’s game. I’ll be back later with thoughts afterwards.

Never got to the Starkey piece on Mike Cook learning about how much he matters to his teammates and family.

“People really care for me,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing with this: You know who’s really there for you.”

Start with coach Jamie Dixon. He didn’t just monitor the situation when Cook went down. He knelt beside Cook, holding his hand, as Cook writhed in pain.

“I’ll never forget that about Coach Dixon,” Cook said. “That meant a lot to me and my family. I remember I looked up and saw him for a second. I saw his face. He really felt for me.”

…

Several of Cook’s relatives and friends were at the Garden that night. His girlfriend, Julie Henley, boarded a bus from her hometown of Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. She was there to greet Cook the next night when he arrived home. She has yet to return to Philly.

Fields is there every day, too. He sustained a broken foot in Pitt’s next game, so he and Cook rehab together. Fields’ quick wit keeps Cook smiling.

Cook’s father, stepmother and younger brother live right around the corner. They moved from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh when Cook transferred from East Carolina after his sophomore year.

Cook’s brother, William, is a ninth-grader at Schenley High. Their father, Michael, is a Navy veteran with diabetes, so living near the VA hospital is perfect.

That’s some strong family support.

From the Fields injury, he doesn’t blame the cheerleader he tripped over.

As for the Dayton cheerleaders who caused the injury, Fields has no problems with the dancers’ proximity to the court. He said it was a fluke accident.

“I don’t think they need to be (farther back),” Fields said. “They are just fine. This doesn’t usually happen, but of course in my instance, I probably should say they should move back a little bit.”

This article on Benjamin breaking through in terms of his shooting and overall play has a last bit that I liked.

“As of right now, I’m out there having fun and playing the game,” he said. “If there’s an opening, I’m going to try to take it and just be aggressive with my situation. Everybody always says the senior season at Pitt always comes up short. I’m not looking to have that. We want to make every season better than the next.

“As a senior, you always want to leave your program better than it was when you came here. That’s what me, Ron and Mike are trying to do. We want to make Pitt a better program.”

That has been something of a common theme each year with the seniors and it’s a credit to Coach Dixon for having the players understand and appreciate it. They are making Pitt better each year and building towards something bigger. From Krasuer to Gray and Graves and this year Ramon and Benjamin, they have all talked about how they are leaving Pitt in better shape and a better program. And it’s true. They may not get to be playing when the next breakthrough happens, but they were vital in helping the team and program getting closer to that point.

Defensive End Dan Vaughan out of Central Catholic gave a tepid verbal to Syracuse. Not because he wanted to, but because his options were limited.

Vaughan, had offers from Syracuse, Pitt and Stanford, but Pitt and Stanford pulled them.

“For now, I had to commit to Syracuse because of the scholarship,” Vaughan said. “They are running out of scholarships because they got other recruits. What’s happening now is apparently (Pitt) is trying to give me another scholarship. If that were to happen then I would decommit from Syracuse and take Pitt.”

Pitt rescinded Vaughan’s offer the day after his official visit last weekend. Vaughan said he hopes to know if he’ll have another offer from Pitt by Thursday when Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt meets with Central Catholic coach Terry Totten.

Vaughan had an offer on his official visit, but didn’t decide then. The day after the visit, Pitt pulled it.

The whole thing amuses the hell out of me. It points to some of the silliness of recruiting. The kid decided to take one extra day. Maybe to talk a bit more with his family. Weigh the choices and perhaps be responsible about this decision. Now he’s only got one choice.

Yet, he can wait and see about another one opening up while tying up an Orange scholarship. Perhaps even waiting until at some point on NLI Day to find out where to fax his paperwork.

The NYC media finds its two themes for the game tomorrow.

There is the previously discussed: Blair and Kennedy are close friends and played together at Schenley.

Then there is the Pitt has battled injuries, but keeps winning.

After losing two more players who play minor roles, and the Panthers’ roster reads like a sign-up sheet in the emergency room. Yet Pittsburgh has pushed ahead behind Dixon’s optimism and his mantra of no excuses, even though the extenuating circumstances are plentiful.

“Even when guys went down, he believed,” Ramon said of Dixon. “He believed in guys who hadn’t done this before. He kept teaching and put his trust out there and believed in us even more. He didn’t say we’d just do the best we can.”

There have been adjustments, which only add to the tale.

The team’s practices have become more finesse than physical, with the fear of losing another player being far too real. Dixon even had to bring aboard a Division II transfer, Ryan Tiesi, who scored 4.2 points a game for Bellarmine University last season, just to have enough bodies to practice effectively.

Dixon said that other coaches, friends of his, told him that he might as well forget about the rest of the season. “But I had seen our guys in practice and knew we had answers,” Dixon said. “You have to go with your heart. I felt we had the players to make it work.”

Pitt does need a road win. Beating USF hardly counts, and no one wants to lose two in a row.

Pitt, stinging from a 62-59 loss at Cincinnati, is 1-2 on the road in Big East games. The Panthers will need a victory at St. John’s to avoid losing two games in a row for only the sixth time under Dixon, spanning 153 games.

“This is a great time to show people that we can win on the road,” said Benjamin, averaging 16.0 points per game since moving into the starting lineup for injured Levance Fields. “You have to win games on the road and this is a good time to win one.”

Also, schedule and record-wise, this and the Rutgers games are must wins. Pitt is heading for a brutal second half — ‘Nova, @UConn, WVU, Providence, @Marquette, @ND, L-ville, Cinci, @Syr and @WVU. Even at full strength it wouldn’t have been outrageous for Pitt to lose 3 or 4 of those games.