Pitt Falls To Villanova

I really want to be upset or disappointed about Pitt’s loss to Villanova in the Elite Eight on Saturday night, but I can’t. I guess you could say that if Pitt made one more free throw, allowed one less offensive rebound, or turned the ball over one less time, they would have won. Well sure, but to use an expression that I hate, it is what it is.* Pitt and Villanova are both great teams and played an amazing game. Villanova has as balanced a team there is in the country and deserves its spot in the Final Four. Plus, after seeing how poorly top teams Oklahoma and Louisville played on Sunday, I feel even better about Pitt’s performance. Levance Fields, Sam Young and DeJuan Blair all had terrific seasons, and the team as a whole deserves credit for accomplishments that no other Pitt team has achieved.

I should also add another reason why I’m not too upset about Pitt’s loss. I talked to a woman on Friday whose kids went to high school with Scottie Reynolds. She was rooting for Villanova because she said that he is a nice kid and is a bit of a hometown hero. I really can’t hate a team like Villanova who has three seniors in Cunningham, Anderson and Clark and also features Corey Fisher who has had an amazing childhood as featured by ESPN.com last week. Jay Wright and the team are likable and play a fun style of basketball where they can dominate on both ends of the floor (just ask Duke).

Anyway, congratulations to the University of Pittsburgh Panthers men’s basketball team on an incredible season! Thanks to Fields, Young and Biggs for their four seasons at Pitt.

For more about the game and Pitt's season, go to Pitt Blather and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website.



* If I ever use this expression here again, feel free to stop reading this blog!

Pitt-Georgetown Recap

Did you know that the Georgetown University had a 28-game winning streak at the Verizon Center? The key word of that sentence is "had" after Pitt’s impressive 70-54 win on Saturday. Here are my thoughts of the game from my view in Section 404.

- When showed on the scoreboard, the national anthem singer looked like a frail, old man, who may not even make it through the song. Well, he quickly proved me wrong by belting out the anthem better than David Cook or David Archuleta ever could.

- Speaking of the national anthem, I hate the Baltimore-Washington people who yell "O" during the line "O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave." That is completely disrespectful and tarnishes the national anthem. Stop it!

- As for the game itself, DeJuan Blair is the man. I didn’t see the complete stats until I got home, but Blair had 20 points, 17 rebounds and added 3 assists.

- I noticed during the game that the Panthers seemed to have few turnovers. I was correct as they only had 8, none by point guard Levance Fields, who also had 8 assists.

- The game was tied 40 all when Pitt went on a dominating 17-4 run and closed the game by outscoring Georgetown 30-14.

- DaJuan Summers had 15 points in the first half, but only 7 in the second half, many of which coming on meaningless free throws in the last few minutes. Nice adjustment by Jamie Dixon and the Pitt defense.

- I was expecting big things from Georgetown’s freshman Greg Monroe. The box score shows that he had 15 points, but I barely noticed him.

- The only negatives about Pitt’s performance are the fact that they didn’t get to the free throw line often (only 6 attempts; 3 makes) and the team shot a poor 15.8% (3 of 19) from 3-point range. Jermaine Dixon had two points and was 0-for-5 from 3. That’s our starting shooting guard.

- Gilbert Brown and Brad Wanamaker continue to impress me coming off the bench. They combined for 14 points and 10 rebounds and only 1 turnover while providing solid minutes, energy and defense.

- The CBSSports.com recap of the game includes this statement:

In the second half, however, it was Blair who was thumping his chest while chants of "Let's Go, Pitt!" came from the thousands of upper-deck fans who made the trip to the nation's capital.

After living in the DC area for 7+ years now, I feel like it’s time to address this. Were there people from Western Pennsylvania who made the trip to DC for a Saturday game? Sure. However, my guess is that the vast majority of Pitt fans in attendance live in the Baltimore-Washington area. The Post-Gazette ran a three-part series a few years ago about Pittsburghers who moved from the area and included the graphic below about where Pittsburghers moved between 1985 and 1990. Five of those counties listed are in and around Washington. Now, how many people moved from Pittsburgh to this area over the past 18 years? My guess is tens of thousands and maybe over 100,000. How many University of Pittsburgh grads now live around DC? Perhaps several thousand. So that’s why there were 20,000-30,000 Steelers fans at the Redskins game this season. That’s why half of the crowds at Penguins-Capitals games consists of Penguins fans. That’s why there are even Pirates fans at Nationals games. After all of these years, why do announcers and columnists continue to write that Pittsburgh fans travel so well? Well, they do, but the bigger reason is that there are so many Pittsburgh fans already in the area. OK, I’ll get off my soapbox now.



By the way, in the Washington Post recap of the game, Liz Clarke wrote that, "the near-capacity crowd of 19,397 fell largely silent as Blair and the Panthers put the game out of reach in the second half, scoring on all but two possessions during a 14-minute stretch." It seemed pretty loud to me with all of the Pitt fans in attendance. Was Liz Clarke sitting in the locker room or was she even at the game?

Go Pitt!

Oh, one final note. I'd like to thanks Clyde's for being the first bar/restaurant in years for carding me. However, they used a Sharpie pen on my hand to show that I'm over 21 that I still can't get out.

Pittsburgh Wins, Five Year Olds Lose

Thursday was a huge day for Pittsburgh sports as the Steelers, Penguins and University of Pittsburgh Panthers all won. I felt like my remote control skills were pretty good switching between the Pitt and Steeler game (the Penguin game was not available); however, I was late in clicking back to the Pitt game and missed seeing Levance Fields hit a 3-pointer with 4 seconds remaining in overtime to defeat Duke. During Fields’ shot, I was watching Ben Roethlisberger grab his knee after being awkwardly sacked. Roethlisberger finished the game, but he can’t continue to take these types of hits if the Steelers want to advance through the playoffs, especially with Aaron Smith and now Willie Parker out for the year.

Here are a two fun links to get you through the day:

Did you ever wonder how many five year olds could you take in a fight? Probably not, but this is fun nonetheless. I can take 17. (from Arjewtino).



If you played for Brazil, what would your name be (found on Deadspin)? Mr. Sean Ramblings would be Sea. That's not a very exciting or intimidating name. Here are some other "Brazilian" names:

Denzel Washington – Roberto Washingtidas
George Bush – Georgildo
Jamie Lynn Spears – Speundo
Kris Kross - Krson Pau
Myron Cope – Copito
Troy Polamalu – Polamalaldo
Ben Roethlisberger - Roethlisbergaldo
Hines Ward – Hinaldo