And just like that, Pitt’s season is O-V-E-R.
I could go into the details about how this game was lost. The late turnover. The three-pointers by Butler. The missed free throw by Gil. The foul by Nasir Robinson.
But some losses are just too painful to dissect, so I’m not going to try to do that here.
College basketball is a different animal because you’ve got kids playing instead of adults. I’ve written this before, but these are kids. Being 18 may qualify you as an adult in most aspects, but these are kids that are going to be prone to mistakes – especially in pressure situations. Just as Nasir made a mistake in fouling Matt Howard, Butler made a mistake in fouling Gilbert Brown near midcourt just before that.
The last thing Pitt fans should be doing is complaining how they were hosed out of a Sweet 16. The loss was tough – too tough. But the fact is had they simply backed off after Brown’s miss, they’d have had a chance at OT.
Robinson, while making a bad decision, also shouldn’t obviously take the blame. Butler was red hot from three-point range in the first half and there’s not much you can do about that.
This one is going to sting beyond belief for a while. But, well, it is what it is.