2pm CBS.
I’m on DVR delay. Ironically enough for “Blue and Gold Day.” No, not a Pitt thing. Cub Scouts. I’m looking forward to it. Really. Why would anyone think otherwise? Just because I’ve spent the better part of the last week begging trying to talk my wife into going without me? Nah. Just wanted her to spend some quality time with the boy without me getting in the way. Totally altruistic.
Duke has almost everyone back after some injuries. Plus, sophomore Ted Cruz lookalike, Grayson Allen did not get suspended by the ACC for intentionally tripping an opposing player a second time in the last week.
It will be interesting (or terrifying, depending on your perspective) to see how Pitt comes out for this game after the Louisville loss. Pitt lost a close, winnable game at Miami and followed that up with a completely miserable effort against UNC. So, how do they come out for this one?
As I have been saying all season, Pitt has no chance if Jamel Artis and Mike Young aren’t showing up for this kind of game. Even then it will take at least a third player to step up for Pitt.
A win all but clinches things for Pitt in the NCAA Tournament. A loss hardly dooms them, but they have to beat both VT and GT on the road then. GT has looked competent in recent games and VT is a very different team at home. Neither would be gimmees.
James Robinson will be the primary honoree before the game for senior day. I guess the three graduate transfers will at least receive participation awards.
H2P
great to see the PETE Lit again!!, fun game to watch
They did it with Mike Young only playing 17 minutes. Jamie stayed with Luther and Jeter going down the stretch because they were getting the job done. Improved play from Luther, Jones and Maia has this team looking better. Artis with the most clutch shots, but everyone had at least one.
Really great to hear the Pete roar, there were a good contingent of Duke fans, luckily we didn’t hear from them that often.
Don’t want to hear about Duke being tired and hurting. That is what most teams experience this time of year, that don’t have one and dones.
Need to not let down with two to go on the road.
HTP!
Duke wasn’t as big as they looked in warm-ups and their big guy (Plumlee) was held to ZERO points, by Young, Maia, Jeter and Luther. WOW!
—When Sheldon Jeter made that 3-pointer, I knew Pitt was going to win. You like Jeter from the foul line in, but he should not be shooting from 3. (BTW, the 3-ball he made today made him 4 for 19 on the season and 2 for 11 in conference play, the lowest percentages on the team…)
—If I were an official, I would call a Tech on Jamie every time he’s out on the floor – to me, what Jamie does is just ridiculous. Maybe Pitt needs to shorten that media table and give Jamie more room on the sideline.
—How ’bout Luther and Jeter coming off the bench and shooting 9 for 13 between them. Yikes.
—Seems to me that when Jamel Artis is cookin’, this team is pretty good.
Go Pitt.
link to theacc.com
Oh and DeJuan Blair was here.
link to newsobserver.com
Great win. Take care of business in the next two and roll into the post season with some big Mo.
The biggest game is on 3/2. We need to beat a good team, but one we should beat.
Someone mentioned that there wer a lot of Duke supporters in the stands. You could actually hear that a bit during the first half, but it died off in the second half after the 15 minute mark.
The doubters were not only upitt although he fell on the sword. He didn’t have to. We have not played an exciting brand of bball all year and this was our first big win. Timing was great. This was not slog ball. It was physical ball and Pitt was not soft mentally or physically. When they play soft, they lose. We should be excited about the potential of the team, but cautious about their immaturity. A coach earns his stripes preparing them for the next two contests. Physical or fizzical! Don’t fizz out, out phys!
Hey btw did you see Pitt won? Apparently Vegas trumped what you saw on paper … let me guess … Instead of celebrating a victory you’re annoyed and will retort with do it in March?
2-2 lifetime against Coach K. Not too shabby.
No predictions of future results or performances. I’m just happy to see a big win at the right time.
H2P!!!
H2P!!
Comment by TVax 02.28.16 @ 9:28 am
Hey Pantherman, ever hear of reverse psychology?
Plan is to threaten to bet a million on every game in the big tournament….final four here we come!!!!!!!
H2P!!! and glad for JR’s senior day. If I recall correctly, the last several years of senior days did not end well for Pitt.
Not me! I was just responding to the 4:13 comment that talked about us in the Final 4. That would be great but unfortunately I don’t see it happening.
Pittman4ever
Its been so hard being a Pitt fan, but today it was glorious.
Crowd and particularly the Zoo were outstanding. Hope the FB recruits and especially the Pine Richland QB had a great time. If we could just figure out how to bring that to the FB home games.!!!
I saved myself a couple of hundred thousand, maybe a million, so if I get together with any Blather group in the future, I can take care of at least one round….and still help pay for SOME of my 3 kid’s educations. HAHA.
I really don’t wager often, this one was intentionally reverse psych which for me hasn’t often worked out either.
I’m just glad this seems to have cemented a bid. One CBI championship in my lifetime is enough.
H2P!!! Mona should be proud. Now let’s get on a little roll and then surprise someone and at least get to the second weekend. I will keep my reverse psych weapon ready to use again then.
Great game. Love the way they came in and played after a disappointing self-inflicted defeat against the Ville. But, if you can’t get it up for a great game on Senior Day against a ranked opponent on national TV, then you will never go far.
Congratulations!
H2P!!!
Eventually they need to move to international rules so basketball is a uniform game up and down the ranks.
But back to my point of slog ball … chew on this (and yes I know its’ efficiency):
Ken Pomeroy ?@kenpomeroy 18h18 hours ago
Pitt has never had an offense outside the top 50 under Dixon. Five times his defense has been outside the top 50.
By the way, let me state the obvious: Having one more really strong player on this team, Ryan Luther, has really added a lot to the team as a whole.
Slog ball is not applicable to this team. In fact we could have used a good bit of slog ball mentality in some of our losses.
What an awesome win yesterday, very alleviating. The defense was outstanding! Lots of hands in the lane when Duke was driving. Even if we get half of that going forward we can be very dangerous. I’ve definitely thought most of this team’s problems were mental.
And while I admit it is probably a good term to use in-the-moment when Pitt is struggling to make their pass-heavy/use the clock offense work, I have never understood its use as a blanket statement as a Pitt bball putdown. Frankly (and I m not even a Pittsburgh native!) I have felt that Pitt bball in all its slogballness is classic Pittsburgh..low scoring, tough defense, disciplined offense. And (see Virgina 2015) slogball can still work. Not sure if can work all the way to the championship….but hey, I think when you get to the final 8 or 4, talent tends to rule the day and Pitt or VA have not had a ton of elite talent.
While it was a great game yesterday, it was only one game, when everything went right, yes down to the referees.
Jamie would never admit it, but we just shot the ball better than Duke. He will always focus on defense and rebounding, which were great, but what made it a route was that we made our shots and they didn’t.
The early great start got everyone into the Zone. The other positive was that we answered every run that they made with a better one.
Unfortunately, I don’t buy Jamie’s pitch that we are getting better at the right time. I think we had a really great game, played extremely hard and shot better for a full game than we have all year.
I will be just as uncertain about the outcome of the next game as I have been for every ACC game this year (except Boston College).
But for now, basking in the glory.
If Pitt beat UCONN 50-49 and was ranked #4 in the country, I was just fine with it.
Never pulled that card out the past couple years when we have not been as good as those 03-10 years.
The one thing I detest however, and does not seem to be happening as much this year or lately, is over and over again the past few years,
there were times where our offense seemed predicated to pass the ball around until 5 seconds were left on the shot clock, then sloppily have someone off balanced run half way to the rim and through up some crazy lob ball for the basket.
Now, I know that wasn’t our offense, either the players weren’t running it properly, the opponents defense effected our offense, lot’s of things,
but I did see it happen ad nauseum, and that’s what pissed me off.
..A little perspective…Yes Pitt has 8 losses but only one ‘bad’ loss..and a number of good wins besides Duke yesterday…Syracuse twice, ND at South Bend and even FSU on road is a good win.
There are teams that are projected as #1 seeds that have 6 losses right now…If you are top seed with that many losses they almost all have to be losses to lessor teams right// Heck the number 1 team in all of college hoops has 4 losses.
So yes not Dixon’s best team, but it’s not as far off pace from rest of college hoops that many on this board seem to think they are.
Ron Cook shows how little he watches college hoops with his comment today that Pitt has to win another game to get in tourney. I think he watches 4 college hoops games a year and they are Pitt games where he gets a free courtside seat and free meal. PG would be better off sending the Movie Critic to write an article.
They could be a team that in the dance, could easily win the first two and be in the Sweet 16.
If they focus and are pumped up and hitting on all cylinders.
I’m cringing thinking about VT and GT. Who is showing up?
I’m cheering for them to keep the momentum and take care of business. Win the last two, win a game or two in the ACC tourney and I’ll be pumped up for the big dance.
We’ll see shortly, we’re down to the nitty gritty.
JR’s scoring has also made a difference since his 6-19 performance.
Also wbb missing in action.
Playing your best ball going into the end of the season is ideal so hopefully we’ll have some carry over. I’d really like to see an ACC tourney run. I miss the pride Pitt had in the big east tourney.
If they split he last two I wouldn’t be too worried especially since NC State is a bad matchup for Pitt and two road games with ACC tourney right around the corner won’t be easy. But would really like to see them get to Friday or Saturday at ACC tourney.
@Dan.agree about focus and hot..though 30 other teams this year are saying the same thing…Pitt is going to have to get a little luck with their matchups in the tourney.
I also am dissapointed by the lack of exposure the team get Nationally or locally. They just beat Duke (Yes we know Duke was tired, tough part of schedule, etc.) the fact is they beat them and by a lot. Is the National Media hesitant backing Jamie b/c as soon as they do we lose to a team we shouldn’t? I have no idea but like the Steelers, when we won Super Bowls it is all about where and when you are peaking. Maybe finally we are peaking when we need to and that takes us deep in the tourney. I think Pitt wins the next 2 games but as a gambler there is always a let down after a big game. I think we beat VT but if spread is 8+ I may put money on VT just b/c a let down game. Pitt should win and then beat GT convincingly. I sure hope trusting Jamie pays off.
I do agree with UPitt that after an emotional game like that when everything went right, easy to let down on Wednesday. Will tell us a lot about whether we are truly getting better.
All of the football recruits at the Pete, had to have had a blast! The Oakland Zoo gave them a sense of what they can expect from our students once they bring a winning program to Heinz Field. When we start knocking off the Oklahoma St.s & penn states on our schedule, then just watch the enthusiasm build. Pittsburgh will support a winner. Consistent winning solves many problems.
Hail to PITT!
Also extremely entertaining to watch the many Duke clad in the crowd just sitting on their hands. Duke was never in the game. Their fans had come out expecting an easy win. Instead, the game was about as close as those pre-conference games that so many of you complain about because of the lack of competition. Maybe we should drop Duke from the schedule and replace them with . . .? Time for those Dukies to put those black and blue Duke b-ball shirts back in the closet – deep in the closet.
Finally, at the end of the game, the Pitt clothing shop was jammed with fans buying gear. Sweet.
Oakland Comet.
I will admit I was VERY wrong yesterday! VERY!
JR stepped up and Luther is proving he not only belongs but is becoming really good.
One thing I did get right was calling for both Jeter and Jones to start and play more minutes.
Jamie has been smart to start Maia and let him play physical and take the early fouls. Jeter takes more dumb fouls than anyone else, so smart not to start him.
I would say Luther has earned a start, but no more home games so it doesn’t really matter as long as he gets his minutes.
Really good to see Jamie willing to keep Young on the bench in favor of Luther and Jeter. They were getting the job done. Young a team player, and no pouting from him, he will be ready on Wednesday.
Luther is kind of a smack in the face to them I think…”(smack), hey, WAKE UP!”
You are correct…the timing of a team getting hot is a huge factor. Pitt’s confidence has to be incredible after the last two games. They know they can play with anyone.
Dixon is getting just enough bench play to keep guys fresh also.
The Noles humiliate the Irish. ..played 18 this am in 72 degree weather. ..and pitt finally showed up.