Is This Even News?

You know, because news has to fit into the category of something new? Another overachieving Pitt basketball team claws their way through the regular season (including some impressive wins over Big East powers) only to get dumped within the first three round. Yep, it happens all the time.

Last year's team was supposed to be the one who really changed the tune, but they managed to lose despite having the most talent for a Pitt B-ball team in the Howland/Dixon era. And now Pitt again loses to a team they should have beat in the first weekend of the Tourney (ahem, Bradley).

I'm sure there will be plenty of talk about how Pitt teams can only go so far without impact talent (fairly accurate) and also the limitations of the program that Ben Howland echoed right after he left (Pitt will never jump into the upper echelon of programs). But really, I don't need to reiterate all that garbage.

Yeah, it's a bummer, but considering Pitt gets pretty much everyone back from this year's team (Jermaine Dixon, I love your toughness/defense/rebounding, but you had clearly hit a wall in your shooting skills; unfortunately, just another ugly final performance from a senior), it's not the apocalypse. This season was most definitely a success; I really shouldn't have to go into why this is so.

But I'm just as excited for next year's team because of: a solid recruiting class, Tre Woodall becoming much wiser, Dante Taylor spending the entire summer watching tapes of this year and realizing he needs to get stronger and much much tougher... and then hopefully doing something about it, Gil Brown getting stronger which will make him even more dangerous going to the hoop, Ash Gibbs shaking off a tough second half of the season (and being in crazy shape for next season), and Wanny legitimately putting up a 16/7/6 average next season (I'm not kidding, he's been so much better than I could have ever imagined). Oh yeah, and Gary McGhee getting even scarier (if that's possible).

There's much to celebrate, let's not let this most recent loss tarnish an enormously successful season for Jamie Dixon's team.

I Finally Woke Up

I really wasn't all that into March Madness this year. I filled out a bracket but only for shits and gigs (it's been busted for quite sometime, now). I just wasn't all that excited like I have been in previous years. Maybe it's the fact that there were very few dominant teams and notable players this year. Maybe I felt like after Pitt won those three huge away games early in the season, that was the highlight of the season, and nothing could top it.

But I finally got a chance to just vedge out today, do nothing, and watch some basketball. Two teams have me completely enthralled. St. Mary's (made up of a few Aussies and an Irish-Egyptian dominating big guy) and Northern Iowa (they run their offense to perfection, have a 7-foot white-guy who only shoots fade-away jumpers, some dude with muttonchops named O'Rear, and a sharpshooter named Ali Farokhmanesh... who is also white). It was fun seeing St. Mary's send 'Nova home (two days in the making because BoMo got the shaft), and it looks like Kansas might come back (with a little help from the refs) against NIU, but the point is simple; I will never doubt March Madness again. There's too much character to be ignored.

Plus, Bill Raftery is the T's.

So that was pretty easy...

Who would have thought the Pirates would have handled the Red Sox so easily?

But seriously, great performance by the Panthers in their win over Oakland today. It was really the best way for the game to unravel; close game in the first ten minutes but mostly because of tough defense and bad offense, which will lead to Pitt wearing the opponent down and dominating the rest of the game.

There was this guy next to me and my sister at the bar who was losing it in the first ten minutes, complaining about how he, "can't watch Pitt, they're so terrible on offense." And every time Pitt wouldn't score on a possession, he would lose his shit and draw attention to himself; almost like he was taking pleasure in seeing Pitt not score. Thank God he didn't stick around to see that Pitt scored almost 90 points, because I was close to pulling a Jeff Tabaka on the dude.

Either way, I could barely watch the second half it was so boring, and instead had my eyes on SoCon champs Wofford while they blew a game they should have won against Wisconsin. No biggie, Pitt moves on, so all is well.

By the way, how good does Death at a Funeral look? That's a rhetorical question.

Ha!

Hasheem Thabeet is heading to the NBDL. Before I go on, this is not the end of the world for the big fella, there's still plenty of time left for him to get on the right track.

But other than that, what a joke. I never liked this guy, he thought he was way better than he actually was. Dejuan Blair dominated him twice, and of course we all know how that ended up (second round). I just can't believe how dumb some NBA teams are. It's not even like Thabeet is that young, he's 23 years old (and don't give me the whole "but he didn't pick up a basketball until he was 17" shtick). Wow, just wow. I wish I could describe how happy this makes me (and if you feel sorry for the big fella, don't; he's probably already made more money than you will make in your lifetime).

I wish him the best, but not really.

Pitt 51 WVU 70

That was one of the worst performances by a Pitt basketball team I have seen since Ralph Willard. The fact that it came against a rival makes it all the harder to understand. First the bad.

Pitt, as a team, had five assists (three coming from Nas Robinson).

Gary McGhee had an impressive seven offensive boards, but managed to miss eight shots (all layups) and had two (as in 2) defensive boards.

Dante Taylor got dominated by a guy who has never played a game of significance in America (and deservedly got benched the rest of the game in favor of J.J. Richardson a.k.a. Not the incoming McDonalds All-American).

This is Brad Wannamaker's line for the evening: 30 minutes, 0-4 FG, 0-2 FT, 2 D-RB, 1 STL, 0 AST, 2 TO, 3 PF, Zero Impact. As solid as Wannamaker has been this year (despite being my favorite whipping boy in his first two years), it was very disappointing that he just did not show up tonight.

Gil Brown had a similar line, but managed only 18 minutes of non-existence.

Travon Woodall had a nice layup, but then managed a turnover by simply walking the ball up the court.

Lastly, Ashton Gibbs. He was terrible, and has not had a good game since Cinci (8 games ago). No more excuses, he needs to play better. If he doesn't start shooting much, much better, someone else needs to step up to take more shots, unfortunately it doesn't seem like anybody is up for the task (or worthy of it).

The only good news; this is probably the most talented WVU team since the Jerry West/Rob Thorn era. It may not be the best team (those Beilein teams were pretty damn good but mostly due to coaching... and Kevin Pittsnoggle), but this team is long, quick, and deep.

The other good news, there are still eight more Big East games left, plenty of time for Pitt to turn the season around. But they better figure it out sooner or later (preferably sooner), because I don't know how much more of this type of basketball I can take.

Besides the actual play, there was some other interesting stuff. Bob Huggins the PA guy (a task I've seen him perform several times), Tom Herrion (CofC's coach my first two years there and an absolutely dreadful head coach, but has found his niche as an assistant with Pitt) getting nailed by a coin right in the face, and then the color commentator going on an intense rant about safety at basketball games, after which it got really awkward (like when you get reprimanded by your boss at a holiday party).

My thoughts, why would anybody be surprised by this type of behavior from Mountaineer fans? Their scum, plain and simple (well, most of them at least). Although I did appreciate the "Suck my Dixon" chants. You stay classy, West Virginia.

As for the fight/scrum/a couple brothers falling on top of an old white guy, I was surprised McGhee didn't get thrown out because it looked like he attempted to (open-hand) slap Flowers in the face after being elbowed and then again when he was falling towards the floor (he missed on both). I thought Flowers showed great restraint as he was coming down towards McGhee at the end, because it looked like he was ready to unleash a hay-maker. It didn't really matter, although I still don't understand how Nas Robinson and Ebanks got the only two technicals.

I stole that pic from Mondesi's House by the way. I'll be waiting to hear from his lawyers.

Pitt 66 G'Town 74

This was the Pitt team I had been expecting to show up since Big East play started. I don't really want to talk about it right now, but the Panthers were terrible at situational basketball in the last 8 minutes. The most frustrating moments were the two timeout, shot-clock violating possession and also the free layup given up with just one second left on the shot-clock. I guess we should just count our blessings that Pitt is 5-1 to start the Big East, but that's loser talk.

I might comment later, I may not. In the meantime, turn the channel over to ESPN and hear Dick Vitale drool all over Dejuan Blair and Carlos Boozer.