Well it’s our first power-five basketball opponent. Here are some interesting facts about the University of Iowa:
  • Iowa has produced more Division I college football coaches than any other college or university across the country, according to “The Wall Street Journal.”
  • The University of Iowa built the first law school west of the Mississippi
  • A man with a moustache is not allowed to kiss a woman in public in Iowa City (which is where the University of Iowa is located).

I don’t make up the facts people, I just report them.

Hail to Pitt!  Lets beat Iowa!

Michaelangelo

Michaelangelo holds a degree in Travel Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. He was a former staff writer for InPittsburgh Newsweekly, and currently resides near Atlanta, Georgia. He has been a Pitt fan since 1997 after he witnessed Pitt upset #22 Miami on Thursday night at Pitt Stadium.

213 thoughts on “Pitt Basketball: Pitt – Iowa Open Game Thread”

  1. Maybe Capel can get Akok Akok now that Tyrese Samuel made the mistake of choosing the team that St. Louis beat.

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    1. They say to watch on the espn app but the app tells me the game is on espnu …. sigh … hope they get this stuff fixed for the ACC network…

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  11. So far so good!!!! Let’s Go Pitt!
    The Pete was always jammed when we were winning. Fans want to watch winners and in time I think the Pete will be rocking again!
    #H2P

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    1. Probably. But this coaching staff uses speed as part of it’s philosophy so the difference is even more pronounced.

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  39. Pitt overplaying the inside is going to give up some threes. Picked their poison. What a well coached team Pitt is!!!! Pitt by 6 at the half. Iowa doesn’t know what hit them!

    Maybe the best half of Pitt basketball I’ve seen in 10 years!

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    1. Not sure how good a man-to-man team Iowa is … Pitt is picking apart their zone so far. Pitt is holding their own rebounding on both ends too. That is going to be the key to the 2cd half.

      Gotta work on needless fouls and blocking out. But I see no fear on Pitt’s part playing a ranked team on the road.

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  41. Pitt is dismantling the Iowa zone. They are dictating the pace of the game too. That was an impressive half. Let’s see how both teams adjust.

    Do I smell a coming out party tonight?

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  45. This team plays with a heck of a lot of confidence for having so many new young players.

    I like the fact, they all seem to be handle the ball and a lot of them can take their defender ‘off the dribble’.
    Don’t remember Pitt having so many guys that could do that.

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  47. Everything Iowa has thrown at Pitt including matching up w X man out of the 2/3 zone, Pitt has handled with ease.

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  49. Pitt is actually out-rebounding this large Iowa team (16-14). Large usually means slower, Pitt is much quicker to the ball.

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  54. Pitt never had guards like this, they get to the rim like no other Pitt team. They seem to be trying to get the Iowa bigs in foul trouble, but they need to stop the 3 ball better without giving up points in the paint to the Iowa front court. This Pitt team is exciting to watch!

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  62. Noticed anytime this Cook kid for Iowa is involved in a play, the fouls always goes his way.
    He’s supposed to be their NBA prospect……

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  65. Wilson-Frame is gaining some confidence. He is still a bit shaky vs bigger guys but you can see him start to settle down…he is realizing he doesn’t have to do it all by himself this year.

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  66. Guys settle down. Pitt can be very ordinary when slowed down. Those 3s that were falling for Iowa are subject to tired legs now.

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  77. That’s the ticket. Up the pace…Iowa is controlling it so far…Pitt needs to get their mojo back, stop turning the ball over and fouling and they will win this thing.

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  79. Young teams need to learn how to win. Long way to go. Looks like could willnbe an issue one way or another.

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  80. Great TO Capel. This is what you get with a young team. On the road. Refs w bad calls. Remember Iowa is favored by 12.5. They’ve done a great job shutting down the driving lanes. Pitt needs to run some set plays off of 1-2 passes.

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  81. I missed all but the final 3 min. of 1st half. I’m guessing the guards played well, because they stink this half. Out of control turnover machines. Freshmen. Sloppy. Maybe I should have caught a double feature. Let’s see is they can gather themselves. Hope so.

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  93. Amazing Panthers have given up at least a dozen treys, about 20 points on the line and we are still only down by 3.

    A veteran team blows Iowa out by now. Whatever happens this team is going places.

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  95. Iowa running some really nice sets. These kids had a tough game vs StL, let’s see if it helped them deal with pressure. They handled it well before.

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  102. Pitt’s going to be seeing a steady diet of 2-3 zone the rest of the way I figure. Could really use that big man…

    I wonder how WVU will play us. They like man-to-man.

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  116. …nba prospects don’t like being pressured….Sam Young got banished from the NBA for guarding Lebron to tight

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  123. We have a basketball team and a coach! Hail to Pitt! Great game by a very young team on the road against a ranked opponent!

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  124. This team gets measurably better with every game. Should be competitive by the time conference pl as y begins.

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    1. yea exactly, makes a big production when he fell on the floor by himself, stays down for more than 45 seconds while the game is going on, leaves the court…. and then comes back in. So you telling me they checked him for a concussion that quick and let him back out of the locker room…..back to court and into the game.

      Liked by 2 people

  130. I’d like to see that last play again….McGowens did end up on the floor. Thought he had that, he beat his man off the dribble.

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  132. They hung tough. It’s tough watching an Iowa feed. Kids did really well, one bad stretch, but that’s freshmen. Boy, I can’t underst why a big wouldn’t want to come here. Must be the money. Wish I would have seen first half.

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  133. Dan, just caught your comment about the Beard. I was thinking the exact same thing. He also was the weak link on d.

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  135. Impressed with Chukwuka’s toughness. Most improved year to year? Brown getting better too.
    The late lapse was to be expected, they should learn from it.

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  136. BTW, I was impressed at the end when refs were sorting things out, Capel let assistants handle it while he coached the kids. We have a coach, now get a couple bigs and let’s play ball!

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    1. Inexperience was the biggest factor.

      No way Sophomore McGowan misses that last shot.

      Half the fouls, and 3/4 of the turnovers, especially in the last 20 minutes, were due to inexperience: out of position, nerves, slick hands, trying too hard…a veteran team wins by a dozen.

      H2P

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      1. They doubled our free throw points and made 6 more three point shots. A 27 point differential and still only won by 1 point.

        Plenty of veteran teams lose by a dozen.

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  138. One stat said Pitt has not beaten an AP Top 25 team since 2013…

    If so that streak ends THIS SEASON. De Nada.

    H2P

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  139. Fun game to watch until the end…….Pitt basketball has not been entertaining since Lamar Patterson blew up his Senior Year.

    Sux though that we lost by 1 and the Creepy Valley Creeps won by 1.

    Evil surely dominates the planet !

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  140. One more time out would have helped at the end to adjust the line up and set up a play. McGowen will be a great player but Wilson-Frame or N’Dir should have had the ball in their hands. Using up TOs to settle the team down can be costly at the end.

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  141. If I was Capel, I would run them til they drop at practice tomorrow and then put them right back in that second half situation where Iowa went from man to man to a 2/3 match up zone. It took away all the driving lanes and penetration from Pitt and they were left just tossing the ball around the perimeter. Great teaching moment. Pitt, off the ball, completely stood around the second half on offense. The way you beat that 2/3 is that everyone must move without the ball and overload one sector of the zone. They’re young and will learn. They have a ton of heart and a ton of talent.

    Great move by a highly experienced Iowa team to slow the game down.

    H2P

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  143. Great Game. AMAZING how the Team was always in the Game despite the problems on Offense.

    In the end… the Ball just would not drop.

    But seeing what we have so early into the new Coach’s tenure… ANYONE want to can Capel and go back to Jamie Ball?

    Didn’t think so.

    Liked by 1 person

  144. Some Wednesday morning notes. Remember, I only saw the last 23 min. of the game. They seemed to get in trouble several times in second half. Ellison was very careless with the ball. Guys in high post not good either. What happened to Toney? Didn’t see him much, and I really like the kid. Any idea?
    Dan, ya, when they went zone we kinda had no clue. Capel was beggin them to move and reverse the ball quickly. I’m positive these freshman never saw zone in AAU ball. McGowens lack of outside shot will limit minutes, teams will go zone more often( unless we play TCU), so kids will need to adjust, which ?I think they can. Stallings guys will see limited minutes, you can see a major difference in talent level. Have no idea why Samuels kid chose SH. Real shocker.
    Good overall experience for these kids. Big time venue, seeing a good zone for really the first time against a good team. Then again, not sure Iowa is all that good. Still think Nitters will be bigger challenge, their guards are good, and they finally are getting big man back, and no one wins at Bryce Jordan, those cheating jags. Damn, it’s fun when you can nit pick! Let’s see how they progress.
    One final thought, if you read the Iowa side, they stunk, we aren’t very good, they just had an off night. Surrrrrrre!

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  146. Stark difference between 1st and 2nd half. especially on offense. But as the X=Man tweeted after the game “Live and Learn”

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  147. BTW. remember Marcus Carr …. he drove down from Minnesota and caught up with teammates after the game. I’m wondering if he didn’t do us a favor by deciding to leave. Remember, McGowans was the initial Capel recruit and was higher rated than X. Who knows?

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    1. Aaaaah…..yea he did do us a favor….Xman is a far better PG and a far better finisher at the rim and a better shooter and a better defender. I think that covers that ! 🙂

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  148. What a game last night by the Panthers. These guards make the future look so bright. The real loss yesterday though was the miss on the recruit, Samuel.

    Hopefully Capel and can land Akok for the spring semester, but UConn will be tough to beat there.

    I really thought Ellison was going to be a better player, but he’s the same player as he was at St. John’s.

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  149. I admittedly only watched the second half, and I haven’t seen any other games this year — only listened to some on radio and caught some highlights. The Iowa 2-3 zone is probably to blame, but it looked a lot like a Dixon-coached team in the second half. The team displayed toughness, but seemed to hold the ball too much on offense and slowed the game down. Then we chuck up a questionable shot and without many/any pure shooters, and I can’t say I was shocked by the misses. Maybe Capel wanted to do that on purpose because we clearly were losing momentum and perhaps he wanted to stop that by slowing things down, or perhaps there just wasn’t any other options against a 2-3 zone (do we have to play Syracuse twice like in past years? Ugh). But like I said, it reminded me of Dixon ball.

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    1. Then I suggest you go watch the first half, it’s probably somewhere on ESPN, since they televised it.

      Pitt led 46-40 at the half. And Iowa played some zone in the 1st half and went out of it, after Pitt hit a couple 3’s.

      2nd half had lots of questionable traveling calls on Pitt and fouls which put Iowa in the Double Bonus with like 10 minutes to play. Pitt had 7 more FG’s than them, but they got to shoot 15 more FT’s than us.

      It was hardly Dixon slog ball.

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      1. The traveling calls were one thing but I thought the calls against anyone guarding softass Cook and some moving screens by Iowa were the more blatant officiating issues.

        Cook was the one who almost threw a punch at the end of game tie up…nothing mentioned by commentators.

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        1. Yep, tvax1…..I mentioned that up above during the game about how the refs took care of Cook. He got like 90% of the calls. He supposedly being an NBA prospect and such.

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  150. Even though we lost, it was the most entertaining Pitt bball game since Lamar Patterson’s senior year, when we got to the semi-final of the ACC tournament and destroyed Colorado in the 1st round of the NCAA’s

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    1. If Adams would have stuck around that year might have really been something.

      Johnson will be the best point guard at Pitt ever. McGowen almost finished them off.

      Frame kept them in at the end, but got out of control on his last two drives, surprised they didn’t set him up for a couple more threes in the second half.

      Chukwuka and Brown need to keep getting better. They both played well last night.

      Agree with the comment on Toney, thought he played well.

      Funny how they played very well without Frame in the first half, he wasn’t missed.

      I also thought Cook caused the melee at the end and should have got a foul also quickest
      concussion protocol ever, although I do think he might have got an inadvertent elbow from Chuk.
      Certainly not one to keep him on the floor that long. What a baby.

      Iowa relies on getting fouled and making foul shots as part of their game.

      Still amazed that we have guys that can finish at the hoop, been missing at Pitt for a long time.

      If McGowens can develop a pull up jumper he will be very dangerous.

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  151. MM, just logged on this morning and saw this BB thread…excellent !!! and lot’s of comments..I will check them out later..saw the score and was pleasantly surprised…glad you are a BB fan…will give us something else to follow besides football…we were develop “overuse” injuries from the constant FB banter….

    Great job….see you in Charlotte.

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  153. Is Iowa’s Cook majoring in “acting?”

    With X out, I liked McGowens having the ball at the end. JWF doesn’t handle that well, and N’Dir was shaky on the foul line…

    Would have been a sweet win if one of those last two shots had fallen!

    Go Pitt!

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  156. On the referee front, Pitt did get some questionable charging calls. The refs were just inconsistent. Pitt couldn’t finish at the rim in the second half. Iowa was clogging the middle and forcing Pitt to shoot 3s. Wilson-Frame should have scored more in the 2nd half.

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  158. To get this one out of the way, the announcers were atrocious, it was like listening to some NBC gossip show for ladies…

    I agree with Capel, not a big fan of moral victories, but one thing is very clear: despite being young, this team is a ton better than last year’s team, and there is a lot of potential here, i feel better about the Capel hire now more than ever, which tells me he assembled a good staff as well.

    I do think our limited inside presence (despite a good effort last night) hampers our offensive options, and this is why it is so important for coach Capel to get a quality big man or two for next year (we need a 3 point shooter and another point guard too).

    Hail to Pitt

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  159. Speaking of Iowa..for some reason-can’t put my finger on it but I enjoyed playing them on the gridiron…wish we had them on the schedule instead of UCF or Okie State….

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  161. Wilson Frame is great when there’s no pressure on him and he’s wide open. But, he slows Pitt down when he’s in there, cannot play under pressure and is a defensive liability. Very slow feet.

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  163. Paul Johnson reported to retire at GA Tech. Does that mean no more triple option, or will the Navy coach follow him?

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    1. Hopefully neither the Army or Navy coach don’t replace Johnson. Let the triple option leave the conference and make a hire that brings in most likely a spread. Tech won’t get superior athletes and it’d still need to find a QB to run it, which means a transition.

      With Pitt’s luck the new Tech coach signs the best JuCo pocket passer in the nation.

      New I want to see Fuente leave Virginia Tech, which likely won’t happen.

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    1. Narduzzi talked playing teams he lost to earlier in the season. However if Pitt played GT for a second time I do believe GT would come out the winner.

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  166. I’m thinking Georgia Tech has grown tired of the option. The problem will be and Nate is right, the transition make take awhile to go back to a spread or pro style. Not just the QB but the offensive lineman as well.

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  167. Here’s a quote from George Aston and it sums up how I feel as well.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++

    “We know nobody respects us or gives us any credit, even when we have great games,” he said. “And even after we win and everything, they’ll probably still find a way to discredit us or Clemson will have a bad game or something. But we don’t really care at all. It’s all about us, everybody in this building coming together and getting it done.”

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  169. Thanks John…remember when joepa said he would not retire because he didnt want to leave football to the Barry Switzers and the Jackie Sherrills of the world?

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  170. @Ike – Nice quote by George. In team sports isn’t it always “about us” tho? Us against them, us against the media,etc. That’s just setting a frame of mind. We versus them mentality. For the football team, you gain respect with how you play. A 10 penalty effort probably gets you no respect. A clean, hard fought game, probably gets you respect. A lack of focus, energy and desire probably gets you no respect. The Pitt football team probably deserves both after the up and down season they had.

    I get why you feel that way Ike. Not saying you are wrong. We can all see positives in games, mostly. Some see more negatives/improvement opportunities. But we aren’t wrong. We can all be right actually. It’s just the degree of right or wrong.

    Even the POV, it’s us against the other sites, etc. “Only we can make fun of us”. Actually, that quote came from the flatbush 5 from Last Vegas. That’s a good flick with Morgan Freeman, Robert deniro, Michael Douglas. It’s a good one for us old folks.

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  171. Ike,
    No one on here believes you don’t care……. or you wouldn’t be posting and responding to things you don’t agree with as much as you do!!! :>)

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  172. Huff: I do agree with what you say. When involved in a competitive exercise most will always look for that competitive edge. I think there’s little doubt that some of the media blogs and message board material is used for just that. Again, I don’t want to suggest that everyone doesn’t speak there mind on the POV, I just don’t get the negative vibes that are constantly tossed about. Thus I was just expressing my opinion and agreeing that many times when PITT wins…. It’s more because the other team lost.

    Pittman, you’re right, I do care, I only agreed with Georgie’s first couple sentences. About the no respect. Hope all is well down in Houston.

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  175. It’s a shame Pitt could get the 23rd and 24th point of the second half vs Iowa. Tough loss – Iowa totally shut down the Panther’s offense in that 2nd half, much Lyke miami did in last week’s FB game.

    I enjoyed the 1st half though – but winning the 1st half doesn’t count in the record books.

    Enjoy the Charlotte trip my POV friends.

    H2P!

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  176. I watched the whole game and liked what I saw. They played their hearts out but we must remember the three freshmen, while good, will be going through some hard knocks. It is a long season but at the same time it is one that will be beneficial to them and the team at large. They will be going into advanced classes next season. Getting some centers and forwards for next year is a necessity. Two years from now we should see a team much further along with the ability to win conference and non-con games. Beyond that this team should get better under the tutelage of JC, his staff and their recruiting.

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