So much for all that talk about Hasheem Thabeet possibly winning player of the year. Thabeet was completely dominated by DeJuan Blair as Pitt rolled to a 76-68 win in Hartford. Blair finished the game with 22 points and 23 rebounds, his second 20-20 game of the season (the first came against Notre Dame).
Thabeet just looked intimidated by Blair the entire game. Early on, the two were going after a rebound and Thabeet got his hand on the ball. But Blair had grabbed the ball and pulled it down, flipping Thabeet over his shoulder in the process. After that, it was all Blair, who held Thabeet to 5 points, 3 boards, and 2 blocks. As a team, UConn was outrebounded 48-31.
DeJuan Blair with the takedown of Hasheem Thabeet(Photo Credit: Associated Press)
So how did Blair score time and time again against the best interior defender in the country? It's simple: strength (surprised). What Blair would do was hit Thabeet in the chest, knocking him back a bit, taking away his balance, and creating some separation between the two of them. Blair would then go up strong, keeping the ball away from Thabeet, who wasn't able to get up to try and block the shot.
Even without an effective Thabeet in the game, UConn was still able to make a run in the second half. They eventually extended their lead to five points, but over the next four minutes, Pitt made a run to tie the game at 61.
That's when Levance Fields took the game over. He scored all 10 of his points in the final 3:09, including two huge three's from the top of the key in the span of 48 seconds which gave Pitt a 67-61 lead. Both were wide open. The first one came after an off-the-ball double screen. Kemba Walker tried to go under it, but it took too long and Fields was left wide-open at the top. The second three came after a DeJuan Blair ball-screen. Walker got caught up and couldn't recover, which meant that when Thabeet dropped off of Fields to return to Blair, Fields was once again left wide open.
Sam Young had 25 points for Pitt. UConn just couldn't find anyone to match-up with him. I don't know if it was part of Jamie Dixon's game plan (because Tyrell Biggs was in foul trouble the whole game), but Young got a lot of minutes playing the four. That meant that either Jeff Adrien or Gavin Edwards was guarding him on the perimeter, which is an absolute mismatch. Three times during the game, his defender got caught up leaving him wide open on the perimeter. It was fundamental stuff too. For example, on a simple out of bounds play (Young comes from the opposite block and runs off of a double screen) Gavin Edwards tried to go under the screen, which left Young by himself on the wing at the three point line.
AJ Price had 18 points and 8 assists in the loss, while Kemba Walker added 13 and Jeff Adrien 13 and 9 boards. Stanley Robinson had one of his best games of the year, scoring 8 points, grabbing 10 boards, and blocks 3 shots.
Jermaine Dixon was the only other Panther to reach double figures, going for 11.
This was as physical a game as you are ever going to see. The refs, knowing that these two teams are as big, strong, and tough (defensively) as anyone in the country, let them play a little bit. These two teams play on the last day of the regular season, and if both win out, it will be for the Big East regular season crown.
And you though this game was physical?
The other game that you may care about last night was Texas A&M blowing out Texas 81-66. After a hot-shooting first half, the Aggies were up by seven, and extended that lead to 19 with a 24-10 run early in the second half. The Horns would respond with a 16-1 run of their own, cutting the lead to 61-57. But Chinemolu Elonu and Brian Davis (30 points, 15 boards, 8 offensive) were too much on the interior.
The Aggies held Abrams to a season-low seven points on just 3-12 shooting. He looked almost tired in this one, as he was getting beat to the spot when coming around screens (he played all 45 minutes in the Texas OT win at Colorado).
This win a very important for the Aggies, who had lost three in a row and were rapidly falling out of bubble contention. The Longhorns are in a bad spot as well. They get Oklahoma on Saturday, which means that they could drop to 17-9, 6-6 in the Big XII.
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