Ya it was terrible man no doubt about it just wrote about it in my own thread. Not much Pitt can do about it now though. Still plenty of basketball left to be played and a lot to play for leading up to the tournament in March. Pitt needs to forget about this one and move on and get ready for St John's Sunday and hopefully bounce back and get a win which I believe they will find a way to do at the Garden at Noon on Sunday...
In one game - and a home game at that - Pitt went from Big East Contender to dangerously close to not getting a BE Tourney bye. Right now, Pitt is in 7th place at 8-6 (even Uconn is ahead by a few percentage points at 7-5). But St John's, Villanova and Cincinnati are all 7-6. And the Panthers play St John's next at their gym. Then they also play Villanova.
This game was no measure of what Pitt is capable of ..... or is it? The Panthers are a little bit of an up and down team. If one or two guys stand out each game, that's alot! Tonight, nobody really took charge .... nobody had an excellent game. When they really come out to play, they are unstoppable (Georgetown, Syracuse and that spanking of DePaul). But they have nights like tonight, too, where it almost looks like they found 5 decent ballpayers off the street that never played together before and said give this a try.....
I was sure this game was in the bag at 13 minutes into the contest. Ahead 19-3! And I know that's only one third of the game. But that's when a team with a good killer instinct says, "When they're down ... kick 'em". That's when you grab them by the throat and don't let go. That's what I want for this team more than anything .... the desire to win only.
Notre Dame emphatically controlled the boards 36-22, so they controlled the game.
On a positive note .... how about that Steve Adams steal, sprint, and lay-in! Please help that boy develop a little inside game. I think it's there .... it's just not unleashed!
Go Pitt! Bounce back with a win against the Johnnies!
Don't forget they got revenge in Cincinnati also. And beat Villanova pretty handily at their place. Not sure I ever saw a game like that, especially at the Pete? No question about it, it's a very bad loss. It puts them farther down the seedings. They will have to do something BIG in the Big East Tourney, not to mention win the next 4 games, to move up in the brackets. This was the 1 loss they could ill afford. And how about some 3-pointers? Did the Panthers take any at all? Last I heard they didn't!
Right now bracketology on CBS has Pitt as a 6 seed playing Lasalle in the bracket where Gonzaga is the 1 seed and Arizona is the 2 seed and New Mexico is the 3 seed. I would take that in a second and run with it should that be where Pitt gets seeded and who ends up being in their bracket. That loss did hurt last night no question and Pitt has some work to do to get better, but it's not the end of the world or a season killer for Pitt. There is still time for Pitt to finish strong and win at least 3 of these last 4 games in the regular season if not all 4 of them and improve their seeding going into the NCCA Tournament.
My biggest Disappointment this season: Trey Zigler
He was a leading scorer last season in the conference he played in. But this season:
Gets Arrested for Drunkness Can't shoot from the outside Can't make FTs Can't play Defense
He is wasting a roster spot. In fact, Pitt would be best served with Durand Johnson or Cam Wright playing his minutes.
The other problem is that if Lamar Patterson has an off night, the team does not play well. I think that we are seeing that the other teams are shutting him down and thus shutting down the Pitt offense in the process.
99- From past posts I know other may disagree, but I gotta agree with you on Ziegler. There's nothing there! I'm not sure about the observation on Patterson .... he's been a high scorer in some losses and a low scorer in some victories. I do agree he has every potential to be a primary offensive weapon because he can be explosive. Just a little bit inconsistent from game to game.
Doo-Da, I meant Patterson being shut offensively in more ways than scoring. If he can't score or create then the Pitt offensive flow falls on Woodall. If both are being shut down then nothing is there. Ziegler is terrible. If your primary game is to beat folks off of the dribble, then why are you a 51% FT shooter? You are going to get fouled in the Big East and if you get fouled and can't make FTs then you are hurting the team.
