A day later and there is still talk of this being one of the all-time great games for Pitt and in the basketball side of the Backyard Brawl. Something that will be hard to dispute.
Until we see how the rest of the season goes, though, the actual impact of the game may diminish the importance. Still the claim that it was one of the best games of the year (and wow, it’s already been challenged a day later) and hyperbole to suggest one of the best ever in the Big East.
That’s all for another time. After the season is over. Gilbert Brown made the point about what it meant for the present. F0r the rest of this season.
“It’s a big emotional boost as well as a confidence boost for us,” he said. “I think we needed a win like this to make us believe we can do this. Early on in the season, when we had our first five wins in the Big East, we were rolling. We really felt like we could get it done and possibly be in contention for a Big East regular-season championship. And then after going through the struggles we went through, pulling this game out it really shows the character of the players, how we fought every day in practice just to get back to this point.”
And why you go through the practices and push through the grind at this point in the season. If you are a player and a coach, getting rewarded with a win like this whey you have worked hard and been through a rough patch is vindication and oh, so rewarding.
But also get this straight: the Panthers played with a will and a wont that’s been missing for much of the past couple months. They won this war of attrition by soldiering through foul trouble and substitutions thanks to a level of play not seen by the bench this season.
Travon Woodall, so largely ineffective this season that he’s affected the offense of Ashton Gibbs, had 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists in 31 of the most pressure-packed minutes he’s ever played. More than his stat sheet contributions, though, was that his performance allowed Gibbs to fill up his side of the ledger. With Woodall at the point, Gibbs was able to get open on the perimeter and made 6 of 13 3-pointers, including one to tie the game at the end of regulation. Gibbs had 24 points and hit at least five threes for the first time since Pitt’s equally improbably upset at Syracuse.
“Sometimes (Woodall) feels like he has to make a play to stay in the game,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I tell him, ‘You don’t have to make a play. Just let things comes to you. I think he sees that and sees the results.”
Woodall was huge and a welcome re-emergence. Most of us thought he was going to be fine mid-way through the non-con. He had some clunkers, but was improving and there was a learning curve to being the PG for Pitt. Then he started struggling. With Jermaine Dixon and then Gilbert Brown returning, and the team actually winning big games in conference, it became harder to risk playing him out there. It was no longer about Woodall and the rest of Pitt taking some lumps in a rebuilding year. It was about possibly being near the top of the Big East. Things went from being a NCAA bubble team, but playing for seed.
“The guy who really stood out to me was Travon,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “We keep saying he’s going to make us better, and he really played well. He really played within himself. He was big for us in so many ways.”
…
“Any time I’m on the floor, I feel like I need to have the ball in my hands,” Woodall said. “I want to create for my teammates and get them open shots. I don’t need to score, but I need to have the ball in my hands to set things up.”
It was a turning point for Woodall, who admits to losing confidence over the course of the season.
He had several conversations with Jamie Dixon, including one this past week that lasted an hour. When Woodall related that he felt the need to make plays to stay in the game, Dixon implored him to concentrate on his defense and to make the simple pass, the simple play.
Woodall did that against West Virginia, and he might have won his coach over.
“He played like a veteran,” Dixon said. “I’m very proud of him because I’ve really been on him. I’ve been pushing him, pushing him. I really believe he can be a big part of our improvement.”
The confidence is important. The next 2 games are against guard-oriented/heavy teams. Marquette and Villanova will be all over Gibbs and trying to pressure the ball. Pitt needs Woodall to play with confidence and take care of the ball.
Final thing, since Huggins’ post-game statements came under scrutiny in the comments. I didn’t see much that was inaccurate or disrespectful about them. Huggins’ concern is not with Pitt after a game is over, but his team and even his fanbase. Comments in the media are as much directed at his players as anyone else. A good article on Huggins after the game. He apparently laid in to the team afterwards.
Almost without fail after a loss, Huggins will keep his team sequestered in its locker room long past what is supposed to be the 10-minute cooling-off period before he exits and meets – and allows his players to do the same – with the media. What goes on in there is mere speculation, but the words rant and rave and scream and yell are generally good bets.
Often his players will even admit to it. Sometimes, as was the case on Friday, they are reluctant even to discuss it.
“I think we’ll keep that private,” point guard Truck Bryant said after enduring the roughly 20-minute tongue-lashing at the Petersen Events Center just after midnight on what had become Saturday morning.
By the time he got to the media, he was noticeably calm almost subdued. He didn’t single out individual players publicly. He bemoaned their mistakes, but it was hardly a rant on his team. His team made big mistakes. Missed shots and Pitt crashed through the opening. Lot’s of things I find distasteful and downright hateable about Bob Huggins, but this doesn’t make it.
