EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. ? For anyone who might have believed that the rigors of new fatherhood in some direct or indirect way were to blame for perhaps the worst night of Kevin Pittsnogle?s basketball life, think again.
The mental strain and the responsibility? Forget it. The guy is as happy as he?s ever been.
The physical strain, the sleepless nights caring for his 10-day-old son? They don?t exist.
?Actually, I?m not getting up at all [in the middle of the night],?? Pittsnogle said. ?I sleep through the night pretty well, get eight or 10 hours of sleep. We get up and I spend time with him during the day while Heather sleeps. We?ve got a great system going.??
So what, then, was at the root of that scoreless, foul-marred, turnover-plagued game Pittsnogle endured last Thursday when he and his West Virginia teammates lost their first ? and as yet only ? Big East basketball game, at Pitt?
?I just had a bad game,?? Pittsnogle said. ?Everybody wants to attribute it to having a baby. I think I just had a bad game at the wrong time and everybody is going to assume it?s something else.??
The assumption, of course, was natural. After all, we?re talking about a guy who for the past 12 months has done virtually nothing wrong, save for a couple of missed free throws that might have added yet another gold star to West Virginia?s resume with a win over Texas in late November. So when something like that 0-for-12er at Pitt jumps out of nowhere, doesn?t there have to be some underlying current of turmoil or angst?
Nah.
?Everybody tries to make excuses for me about why I had a bad game,?? Pittsnogle said. ?But ask me and I?ll tell you what the problem was. I just played horrible. It wasn?t a good game for me and I probably hurt us more than anybody on our team that night. I know what I did. I apologized to the team for playing so bad; not just shooting so bad but not even contributing in other ways.
?I think I just rushed everything. I was so into the game and I wanted to do so much I wound up shooting shots no matter what. If I was contested, uncontested, I was going to shoot. I forced a lot of shots and got out of a rhythm early and I couldn?t get back into it.??
Lest anyone believe that there was, in fact, something more than that to Pittsnogle?s brief funk ? the kind reminiscent of, but unseen since, the atrocious state high school tournament game he played as a senior at Martinsburg ? he put it to rest Sunday night in Washington. In the second of West Virginia?s three-game road trip that concludes tonight at Seton Hall, all Pittsnogle did was make 10-of-15 shots and score 25 points in a win over Georgetown.
And as if that wasn?t enough of a contribution, he also helped clog up the middle against the Hoyas. He so dominated 7-foot-2 Roy Hibbert that by the stretch run, when the game was decided, Georgetown had pulled Hibbert, coincidentally because he was as bad against the Mountaineers as was Pittsnogle at Pitt.
?I?ve changed, I hope,?? Pittsnogle said. ?Like [Sunday], I knew if I wasn?t going to make shots I was at least going to get rebounds and do other things.??
Turns out he did all things. So much for allowing one bad game to morph into a slump.
?It hasn?t been as bad as everybody seemed to think it would be,?? Pittsnogle said of the aftereffects of his Pittiful performance. ?I kind of forgot about the game as soon as it was over. I put it behind me and concentrated on my family. I just wanted to forget about basketball for a day or two.
?I just concentrated on getting with my family and having fun and getting back into the fun part of basketball and not worry about how many points I score or worry about what I?m doing. I?m worried about my team and how much we win.??
The fun part of basketball for Pittsnogle right now is just playing his last college games. While it seems like this dream of a season might last forever, the truth is the Mountaineers are guaranteed just eight more games ? six more in the regular season, one in the Big East tournament and then one in the NCAA tournament.
?We?ve only got a couple of games left in the regular season and who knows what the postseason holds??? Pittsnogle said. ?We only have five or six more games and I want to enjoy it while I can.??
The bottom line about not allowing the Pitt game to get to him, though, is that above all else Pittsnogle is at heart one of those shooting machines. If you?ve ever met a shooter who would let a slump ? no matter how long it lasts ? force him to stop shooting, then the guy isn?t really a shooter. It?s just not in a shooter?s mentality to pull back.
For the record, when Pittsnogle missed his first two shots against Georgetown on Sunday night, that made it a nice, round 20 bricks in a row reaching back to the second half of a home game against Cincinnati, in which he missed his last six shots. He wasn?t aware of the exact number, but he knew it was a big one.
?I thought about it for a second,?? Pittsnogle said. ?And then I thought, ?Wait, I?m too good a shooter to be missing this many shots. I?ll just keep shooting.??
That?s what shooters do, even in their sleep. And yes, Pittsnogle is getting plenty of that.
To contact staff writer Dave Hickman send e-mail to
dphickman1@aol.com or call 348-1734.
