Notes From Pitt-Georgetown

On Tuesday night, I attended probably my final Pitt-Georgetown game at the Verizon Center. Although Pitt may face Maryland in College Park next year when the teams overlap in the ACC for one season, unless George Washington, George Mason or American join the ACC, I may not see Pitt basketball in the DC area for many years. Therefore, let’s focus on the positive: Pitt-73 Georgetown-45

You can read all about the game on The Washington Post, ESPN, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pitt Blather, Cardiac Hill, Casual Hoya and probably dozens of other places. Instead, I’m going to focus on some of the off the court stuff.

- A 9:00 game on a Tuesday night is a terrible time for a college basketball game, especially when the game takes place at an off-campus facility. I think I’ve attended five Pitt-Georgetown games at the Verizon Center, and this game had the smallest attendance by far.

- Speaking of the Verizon Center, what are the logistics for Georgetown students and staff getting from campus to the arena? It seems like there would always be traffic and it takes a significant effort to attend most games. How long does it take to get back to campus if you want to leave early? (For example, the student section cleared out with about 5-6 minutes left in the game.)

- Alexander Ovechkin was in attendance apparently waiting until the game was over so he could skate at the Verizon Center ice again. Unfortunately, Maria Kirilenko was not there. (There are much more provocative photos of Kirilenko on the internet, but this is a family-friendly blog - at least today - so enjoy this picture of the tennis star.)

- Washington Wizards rookie Bradley Beal was also in attendance. He is younger than just about every player on Pitt and Georgetown.

- At halftime, a female student hit a three-pointer to win free Lasik surgery. That may have been the loudest noise from the Georgetown crowd all night. After making the shot, the excited announcer screamed that "there was no doubt about it." I hope he had to pay royalties to Lanny Frattare.

- Living Social had an amazing deal where upper-deck tickets were only $12. Unfortunately, I'm now receiving three e-mails a day from Living Social.

- Being in the arena, I had no idea what happened at the end of the first half. I saw Tray Woodall lying on his back on the court and another Pitt player clearly fouled in what appeared to be just before the buzzer. Both teams went to the locker rooms while the refs looked at the video monitors for several minutes. I didn’t find out what happened until the day after the game.

- With about 5 minutes left in the first half, I noticed that Talib Zanna had no points. He scored 8 points over the next 4+ minutes. I need to notice stuff like this more often.

- Dante Taylor provided a huge spark (at least in my mind and based on this picture used on every website) for Pitt with an impressive dunk and then a bucket and a made foul shot fairly early in the game. I really feel like Taylor is going to play an important role in some Pitt victories at some point this season.

Always nice to celebrate a Pitt win in DC with plenty of Pitt fans! Go Pitt!