What Yall Know About Them Pittsburgh Boys

[IggyWH]

Well, we're not Illili level quite yet, but hopefully this is a sign of turning our season around. Last week, Pitt went into UCONN and came away with a win for the first time in 10 years. They overcame a 17 point deficit to win pretty easily in the end.

Tonight, Syracuse came to town and after an early 15 point deficit and a bad first half, Pitt turned it on and ended up winning pretty easily in the end.

Those 2 wins are huge considering before the UCONN game our RPI was 80 with 3 losses to crap teams. Hopefully, the squad's turned it around and we can compete for that Big East title.

[Steve McQueen]

I watched the game.

The cuse played terribly the second half. It was like the Rutgers/SU game only this time the tables were turned on the Orange.

Pitt played great but the Orange are still the better team, even after losing.

[IggyWH]

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Pitt played great but the Orange are still the better team, even after losing.

[/ QUOTE ]

True, but in the end, it doesn't really matter who the best team is, it matters who wins the games.

In 2002, I thought Pitt had a better team than Syracuse. We beat them at home pretty easily and lost in the Carrier Dome by 2 or 3 which was a down-to-the-wire game. We contained Melo both games. Syracuse went on to win the NC though and Pitt lost when they met up with a hot Dwayne Wade that they couldn't stop.

Last year, I thought Pitt was ALMOST on the same level of UCONN. We lost at UCONN by 3 points, beat them at home by 7 points and then battled down to the wire in the Big East finals and lost by 3 points (definitely one of the best games I've ever seen). Sadly though we couldn't beat Ok St in the Sweet 16 and never had a chance to really prove ourselves.

This year, Pitt isn't an elite team. They might not even be a second level team. It was a very important win though for a season that hasn't gone as planned by people in the media here. I knew this years team wasn't as good last the last couple years, but these morons here who don't know hoops thought Pitt was Final Four or bust this year and that simply is not true.

[Aces McGee]

I have never been able to figure Pittsburgh out. I'm always skeptical of teams that struggle to put the ball in the basket, no matter how tough they are defensively, but they were consistently one of the best regular season teams the last two years (they stumbled a bit in the tourney).

This year, I was convinced they'd be pretty mediocre. of course, they come out hot and have me scratching my head again. I thought I finally had them pegged when they lost to Bucknell at home. And now they come from way behind to beat Connecticut and Syracuse.

For what it's worth, the Huskies and Orange are pretty beatable this year (Syracuse has dodged a few bullets), so I don't know how impressive these wins are, although any time you come back from 17 down against a quality opponent, it's a good thing). I just see them having the same problem come tournament time; they don't have enough of an offense to beat the truly elite teams.

Troutman is one hell of a player, though, and Krauser is a pretty nice point guard.

Did you say you lived with one of the players? Which one?

-McGee

[IggyWH]

I know UCONN and Syracuse aren't as good this year as past years, but they're still elite Big East teams. Anytime you get a W against those teams goes a long way, especially since out RPI was 80 before the UCONN game. If we would have continued on that same road, we might not have made it to the NCAA's.

Pitt's offense isn't too bad this year. Taft has way under-achieved this year but Chev has picked up his slack. I hope Chris starts clicking soon and really makes our inside game pretty hard to beat.

Not many people realize this, but Pitt is #1 in 3-point % in the Big East. That was always a big knock on Pitt that they couldn't shoot the outside shot. We finally got some shooters this year. I don't think this team is going to go far in the tounrament, but if they play like they have in the 2nd half of UCONN and Syracuse, who knows what they can do.

I was supposed to live with Chev but his sister was coming to Pitt and I had never met her. I didn't know if it would work so my 2 friends moved in with him. I was always over the house though so I was considered pretty much a roommate. We'd have cookouts every weekend for the squad and always had a good time. For the most part, they're all good kids.

[radek2166]

Where did yuo guys live?

[Aces McGee]

I didn't mean to totally knock those wins; obviously, there's no way to say that those aren't impressive victories.

Pitt is tremendous defensively, which means to me, at least, that they struggle offensively, because if they were any good offensively, they'd win every game -- because they play great defense each time out.

-McGee

[Aces McGee]

Of course, then they put up 43 points in the first half tonight. Just goes to show that I don't know anything.

-McGee

[IggyWH]

[ QUOTE ]
Of course, then they put up 43 points in the first half tonight. Just goes to show that I don't know anything.

-McGee

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know how much you've got to watch them this year but they're not like past Pitt teams. Defense is no where near as good as it used to be. Offensively they are better and now have a couple jump shooters so they can put up some points. They run a little quicker offense now and look to fast break if they can.

They aren't good enough offensively to outscore people though and the defense isn't good enough to hold good teams inder 70 points. That worries me a lot. Lately though they've been playing 2-3 zone and it's worked with their big lineup.

Like I said earlier, they're not an elite team and they might not be that second tier type team either. They are a top25 team though and if they keep playing like they have in the 2nd half of games, we should have a pretty decent season.