Great Pitt Game
March 21st, 2008 | by The Prowler |
The Pitt-Oral Roberts game was everything that a Pitt fan (and nothing that an Oral Roberts fan) could want. ORU was in the game for about 5 minutes. They were actually up 13-10. Then Pitt went on an 18-0 run and slammed the door on any idea that there might be a first round upset. Pitt looked focused, intense, and ready to beat anyone in their path. Unfortunately for ORU, they were in Pitt’s path. And so ended another Cinderella dream.
All of the Pitt starters except DeJuan Blair scored in double figures. Blair had 8 points and 10 rebounds. Gil Brown game off the bench for another 12 points. Sam Young and Blair ended up with 4 fouls each and had to sit some time on the bench. But Pitt wasn’t winning with Blair and Young. The game was dominated by Levance Fields and Brown. Pitt was at its best when both were on the floor and Fields was feeding Brown. In fact, Fields had 4 assists to Brown that were either alley-oops or passes that led straight to dunks.
Ronald Ramon also looked really good. He finished with 10 points on 4-9 shooting and added 3 rebounds and an assist.
This game was really about two things, though. First of all, it was about Pitt playing such good defense that ORU was throwing up shots that couldn’t be made on a regulation 10′ hoop. Pitt held ORU to 34.9% shooting on the night. Part of this was because Pitt just didn’t give them the chance to get good looks. Part was because ORU was down so they had to keep jacking up threes, whether they were good looks or not. The field goal percentage would have been lower, but it was clear early in the second half that Jamie Dixon was trying to keep from embarrassing this team, so he called the dogs off early.
I thought it was classy that Dixon didn’t try to beat this team by 40 because I think Pitt would have if they tried. All they did was tried to keep it around 20, which they did.
The second thing this game was about was Fields going crazy. He finished with 23 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds. No matter what Fields did, it just seemed like he could do no wrong. Throw up a three, drive the lane, throw an alley-oop; if Fields tried it, it worked. That is great news because sound point guard play is going to prove vital to any serious tourney run.
Early in the second half, the refs refused to pull out the whistle against ORU. It was as if they felt bad for them or something. It was the reason Blair and Young got in foul trouble. It also led to what should have been the ejection of an ORU player, but was instead just a two shot foul. Fields took a pass from Young on a fast break and was grabbed from behind around his neck and whipped (literally flipped over) to the ground and thrown out of bounds. It was so bad that everyone in the arena stood up and gasped. And on the replay it looked even worse. And there was no intentional foul call at all. During the next whistle, Fields gave an earful to the referees and the game got called evenly after that.
The highlight of the day for me and my brother, though, was when we chanted for Dixon to put in Maurice Polen and he did. Polen didn’t get the chance to throw up any shots, but he got to grab the final rebound of the day as Pitt closed out the game.
It was a great game and a good atmosphere. As would be expected, there were more Oral Roberts and Michigan St. fans than Pitt fans. But Pitt had a good showing. We sat in a row with all Pitt fans and I found out that the people next to me are from McKees Rocks just like my family and he knows my family. It is a small world, but it is amazing how things like cheering for your team can make it just a little bit smaller.
I took some pictures and will try to get some posted later.
I will also get a preview of tomorrow’s game up… which I will also be in Denver for.
Let’s go Pitt!!!