Pit Panther Prowl

Ever since the Pitt-Georgetown game, I can’t get over how unimpressed I am with Roy Hibbert. Coming in to the game, I expected that DeJuan Blair would do well against Hibbert. Hibbert, who is 7’2”, is so thin that I didn’t particularly expect him to be able to bang on the blocks with Blair. What I didn’t expect was that Blair, a freshman, would make Hibbert look like he was the freshman.

All of us as Pitt fans suffered through the Aaron Gray years, wondering why a guy who is 7’ tall didn’t seem to want to dominate the game. How many times did we watch Gray get the ball at the elbow and not even look at the hoop? For some reason, Gray never acquired the “I’m 7’ tall and no one can stop me” mentality. He seemed tentative and sometimes lost. Like he is in a set of noise cancelling pair of the best headphones.   Like he’s zoned out in his earbuds.

This is the same way that Roy Hibbert plays. It seems as if shooting is what he does when he doesn’t know what else to do. I just don’t understand how you could have a seven footer on your team, especially in a league as physical as the Big East, and he could be taking a 3-point shot to beat UConn instead of having a play designed for him to smash the ball down someone’s throat to go to overtime. Better yet, if he had the killer instinct to take the ball to the hole, Georgetown wouldn’t have ever needed him to shoot a 3 point shot with no time on the clock.

Compare Roy Hibbert’s 7’ [finesse] game to that of 6’7” DeJuan Blair. Blair gives up 7 inches to Hibbert, yet he never shied away from going straight at him. When Blair gets the ball, unlike Hibbert and Gray, Blair’s first instinct is to see if there is an open shot. Sure, there are times when he takes a bad shot. But as a freshman, I am glad that he already has the instinct to try to take over the game on the inside. With more experience, he will get better at taking good shots and passing when there isn’t one available.

Blair’s killer instinct is especially noticeable in games against big opponents. He seems to play his best when he is needed to play his best. For example, over a 5 game stretch where the toughest team Pitt played was Duquesne, Blair never scored more than 11 points, only breaking double digits twice. On the other hand, he scored 16 points against Washington, 20 against Oklahoma St., 15 against Duke 15 against Georgetown, and 12 against Villanova coupled with 15 rebounds. He just seems to understand that big games call for a big man. And unlike Gray in the past, and Hibbert at Georgetown, Blair is more than willing to be the big man.

The best part about Blair for those of us who love watching him play is that he doesn’t seem to have an NBA type game for his size. If he is going to play in the NBA, he is going to need to develop more range and ball handling ability, because, at 6’7”, he isn’t going to be playing center. I don’t want it to sound like I don’t want Blair to make the NBA, and I certainly think that he will end up there. But what I celebrate is that he isn’t like the other freshmen in the NCAA this year that are just looking for someone to showcase their talents so they can sign with an agent as soon as they play their final game of the season. I celebrate because I love watching Blair, and I look forward to at least three, if not four years of him making people like Roy Hibbert, a supposed All American, look like rookies.

I don’t know what it is, but all too often in conference play, after a big win, Pitt has a big let-down game. Tonight’s game against Rutgers proved to be no different. What isn’t surprising is that Pitt had a let-down against a team with only 1 Big East win so far this season. What IS surprising is that this loss came at the Pete, where Pitt has been virtually unbeatable. Even more surprising is that it came on the night celebrating Pitt’s 100th game at the Pete.

This loss makes their 100 game record since the opening of the Peterson Events Center 91-9.

91-9.

How can you be 91-8 at home, and lose to the worst team in the conference? Well, there are two ways. First, lose your point guard to injury. The injury to Levance Fields isn’t an excuse. The 5 starters on the floor for Pitt are better than the 5 starters on the floor for Rutgers, with or without Fields. And Pitt has played very well in his absence. But just like in the Cincinnati game, the problem wasn’t talent on the floor. It was the lack of a true dribbler; a true creator off the dribble who could spread out the defense a little bit and force things to happen that aren’t just being handed to them by the defense.

Second, Pitt seems to play to the caliber of their opponents at times. It is sad, but, at times, they seem to just not play hard as if the opponent they are playing isn’t enough of a threat to bother breaking a sweat against. This is particularly true of Sam Young. Young is a monster whom I love to watch. But sometimes he just saunters across the floor like there is no urgency. You can’t turn intensity on and off in an instant. You have to start the game with it. You have to maintain it. You have to treat every opponent like they are standing between you and a national championship.

Given their lack of point guard and their willingness to play down to poor competition, Pitt has taken what looked like a final four team after the Duke win, and become a team that could just as easily make the final four or not make the NCAA tournament. It would be a shame if Pitt missed the tournament; it would also be a shame if they continued beating good teams and then losing to the bad ones.

I give Rutgers credit. They played good defense, especially in the second half. They shot 53.7% from the floor while holding Pitt to a mere 38.6%. They out-rebounded Pitt by 3, with 27 of those rebounds coming in the second half. Rutgers has something to play for. Nobody wants to be the basement dwellers. Nobody wants to be the doormat. And having lost 8 straight times to Pitt, they certainly had a chip on their shoulder big enough to want to win this one.  Maybe next time they can just go on a site like ebay and buy some wins.   Auction them off or something.

But in the end, Pitt had everything they needed to win. They were, and are the better team. If they played 10 times, Pitt would probably win 8 or 9 of them. Pitt has two of the best players in the Big East with DeJuan Blair and Sam Young. Yet somehow they managed another big let-down game. We can only hope that this trend ends soon. Pitt is getting to the meat of their schedule really soon here. In the next 5 games, 4 of them are against Villanova, UConn, WVU, and Marquette. The other is against Providence, who isn’t going to just roll over and play dead. Pitt can’t afford losses to Rutgers and Cincinnati when they still have these other teams on their schedule. It’s time to regroup, man up, and start playing like the team that beat Georgetown by 9 two weeks ago.
Update (1/28/08 12:15 AM): Check out this article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, written 27 hours after my article, but assessing the play of Sam Young against Rutgers and the dangers of Pitt’s upcoming schedule in the exact same way as I had.

Welcome everyone to the inaugural post on my new site dedicated 100% to Pitt Panthers’ basketball and football. Let me start by telling you a little about myself.

I currently live in southwest Kansas, and I am surrounded by Jayhawk fans. But I was born and raised in the greatest city in the world: Pittsburgh, PA. I can remember as a child in the 80s attending the Pitt-Penn St. football games with my father, brother, and uncles. I can remember when the football team was good, before they were bad, before they were good again. I even remember when Jerome Lane told us all that he was leaving Pitt a year early to enter the NBA draft because his grandmother was ill and needed the money.

I attended the University of Pittsburgh from 1996-2000. During that time I was lucky enough to get to go to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis and to get to be around for the era of Antonio Bryant, Kevan Barlow, and after I graduated, Larry Fitzgerald. The Ben Howland era was just beginning as I was graduating, but I am proud that I got to be there for Pitt’s NIT loss to Mississippi St. the year before they made their first NCAA appearance in what seemed like forever.

The end of the Ben Howland era was a sad day for me. But the dawn of an even greater age is upon us. The Jamie Dixon era is far greater, far more exciting. Jamie Dixon has made even the “down” years of Pitt basketball something to be excited about. And Jamie Dixon never gives me the feeling that he has one foot out the door as he waits for something bigger and better to come his way.

So why did I decide to create my own Pitt sports site? Quite simple, really. After moving to Kansas, all I ever hear about is the Big 12. KU this, OU that. Well you can take the Panther out of Pitt, but you can’t take Pitt out of the Panther. There is no way I was going to give in and forsake my roots to become a Jayhawk. So I started this site so that I could talk Pitt sports all I want and whenever I want. This is my outlet to get out all I need to say about those mighty Panthers. This is my place to talk about that thrilling 13-9 win over WVU without having people immediately change the subject to the Big 12. This is where I get to bleed blue and gold (or mustard, or off mustard, or spicy brown mustard; depending on which year and if our uniforms have been changed again!!).

So I hope that you will bookmark this page and visit it often. If things go as planned, I should have new updates after each game at the minimum. However, I am new to web design, so it may take me a little while to get things down just perfectly.

Thanks for coming to my site. And LET’S GO PITT!! LET’S GO PITT!! P-E-N-N-S-T SUCKS!!

Entering Week 10 college football game was eight remaining undefeated teams, Texas, Alabama, Penn State, Texas, Tech, Utah, Boise State, Ball State and Tulsa. Penn State was 9-0, Boise State and Tulsa were 7-0 and the other 5 were 8-0.

Everyone knew to pay attention either Texas or Texas Tech would suffer his first loss when they played between other in the Texas Tech Few knew how vulnerable Utah, Boise State, Ball State and Tulsa were to suffer their first defeat.

The AP Top 25 Poll Texas as first, second, Alabama, the third of Penn State, Texas Tech sixth tenth of Utah, Boise State 11, Ball State 18 Tulsa 19.

Jeff Sagarin Football Ratings Standings Calendar and not attracting much attention from the 65 representatives from the national press every week votes cast to determine the AP Top 25 Poll. Experts not speak or write about Sagarin so often, but there is much to learn to pay attention to statistical analysis by Sagarin.

For example, there is a world of difference between Texas and Tulsa. After the 10th week of play, Texas deserves to be first in the AP poll with an 8-0 record and a Sagarin strength of Schedule (SOS) 18. In short keywords, ranking eighteenth of Texas Longhorns SOS have played an equivalent schedule in front of a Top 25 team every week.

19th place Tulsa in the AP poll with a 7-0 record and a number 131st SOS is not deserved. The 131st ranked Golden Hurricane SOS media have played an equivalent time to face a Division 1-AA team every week. Only there are 119 teams in the division one-A.

It can be argued with some credibility that there are 82 U.S. teams could beat Tulsa Tulsa, because it lost 30-23 Saturday (11/01/1908) Arkansas, a team that was 3-5 in the bottom of the standings in the SEC West, and was also qualified Sagarin 83rd.

The point is that there is no way on earth God’s green that Tulsa is the 19th best team in the country. It’s great that the Golden Hurricane and the City Tulsa 7-0 had a good run, having started the season against some poor 1-A competition. Tulsa real record is 8-0, but everyone ignores his victory at Central Arkansas, which is not even a Division 1-A or 1-AA school, but a Division II school. Good heavens, what next, the local team high school?

Ball State 8-0 mark and ranked 18th instead of AP is nothing to write home to mom about either. The Cardinals have a 116th SOS ranking which in turn means that they have played an equivalent of a 1-AA each week. They have gained against many weak teams.

Boise State is not much better place AP SOS ranking of 11 and 110 classification. There is no way Boise State is the best team in the 11 in the country, even though the Broncos clinched a 2-5 New Mexico State Team 49-0 Saturday. At least the Broncos have a quality win over Oregon on the way, which is more than Tulsa and Ball State I can say.

When Tulsa, State the ball of Boise and the state began to win every week the idea was to run the table (undefeated) and sneak into a BCS bowl game for a great national recognition and a check Payment of fat. There is nothing wrong with their intentions. They simply can not do and, incidentally, there is no way Boise State is the 11th best team in the country.

Texas Tech is sixth in the AP and has a range of 91 SOS. Red Raiders give credit, down only welcomed and No. 1 Texas 39-33. You can bet on the classification of SOS will rise from game No. 1 team ranking. Entering the game, Texas had a SOS ranking of 18, the best among the undefeated teams.

For the record, Alabama had a SOS ranking of 49, Penn State and Utah was 63 94. Alabama excluded from Arkansas and Utah State 35-0 Saturday 4-5 barely got a team of New Mexico 13-10 that shows how weak the Utah Utes in reality and are 10th in the AP poll, which is ridiculous. ” Utah still must face TCU and BYU.

Penn State and Ball State were idle this week.

The reality is that four of the eight unbeaten teams in Texas, Alabama, Penn State and Texas Tech-deserve to be classified in the AP and the other four-Utah, Boise State, the Ball State and Tulsa, or do not deserve to be in the Top 25 rated AA or should be considerably lower.

About the Author

Read my other detailed, knowledgeable, interesting articles on college football, including:
“Tulsa the 19th Best Team in Nation? You Must Be Kidding and Here Is Why”
“4 AP Top 25 Teams Have Some Proving to Do—Missouri, Texas Tech, South Florida and Kansas”
“Meet the Illinois Fighting Illini – The Most Overrated Team in the AP’s Top 25 Poll”