Pitt Panther Prowl

Pitt-WVU, Brawl at the Pete

Despite the ravings of a mad-man in another post, there is never anything to be proud of if you are from West Virginia. My wife is from WV, and she is sitting next to me right now wearing a Pitt sweatshirt. She recognized that she was moving up socially, and welcomed it with open arms. She doesn’t even entertain the hallucination that our children will become hoopies, though they may technically be half hoopies now.

So tonight there is a big game. It is big for multiple reasons. Obviously it is big, as Mr. Big East told us, because it is the first installment of the basketball brawl. But it is big for more reasons than that. Pitt can’t afford another home loss, especially to its main rival. The close losses of late appear to be taking an emotional toll on the team, who has been making its frustration known. A loss in a game like tonight’s could provide further damage because the fans won’t respond well to Pitt losing to the hoopies at the Pete.

It is also a big game because Pitt needs to avoid the same kind of free fall that Villanova is in. Pitt only needs to bide its time until Levance Fields gets back to see a change. I don’t believe that Fields’ return will be like waving a magic wand, instantly healing all of Pitt’s ills. But there is no doubt that they need a point guard, and Fields is one of the best. As long as he is able to get back into game form relatively quickly, there is no reason to expect that he won’t make Pitt a better team. But while they wait for him to get back, they can’t afford to lose all their games. With games against Marquette, Notre Dame, Louisville, and Cincinnati (the same Cincinnati that beat Pitt by 3 not long ago) on the horizon, Pitt has to find ways to win its next two against WVU and Providence. They can’t lose to teams they should beat and then hope to pick up wins against teams that are currently better than them. In reality, Pitt needs to win its next two AND steal at least one against the next four. It would be a shame for this Pitt team, the same team that has beaten Duke and Georgetown, to fall below .500 in the conference.

Pitt is currently playing for more than survival. They are playing for seeding in the NCAA tournament. Right now they are in good shape with a 6-7 seed type resume. They don’t want to fall further, because if they fall to an 8 or 9 seed, they have to play a 1 seed in the second round of the tournament. This is a sweet 16 or elite 8 team with Fields in the lineup, but match-ups ultimately determine who has a shot to get how far. (For further analysis on Pitt’s seeding in the NCAA tournament, see my post “UConn loss good for Pitt?”)

And, of course, this game is important because it is the rivalry. Nobody wants to lose a rivalry game. The entire Pitt nation is still flying high after keeping the hoopies from the BCS championship game. While there is absolutely NOTHING that they can do, short of keeping Pitt out of a national championship game, in order to get revenge for that; it doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t relish every opportunity to beat us at anything. You can almost see hoopies foaming at the mouth as they try to prove that their crocheting club can make a better doily than ours. After all, hoopies have nothing to look foward to but marrying their cousins, losing their last tooth, learning the fine art of cooking roadkill cuisine, and beating Pitt at anything. It would be nice if Pitt could keep the momentum of the rivalry in our favor. If we can keep the momentum up, maybe a few more of their coaches will join the Michigan staff.

So what does Pitt need to do to win this game? They need to jump out early, and then not look back. They had nice leads on UConn and Rutgers, but they let up and let them back in the game. Pitt needs to play every possession like it needs this next basket to win the game, even if they are up by 15. They also need to control the boards. Between DeJuan Blair, Sam Young, and Tyrell Biggs, this shouldn’t be a problem. WVU doesn’t really use a big man inside. They shoot outside shots, and as the Cincinnati game showed us, they shoot it well. Since WVU is an outside shooting team, that should give Blair a good chance to pull down lots of rebounds. This is, after all, the same Blair who pulled down 20 rebounds against Duke, and averages just under 10 (9.6) per game on the season. Also, the fact that WVU doesn’t have a marquee big man should open up the inside offensively for Blair. For the best chance at success, Pitt should work the ball inside out, giving Blair the chance to exploit mismatches before throwing up longer range jumpers. Finally, Pitt will need to shoot better than 36% (UConn) from the floor. This can be done by working the ball inside for high percentage shots. It can also be done by trying to get Ronald Ramon open looks from the perimeter. Ramon needs to get involved early so that he has rhythm if they need him to knock some down later.

Pitt is the better team and they should win. But in the Big East, and in the Backyard Brawl, anything can happen any night. So Pitt needs to come prepared to play. And the Oakland Zoo needs to come ready to rock.

And in response to Mr. Big East posting his two favorite icons: WVU’s two BCS bowls from the last three years; We at Pitt have our own favorite things to look at.