The madness. The madness. March is a harsh mistress when you write about college basketball. So much to cover. So little time. It’s great, but the hours get away from you. So, the next thing you know, those browser tabs with all the stories of yesterday’s game are still sitting open after trying to stay on top of today’s games. And it’s the next day.
Sam Young took home Big East Player of the Week honors for the second time this year.
Starting local, Sam Young gives a little about his first offensive attack on Thabeet.
“They’re trying to take my joy, they’re trying to steal my thunder. That first bucket pretty much set the tone for the game,” said Young, who saved one of his best games for senior day. “It was ‘and-one,’ the crowd got into it, and I had that look on my face like, ‘Yeah, it’s time to go.’
“A lot of teams get intimidated by Thabeet blocking shots and how tall he is. When you look at that situation, it’s (him) or me. I’m definitely going to make sure that it’s me at the end of the day.”
Sophomore center DeJuan Blair, who had 22 points and 23 rebounds against Thabeet last month, said Young’s high-energy play was exactly what Pitt needed.
“It told them we ain’t backing down, we ain’t scared,” said Blair, who tangled with Thabeet near midcourt in the second half. “Thirty-one points and 10 rebounds. That’s an excellent game against the No. 1 team in the country.”
Senior day and the family coming to town did not hurt.
“I had a lot of family in the building,” Young said. “It was real emotional.”
And really, really good.
Just a thought, the first meeting had a nice impact on DeJuan Blair’s NBA draft profile taking a sizable jump. I’m guessing Young’s got a bump as well after this game.
The win snapped UConn’s road perfection and gave Pitt a perfect year at the Pete and the game had the largest crowd at the Pete with 12,908.
Then there’s Levance Fields’ great game running the show. Though, Ron Cook even while gushing over Fields maintained his man-crush on DeJuan Blair by running with the whole Batman comparison. Yeesh. I can’t even bring myself to quote from it.
Moving out of the ‘Burgh, Dick Weiss was there and he notes how much Sam Young is in the mind of UConn and Calhoun.
Sam Young has become the University of Connecticut’s unsolvable riddle.
The 6-6 senior forward torched the Huskies for 31 points and 10 rebounds Saturday as No. 3 Pitt rocked top-ranked UConn, 70-60, before an ear-shattering, standing-room only crowd of 12,908 at the Petersen Events Center.
“I’ll tell you one thing,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said after this battle of Big East heavyweights. “When he graduates, I won’t be shedding any tears. We play pretty good defense but he’s scored 56 points on us in two games.”
Young scored 25 points against UConn in the Panthers’ 76-68 win last month in Hartford.
“There hasn’t ever been a player who gives us as many problems as he does,” Calhoun said.
The New York Times story notes that the UConn players put a brave front on losing twice to Pitt. That it doesn’t matter, and it means nothing. But…
But the grins on the faces of Pittsburgh Coach Jamie Dixon and his players revealed that the third-ranked Panthers had a different view.
“Senior Day is special and you want it to end the right way, and I’d say it certainly did,” said Dixon, referring to the ceremony before the last home game of the year.
Even though the Panthers have beaten most Big East teams in both games this season, beating UConn has become personal.
“Recently, it seems that when I see a UConn jersey, my eyes light up,” said Sam Young, Pittsburgh’s 6-6 senior forward, who had a game-high 31 points on a variety of 3-pointers and breakaway dunks. He scored 25 in the first game between the teams.
Now for the Connecticut media. Seems that whole Thabeet-Blair rematch was the focus, even if it wasn’t really the story other than that brief collision.
Early in the second half, Thabeet threw a bad pass to UConn’s Kemba Walker, forcing Walker to save the ball from going out of bounds by lobbing it up near midcourt. Thabeet then bumped into Blair as both were jumping for the loose ball, knocking the Pittsburgh center to the ground.
Both Blair and Thabeet, who said Blair tripped him after the foul, got up yelling at each other.
“Don’t nobody knock me over,” Blair said. “I ain’t going to let nobody knock me on the ground.”
Thabeet had a slightly different take on the exchange.
“He tripped me after I fouled him. I was just not happy with that,” Thabeet said.
“He punked me the first time and I didn’t do nothing about it,” said Thabeet, referring to the flip-over Blair he took in Hartford. “He got fouled and he wanted to trip me. I was just reacting to that. OK, I fouled you. I’ll let it go. I fouled him and he flipped me.”
Makes it seem like Blair was fired up and angry about it. Or, not.
“Don’t nobody knock me on the ground,” Blair said with a laugh. “Actually, I would have done that to anybody.”
[Emphasis added.]
And Jim Calhoun was calm after the game, conceding he didn’t want to have another YouTubed press conference. He instead tried to be positive.
”For me to blast my team today would be foolhardy,” Calhoun said. “We’ve got a whole postseason to play and we might see Pitt again. I wouldn’t mind that at all. I really wouldn’t.
”They’ve had two chances to prove they’re the better team. When you’re 27-3, I don’t think you should hang your head. You have to put the season aside and now we’re on to postseason play. Give all the credit to Pitt. They won the game.”
Build up, not tear down his team. Right?
Stanley Robinson has yet to show he can think with Young.
Jeff Adrien can’t run with Young.
Calhoun even tried Scottie Haralson briefly, as Young pointed out, and that didn’t work either.
“Young has a great up fake and it looks just like his jump shot,” Adrien said. “So you have to respect his jump shot, because he hits. He is very versatile, can play [the] three or four. He’s a tough player.”
Heck, one of these times Young (6 feet 6, 220 pounds) is going to up-fake Robinson so badly, Sticks (6-9) is going to knock himself out on the overhead scoreboard.
“Sticks should be able to guard him,” Calhoun said. “He should. He didn’t. We tried Jeff on him. That didn’t work.
Young’s work ethic gets everyone amazed. To say nothing of his conditioning.
After warmups Saturday, Young was feeling a little stiff. So he put on his headphones and stepped on the treadmill. Yes, he ran for 10 minutes — then went and ran over UConn for 37 minutes.
When the Huskies closed to 52-50 with 12-0 run, Young is the one who had all the answers. He scored off a tough drive to the basket. Then, in the moment that sent the Pete into delirium, Levance Fields found Young on the fastbreak for a thunderous dunk to make it 56-50. UConn never really threatened again.
“That dunk will be on Top 10 [plays] on ESPN,” Blair said.
“I came here [and] could barely dribble the ball and could barely shoot a three to save my life,” said Young, one of three Pitt seniors honored. “In my last performance here, to put up 31 and 10 — threes, mid-ranges, turnarounds, free throws, transition dunks and everything — I think I showcased a lot of my talents. I worked to get to that level.
“There’s a lot of muscle memory and getting the moves down pat. That’s behind everything I do. You see something spectacular; I’ve already practiced it to perfection.”
