Good point about Pitt’s game plan. Jamie Dixon is a solid coach who knows how to get his players to commit to team goals. Familiarity helps too. Dixon knows how to attack that zone. It is no coincidence that Pitt chose to focus on Rautins.

As for Calipari – that is my point – he never overstays his welcome, and he never stays long enough to have to be accountable for the past.

As Chris said, they need to play with fire and hustle tonight. They need to play with the chip on their shoulders that they were playing with at the beginning of the year. I didn’t see that emotion on Saturday.

I think that Pitt had a great game plan to beat ‘Cuse on Saturday. They slowed it down, made it a relatively low scoring game (especially the first half) and kept Rautins from any open looks from 3. Doing that forced other players (i.e. Triche and Joseph) to shoot from the outside more than they should have. They had little success.

Like I’ve said on here before…Big East teams know how to play the ‘Cuse. Out of conference teams don’t see the 2-3 as often and don’t have the team scouted as well. My formula for success against Syracuse would be to get in the penalty early and use your 5 bench players to foul Onuaku every possession.

I’ll chime in later, but just a couple of early thoughts.

As far as Calipari is concerned…isn’t he coaching a top 5 Kentucky team now?? Plus as we’ve seen in the past, recruiting violations don’t follow a coach, they stay with the program left behind (ex. USC).

Great insights. Interesting tidbits on Pastner – after taking the Memphis job, the young coach was approached by the businesses looking to reign him in as a spokesperson. In return, Pastner would receive cash for his services. Pastner politely declined all this income. The message: Thanks for the offer, but I am here to coach not do commercials.

As of October, Pastner had one of the top recruiting classes lined up. Which brings up the topic again: Why did Calipari leave Memphis?

Memphis is a tough bunch. I’ve had the opportunity to see them play a few times this year and they have been quite impressive. They play hard and they play with purpose which is a reflection of a good coach. Josh Pastner is such a cool, refreshing story – at 19 years old he applied for his first head coaching job (I believe it was the Clippers opening). I didn’t even have a resume when I was 19.

Pastner’s team plays with fire. They are not the most talented team but neither is Syracuse. The great thing about basketball is that the talent factor doesn’t always translate to the “W” column at the end of the season. Memphis will play hard and I believe they will keep it close. In the end, I think it will be Syracuse on top.

The most interesting factor in this game for me is going to be the attitude displayed by ‘Cuse. Will they come out like a bunch of pouty punks after losing to Pitt? Or, will they grow a set, get ticked off, realize that if they don’t play hard EVERY game against EVERY team, they will lose (LeMoyne anyone?)…..