Friday, March 21st, 2008 by Adam Wagner
Pitt, WVU continue their NCAA dancing
Oral Roberts may have been out to shock the world yesterday, but Pitt just affirmed what everyone already knows: right now, the Panthers are one of the hottest teams in the nation. Led by junior PG Levance Fields, Pitt dominated Oral Roberts (seriously, who names their college Oral Roberts?) yesterday on their way to the second round of the NCAA tournament where they will meet Michigan State, who beat Temple 72-61 (tip-off is at 9:10 PM). Much of the publicity surrounding MSU right now revolves around the fact that the team is finally developing secondary scoring around senior Drew Neitzel.
Pitt’s seeming dominance right now comes from the team’s newfound confidence as well as their increasingly speedy style of play. No longer are the Panthers bringing the ball upcourt and waiting 30 seconds to shoot, as they did in the past. Instead, the Panthers are quickly moving the ball upcourt and taking shots when the opportunity comes, generally meaning that the team is being more aggressive with the ball. This should prevent the offense from being bogged down by its own players, as has occurred in the past, and also makes the offense more friendly for tournament play.
Fields’ role in the revival of the Panthers cannot be underestimated. Fields scored 23 points yesterday, but his best contributions are more in the non-scorecard category, as there is no question that Fields is the floor leader of the team. When the junior from NYC is pumped up, so is the team, something that began to become obvious around the time Fields hit the game-winning three pointer against Duke and that became more obvious after he was injured against Dayton. Now that he is fully healthy and focused, the whole team seems as if it is more energized.
The only point of concern for Pitt may be the play of Dejuan Blair, who was the only starter to not score in the double digits yesterday. Despite nabbing 10 rebounds, Blair also failed to get to the foul line, something that Pitt is going to need out of him if they expect to continue their run. Blair will hopefully step up as the games come against better and better teams, but over Pitt’s recent run, including the Big East Tournament, Blair has only played well against Georgetown (and Roy Hibbert) and the Panthers have actually looked like a better team when he was not on the floor.
Tomorrow’s game against Michigan State should be interesting and will certainly be worth watching. Hopefully Pitt’s season will continue.
- West Virginia also looked very good in defeating Arizona on Thursday night. The Wildcats had the two most hyped players on the floor in Jerryd Bayless and Chase Buldinger, but the Mountaineers and their underrated cast stepped up and flat-out outplayed them. Bob Huggins deserves credit for having his team ready to play, as it is okay to root for WVU tomorrow night as they are going up against Duke, who everyone is required to hate, at 2:10 on Saturday.
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