Big East Tournament Notes
by Ray Floriani
NEW YORK – The Pitt Panthers love New York. They might even be willing to advertise for the city’s commerce and tourism as they frequently discuss their enjoyment of playing in Madison Square Garden. And those discussions occurred prior to Saturday’s Big East championship over Georgetown.
The seventh-seeded Panthers capped a four-win-in-four-day run by stopping the top seed and defending champion Hoyas 74-65 on Saturday evening. With five players (led by Ronald Ramon with 17) in double figures, Pitt seemed to be the aggressors in a hard-fought contest. The Panthers out-rebounded the Hoyas 39-25 and had a definitive 18-5 edge on the offensive boards.
Roy Hibbert pced the Hoyas with 17 points, but the perimeter shooting, especially evident in the quarterfinals against Villanova, was lacking as the Hoyas were 8 of 24 from three-point range. Even before the nets were cut down, Pitt coaches and players spoke about their affection for the Big Apple.
Following the semifinal win over Marquette, coach Jamie Dixon said, “Our guys love New York. We have a number of New York players on the roster. We love to play and compete here and even change our scheduling to get a non-conference date (at the Garden). They do a great job of taking care of us here.”
Ronald Ramon, a senior guard, hit a number of big shots against Marquette. Ramon, out of All Hallows in the Bronx, noted, “When I grew up I always wanted to play at the Garden. I remember coming to Knick games, watching Michael Jordan play here and think I wanted to be in that situation.”
Sam Young hails from Clinton, Maryland. But he still understands why playing in New York is special. “A lot of the guys on the team are from the New York area,” Young said. “Just looking up and seeing family and friends in the crowd is a great motivator.”
“We have beaten good people in and out of conference here,” Dixon said. “But to do that you have to have good players who want to play at the best place in the world.”
Levance Fields, the sparkplug of a junior guard out of Brooklyn summed it best. “This,” said Fields, “is our second home.”
They seemed to be a team of destiny. Pitt became the second team to win the title by capturing four games in four days. Syracuse, with “G-Mac’s” heroics, did it in 2006 and ironically defeated Pitt for the title. Prior to Saturday, Pitt last captured the title in 2003 with Ben Howland on the sidelines. En route to this championship, Pitt stopped Cincinnati, No. 13 Louisville in OT, No. 25 Marquette and No. 9 Georgetown.
Semifinal Notes
- In the semifinal opener it was vintage Georgetown over West Virginia. Roy Hibbert went scoreless a day earlier against Villanova, but on this night the Hoyas went to their big man early and often. Hibbert finished with 25 points and 13 boards and was a dominant force down low.
- Bob Huggins of West Virginia figures Joe Alexander to be one of, if not the toughest matchup in the league. The 6-6 Alexander is too quick for a lot of big men and can post up smaller guards. So in the semifinal, Georgetown came at him with three defensive players. Not a triple team, but three players each a distinctive style that helped keep Alexander off-balance. Alexander had 12 points but struggled through a 5 of 16 shooting night.
“Joe Alexander is a terrific player playing at a very high level,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. “We had DaJuan (Summers), Patrick (Ewing, Jr.) and even Jeremiah (Rivers) take turns guarding him. Each one defends him in a different way.” Alexander, in effect was facing three defenders all night long. - In the nightcap, a big key was the Panthers getting out of the gate quickly. It’s tough to spot an opponent, especially the quality of Pitt, a double-digit lead early in the contest.
- Marquette showed a lot of grit and determination in battling back. What looked like a potential rout was a one-possession game in the final minutes. Jerel McNeal continued his fine play through the tournament with 17 points. Dominic James scored his first points with 7:39 left in the game. James did finish with eight and everyone was critical during the late game run.
While James struggled to score, thought Lazar Haywood came up with a nice game. The 6-6 sophomore scored 10 points while grabbing 6 boards. Haywood was effective from the perimeter as well as in the lane. - Sam Young was another big key to this Pitt win. He had a great week and was a deserving tournament MVP. The Pitt forward had a game-high 22 points and a huge rebound with 34 seconds to go and the game still for the taking. The 6-6 junior is a tough matchup problem because he can take opponents off the dribble and is very strong inside. He was a major difference for Pitt.
Other Notes
- Hibbert didn’t score a point in Georgetown’s quarterfinal win over Villanova. No concern for Thompson, who noted, “Villanova tripled teamed Roy (Hibbert) and dared us to make shots. We didn’t have to go back to the drawing board after yesterday. We can win in a variety of ways.”
Hibbert is a 100 percent shooter from three point range. He hit one of one against West Virginia, which makes him 3 of 3 on the year. Of course the most memorable was the one that beat UConn in January. - The Empire State Building saluted the Big East by displaying the conference colors of red, blue and white in descending order. The display started at Sundown Friday and lasts through the weekend.
- West Virginia assistant Billy Hahn noted before the Georgetown game, “A little better free throw shooting and we could have beat Georgetown, Pitt and Oklahoma. In those games we shot bad, around 50 percent.”
- Pitt had a struggle with Cincinnati in the opener. The Bearcats’ Deonta Vaughn had a 30-point outing and some big shots in the latter part of the second half as Cincinnati rallied from a double digit-deficit to throw a scare into Pitt. Panthers regrouped and never surrendered the lead in a tough 70-64 victory.
- Former Cincinnati and NBA great Oscar Robertson took in the Pitt-Cincy contest.
- Huggins on Alexander’s progress: “He has made progress because he wants to. I never had a great player that didn’t want to be great. Joe puts the time in.”
- Syracuse lost the opening game of the tournament to Villanova and coach Jim Boeheim knew his team’s chances of an NCAA bid were done. Boeheim figured Syracuse needed at very least a win, though probably a trip to the semis to lock up an invite.
- Marquette’s Jerel McNeal had a strong week for the Golden Eagles. It was no surprise as McNeal had extra motivation: the junior guard was on the sidelines last year with an injury during the tournament.
- Commissioner Mike Tranghese greeted the press on Tuesday and spoke about an investigation the conference would initiate regarding the behavior of coaches Bobby Gonzalez and Fred Hill following the Seton Hall-Rutgers game (won by Rutgers) two days earlier. Following Seton Hall’s first round loss to Marquette, Gonzalez said he knew nothing of an investigation, then added, “No comment. I am just here to talk about the fine effort these kids had tonight. We have conducted ourselves with class the whole year.”
- Except for the Louisville game, DeJuan Blair of Pitt struggled with double teams and foul trouble during the week. The latter plagued him, but the freshman center responded with a 10-point, 10-rebound effort against Georgetown in the championship game.
- Jamie Dixon went into the new year with a problem. Mike Cook, the senior swingman, tore his ACL against Duke and was gone for the year. On December 29, Fields fractured his left foot and was going to be out about 6 weeks. There were coaching colleagues who suggested to Dixon that he start building toward next season. The Pitt mentor saw the attitude in practices and felt the motivation and drive in his players never waned. As a result, the Panthers maintained focus on this season.
Senior Keith Benjamin played a big role spelling Cook and/or Fields. “Keith Benjamin just didn’t have the minutes before this season,” Dixon said. “But he’s been a very big part of this program for four years.” Benjamin wound up fourth leading scorer with just over 9 points per game.
On the Baseline
Cheer coaches do this as a part-time job but with full-time hours. For West Virginia coach Kristy Davis, a Mountaineer trip to the semis would be another day of in her job as a reading teacher. It turned out to be a win-win situation. West Virginia upset UConn in the quarterfinals and the day off was granted.
