Pitt Recaps - Louisville/L & Syracuse/W

This past weekend, Pitt had a chance to retain its unbeaten record. They lost, however, at Freedom Hall on Saturday by the score of 63-69 to a very hot Lew-uh-vull team. There is not much to say about this game. Pitt had the lead after the first half even though they had 15 fouls, mostly ticky-tacky. Note, in this game I caught myself saying/screaming "THAT WAS A FOUL?!" more times than I can ever remember during a Big East game.

That's why you suck Higgins, you're pointing the wrong finger at Jim Boeheim.

Even with everybody in foul trouble, Pitt was up 10 with nine minutes left after a three pointer and  highlight windmill by Sam "I Slam" Young. Pitt fell apart after this, it couldn't hit a shot and couldn't get stops when it needed to. That spelled out a bad loss for the Panthers.

Give Lew-uh-vull SOME credit, though, they play good defense, as for its offense, that's another story... Earl Clark's talent didn't come to play, but he is a hell of an athlete. He could get a double-double in his sleep if he wanted to. Terrence Williams is a big time player, Pitt had no one close to matching up to him and he killed them in the second half when it mattered most. Samardo Samuels is okay. Edgar Sosa still sucks. Pitino is a great coach. End-o-story.

Speaking of great coaches, Jim Boeheim is not one of them. Pitt had a tough test (or so we thought) following its first loss just two days later: Boeheim's #8 Orange. Pitt, now #4, had to do three things: stay out of foul trouble, hope that nobody from Syracuse stepped up, and hit some clutch shots. Well, Pitt did stay out of foul trouble, accumulating only 15 the entire game. Andy Rautins actually did get hot, hitting 5-12 from three ball range, and scored 17 total points to keep Syracuse in the game. To combat that, however, the Orange got only 12 points from Jonny "Where's the H?" Flynn, most of which coming with the game far out of reach. Finally, Sam Young stepped up at one point in the second half, scoring a couple of key buckets along with some nice threes from Wanamaker and Fields.

Pitt whooped Syracuse in the second half, turning a decently close game into an 18-point blowout. Everyone likes to see this because Syracuse is dumb. For instance, #00 for the Orange dunks on DeJuan Blair and instead of just doing his business, he has to shove Blair to the ground and receive a technical. Also, Paul Harris had two fouls in the first half and gets his third in a "T" shape just before halftime when he says something to Blair after he blocks Blair's shot. What idiots. I'm glad Syracuse changed its nickname, they don't deserve to have the "men" suffix.

By the way, Brad Wanamaker, ladies and gentlemen, is for real in Big East play this year. There are a lot of X-factors on this team, him being one of them, and he needs to continue playing well and playing with confidence if Pitt wants to go far this year.

Yesssirrrd!

Big game coming up this Sunday @ West Virginia. Of course we all remember: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG3W9ihh7LE like it was yesterday. This is a game I had in my mind that Pitt MAY lose, even before WVU just smacked GTown around a little in its backyard just this week. Hopefully the Panthers will pull this one out like the football team the last two years: 13-9, 19-15, cough.

McKILLOP!