7:30 game on ESPN2. The Red Raiders are coached by a coach who’s reputation at this point is stronger than any recent accomplishments. No, they did not rehire Bob Knight. It’s Tubby Smith. A coach with a national championship under his belt. A coach who was smart enough to flee Kentucky before they canned him, parlaying that into a huge deal with a desperate Minnesota.
After little of note, Tubby has moved on to Texas Tech. A place that had its own issues of desperation after the Billy Gillispie experiment became an even bigger trainwreck than expected.
Little is expected from the Red Raiders. They are off to a 4-1 start. They’ve handled their four patsy games and then got beaten up at Alabama.
Naturally Coach Jamie Dixon is focused on playing it up, by playing up the coach.
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said he has never faced a team coached by Smith, but he knows Smith’s reputation and expects Texas Tech to give the Panthers a stiff challenge.
“I anticipate them playing some zone, but we will prepare for everything,” Dixon said. “I never really played against one of Tubby Smith’s teams, but I’ve always heard to expect a lot of man-to-man defense, physical hard-nosed defense and unselfish play from his teams.
“And the times I have watched Texas Tech this year they have been a physical team with good size, good strength and some older guys. I think [he has put his stamp] on that program, the way they are playing hard-nosed defense and they seem to be sharing the ball and running his sets.”
And now that Pitt has made through the first four games with little problem, Coach Dixon gets to play up the opponents in the next two games by admitting this wasn’t the best possible competition faced.
Pitt will face Stanford or Houston in the final set of games Tuesday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
“We’re probably going to play bigger teams, more physical teams, than we played the first four games,” Dixon said of Texas Tech, Stanford and Houston posting a combined 13-2 record this season. “Texas Tech (is) a physical team, a tough team. We’re going to have to execute (better) in the halfcourt than we did the first four games. We’re going to need to do better in the halfcourt and get the ball inside.”
First game away from the Pete. I expect a bit of struggling with the shooting. At least early.
H2P!!!
11 points; 14 rebounds; 8 blocks; 3 assists
Can’t wait to see this team again.
H2P!!!
We’ll see tomorrow.
Utter BS they swtiched OUT of the game for Kentucky. I like got the innkeeper to put on EsPN2 and no Pitt game. He was like sure you have the right channel.
Anyway this game was over at halftime, 41-18.
Utter rout. Not many points from the bigs yet we still rout them. Lamar had a nice line, career high in points, 23 and steals, 5 with 4 boards.
Be nice to have a good team AND a 20 ppg scorer this year.
Bring on the Tree !
H2P !
VeV !
One Pitino is enough for me.
Pitt pushing the ball up the court……much more aggressive offensively. Like the new Pitt
Patterson looks like he has lost weight…..nice all around player.
Durand is my favorite player. Cam better than JJ
All college teams playing to formulate rotation and prepare for
conference play
Texas Tech coaching changes worst than Pitt FB
Beat Miami!
Who are these foul shooting Panther’s? Huge plus that Young appears to be solid at the line.
Has Patterson become the elite player we have hoped for? Looks very poised.
Solid guard play.
Newkirk looking better already.
Next game will tell us a lot.
BTW, current Vegas line, Pitt +2 1/2. Now Vegas has been pretty much on target with Pitt predictions all season. Less than a FG sounds REALLY good to me. Does Blewitt become the hero in the last game of the regular season?