WVU 76, Pitt 62

Joe Alexander scored a lot of points, again. It’s good to see him peaking at just the right time before the tournament starts. At this time last year he was falling off the radar, now he is turning it on just in time.

Turning to Pitt, where is the leadership from the Panthers? From my outside vantage point, it seems like there is some dynamic at work with them since Levance Fields came back. Some kind of leadership vacuum that exists. Guys like Sam Young, Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin should be the leaders on that team but they were mostly non-factors tonight, especially the guards. Nobody stepped up for Pitt and as much as I give our guys credit for a well-played game, Pitt simply didn’t want it tonight and I think you will see the Pittsburgh media call them on the carpet for it tomorrow.

We hit 20 FG inside the arc tonight which has to be the most for us in a long time. Ten of those were from Alexander and he was lethal in the mid-range game. Pitt was helpless to defend against the turnaround was a key and I love that Alexander has developed that back-to-the-basket offense. I expect teams to start watching for that and will find some other way to make WVU beat them besides Joe going off for 30+ per game.

If we can finish out strong and handle our business against St. John’s on Saturday then we can go into the Big East tournament mostly with the pressure off.