The first 7-8 minutes of the game couldn’t have started much worse for Pitt. Down 17-2 and 19-4, Pitt was lost. Every writer paying attention to the game was preparing the “Pitt’s bad non-con schedule set them up for this debacle” piece. They weren’t prepared for their first real road game. They didn’t know how to handle playing a quality team. They were paper tigers.
…three newcomers made key contributions for the Panthers in their inaugural ACC game.
The trio combined for half of Pitt’s 26 first-half points, providing an offensive punch after Pitt fell behind by 15 points, and finished with 24 points.
“We weren’t playing that good, and they got out to a big run,” Pitt fifth-year senior Lamar Patterson said. “Our freshmen responded and we took it from there.”
Power forward Mike Young scored Pitt’s first points — and the Panthers’ only basket of the game’s first six minutes — and finished with 13 points and two rebounds. Backup forward Jamel Artis added six points and one rebound. Point guard Josh Newkirk, a Raleigh native, provided a spark off the bench, scoring five first-half points for a happy homecoming.
You know how it is for upperclassmen. Noon on a weekend. You can’t expect them to be awake yet. Nooners suck.
In theory, there might be a reason to tell a commit that if he is making the commitment, then he should not still be taking recruiting trips to other schools. This despite the fact that a verbal commitment is non-binding. One of those reasons might be a promise by the coach of the program not to recruit any more players at the same position. A show of good faith by both sides.
But when you are a program getting ready to leap from the Big East to the Big Ten. When you are a coach that has seen strained relations with your local recruits and some of the coaches in the area. You might want to be a little more flexible.
Rutgers head coach Kyle Flood is not that kind of flexible. It has cost him a few de-commits this year with his belief that recruits need to shut down visits even as he keeps recruiting others. Back in November, that cost him Adonis Jennings.
Pitt was the source of the rift then, as Jennings took an unofficial visit to Pitt for the Notre Dame-Pitt game. Pitt was the final beneficiary last night.
