I’ll take an ugly win any day over a pretty loss. And make no mistake, that game was ugly. Maybe you can claim it was memorable since it went to double OT and it was taut and tense in the final twenty minutes (10 minutes of OT and the final 10 minutes of regulation) and it closed out the Civic Arena for basketball. The counter is that after that game it is probably a good thing.
The only thing a game being that tight and going into OT guaranteed was that the national college basketball writers would take a break from the Big 11/ACC Challenge to take some notice of what was happening.
At least it was close: The Pitt-Duquesne game was hardly a classic to close out Mellon Arena, with each team turning the ball over on its last possession of regulation. But the game did have some drama and Pitt prevailed 67-58 in double overtime.
But, hey, at least the Stage Magicians got a good crowd.
Coach Dixon — and I really am not sure if he had his tongue firmly jammed in his cheek when he said this — found beauty in the game.
“This one will go down in history as probably the best (game here),” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “Of course, that’s my version of it. Duquesne might disagree.”
Pitt (6-1), which never led in regulation, overcame a 16-point second-half deficit against a resurgent Duquesne team trying to beat the Panthers for only the fourth time in the past 31 meetings.
Pitt switched to a zone defense to cool off the hot-shooting Dukes (5-2), and Pitt sophomore guard Ashton Gibbs, who missed his first eight shots, made a game-tying 3-pointer late in regulation and added two 3-pointers in the second overtime to give Pitt its ninth win in a row over Duquesne.
Odds are Duquesne will disagree.
But when you are your own worst enemy, crazy things happen.
Chances evaporate, especially when your starting backcourt — the three-guard system of Monteiro, Jason Duty and Eric Evans — goes 7 of 34 from the floor and 2 of 15 from 3-point range.
Chances vanish when you have the ball at the end of regulation and your point guard, Evans, fumbles the basketball away without getting a shot off and instead of heading toward the basket, he heads for the sideline in attempt to save the ball — about 45 feet from the basket — from going out of bounds.
Chances slide away when, at the end of overtime, you have a fleeting chance to get a shot off, but instead of getting it to a speedy guard to try to make a mad dash up the floor, the 6-foot-8 Rodrigo Peggau throws up a desperation heave from halfcourt.
Chances slip away when Pitt goes into a zone and you don’t know what to do against it, looking lost beyond belief.
“They got into a zone,” Duquesne coach Ron Everhart said. “And we just kind of looked like a deer in the headlights.”
Chances slide away from you when your bench is thin and three guys — Damian Saunders, Monteiro and Peggau — foul out with Saunders being held to more than 10 points below his average.
“I thought our kids gave a great effort,” Everhart said. “I didn’t think we were the most intelligent team in the world, but our kids gave a great effort … as frustrating as it was, I thought we played hard.”
Pitt going zone for some 25 minutes or so was the big story by the end.
“That 2-3 zone kind of messed us up,” Clark said.
That would be an understatement. After halftime, the Dukes made just 9 of 41 shots from the field.
Pitt rarely goes away from its man-to-man defense, but Dixon decided to switch after the Dukes shot 48 percent in the first half and led, 33-20, at the intermission.
“They were in a rhythm and we weren’t,” Dixon said. “We had to change the pace of the game. I can’t believe I went to zone that long. It was tough for me to do. But it was working, and we stayed with it.”
There a lot of coaches that would not be able to get away from their fundamental philosophies for even a short time. Let alone that long.
It was weird. Pitt’s zone hardly looked aggressive — or even confusing. It just worked. That was as much on a clueless Duquesne team that their own coach admitted does not have a lot of smart players. I wouldn’t count on (and I doubt Pitt does) the zone working that well and for that long too often.
The funny thing is that the zone is in part to help teams that have less players conserve energy on defense. So they aren’t chasing opposing players all over the court in man-to-man. But it was Duquesne that had the problem with enough warm bodies.
Pete Gillen was doing the color for CBS Sports and he was hammering on Duquesne’s lack of depth catching up with them from right after the halftime to the end. It was amusing to me — since it was directed at the Dukes.
They aren’t the deepest team and they were in major foul trouble late in the game. One of the more encouraging thing continues to be Gary McGhee.
He was offensively invisible in the first half battling Damian Saunders. But Saunders was Duquesne’s best player and while he had a bunch of blocks and finished with 8 rebounds, he didn’t do much scoring. Not just that, but McGhee was the one to get Saunders in foul trouble. Which really cost Duquesne as the game got deeper. McGhee found room inside and after a first half that saw him with 0 points, 0 shots, 1 block and 1 rebound, he was huge in the second half and OT.
McGhee played 23 of the 30 final minutes. He went 5-7 for 11 points, grabbed 7 boards in that span and had 2 more blocks.
As encouraging as McGhee was, the guard play is a terrifying thing. Forget — if you can — the poor shooting of Woodall, Gibbs and Adams (combined 6-26). Adams continues to hesitate on shots unless he is absolutely and completely uncovered. Gibbs was flat, cold and frustrated.
Woodall really had me bothered. He has no confidence in his shot right now, and it appears to be translating everywhere. He only made 2-6 on FTs. He very obviously passed up open shots and Duquesne was completely playing off him to prevent penetration — preferring to dare him to shoot. His passing and running the show was horrid. Unable to work the ball inside and letting the shot clock run to the final seconds and forcing other players to hoist last second shots ahead of the buzzer.
Coach Dixon noticed. In the second half and 2 OTs, Woodall only played 13 of 30 minutes. He only played 27 minutes while Gibbs played 45 and had to shoulder a lot more of the burden of directing things. It’s not a good sign that Woodall let himself be so frustrated and essentially took himself out of things.
This season will be as much of a struggle as expected. The team will improve, but will also take steps back. If you are on the wagon or trying to cut back your drinking, this will not be the season for that.
