I am not going to recall what happened because first of all, everybody knows what happened, and second of all, it hurts me inside to recall the events of that evening.
Blame. Who is to blame for the loss? It is funny because the last person I would blame would be Nasir Robinson. Yes, he was the one who committed the foul, but he was just acting on instincts. As my mom, yes my mom, said, if you are an athlete, you have to expect to make mistakes and fail sometimes. That is just the way the sporting world works. But to be honest, Robinson should not have even been in the situation to make that mistake.
Jamie Dixon is the one to blame. Yes, Jamie Dixon, the man who has the most wins in his first eight seasons as a head coach in NCAA history. I love the guy to death, but I do not understand what he was trying to do in this game. Of course in recent years he has had limited to no tournament success in his years as head coach, but this year was the year for Pitt.
In the Scottie Reynolds game, the only coaching mistake I can remember was Dixon not choosing to pick up the defense until half court on the last play of the game. Scottie Reynolds blew by everyone and tear-dropped a layup over Gilbert Brown with under a second to go.
But in the Butler game, even though I only watched about half of it, Dixon made several questionable decisions over the course of the game. In the first half, when the defense was struggling with pressure on the outside shooters of Butler, especially Shelvin Mack, Dixon decided to go to the zone defense after made baskets... WHY?!
It seemed like every time Pitt went to a zone, Butler had an even better wide-open opportunity from three. It would be one thing if Pitt played zone defense well, but it is another when Pitt is very bad at it and it was less effective than their lazy man-to-man defense. When players are hot from the outside, as a coach, you have to preach to your players to tighten up and try to let the other team shoot themselves cold.
The strength of Pitt this season was their depth. Yes, the strength is the starting five, as it is with most teams, but when Pitt could put in three or four bench players and keep it competitive while the starters rested, that was when they were at their best. Dixon did it in non-conference play and in conference play, but it seemed like when the Big East tournament and NCAA tournament came around, he threw that notion down the drain.
In the Big East loss to UConn, the Pitt bench played 48 minutes, which is a little below average, but mostly inflated due to the poor play of Gary McGhee and the necessity for a substitute. But in the NCAA loss to Butler, the bench played just 34 minutes. Then, when Dante Taylor and Travon Woodall came in with a just few minutes to play and committed a few mistakes (Woodall forcing a shot in traffic, then Taylor attempting a put-back dunk from the parking lot before Woodall committed a dumb foul) you could not blame them because they had no game momentum.
Basically what Dixon did in this game was everything he did not do in the regular season. What Dixon did was completely panic when his team got down, then go to a completely different strategy than what got his team to a 28-5 record to that point.
Then not only did Dixon make the broad mistakes, but when the game fell into Pitt's lap after the Mack foul with 1.4 seconds left, he made the little mistakes at the end of the game which were magnified afterwards. When the referees went to the monitor before Gilbert Brown was to shoot the biggest foul shots of his life, Dixon failed to call his team over to the bench for some words, and Mack was saying God-knows-what to Brown in the middle of the lane, and they probably were not words of wisdom.
During those few seconds, Dixon could have said some final words to Brown, words that Butler head coach Brad Stevens spoke to Matt Howard a few seconds later when he was shooting foul shots to win the game. Dixon also could have givens some instructions to the players in the lane, like, DO NOT FOUL. Or, when Brown proceeded to make the first foul shot, he could have pulled the Pitt players out of the lane completely to eliminate ANY risk of foul, lane violation or whatever else could have happened to screw up the game.
Now I need to be completely honest: I sure as hell did not think of this until after Robinson committed the foul and Howard rained the necessary foul shot to cement Butler into the Sweet 16. But it is Dixon's job, Dixon's responsibility and Dixon's salary to notice these things before they cost his team a chance at a National Championship. Now, if I were in that situation, I take all of the Pitt players off the line after Brown makes the first shot; either he makes the second one and they win or he misses the second and it goes to overtime. Period.
Not to mention Dixon burned his last team timeout with 8.8 seconds left after a stoppage to check the time and a Butler full timeout to apparently explain something more to his team about the upcoming Butler possession with Pitt winning 70-69. I would just like to note (to which Peter Hyndman and Bobby DeWolfe can attest) that I had ZERO confidence that Pitt would stop Butler from scoring. Why would I? They never have, and guess what? THEY DIDN'T! Butler got a wide-open layup with 2.2 seconds left and then Pitt was stuck without any timeouts.
So anyways, who else to blame? Do I blame Gilbert Brown? Hell no. Look at the foul shot he missed, one centimeter stronger, or one half-rotation different and the ball drops in for the win. It was nearly a robbery of a shot and just an unlucky shooter's roll.
Do I blame the refs? Now this is an interesting situation. The foul on Gilbert Brown with 1.4 seconds left was a foul and it should have been called because Mack denied Brown a shot at moving up the court for a shot. So then Robinson climbs all over Howard with .8 seconds left. Was it a foul? Absolutely. Did it affect any play in the game? No, but that is where it gets hazy.
Now, here are the two reasons why the foul against Robinson had to be called. For one, he absolutely smothered Howard. It was not even close to a touchy foul, I mean Robinson really whacked him. Also, the referees had to have the thought that since they called Mack for that foul, Butler was due for a call. If the situation had been different and Mack had never committed the foul seconds earlier, since the foul on Robinson did not directly affect the play, I doubt the referee would have blown the whistle.
What I mean by affecting the play is that since there were 1.4 seconds left and Howard had secured the rebound, the foul did not prevent Butler from doing anything offensively and did not give Pitt any kind of advantage. But then you have to think that since the foul did not directly affect the play, why call the foul at all? Imagine if the referee does not call the foul, Butler fans go crazy because of the foul called on Mack seconds earlier. So you would have to think the foul was called because of the fact that Pitt was due for one, which makes sense, but then again does not.
But at a point, you have to give credit where credit is due. But wait, Butler did not even play that good of a game. They shot 46%, which is okay, but should not be enough to beat a number one seeded team especially when they allowed Pitt to shoot 56% from the field and were out-rebounded 36-25. But what Butler did well was throw in three-pointers from everywhere (12-27) and cut down on turnovers (six). They also were able to do the most important thing it takes for a lower-seeded team to make an upset, limit possessions. If a team limits possessions, they can allow their opponent to shoot 56% and still win.
The player who did beat Pitt was Shelvin Mack, he got opportunities to make some deep shots and he made them in the first half to keep Butler in the game. In the second half he kind of tailed off, especially as the game came to crunch time, but by then his damage had been done. Pitt's defense was too worried about Mack and allowed other players to make plays in the last few minutes.
Just as last year with Jordan Crawford and the year before with Scottie Reynolds, Pitt could not stop the other team's star player and it cost them. It seems like Pitt's balance during the regular season seems to always hurt them in the postseason because no one player steps up enough to pull Pitt through deeper into the tournament.
And as for the cliche "There is always next year", well, I do not know about that. A loss like this is not the kind that builds a team, it is the kind that kills confidence, especially for Nasir Robinson, a player who could be the key to Pitt's season next year. There are rumors of Ashton Gibbs leaving to go to Europe to get more attention and pro experience for the NBA... right.
And even though Dixon got a great recruiting class for next season, there are probably no players in that class who personify the type of player that it takes to win tournament games. Players like Kemba Walker, Shelvin Mack and Jimmer Fredette who are just cool as the other side of the pillow and just take control of the game when it matters. Players Pitt has never really had. They have always had unselfish players, like Brad Wanamaker, Brandin Knight, LeVance Fields and even Ashton Gibbbs. It is not a bad thing in most cases, but sometimes it takes a selfish player to really take a team on his shoulders and carry them when they need it most.
As you know, I will be here next year. I cannot imagine a most heartbreaking loss, but if I experience one in the hands of Pitt basketball in the future, which is actually pretty likely in all reality, I will stay with this team. I have said it before and I will say it again: If Pitt could win a National Championship, I would not mind if the Steelers went 0-16 every year for the rest of my life. That is how much this team means to me and it is how it will always be.
In the Big East loss to UConn, the Pitt bench played 48 minutes, which is a little below average, but mostly inflated due to the poor play of Gary McGhee and the necessity for a substitute. But in the NCAA loss to Butler, the bench played just 34 minutes. Then, when Dante Taylor and Travon Woodall came in with a just few minutes to play and committed a few mistakes (Woodall forcing a shot in traffic, then Taylor attempting a put-back dunk from the parking lot before Woodall committed a dumb foul) you could not blame them because they had no game momentum.
Basically what Dixon did in this game was everything he did not do in the regular season. What Dixon did was completely panic when his team got down, then go to a completely different strategy than what got his team to a 28-5 record to that point.
Then not only did Dixon make the broad mistakes, but when the game fell into Pitt's lap after the Mack foul with 1.4 seconds left, he made the little mistakes at the end of the game which were magnified afterwards. When the referees went to the monitor before Gilbert Brown was to shoot the biggest foul shots of his life, Dixon failed to call his team over to the bench for some words, and Mack was saying God-knows-what to Brown in the middle of the lane, and they probably were not words of wisdom.
During those few seconds, Dixon could have said some final words to Brown, words that Butler head coach Brad Stevens spoke to Matt Howard a few seconds later when he was shooting foul shots to win the game. Dixon also could have givens some instructions to the players in the lane, like, DO NOT FOUL. Or, when Brown proceeded to make the first foul shot, he could have pulled the Pitt players out of the lane completely to eliminate ANY risk of foul, lane violation or whatever else could have happened to screw up the game.
Now I need to be completely honest: I sure as hell did not think of this until after Robinson committed the foul and Howard rained the necessary foul shot to cement Butler into the Sweet 16. But it is Dixon's job, Dixon's responsibility and Dixon's salary to notice these things before they cost his team a chance at a National Championship. Now, if I were in that situation, I take all of the Pitt players off the line after Brown makes the first shot; either he makes the second one and they win or he misses the second and it goes to overtime. Period.
Not to mention Dixon burned his last team timeout with 8.8 seconds left after a stoppage to check the time and a Butler full timeout to apparently explain something more to his team about the upcoming Butler possession with Pitt winning 70-69. I would just like to note (to which Peter Hyndman and Bobby DeWolfe can attest) that I had ZERO confidence that Pitt would stop Butler from scoring. Why would I? They never have, and guess what? THEY DIDN'T! Butler got a wide-open layup with 2.2 seconds left and then Pitt was stuck without any timeouts.
So anyways, who else to blame? Do I blame Gilbert Brown? Hell no. Look at the foul shot he missed, one centimeter stronger, or one half-rotation different and the ball drops in for the win. It was nearly a robbery of a shot and just an unlucky shooter's roll.
Do I blame the refs? Now this is an interesting situation. The foul on Gilbert Brown with 1.4 seconds left was a foul and it should have been called because Mack denied Brown a shot at moving up the court for a shot. So then Robinson climbs all over Howard with .8 seconds left. Was it a foul? Absolutely. Did it affect any play in the game? No, but that is where it gets hazy.
Now, here are the two reasons why the foul against Robinson had to be called. For one, he absolutely smothered Howard. It was not even close to a touchy foul, I mean Robinson really whacked him. Also, the referees had to have the thought that since they called Mack for that foul, Butler was due for a call. If the situation had been different and Mack had never committed the foul seconds earlier, since the foul on Robinson did not directly affect the play, I doubt the referee would have blown the whistle.
What I mean by affecting the play is that since there were 1.4 seconds left and Howard had secured the rebound, the foul did not prevent Butler from doing anything offensively and did not give Pitt any kind of advantage. But then you have to think that since the foul did not directly affect the play, why call the foul at all? Imagine if the referee does not call the foul, Butler fans go crazy because of the foul called on Mack seconds earlier. So you would have to think the foul was called because of the fact that Pitt was due for one, which makes sense, but then again does not.
But at a point, you have to give credit where credit is due. But wait, Butler did not even play that good of a game. They shot 46%, which is okay, but should not be enough to beat a number one seeded team especially when they allowed Pitt to shoot 56% from the field and were out-rebounded 36-25. But what Butler did well was throw in three-pointers from everywhere (12-27) and cut down on turnovers (six). They also were able to do the most important thing it takes for a lower-seeded team to make an upset, limit possessions. If a team limits possessions, they can allow their opponent to shoot 56% and still win.
The player who did beat Pitt was Shelvin Mack, he got opportunities to make some deep shots and he made them in the first half to keep Butler in the game. In the second half he kind of tailed off, especially as the game came to crunch time, but by then his damage had been done. Pitt's defense was too worried about Mack and allowed other players to make plays in the last few minutes.
Just as last year with Jordan Crawford and the year before with Scottie Reynolds, Pitt could not stop the other team's star player and it cost them. It seems like Pitt's balance during the regular season seems to always hurt them in the postseason because no one player steps up enough to pull Pitt through deeper into the tournament.
And as for the cliche "There is always next year", well, I do not know about that. A loss like this is not the kind that builds a team, it is the kind that kills confidence, especially for Nasir Robinson, a player who could be the key to Pitt's season next year. There are rumors of Ashton Gibbs leaving to go to Europe to get more attention and pro experience for the NBA... right.
And even though Dixon got a great recruiting class for next season, there are probably no players in that class who personify the type of player that it takes to win tournament games. Players like Kemba Walker, Shelvin Mack and Jimmer Fredette who are just cool as the other side of the pillow and just take control of the game when it matters. Players Pitt has never really had. They have always had unselfish players, like Brad Wanamaker, Brandin Knight, LeVance Fields and even Ashton Gibbbs. It is not a bad thing in most cases, but sometimes it takes a selfish player to really take a team on his shoulders and carry them when they need it most.
As you know, I will be here next year. I cannot imagine a most heartbreaking loss, but if I experience one in the hands of Pitt basketball in the future, which is actually pretty likely in all reality, I will stay with this team. I have said it before and I will say it again: If Pitt could win a National Championship, I would not mind if the Steelers went 0-16 every year for the rest of my life. That is how much this team means to me and it is how it will always be.
