Invisible men show their stuff vs. Seton Hall
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Despite the brutal snowstorm that paralyzed the city, every Pitt player made it to the Petersen Events Center for the game Saturday night against Seton Hall. That was a significant improvement from the fiasco at West Virginia Wednesday night when Brad Wanamaker and Gilbert Brown lost their way to the WVU Coliseum and were no-shows in the Panthers' 70-51 loss.
Figuratively speaking, of course.
"Gil and I, we were basically invisible," Wanamaker said. "We were punching each other in the head over that game. It's not just that we didn't score. We didn't defend. We didn't rebound. We didn't box out. We didn't do anything to give the team a chance to win."
Added Brown, "We stunk."
The fellas get no argument here.
Wanamaker didn't score a point against the Mountaineers. Nor did Brown. The two started that night averaging a combined 24.1 points per game.
"What did we lose by? 19? There you go," Wanamaker said.
"Pretty hard to fathom them playing that many minutes and getting no points," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "No team can overcome that. But that game is over. They've moved on and we've moved on."
Quite impressively, actually.
Pitt blew out Seton Hall, 83-58. The win was especially sweet for the Panthers. Not so much because it came against the same Seton Hall team that put a 64-61 licking on them Jan. 24. Because it came after they had lost four of five Big East Conference games, the worst run of the Dixon era, a run so bad that a ninth consecutive NCAA tournament bid for Pitt suddenly seemed to be in some jeopardy.
Wanamaker and Brown had no reason to beat each other up on this nasty winter night. Wanamaker's stats line was superb: 13 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 turnover. Brown made 7 of his first 8 shots and finished with 23 points.
"As we go, the team goes," Wanamaker said, including fellow veteran Jermaine Dixon.
It was Dixon who probably was the biggest star of the game. He played all-out all night against Seton Hall star Jeremy Hazell, although his most impressive play probably came when he dived to save a loose ball from going out of bounds in the second half and slide a long way across the hard wood. If he had floor burns, he wasn't feeling the pain after holding Hazell -- the Big East's second-leading scorer at 23 points per game -- to two points on 1 of 7 shooting.
First Published February 7, 2010 1:44 am
