Game time is set for 7:05 on Saturday night.
A rematch of earlier in the year.
Mizzou-UConn is the early game at 4:40
Big East is just slightly dominating.
As an aside, has there ever been a better protected third seed in the history of the NCAA tournament? Playing in Philly during the first two rounds and Boston in the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight. Not to take anything away from Nova’s great play or make excuses in advance should Pitt lose (shudder), but it seems strange that they should have such a geographical edge over better seeds.
On Saturday, we pretty much have the oppurtunity to have Pitt’s biggest athletics moment since 1976.
No pressure guys!!
He then went on to say that, while UNC is a pretty good school, Louisville and Pitt are not very good schools.
The Podcast is located here, and the quote takes place right at the 59 minute mark:
Now, if I’m not mistaken, isn’t Pitt ranked one of the top 20 public universities in the country every year? Isn’t it also one of the top 50 or 60 overall colleges in the country?
My mission for you (I already did it), is to deluge ESPN’s “Sportsguy” with emails on this oversight (nice way of saying boldfaced lie and flat out diss) on his friend’s part.
Email him yourself, and post it on other Pitt message boards so other people can email him as well. If you can find links to any online articles that quote Pitt’s national academic ranking, include that in your emails too.
Here’s the handy link ESPN provides for feedback on Simmons’ articles:
Fire away! Defend your favorite school!!
PS. Remember, the Sportsguy didn’t say this, he is innocent here. It’s his friend Jack-O from the podcast.
I don’t think we would be able to overcome a big nova 1st half. We’ve got to unleash the beast early. Play the whole 40 minutes come what may.
I think getting past this round should help this team relax and Im sure for the seniors they feel a sense of urgency.
Survive and Levance!
Now I played football and that contact would not rise to the level of a half-speed drill. I think that basketball players are the most athletic of our athletes, but don’t try telling me that they are tough. Typically, a guy goes up for a lay-up, falls to the floor and he is in agony for a long time. Comments from any former (or current) football players?
Somebody of Jay Wright and Jamie Dixon is going to add a few dollars to their contract Saturday night. Watch out for the Coreys and Scottie Reynolds. In particular Reynolds, he’s capable of really taking over. Look for the keys to the game to be: 1) Jermaine Dixon regaining his mojo and playing smart, gritty d without dumb fouls; 2) Tyrell Biggs making shots. Don’t underestimate how important this is. I’ll bet he takes a three before the under 16 timeout. If he can make a shot or two, it draws one of ‘Nova’s interior defenders out. The coaching staff is going to do everything they can to iso Blair down low, and that means Biggs needs to show up. 3) Super Sam. This is a team that has a ton of athleticism and the capability of staying in front of Sam more than most. He’s going to need to make a few of those 15 footers from the sides and open things up. If he does, look for him to run wild. Nobody can check Sam when he’s hitting the mid-range shot, because it means you HAVE to buy the shot-fake every time. Then he penetrates, and either puts it in, or draws Blair’s man to him, allowing Blair the put back. On the Nova side of things, they’re going to bring ball pressure BIG TIME and they’re going to let Jermaine Dixon shoot the ball. That makes it all the more important that Blair is engaged early, gonna be juicy rebounds on the offensive end to be had. ‘Nova pasted Duke last night, in large part because every time a player from each team jumped, ‘Nova got the ball. We’re capable of changing that dynamic, but we also have shown that we’re capable of LOSING every loose ball too. Intensity, focus, and aggression. You could argue that Nova was the most convincingly better-than-us team all year given the fact that they beat us straight up in our only meeting. Let’s take the one that matters!
C’mon fellas, you know what I’m talking about.
Here we go Pitt!!!!! 🙂
My memories of playing football: Every game there would be several collisions when certain parts of one’s body would become numb, often the fingers. After some big collisions I would look at my hands to see if anything was dislocated. On occasion, a finger was dislocated, and I would try to pop it back into place before the next play. There was always some part of the body that would hurt, but you would play through it.
I am amazed at what basketball players can do with their bodies. As I posted, they are really great athletes, but “tough” is a relative term. To me, a tough basketball player does not have the same meaning as a tough football player.
Sean’s 1988 Pitt team playing Vandy in the Sweet 16 matchup allowed a 3 in the final minute to tie it instead of fouling for a maximum of 2. Pitt went on to lose it in overtime.
Last night, Pitt up by 3 with 29 seconds left, Blair commits a foul, whether instructed to or not (I hope he was!). Xavy guy goes to the line and only cans 1. Game over.
I agree, though, that they aren’t going to beat Villanova with a 33% shooting night, like they had against Xavier- unless they play the insane and overlooked defense they have been playing for the last 3 halves of basketball.
Pitt has played incredible defense from the second half of the OSU game on, including only allowing 3 made 3 pointers in that time (I believe). They held Xavier to 18 points in the second half last night. If they keep playing that kind of defense, Villanova is going to have a long night on Saturday.
The only losses Pitt has this year are to teams that have a “V” in them.
(LVill, Nova, WVU, Providence).
The feed was the complete game feed, no interruptions, does that mean “from the site?” They had purchased the Direct TV NCAA package.
I say Kudos to the manager.
Will folks show up tomorrow night?
Also, not quite sober yet. Two thoughts as I read over the commentary.
1. It appears that Pitt’s strategy is to come out and simply NOT get in foul trouble the first half no matter what happens (in this case an 8 pt deficit)
Their flimsy Defense was noticable and I watched Blair pull back from many a situation where he could have mixed it up in the first half. I think Jamie believes he can overcome any ht deficit but cannot overcome foul trouble. It was a different Pitt D in the second half as they went all out.
2. Jermaine Dixon saved our butts last night with lock down D and several lightening quick drives to the rim. Still, for the life of me, I cannot understand why he avoids taking an open 3….he may have taken one last night.
Ugly game….as all the comments have said.The rims looked tight for everyone, especially Duke…we need to play well from the tip to beat Nova. Still we match up well, and OK St has prepared us for their guards and ETSU for the press.
We should dominate inside.
Last night we missed layups, easy shots and foul shots that could have changed the entire complexion of the game. If we play as if every second counts we’ll take the Wildcats down. Unfortunately I don’t think we win if we get into a free throw shooting contest at the end of the game. We need to play hard for 40 minutes!
We need someone, anyone other than Blair, Fields and Young to step up and best their season averages. If we get a fourth contributor going we take the pressure off of our Big Three. ‘Nova has had somebody different step up and carry them in every game since they beat us in February. We’re better than Villanova…I just hope we play that way!
Hail to Pitt!!
Anyways, we got ‘Nova. Here we go again with the press.