** Perhaps someone can correct me. I seem to recall that Zack Austin’s amazing buzzer beating three pointer at Ohio State ended up on ESPN’s Play of the Day, coming in somewhere around around the #6 or #7 mark.
** I also seem to recall that there was some discussion, either among Pitt fans or ESPN’s talking heads, that this ranking seemed way too low.
** It makes one wonder if Zack took this personally.
** After all, on this particular Saturday against Stanford, Zack gave us not just one, but two extremely Play of the Day worthy highlights to wow the Peterson Events Center Crowd!.
** Was Zack’s Monster Rip-Away Block the most impressive physical defensive play since a certain Big Fella tossed another fella named Thabeet over his shoulder in Storrs in 2009? It just might have been.
** What made the Rip-Away even that much more Top 10 worthy was the perfect little intimidating look Zack gave to Stanford’s Toure, just enough to really make the point, but not too much raise the ire of the refs. Intense and awesome!
** But if that wasn’t enough for you, Zack’s reverse follow-up up slam of Cam’s miss in tight kept his highlight reel rolling. Quite the show!
** Nonetheless, it isn’t just from ESPN where our man Zack can’t seem to catch a break. Moments after his second dazzler, the scoreboard at the Pete recognized the highlight of the game as Guillermo’s power slam follow up of a Jaland three point miss to push the second half Panther lead to 20.
** Yeah … that one was pretty good too!
** It was all part of a fine GDG outing where he made plenty of plays all over the court. This is absolutely the player the Panthers need to be their most successful this year. Made shots, shot blocking, rebounds, and even some passing … it was all there tonight.
** And overall, once the Panthers were able to find their footing after initially going down 9 points, they offered plenty of highlights for Pitt Fans to enjoy.
** I suspect that so many of Ish and Jaland’s extraordinary finishes going to the rack have become almost so commonplace that we’ve begun to take them a little for granted.
** Joining me at today’s game was a good friend who knows hoops well, having coached at the high school level for over a decade. He’s a Pitt Hoops fan who doesn’t have the opportunity to follow allow as closely as he’d like. But he was absolutely dazzled by the magic our guards show when finishing down low.
** He was especially impressed by Ish. Who wouldn’t have been impressed by Ish? He showed not a single ounce of residue from his ankle to deliver just another All-ACC performance.
** More highlights were offered by Jorge Diaz Graham who is looking like he’d starting to turn into the quick trigger three point wing weapon many of us hoped Amsal would be.
** And when the Twins are able to find a decent amount of time on the court together, it’s almost assured one will offer the other a nice assist like GDG gave to JDG on one of his threes this night.
** Still, the most impressive part of the game today was not anything that will show up in any of the highlight reels or plays of the day. This was easily some of the best defense we’ve seen our Panthers play.
** From the 10:07 mark of the first half until the 9:33 mark of the second half, the Stanford Cardinal scored just three field goals. Yep. 3. And just a total of 16 points in that same 20+ minute stretch too.
** They accomplished this feat by providing well game planned help and light double-teams against Stanford’s scorer Raynuad.
** Sure, he had his way with us in the early going as he hit everything he threw up initially. But once the Panthers forced him to give up the ball, it became more than clear that Stanford had no other gun to offer. And even Raynuad wasn't much of a factor in this game at all in the final 30 minutes or so.
** It also helps a ton when clearing the defensive glass like we did today.
** This should point us to this evening's unsung hero, Cam Corhen. Following up his impressive offensive output on Wednesday, Cam eventually contributed well on the defensive end with continued improvement in the physical nature he’s bringing to the court. It seems he’s settling in well and really figuring out his role on this Panther team.
** A little under a year ago, the Panthers offered plenty of highlights in Cameron Indoor to turn their season around. And the most memorable image of course wasn’t a Play of the Day that happened on the court, but what Blake offered in the moments after the final buzzer sounded.
** I don’t know what kind of highlights we can expect on Tuesday. But I’’m looking forward to it as much as any January game for maybe a decade or more.
** I also seem to recall that there was some discussion, either among Pitt fans or ESPN’s talking heads, that this ranking seemed way too low.
** It makes one wonder if Zack took this personally.
** After all, on this particular Saturday against Stanford, Zack gave us not just one, but two extremely Play of the Day worthy highlights to wow the Peterson Events Center Crowd!.
** Was Zack’s Monster Rip-Away Block the most impressive physical defensive play since a certain Big Fella tossed another fella named Thabeet over his shoulder in Storrs in 2009? It just might have been.
** What made the Rip-Away even that much more Top 10 worthy was the perfect little intimidating look Zack gave to Stanford’s Toure, just enough to really make the point, but not too much raise the ire of the refs. Intense and awesome!
** But if that wasn’t enough for you, Zack’s reverse follow-up up slam of Cam’s miss in tight kept his highlight reel rolling. Quite the show!
** Nonetheless, it isn’t just from ESPN where our man Zack can’t seem to catch a break. Moments after his second dazzler, the scoreboard at the Pete recognized the highlight of the game as Guillermo’s power slam follow up of a Jaland three point miss to push the second half Panther lead to 20.
** Yeah … that one was pretty good too!
** It was all part of a fine GDG outing where he made plenty of plays all over the court. This is absolutely the player the Panthers need to be their most successful this year. Made shots, shot blocking, rebounds, and even some passing … it was all there tonight.
** And overall, once the Panthers were able to find their footing after initially going down 9 points, they offered plenty of highlights for Pitt Fans to enjoy.
** I suspect that so many of Ish and Jaland’s extraordinary finishes going to the rack have become almost so commonplace that we’ve begun to take them a little for granted.
** Joining me at today’s game was a good friend who knows hoops well, having coached at the high school level for over a decade. He’s a Pitt Hoops fan who doesn’t have the opportunity to follow allow as closely as he’d like. But he was absolutely dazzled by the magic our guards show when finishing down low.
** He was especially impressed by Ish. Who wouldn’t have been impressed by Ish? He showed not a single ounce of residue from his ankle to deliver just another All-ACC performance.
** More highlights were offered by Jorge Diaz Graham who is looking like he’d starting to turn into the quick trigger three point wing weapon many of us hoped Amsal would be.
** And when the Twins are able to find a decent amount of time on the court together, it’s almost assured one will offer the other a nice assist like GDG gave to JDG on one of his threes this night.
** Still, the most impressive part of the game today was not anything that will show up in any of the highlight reels or plays of the day. This was easily some of the best defense we’ve seen our Panthers play.
** From the 10:07 mark of the first half until the 9:33 mark of the second half, the Stanford Cardinal scored just three field goals. Yep. 3. And just a total of 16 points in that same 20+ minute stretch too.
** They accomplished this feat by providing well game planned help and light double-teams against Stanford’s scorer Raynuad.
** Sure, he had his way with us in the early going as he hit everything he threw up initially. But once the Panthers forced him to give up the ball, it became more than clear that Stanford had no other gun to offer. And even Raynuad wasn't much of a factor in this game at all in the final 30 minutes or so.
** It also helps a ton when clearing the defensive glass like we did today.
** This should point us to this evening's unsung hero, Cam Corhen. Following up his impressive offensive output on Wednesday, Cam eventually contributed well on the defensive end with continued improvement in the physical nature he’s bringing to the court. It seems he’s settling in well and really figuring out his role on this Panther team.
** A little under a year ago, the Panthers offered plenty of highlights in Cameron Indoor to turn their season around. And the most memorable image of course wasn’t a Play of the Day that happened on the court, but what Blake offered in the moments after the final buzzer sounded.
** I don’t know what kind of highlights we can expect on Tuesday. But I’’m looking forward to it as much as any January game for maybe a decade or more.
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