** Those of who have been Pitt Hoops fans for longer hauls often lament of the days of the Big East gone by.
** And I’m not even talking about the epic battles of the Panthers and the Huskies of 15 and 20 years ago. Instead, I’m talking of the days of Rollie and Louie and Patrick and Chris and Pearl.
** So much has changed since then that it’s pretty hard to realize that our only conference connections left to those days are the Orange and Boston College.
** The Eagles have trotted out a pretty long list of great players to get the best of our Panthers over the years. Names like John Garris, Jay Murphy, Dana Barros, Danya Abrams, Troy Bell and Craig Smith.
** Although the Panthers have generally had the better of BC in the past 20+ years, there haven’t been too many times they have put a whooping on the Eagles like they did tonight.
** OK, there was the 22 point whooping we dropped on #5 BC in Conte Forum in 2005, but I digress.
** Still, tonight our Panthers followed up a solid but tough road loss at Clemson with as stellar of road win against our long time former Big East foe as you could possibly expect.
** I don’t think many of the Panther Hoops faithful lost their faith that we’ve got a pretty good basketball team after our tough Tuesday battle against the Tigers. But speaking for myself, I lost some faith that this year’s edition could claw their way into the NCAA Tournament. It wasn’t the quality of our team that was the problem. It was more that math of the metrics.
** Nonetheless, after missing the magical “Quad 1 win” on Tuesday, we followed up with a “Quad 2 win” by a Panther squad who left the court looking every bit the part of a team who belongs in the NCAA Tournament.
** In fact, it was a pretty glorious 25 point thumping despite an offensive output by Quentin Post that would have made Garris, Abrams or Smith proud.
** I wouldn’t say it was by design, but it was almost as if the Panthers knew they could guard everyone else, so there was little concern with how many Post would post.
** Meanwhile, offensively, the Panthers did everything they wanted on their end.
** Well … that’s not exactly true. There was the five minute stretch of the first half after Blake sat with his second foul that the Panthers appeared to play offense with the slightest smidge of doubt.
** But around the 9 minute mark, Guillermo hit a three after a fine swing out pass from Bub, and this was the beginning of 67 points in the final 29 minutes.
** It’s hard to think the Panthers can play any better offensively than they played during that stretch.
** They moved the ball and shot the ball confidently. This was a perfect portrayal of what should be known as Capel Ball being played to it’s best.
** There’s no doubt though, that Capel Ball looks much more capable when his supposed NBA First Round freshman fills it up for a career high. But let’s not minimize the fact the these were all really good three point shots Bub was taking today, as opposed to some of the tough contested one on one types that he’ll sometimes take during days he’ll struggle.
** Let’s also not minimize that on this night, we got to watch an almost perfect offensive performance from our freshman pair.
** The numbers are off the charts. 39 points. 14-28 from the floor. 9-16 from three. 14 assists, 3 steals. Just 4 turnovers.
** It mattered little that our senior leader played just 23 minutes. The freshman were every bit the seniors this night.
** Meanwhile, Blake offered an extraordinarily efficient 19 points in those 23 minutes. And after three more threes. I believe the Pitt season record for threes shatters on Tuesday.
** As always, I’ll put forth my wish for as many Panther fans to show up in the seats for the final two ACC contest. Our men deserve it.
** I’ll still keep in check my hopes that the Panther will inch their way into the NCAA tournament. But I won’t hold back my appreciation for how good this team has become.
** Not only are they on the brink of 20 wins, they have found a way to get better more than once when things looked rather dour.
** More than that, they have responded to adversity time and time again.
** And at most, on this night in Boston, the Panthers showed their fans, and more importantly themselves, a look at the best team they can be.
** And we aren’t done yet.
** And I’m not even talking about the epic battles of the Panthers and the Huskies of 15 and 20 years ago. Instead, I’m talking of the days of Rollie and Louie and Patrick and Chris and Pearl.
** So much has changed since then that it’s pretty hard to realize that our only conference connections left to those days are the Orange and Boston College.
** The Eagles have trotted out a pretty long list of great players to get the best of our Panthers over the years. Names like John Garris, Jay Murphy, Dana Barros, Danya Abrams, Troy Bell and Craig Smith.
** Although the Panthers have generally had the better of BC in the past 20+ years, there haven’t been too many times they have put a whooping on the Eagles like they did tonight.
** OK, there was the 22 point whooping we dropped on #5 BC in Conte Forum in 2005, but I digress.
** Still, tonight our Panthers followed up a solid but tough road loss at Clemson with as stellar of road win against our long time former Big East foe as you could possibly expect.
** I don’t think many of the Panther Hoops faithful lost their faith that we’ve got a pretty good basketball team after our tough Tuesday battle against the Tigers. But speaking for myself, I lost some faith that this year’s edition could claw their way into the NCAA Tournament. It wasn’t the quality of our team that was the problem. It was more that math of the metrics.
** Nonetheless, after missing the magical “Quad 1 win” on Tuesday, we followed up with a “Quad 2 win” by a Panther squad who left the court looking every bit the part of a team who belongs in the NCAA Tournament.
** In fact, it was a pretty glorious 25 point thumping despite an offensive output by Quentin Post that would have made Garris, Abrams or Smith proud.
** I wouldn’t say it was by design, but it was almost as if the Panthers knew they could guard everyone else, so there was little concern with how many Post would post.
** Meanwhile, offensively, the Panthers did everything they wanted on their end.
** Well … that’s not exactly true. There was the five minute stretch of the first half after Blake sat with his second foul that the Panthers appeared to play offense with the slightest smidge of doubt.
** But around the 9 minute mark, Guillermo hit a three after a fine swing out pass from Bub, and this was the beginning of 67 points in the final 29 minutes.
** It’s hard to think the Panthers can play any better offensively than they played during that stretch.
** They moved the ball and shot the ball confidently. This was a perfect portrayal of what should be known as Capel Ball being played to it’s best.
** There’s no doubt though, that Capel Ball looks much more capable when his supposed NBA First Round freshman fills it up for a career high. But let’s not minimize the fact the these were all really good three point shots Bub was taking today, as opposed to some of the tough contested one on one types that he’ll sometimes take during days he’ll struggle.
** Let’s also not minimize that on this night, we got to watch an almost perfect offensive performance from our freshman pair.
** The numbers are off the charts. 39 points. 14-28 from the floor. 9-16 from three. 14 assists, 3 steals. Just 4 turnovers.
** It mattered little that our senior leader played just 23 minutes. The freshman were every bit the seniors this night.
** Meanwhile, Blake offered an extraordinarily efficient 19 points in those 23 minutes. And after three more threes. I believe the Pitt season record for threes shatters on Tuesday.
** As always, I’ll put forth my wish for as many Panther fans to show up in the seats for the final two ACC contest. Our men deserve it.
** I’ll still keep in check my hopes that the Panther will inch their way into the NCAA tournament. But I won’t hold back my appreciation for how good this team has become.
** Not only are they on the brink of 20 wins, they have found a way to get better more than once when things looked rather dour.
** More than that, they have responded to adversity time and time again.
** And at most, on this night in Boston, the Panthers showed their fans, and more importantly themselves, a look at the best team they can be.
** And we aren’t done yet.
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