Arena Adventures: Consol Energy Center

Arena Adventures: NHL #1
December 28th, 2010
Atlanta Thrashers vs Pittsburgh Penguins
Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh, PA (opened Fall 2010)
www.consolenergycenter.com
(Click any photo for larger view)


AE Gate view from 5th Ave & Iceberg, the mascot, being badass.

Upon Arrival to the hotel and completed with check-in, we embarked on a venture to find lunch. After reviewing several locales around town, we settled on a small (seats about 40 maximum) bar near Consol Energy Center named “Tailgaters.” Lunch was very good, with a menu typical to most sports bars, and we were the only occupants other than the cook/bartender as it was 3pm local time, but would be extremely crowded during game-day. Overall a very nice place on the same block as the arena. Definitely recommended.

The trip for lunch required a walk past the Arena, which is absolutely stunning, built into the hill between 5th ave and Centre Ave. (For those who've been in Pittsburgh in the past, directly across Center ave is Mellon Arena. Despite the address as listed on 5th ave, the best entrance is up top, directly across from Mellon on Centre Ave (Trib Total Media gate)). I did not venture to the Verizon gate. The TTM entrance is immediately greeted by the Pen's Gear Store dead ahead, Lemieux Wall to the right, and their version of the 'Wall of Fame' to the left. Arena seating is up the stairs/escalators immediately right, and angled left. These take you to the lower concourse, with many of the premier food stalls. There is a set of escalators that go down, WAY down, to the 5th ave American Eagle entrance as well. Not recommended unless you parked on 5th ave or south of the arena. Nestled in next to the PensGear shop is the indoor Will Call window.

Upon arrival on the arena for game-day, all guests are subject to search entering the building, which is a minor inconvenience, but went quickly. The concourse is very easy to get turned around in, as the Captain Morgan Club and First Niagara Club flank each side of the rink, providing a sort of 'gated entrance' to the 100 level center ice sections on each side. In reality, these two 'clubs' block off easy access to nearly two thirds of the lower bowl, sprawling between both goals on each side of the arena. Upon peeking into these areas after the game, they are very nicely finished and rather elegant. This leaves only the corner and end seating sections open for easy access to the concourse, and made for an interesting trek upstairs to get the center ice picture (which is very crowded between periods).

The Lower bowl is stepped like a normal stairwell, which I guess to be about 35-40 degrees, and has truly perfect views no matter where your chair, or standing, vantage point is. I can picture this being equally as good for the B-Ball games held here, or for any other event in the building, as there was a WWE Wrestling taping the night prior. Overhead is a giant, HD scoreboard, with excellent picture, color, and thankfully, the proper brightness level, as that type of board could have been quite blinding. Notable food vendor includes Primanti Bro's, the Pitt staple mega-sandwich, and a 'smokehouse' vendor upstairs. I cannot comment on food, as I ate prior to the game. Beer was going for about $7 each.

Upstairs is quite a bit more compact, as the seating spreads wider out cramping the concourse greatly, with 34 sections up vs 22 down. The stairs are also much steeper, and could be treacherous after a few imbibing beverages. View from the tip top was strained, but clear, and felt roughly like standing on a high-dive over a frozen pool. Definitely not for the faint of heart or unsteady on the feet in the 200 level. As a rough reference point, the main-frame rafters are about 20-30 feet above the top row of seating, and the top row is above the top of the scoreboard. The television angle is from the Lowest points of the Upper level.

View from the top:


After scalping a ticket in, which I do NOT wish to repeat, the lighting over the rink was dimmed about 2/3, with various 'Pens' wordage and logos about the rink during the first intermission. The immediate impression I got was how close the top row, even being some 30 rows up, actually was to the rink, due to the aforementioned lower bowl slope.

Coming out of the 1st intermission, the Pens quickly took over the flow of the game, which was a 2-2 tie after 20 minutes. Atlanta rarely got the puck into their offensive zone by Fluery, even during their Power Play time. In fact, Pittsburgh's goal was shorthanded. The pens could not convert on several great chances, and left the 2nd with a 3-2 lead.

Into the 3rd period, the Thrashers pushed hard early to make a comeback, but they failed to properly take care of defense right out of the gate, and gave up a goal 9 seconds in. This proved to be the final blow for the loss, but not the game, as they were out-hustled throughout much of the 3rd despite some valiant attempts to get back into the game once it was completely out of hand. Pittsburgh had scored all 6 of their goals before Atlanta notched their 3rd of the night with just over 3 minutes to go in the game.

The final blow to the the momentum that Atlanta had came when #9 Evander Kane was KO'd on the side boards chasing down an iced puck in the middle of the 3rd. He registered the first goal of the game, just 47 seconds in, but was stuck on defense for most of the rest of the game. He spent several minutes on the ice w/out moving, so it was excellent to see him leave the ice on his own Power, albeit slowly and with help.


Broken defense was the story of the night, with the Thrashers not recovering all game long, and the Penguins making the needed changes after the first period to put this game away with a final tally: Thrashers 3 Penguins 6.




The hat trick that wasn't:


Thrashers on the Power Play:


Faceoff in the 2nd period:

Arena Adventures: Daniel-Meyer Coliseum

Arena Adventures: Entry #11

Arena: Daniel-Meyer Coliseum
City: Fort Worth, TX
Date: January 5, 2011
Teams: TCU vs. #6 San Diego St.

Day 2 of my Texas basketball adventure took me to the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum on the campus of Texas Christian University to watch the Horned Frogs take on the sixth-ranked and undefeated San Diego State University Aztecs. I picked this game from 3 options when planning my trip simply because I wanted to see SDSU play as I expected them to be a solid team this season having returned all 5 starters from last season’s NCAA Tournament squad. I did not anticipate them being undefeated and in the top 10 in the country at this point, however. The Aztecs, led by D.J. Gay, Kahwi Leonard, and Billy White have been impressive thus far, including recording wins at Gonzaga and over Missouri Valley Conference favorite, Wichita St. As such, they might have been a bit overrated, but based on their body of work thus far and their unblemished record, they deserve to be ranked sixth until proven otherwise in my opinion.

As for TCU, they entered the game with a 9-6 record, with a solid win over an ever-improving USC squad. The Horned Frogs are led by Fort Worth native, Ronnie Moss, who was the team’s leading scorer entering the game. Heading to Fort Worth, I expected the thrill of the TCU football team’s victory over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl to carry on through to campus and energize the fans to knock off another top 10 team, this time in a different sport. Well, apparently that isn’t the case as the DMC was quite empty at tip-off and the arena didn’t really fill up throughout the game either. The sparse crowd that was there was loud and proud, especially as the Horned Frogs jumped on the Aztecs early to lead by as many as 6 points at 25-19 late in the first half. San Diego St. was terribly inept on offense early on in the game; not sure if that was a result of overlooking the Frogs being that they are projected to be one of the lower-tier teams in the Mountain West, or if TCU’s defense was really shutting down the Aztecs. In any case, the Frogs looked extremely competitive throughout the first half and only a late 10-1 run by the Aztecs to end the first half turned the tide in SDSU’s favor and carried them to a 29-26 halftime lead.

In the first half, SDSU was not led by Gay, Leonard, or White, but rather Malcolm Thomas. This stat goes to show the sheer depth of the Aztecs and why I think they will be a different out of the NCAA Tournament come March. Unlike a Connecticut team for instance which is led mainly by a one-man band in Kemba Walker and some role players who contribute very inconsistently, SDSU has no shortage of players who can carry the team and put the ball in the basket on a given night. For instance, when the Aztecs travelled to Spokane to take on Gonzaga, Billy White was the leading scorer and carried the team to victory. In this game, it was Thomas, but he was also complemented nicely by the rest of his teammates in starting conference play on a positive note with a 66-53 Aztec win in Fort Worth. I commend TCU on playing hard throughout the game and not being intimidated by a team as experienced and highly-ranked as SDSU. Head Coach Jim Christian has the Horned Frogs going in the right direction, but with a move to the Big East Conference starting in the 2012-13 season, it’s going to be extremely difficult for TCU hoops to have anywhere near the success of TCU football.

In the end, I enjoyed watching a game at the DMC. You can definitely tell it is set up for basketball and basketball only as the sight lines appear to be great throughout. Additionally, the building is set at just about the right size, with a maximum capacity of approximately 8,000 people. Knowing that most of the students are on winter break and big alumni were still probably in California celebrating the Rose Bowl victory, the sparse crowd didn’t look quite as bad as it would have in a 15,000 seat arena. It would seem that this should have been the game Horned Frog nation circled on its calendars to attend and create an electric atmosphere to bring a huge home victory to fruition. Apparently, TCU basketball fans are not as prevalent and dedicated as its football fans are, and that’s ok, until the basketball team starts putting up results like Gary Patterson’s football team has been recently.

Arena Adventures: Ferrell Center

Arena Adventures: Entry #10

Arena: Ferrell Center
City: Waco, TX
Date: January 4, 2011
Teams: Baylor vs. Morgan State

Being the college basketball fan that I am, and the huge Connecticut fan that I am, I try to find a game or 2 each year where I can watch my Huskies play that I haven't been before. As previously documented, I started the Big East season by going to Pittsburgh to watch UConn play Pitt. However, I also wanted to add a non-conference contest to my schedule and it just so happened that my work schedule coincided with UConn's non-conference game in Austin against the University of Texas Longhorns on January 8. As I have never been to Texas before, I decided to head down a few days early and enjoy the warm weather and try to catch a couple additional college basketball games while in the state since there are so many Division I teams in Texas. The first team I decided to watch was Baylor as I really wanted to see both top recruit Perry Jones III and senior guard, LaceDarius Dunn, play in person. The only Baylor home game during my visit was a contest against the Morgan State Bears. Coming from the MEAC, it would seem like this game should have blowout written all over it, however, Morgan St. was coming off an NCAA appearance last season and was tabbed as the preseason favorite to win the MEAC again and represent the conference in the NCAA tournament. Obviously the Baylor fans also thought this wasn't going to be much of a game as the Ferrell Center was probably close to 2/3 empty making for a less than energetic atmosphere for the home Bears.


For the first 25 minutes of the game, Morgan St. was impressive, holding a lead of as many as 6 points over Baylor as Baylor appeared to be sleepwalking through much of the first half of the game. The most impressive of Morgan State's players was DeWayne Jackson, who was scoring almost at will against the long defense of Quincy Acy, Anthony Jones, and Perry Jones. Jackson had 19 first half points, but also picked up 2 fouls with about 8 minutes to go in the half and Morgan St. leading. Once Jackson went to the bench, Baylor was able to better contain the Morgan St. offense and eventually Baylor was able to turn the deficit it was facing for much of the first half into a 42-40 lead.


In the 2nd half, Baylor was able to jump on Morgan St. early and often, mostly lead by Dunn, who was absolutely on fire from three point range in the 2nd half. It seemed like every time down the court, Dunn was open for 3 and would hit. By the time the final horn sounded, Dunn had dropped 43 points on Morgan St., including a school-record 10 3 point baskets in Baylor's 89-72 victory. Not only did Dunn hit 10 3's, but he hit those 3's on only 18 attempts, and Dunn's attempts were the only 3 point field goals attempted by Baylor all evening. Along with Dunn's shooting prowess in the second half, Jones III looked significantly better on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court, showing why he is tabbed by most prognosticators as the #1 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft if he decides to go pro. In my opinion, he still looks too raw to be a significant contributor right away and he could end up being an Anthony Randolph-type player if he leaves Baylor after only 1 season.


All in all, it was an interesting experience in Waco. I wish that Big XII conference play started earlier in the season so that I could have caught a conference game where the Ferrell Center crowd might have been a little more enthusiastic, but Baylor has a very nice arena with great sight lines from everywhere in my opinion. Whether you're sitting in the 3rd row or the 30th row anywhere in the arena, you would have a great view of the action. I'm sure when Texas or Kansas comes to town, the place is sold out and loud, but to be a top tier sports school, the fans need to come out and support their teams against all opponents. It was a little disappointing to see so many empty seats both in the season ticket section and the general public sections, but I give credit to the Baylor fans that were in attendance. They saw a show by Dunn and were very engaging and enthusiastic when their team needed them when Morgan St. was playing their hearts out.

The Granddaddy of Them All...97th Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO

Game: 97th Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO

Location: Pasadena, CA

Stadium: Rose Bowl

Date: January 1, 2011

Teams: #3 Texas Christian (12-0) vs. #5 Wisconsin (11-1)

For years I've watched the Rose Bowl Game on television every New Year's Day, one day hoping to be able to watch the game in person from legendary Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California. Being a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and having lived in Wisconsin all my life, I remember the excitement that the Rose Bowl generated when Wisconsin played in 1994, 1999, and 2000 under former head coach, and current AD, Barry Alvarez. This is of course "The Granddaddy of Them All" as former ABC announcer Keith Jackson so vividly would describe each year on the broadcast. However, in this era of the BCS, the 97th edition of the Rose Bowl Game would not have the traditional Big Ten vs. Pac-10 matchup as Pac-10 Champion, Oregon, is playing in Glendale, AZ for the National Championship. As such, and due to a little known addition to the most recent BCS contract with ESPN, the Rose Bowl was obligated to take the top non-AQ (Automatic Qualifying) school if it lost one of its traditional participants to the title game. Therefore, instead of the Rose Bowl taking Stanford to preserve the Big Ten/Pac-10 matchup, the Rose Bowl was forced to take the TCU Horned Frogs. I mean no disrespect to TCU in using the term forced, but I think without this clause, the Rose takes Stanford to preserve tradition and TCU ends up going to the Orange Bowl to play Virginia Tech. Due to this completely non-traditional matchup, and the fact that my alma mater was playing, I dropped the cash to buy a ticket and fly to California to watch the Granddaddy in person.

Without having ever been to Pasadena before, I did not realize how the stadium itself is a few miles outside of city center where the Tournament of Roses Parade is held annually on game day. I arrived at the stadium about 2.5 hours before kickoff and was thoroughly impressed by all the people already on site for the game. The bowl committee does a great job of making game day an experience with a food court set up outside the stadium for patrons to buy some of the local area's best foods. Additionally, the alumni associations for each team hold gigantic parties in parking lots surrounding the stadium providing the perfect lead up to kick off. The aura of tradition and prestige just permeates the entire stadium site.

Upon finally entering the stadium itself, the senses are just completely engulfed with the sweet smells of hot dogs and soft pretzels as well as the sights of 90,000+ seats to be eventually filled with screaming fans supporting their team. Heading to my seat in row 5 of the north endzone, I was thoroughout impressed by the views and the grandure present in the stadium. I had to see what the view was like from the top of the stadium though. Thus, I walked up all 72 remaining rows all the way to the top and wow, was the view impressive. Anticipation built in the stadium as the top 20 all time Rose Bowl Games were counted down from ESPN's top 20 series from a few years back. Of course, the #1 game was the 2005 national championship game held as the Rose Bowl between Vince Young's Texas Longhorns and Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush's USC Trojans.

As the game approached kickoff and all the seats in the stadium were filled, it was a sea of red with the exception of the corner to my right which was the designated TCU section filled with fans covered in purple and white. Before kickoff, I was asking most of my friends whether or not the game was more likely to be a 21-20 game or a 45-42 game as both teams have very potent offenses averaging over 43 ppg, but what Wisconsin didn't have that TCU did is the #1 ranked defense in the country. The question though, was whether TCU's defensive stats were inflated having played in the Mountain West against cupcakes like New Mexico and UNLV, with some solid teams such as Air Force and Utah mixed in. I personally expected a shootout and in the first quarter, it appeared as though that was exactly what the fans and viewers were in for as no punts were required and the Horned Frogs scored 2 touchdowns to the Badgers' touchdown and a field goal.

As the 2nd quarter progressed, Wisconsin kept pounding the ball on the ground and running clock, but again failed to get into the endzone and settled for a missed Philip Welch 39 yd FG and a made Welch FG to end the half and trail 14-13. Wisconsin's ground game was racking up the yards, but TCU's defense, led by LB Tank Carder, was up to the challenge in the key moments of the Badgers' drives. Andy Dalton, TCU's QB, was extremely efficient in the first half methodically driving the Frogs down the field for a TD pass as well as a rushing TD.

In the 2nd half, the scoring subsided significantly, but the action and drama did not. Coming out of halftime, TCU received the kickoff as they deferred the opening kick, and drove right down the field for another touchdown to take a 21-13 lead. As the Badgers looked to answer and hopefully take the lead in the game, Wisconsin's offense sputtered on numerous drives. Wisconsin could get a first down or two behind the legs of Montee Ball or John Clay or the arm of Scott Tolzien, but never enough in a row to drive down the field. Additionally, the lack of big plays by both teams in the 2nd half allowed the defenses to keep both offenses out of the endzone until late in the 4th quarter. Wisconsin forced a TCU punt with about 5 minutes to play and quickly matriculated the ball down the field behind a 40+ yd run by Clay as well as another 20+ yd run by Clay. Eventually, Ball capped the drive with a 4 yd TD run to the right corner of the endzone to cut the Frogs lead to 2 with about 2 minutes to play. Wisconsin called a 2 pt conversion play that resulted in a wide open Jacob Pedersen in the endzone, however, Carder managed to get his hands up just in time and knock the ball down for TCU to preserve the 2 point lead.

Wisconsin poorly executed an onside kick that was recovered by TCU and with only 2 timeouts remaning for the Badgers, TCU only needed 1 first down to seal the game. On 3rd down, Ed Wesley broke through the line for 8 yards and the game-clinching first down for the Frogs. As time ticked away, the Horned Frogs exploded in celebration, which included a Gatorade bath for head coach Gary Patterson. So much for the Frogs and their "Little Sisters of the Poor" schedule according to Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee. If memory serves me, this win by TCU makes non-AQ schools 5-1 in BCS games against AQ schools, as well as Boise State's win last year in the Fiesta Bowl over TCU. If these outcomes don't prove the need for a playoff to let everyone have the opportunity to play for a championship, I don't know what other kind of proof exists. As a University of Wisconsin alumnus, I would have preferred a Badger victory, however, TCU outplayed the Badgers for 55 minutes of this football game and proved they were the better team in the end. Congrats to TCU on its undefeated season and I hope this outcome further supports US Senator Orrin Hatch's case against the BCS to further FBS football via a playoff system.

Arena Adventures: Pauley Pavilion

Arena Adventures: Entry #9

Arena: Pauley Pavilion

City: Westwood, CA

Date: December 31, 2010

Teams: UCLA vs. Washington

As my alma mater the University of Wisconsin was playing in the 97th Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO, I decided to make a trip out to California to watch that game and hopefully catch a couple other basketball games as well. On New Year's Eve, the UCLA Bruins were playing the preseason Pac-10 Conference favorite, Washington Huskies, so I decided to head from downtown LA up to Westwood to see historic Pauley Pavilion. I assumed that with all the history that has been made in Pauley in the John Wooden days that the arena was going to be one of the nicer ones I had been to. Boy was I wrong...

I give UCLA credit as a major renovation project is currently in progress to update Pauley by 2012, which I think is extremely necessary if UCLA wants to draw in the recruits UCLA should be signing under a proven coach like Ben Howland. The main thing I noticed was the gigantic spaces behind the baskets as Pauley is set up to push the bleachers back and transform into 3 separate courts when used for normal campus activity. The other thing I noticed was the fact that all patrons enter the arena at the same level and the only way to move about the arena is through the actual seating bowl as the exterior concourses are tiny. This results in traffic flow that is less efficient than the 405 or I-5 at 5:00 on an LA weekday.

As for the game itself, Washington was clearly the stronger team throughout the day, but UCLA played hard. Behind Malcolm Lee on the perimeter and Josh Smith in the post, UCLA was able to hang tough with the Huskies, trailing by a 38-31 margin at the half. Had UCLA been able to get better production out of Tyler Honeycutt in the first half, UCLA might have been even closer or leading, but Honeycutt picked up a couple of cheap fouls early on and sat most of the half. Isiah Thomas and Matthew Bryan-Amaning led the way for Washington in the first half.

As the second half started, Washington poured it on and eventually built a lead of as much as 17 points before UCLA started a fast and furious comeback. Behind Honeycutt and Lee, UCLA was able to trim its deficit to as little as 4 points before a huge 3 was buried by Darrell Gant of Washington and the Huskies never looked back from there, eventually winning by a margin of 74-63. This was a big win for the Huskies to sweep the LA-area schools (Washington beat USC 73-67 in OT 2 nights earlier) and take control of the Pac-10 Conference title race early on as Washington State lost at UCLA 2 nights earlier. In the end, I think both teams played about how they were expected to; Washington looking like the conference favorite and UCLA looking like a middle-tier Pac-10 team with an outside shot of an NCAA berth come March.

Arena Adventures: Carver Hawkeye Arena

Arena Adventures: Entry #8

Arena: Carver Hawkeye Arena
City: Iowa City, IA
Date: December 29, 2010
Teams: #25 Illinois vs. Iowa

My second trip of the year to see my Illini play, 2-0 in games I have attended this year. Maybe that is a good sign for the January 22nd game at Assembly Hall? If you haven't been to Carver Hawkeye Arena before it is very funky; the outside looks like a restaurant and inside the concourse is completely above all of the seats. Basically it was built into the side of a hill.

Carver Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa.

Illinois started off slow and was down 4 5:00 into the game at 11-15. Much had to do with the inability of the Illinois guards to contain Iowa City native Matt Gatens early. DJ Richardson and Bill Cole made back to back three's and the Illini never looked back. Illinois stretched it's first half lead to 13 on Freshman Jereme Richmond's tip in to make it 29-16.

Illinois took a 12 point lead (49-37) into the half when Iowa guard Bryce Cartwright hit a buzzer beater, seemingly taking the momentum into the locker room.But it wouldn't last. The Illini came out of halftime and went on a 9-2 run to push the lead to 19 at 58-39. It looked like the Illini were going to cruise, I was thrilled.

I'm following the Bill Simmons way;
I've got five years to teach my daughter
she bleeds Orange and Blue.

Credit the Hawkeyes, they were down and out yet they still continued to battle back. They played within themselves and played good enough defense to get the game back into single digits and make it a game again. Cutting the lead to as little as six, but in the end the Illini proved to be the better team and won by ten, 87-77.

Demetri McCamey lead the Illini with his second 20/10 game scoring 20 points, dishing out 10 dimes and adding in three boards. McCamey has been dynamite for the Illini all year and has positioned himself as a legit NBA prospect and potential first team All American and is clearly the best Point Guard in the Big Ten, not Jordan Taylor (yes I'm talking to you Shon Morris and Dan Dakich, seriously do you guys actually watch games?).

Billy Cole has been great for the Illini as well, he isn't flashy but he plays within himself and has not backed down from taking wide open treys (and nailing them). He has been the perfect glue guy for this team and hustles on each and every play.

Iowa looked pretty good though, not fantastic but I really do like the Fran McCaffery hire. It might be a few years but if he can get some athlete's to Iowa City they could have a very solid team and potentially compete for top half of the Big Ten. I don't see them winning any titles anytime soon but this is a good step for Iowa.

I like the improvement my Illini have made, we aren't clicking on all cylinders quite yet but I still see a talented team who could push for some March wins, especially when Jereme Richmond has continued to improve each and every game.

Arena Adventures: Petersen Events Center

Arena Adventures: Entry #7

Arena: Petersen Events Center
City: Pittsburgh, PA
Date: December 27, 2010
Teams: #6 Pittsburgh vs. #4 Connecticut

With the sizes of conferences continuing to balloon, it seems like conference play keeps starting earlier and earlier each year. This year was no exception as the Big East decided to open its conference play on Monday, December 27 and feature its coaches’ and writers’ preseason pick to win the conference in Pittsburgh against traditional power, and preseason 10th pick in the Big East, Connecticut. Turns out this game became a much more significant contest than the preseason prognosticators could have ever imagined based on Connecticut’s taking home the Maui Invitational Championship and Pitt having taken home the 2k Sports Classic title itself. As those tournaments featured a plethora of ranked teams, Connecticut shot up the rankings to #4 with 2 of the more impressive wins this season over Michigan State and Kentucky. Everyone in the preseason knew what they were getting with Pitt, a tough, physical team with a veteran backcourt in Ashton Gibbs, Brad Wanamaker, and Gilbert Brown, while no one had any idea what to expect from Connecticut with 6 freshmen and Kemba Walker being the only returning player who contributed significantly in the 2009-10 season. Consequently, Connecticut came into this game as the higher ranked team, and undefeated, while Pitt experienced its only blemish at the hands of a Jekyll & Hyde Tennessee Volunteer squad two weeks earlier.

Heading to the Pete as the Petersen Events Center is known as on campus, and being a huge Connecticut fan, I knew this game would be very difficult to win. It was the team’s first true road game of the season, Pitt is a veteran and physical team, and the Panthers are 141-11 all-time at the Pete. Additionally, in order to win the Big East it is pretty obvious that the good teams have to hold serve at home, and due to the enormity of the Big East, only 3 teams play home-and-home in a given season. As such, Connecticut got the short end of the straw and had to go to Pitt for its conference opener no less. A win here would justify that Connecticut is truly one of the elite teams in the country as their #4 ranking suggests, a close loss would prove they have the ability to contend nightly in the conference and compete for a conference title, and a blowout would show that most of these kids are still freshmen and sophomores and that it’s just damn hard to win on the road in the Big East.

From the opening tip, it looked like option three from above was going to be the result of the Huskies’ trip to Pittsburgh. Right out of the gate, Pitt took an 8-2 lead behind the inside play of Gary McGhee and the outside shooting of Gibbs, while Connecticut struggled to make anything. It was pretty obvious that the Huskies were a bit rattled at the beginning in front of 13,000 jacked-up fans in a “gold-out” at the Pete. Connecticut continued to get up shots, but those shots just would not fall. As a result, Pitt was able to build a 10 point lead and pretty much maintain that lead throughout the first half. It seemed as though every time Connecticut attempted to string together a few baskets to try to come back, Pitt always had an answer from McGhee in the post or Wanamaker or Gibbs from the perimeter. Connecticut was able to get a few steals, but also gave up a lot of easy hoops overplaying the ball and the veteran Panthers took advantage of that continuously with backdoor cuts and layups. The officiating crew lead by Jim Burr didn’t do much to help the flow of the game either way as well, calling a multitude of fouls in the first half, including 2 of Connecticut’s only legitimate post presence in Alex Oriahki, forcing Coach Calhoun to sit Oriahki for much of the first half. Walker also picked up 2 fouls in the first half, but didn’t get called for his second until late in the half. The lack of depth for Connecticut compared to Pitt really showed when foul trouble hit both teams. Pitt was able to turn to Travon Woodall in the backcourt and Dante Taylor and Nassir Robinson in the frontcourt, while Connecticut’s bench of Niels Giffey, Jamal Coombs-McDaniel and Enosch Wolf struggled mightly. All of these factors contributed to a 37-28 halftime lead for the Panthers; a half in which Pitt shot 55% from the field and Connecticut 32%.

The second half brought a lot of the same for both teams, as Connecticut continued to struggle from the field and Pitt continued to brutalize Connecticut both from the perimeter and in the post. Connecticut had no answer for McGhee inside, especially without Oriahki, as Charles Okwandu was simply not a physical enough presence in the paint to keep McGhee from the basket. Okwandu eventually fouled out of the game trying to defend McGhee and Oriahki didn’t have much different results against McGhee, Robinson, or Taylor. Oriahki simply looked out of sorts in the game, not sure if the first half foul trouble caused that or if he was just frustrated by the Pitt defense all night, but Oriahki was not able to play Robin to Kemba’s Batman in this game. By the end of the game, Walker single-handedly brought Connecticut back into the game, cutting the Pitt lead to 7 on a drive to the hoop under 5 minutes. After a solid defensive possession by the Huskies, Kemba got a wide-open 3-point look from the right corner and left it short. If Kemba is able to hit that, all the pressure in the game turns to the home team who should win this game. As it didn’t and Pitt was able to head down to the other end and knock home 2 free throws to extend the lead back to 9, the Panthers were headed to their first Big East win of the season. The final margin of victory ended up being 73-58. Walker finished with 31 points for Connecticut, but was the only Husky in double figures and Kemba needed 27 shots to score those 31 points. The Panthers’ balanced attack was lead by 16 from Gibbs, 14 from Wanamaker, and 11 from McGhee.

So what did we learn from this game to open the Big East conference season? In my opinion, we learned that Pitt is going to contend for the Big East title and a possible Final Four berth as they have an extremely balanced team and veterans in both the frontcourt and backcourt. The only question to me is can Pitt get over the Sweet Sixteen/Elite Eight hump finally? As for Connecticut, we learned what a lot of people thought, they were not the fourth best team in the country…right now. Could they be by April? Maybe, but they are going to need some consistent scoring from players other than Walker. When Kemba scores over 50% of the points in a game, the Huskies will probably not win very often. Oriahki needs to become a double-double guy and freshman PG Shabazz Napier needs to bring his offensive consistency more in line with the tough defense he plays nightly. Napier is a great defender, but does not always take shots in the flow of the offense or keep the offense moving. While he’s only a freshman, if Connecticut wants to make some noise in the tournament, he’ll need to be a consistent scoring option, along with Jeremy Lamb. In the end, this was a good win for Pitt to hold home court to open the Big East season, while Connecticut learned that they still have a lot of things to work on if they want to contend for a Big East championship in 2010-11.

Arena Adventures: Thomas & Mack Center

Arena Adventures: Entry #6

Arena: Thomas & Mack Center
City: Las Vegas, NV
Date: December 18, 2010
Teams: #22 UNLV vs. Southern Utah

As a work trip to Utah took me out west and the closest airports were Las Vegas or Salt Lake City (tough choice…I know), I flew into Vegas and decided I would catch a game at the Thomas & Mack. As the Thomas & Mack had hosted the NBA All-Star Game a few years back, I had fairly high expectations of the arena and its amenities for patrons. Turns out that the Thomas & Mack is a lot more of a college arena than a pro arena, that is for sure. The arena had a fairly standard bowl setup to previous basketball-only locales I have attended such as Crisler Arena at the University of Michigan or Assembly Hall for the University of Illinois. The seating bowl was quite steep in both the upper and lower levels, however, giving all fans a feeling of being close to the action…or a sense of “if I fall I’m heading straight down to the court.”

The highlight of the night had to be the extensive pregame introductions UNLV utilizes to kick off the game and pump up the fans. From rolling out a red carpet to bring the team out of the locker room to the flames from the top of the backboards and fireworks from above the scoreboard, one might have forgotten this game was being played indoors. I think the pyrotechnics show lasted a good five minutes and the smoke lingered for another 5 minutes of game action, creating a haze in the arena that was equal parts hilarious and unsettling.
Once the ball was tipped, both teams got off to an incredibly slow start, missing shots from all over the court. This wasn’t the best start for a UNLV team coming off back to back losses, including a home setback to UC-Santa Barbara. As the first half progressed, UNLV threw on a full-court press that the Southern Utah Thunderbirds simply could not handle. SUU struggled to get the ball across half-court and by the time they did and got set up, there was typically 15 seconds or less on the shot clock. As a result, the Runnin’ Rebels were able to build a 37-18 halftime lead. While UNLV star Tre’von Willis had a less than stellar first half, teammates Oscar Bellfield and Chace Stanback picked up the slack to lead the way. The second half brought more of the same for both UNLV and SUU, as UNLV kept pressing en route to a 72-50 win. This was a key game for UNLV to get back on track heading out to the Sprint Center in Kansas City (see Arena Adventures Entry 2 for discussion about the Sprint Center) to take on the Kansas State Wildcats in a nationally televised tilt.