masthead.jpg

switchconcepts.com, U3dpdGNo-a25, DIRECT rubiconproject.com, 14766, RESELLER pubmatic.com, 30666, RESELLER, 5d62403b186f2ace appnexus.com, 1117, RESELLER thetradedesk.com, switchconcepts, RESELLER taboola.com, switchconceptopenrtb, RESELLER bidswitch.com, switchconcepts, RESELLER contextweb.com, 560031, RESELLER amazon-adsystem.com, 3160, RESELLER crimtan.com, switch, RESELLER quantcast.com, switchconcepts , RESELLER rhythmone.com, 1934627955, RESELLER ssphwy.com, switchconcepts, RESELLER emxdgt.com, 59, RESELLER appnexus.com, 1356, RESELLER sovrn.com, 96786, RESELLER, fafdf38b16bf6b2b indexexchange.com, 180008, RESELLER nativeads.com, 52853, RESELLER theagency.com, 1058, RESELLER google.com, pub-3515913239267445, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0
March 13, 2008

That Feels Good

Filed under: Basketball,Big East,Conference,Opponent(s) — Chas @ 10:32 pm

Before I go all gushy about this win, just a small question. How come Pitt can’t beat these guys at home?

I mean, Pitt beat them in Louisville and now 3 straight times at MSG. The two times Pitt has lost to the Cards since they came to the Big East have been at the Pete. Eff it, like the free throws in OT, Pitt makes them when they count.

I’m so juiced right now. That was a fantastic game. Louisville and Pitt just battled. Neither team played a perfect game, but Pitt did more and to go all cliche, showed more heart than Louisville.

Pitt was the undermanned team. Pitt was the team with more players in foul trouble. Pitt was the team with the match-up problems. Pitt was the team with the less heralded recruits.  Pitt was the team with the less accomplished coach. Pitt was the team that won.





Great Win!

Also This:
link to sports.espn.go.com

Stay Classy WVU

Comment by MelbaPlace 03.13.08 @ 10:48 pm

Yeah a good win for us.

…and as for Devine, it was only a matter of time.

Comment by Panthoor 03.13.08 @ 10:51 pm

That was as good a defensive game as we played all year. Blair, Young and Biggs played out their collective asses against a very talented Cardinal front line. Clark might be the best of the bunch and we did have a difficult match-up against him, but we contained the rest to a degree, and more than offset their front line offense with our own. Great goddamn win. I hope we get the hoopies in the final so we can stomp some redneck ass.

Comment by Crackbaldo 03.13.08 @ 10:52 pm

I love how Pitino’s master plan at the half was that he was wearing our guards down, and they are so much deeper…makes the win in OT that much sweeter!!

Comment by tray 03.13.08 @ 11:08 pm

Is anybody else as excited about Gilbert Brown as I am? The kid makes plays and is starting to make more of them as he gets more minutes. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as an all-BE selection in a couple of years.

Comment by MikeO 03.13.08 @ 11:19 pm

Wow, great post, that last paragraph made me all tingly. Very well written!

Comment by Tony 03.13.08 @ 11:29 pm

whoa.com folks. the atmosphere was ELECTRIC tonight at the garden!!!! I’m so pumped for tomorrow’s game!!!

HERE WE GO PITT, HERE WE GO!!

let’s bring the heat 🙂

ps) at least we got to practice breaking the press like 15 zillion times tonight!! Thank you Cards!

Comment by Caroline 03.13.08 @ 11:57 pm

Caroline, I am soooooooooooooooo jealous of you. I couldn’t get student tickets for the games. Apparently missing 2 games was too many! But I do have a question, if I were to scalp some nosebleeds, would I be able to sneak down into the Zoo down behind the hoop? I probably won’t do this for tomorrow or (crosses fingers) saturday, but I might have to do this next year. I am going no matter what next season!

Comment by Tony 03.14.08 @ 12:13 am

Ugh….looking like we’re playing the Flopper and the Whiner tomorrow…

With Higgins reffing, i predict 50+ fouls.

Comment by Stuart 03.14.08 @ 12:16 am

Great win. But when is Jamie going to learn that half of 5 is more than 2? His fetish about sitting guys with 2 fouls in the first half and his fear of playing them with 3 or 4 in the second almost cost them this game (it has already cost them 2 other games this year, particularly with not playing Blair). Fields with 2 early fouls was sitting when Pitt couldn’t bring the ball up. Benjamin had just 10 minutes–he finished with 4 fouls, that means he wasted probably 10 minutes he could have been playing.

Comment by fred 03.14.08 @ 12:29 am

Fred,

What? Dixon brought both Fields and Benjamin back into the game in the first half. Benjamin committed his second foul barely 4 minutes into the 1st half. Fields 6 1/2 minutes in. They had to sit for a while.

Both players were brought back into the game in the first half. Dixon actually managed them very well through most of the 1st half. Putting them in and out to avoid foul issues as best as possible.

Benjamin, though, picked up a 3d foul in the first half, then picked up a 4th within the first minute of the second half. That’s part of why Benjamin barely had any minutes. That and Gilbert Brown played really well in the second half that Benjamin wasn’t back much.

Fields ended up playing 35 minutes out of 45 possible.

That criticism is off-base in this game.

Comment by Chas 03.14.08 @ 12:41 am

Benji had 10 minutes? Sweet! Well rested for tomorrow.

With Higgins as the ref though, we’re going to get buried with foul calls again tomorrow. We’re really going to need a miracle…

Comment by Stuart 03.14.08 @ 1:19 am

Awesome game tonight! My hat goes off to the players and the coaches; I truly didn’t believe they had this much effort in them.

Comment by ltl 03.14.08 @ 1:29 am

Dunno if it was just me or what, but there seemed to be a rather large Pitt crowd at the game last night.

I hardly heard any cheering for Louisville, but everytime Pitt did something the place went nuts!

And the Zoo was in full effect too!

Comment by Jimbo Covert's my Dad 03.14.08 @ 1:44 am

I wanted to point something out for tomorrows game…we hate Burr and Higgins, its lookin like Higgins is going to be reffing our game, bar some miracle…

Marquettes nemisis seems to be John Cahill…he was a ref in 4 of their 8 losses this year…he only reffed 5 of their games, they were 1-4 when he was reffing (the only win was a 8 point win against Depaul at home). He reffed the the GU game yesterday, so he’s one of the 6 likely refs for our game.

Who knows if it’ll have any effect on our game. But maybe how he calls the game has some effect on how they play. One of the games he reffed was the blowout loss at SU. I’d like to take my chances with him as the ref tomorrow, so if it make a difference…the way these games have been called is absurd.

Comment by Stuart 03.14.08 @ 3:25 am

Great win!
Jimbo- Pitt always has a large contingent of fans at the BE tourney, we travel well.

Comment by dan 03.14.08 @ 5:45 am

I was at MSG last night, excellent atmosphere. I love how well we travel!
On the ref note, it is a sad state when we know these guys by name. They are supposed to take a back seat to the teams and it seems all to often they are trying to be part of the story.

Let’s go Pitt!!

Comment by cn 03.14.08 @ 7:51 am

To Stuart/ In response to:

Neil, not looking too good on the predictions today. Please tell us you think pitt is going to lose…

Comment by Stuart 03.13.08 @ 5:51 pm

__________________________________________________

Stuart:

It is agreed, those were piss-poor pre-game picks churned out very quickly yesterday morning — if I were a betting man, we’d have lost the tractor outright — maybe a dog or two, even (solid collateral in Bangkok; $10 USD per).

So had I got back to the blather in time, yes, I’d have publicly reversed whatever the potential for jinx caused by hasty words and misinformed prediction. (the one saving grace here, I am certain, is that I truly thought we’d lose a squeaker to the Cards and henceforward, therefore, by virtue of my doubt in itself-alone, there was born impetus enough for victory. (C’mon, like I’m stupid or something?)

I nevertheless hear you, though — someone else mightn’t recognize the doubtless reversal of fortune inherent to predictions qualified on the sole basis of hometown-team bias. And however obvious to me (and you), I aim to please. Thus to prove my understanding and concern, I will make an example of myself — so that others may learn, too — and hereby swear no further risk of curse or jinx or whatever potential damages may come about by predicting a Panther win. Therefore, today, I will not predict a win over Marquette. Instead, for the record (and of course for the team, and because Stuart’s twisting my arm here, and because there’s times when I believe in this sort of thing and think it a good idea (except that I don’t think it’s a good idea for tonight), I respectfully and without offense to those easily offended, pick Marquette to win tonight’s game in a very lopsided contest. Throughout, I will cheer and flatter Crean whose full name, as I understand it, is Thomas Aaron “Tom”… just call me “Tom” &^Co*ckSuck*r@100%^ (typo, excuse notepad)

Comment by Neil 03.14.08 @ 8:15 am

Stu,

You are wrong, 60 plus fouls!

Comment by Higgins 03.14.08 @ 8:19 am

Pitt 71
Marquette 65

You heard it here first. Unfortunately we’ll be on a freakin’ plane to Florida at 9 pm. Stupid #%&*@# kids and their spring break demands!!!!!!!!

Comment by Bobby 03.14.08 @ 8:54 am

Fred,
That was the dumbest post ever. I agree with Dixon sitting players with 2 fouls in the first half. Why risk them getting the third? He did put both Fields and Benj back into the game because they were needed. The way the officials were calling fouls on both teams last night in the first half was ridiculous. Was it me or did the officials let the boyz play a little more in the second half?

Comment by Fcuk Paterno 03.14.08 @ 9:05 am

Pitt hasn’t lost since I wore my new pair of Panther head flannel pants. Not washing them till the NCAAs are over.

Comment by Kevin 03.14.08 @ 9:10 am

A while back, did someone do a Burr/Higgins analysis on Pitt’s winning %? Link?

Comment by C 03.14.08 @ 9:25 am

I love Pitt in the Big East tourney. It’s always revenge time for us. MU completely destroyed us last time in their gym, but now it’s our turn to win when it really counts.

When I talk about the coaches in my posts, I’m usually bashing Dixon for his lack of game preparation regarding attacking the other team. But I will give him all of the credit he deserves. We finally went after a player in double teaming Padgett. He sees them all the time but there was something that flustered him and made him make bad decisions.

I’m anxious to see what we do to contain McNeal tonight.

LETS GO PITT

Comment by Hail2Pitt 03.14.08 @ 9:34 am

Not sure where the Higgins/Burr link went, but i looked it up for this year, there is no correlation for us between refs and wins/losses. I only found that one for MU.

Opening line is MU -1.5…not as big as i expected. I’d take MU.

Comment by Stuart 03.14.08 @ 9:36 am

It’s not every day I get to throw this pic around. link to photos.friendster.com

Comment by ChrisA 03.14.08 @ 10:00 am

ChrisA,

That Cardinal = Stunned. Sam Young is playing out of his mind right now and locks up a place on the all-tourney team with another solid game tonight. In the long run, the emergence of Gil Brown could be the bigger story. Get ’em boys and Hail to Pitt!

Comment by johnny 03.14.08 @ 1:18 pm

Gil “Cardiac Hill” Brown

-that was bad i know

Comment by MelbaPlace 03.14.08 @ 5:57 pm

I’ll back Fred up on the question of how Dixon handled the players with first half foul trouble, especially with Fields. He didn’t put Fields back in until there was less than a minute left in the half, which resulted in 3 or 4 bad offensive possessions in a row between the 4 minute mark and the 1 minute mark, which cost Pitt a chance to have built up a decent lead at halftime. He could have at least done offense/defense substitions with Fields during that period of the game. We were at MSG and half the Pitt fans were screaming around us for Jamie to wake up and get Fields in, at least on offense. Luckily Pitt started the second half with a bucket or two, and that erased what could have (but didn’t have to be) a dangerous situation.

I’ll give Dixon credit for doubling Padgett, but I don’t think that’s exactly rocket science coaching. He did do a good job with leaving Brown in, because I think he needed Brown’s athleticism against L-ville.

My other comment from watching the game in person — if I were Sam Young and Fields kept ignoring me during crunch-time situations and I were first team Big East but my PG didn’t want to get me the rock when it counted — well, I’d do a couple back flips on his ass.

Comment by scottie columbo 03.14.08 @ 6:09 pm

Wow, scottie is negative about Dixon and the team. What a shock? Dude, you have fucking issues.

Comment by Omar 03.14.08 @ 7:15 pm

Scottie,

You are entitled to a differing opinion, but please have, um, facts.

Sadly the BET doesn’t offer the good play-by-play stats that Pitt has in the season — including the ever useful substitution info.

Their livestats function isn’t working particularly well for me to check the substitution info.
link to bigeast.org

The ESPN.com play-by-play
link to sports.espn.go.com

lacks substitution info but you will note that at 6:37 Fields missed a lay-up. This coincides with my own notes that read “How many lay-ups has Fields left short since he got back from injury?”

Beyond that, Fields played 35 out of 45 possible minutes. Even assuming he played all 25 minutes without rest (and he didn’t), that would leave 10 minutes. Take out the first 6:37 of the game that he played before the 2nd foul. That leaves about 3:23 unaccounted. Fields did sit for a period before Dixon started reinserting him into the game. From at least the 7-8 minute mark left in the half, he began putting Fields and Benjamin in and out of the line-up.

Comment by Chas 03.14.08 @ 8:17 pm

Facts are for pussies.

Don’t get in the way of a perfectly good smear job. I love that when Dixon does win, its “well, ANY coach would have done that…he’s nothing special.”

So, when Dixon loses, its his fault, but when he wins – he has no hand in that, or anyone would have won that, etc, etc, etc. You people can’t even be happy with a win over the second best team in the big east.

These people won’t be happy until Calipari brings his criminals up here or Miller brings his win record against the A10 to the big east. I just wish they’d all shut the fuck up if they don’t really have any clue. Do you people even watch the games?

If we win tonight, is it cause Marquette quit, or any coach would have won? Please tell us now, save the shitty posts later.

Comment by Stuart 03.14.08 @ 8:27 pm

You guys are amazing. I loved beating L-ville and Marquette and I was there at MSG, supporting the team. But none of that makes me lose my objectivity.

It’s because I want Pitt to win that I want to see Dixon coach as well as he can and Fields play PG as well as he can.

Facts aren’t for pussies and mine are correct……he was out for a few straight mins exactly when they were really struggling offensively toward the end of the first half and then he was re-inserted with less than a minute left. I was there at the game watching the clock and I wasn’t the only fan screaming for Dixon to get him back in. My guess is that was between the 4 min mark and the 1 minute mark…..I am sure that he didn’t come back in until there were about 40 secs left, because the crowd around us was cracking up because everyone was wondering why bother putting him now and risking another foul after you’ve kept him out for this long?

I’m happy with Dixon and want him to get better. And I do want Fields to get Young the ball in crunch time……. and I doubt I’m alone in wanting to see that.

Comment by scottie columbo 03.15.08 @ 10:02 am

Powered by WordPress © PittBlather.com

Site Meter