March Madness

Cancel your plans for Saturday night, because the Pitt Panthers are in the Big East Championship game again. Last night's victim: the ---CLANG---Marquette ---CLANG--- Golden---CLANG---Eagles, 68-61.

If you didn't watch the game, hopefully my weak attempt at humor assisted you in a description of what happened. Marquette shot 19-61 (31%) from the floor to Pitt's 49%, including a 3-16 showing from Dominic James, 3-10 from Lazar Hayward, and 1-7 from David Cubillan. Pitt, who's suddenly remembered how to play smothering defense again, could've put the game completely out of reach by halftime if they were able to make a few foul shots, as noted by the very entertaining Bobby Knight.

Instead, their 13-point halftime lead was whittled down to four at one point, and the game looked like it could've gone either way. But Pitt was obviously comfortable playing in their home-away-from-home, as they ironically iced the Eagles down the stretch with made free throws.

Fouls were a major storyline throughout the evening. Marquette stud Jerel McNeal was in foul trouble all night, but then again, so was Pitt's DeJuan Blair, who couldn't breathe on an opponent without getting whistled for it. Blair played just 10 minutes, with Tyrell Biggs bailing him out with a quality 31-minute relief performance out of the bullpen.

The star of the show was Sam Young, who's simply taken his game to another level this week. His 22 points and countless ball-fakes stole the show at Madison Square Garden, a place not familiar with watching exciting basketball these days.

Young's game aside, this was truly a team win for Pitt. Levance Fields, Ronald Ramon, Keith Benjamin, Gilbert Brown, and the two-headed big man all contributed on some level, as opposed to Marquette, which had one starter score in the first half.

Tonight's championship tips off at 9 PM EST on ESPN. Hopefully no tornadoes hit MSG like they did last night for the SEC Tournament at the Georgia Dome:

Pitt tops Marquette to face Georgetown for Big East title [PG]

Lee's Tunnell Vision on Pitt and Sam Young

by Zane Bloom
leestunnelvision@gmail.com

Sorry that Lee Tunnel’s Vision has been in hibernation for the last couple weeks. I appreciate everyone who commented on the Picture Day piece and for those that shared with me your own pictures and memories. And although my day job has been keeping me pretty busy and out of town, I had to weigh in on Pitt vs. WVU game Thursday night.

Obviously the game is going to be remembered for the Ramon buzzer-beater and deservedly so.

It was a beautiful, clutch shot. Apparently, he totally redeemed himself from the last minute turnover at Villanova, ala Lloyd Christmas.

But the game was frustratingly sloppy. Pitt shot 40% from the field, which was 4% points better than the ‘Eers. Both teams didn’t seem to want to make any foul shots, especially WVU, who was 9 for 18. Oops, they took those two back. Make that 7 for freaking 17. And while it felt like there were like 50 combined turnovers in the game from the hotel room TV I watched from, the box score said there were only 19 in all and none by Ramon.

Second, it was nice to see that Huggy Bear took the time to dress up for the event.

Third, it was nice to see a “flabbergasted” Huggy Bear singling out one of his players, Wellington Smith, for providing help defense on Benjamin drive to the hole before the kick out to Ramon and blaming him for the loss. It flabbergasts ME that a coach would call out an individual player who played 16 minutes, going 2-3 from the field with six rebounds. I’m sure if Benjamin would have driven to the hole and made a ten-foot runner at the buzzer, Smith would have been blamed for not providing help defense. There were a thousand things that WVU could point to for that loss. Smith leaving Ramon open with a fraction of a second isn’t worth singling out as one of them.

But what really is bothering me about the game is Sam Young. Yes, Sam Young. It’s obvious that Sam Young wants to chuck the ball every time he gets it. He never has seen a shot from anywhere in the gym that he didn’t like and to his credit, that strange, two-handed, flat shot can be streaky good. Fine. But the fact is, he has played more minutes than anyone on the team, yet he has 24 assists on the year, which is an average of 1.0/game. Mike Cook hasn’t played in six weeks and has 29.

It’s also obvious that he can be a malcontent. He admitted to Luke Winn what we all knew. Now whether or not he should have been starting last year over the ultimate “glue guy”, the type of player every NBA GM is looking for despite the fact he is now currently playing in Greece, Levon Kendall, is certainly debatable. But it certainly isn’t an excuse to pout. This is Division I basketball. It’s the Big East. If you don’t like it, go play Trees Hall intramurals.

When I watched highlights on ESPN Friday morning, the announcers mentioned in passing that Dixon drew up the final play for Young. But as the play developed, Ramon and Benjamin were the only ones that touched the ball. So I watched in the later highlights on the apparently infinite SportsCenter reruns to see what happened to Young on the play. First, he never made a real attempt at separation from his defender. He was never close to getting open. Second, as the clock ran down, he didn’t provide a pick for Benjamin’s defender when he easily could have. In fact, he got out of the way! Finally, as the Ramon shot hits nothing but the bottom of the net, sending the crowd and more importantly, the bench and team into jubilation, you will not see Young in the celebration. Where you will see him is slowly walking toward the frenzy, sulking, apparently torqued off that he didn’t get the final shot, despite the fact that it went it, giving the Panthers a crucial victory.

See for yourself. The final shot comes about two minutes in. Note his reaction at 2:14 and 3:14 in.
That, my friend, flabbergasts me. I just can’t figure it. I see it, but I don’t believe it.

Check or Hold?

Lee Tunnell, out.

Tough to Watch

The Pitt Panthers gave their critics plenty of fodder last night, dropping yet another Sweet 16 game, this time to the UCLA Bruins by a count of 64-55.

What's disappointing about this game is that Pitt played excellent defense and had every opportunity to beat this team. Holding the Bruins to 32 points in each half should be enough to win a game. But it's tough to win any game when your leading scorer has just 12 points (Ronald Ramon). So what was the problem? Jet lag? Unfriendly rims? Refs? Or just a classic choke job?

Personally, I thought this team got as far as it could. I picked UCLA to beat Pitt, one of the few games I actually got right in the bracket I filled out.

The problem that Pitt has to deal with is expectations. When you win and win and win and have nothing tangible to show for it other than one Big East banner, the fans and critics start to get chirpy. Am I crazy? Ask Tubby Smith...he won a championship and he was sent to Minnesota as a reward. Call up Larry Coker, he of the 60-15 lifetime record, who won a championship in his first season and lost the championship in his second. There are examples everywhere: Ron Zook, Tyrone Willingham, Paul Hackett, Mike Davis, Frank Solich, Mike Shula, etc.

It's not fair, but this is the climate of college (and pro) coaches that they must deal with. Pitt had a nice season, but based on the expectations going in, you could make an argument that on some level, they were a disappointment.

A few thoughts from the game:

--Levon Kendall: 22 minutes, 0 points, 2 turnovers. I know he plays solid defense, but a pretty sad way for this senior to end his Pitt career.

--Mike "T.O." Cook once again led the way in that category, with three. Pitt was very sloppy when handling the ball, looking like they were literally tripping over their feet at times.

--Aaron Gray finished with 10 points and 6 rebounds. Not the line you'd expect from the Big East Preseason Player of the Year. But after watching his up and down season, you actually could expect a game like that from Gray.

--UCLA, one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the nation (I believe I heard they were ranked around 300), goes 23-26 (89%) from the charity stripe. Pitt got to the line just 14 times, hitting 8 (57%).

--In addition to their free throw shooting, Pitt shot 36% from the floor. Ugh.

--UCLA should have won the game by 20. They had plenty of chances to absolutely bury the Panthers, yet they let them hang around for virtually the entire game.

--I had the barf bag ready all night with the Dixon-Howland crap, even through the "Howland will feel guilty if they knock Pitt out of the tournament" line in the last 2 minutes. And then the handshake came, and we got a half-second, barely noticeable acknowledgement by the respective heads of their teams. Touching.

--Based on one of the thousands of commercial breaks CBS gifted us with, I have some advice for any single guys reading this column:

A. Invest in Axe Body Spray and

B. Invest in bodyguards to keep all the women off of you

We Want You, VCU

Well, so much for the Pitt-Duke game I've always wanted to see. VCU eliminated the Team You Love to Hate by a count of 79-77 as warm-up entertainment for all of those Pitt fans who traveled to Buffalo. And it wasn't pretty. That was the worst thing to happen to Duke since a few lacrosse players had the idea to hire some strippers.

VCU really took it to the Dukies, and while I was happy to see the overrated Blue Devils eliminated, it was a bittersweet win. As my brother pointed out, "Everyone wants Duke to lose. If Pitt would've play Duke, the crowd (and the rest of the country) would root for Pitt. Now, VCU will have the entire country in their corner."

Yeah, this is playing out exactly like a Pitt tournament run does. After a 79-58 opening-round win against the Wright State Raiders, the Panthers will face the 28-6 VCU Rams on Saturday with the entire country rooting against them.

If you were wondering, the mathematical formula for Pitt's annual tournament experience looks like this:

High Pitt seed + Mid-Major/Cinderella + Potentially Dangerous Go-To Opposing Player = Early Elimination For Panthers

Eric Maynor, who racked up 22 points and 8 assists for VCU, looks like the favorite to join Marquette's Dwyane Wade, Bradley's Patrick O'Bryant (now toiling in the NBA D-League for a third stint this year after being chosen in the lottery), and Pacific's trifecta of Christian Maraker, David Doubley, and Mike Webb in the pantheon of mid-major players to take over a tournament game against Pitt.

But before we get to the potential gloom and doom of another early exit, let's break down Thursday's game. Pitt had a balanced attack, and by balanced I mean that six Panthers contributed to the 16 turnovers Pitt committed. If they were playing anyone better than Wright State, who shot 33% from the floor, they would have been in serious trouble. The Panthers were very sloppy, but their pure athleticism and talent dwarfed anything Wright State could throw at them.

Aaron Gray had 11 and 9 despite two or three Raiders on his back the entire night; Ronald Ramon led the team with 14 points, including a blazing 4-6 from three-point land; and Sam Young added 13 in 19 minutes of PT. Jamie Dixon even lit a triple human-victory-cigar with some rare playing time for Maurice Polen, Doyle Hudson, and Geoff Rizk.

It was a mildly entertaining game, albeit a very uneven first half. Pitt went from being up 15-2 to a 22-22 tie to a 43-30 halftime lead. They outscored the Raiders 36-28 in the second half. So all's well that ends well...for Pitt.

All in all, the first day of the tournament was pretty uneventful, with the exception of the Duke loss. The Mondesi March Madness pool had the cream rise to the top, with a four-way tie for first place after one day. Leaders include "Ed Rendell Sucks" and "Bobby Brown's Pimp Hand". I love it. There's also the obligatory trash talk, which was incited by this comment a few days ago by the user "Adam's Astute Obervations":

"Sean, Coach K is not going to lose to freaking VCU in the NCAA Tournament. Watch some college basketball and get your head out of you Big East Ass. He won't lose to Pitt either. He's freaking Coacg K, and as much as I hate his guts, he doesn't lose to teams at or below his level like Pitt and VCU in the tournament. "

Whoops.

In other tournament news, Bill Simmons of ESPN.com sat around with two buddies, ate food from The Oinkster, drank Smithwick's beer, and apparently just discovered the movie Borat. I know this because he kept mentioning them over and over in the running journal he kept while watching the games today. It's a long read, and not particularly interesting, but it does read a little differently from his recent columns:

"Greg Oden Kevin Durant. I mean, really, Greg Oden Kevin Durant. Celtics Celtics House SportsGal Kevin Durant. Greg Oden? Kevin Durant? Greg Oden. Kevin Durant. The Hills Celtics Magic Bird Karate Kid. Greg Oden, Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant, Greg Oden. Greg Oden! Kevin Durant! Yup, these are my readers."

Actually, I've been a Simmons fan for a long time. His No Balls Association piece about the NBA trade deadline was fantastic. We need more columns about that, and less college basketball. It's just not his strength. But I will keep reading.

To close, I return to the Pitt Panthers. I wish them the best of luck on Saturday against VCU and the entire nation.

Suggested reading:

Post Gazette: Pitt downs Wright State, 79-58

Trib: Starkey: Pitt's depth comes through

ESPN: Pittsburgh goes long-distance for rare opener win