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February 9, 2009

Okay late decision, but I’m doing the liveblog.

Join the fun, here.





Pitt wearing gold tonight.

Comment by Joey T 02.09.09 @ 7:03 pm

Sam Young needs to lose the Harlem Globetrotters moves…enough already…go back to fundamentals on layups…left foot..right hand…

Comment by dan 72 02.09.09 @ 7:12 pm

Sam Young does force things quite a bit… this game worries me because of all the fouls the refs are calling (both sides). Anytime Blair is in trouble like this I get nervous

Comment by Greg 02.09.09 @ 7:41 pm

One of the worst officiated and ugly games of all time….really starting to worry about Sam Young…so much talent but can be a real head case…

Comment by dan 72 02.09.09 @ 8:33 pm

2nd half: if they play like this next Monday, they’ll get blown out

not making the extra pass, Blair trying too hard for his Steeler buddies, shooting too quick, and playing defense like the 1st half against DePaul — guys driving to the hole and a few wide open shots (how do you not cover Ruoff?)

they just had a great chance of making their 2nd half run but had 2 breakdowns on back to back defensive possessions

Comment by w bill 02.09.09 @ 8:33 pm

Okay, I’m living in Europe until mid-May and I splurged and bought the espn360 package so I could watch the team play. Except, every goddamn match all I get is this gray background with an espn360.com logo. Am I the only one with this problem? Is there something I can do to prevent this bullshit from happening?

Comment by Will 02.09.09 @ 9:00 pm

if the game is on ESPN or ESPN two try justin.tv or channelsurfing.net . 360 was fine today. Maybe your bandwidth is not upto the task.

Comment by jimz 02.09.09 @ 10:56 pm

so did the hoopies lose this one or did we just prove we can win without blair??? by the way I was in the second row of the student section, i can’t believe how dumb blair was for getting the tech called. we watched him mouth “what the (explicit)” straight to the ref.

great win though

hail to pitt

Comment by ryan 02.09.09 @ 11:08 pm

Those officials were a disgrace.Yes. I’ll take the technical for that cathartic comment. The crowd payed good money to see the zebras hog the show. If that kind of farce continues the crowd will seek their entertainment at another venue. Both Coach Dixon and Coach Huggins should be steamed. The good guys still won in a circus atmosphere. GO PITT. George Mehaffey, Pitt News, 1952 -1953

Comment by rev. george mehaffey 02.09.09 @ 11:41 pm

So I received at least a partial answer to my question: Can Pitt win without Blair?

Partial because WVU was hobbled equally by fouls.

The answer: Sam has to play within himself and within the system, as Fields said last night. He can’t do it ALL by himself.

Comment by steve 02.10.09 @ 6:26 am

Does bowling improve basketball skills? Some of LeVance’s passes look like Billy Welu’s hook.

Comment by steve 02.10.09 @ 7:32 am

Young’s decision-making HAS to improve. Blair HAS to stop picking up fouls 20+ feet from the hoop and realize that if there are 3 men around him, at least one of his teammates is wide-freakin’ open.

Even if WVU hadn’t had foul trouble, this game still would have been won easily if the Panthers just make better decisions. Too many wasted trips down the court. They look so impressive at times, but they tend to lose focus and it allows the opponent to stay in the game.

Strong shooting from Wannamaker again. And Young was much better in the second half, playing with more control and picking up some rebounding slack.

This is a final four team, but they need to start remedying these problems – dumb fouls, poor decisions – if they are going to do it.

Comment by Carmen 02.10.09 @ 8:28 am

Yes, we can win without Blair – provided we are playing vs a WVU team with no inside presence.

However, if you think we can without Blair next Monday against the likes of Thabeet and Adrian, you are being naive

Comment by w bill 02.10.09 @ 9:01 am

You hate it when the officials affect the rhythm of a game like that…….but there were lots of fouls out there and I don’t know how you hold the whistle on many of them. Lots of stupid fouls — bumps 30 ft from the hoop, Blair reaching, etc. etc.

Remember the good old days a couple yrs back when Sam Young got all his points on mid-range jumpers in the lane and on cuts and quick post-ups? Watching him force things from the perimeter now is painful. He’s great on the break, though. I wish he’d satisfy himself with letting others set him up in places where he’s a natural scorer…..like on the break and on the block and in the lane.

I guess we always knew it, but what’s become more and more apparent to me is how unremarkable a team Pitt is when Blair is on the bench. He just changes the game that much. When he’s out, Pitt’s not any better than 5 or 6 teams in the Big East and probably 25+ teams nationally. What an effect he has……it’s amazing.

I thought Fields was smart last night. Knew he had a freshman on him and took it to the hoop more because of Bryant and because WVU doesn’t block many shots. Unfortunately, he’ll have a much tougher time against smarter, quicker, more experienced guards on teams like UConn, Nova, Marquette and L-ville.

For me, anyway, Shulman, Bilas, and Raftery kept an ugly game interesting. When Raftery said of Blair, “You’d need a roll of quarters to get around a derriere like that”, and Bilas paused and said “I don’t think I want to know what that means….” — well, that’s stuff you don’t get from John Sanders and Bob Wenzel.

Comment by hugh green 02.10.09 @ 9:42 am

Who cares what Pitt is like without Blair? They effing have him. I am so unbelievably sick of some of the posters on this board.

Comment by Omar 02.10.09 @ 9:54 am

Omar, due to foul issues, Blair has played half the game (or even less) against FL St, Rutgers, UL, Nova and WVU …. 2 losses and 2 other close games against teams we should have blown out. You obviously haven’t noticed that we don’t always effing have him … and anyone who doesn’t think that keeping Blair out of foul trouble against the better teams in not a key issue, then they should get their effing head out of the sand!!!

Comment by w bill 02.10.09 @ 10:11 am

Omar, a lot of people care how this team performs when Blair is on the bench. Along with the other posters and myself, Fittipaldo certainly does, Dixon certainly does and Fields certainly does:

“It was a strange game,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “Their two best players were in foul trouble and two of our guys were. And yet we played through it. That’s a tough thing to play through, but we found a way.

“You have to find ways to win. You’re going to have guys in foul trouble. They did and we did. You have to find guys to step up, and we did.”

The difference was that Pitt had Sam Young to pick up the scoring slack, and the Mountaineers had no one capable of filling in their scoring gaps. Young scored 20 points and had seven rebounds to lead the Panthers. Fields came back strong and finished with 13 points and seven assists.

“When he’s playing within the offense the shots will be available and he plays much better,” Fields said of Young. “When he’s playing by himself, that’s where you see him struggle, when he deviates from the offense.”

What’s your problem?

Comment by steve 02.10.09 @ 10:18 am

Any team who loses there best player isn’t going to be better than a lot of the teams in the country. Not a big surprise.

Comment by Willy Ralphard 02.10.09 @ 10:26 am

one more thing, Omar, if you are so “unbeleivably sick of the posters on this board” with concern about “life without Blair” … from what I’ve noticed, if we would all quit …. you’ll be alone here.

Comment by w bill 02.10.09 @ 10:26 am

I meant the point about Blair to get across a couple points 1) How much better he has gotten this year…..more dominant and so much more of a scorer in and around the paint. Pitt only grew that double-digit lead last night because he got back in the game in the 2nd half and got some easy buckets, and….

2) It actually is a surprise how much Pitt struggles without him, because the Panthers are unusual, for a Top 10 team, in how little frontcourt depth they have. Biggs is an average rebounder (at best) and might be 6’6″, we all know McGhee’s limitations and it pretty much falls to Sam Young and the guards to grab rebounds when Blair is out. That makes “life without Blair” problematic. Dixon’s hands are tied — he has no athletic size to bring in off the bench to cover those periods when DeJuan is down. Normally there would be a green, but talented, freshman big man who could plug a hole for a few minutes and just concentrate on rebounding. Jamie has to coach without that contingency this year.

Comment by hugh green 02.10.09 @ 10:58 am

Hugh, they do have a big, talented albeit green freshmen who has been practicing with the team (scrimmaging vs Blair and Biggs) that is being redshirted …. and in two past articles, Fittipaldo quoted Dixon as saying he is really pleased with the redshirt’s athleticism.

Comment by w bill 02.10.09 @ 11:21 am

i know a lot has been said about mcghee but damn he has progressed slowly. maybe i should cut him some slack since he’s only a sophomore but as it looks now he’s never going to have an impact on a Pitt team. also, where has biggs gone? he has just disappeared

the whole winning without blair question would completely go away if Pitt could just get more production out of mcgee and biggs

Comment by dpc 02.10.09 @ 11:27 am

I’ve watched that freshman, forget his name, in warmups (for whatever that’s worth) and he does look athletic with a strong body. I don’t remember all the reasons for not using him this year (was there an injury?), but it would certainly be nice to have an athletic big man to plug those holes.

Might be wishful thinking, though. Don’t want to project too much on what that kid could be. Assume Dixon’s holding him back for some good reason.

Comment by hugh green 02.10.09 @ 11:34 am

well we have lots of big bodies comming in next year.. so the depth should be there. PG is my concern.

But against “better” teams, we should just save blair for the second half. Sit him once he gets one foul!
I know that really isn’t a good coaching move, but Blair really needs to understand his
importance.
I rather have Blair in the game when we are trying to close a team out late in the second half.
He is simply just amazing and at times just unstoppable.

he is a part of the team, and we need him, just as any other team needs thier stars. Our star just
happens to grab fouls. i do like how jamie kept him benched after his technical and didn’t put him
back in the game.

I can’t wait to see him against a much improved thabeet. Blair always tends to show up against the big
boys. Thabeet has really picked up his game and it should be a good battle. I think blair gets his
boards due to his bulk, but offensivly it seems like a challenge seeing how thabeet is blocking everybody
and thier mom.

He needs to watch some tape of Hansborough. (Not saying he is better or worse, but tyler draws
fouls and foul troulbe with him isn’t as big as a concern)

Also not looking ahead to Uconn,,, but Cinci is a tough athetlic team that presses, so I’m
glad we get some further experience against a team like that. Really work out our press breaking.
Considering how sloppy we handled it agaisnt nova and ville. And Vaughn is a complete beast, like to
see how jermaine handles him.

Comment by Snala the Panther 02.10.09 @ 11:40 am

I like McGhee who looks like he gives a 110% every time he plays but he obviously has physical limitations. I do think he can be a contributor in the next few years but will never be dominant.

2 weeks ago after the Nova loss, I wrote a few posts on this site about Dixon stripping Dwight Miller’s redshirt because we have no real big man threat — yes, he is inexpereinced but is talented and athletic, and even if he is only able to get a key rebound or two (or FG or two) in a big game, whether it means a better seed or in a NCAA team, it may be worth it. Note that I hate see redshirts wasted (ala Dorin Dickerson) but since this team has a chance to go very far, it may be worth it. Another reason for getting Miller some experience is the possibility that Blair goes pro which would make McGhee the ONLY returning big man with any experieince.

Having said it, I realize that it won’t happen not to mention the fact that I assume that Jamie would do the correct thing.

Comment by w bill 02.10.09 @ 11:40 am

I’ve actually seen some improvement in McGhee over the last two games. He got some more playing time in the DePaul game and grabbed a rebound or 2 and made a hook shot. He won’t ever make the leap that Sam did, but hopefully with him being more automatic on the court, he’ll be our “Baby Gray.” More playing time will help.

Comment by steve 02.10.09 @ 12:07 pm

Credit to a WVU buddy of mine for this:

From
link to statsheet.com

Most Fouls Per Game Since 1996 (minimum of 500 games called)

1 Curtis Shaw 39.8 fouls per game, 1168 games
also on the crew,
58 Karl Hess 36.9, 966
72 Joe Lindsay 36.4, 641

Our old favorite Tim Higgins is #35

Comment by KeyboardKev 02.10.09 @ 12:40 pm

I’d rather have Nasir in there than McGhee. In spite or the size difference.

Comment by alcofan 02.10.09 @ 12:41 pm

If we should have learned one thing its to be patient and trust coach Dixon in developing talent. Look at the tremendous improvement Aaron Gray made between his sophomore and junior seasons. Also, the progress that Brad Wannamaker has made is truly remarkable. He looked like a kid who wasn’t capable of contributing in a C.Y.O. girl’s game. This year, however, he is playing with confidence and making big shots and taking it to the basket very well.

McGhee still has a long way to go, but I’m confident he’ll be a legitimate contributor before his time is up at Pitt.

Comment by TJ 02.10.09 @ 1:26 pm

Will:

On espn360, my son, who lives in Europe, had that problem too. He changed to a firefox browser, and it cleared up. espn online web support was very good too; they chat with you live.

Comment by Skipowder 02.10.09 @ 1:29 pm

the problem is, there’s no time to wait for McGhee to develop. this year is the year they have Blair, a seasoned PG, Young, and depth everywhere else but the frontcourt. This is the year they could make a run.

Comment by hugh green 02.10.09 @ 3:58 pm

w bill:

If Blair gets into foul trouble against one of the better teams in the NCAA or Big East tournament, then Pitt will lose. Just like if Blake Griffin gets into foul trouble Oklahoma will lose and Duke with Gerald Henderson and Villanova with Cunningham and UCONN with Thabeet and Louisville with T-Will and Wake with Jeff Teague etc., etc. When a team loses their best player they aren’t as good. Is this insightful commentary? No, it isn’t. Pitt isn’t as good when their best players aren’t playing. No reason to analyze it, because it is a fact. Dejaun Blair starts for a reason. It’s up to him to stay out of foul trouble. He had two stupid fouls yesterday. He should no better

Comment by omar 02.10.09 @ 4:09 pm

excuse me, know better not no better.

Comment by omar 02.10.09 @ 4:17 pm

Omar, no argument here – against a good team and Blair is out, we will lose — it has already happened twice. And it happened twice because we didn’t hit our shots down the stretch and had no rebounding presence to follow.

But I’m willing to bet that the Griffiths, Teagues, and Hendersons of the world are less likely to get in foul trouble tha Blair, and I’m pretty sure Thabeet probably hasn’t got whistled moe than 3 times in any game all year.

All I’m saying that if Blair goes out and we lose a close NCAA game, aren’t we going to second guess the redshiritn of Miller who the local PG writer says is athletic and has been practicing against Blair and Biggs since early December?

Comment by w bill 02.10.09 @ 5:55 pm

Thabeet fouled out against Gonzaga and had 4 fouls against Villanova and Michigan.

Blair has made some dumb fouls without a doubt, but he also has it a little tougher than Thabeet or Griffin being undersized.

Comment by TJ 02.10.09 @ 6:37 pm

…Thabeet also had 4 against Providence

Comment by TJ 02.10.09 @ 6:37 pm

and yet UConn won all those games with Thabeet in foul trouble because they have what what Pitt doesn’t … frontcourt depth

Comment by w bill 02.10.09 @ 6:44 pm

thru 24 games, Pitt has 1038 total rebounds in which Blair has 289 (28%) followed by Young 140 (13.5%) and Biggs 116 (11%) note that McGhee has 42

thru 23 games, UConn has 1008 total rebounds — Thabeet 235 (23%) Adrien 232 (22%) Dyson 98 (9.7%)

The fact is we depend on Blair much more than UConn depends on Thabeet for rebounds and scoring but probably not as much as Griffith for Oklahoma

Comment by w bill 02.10.09 @ 7:10 pm

Pitt has also won games without Blair or with Blair in foul trouble. They lost a couple too. Blair is Pitt’s best player. If he isn’t playing, then Pitt won’t be as good. This is a fact and really doesn’t need to be discussed. He just shouldn’t make silly fouls.

Comment by Omar 02.10.09 @ 9:00 pm

Blair is Pitt’s best player, but that’s because he is scoring more this year and has become a complete player — a scorer AND a rebounder. Of course Pitt won’t be as good when he’s in foul trouble, but they shouldn’t have to be.

When he goes out, all the Panthers need is for some rebounding slack to be picked up. There is enough scoring punch on the rest of the team to survive some Blair-less minutes, but there isn’t enough size or rebounding to beat good teams when he’s out and that’s what deserves discussion.

How does Dixon get enough inside bench production to get by and why is he in a situation where he has nobody on the bench who can rebound and play D inside for 10 minutes?

Comment by hugh green 02.11.09 @ 8:41 am

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