Pitt Panther Prowl

Big East Champs, Baby!!

Let me start by saying I was wrong. In my post “Thoughts as we near the end of the regular season“, I suggested that Pitt was a long shot for a Big East Championship and that they would likely win 1 game in the BET and 1 game in the NCAA tournament. I admit I was wrong. This team showed just how good they really are. I am glad I was wrong. This Tournament Title is so sweet. I am so proud of these guys.

I am not going to cover the negatives of the game because I don’t want to diminish the heart and the effort of a team that played 4 games in 4 nights and beat 3 ranked teams in a row.

Sam Young had another 16 points. There is no doubt that he is BET MVP. According to my calculations (the didn’t say anything after about the 5 minute mark of the second half) Young finished 2 points shy of Ben Gordon’s all-time scoring mark for the BET. That is pretty impressive, but I wish he could have broken the record. Much to Young’s credit, he could have made it happen but he put the team first. In the waning minute he received the ball on an inbound and would have certainly been fouled. Instead of waiting for the foul to pad his own stats, he passed to an open Gilbert Brown to make sure he didn’t turn the ball over and to eat a bit of clock. I thought that was pretty classy.

Pitt out-rebounded G’Town 39-25 and dominated the offensive glass grabbing 18 offensive boards to G’Towns 5.

Gilbert Brown showed us a lot tonight, netting 12 points and 3 offensive rebounds. He is going to be a monster player for Pitt.

All the close calls in this game went G’Town’s way. It was tough to watch at times though it never seemed to impact Pitt’s game.

Before the game, all the analysts picked G’Town to win, which isn’t surprising. But when Jay Bilas picked G’Town, his reason was because “they are winners.” Well, they may be winners, Jay, but they are 0-2 against Pitt this season.

So let’s look at Pitt’s resume. 5-4 against ranked opponents, with three of those losses coming as Pitt was trying to work Levance Fields back into the offense after missing two months with a broken foot. The fourth loss was to then ranked Villanova, and it was the first conference game (second overall) that Ronald Ramon was running the point. Of the 5 wins, 3 came against top 10 teams. It is really hard to argue with the fact that Pitt is playing some amazing basketball right now. Cincinnati gave them a tougher game than any of the three ranked teams they beat the last three days. Nobody wants to have to play Pitt in the NCAAs. But what will their seed be? The fact that Pitt dominated almost the entire game makes me think Pitt is a solid 5 seed now. It is possible that they get a 6 seed and I wouldn’t feel bad if they did. If they get a 7 seed something is wrong. I have heard a few people asking for a 4 seed based on the injury situation in the middle of the schedule and how they came together again with Fields back. I don’t think a 4 seed is even a possibility, but I honestly don’t think they deserve one and would say there is about 0.0002% chance that it would happen.

I am going to bask in this win for a while. On top of wanting Pitt to win, I hate Georgetown. I hate Roy Hibbert. I hate the entire Thompson family. This is a sweet championship.

This is the kind of win that will help Pitt reach the next level in recruiting and confidence. Making 7 of 8 title games is impressive. But for Dixon to finally get that championship game win under his belt is important. Now if they can win a few in the NCAA’s they will be set.

Congratulations guys. Hail to Pitt!!