GTOPG: The Penguins Won 4-1; Pitt Did Not

By Finesse

No big recap from last night, other than to emphasize how good Chris Kunitz is.  Kunitz for MVP.

Went to the Pitt game.  Embarrassing performance all around.  Nasir Robinson just turned the ball over three times while you were reading this.

GTOPG: Well, That Sucked. Pitt Loses 71-70

By Finesse

We've seen this movie before.

When so much goes so wrong in such a short period of time, it's hard to digest what happened.  We could sit here on our couches watching Cliffhanger and drinking Odwalla Superfood and bang out 1,000 words on any number of topics, including:

a) Nasir Robinson's historically stupid foul with 0.8 seconds left 90-feet from the basket;
b) Pitt's failure to get a shot off with 9-seconds to play and a 1-point lead;
c) Yet another super-easy basket against at the end of a game;
d) Gary McGhee's new nickname, "Net Negative";
e) Jamie Dixon's deer-in-the-headlights coaching in the final minutes of tight games; or
f) Whatever super-glue/clay hybrid formula that was holding Dixon's hair back ...

...but, we have a heart at GTOG.  Pitt's players know they screwed up.  Here's Robinson, after the game:

"I take the blame," Robinson said. "I take the blame for this loss. I made a dumb play. I apologize to my teammates and the fans."

Apology accepted.  Robinson is a good player.  No need to pour salt on the wound.

The key takeaway from this game is a bigger picture problem plaguing the Pitt program and it was exemplified in the failure to get a shot off with 8 seconds left.  You don't need NBA talent at guard to execute a last second play -- witness Butler's hot-knife-through-butter basket with 2 seconds left -- but it sure would help.  Pitt plays in a big city with beautiful facilities in the most consistently competitive and high-profile conference in the country.  But they can't recruit a quick, confident guard who can shake loose late to get a shot off?

The reason Pitt is successful is that they have all the right pieces - toughness, athleticism, shooting, quickness, passing, etc. -- but the problem is that those skills are scattered around 8 different guys.  Woodall the quick one.  Brown the athletic one.  Gibbs the shooter.

But where is the one guy who can do all of that at once, or at least most of it?  I'm not asking for Kemba Walker.  I'm just asking for someone who can get the ball to the rim late in the game and maybe stop the opposing team's guard from getting into the lane.  You can blame Dixon for whatever play it was that he drew up, but the larger question we need to ask is where is the guy who can make a play when everything else breaks down?

Ron Cook coherently summed up what happened last night, assigning the blame to the players, not Dixon.  We agree, but with one important caveat.  They're Dixon's players.

GTOPG: Basketball Game Breaks Out During Whistle Blowing Contest; Pitt Wins 74-51

By Finesse

I had the distinct fortune of being present at Pitt's victory yesterday over UNC-Asheville, and while I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to attend, it doesn't change the fact that it was one of the most poorly played games I've ever seen in person.  Add on top of that the determination by the officials to get both teams in the double-bonus as soon as possible, and this game was a true test of fan endurance.

Despite being up by only 5 points at half time, it never felt like Pitt was truly in danger of losing, if only because UNC Asheville was so bad.  Pitt won by 23 points, but this game was no blowout.  Pitt got the early second half lead into the 8-11 point range, but never could get the score that would have started the blowout until much later in the half.  And the man to credit for finally getting it done is Ashton Gibbs, because if not for his deadly 3-point shooting, this would have been down to the wire.  Some other quick thoughts:

- As we wrote last time about Gibbs, he can't jump.  He can shoot, and he can pass, but just watch him shoot - he barely gets off the ground.

Great hop shooter.

- It's easy to criticize Gary McGhee, so before I take the bait I'll compliment him for playing hard.  But really, the decision early to run the offense through McGhee is like the Pens running their power-play through Mike Rupp.  You root for the guy, but it's just not going to work.

- Brad Wanamaker was a hugely disappointing no-show yesterday and my friend and I were debating from the peanut gallery during the second half whether Wanamaker was even sweating.  For a senior playing in what could have been his last game, he was beyond passive to the point of appearing disinterested.

- On the positive side, GTOG likes Gibbs and we like Nasir Robinson.  They are both slow and undersized for their position, but they seem to have some capacity to score.  Robinson finishes at the basket and Gibbs, when open, is as good of a shooter as their is.

- Another guy we like, who apparently is somewhat polarizing in Panther-Nation, is Travon Woodall.  He is no Gibbs when it comes to shooting, but he can break a press with his dribble and, more importantly, he can set Gibbs up for open 3's.  Against a team like Asheville where Pitt would definitely have a size advantage, we advocate playing Woodall and Gibbs together.  If it means less Gilbert Brown ball-handling, then that's another reason to do it.

- As I reflected on the ugliness of the game with my father - a Pitt season ticket holder - he did not try to calm me or talk me down.  With resignation, he simply texted, "I saw 18 just like it!"

- Finally, while no one is feeling great about the way Pitt is playing right now, they nonetheless are one win over Butler from yet another Sweet 16.  Can't complain too much about that.  So before anyone jumps on us for being too negative about a team that won the Big East regular season title and earned a #1 seed, we remain cautiously optimistic.  Go Pitt.

He may be gone, but his spirit lives on.

GTOPG: Cleaning up the skid marks; Pitt Loses 76-74

By Finesse

If you tuned in to ESPN's coverage of Pitt's Big East Tournament opener against UConn this afternoon -- and with the amount of publicity ESPN annually puts behind this thing, you couldn't miss it -- you had the pleasure of experiencing the good and the bad of college basketball.  Unless you are Gary McGhee.  Then, it was just the bad.

For those who watched the game, you can come to your own conclusions about the performance of Pitt's big men today, but at this blog, because we have hearts, we will not completely demolish Mr. McGhee as no one could have expected him to be able to stick with Kemba Walker on UConn's final possession -- one is a top flight NBA prospect, and the other is still having his skid marks cleaned off the MSG floor.

(pic will be replaced when the one of McGhee on floor is available)

We don't want to be reactionary here, as we haven't had the pleasure of watching the majority of Pitt's games this season.  But what stood out today, and what has stood out for most of the Howland/Dixon era, is Pitt's lack of a thoroughbred, top-flight, sure-fire NBA prospect. Yes, Ashton Gibbs went for a career-high 27 points today.  But isn't that the problem...that 27 points is his career high?  More on him later, but you can't help leaving this game with the takeaway that this year just might be more of the same for Pitt - a phenomenal regular season built largely on cliches about being a "team" followed up with post-season disappointment because of the lack of a true stud to make a heroic play when it is called for, whether it's a rebound (wouldn't that have been nice with 18 seconds left?) or a buzzer-beater.  We aren't giving up all hope yet, because Pitt does have the horses to make a long run in this year's relatively weak tournament field.  All we're saying is that we won't be surprised if they don't.

More thoughts on the game and Pitt's NCCA hopes after the jump
- Just the other day, a stranger approached me on the street and asked, "Do you know where I could watch 12 straight hours of masturbatory montages of net-less rims scattered across Manhattan's five boroughs?"  I can only hope he found a TV for today.

- I was prepared to write very complimentary things about Nasir Robinson, but it was his man who got the offensive rebound for UConn with 18 seconds left and if you watch the replay, Robinson could have, and should have, boxed him out.  That's the type of play that this Pitt team absolutely has to make.  Once UConn got that rebound and could run out the clock before taking the last shot, this thing was in the bag.

- Much was made of the terrible officiating, or "non-officiating," at the end of yesterday's Rutgers v. St. John's game and there is no doubt that the refs blew the call.  But what is even more appalling about Big East officials - and remember, we are not a blog that complains about bad calls - is the theatrics with which they officiate the games.  No one is paying to go to MSG to watch a 62-year-old man high-step for 15 feet before dramatically pointing left or right to signal which team the ball went out of bounds off of.  Well, except for Jim Burr, one of the culprits of yesterday's disaster, who fired himself from the rest of the Big East Tournament but nevertheless showed up at today's game.  I wonder if he ordered two sandwiches by pointing both of his thumbs up in the air like the jump-ball signal and then gyrating through a series of embarrassing histrionics.

Didn't have enough flair when not blowing whistle

- Ashton Gibbs is a deadly jump shooter, but the glaring weakness in his game is that he either cannot or will not attack the rim.  He seems reasonably quick on the dribble, although certainly not NBA-level quick, but he never goes all the way to the basket.

- Pitt was outrebounded in this game 27-24, which normally wouldn't be considered a huge margin, but is alarming given that Pitt was something like 2nd in the NCAA in rebounding margin (+11, not looking it up).  Here's my theory: Pitt is well-coached and lives up to the cliches about being hard-working in every game, even the most meaningless ones.  Throughout the season, that translates into rebounding advantages even if your big men are Gary McGhee and Dante Taylor.  But, when you get in a one-and-done scenario against a team with superior athletes that is also highly motivated because of the possibility of being eliminated, it's no surprise that the advantage disappears. 

- Pitt plays below the rim.  So do the Sparxx and the Mystics.

- Here are two text messages I received about the game:

     1) "Gilbert Brown equals turnover every time"
     2) "Gary mghee is the worst thing to ever happen to pittsburgh"

- Finally, this heartbreaking loss will suddenly not be so heartbreaking if Pitt can do the one thing that it hasn't been able to do in a long time: make the Final Four.  In fact, they haven't made the Final Four since 1941, when it was also named the Second Round.  The big question -- Can they?

If you thought that Pitt could make the Final Four before this game, then nothing that happened today should change your mind.  Pitt lost to a very talented team on a neutral floor on a last second shot by one of the best players in the country.  No shame in that.  But if you were skeptical about Pitt before this game, then today reinforces a lot of your concerns.  In no particular order, those concerns might be: bad rebounding in big spots, minimal interior scoring, terrible body language when things start to go wrong, Gilbert Brown's hands, history, the tendency to foul too much, and lack of a true #1 guy who, like Kemba Walker, can create space for himself in the closing seconds.  I know Gibbs is great, but what I don't know is whether he can touch rim.

So it's another unsatisfying exit from the Big East Tournament and, more importantly, another trip to the NCAA Tournament with that familiar feeling of impending disappointment.  We've been burned before, but this time, we are still holding out hope. 

Do it.

GTOPG: Pitt Loses; GTOG Didn't Go; But GTOG Watched

By Finesse

With an ominous tone, the announcers wondered how Pitt's loss to St. John's would affect Pitt's chances of getting a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.  I think their answer was "it doesn't help," which is obvious, but probably overstates the impact of this loss.  Losing on the road to St. John's by one point is not a bad loss.  It drops Pitt's Big East record to 12-2, which still leaves them with a 2-game lead over second place Notre Dame, and drops the overall record to 24-3.  Bottom line: a #1 seed is still completely within Pitt's reach and this loss probably won't do much to diminish those hopes.

What hurts Pitt's chances at a #1 seed more than this loss is Gary McGhee's inability to catch bounce passes.  Also an issue is Pitt's inability to stop the ball on last second full court drives by the opponent to win the game.  I believe that lesson was covered by Scottie Reynolds two years ago, but apparently Pitt wasn't paying enough attention.

But we shouldn't harp on the minor negatives just because of this loss.  The most impressive thing about Pitt is that they just seem to be a physically stronger and more mature team than their opponents (excluding the terrible rebounding job in the final minute).  Today does nothing to diminish that fact, nor should it curb any enthusiasm for what we hope will be an extended tournament run.