Beating West Virginia in Morgantown: Woodall Explodes, Huggins' Bar Tab Goes Over $100
by oaklandzoo12 on Jan 30, 2012 10:00 PM EST
in Pitt Basketball
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PrintSo, didn't see that one coming. But, regardless, I'm ecstatic that Pitt knocked off the West Virginia Hillbillies Mountaineers in Morgantown, 72-66. It was their third win in four games at the Coliseum. Jamie Dixon now is 5-4 all-time in Morgantown and has the most wins by a Pitt coach in that building.
Tray Woodall tonight - wow. Guy just went off against WVU as he was 8-12, including 3-5 from three-point range, and scored 24 points (one shy of a career high). Nasir Robinson also had a solid showing and has now made 13 consecutive shots dating back to the Georgetown game. He scored nine points on 4-4 shooting. Ashton Gibbs also had a good showing on the stat sheet, scoring 15 points on 4-8 shooting and he went 7-9 from the line.
Dante Taylor, though, probably made the key play of the game. With under two minutes remaining, Robinson was driving towards the basket when he lost control of the ball and blindly flung the ball towards the free throw line. Dante scooped up the ball and made a lay-up to keep Pitt's lead at six, and from there Pitt won the game from the line (something you won't hear a lot). The Panthers shot an uncharacteristic 21-26 from the charity stripe.
Defensively, Pitt started out struggling as WVU raced out to a 17-9 lead. But the Panthers clamped down defensively and held the Mountaineers to 40% shooting and 21% from three-point range. Pitt in particular did a great job shutting down Kevin Jones. Jones, while he scored 21 points, but that was manageable. Their defensive effort made up for the fact that they were out-rebounded 32-28.
The bench still needs to work on scoring. Pitt only had 13 points from their reserves on 5-13 shooting and there continued to be a lot of inconsistency there. Also, I get that Pitt plays a physical style of basketball, but the number of fouls has to go down. The Panthers had 22 fouls in just an ugly, ugly game.
Speaking of ugly play, Lamar Patterson just looked uncomfortable all game. He only had six points on 1-9 shooting and appeared out of place defensively, which led to bad fouls. He needs to get back to how he played against Georgetown for Pitt to move forward. At the very least, he needs to be a solid contributor on offense and not commit dumb fouls on defense or allow easy buckets.
At the end of the day, though, it was a great win and Pitt now has six days off before they host cross-state rival Villanova on Sunday.
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Great win
Your right Patterson was totally off his game, easily his worst of the year. But we persevered. This is a totally different team with Woodall in the lineup and we can beat anyone now. Looking at the schedule it’s definitely possible to go 10-8, or 9-9 in big east regular season, win 2 or 3 games in the big east tourney and get a march madness seed. Maybe this is the year we sneek in the big boy tourney and get hot and go far. Obviously high seeds haven’t worked In the past.
Ps. Screw the mountain queers
age of last winning season: 5
by Bobby Hill on Jan 30, 2012 11:10 PM EST via mobile reply actions
For Pitt to get in
And believe me, they have ALOT of work to do, they can’t lose anymore, or at the very least they can lose one either @ Louisville or @ UConn. Then, they can’t be a one and done in the BET and whoever they play must either be a NCAA lock or on the bubble.
Pitt’s schedule is favorable though. Their next few games are all very winnable (home vs. Nova, @ a reeling Seton Hall, @ a not as good as their record indicates South Florida). Then is the second part of the Backyard Brawl and USF at home. Win all those (which Pitt has to do to be on the bubble) and Pitt is 8-7 and 19-9.
The ending stretch of @ Louisville, St. John’s, @ UConn is the key stretch. If Pitt can win 2 of those 3, their chances greatly improve heading into the BET.
Cardiac Hill contributor
by oaklandzoo12 on Jan 31, 2012 12:24 AM EST up reply actions
CH. I hope that you are accurate. I,m headed to NYC on the 7th and plan on going to the Pitt /St John’s game the 8th at MSG. My daughter betrayed me by going to St Johns (senior) over Pitt & UVA …and it’s costing me a bundle. I have not been swayed by these recent victories. If Georgetown and /or WVU would have thrown on the press we would have easily lost. You can bet that we will be seeing the press more in the future as no one at Pitt seems to think it relevent to coach against. Cheers.
Unfortunately
Pitt/St. John’s is at the Pete. Unless you’re talking about the Big East tourney.
I think it’s safe to say that these past two games are legit. We knew that Tray was a big part of the team, I just don’t think anyone realized how much. The thing with the press though is that it can’t just be something you draw up. It has to be coached, and it has to be coached right because it’s very easy to give up a quick bucket if the opposing team breaks it. Most coaches don’t normally like to employ it all the time because it means playing defense for the full length of the floor instead of just half the court. It can be very draining on a team if the bench isn’t deep enough. I’ve always been surprised that more teams aren’t willing to use it a little more against us considering how often we seem to struggle against it, but I really feel it’s for these reasons.
Cardiac Hill contributor
by oaklandzoo12 on Jan 31, 2012 8:49 AM EST up reply actions
Thanks for the input on the schedule…point forgotten is to not believe wife and how much money she is not saving me…so no Pitt on my NYC trip but a tamed Bearcat game…humm must look at Harkness…he is a growing beast for Pitt to contend with later. This guy is awesome and Pitt should be warry. Thanks every one for contributing.
Pitt can get to the dance
The key magic number is that they need to go 6-2 in their final 8 games in BE play. This will put them at 9-9 in BE and 20-12 with quality wins over G-Town, WVU and at-least one more quality win (WVU, Ville or UCONN). Remember, they added three more teams to the tourny last year, so the magic number is now 9-9 in BE play, not 10-8 like it used to be. Also, Pitt would have been without Woodall for that 8 game losing streak, and the selection committee will strongly consider this. It will be difficult to do this, but the good thing is that as you said CH, the schedule does suit up well for Pitt to go 6-2.
In order for all of this to happen though, I think the key is actually the interior game with Zanna and Taylor. It’s essential in college basketball that you have a balanced inside-outside attack on offense. Between the two of them, they need to have 15 points and 12 rebounds on every given night. Zanna had a great game against G-Town, and Taylor against WVU. This interior presence will also free up Woodall and Gibbs and the outside which is obviously the strength of Pitt’s play.
Tournament
Have thought about this a lot since the WVU win and here’s how I see it.
Pitt needs to go 6-2 and win one in the Big East Tournament to be assured a shot. That gets them to 21 wins. Or, I think Pitt could go 7-1 and lose the first game of the BET and still get in.
21 wins is just too much to ignore and the team is so much better with a healthy Woodall that it’s not even funny – that will be taken into consideration. The other factor is how the team has played in its final ten games and under either scenario above, they’d either be 7-3 or 8-2.
21 wins is, to me, the drop off point.
Most years, I think 20 would do it, but the one thing that really hurts this year is the lack of a truly great win. And not only that, but the team doesn’t have many quality wins. UConn and Louisville are left, but the Huskies aren’t even ranked right now and the Cardinals are near the bottom. Beating those teams on the road would be admirable, but not spectacular. If those two teams keep struggling and aren’t ranked, Pitt will only have one over a ranked team – a Georgetown team that, by the way, has a lot of tough games left themselves and could slide a bit.
The lack of quality wins really hurts and might be the difference if the team only gets to 20 wins.
Manager of Cardiac Hill - SB Nation's Pitt Panthers blog
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Starting to agree with you
At first, if Pitt went 6-2, I thought Pitt would be in regardless of how they do in the BE tourny. But ya, given the fact that Pitt would only have one win over a ranked opponent, I am starting to get your argument there. You also have to consider that they have bad losses to LBS, Wagner, DePaul and Rutgers in there. In short, Pitt’s RPI would probably not be great with only 20 wins and a win in the BE tourny would then be essential. But then again, the wild-card comes up: Pitt was without Woodall for that 8 game stretch, and the committee does put those things into strong consideration. My hunch is that Pitt would get in with 20 wins, but it would be extremely close and really come down to how many at-large bids there are (we would need as many teams ahead of us to win their conference as possible). It would be better to just get that 21st win.
(For the record, I completely agree with Jay Bilas and Digger Phelps: I think we need to cut the number of tourny teams down to 32 and go to a double elimination format like baseball, as much as I would love to see Pitt get to the dance).
I have to admit, following Pitt right now is extremely exciting. In past years, the NCAA tourny was just a lock, but there is a sense of desperation right now: just trying to make the tournament. Each game in February will really mean something now.
Bad losses
Yeah, those are going to hurt and something I thought of, but forgot to mention.
In the end, if Pitt gets to 21 wins and doesn’t get in, I think they’ll have an argument. But anything less than that, hard to argue about the committee keeping them out. Pitt could have avoided this mess by beating DePaul when they were up by four with under 20 seconds left and by beating Wagner. Those two wins would really have Pitt in much better shape.
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