Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Greentree Pro-Am Finals PGT beats GNC in OT

Okay so every year in the summer, there's a summer league held at the Greentree sportsplex.  Players from local universities (Pitt, Duquesne, RMU, etc.) as well as some alumni play some basketball.  It's highly entertaining.  I hadn't been following it closely so I can't give you a full recap of the tournament.  This post is solely for the purpose of talking about the championship round.
The PGT team (made up mostly of Pitt players) beat the GNC team (made up mostly of Duquesne players and other jobber schools).

Pitt's highly touted recruit Steven Adams had been playing with the PGT team but he was out of town so forward Talib Zanna and guard Chris Jones took his place.
Also on the team were Lamar Patterson, and James Robinson.

Onto the game, the GNC team had a few quick guards and a bigger guy by the name of Keaton Miles (WVU) that took it to PGT early and often.  They led from the get-go opening up an 18 point lead early in the second half.  PGT just did not have the scoring punch.

But that soon changed, started hitting some shots, Chris Jones took over for a 2 minute session and completely dominated and then Lamar did this with 40 seconds left and down 3.


That's cold.

Game went to OT, GNC went ice-cold and PGT took control.  They won by 7 or 8 I think after not having any lead at all until the OT.  Some quick comments on the Pitt players involved.

Lamar Patterson - He was the MVP of the tournament.  There's not much to say about his performance.  He actually shot poorly (5-22) but he was money from the line and he hit 4-9 from 3.  He dropped 27.  Most of his shots were finger rolls and runners that just rimmed out so no cause for concern.  He was getting into the lane fairly easily.  This is going to be Lamar and Tray's team next year and I'm thrilled about that.  He also dislocated the knee of a talented point guard from Youngstown State.  Okay, it makes it seem like he did it on purpose, but no he was backing him down and the dude's knee just buckled.  It wasn't a pretty sight.  Dude was in agony.

They asked Lamar about it afterwards.

I'm just kidding.  He actually seemed concerned.
Back on topic.  Lamar seems more willing to take charge, which can only mean good things for Pitt.  Grade A-

For some additional details about the game and the tournament as a whole, check out this message board post http://pittsburgh.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=538&mid=175909483&sid=996&tid=175909483&style=1
That link will also tell you more about the other players in the tournament, whom I don't care about because they're not from Pitt.

Chris Jones - He's a 6'5" incoming freshman from New Jersey.  He's more explosive than Patterson but lacks the passing ability or the control that Lamar has.  He came off the bench and was quiet in the first half, but then exploded for 13 in the 2nd half, most of which came in a 2 minute stretch.  He had a couple powerful dunks (one of which came off a brilliant inbounds play from James Robinson underneath the basket).  His shooting stroke is pretty solid.  He missed badly on a corner three in the first half but at least it looked pretty, which is more than I can say about some former Pitt shooting guards.  I'll be doing a more in-depth analysis on each of the incoming freshmen in the fall.  Grade B

Talib Zanna - Zanna still hasn't developed that scorer's touch around the basket.  He's a solid rebounder, but there's so much hesitation once he gets it that he can't finish.  He missed a lot of putbacks.  Really the only moment I remember from him was a nice turnaround hookshot.  Still have a lot of hope for Zanna, he's always capable of those 10 and 15 nights where he just grabs every board.  Grade B-

James Robinson - He's another incoming freshman, 6'3" guard.  I love this kid.  He had a nice drive and pull-up in the first half, but focused on distributing more in the second.  It looks like he and Jones have some chemistry.  I already mentioned the great pass to Jones for the dunk on the inbounds.  Great vision.  Grade B+

That's it for now, mostly because I'm trying to watch Batman Begins with C-Blog right now.

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