MC,
This is an article from today's Pittsburgh Post Gazette. To be honest, I haven't looked at the matchup, but the article has prompted me.
Here's the article. I'm gonna' look at the matchup and I'll get back to you with my thoughts.
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Pitt will not take WVU lightly again
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
By Ray Fittipaldo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pitt is coming off a defeat Sunday at Villanova, a loss that players described as their most disappointing loss of the season. Second on that list of most disappointing losses was the one that occurred Feb. 5 at West Virginia.
It was Pitt's first loss to West Virginia in four years and it prompted the Mountaineers' faithful to storm the court after the 83-78 overtime victory at the Coliseum. The rematch is set for 7 p.m. today at the Petersen Events Center.
"We all feel like this is the best team we could to be playing right now," Pitt forward Levon Kendall said. "This is the team we want to play most. They beat us. Coming off the loss, we all have quite a lot of frustration, and we feel like we own them quite a bit. We're definitely excited to go out there and stick it to them."
Immediately after the loss in Morgantown, Pitt players said they lost the game because they took the Mountaineers lightly. It was a lesson learned, and something the Panthers are guarding against in the sequel.
"It's not that we weren't ready," Kendall said. "We just made some mental mistakes. We feel like we should be able to beat them. It was a tough loss to take with it being a rivalry thing. We're looking for some revenge."
Pitt lost the game at West Virginia because Kevin Pittsnogle, a reserve forward, had the game of his life. Pittsnogle started because D'or Fischer was sick. He responded by scoring a career-high 27 points.
Pittsnogle, a 6-foot-11 junior, made 4 of 9 from 3-point range. As a team, West Virginia was 13 for 40 from behind the arc. Pitt forward Chevon Troutman said limiting Pittsnogle is the most important objective the Panthers have for this game.
"If he comes out and gets hot, it's going to be a problem," Troutman said. "If not, we probably should be able to pull this one out."
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon used three players to guard Pittsnogle in Morgantown -- Troutman, Chris Taft and Aaron Gray. Pittsnogle was most effective when he was guarded by Taft and Gray because they were not used to guarding a player on the perimeter.
Dixon said yesterday that Taft will start out guarding Pittsnogle, but that others will get the assignment as well.
This game has a lot of Big East and NCAA implications. West Virginia has won four of its past five and clings to hope that it can qualify for the NCAA tournament. If the Mountaineers (16-8, 6-7 Big East) sweep their final three games against Pitt, Rutgers and Seton Hall and win a game or two at the Big East tournament they would be worthy of consideration.
But they have to win tonight, or those dreams die.
Pitt is playing for Big East and NCAA tournament seeding. The Panthers (18-5, 8-4) can move into a third-place tie with Syracuse if they beat the Mountaineers. The top five teams in the Big East receive byes in next month's Big East tournament.
"We just have to keep trying to get a better seed in the NCAA tournament ... and the Big East tournament," Troutman said.
The first step in doing that is beating the Mountaineers, who will be aiming to beat Pitt twice in a season for the first time since 1998.
