That game. When I got up this morning, I really had trouble believing the game went that way. That perhaps all the basketball I’ve been watching for the last couple days, and indeed the past couple weeks, had thrown me off in short term memory. Then I had my morning coffee and it all came flooding back.
In something that should surprise no one, Coach Dixon refused to publicly say anything negative. Even saying the sort of things that are patently ridiculous.
Dixon spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to put a positive spin on the win, bragging up East Tennessee State as if it were UCLA of the ’70s. “There’s no way this team is a 16 seed.” He took it to such an absurd level that he actually said, “This game went exactly how I thought it would.”
Honest to goodness, Dixon said that.
I guess it beats telling the truth and saying, “You know, we really stunk today.”
Anyone who has followed Pitt basketball and paid attention to Coach Dixon over the years can only shrug. It is always more of a stunner when he says anything that remotely looks like a public criticism of his team. That has never been his approach and anyone who expects otherwise is deluded.
That’s not to say he won’t be all over the team behind closed doors and in practice for that effort. It’s just that Dixon is not going to kill his players to the media. He’ll defend them. Protect them and take the hits for saying the insane things.
He won’t ignore some things that they did wrong.
“We just came in looking to hit the glass hard,” senior forward Greg Hamlin said. “We heard they weren’t a very good defensive rebounding team, so we just tried to attack the glass and get second chances.”
Pitt only had nine offensive rebounds, seven by Blair. All 13 of Sam Young’s rebounds came on the defensive end.
Dixon said Pitt’s effort — which comes one game after WVU outrebounded Pitt in the Big East quarterfinals — was unacceptable.
“The rebounding concerns me,” he said. “That’s our strength. We’ve got to get that done.”
The one thing Dixon did acknowledge — sort of — is that Levance Fields still is not right.
To be blunt, Fields hasn’t been the same player since injuring his groin against Connecticut in the final regular season game. After recording 10 points and 12 assists with two turnovers against UConn, Fields has totaled 12 points and 12 assists with eight turnovers in his past two games.
“Obviously, we’d like Levance to have been healthy the last couple of weeks, but that’s not the case,” Dixon said. “We’re trying to play through it. But the longer we go, the better he’ll feel. He felt better (yesterday) than he did last week.”
Right now, Fields won’t say that there is a problem. With his groin or anything.
“No [team] is a pushover in the tournament,” Fields said. “Unfortunately, we happened to be the No. 1 seed that had a scare. People will say this and that, but Pitt will be playing on Sunday. It’s the tournament. We have to play better as a collective group, but our stars stepped up today, and that’s what you need in games like that. We survived. That’s the biggest thing.”
Actually, it was really only one star that stepped up yesterday. DeJuan Blair carried the team for major stretches.
“I’m hungry,” he said. “Feed me.”
It wasn’t his stomach that was growling. It was his pride. His team looked sloppy and disinterested, and East Tennessee State wasn’t going away.
So, the Grizzly Blair ate.
Blair, playing in his third NCAA Tournament game, lifted top-seeded Pitt past a first-round scare, beating ETSU, 72-62, on Friday afternoon in an East Region game at UD Arena.
The first-team All-America sophomore center finished with 27 points and 16 rebounds, outmuscling the Atlantic Sun Conference champion.
“Either you ride or you get run over,” Blair said. “I’m not getting run over.”
Blair tied the most points by a Pitt player in an NCAA Tournament game in the past 21 years. Only one Pitt player — Jerome Lane — has ever had more rebounds in a tournament game.
Ashton Gibbs came up with timely plays off the bench.
Gibbs scored 10 points, including some clutch shots down the stretch when the game was still in doubt. Gibbs boosted the lead to eight with a 3-pointer with 1:14 remaining and 21 seconds later sank two free throws after East Tennessee State cut the lead to six.
“It feels good,” Gibbs said. “Last year I was trying to skip class just to watch the tournament. It’s a great feeling to contribute in a positive way.”
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon played Gibbs 18 minutes because starting shooting guard Jermaine Dixon was in foul trouble and ineffective for most of the game. Gibbs was 2 for 2 from the field — both 3-pointers — and 4 for 4 from the free-throw line.
“He played very well,” Jamie Dixon said. “I think it was a couple of things. First of all, Jermaine was in some foul trouble and was a little banged up. Gilbert [Brown] has been a little banged up. We went with [Gibbs]. He’s a very good freshman, a very good player, and he made big plays throughout. We have a lot of confidence in Ashton Gibbs.”
At least a couple players acknowledged the poor effort.
At least until the final few minutes, the Panthers lacked the necessary will and wont to win a national title. On offense, they stood still instead or working for shots. On defense, they idly watched East Tennessee State, a team which couldn’t compete with Pitt’s size, get 20 offensive rebounds.
Clearly, this game was about the size of the player’s hearts. And the Panthers’ hearts didn’t appear to be in this one.
“They definitely out-hustled us,” Pitt guard Jermaine Dixon said. “We did more watching than we did boxing out. They got their hands on every ball.”
“They wanted it more than us,” teammate Brad Wanamaker said.
The Panthers weren’t the first No. 1 seed to overlook their first-round opponent, and they won’t be the last. But with the margin of their lead an eyelash away from being a single point at halftime _ a bucket by ETSU’s Mike Smith at halftime was reviewed and nullified _ one would have expected more urgency in the second half.
That is probably the thing that has most fans frustrated. The continued lack of effort in the second half.
It’s one thing for it to happen in the first half. That is almost understandable. It happens a lot, and Pitt has played more than a few games where the full effort seemed lacking in the first half. But then, Pitt would come storming out to sieze control of the game in the second half.
That didn’t happen in this game and that, more than anything else, fuels Pitt fan frustration and punditry letting loose with this sort of thing.
We’re going to go ahead and call this the worst any top seed has played in a first-round game, ever. Feel free to challenge that assertion, but the East Tennessee State Bucs shot 30.7 percent from the field, made just 4-of-22 from 3-point range, missed half of their free throws and still nearly became the first No. 16 seed to knock off a No. 1.
Others have come closer: Western Carolina against Purdue in 1996, Princeton against Georgetown in 1989. This game will not become part of NCAA folklore. Pitt wound up beating ETSU by double digits, 72-62. Folks arriving home from work Friday afternoon might have done no more than lift an eyebrow at that margin, but those watching on television – and especially those filling UD Arena – know just what they saw.
And of course, fuels the general feeling that someday a No. 16 will beat a No. 1. Thankfully it was not yesterday.
