179 thoughts on “Georgia Tech at Pitt Basketball Thread”

  1. John, you went early to watch the twins shoot 3’s…you could have gone to Hemingways and watched Scooter shoot tater tots into Wolfe’s beer.
    You chose wisely 😌.

    Liked by 4 people

  4. Glad we got some different announcers tonite….was getting tired of Durham/Bonner and their constant Pitt negativity. Wonder if Capel complaining got a change in announcing crew ?

    Liked by 2 people

  14. You know despite the handle….i’m ALL on board with this season in Pitt’s resurrection.
    But I’d love to see some different defenses and such…. to try to get the opponent OUT of their Rhythm. You’re gonna need that against better teams come post-season.

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  20. GT out hustling Pitt.

    Federico & Burton with 2 fouls each.

    The Yellow Jackets going to the half with a lot of confidence.

    Yikes!

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  23. Lousy effort on D so far by Pitt. Not one of better overall efforts. GT using the same defense VA Tech beat us with. Pitt looks utterly lost and very tight! If GT keeps VB this close we’re in trouble. H2P

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  25. When you get a team in foul trouble, it’s smart to make them struggle to get the ball up court.
    But you have to make baskets to do that. Really lousy effort by Pitt so far. I’m very concerned.

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  26. From what I understand the NET takes into account, margin of win or loss. Which is why those 2 blowout losses to the Hoopies and Michigan weigh heavier than they should.
    And this tonite isn’t going to do much with NET, if Pitt doesn’t come out and blow them out in the 2nd half. You got these 4th & 5th year players, yet they play one defense. Man to man.
    And these guys aren’t that good on a Man to Man basis to win that, even against the likes of bottom feeder GT.

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  30. Do we adjust at halftime or keep doing the same old same old…?

    I’d start Santos in place of Elliott in the 2nd half to help shore up the D.

    Then I’d have Burton slid to PG and Nelly to the 2G. If Nelly can’t break his guy down send Nike in and turn him loose. Let Hinson & Santos hang near the 3 point line while Burton & the 2G drive and dish.

    There, I just laid out a few adjustments that would break this game wide open.

    Who wants some pizza?

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  39. Why is Cummings so scared to go hard at the defender? Use your body to shield the defender and go up strong. Might get blocked but might get fouled or, gasp, make the shot! Also, Sibande has disappeared. Need some points from him if we’re going to pull this out.

    Liked by 1 person

  44. Pitt morphing into the team that lost to WVU and Michigan by 100.
    Cummings looks hurt to me. So does Burton.

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    1. definitely not getting home cooking by refs

      we’re getting legit but ticky tack calls against us but not getting any similar calls against them, even on that Fede dunk lots of body among other non calls against GT

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  48. Little trick I just learned. I have ESPN BB scores on laptop. They have the score about 5 -7 seconds before the TV ACC network. ACC network fed through ABC ESPN. Like knowing the future.

    Liked by 1 person

  61. A nail bitter that will look good on paper….to those who didn’t watch this. 20 wins though…👍

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  63. Kudos for Sibande who stepped up big time on defense last 6 minutes. Gave up one three NBA tough shot.
    Kudos to Capel and staff for pressing the last 9 minutes. It was very effective throwing GT off on offense. 20 wins !!! Who’d a thunk it!!

    Liked by 2 people

  65. Pitt was an incredible 19 of 20 from the Charity Stripe !!! Can’t remember when they better
    than that. (it would be hard to be better than that) We would have got to few Final 4’s in Howland/Dixon era with that.

    Liked by 3 people

  67. Way too close for comfort, but we did enough to win. Feels like the team has hit a bit of a wall, but it was good to see them play their way through some adversity tonight and get the W. H2P

    Liked by 2 people

  68. —Highlight for me, other than seeing Scooter and Wolfe at the game, was the coast-to-coast fast-break and spectacular finish by Sibande.

    —I heard on the radio that we only had one turnover in the second half. More poor coaching, I suppose…

    —Damar Hamlin was in the house! Tyler Boyd was in the house! Billy Knight was in the house – sitting with Sam Clancy…. Cool. And there was a pretty good crowd.

    —After watching the twins shoot in practice before warmups, it will be fun to anticipate next season…

    Go Pitt.

    Liked by 2 people

  69. What a great season for this team. I surely didn’t think we would ever see 20 under Capel. Nice to be back at that level again!

    Liked by 3 people

  70. Bothers me when people -especially people who are not athletes – say this team or that team is awful or stinks. Just heard a guy on the radio say GT is a terrible team.

    I beg to differ. GT is not a terrible team – I don’t care what their record is. They played tough tonight. They made some tough shots.

    Pitt fans know what a really poor team looks like because we’ve been there, done that…

    Go Pitt.

    Liked by 6 people

  72. I have a love-hate thing with Nelly. Drives me nuts. Unexplainable turnovers and bricks from 3 pt land in the first half. Then just when I think he belongs on the bench he comes to life in the second and nails his 3’s and his FTs to close out the win.

    H2P and hail to Nelly too.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Can’t say how he looked on the tube, but in person IMHO he did not look that bad. He scored 8 early, including the first 2 Pitt buckets, and looked comfortable on offense early on.

      Coach may have told him to concentrate more on the D side of things later in the 1st half when things were tight, and he was playing pretty damn physical, may have worn him down a bit on the O side.

      He made some pretty physical drives to the hoop all game, and GT was playing as rough as the refs allowed them too, he got hammered more then a a few times but hung in there and banged with the best of them. He was really playing hard most of the game.

      He got back into the offensive flow midway through the 2cd half. Got back to driving then passing off, made some sweet passes and scored when needed. I’d give him an B+; (perhaps an A- but his poor shot selection at times, and a few boneheaded turnovers probably negates that).

      H2P

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      1. Imagine if Nelly was 6-3…

        And in the first half, he made a really impressive drive and score where he changed gears in a heart beat to get by his man. His only flaws to me were a couple of ill-advised attempts to get the ball inside to Federicko and the one bad moment where he stood there being mad at himself near mid court and gave up an easy basket going the other way…

        Go Pitt.

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  73. Hej da frän Sverige,
    (hi from Sweden)

    Just woke up and saw the score.
    20 wins!

    Looked like a good crowd and the gamecast suggested that it was close in the middle and Pitt pulled away at the end. Guessing some Tums or Maalox consumed back in the US…

    Liked by 4 people

  74. No gimmie’s in the next 3 games. Syracuse will be even a bigger test than GT IMO. Hopefully the capacity crowd expected will help Pitt a great deal come Saturday.

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    1. It is always good to beat cuse regardless of the circumstances. With Jimmy shooting his mouth off a few weeks ago about Miami buying players and including Pitt and W_F in the conversations (later pulling the comments back and half-heartedly apologizing) should get the Zoo cranked up.

      A potential ACC championship and a trip to the NCAA tournament has me cranked up – the coaches need to get our big men recalibrated after last night’s game – they all looked out of sorts except at the free throw line.

      Winning last night erased many bad thoughts in my head – I’d like to congratulate HC Capel on winning 20 games this season. Well done!

      Liked by 3 people

  75. What a difference a game makes. The refs let them play last night vs VT where they called everything they could and then some. Also Hinson made some tough shots which he did not vs VT. Still to many easy inside baskets, but GT was red hot for much of the game, did not miss many and made threes to keep it tight.

    Maybe the Zoo was the difference, thy were really into it. Cornette appreciated it and was fun to listen to.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. If you haven’t watched Pitt, this is their Modus Operandi, they always make it exciting.
      They have the ability to dig deep at the end of games and make POVers comments look silly at the end.

      Liked by 4 people

  80. Every game has been and will be a battle with few exceptions. Syracuse will be very tough, ND at home at the end of Mike Brey’s career, a guy that has had his way with Pitt many times, and a final game at Miami, which probably won’t mean much if VA holds serve, since the refs have cleared the deck for them.

    Pitt has already overachieved by a mile, enjoy the ride.

    Liked by 5 people

  81. I have an even greater appreciation for this season as it is coinciding with the man responsible for letting the program become awful, Chancellor Gallagher, who is on his way out.

    What irony.

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  82. Pitt dropped from 50 to 53 in NET rankings after winning. The computers hate this team for breaking the algorithm. Haha. AI is not happy that Pitt is playing NEO in the 2022-23 NCAA Matrix.

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    1. I’m thinking Penn St. grads (couldn’t be WVA 🤡🤡🤡) wrote the programs for these computers. Computers are as biased as their programmers…

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  83. If I was coaching Pitt, I’d give them today and tomorrow off and ban them from the gym. This team needs their legs back! Remember our last big break….. we came out and blew Syracuse off the floor (led by 19 at the half). H2P

    Liked by 2 people

  84. @dan72 From Capel’s presser, it sounds like the opposite will happen. He was disappointed in their defense and he took the blame for being too soft to keep their legs. Sounds like they’ll be going hard on defense the next few days.

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    1. It looked to me like they were passive in all facets until they went to the full court press. That seemed to light the spark that got them the lead.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. —One thing they should do in practice is established an unbreakable rule that Blake H. is not permitted under any circumstances to lead a fast break. He must give up the ball immediately so that the automatic charging foul is taken off the table….

      —On the other hand, BH is the only Pitt player who can shoot a 3 with a defender in his face because he jumps straight up and has a high, quick release. Both Elliott and Nellie jump forward when they shoot threes…. Just a non-basketball guy observation.

      —Next season we will have at least 3 guys who can shoot guarded threes in BH and the twins….

      Go Pitt.

      Liked by 6 people

    3. Different strokes for different folks! But…. I used to say what Capel said to scare the team, then give them the day off. So we will see.

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  85. Pitt volleyball gets a commitment. I’m guessing the middle from Michigan State, but will have to watch for the player’s twitter announcement.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. It is Emma Monks from Michigan State. She is a 6’4″ middle that will be our second middle behind sophomore Rachel Jepsen. I thought we should have done better in our recruiting for middle replacements.

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    2. In other Pitt volleyball news, four Panthers will be at USA volleyball women’s national team open program this weekend. The four players are Rachel Jepsen, Rachel Fairbanks, Lexis Akeo, and Emma Klika. Good luck to them all! It is great to see Pitt’s program and players finally getting more recognition!

      Liked by 1 person

  86. This is what I’ve been alluding too … Now, more freshman will be out there as these blue bloods realize the value of experience that the NIL provides …

    Liked by 1 person

  88. Just heard that Steelers and Jerry O are “parting ways.”

    Sorry to hear that – unless Jerry O ends up coaching at Pitt…

    Go Pitt.

    Liked by 3 people

  89. I was hoping for a detailed review from BigB and Mrs BigB and their experience of being out and about with the PITT pregame and the PITT hoop game last nite. I could hear the Bee’s in the building? ……….. or is it this weekend?

    Is JoeL really an undercover man in real life?

    Liked by 1 person

  90. The Pete should be awesome on Saturday. Hoping the refs let them play and don’t take away Fede and Hinson too early. Really need to shut down Mintz.

    Liked by 1 person

  91. Wow, I haven’t posted in quite some time, but what a season its been so far. I agree with Gordon, just taking it one game at a time and enjoying.

    There are 2 major sports, then a HUGE drop off, so when one of the two sports is in the gutter, it is a big loss for a school. Welcome back basketball!

    On a critical note, I’m not sure why Capel continues to let Greg Elliot handle the inbounding duties. It was also surprising to see so little use of our depth last night. But I’ll take the W.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. — I noticed when we were trying to inbound, Nike was just past half court. With his quickness, I’d think Nike would be a good guy to have running off a pick somewhere closer to the ball — but maybe they don’t want him shooting fouls??

      —Maybe I’m crazy, and the sample is small, but Santos seems to have some good instincts when working in the paint. Made a nice move last night, though he ended up trying to pass to Federicko…. I’ve seen where some Pitt fans expect Santos to transfer. I’m hoping he stays as I think I see good potential…

      Go Pitt.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. I haven’t heard anything about Nate leaving. He seems like a good teammate and a good role player for 7-10 mpg. Not sure he will ever start. If he does leave, it’s to get more pt but, don’t really see him stepping up to a better team/conf. Hope he sticks around.

        Liked by 1 person

  92. Fede needs to quit fouling 25 ft from the basket.

    Believe it or not but I think Elliot is the key to PITT winning games. Capel needs to set some picks for him earlier in the games. When he’s hitting his shots, PITT builds a nice lead.

    Liked by 3 people

  93. At the time I thought Pitt ‘missed out’ on Nate Oats. But after seeing what is going on at Alabama and his making lite of the whole situation…..Pitt didn’t miss out on ANYTHING !
    This guy is scum.

    Liked by 5 people

  96. So Pitt basketball is 20 and 8! And 13-4 in the ACC!!

    Let’s not forget the clutch playing and perhaps a bit of luck that got us here. Do you remember that we have had 7 ACC games decided by 3 points or less – 6 of which we won.

    We beat:
    Syracuse by 2
    NC by 2
    UVA by 3
    WF by 2
    Miami by 3
    NC by 1

    We lost to:
    Clemson by 1.

    Certainly any of those games could have gone the other way. We also lost to VCU by 4 and Vandy by 1.

    So the 20 win plateau is quite an accomplishment with 3 games remaining – plus the ACC Tourney. (Plus the NCAAs! 😊)

    Amazing, totally unexpected, and fun season by the Panthers.

    Go Pitt.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. First place in the ACC regular season is now Pitt’s to win.

      We currently hold the tie breaker with UVA and miami. We are tied with both in the loss column.

      Go Pitt!

      Liked by 2 people

  98. Fraud UVA going down by 14 to BC.
    Virginia is a very well coached team of middling talent. Almost lost to ND and L’ville. BC cleaning their clocks by 17. H2P

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  101. I believe we have not been on ESPN all year. Maybe someone remembers. I have seen several mediocre games. We live on another planet.

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  102. Pitt just needs to keep winning.

    Liked by 4 people

  103. wonder if Pitt would have Brandon Miller on the court after his incident transporting the “joint” to the scene?

    .
    Alabama doing itself proud –
    maybe a bit like Ray Lewis and the U back in the day
    at least Alabama got rid of the shooter from the team

    A day after Tuscaloosa police testified he brought a now-former teammate the handgun used to kill a woman in January, Alabama star freshman Brandon Miller scored a career-high 41 points — including a game-winning layup in the final second of overtime — as the No. 2 Crimson Tide outlasted South Carolina 78-76 in Columbia on Wednesday night.

    anyone hope to see Bama early in the NCAA’s and knock them out?

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  105. FYI if Pitt beats Syracuse on Saturday and Duke ends up losing to VT then Pitt will be guaranteed a top 4 seed in the ACC tourney and will get a double by as a result.

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  106. Boeheim Zone coming! I would do everything possible to throw the Cuse off balance…switch defenses, full-court presses, and more back-door plays (we need the 3 pointers but not everybody is hot all the time..this is not the NBA.) O.K. I am going to be Captain Obvious…Hinson and FF need to be on the court without fouling out and yes, Coach Capel PULEEZE call a time-out if it is needed…not after the other team has a 32-point run.

    We can not have a letdown against CUSE because the 2 road games will not be cakewalks..NDU will be saying goodbye to Coach Brey and Miami is a very good team.

    Liked by 2 people

  109. Cuse 85. Lady Panthers 55. Pitthetic. Losing is one thing, but getting destroyed with a team that has completely quit is a disgrace.

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    1. isnore – I have no where near the clout that Annie has, but I sent an email to Heather encouraging her to make a coaching change. I really like Coach White but it’s just not working – his ACC record is absolutely dismal.

      I said we need a coach who’s a proven recruiter who uses proven systems. (Yeah, not asking for much…😊)

      Go Pitt.

      Liked by 4 people

        1. OOOPS I started a conversation about Coach White. I do not like to see anybody get fired for trying to do their best at a difficult job and Pitt women’s basketball coaching is about as tough as it gets. Did you see the game we played against Syracuse? If you did see the game you should understand my frustration with our Pantherettes standing around with only minimal attempts at defense…especially against the 3-point shot. The team quit on Coach White and the frustration can not be overlooked. Our ladies want to win, but they are overmatched because (and this is not easy to say) many of them should not be playing on an ACC level women’s team…lack of talent. In addition to poor shooting ability Coach White has completely failed to recruit any players with height… our shrimpettes get murdered off the glass in rebounding. We are not playing in a Conference with Miami of Ohio. Northern Arizona, U of Maine, etc….ACC women’s basketball is excellent and we (I hate to use this word) STINK!!

          Liked by 1 person

            1. Thanks! None of us want to see any Pitt team be horrible (and yes, lacrosse will take time), however, Coach White has sadly failed…time to move on and after the season is over Heather will send him on his way and hopefully, she has a strong replacement.

              Liked by 1 person

      2. John, you are probably the easiest going guy I know. You had to be really fired up, really frustrated, or both to send that message.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Wolfe – actually I’m just being selfish. The few times that Pitt has had good women’s BB teams, I really enjoyed going to the games and rooting for them. The Mercedes Walker, Shavonte Zellous and Brianna Kiesel teams were fun to watch. (Mallorie Winn was really fun to watch 😊.)

          I do feel bad for the coaches, but they have been well compensated for their efforts…

          Go Pitt.

          Liked by 2 people

  110. BTW, I heard a bit of Greg Elliott talking on the Coach Capel radio program tonite. Greg said he wears #3, not because of three-pointers, but because he is “Greg Elliott III.”

    He said that at home his nickname is “Trey.”

    He also said that when he was a kid he used to shoot using a rim that didn’t have a backboard. (So I guess the corner-three looks pretty ordinary to him… 🙂)

    Go Pitt.

    Like

  111. Des Alexandre wins prestigious Witten Award for leadership and courage.  

    Sent from my iPhone

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    Liked by 4 people

  112. Pitt baseball has a big series starting against Harvard today at 1. Hopefully the ship can be righted after last weekend’s rough start.

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    2. if we win out, the last game against UM should be enough to get us into the dance regardless of what happens in the ACC tourney. winning out puts us as ACC reg season champs and a 23-8 record. regardless of that bad loss to FSU .. seems like you’d have to include us. H2P !

      Liked by 1 person

    3. possible but .. seems very remote. 23-8, reg season ACC champs … gotta count, regardless of that bad loss to FSU. W’s over UVa, UM (2), NCSt, Wake, Northwestern, etc….

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  117. Someone tried to share this above, but hopefully this will post:

    When a Pitt football player wins this award, its worth sitting up and taking notice.
    Something for the program, school and fans to be proud of.

    A longshot to get drafted, I hope he makes a team and kicks butt on Sundays.

    Liked by 9 people

    1. After hearing Deslin talk about it, I had to make a donation to his efforts to help the children in Haiti.

      Hats off to Deslin.

      Hail to Pitt.

      Liked by 2 people

    1. ACC better make a move. Join with the Big12 or something, anything? Sitting by and getting crushed financially is not the answer. I believe the only way they can renegotiate the TV deal is if the add universities.

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      1. And if they do that, wouldn’t that put the GoR into question and potentially open up the floodgates for teams leaving? Tough spot.

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  120. Is it true that BigB will be in the Pete for tomorrow’s game?

    That would mean BigB, Fran, Wolfe AND Scooter will be in the house. Talk about pressure on the Panthers!

    Go Pitt.

    Liked by 4 people

  123. Pitt is a 6 point favorite over the Orange tonight. Unranked North Carolina is a 3 point favorite against 6th ranked UVA at UNC. Miami is favored by 14.5 over FSU.

    Under the Life Isn’t Fair To Us category, Miami plays FSU at home today, then has a week to prepare for a showdown against our Panthers at their arena next Saturday. We have to travel to Notre Dame for a game on Wednesday before we can even think about Miami.

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  127. Lunardi has Mich. St. a 7 seed at 17-10 and us a 10 seed at 20-8. Iowa pulls off a tremendous comeback to beat the media darling in OT. Now they’re 17-11.

    Liked by 1 person

  128. Pitt baseball lost the 1st game of a double header 8-4 giving up 7 runs in the 9th inning.

    Pitt was leading 2-1 entering the 9h inning.

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    1. Ouch!

      Maybe adding 24 new players to the baseball roster was an early sign that there would be problems…

      Go Pitt.

      Like

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