It’s been a while since I’ve been to a basketball game. Even longer since I made it to a season finale. I’m excited. Big thanks to Jeff in CPa. for the invite. The liveblog today will be in the always capable hands of Luke. I’ll be tweeting in from the game. Win and the Big East title is Pitt’s without any sharing (though, I admit that I still want ND to lose to UConn in the earlier game — just to play it safe).
Pitt players have been saying they wish to avoid the slow start in games. Still working on that. Same with free throws. Some of that may have to do with seeing zones thrown at them recently. It has caught them off-guard even though they said they expect it.
The one thing I noticed during the first half of the USF game was not simply Pitt missing shots. It was the poor rebounding. The Bulls are actually good at rebounding. It’s one of their few strengths, but Pitt was just poor — especially on the offensive glass. Pitt only had 5 offensive rebounds despite the volume of missed shots.
McGhee, because of foul trouble, was only out there for 8 minutes. That’s part of it. But McGhee was also out of position in the first half when he was out there. He was jumping to try and get blocks and helping when he shouldn’t. It left him out of position to get rebounds on the defensive end. His effort in the second half was noticeably better — and what we’ve come to expect from him..
Luke Winn, in his power rankings, notes that Pitt is struggling in the offensive rebound department since Zanna went down. Considering Richardson’s a very undersized center, and only managed 1 rebound in 13 minutes, it’s a good point.
Then there is still the lack of confidence in or just simply not hitting 3s by Wanamaker. He’s not taking many, and he definitely is not hitting them.
Villanova is a desperate team. They’ve been a mess and while they have looked progressively worse, the fact that they can light it up from outside makes them a scary team. If that gets going, lots of things change in a game.
The liveblog is below and starts at 4pm on CBS. As always if you need to break it out from the site, Click Here.
That being said, I am very curious if Notre Dame would use the same strategy if the teams play again in NYC. ND’s offense has been playing at a very high level the past month or so, but they have not used the “burn” offense since the Pitt game. Would they stick with what has worked the past 3 meetings, or would they trust their newfound offensive efficiency?
The curious/interesting trend to note is that a Pitt player did not win Most Improved Player. Since 1999, a Pitt player has won MIP every other year, so historical evidence would indicate one of our guys gets it next year. Maybe Taylor, Zanna, Moore? I know its not automatic and my logic is flawed but i have a good feeling about this and that fact that if any of those guys takes a big step forward we’ll be really strong next year. (ok back to the present and the BE/NCAA tourny…)
If neither, Pitt still gets #1 seed.
there was a long lay off in the series very recently so the Pitt/ND game is never a given.
You could say until 2000 Pitt/PSu was a given and would never go away, but…
I think another good long term partner would be Nebraska as they travel well and their fans are very nice. Those were nice full stadiums.
Nas is crafty as all get out and brings great energy. But I do not want him on the floor in crunch time especially during the tourny — and neither it seems does Dixon, thankfully.