Remember when Pitt won the Big East Tournament in 2008? Limping in and finishing 3-4 in the final seven games of the Big East regular season.
Four games in four days. Getting healthy. Getting confident. Consistent. Rising from middle of the pack in the Big East to winning the BET. Sam Young finally started playing consistently at a high level on both ends of the court. While it was something Pitt fans had been expecting for some time, it was a kind of coming out on the national stage for him. Other players found their place. It cemented that team as one that will always hold a special place in Pitt fans’ heart. Even if Pitt bowed out in the first weekend.
Or 2006 and Syracuse. Overshadowing Pitt’s almost as impressive run — only without one player dominating and pushing. Gerry McNamara carrying the Orange all the way to winning the BET. Something UConn’s latest victim, Syracuse could recognize — with requisite bitterness.
While it’s not quite the Gerry McNamara run of ’06, hats must go off to Kemba Walker (who passed Devo for the single-tourney scoring record). He’s got UConn in a position to set a new BET record for five-wins in one go. They certainly have the Team Destiny thing going for them, which is fine, since that makes it all the more likely they’ll run out of gas by next week (just like Gerry’s Orange did).
And almost as bad as losing — being merely a player in some other team’s or someone else’s story. That’s where things stand nationally. Pitt didn’t lose, so much as they were beat by a special player doing special things.
Well, everywhere except Pittsburgh. We can’t have that. This is the fault of Pitt. The players and the coach. Kemba Walker has been doing this stuff all year, but apparently those times were different. This is an indictment on Coach Jamie Dixon and this team as being chokers and destined for an early exit in March.
Did you know that no team has won a national championship after losing the first game of its conference tournament?
Do you care?
If you’re a Pitt fan and you have national title aspirations, you should.
Idle question. Does anyone think that Pitt losing to Villanova in the Elite Eight in 2009 was assured because Pitt lost their first game in the BET? Say it with me folks: correlation does not equal causation.
Or as Gary Parrish put it:
And though it’s a statement that’s 100 percent true, it’s also misleading because it fails to recognize that we’ve never had a league as large and strong as the Big East that requires a true national title contender to open its league tournament with a game against a team the caliber of Connecticut. Bottom line, there are plenty of reasons to think Pitt won’t win a national championship. But the fact that the Panthers lost to a nationally ranked UConn team on a ridiculous stepback jumper from an All-American on Thursday shouldn’t be among them.
I mean for god’s sake, there is just some ridiculous stuff out there. When Bob Smizik becomes a voice of reason, I get concerned.
You know what? Pitt has lost before. They have lost games that I can’t believe they lost. Too soon in the Tournament — whether Big East, NCAA or some non-con-made-for-TV event. Odds are, it will happen in the future as well. Why? Any number of reasons. A bad night, a good night for the opponent, officiating, free throw shooting, better coaching, brain farts, being overrated, opponent underrated. But the ultimate reason: these are one-off games being played by 18-22 year-olds and shit happens. Even worse, because no one ever wants to hear this: it happens everywhere else.
It has happened at Kansas more times than I can count. It has happened for most of the past decade at Duke. It has happened at UCLA, Texas, Florida. Syracuse, Georgetown, UConn, the list goes on forever. And if your counterpoint is, “well at least those teams have made the Final Four and/or won a National Championship.” So what? Do you think that would make it easier? That you would be mellower about it? Do you have that same zen-like sense of peace as a Steeler fan? Penguins? Maybe for a year at best. But it passes quickly.
We are fans. It never ends.
Last time I checked 27-5 is a very respectable record, would you rather those 5 losses be blowouts? Would you rather Pitt squeak by teams as opposed to winning comfortably as they have in most of their games?
Odds are this team isn’t going to the final four, they CAN make it but but there is a big difference between CAN and SHOULD and Ohio State is the only team in the field field that SHOULD make it.
As long as Jamie is the coach we will break through eventually and someday we can have those 15 seconds of zen Chas alluded to.
Well, you’re right. That was a well thought out column. The only thing that means to me is that Nuclear Bob’s next column will be bat-shit crazy.
They seem to run one step forward, two steps back.
Now here’s a loss: Just imagine an earthquake or 4 followed by a bunch of tsunamis hitting your neighborhood. And a possible nuclear melt 20 miles down the thruway.
Take a deep breath, enjoy the BE title, hope the team does well the next few weeks, cheer them on but don’t melt down if they don’t.
That’ll be my MO anyway.
___________________________
*This sentence includes both sarcasm and irony. Still, we are Pitt fans. Panic is us.
Unfortunately, that statement rings true regardless of who is holding the hammer – the fans who think it is not indicative of what happens next but also the fans who feel that this is an all too familiar occurrence of late.
What is disconcerting isn’t the fact that the public perception of PITT’s inability to compete and win in the post-season is being firmed up – it is that the BB program itself and the kids who play may be gaining an attitude that this is just the way it is at PITT.
The only remedy for this – and I’ll state the brutally obvious – is to go deeper in the NCAA then we have ever done before. But, until that happens articles like the ones you quote, and perceptions like the ones you reference, have more validity to them than you give them credit for.
Is it that big of a deal? Probably not. But if we lose the #1 it will at least generate some interesting conversation among bracketologists about how the Committee views late season performance.
His mentor (and Pitt grad), Marty Shottenheimer vastly improved every team he ever coach (look it up if you don’t believe me), but will aways be known as the coach never making it to the SB.
It’s the nature of the beast … while my appreciation/elation of Coach Dixon and his teams’ accomplishments far outweigh my post-season disappointments, I myself even pontificate why his teams always seem to peak too early.
Gibbs needs to draw the fouls when he gets the defender up it the air on attempted shots from beyond the arc and just inside. He is automatic at the line and for some reason he has abandoned that move.
Wannamaker needs to knock down a few long shots to keep the defense honest. Then he can drive past the defender and drop the 5 – 10 footer. He needs to make defensive rebounding a priority again.
McGhee has to just realize his limitations and just do what he is capable of. He needs revert back to taking only one step on the hedge and retreat. He cannot afford to take cheap fouls 25 feet from the basket. Keep from bringing the ball down and never, ever dribble. Be strong on put backs and knock down foul shots.
Taylor, like McGhee needs to hedge with discretion. He should front his man more and dare the opposition to go over the top instead of getting backed down. Be consistent on the offensive put backs again would be nice. If his knees permit, run the court in transition.
Woodall should quit with all the pounding of the ball. If there is no dribble drive just pass, but please quit forcing passes. His defense is becoming a liability with the cheap reach in fouls. A refocus on getting loose rebounds and balls would help.
Patterson should shot more often. He has a sweet stroke and plays should be run for him every now and then. Rebound.
Robinson has been the most consistent player in my mind. He did have a few bumps along the way but usually picks himself up pretty good. Finish more around the rim and continue to be a force on the defensive boards. Hopefully he won’t cost us at the foul line. Run the floor in transition and get some easy shoots.
Brown – what can you say? As Gil goes, unfortunately so goes the team. Just too many mistakes and lapses for a 5th year player. If he can get his game to 75 -80% of his capabilities this team should make a decent showing.
Dixon – he has done a great job and I hope he retires after a hall of fame career at Pitt. I’d like to see him change things up more often. He is becoming predictable. If I recall correctly early on in his career he wasn’t as much. JMHO
Bonus points if Woodall starts playing like he did mid-season…he’s been a little unnerved as of late. A Zanna comeback before the end of the tourney would be nice too.
Overall, Pitt has lost a couple of close games that really could have gone either way at the end. At some point they’ll need a little luck and have the ball bounce their way…hopefully they got the bad bounces out of the way.
Should be a fun tourney!
Overall record: 5-3
Away/Neutral Ct record: 2-3
Wins against currently ranked teams: 0
Sure the numbers are skewed a bit — Gibbs didn’t play in two of these games, but we won both (Nova, USF); WVU & Nova are on the cusp of the rankings, but they’re not ranked for a reason. There’s little we’ve done differently than we have all season — our stats the past month are pretty close to what they’ve been all season. This is who we are.
On the flip side: The loss to ND, now #4 in the nation, doesn’t look too bad. Our 3 losses in the past month all came against ranked teams, on the road… by a TOTAL of 6 points.
We’ll have a chance in every game, the rest will be luck. Which is about all any team in the country could ask for.
This is certainly true, however when is Pitt going to win a game like this with a special player doing special things. It’s time !
I believe there is no way Pitt does not get a 1 seed. The tournament committee is going to sit down and see that we won the best conference in the nation outright, 3 of our 5 losses came to ranked teams on last second shots, and the other 2 were still “quality” losses. We have seen in years past the committee go against Lundardi’s predictions regarding the #1 overall seed and our resume is going to count for something.
It is now on the team not to continue the streak of under achievement in the tournament and play consistant PITT basketball for 6 straight games.
Hail to Achievement, Hail to Jamie Dixon, Hail to PITT