Woke up this morning feeling good. This, despite staying up way too long trying to let the alcohol work its way out of my system and trying to come down from the game. Big wins do that. They carry over and just make things better.

I was thinking about how Villanova out rebounded Pitt. The key was not that Nova was so good inside — outside of Yarou. It was that the inside guys for Nova, weren’t trying to corral it right away. They were playing tip-drill. Bounce it around, keep it out of Pitt’s hands, and get it outside where there was space.

Aside from the rebounding, Pitt just did a little more a little better than Villanova. Pitt shot a little better than Villanova overall. They got to the free throw line more than Nova. They turned the ball over less. They passed the ball better.

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Part of me wants to put this loss on some karmic payback for Nova douchebaggary and the whole stupidity over Pitt alumni in Philly having a pregame event and watching the game in a “Villanova bar.”

That, however, is unfair to the Pitt players and the effort they put forth to knock off the Wildcats 57-54. And thus endeth a distorted winning streak at one of two spots where Villanova plays home games

It wasn’t always there, but Pitt was the better team. More complete. More confident. More composed. Definitely more mature. It was one of those games where all those frustrating, hard to define, unquantifiable intangibles

And no one had more of it tonight than Nasir Robinson.

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