Not surprisingly, the fans really didn’t. They weren’t showing up as much by the end of the regular season. No real surprise when they don’t show for the 3d-tier post-season exhibition competition.
On the bright side, Pitt didn’t fail to show-up against Wofford. Unlike, say Arizona being at home against Bucknell. Especially since Bucknell was an 8 seed in a 32-team NIT field. Between the Arizona loss, and the pasting USF put on Cal last night (if you didn’t see the game, the final score was no where near indicative of how badly Cal was abused), it becomes an open question of whether Pitt would have made the NCAA Tournament if they played in the Pac-12. I’m thinking Providence could have had a shot. I mean, we are talking Big East football bad for Pac-12 basketball.
Pitt blew out the Terriers 81-63. There was some familiarity to it, as Pitt let Wofford make a run in the second half to get within single digits. Then Pitt reasserted themselves and pounded Wofford back into submission.
Pitt had a big night shooting from outside, as J.J. Moore’s jumper was falling. Moore finished with 32 16 points and hitting 4-6 on 3s. Woodall and Gibbs also dropped four 3s in the game.
Probably more surprising was Talib Zanna had an easy time inside grabbing 7 rebounds and 12 points (6-8). It was that kind of night for Zanna and the other guards that had Dixon saying after the game that he screwed up on not playing some of the other guys as much as he should have.
The Panthers were 14 of 25 from beyond the arc to tie the record for most 3-pointers in a game at Petersen Events Center. Because they shot so many long-range jumpers, Pitt went to the free-throw line only three times and made one.
“We need to get the ball inside more,” said coach Jamie Dixon, who stuck basically to the same substitution pattern he employed all season. “I probably should have played [Malcolm Gilbert] more and I need to get Cam [Wright] more minutes.”
That sounded almost Wannstedtian.
No one is claiming that Wofford was a particularly good team. They finished second in the SoCon — well behind Davidson — and their best win was at really bad Wake Forest.
Still, it was a win. You hope that the guys coming back use this — not even to “build on” — but as fuel and a reminder that it isn’t a large gap between being an NCAA team and ending up playing in front of less than 1500 at home.
Next game in the CBI is on Monday at the Pete. Princeton at 7pm.
Agree with TX, though, that we will see JJ get 32 in a game…maybe a few times.
12 points are not, I could care less if Zanna ever sees the floor much again. He doesn’t have much in the way of basketball IQ and, from what I can tell, little in the way of ball handling skills or a first step that is required of a solid PF. I don’t think 9 months from now he’ll be much different.
A side note — Sam Young was justr traded to the 76ers.
