NCAA Basketball No.1 Pitt v No. 8 Butler Game Summary- Pitt seconds away from Sweet Sixteen

               

Butler's Matt Howard (center), the hero in Thursday's win over Old Dominion, does it again. His Free throw gave the Bulldogs a one point lead and the win in a frantic finish that left No. 1 seed Pitt feeling numb in defeat. 

            It could have gone either way last night, but it had to go one way or the other. Down by one with 2.8 seconds left to go in the game, the Pitt Panthers went from a low percentage, wing and a prayer half-court shot to win the game, to Gilbert Brown standing at the foul line shooting two. One would tie the game at 70; two would almost have assured the win- a lucky win. A by the skin on their teeth win. A let’s get the hell out of here win.

             The Pitt Panthers have a history of making things hard on themselves come NCAA tourney time. So, Brown missed the back-end of his two-and-two and unnecessarily mixing it up under the basket was junior forward Nasir Robinson. Robinson was called for a foul when he tried to defend a Matt Howard last second shot from the paint with .08 seconds left. Howard, the hero with the last second tip-in against Old Dominion, made the front end of the of his shots to put his team up by one at 71-70 for what could go down as the most thrilling 7.0 seconds in recent tournament history.

               The officials called the game the same the entire way through. Each coach had particular cases to argue on certain calls. At first, I began to wonder if the NCAA selection committee had made a call to the officials during a timeout when they called a foul on Butler’s “workhorse”, Shelvin Mack, as Brown drove up the floor for Pitt’s last gasp. And out of nowhere a whistle, Brown at the line for two with 1.4 seconds left in the game. Now this is where I think Pitt and Jamie Dixon were out-coached by his counterpart.  Why is Robinson, standing in his own paint, fighting so hard for a ball that really has no real chance to go in the basket. not even Jordan could rebound, get position and get a serious shout off with 1.4 seconds left from roughly 79 feet away. Why not play off, count your blessing that you have over time to settle it. Just drop back and play defense. Heck, don’t even go to the paint. Just set-up your defense so they can’t push the ball near half court- at best.

            Instead of the Panthers punching their ticket for Bayou country and becoming a part of the college basketball elite, the Panthers and their fans will leave Washington D.C. bringing home the stomach flu. This loss will go down as the most gut wrenching loss in Pitt’s post season history. There have been tough losses, but nothing in recent history can compare in the way the pendulum swung from the Panther’s feeling the inevitability of a loss, to Pitt fans brimming with hope after Brown made the first foul shot to tie it at 70. The crowd’s “swish”, after the first foul shot, sounded more like a choreographed exhale. There was immediate relief coming from the Oakland Zoo and everybody could breathe again-for a second.

           As much as this game may have been lost in the final 2.4 seconds, the Panther’s had a chance to win it with 1:13 to go in the game. This was probably Pitt’s worst possession of the season and one you wouldn’t expect from a No.1 seed. With 1:13 on the clock and with :19 seconds remaining on the shot clock, Pitt Head Coach called a timeout to gather his team one last time. The safe play would have been to go for the easy bucket underneath to put the Panther’s up by three, putting all the pressure on Butler’s eagle-eye perimeter shooters  Pitt came out of the time-out and wasted 9 seconds before they started to work their offense. Pitt passed the ball along the perimeter but couldn’t get a good look at the basket causing an irresponsible  air ball by Gilbert Brown that was waved off  due to the shot clock expiring. The shot clock violation gave Butler the in-bound near half court. Butler head coach Brad Stevens immediately took his final time-out after the in-bound. Butler head coach drew up a masterful play to lure Pitt’s aggressive inside defenders out of the paint  and dish to cutting Andrew Smith for an easy lay-up and the lead with 2.8 seconds left on the clock.They made it look simple against a team whose reputation is predicated on defense.

        Believe it or not, this game could have been worse. It could have been a Big East team like Georgetown, West Virginia or UCONN. But, it came against a team who less than a year ago lost the National Championship game to Duke by two points, 61-59. The Butler Bulldog’s know heartbreak. Butler has gone further in the NCAA tournament than Pitt ever has. Pitt would love to lose a national championship game. Butler was a No.5 seed last year they stunned No.1 seed Syracuse. Not enough can be said about Butler head coach Brad Stevens’ comments after the game. Stevens knows how Pitt feels- he’s been there. Instead of Stevens bragging about his players’ performances, all he really wanted to talk about was how he “(felt) bad for Pitt.”  A class act by a coach, an educator and by someone’ that has lost the “final one -not the second one.