West Virginia vs Pittsburgh: Big East Basketball Tournament Predictions

Written March 12, 2009 by Jordan Haimowitz

west-virginia-pittsburgh-basketball-predictions-031209 West Virginia is an impressive team led by Senior captain Alex Ruoff. The heart and soul of this team Ruoff has been for the past four years. Da’Sean Butler has been their main scoring threat from the beginning of the year. He averages a stellar 17 points and 6 rebounds per game. Freshman forward Devin Ebanks has been a very pleasant surprise for Bob Huggins this year. He puts up 10 points and 8 rebounds a game and has been a key contributor late in the season. West Virginia is a superb defensive team giving up only 61 PPG. The Mountaineers while being very athletic, due lack size and strength. They have no realistic match up for The beast of the Big East Dejuan Blair. A future NBA star in Blair should be able to control the paint. West Virginia will try extremely hard to keep this game on the perimeter and bank on Ruoff, Butler and Darryl Bryant getting hot from three point land. West Virginia is a legitimate team. Their knock has been that they have not beaten a top tier team with the exception of the win at home vs Villanova and their early season win @ Ohio State. It is going to be very tough for the Mountaineers to upend the #2 ranked Pittsburgh Panthers. The line for the game has been set at Pitt -4 over West Virginia.

Pittsburgh is your prime example of a well-rounded scoring attack. They are the best “Triple Threat” team in the nation. They have top notch outside shooting Levance Fields and Jermaine Dixon, A future NBA star in Sam Young who is a stone cold killer that can score inside or out and in what I believe is the most dominating player in the country period. Blair is an impossible match up for any bid man. He has outplayed Hasheem Thabeet two times this year. Levance Fields is the captain of this team. The emotional and vocal team leader he has been since the beginning of last season. Pittsburgh scores an impressive 78 PPG while giving up only 64 PPG. They collect 37 rebounds a game and shoot 48% from the field as a team. They have in my opinion the most impressive resume in the nation wins a plethora of key wins which include…vs Washington State, @ Florida State, vs Syracuse (18 point win), swept the home and away with West Virginia (won both by double digits), swept the home and away with UCONN and beat Marquette (15 point win). The Panthers control the paint in every game they play and have players with great basketball IQs. They never hurt themselves. Their is no key match up for Pittsburgh to worry about as they have players to guard Butler from the perimeter and off the dribble, Dixon will smother Ruoff around the three point line and Ebanks will be matched up against Sam Young. If Pittsburgh were to lose this game it will be due to their lack of focus and determination, don’t count it though.

Prediction: In my eyes Pittsburgh is the best team in the nation. They have played UCONN twice when the Huskies were ranked #1 and have beaten them both times. They have key wins all over the place and are as balanced as any team can be. Fields is a floor general who has a boatload of experience. Sam Young is complete player who has NBA scouts drooling. He is a prolific scorer averaging 19 PPG and is also a well above average defender. Jermaine Dixon is one of the top defensive players in the country period. Dejaun Blair, an absolute man child who once again in my opinion is the most dominating player in the country and is just physically superior to his opponents on both ends. Jamie Dixon is a wonderful coach who is an X’s and O’s master. West Virginia is 14-15 ATS this year while Pittsburgh is an impressive 16-8-1 ATS. West Virginia is 5-13-1 ATS in their last 19 meetings against Pitt. You can count on adding another loss to trend and Pitt will be once again to much for West Virginia to handle. The Panthers take this one a lot easier then the final score will look.

Regular Season records:

West Virginia 22-10

Pittsburgh 28-3

Betting Line: Pittsburgh -4

Jordan’s Pick: Take Pittsburgh -4

Final Score Prediction(my registered pick is listed above)

Pittsburgh 73

West Virginia 66

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4 Comments

Comments

4 Responses to “West Virginia vs Pittsburgh: Big East Basketball Tournament Predictions”

Mountain Man on March 13th, 2009 7:12 am

WVU 74 – Pitt 60

Reply
Jordan Haimowitz on March 13th, 2009 7:50 am

Mountain Man,

A very impressive win. So often their are games when a team will win off a bad call or a lucky break. This was not one of them. If Ebanks is going to play like this come NCAA tourney time, no team will want to see WV near their side of the bracket. I hope you checked out my other articles predicting USC +1.5 and my best bet of the night Alabama +2.5. Ill have my picks ready to roll for you by noon today. Thanks for your comment and interest in my article

Jordan

Reply
nevergreen on March 13th, 2009 8:53 am

This was actually a pretty fair and balanced assessment, and going off of previous games and general performance, I would have predicted Pitt winning, and I’m a WVU fan. At the same time, I would have said it was more of a contest than the previous games.

Huggin’s has focused a good bit on getting the strength and stamina of the team up to par, which was where the floundered in the previous matchups with Pitt. It would be relatively close until the half, and then Pitt would wear them down in the second.

You were dead on about Pitt smothering Ruoff. There were at least a half-dozen times where Flowers was at the key, and he pretty much had an open shot because Pitt was so focused on keeping the ball away from Ruoff, Butler, etc.

This was a good article, even if it did favor Pitt.
Cheers

Reply
Jordan Haimowitz on March 13th, 2009 9:40 am

nevergreen,

Your input is well-noted and your opinions are valued. I am glad you liked the article. As a WV fan you must be quite pleased right now. As stated in my previous reply, If Ebanks plays like this no team will want to see the Mountaineers anywhere near their side of the bracket.

Thank You,
Jordan

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