And by won. I mean won by Pitt. Odd though that seems after all these years.
Pitt ended up shooting 20-57 (35%) and 4-12 on 3s. Nova shot much better to finish 24-53 and 6-14 on 3s.
What Pitt did was make free throws. 26-34 for over 75%. Pitt went at Nova. The Wildcats are reckless with fouls in no small part because of their depth. Pitt made them pay.
The other major factor — rebounding. I’m sure I’ll get the arguments again, but rebounding margin misleads. Pitt only ended up with a +3 rebounding margin.
Pitt had 18 offensive rebounds while Nova only had 20 defensive boards. That’s huge. Pitt dominated Nova on the offensive glass despite the volume of bricks they threw up. That many second chances and forcing Nova to foul.
On the other end, Pitt had a 15 defensive rebounds to 10 offensive Nova boards. Would have liked more at that end.
Only a 5 point win, but Pitt did so much right — other than shooting.
16 assists on 20 baskets. Only 11 turnovers. 6 steals and 6 blocks. Huge win.
UPDATE 4:00: Offical boxscore is out, Pitt is officially credited with 21 offensive boards and a total of 40 rebounds. Nova had 12 offensive and 34 total. That makes the offensive rebounding even more astounding.
Nova shot 15-27 in the second half and Pitt was 10-28. The diference again. FTs. Nova was perfect, but only 7-7. Pitt was 17-25 in the second half.
Hail to PITT!
-al-
Game ball to Jermaine Dixon.
What an amazing team effort. I hope they keep their heads on straight and win at least 3 of the last four. Woodall’s emergence cannot be understated. Saw some new combinations today, Robinson and Brown on the court together.
Everyone contributed today. They keep stepping up, individually and collectively. Jamie Dixon!
They wanted it more. It does not make up for last year but it sure feels good.
big guy and dugdog…check out the other site for the answer to my trivia question…thanks.
drgags, these guys played after my time and before I again became really interested. (A major part of my re-interest is the Internet and the increased schedule of games on the tube.) Mercer County always was a great high school sports area, probably more football than basketball. They have good coaches who know and teach the fundamentals of the sports.
My game ball goes to Jermaine. What a defensive clinic he put on today. People will look at the box score and think Reynolds had a good game, but those in attendance or watching know that he was a non-factor for 95% of this game. When JD sat for two minutes in the 2nd half, Reynolds had 2points…within a matter of 2 minutes, he hit two three points on Woodall. JD came back and clamped him down for the rest of the game until the garbbage points at the end. Completely awesome play by Jermaine. We will miss him next year.
I want to hear the Wannamaker apologists defend his play in this game. I thought this was one of his WORST games, and left me scratching my head even more about him as a player. I just don’t get hime…..turnovers, horrible shots, bad fouls…
On the crowd, yes there were some empty seats but no more than I’ve seen in past seasons. I’ll never figure out why some club level seats that cost someone a huge premium to purchase, go empty game after game unless Syracuse, Uconn or Georgetown is on the agenda.
I did notice one huge contrast between this crowd and the WVU crowd. With about 12 seconds to go I noticed that very few early outs had left their seats. At the WVU thriller, with 12 seconds to go there were hudreds of early outs scrambling to get up the down escalator and back to their seats.
A great win, a great season already. More to come!
Hail to Pitt!
Great to see woodall step up….
whats with gibbs missing big free throws ?
i hope tourney time our shooting gets hot.. because who knows then….
More importantly, Wanny had a bad game and we won pretty easily. Pitt led this game throughout. The closest Nova got was 2 points. This game provides some evidence that Pitt can do some damage in the tournament. There are very few teams that have the talent of Nova throughout the roster. Pitt was not out-classed at all during the game, and the most athletic play came from a Pitt player (the Brown dunk). Pitt dominated Nova on the boards.
Beating WVU was fortunate, but Pitt put it on Nova today. I think this team is headed to the sweet 16 at the very least.
I think you would conceed, Omar that after three healthy seasons with Jamie..you see less than 7 WTF moments in game???? Seriously with picking up the dribble, bad fouls, goofy passes, airballs… Tonight we saw all of them on the big stage…
I expect more from a Junior.
Over this entire year, I still think Wanny has been the best overall Pitt player.
Great defense today. Good team effort. But not sure what is up with Wannamaker. A walking turnover at the moment. So indecisive and unsure of himself at the moment. Hopefully that will be corrected over the next few games.
I disagree with you on this. I also think that Wanny is Pitt’s best overall player. In fact, Wanny has been essentially running the offense from the 3. Notice end of clock situations when the 5 usually comes in and sets a pick for the 1 to drive and create a play. This wasn’t working early in the year with Gibbs and Jamie adapted by running the play on the wing for Wanny. #22 is an excellent passer and penetrator offensively, and an outstanding rebounder for a 6’4″ small forward.
Does he make some poor decisions? Yes he does. The same can be said for every player on the team at certain points. Wanny had a bad game today. I don’t think that makes him a bad player. The kid didn’t score at all against WVU the first game, but put up 20 the next time they played. I am pretty sure that he will be fine.
Wanny is 75+ games into his college career. I think he’s a good kid. I just wish we had the depth for him to be a 10-15min guy. Throw all the stats you want. He fails the eye test. Jusst like Bill Stull fails the eye test in football. Good kids, serviceable, flashes of brilliance, but one misstep from a meltdown.
“Pittsburgh beating Villanova is just the latest bit of evidence that the Big East is almost all wheat. ‘Nova was thought of as a one seed-to-be for a while — now, the fourth one behind Kansas, Kentucky, and Syracuse is probably Purdue’s to lose — but the brutal Big East slate has worn it down. There’s no other conference with four teams as good as Syracuse, Villanova, Georgetown and Pittsburgh, four teams that could win it all and never be called Cinderella.”
Did you ever think someone would say Pittsburgh could win it all before this season started? (I’m not saying that this guy’s opinion matters but it is interesting for it too come from Sporting News). Also WVU not mentioned haha!
Wannamaker is a role player, playing out of position, and should be credited for his early season heroics (against much lesser caliber teams). But, at the highest level, I’m not seeing it. He is extremely erratic and a detriment in key stretches of many of our games. I’m seeing a lot of reoccuring mistakes that should be celared up by Junior year. Let’s hope it doesn’t cost us in a tourney game…
Not sure what’s causing the rash of turnovers in the past two games. Could be that he’s forcing things a bit more than usual or perhaps good scouting by Marquette and Nova picked up some tendencies that they exploited. Either way, I think the coaches will work with him to fix the issue by the next game.
You obviously have a bias against Wanny, and I will restate … yes, he had a bad game, but so has virtually everyone else on this team .. even Dixon today, as I recall, made only 1 FG in his first ten shots .. a layup.
He’s for sure more than a role player.
In the meantime, I thought Coach Dixon did a good job getting Gil Brown in more at the 3 in this game, thereby taking advantage of a size advantage over Villanova’s guard oriented system.
Lastly, the beauty of this team is that they are a TEAM so picking on one player be it Wanny, Woodall, Taylor or whoever is a bit ludicrous.
Yeah the team doesn’t have a dominate player like blair, go to guy like young, or a decisive play maker like fields,., but it does have a little bit of each in the players across the board,. which is a different forumula but if they continue the hard nosed d, and various folks step of on offense… they will be a tough match for anybody in the country,
It will be interesting to see where this team ends up in the rankings and bracket projections tomorrow. While these are relatively meaningless at this point, they do give some indication of the “national” perception of the team, and over the past few weeks Pitt has been under-ranked relative to their overall profile.
So many different players seem to step up at key moments. While I dont expect this team to go deep into the ncaa’s it certainly wouldnt surprise me if they did.
It’s interesting – I’m actually having more fun following the rankings/seeding discussions this year because frankly, it all feels like gravy at this point.
Best defensive performance this year, by a lot. Nova is averaging 85 points, they are a great screen and roll team. Pitt’s ability to switch on ball screens and then defend despite mismatches was outstanding. Pitt defended the three point line very well. Nova had very few assisted hoops, most of their baskets were on one-on-one moves. Pitt really disrupted what they wanted to do.
What is with the refs and Nova – Pitt games? The game was a little hard to watch at times, the ref’s called it VERY TIGHT. Lots of nickle dimers.
Pitt also did a great job of controlling tempo. If pitt keeps improving, keeps playing tough d, keeps controlling the speed of play and gets some timely shooting (free throws), then the sky is the limit. WVU is the one team I don’t want to see them play again. Their athleticism and size are really tough for Pitt to handle (despite the recent win at the Pete).
Wanamaker is Pitt’s best “overall” player. That is what I said. There are other players on the team that are better at certain things, but Wanny’s aggregate skill set is the best. Wanamaker can defend, rebound, handle, shoot, and pass the ball. No player on the team can do all of the things Wanamaker does. He is a very important player for Pitt.
Wanny struggled the last couple games specifically because teams emphasized taking him away. Pitt runs the offense through Wanny now. Teams are trying to disrupt that and have denied him the ball and have scouted him well. Wanny loves to drive to the hoop with his off hand. Teams have noticed this and will not let him go baseline with his left hand. He is frustrated and has rushed things a bit leading to charges and travels. Wanny needs to pick his spots with that move. Teams know that move is coming and he will only be able to do it a few times a game.
I also think Wanny needs to trust his jumper more. Teams are playing off him a bit. He needs to take that shot when it is there instead of forcing himself to the rim. He is a capable shooter and can hit the shot.
I don’t know what people are looking at. If Wanamaker doesn’t pass the eye test, then I don’t know who does. The kid is 6’4″ tall, strong as an ox, can handle and finish with both hands, grabs tough rebounds on both ends of the floor, is shooting well from the line, and has above average athleticism. He sure as hell passes the eye test for me. One bad game doesn’t mean he can’t play. Especially, one bad game where he didn’t force it and Pitt led the entire game.