Friday, 23 December 2011 23:35

Written by Ray Fittipaldo

A little more than a month after Long Beach State whipped the Panthers on their home floor, Wagner did the same Friday night, winning, 59-54.

Pitt made it a little bit interesting at the end, but Wagner controlled the game almost from start to finish. The Seahawks were up by 12 midway through the second half.

Boy, did the Panthers ever miss Tray Woodall tonight. Woodall missed his sixth consecutive game with an abdominal injury, and his teammates really could have used his services against Wagner.

The Panthers had 18 turnovers. Ashton Gibbs, who is being forced to run the offense in place of Woodall, had four of them. Nasir Robinson, the other senior on this team, had five. Lamar Patterson, another starter, had four more.

Not only did Gibbs not get Pitt into its offense, but he had another terrible shooting performance. He was 5 for 16 from the field and 1 for 7 from 3-point range. He is 13 for 44 from behind the arc since Woodall exited the lineup.

It's too much to ask. He is not a point guard. Never was, never will be. And Jamie Dixon did not sound very optimistic about Woodall's injury after the game.

"We expected him to be back by now," Dixon said.

Doesn't sound like the rehab is going as smoothly as we had been let on.

Notre Dame is not a very good team. The Irish lost their best player, Tim Abromaitis, to an ACL injury before the season. But even a depleted Irish squad can beat Pitt if the Panthers put forth another effort like that on Tuesday night.

One other thing, I am starting to wonder about the leadership of this team. Gibbs and Robinson, the seniors, were requested to come into the interview room and neither showed up. They left it to Lamar Patterson and Dante Taylor to field questions from reporters.

That's not good. Go in and take your medicine, answer a few questions and get out of there. Don't put underclassmen in position to do that when you're supposed to be the leaders of this team.

Have a nice holiday. I'll post again Monday.