I wanna puke.

Jesus. We’re getting dominated on the offensive glass. Embarrassing. Then we pour some sugar on it with a turnover.

I give up on this team

I think they are taller than us at every position. We are refusing to box out which is allowing all the offensive rebounds. It is killing us.

This Is freakin Sick Man!!!!!

How does something like this game happen? Do they just not care? Okay, sure, they were egotistical and didn’t expect ETSU to give them trouble. Well, the first 10 minutes showed them they were wrong. WHY have they not adjusted?

Heart’s been pounding since about 12 minutes left

Agree on Dixon taking too many time outs. They actually score a few times down the floor and, whistle, TO by Dixon. The few times they’ve seemed to get some rhythm going, he calls TO and squelches it.

Speaking of Dixon, where is Jermaine? Doing nothing.

Carmen, he’s fouling.

JS, I’ve always wondered the same thing. Once they see the other team is not going to roll over, why can’t they up the intensity??

Biggs is getting manhandled….inside

Can we make free throws?

Pitt goes to 4 corners runs nothing then commits an isidious stupid foul!~

thank you, gibbs

So selfish Levance, why does Dixon let him take that shot!!! SELFISH!!!

Ann: Because we are who they thought we were. A team that doesn’t take people seriously because we reached #1, so we must be the best ever. If losing to WEST VIRGINIA didn’t piss us off enough, then what will?

What a stupid fucking possession by Fields. Hold and jack!

Dave, only if we take Blair out

We may survive….

I may just have to pledge my undying love for Gibbs.

The good news is that OK State may be so overconfident after this that we can sneak up on them….going out and run a mile….haven;t run a mile in 3 years…too much stress!

Hoopies are going to lose. Way to screw up my bracket.

That is now, officially, my least favorite Pitt win of all time.

Can ETSU stick around to run the OKSt scout team for Pitt?

W…sloppy, until late…but it still counts as a W!

Hail to PITT!
-al-

“Survive and advance.”
Kudos to ETSU, but we better get our head out of our ass. I’d like to get some revenge on OSU for 2004.
WVU losing to Dayton.

So 1 seeds move to 99-0. It may not be possible for them to lose. If this effort by Pitt wasn’t able to result in a loss, I’m not convinced a 16 CAN beat a 1.

I have to say first of all I love what Coach Dixon does almost all of the time. That being said, he needs to have the guts to make a statement. Bench Sam Young at some point! I know he’s done a lot for the team. But, the truth of the matter is if Sam isn’t the star of the show, he loses interest. Even if they lose it seems like he could care less. I don’t think he boxed out once. Pitt gave up 19 offensive boards or more against an UNDERSIZED TEAM. Thank gosh for Blair being a rebound machine or Pitt may not have got a board today. DeJuan Blair wants a national championship. Ashton Gibbs wants a national championship (he was a savior today). The others I’m not so sure about. No effort on defense, no boxing out, that team was heads and shoulders tougher than Pitt. I usually am a very positive poster on this site, but the lack of interest by players today was completely dishearting. Jamie needs to make a statement and he should have earlier in the year. If someone is going to pout and not box or play D, they can sit. Those that want a championship can try to get it. I would have loved to see Nasir Robinson hustling around. Hell, I would’ve been more happy to see Pitt’s subs go out and hustle like crazy than watch the garbage that was out there today.

99-0

WVU goes down in a flameing heap. Thank god we survived to play another day. Well play better against OKST. To many turnovers, we cant seem to handle the press. Killin us big time. Where was BIGGS all day. Jamie took him out and didnt put him back in. Bad shots no rebounding for Biggs.

didn’t see most of game–how was it close=–poor shooting from ETSU from 3pt line, Free throws, overall, and Pitt dominating the glass? That being said–this was the best #16 seed anyone faced–they did win 23 games–and were almost identical to Pitt in stats (per preview), but in a different league.
Pitt shot well from free throw line–that was key.

Ive said it before and Im going to say it again. Their philosophy on how to handle a full court press would make an elementary school coach cringe. More fundamental mistakes than I thought possible. I cant believe the coaching staff cannot teach and instruct this team better. Although from this teams body motion and lack of emotion, I doubt they would listen anyway. Just watch these guys WALK and I mean SLOWLY off the court when a timeout is called or when they are taken out of the game. It reeks of ATTITUDE problems!

Luckily this is basketball and not football, so style points mean absolutely nothing. This win means exactly what UConn’s blowout does, we move to the next round and get a fresh start. We can’t play worse, that’s the good news…

Not impressed. Blair and Gibbs shined but this team looks ill when someone presses them, and not the fresh type of ill either. Hopefully we play scared now like there is a train after us.

West Virginia blew it. Dayton is always tough but the ‘Neers just messed up the Big East’s perfect record. Shame on me for thinking WVU would get hot and win a few games.

OKST is going to be a tough game. I have no clue what Pitt team will show up on Sunday.

If the Pitt team that showed up today shows up on Sunday, we lose by 15.

In the first half we couldn’t pull away because of an abundance of dumb turnovers (something we’re actually known for doing the extreme opposite of).

In the 2nd half we couldn’t pull away because we were inexplicably outrebounded (once again, something we’re known for doing the extreme opposite of).

Also, the three point shooting hasn’t been so hot the last two games and there was some sloppy shots and shot selection.

They looked kind of normal again in the last couple of minutes I guess. So maybe they just needed to get their heads out of their asses.

But if Fields is hurting bad, and that’s why we were off today and not just a flukey “bad day” (which I also blamed the WVU loss on), then I really don’t see us doing much from here on out.

Fineus actually I wish it was football, maybe if some of these guys got lit up once they’d decide to hit back. Probably not based on what we saw today. They’d just get smacked and lay down to take a beating if their last name wasn’t Blair or Gibbs.

<>

Ontario, my screen say that Sam got 13 rebounds, went 4 for 4 behind the arc and scored 14 points. I couldn’t watch the game so I can’t form a judgment on how well he played. In your opinion, would Sam’s replacement have made a greater contribution?

Whenever a team talks about not looking ahead, they’re looking ahead…

I hope they brought extra uniforms with them because they wont be able to get the steaming pile of crap out of these ones.

Typical Pitt NCAA performance. Everyone completely craps their pants and looks like they never played basketball before. Luckily, DeJuan Blair is on the team and someone finally stepped up for Pitt in an NCAA game – granted it was not the Sweet 16, it was an opening round against a 16 seed that shot about 10% from the field.

Maybe a team that looks like it has played basketball will play the next round because if this same team shows up they might as well call it at halftime.

At least Dixon, Wanamaker & Biggs will be fresh next game.

File this post in the Wishful Thinking drawer.

Didn’t Ohio State come back from being way behind against a rinky dink team early on in the tournament before advancing to the championship game against Forida a few years ago?

Pitt was a tight tense and nervous team today. That led to a lot of bad turnovers and quick poor shots. Young took only 3 shots in the first half and did indeed looked lost when he wasn’t shooting.

The scariest thing was that ETSU was NOT playing some crazy, amazing, over-their-head game.

At least not shooting wise.

They couldn’t hit shots, and they couldn’t hit free throws.

We didn’t even get their best shot (pun kind of intended).

Watch out when we play an actual GOOD team that presses.

BigGuy,

I wouldn’t call them totally rinky dink, but I believe they were losing by a lot to Xavier I think and wound up having to beat them on something crazy like a 3 pointer by Greg Oden (that can’t be right… but that’s who I swear I remember making it)!!!!

That Ohio State team, however, did NOT win a championship, but they didn’t wind up being too bad.

We at least learned one thing: Blair can beat an entire, lower-level D1 team by himself.

BigGuy, OSU came back from down 20 to beat Tennessee by 1. It was the Sweet 16 and Tennessee was a 5-seed, so… not really a rinky dink team.

Ok, I knew that couldn’t be right so I looked it up.

It was 1 Ohio State vs 9 Xavier in the 2nd round of the 07 tourney. Some jobber named Ron Lewis hit a 3 at the end of regulation to send it to overtime. I have no idea why for some reason I remembered Greg Oden making a miracle three in that game, I need to lay off the booze.

Anyways, OSU wound up winning it in overtime by like 7 or 8.

Ohio State wound up losing to Florida in the finals that year.

People in Columbus must really hate Gainesville.

Oh, the Xavier game… yeah, that went into OT due to a 3 by Ron Lewis (not Greg Oden), but OSU was only down by 11 at the most, and, again, a 9-seed isn’t exactly rinky dink

Jimbo Covert’s my dad, JS. Thanks. You two are right, of course, is suggesting that Xavier was a respectable team.

I may have to get a new computer.I typed the word “in” in my last post, but the computer changed “in” to “is”. Maybe there is a glitch in the software.

Just got back to my hotel in Dayton. needed an immediate drink. WTF, OMG that was horrible to sit thru. Blair saved our bacon today. One of the issues was not getting the ball to Sam more, especially in the 2nd half. If ETSU was a good shooting team we would all be heading home. The thought of playing the 5 guard pressing OSU team has me worried. Hope we just keep going inside to Blair and play good defense. Seemed like Gil Brown turned the ball over 5-6 times himself.

Wait, OSU was down by 20 to the Vols in that same tournament?

I forgot about that one.

They really lived on the edge that year.

Big Guy. I know Sam scored 14, but the way he carried himself on the floor was a hinderance to this team. Hell, I would have rather had almost anyone aside from bringing Cassin Diggs back from last year in there. The only reason Young got rebounds was that someone had to get them, the other team missed like 52 shots. He didn’t have one single offensive board. He was lazy, loafing, and pouting unless the ball was in his hands. I love this team and how they play. But not today. Almost everyone I have spoke with about this game was amazed at how “lazy” “selfish” “not into the game” Sam Young was. On Gibbs big three at the end to give a little bit of a lead, which was an emotional point, Young put his head down and walked back up the court. I know some guys don’t show much emotion, but his emotions showed he didn’t give a crap. And that no emotion is BS, because against UCONN he was screaming after every basket he made. If only he cared when his teammates did something good.

Ontario, interesting observations.

Ontario – i didn’t think young played bad enough to be benched. he dove for a few balls and 13 rebounds. i don’t think he shows his emotions and maybe you’re reading too much into that

Young played fine on the offensive end of the floor. I don’t know about benching him, but his performance on defense and on the glass (i know he had double digit boards) was lackluster. Several possessions in a row late in the second half he either failed to box his man or let his man slip between him and the ball for an easy attempt. He’s a tremendous player, but he’s gotta be more of a force of the defensive end of the floor.

That is my problem, everyone says he doesn’t show emotion. But the fact is in games he goes crazy when he scores sometimes. Never once have I seen him do it for a teammate. Are you telling me you thought he hustled today drk? Because I thought it was pretty bad that the emotional leaders on the team today were clearly a freshman (Gibbs) and a sophmore (Blair). This is on a team with three senior starters and one junior. That being said I hope it was a case of playing down to competition.

i have to admit you guys are swaying me. young’s defense has been next to terrible the last couple of games (maybe more but that’s all i remember). ontario, you do bring up a good point about his celebrations on his big dunks or threes. i’ve never seen him do the same for a teammate. watching the game though, i didn’t think that young wasn’t hustling. it just didn’t register but that doesn’t mean you’re not right.

I’m not saying he can’t turn it on and I’m hoping he does. There has been several times this year when I have been upset watching him play like this and then he explodes the next game. The believe Pitt has one of the absolutely most talented teams in the country. I hope they can put it together, the seniors step up and this team plays like its capable of. I’m not sure there is a team that can stop them when they do. But, they tend to only play that way when they play the best teams in the country and I hope they don’t slip up before reaching another elite team.

What kind of homo are you OLett? Go watch the Soaps. Basketball has a lot, lot, lot, less to do with feelings, facial expressions, and body language. The reason that game was competitive was that Pitt turning the ball over 18 times and gave up a sick amount of O-boards.

Sam Young’s facial expressions didn’t impact the other division 1 basketball players on his team’s ability to rebound and take care of the ball. This kind of psycho-babble nonsense is what women and people who have never played basketball and/or don’t understand what’s going on want to talk about because they don’t know any better.

I’ll take it a step further. Let me ask you this:

If you had to quantify it, how many points did the faces Sam Young was making cost them this game? And who did his body language most impact?

Are there players who are more likely to play poorly when Young doesn’t cheer for them? If so, who is most impacted and how much worse does his lack of overt cheering make them?

Also, how is a player whose own performance this dependent on Sam Young’s cheerleading capable of playing in enviroments with hostile crowds?