Cook: Pitt's McGhee gets last laugh laughing at himself
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WASHINGTON -- We learned two surprising things about Gary McGhee during and after Pitt's loss to Connecticut last week. One, he's an invaluable part of a team that begins what it hopes will be a six-game run to the national championship today against UNC Asheville. And two, he has a terrific sense of humor.
I love a kid who can laugh at himself.
"My Twitter application just blew up after the game," McGhee was saying Wednesday at the Verizon Center.
Connecticut had just beaten Pitt, 76-74, in the Big East Conference tournament quarterfinals. Star guard Kemba Walker hit the winning shot at the buzzer with McGhee, a 6-foot-11, 250-pound giant, trying and failing to guard him after a defensive switch. Walker put such an amazing move on McGhee that McGhee fell to the wood.
"One guy tweeted me that he broke my ankles," McGhee said, trying hard not to giggle.
Hey, laughing beats crying, which McGhee felt like doing after the loss.
There was much outrage directed at Pitt coach Jamie Dixon. How could he have McGhee trying to check Walker with the game on the line? If you listened to the talk shows or read the blogs, it was as if Dixon were an idiot instead of a man who has won more games in his first eight seasons than any major-college coach.
But there also was plenty of empathy for McGhee. You probably saw the picture of Walker soaring majestically as he released the shot and McGhee on the court, looking helplessly up at him. It made many newspapers across the country, including this one. If you didn't feel McGhee's pain in that moment, you are one cold person.
That's why most of McGhee's tweets, texts and e-mails were supportive. The clueless few who ridiculed him missed the point badly. McGhee didn't cost Pitt by failing to stop Walker. If anything, he cost Pitt by getting in foul trouble and playing just 18 minutes.
"I've got to be smarter than that," McGhee said. "I have to be on the floor for my team. They need my defense and my rebounding and my toughness down low."
McGhee called his first and fourth fouls "silly"; one when he did a slap-down trying to strip the ball from Connecticut big man Alex Oriakhi, the other when he pushed Oriakhi trying to block out. He said the second and third calls against him -- both on Walker drives -- were phantom calls. "But a guy like Kemba is going to get those every time."
Especially when the guy is on his way to becoming a Madison Square Garden legend. Walker scored 130 points in five difficult games in five grueling days to lead Connecticut to the Big East title.
First Published March 17, 2011 12:00 am
