City Game just didn’t have much zing
The family was sitting around my mom蘑菇视频 house, allowing Thanksgiving dinner to settle, watching some football,聽 and checking out my great-nephew蘑菇视频 newly-acquired skill of rolling over (and over, and over) on his own.
I was talking with my nephew Brian Lohr about continuing our version of Black Friday shopping, when I broached the idea of going to the City Game, the annual men蘑菇视频 college basketball featuring Duquesne and Pitt.
I figured the schedule was slow and I鈥檇 be able to swing the night off, and he said he鈥檇 be done working around 4 p.m. so we decided to go to the game.
Well, as it turned out, he did have to work at the preschool anyway, so his younger brother Jason filled the seat.
Now, this is not the first City Game I鈥檝e attended.聽
My dad attended Duquesne, so my sister made a call or two and secured four tickets to the game back on Dec. 5, 2007.
My brother-in-law was supposed to go, but had to work so I filled the seat this time. My dad still had his sight back then and enough mobility to get to the arena, so we found our way to the handicapped-access seats (folding chairs, actually) and watched a near-upset.
The Dukes gave the Panthers all they wanted that night at Palumbo Center before succumbing, 73-68.
Sam Young led Pitt (8-0) with 23 points. DeJuan Blair finished with 10 points and nine rebounds. Shawn James scored 20 for Duquesne (6-2).
That was one of the last sporting events my dad was able to enjoy in person. His sight and legs started to fail him not long after, but he had a momentous night with his grandsons.
Fast forward to Friday night. Now, it蘑菇视频 no secret driving to Pittsburgh, especially the city proper, is not on my favorite things to do list. Plus, though I had been to the Civic Arena many times, the lone time I was in PPG Paints Arena (Consol Energy at the time) I was a passenger for the Tri-Siberian Orchestra show.
(Just a little side note 鈥� My dad was in Mercy Hospital a couple years after that City Game. My mom called and asked what the building under construction that she saw out the window of my dad蘑菇视频 hospital room. It was the new arena. Then, she inquired about that big silver building in the background. The Civic Arena, mom.)
I managed to wrangle out some semblance of directions to the lot my brother Pat used for his annual trip to the TSO show and off I went with my not-very-good co-pilot riding shotgun.
A public service announcement 鈥� If you plan on using Stevenson Street to cut across to Fifth Avenue in the near future, best have a Plan B in place cause Stevenson Street is closed. I learned that after I turned down Stevenson Street.
I didn鈥檛 panic. Just went with the flow and actually found a private lot not far from the arena that had me pointed out to a quick exit onto Forbes Avenue. (But, my life can鈥檛 be that easy for the same road construction that blocked my entrance also stymied my easy exit. Ugh.)
The doors were just opening when we arrived and we passed the screening at the door. We walked around, scoping out the food outlets (because Jason is always up for a meal). After securing usual athletic game fare (hot dog and nachos), we found our way to our seats.
The seats were closer to God than the floor, but at mid-court. Actually, not a bad view for what was a frustrating game.
Over two minutes elapsed before the first field goal was made. The game seemed to lack flow, but I prefer stifling defense, strong defensive rebounding and transition, not run the clock down to 6, 7 seconds, so that likely skewed my assessment of the game.
I was rooting for the Dukes (though I did some graduate work at Pitt and Jason蘑菇视频 mom is a Pitt alum), so their play just frustrated the basketball coach in me to no end.
Duquesne cut the score to 30-24 at 3:23 of the first half, but trailed 37-26 at halftime. That trend carried over into the second half.
The Dukes cut the deficit to 47-45 at the 12:55 mark of the second half, but could not make the defensive stand to get over the top. They battled back to 52-49 with 10:51 to play, but that was the high-water mark as wasted possessions and a defense that couldn鈥檛 make a stand let the momentum slip away.
We were both impressed with Pitt forward Ryan Luther. The 6-9, 225-pound senior from Gibsonia opened our eyes with a couple amazing cross-over dribble moves along the right baseline in the first half. He was rather mobile and nimble for such a big guy.
He also stepped out and hit a couple 3-pointers. Luther scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds, both team highs.
That being said, though, I don鈥檛 know how he鈥檒l work against other ACC power forwards or true centers.聽
Mike Lewis led Duquesne with 20 points and made all four free throws he attempted.聽
As a testament to the issues the Dukes had on defense, Pitt hit over 50 percent (30-for-56) from the field and 40 percent (9-for-22) from 3-point range, and, much to my surprise, made 7-of-11 free throw attempts.
The Dukes were 39.7 percent (23-for-58) from the floor and made just 7-of-27 3-point attempts, but that number is skewed by late-game attempts from behind the arc. But, they did make 11-of-15 shots from the foul line (much to my surprise cause it sure seemed not to be that efficient).
Both teams are young with a lot of sophomores and freshmen playing a lot of minutes. Keith Dambrot is in his first year at Duquesne and Pitt蘑菇视频 Kevin Stallings is in his second season with basically a whole new team.
I can see both teams being fair-to-middling through the conference play, but I wouldn鈥檛 make any postseason plans for either.
But, there蘑菇视频 nothing wrong with catching them closer to home. College basketball is a lot of fun to watch in person, so much so I am going to make a concerted effort to make a game at the alma maters (Saint Vincent and IUP). Which, by the way, happen to be the same schools Brian attended, so let the tour begin.