FanNation

Wow.  Watching Pitt and Louisville battle - it was just so reminiscent of Pitt - Duke, and the toughness that I saw there in December - at the time, loved/hated - and now, here, I suddenly loved.  What a team.  Individually, these are not great players.  They're not the highest recruited players, not the McDonald's All-American, won't wow you with any one thing they do.  But together . . together they operate as a unit on the highest level possible.  It's a marvel, watching them.  They just seem to know what's needed to get done, and when that clock ticks down to the last 2 minutes of regulation, or the last 3 minutes of overtime, they just go about their business.  Never bats an eye.  Never panics.  They are able to get their stops, makes Louisville adjust their shot, grabs all the loose balls, all the free throws that counted (9 of 9 in the end).  Down 1 with 13:51 to go, they went on a run, then Louisville went on a run of their own, and Cards, fresh and deep, look confident.  The announcers are saying how nobody can match up with their 6^th man, Earl Clark.  They appear to be able to run away from Pitt.  Louisville was up 4 with 2:40 to go, with all the momentum on their side. 

But Pitt comes right back.  They don't budge.  They hold Louisville to without a field goal for more than 2 full minutes while they tie it up, while they get the go-ahead, and suddenly they've wiped that smile off the Cards' face and made them play catch-up!  Unreal!  If Blair had hit his free throws at the end, they might've won it in regulation.  Instead, the team that had to play an extra game last night came roaring out in OT - to forcefully claim the lead, AND the game - from the higher-seeded Cardinals.  Sosa, Caracter, Padgett's back, the long, lean, almost-double-double Earl Clark off the bench, Terrence Williams, almost any other night a triple-double threat, he's supposed to be the best athlete on the floor, wasn't he?  The whole team?  They were going to wear Pitt down, down, down? 

Yet, they lost.  Both teams had a lot of NYC-area kids, and during one timeout it was NYC darling Edgar Sosa who had the long face, while Levance Fields on the other end was smiling.  This, when Sosa and the Cards still had a great chance.  But he just couldn't see any light.  Credit that, to the toughness of Pitt.  This is the same Edgar Sosa that I watched last year go up against a veteran Texas A&M squad, with A.C. Law, and almost single-handedly will his team to victory.  How much has changed here?  Wow.  Big props to Pitt.  I'm glad we played them, and that Coach K scheduled them in the Garden.  Big-time game for a young Duke squad, against a program that's very quietly built a stellar record in the last few years.  6 Big East title games in 7 years!  That's insane!  Will they do it again this year?  76-69 OT, with the semi-final game tomorrow night.