Pitt-West Virginia: Get Ready for the Backyard Basketbrawl

I must apologize for the week delay in writing anything.  My wife and 6-month-old got sick last weekend, and promptly passed it to me and my 2-year-old a couple of days later. 

Here we are a week later and I still have sick kids, but at least my wife and I are no longer sick.  It is nice to have a week off of basketball so that I didn’t miss too much.

So last time I wrote, I talked about how Pitt needed to start off with a win against Louisville to get their difficult five-game stretch off on the right foot. 

Well, they got off to a great start for the first 30 minutes of the Louisville game before going ice cold and giving the game away.  Without rehashing a week-old game, I will just say that the Louisville loss came down to three things. 

Officiating was atrocious and terribly one-sided (and Pitt almost won in spite of it).  Pitt didn’t handle Louisville’s pressure well coming down the stretch.  And Pitt missed open shots that could have sealed the game.

But in the end, Pitt had to take a loss sooner or later, and the loss did come to a very solid Louisville team.  There is nothing to be ashamed about in losing at Freedom Hall.

Pitt did recover to dominate Syracuse in its bounceback game.  I have to admit to having been very concerned about that game.  It is hard to imagine the you could go from the No. 1 ranked team in the country to having a must win game in the matter of days. 

But if ever there were a must-win for this Pitt team, it was the Syracuse game.  Two straight losses against solid teams would have not only hurt Pitt’s image and the goodwill they have with the media; but it also would have made it hard to keep pace for the Big East regular season title.

Luckily, Pitt has owned Syracuse lately, with their only loss in their last seven meetins coming in the Big East Tournament Championship game in 2006. 

Pitt has done so well against Syracuse, that the 18-point win prompted Paul Harris to get so upset that he said he just can’t handle losing to Pitt another time.  Imagine how Jim Boeheim must feel.  He hasn’t had much success against Jamie Dixon.

What impressed me most about Pitt’s win over Syracuse was the calm coolness with which they dismantled a very talented team in the second half.  After having 10 turnovers in the first half, Pitt didn’t turn it over at all in the second. 

All of the starters made plays.  Sam Young came out of his slump to go 7-for-12 for 22 points.  DeJuan Blair was 9-for-14 with 20 points and 12 rebounds, and Levance Fields had 15 points on 7-for-11 shooting.

Biggs played well without forcing anything that Pitt didn’t need, which is ultimately his role on the team.  He needs to make plays when a play is needed, but not take bad shots or force the issue when Blair and Young are playing well. 

And Jermaine Dixon did a great job of basically shutting down Jonny Flynn, holding him to just 3-for-14 shooting.

So Pitt rebounded from their first loss very nicely, picking up their second win against a top-10 opponent, averaging those wins by 17 points per game.

But tomorrow is a new day with a new challenge.  Tomorrow, Pitt plays WVU, who is coming off of an embarrassing romp of Georgetown on Thursday, 75-58.  I will say this, I am glad that Pitt has a loss going into tomorrow’s game. 

The only revenge WVU can get for last year’s football win (not to mention wanting revenge for this year) would be to beat Pitt to cost them their No. 1 ranking, or to knock them out of the NCAA Tournament. 

Since we aren’t ranked No. 1 anymore, that is off the table, and now WVU doesn’t have that extra motivation for revenge.

Of course all that is minor compared to the game itself.  Whatever motivation a team or its fans has going into a game, once the game starts, both teams play their butts off to win. 

Pitt will come ready to play.  But if the same WVU team that beat Georgetown earlier in the week shows up tomorrow, it could be a long day.  The game is in Morgantown, so the crowd will be into it, and we know they hate us. 

Pitt has to come out early with good shooting, good ball protection, and most importantly, the strong defense and rebounding we are accustomed to seeing.  Against Georgetown, WVU was getting a lot of offensive rebounds and second chance points.

Blair and Biggs are generally good on the boards, and that can limit the scoring of the Mountaineers.  The last thing Pitt wants is to find themselves in a hole early in a hostile environment.

The good news is that Young had a great game against Syracuse and Blair has been increasing his scoring lately.  If Pitt plays Pitt basketball, they win easily.

If they let WVU hang around or dictate the game, they could struggle.  WVU has been somewhat bi-polar this season, so Pitt just needs to keep them from getting on one of their highs.

With their first loss out of the way, the target is off of Pitt’s back and they are free to just go out and play Pitt basketball.  When Pitt plays Pitt basketball for 40 minutes, they generally win.  Let’s hope we see Pitt basketball in Morgantown tomorrow.