BET Pitt-Cincy Game Recap

-Any win in the Big East Tournament is a good win. Last night we saw Pitt beat Cincinnati 70-64. Not hard to explain this one since Pitt outplayed Cincy's team badly, except for one player, Deonta Vaughn.

-Vaughn was unconscious in the second half scoring 23 points, he totalled 30 for the game. His overall shooting percentage and three-point percentage weren't anything to write home about, both around 33%, but he hit tough shots when the Bearcats needed it.

Pitt responded to Vaughn though. How many fans remember Dwayne Wade beating Pitt, seemingly by himself, in the NCAA Tournament a few years back? We've seen Pitt lose to teams when one player is able to dominate the scorer's sheet, but the Panthers weren't about to let that happen again.

-The player of the game for me has to be Sam Young. Forget about his 21 points or even his 6 rebounds, which were very nice considering he matched DeJuan Blair's game total, instead focus on his 4 blocks.

Sam Young played his best overall game of the year, by virtue of his best defensive game of his career. Other than one mental lapse on the perimeter that left Vaughn open, he was in the right position and he owned the middle late in the game. Young was challenged to shut down the middle because Blair was on the bench, and he passed that challenge with flying colors.

Offensively Young was superb. He looked very comfortable with his ball handling, going between his legs repeatedly, using his tip-toes shot fake, and dishing when he got into trouble.

If he was showing off for a few scouts, they had to be impressed.

-Incredible adjustments made by the players and the staff in the second half. When Vaughn started to go off Pitt's coaching staff ditched the hedge on the perimeter and went to simply switching off every screen. It was a gamble, but it paid off.

The switches shut down Vaughn from the inside and forced him to penetrate. He got fouled a few too many times, but he also got blocked by Young a few times too.

-Don't underestimate the decision to pull Blair and replace him with Tyrell Biggs either. Blair has shown a tendency to foul away from the hoop and can't keep up with perimeter players. Biggs isn't going win many foot races with guards either, but he played well when asked to switch onto Vaughn.

If the Bearcats' coaching staff started to dump into the middle, like I suspect Louisville might do in that situation, we might be lamenting another blown lead and critics would be all over Coach Dixon's decision to pull Blair. Could you really blame them?

-Biggs played one of his best games off the bench against Cincy. Aside from the solid defense against Vaughn, he contributed like a valuable bench player should. He had 6 points and never missed a shot. He was 2-2 from the field and 2-2 from the charity stripe. He also had 4 rebounds, 1 offensive, in 20 minutes of play.

-The guards deserve congratulations for a superb all around effort. Ronnie Ramon lead the team with 7 rebounds to go with his 12 points, 4 assists and 0 turnovers. Keith Benjiman had 5 rebounds to go with his 15 points. Levance Fields had 4 rebounds to go with his 10 points, 6 assists and only 1 turnover.

The biggest asset the guards brought to the table was their rebounding. These three had 16 total rebounds, but more importantly they had 4 offensive rebounds. Missing long shots doesn't hurt as much, if you're grabbing the rebounds.

Ramon and Fields combined for 10 assists with only 1 turnover. That's great ball protection.

-One final closing comment...Blair didn't have his best performance, for whatever reason. He attempted only one shot from the field, which he missed and only hit 2-6 from the charity stripe. It was obvious that Cincy was not going to let Blair beat them. They doubled him all night long. My only criticism of Blair is that he needs to recognize the double earlier, or realize when a team is late on the double and go up strong quicker.

I'm sure Blair had some butterflies, but we'll need him to shake them when we play Louisville tonight.