DENVER, Colo. - We couldn't get through the last two minutes without Jamie Dixon exhausting all of his timeouts, but his team advances with a comfortable 82-63 win over Oral Roberts. The Panthers will play Michigan St on Saturday.

Pitt was led in scoring by Levance Fields with 23, 16 of which came in the first half. Sam Young added 14 for the Panthers.

Oral Roberts leading scorer was Robert Jarvis with 16. Three other players were in double figures for the Golden Eagles.

If they players and coaches have anything interesting to say, I'll have that later. Failing that, I'll be back tonight with Washington St and Winthrop, followed by Notre Dame and George Mason.

Posted by Jerry Palm at 05:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DENVER, Colo. - Pitt still has most of tits starters in even though it leads by 21 with 3:30 left, and Jamie Dixon has just called another timeout.

I'm not really sure what his point is, but obviously, he feels they need to keep working. Still, I would have thought that with a tougher opponent coming in two days, he'd take the opportunity to rest some guys.

Posted by Jerry Palm at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DENVER, Colo. - Dixon keeps calling timeout. I'm not sure what it is he doesn't like. Pitt's still up 20 at the eight minute timeout.

Pitt's cheerleaders need to work on some variety. Every cheer is a variation of "let's go Pitt." Of particular annoyance is the one that goes "LEEEEEEETS GOOOOOOOOOO PIIIIIIIIIIIIIT! lets-go-pitt-lets-go-pitt-lets-go-pitt!" Maybe it's just me. After all, I saw them for four straight days last week.

I just saw the Bryce Drew shot on the monitor next to me, which has the Purdue-Baylor game on. That is not a coincidence. Bryce's brother Scott coaches Baylor and was an assistant on that team. His Dad, Homer, the coach at Valpo was shown in the stands.

Posted by Jerry Palm at 04:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DENVER, Colo. - It's more of the same here in Denver as Pitt still leads 61-37 with 14 minutes left.

As expected, the place is starting to empty out. Michigan St fans have seen enough. They'll probably have nightmares tonight.

There are three guys in the stands behind the Pitt band with t-shirts on that spell P-I-Pi. If they had one more, they could have spelled Pitt.

Posted by Jerry Palm at 04:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DENVER, Colo. - Jamie Dixon reached deep into his bench at the end of the first half for Gary McGhee, a freshman center from Anderson, Indiana (my wife's home town). He didn't play a minute at the Big East tournament last week.

He's on the board here though with a free throw.

Levance Fields has 16 to lead Pitt, and Moses Ehambe is doing all he can for Oral with 10.

I think the uninterested parties are on their way to a late lunch. It'll be a lot emptier in here for the second half.

Posted by Jerry Palm at 03:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DENVER, Colo. - Back to back threes by Ronald Ramon have help Pitt extend the lead to 39-18. I may beat Andy to declaring a winner this time, but that doesn't mean I'm leaving, even to watch Purdue.

Pitt is just having their way with the Eagles at both ends of the floor.

They just announced the attendance at 19,010. I thought that many people would breathe louder than they did in the first game.

The place is a little louder for game two, if only because Pitt's band is loud.

Posted by Jerry Palm at 03:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DENVER, Colo. - The Golden Eagles have gone cold and Pitt is out to a 12 point lead, 25-13. Fields hit a jumper and got fouled before the break, so he'll have a chance for a three point play.

ORU is only 4-17 from the floor so far, but the cheerleaders don't care. They're all very happy to be here. They do an ORU cheer where they make an O with their arms, and a U, but the thing in between doesn't look like much of an R. It looks more like a karate chop.

Posted by Jerry Palm at 03:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DENVER, Colo. - Robert Jarvis put Oral Roberts up three with a long three pointer right in front of us, but Fields answered that with a three of his own and a layup to put Pitt up 2 at the 12-minute timeout.

Both teams brought a full compliment of cheerleaders to the game. In the first game, it looked like MSU only brought half of theirs.

Posted by Jerry Palm at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DENVER, Colo. - That's two three pointers to one. Ehambe has two threes, one from pretty far out for the Golden Eagles. Sam Young answered the first one for Pitt, but Fields and Ramon have missed. So, it's 6-3 ORU at the first timeout.

The crowd is down some for this game because some of the Spartan fans are gone.

I have some ORU fans behind me, and they're kind of loud. Anything would be more than the last game.

Posted by Jerry Palm at 03:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DENVER, Colo. - That's what it says on the back of one of the shirts worn by a Pitt manager. It has been so far for the Big East tournament champion and for the Summit league champs, Oral Roberts.

We've been handed the lineups for game two. so here they are.

Oral is going with Adam Liberty and Moses Ehambe at guard. Yemi, Ogunoye and Marcus Lewis at forward, and center Shawn King.

Pitt starts guards Levance Fields and Keith Benjamin, forwards Ronald Ramon, who's really a guard, and Sam Young, and DeJuan Blair at center.

Our officials are Dick Cartmell, Don Dailey and Bert Smith.

Posted by Jerry Palm at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Stop me if you've heard this one before -- the internet connection is down at the NCAA tournament site in Denver.

Last year St Louis had significant internet connectivity issues as well.

Then, on top of that, I had trouble connecting back in my hotel room, although you can tell by the fact that this is posted that I got that worked out. Not so sure about the arena.

The Pepsi Center seems like a nice place although its a bit strange to be drinking Coke here. Coke is one of the corporate partners of the NCAA. I wonder if they will give the building another name for the duration of our stay.

Here is a little preview of what we will see here tomorrow.

Continue reading "NCAA Tournament Preview: Denver" »

Posted by Jerry Palm at 09:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)