Pitt players try to forget last year’s 23-point home loss to Rutgers

Friday, 04 January 2013 09:07

Written by Ray Fittipaldo

Pitt’s 62-39 loss to Rutgers last season was one of the many low points in last season. But the Panthers don’t recall much about the circumstances of that loss and they claim they’re not going to use it as motivation tomorrow morning when they play the Scarlet Knights on their home court in New Jersey.

“Last year was last year,” Pitt junior J.J. Moore said of the 23-point home loss. “We try not to go back to last year. We didn’t play to our ability last year.  

When asked if the loss would provide any extra motivation all freshman point guard James Robinson would say was: “We know last year’s game kind of got out of hand.”

Perhaps the Panthers are keeping their emotions under wraps. Or perhaps they are following the lead of their head coach who also said there is no extra motivation for the game.

“We’ve got plenty of motivation,” Jamie Dixon said. “We just lost. I don’t think motivation is a problem right now. I don’t think it’s been a problem all year. We’ve played hard. We’ve executed very well, but we haven’t finished some games down the stretch. We know why we haven’t and that’s what we have to address.”

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tigerpaul, January 04, 2013 - 02:34 PM

I don't want to be too reactionary after one loss but I take exception to Coach Dixon's comment about playing hard. I thought Cincinnati played harder in the second half and that's a big reason why we lost. We were outhustled. Cincinnati played like a team that refused to lose two games in a row.

Pitt doesn't have enough elite talent to "just show up". We need to want it more than the other team. Michigan and Cincinnati wanted it more and that's why we have two losses.

+0