Day 3, Pitt-Butler

Or, as an alternate heading: WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? OH MY GOD, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING??????

As I was watching the last 8-10 minutes of this one, my first thought was how Pitt looked competent on offense for the first time in about 6 years in the NCAA tournament. Pitt has always been a defensive stalwart, and they've been beasts on the boards, but offensively they've been...ahh, unimaginative. When they were down 8 to Butler around halftime, I was very worried. Heck, when they were down 4 to Butler with ~6 minutes remaining, I was very worried. But to their credit, they executed some very nice offensive sets, got good looks, and took a one-point lead with under a minute left.

Then they became Pitt again. With 43 second sleft they ran down the shot clock to 13 seconds, called a timeout, and proceded to not get a shot off before the shot clock expired, giving Butler the ball with 9 seconds left. Butler got the ball to midcourt and called their last timeout with 7.1 seconds left. Everyone in the building wondered how coach Brad Stevens would design a way for en fuego hand Shelvin Mack to get open to release a shot (he only had 30 points at the time). Stevens didn't. He used Mack as a decoy and got a layup for one of his big men with 2.1 seconds left.

Then it really got interesting. Would-be hero Mack FOULED the Pitt player receiving the inbounds pass, giving Pitt 2 shots with 1.2 seconds left. He made the first, but missed the second.

Then it got ridiculous. A Pitt player FOULED Butler big-man Matt Howard as he caught the rebound, giving Howard 2 shots to take the lead with 0.8 seconds left. Howard made the first, missed the second intentionally, and Pitt couldn't launch a prayer in time.

First off, yes, both were fouls, and no, neither was ticky tacky, and finally, yes, the officials got both calls right. Both were huge brain farts, the Pittsburgh one was more incredible only because he was given a template of what not to do and did it anyway. As my friend Dave said, Jamie Dixon has to be sick right now. He seemingly addressed Pitt's weakness of the last few years, and they still lose to a lower seed for the 4th season in a row. And while this loss at first blush goes on the players (missed 2nd free throw, idiotic foul), look a little deeper:

Jamie Dixon had 13 seconds to set up a play to get a bucket while up 1. It ended in a shot-clock violation.

Brad Stevens had 7.1 seconds to set up a play to get a bucket while down 1, AND Dixon got a look at his first setup and was able to adjust his defense accordingly, so presumably, Stevens was down to his 2nd-choice play. It ended in a layup.