Pitt’s Guillermo Diaz Graham likes the flavor of his first taste of March Madness
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When Guillermo Diaz Graham walked onto the UD Arena floor for Pitt’s First Four NCAA Tournament game Tuesday, he was startled by the enormity of the crowd.
Born in the Canary Islands 20 years ago, Guillermo and his twin brother, Jorge, had been playing basketball for years. Why such a big deal over this game among all others?
Guillermo turned for the answer to Aidan Fisch, his teammate and a Franklin Regional graduate who knows all about this time of year.
“March Madness, baby,” Fisch said. “That’s how it is.”
Until last year, when he was playing basketball at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., Diaz Graham never had seen an NCAA Tournament game. Now, he not only has laid eyes on one, but he impacted the outcome by starting at center for Pitt while Federiko Federiko was out with a knee injury.
Diaz Graham, a 7-footer who never had started a game in college before Tuesday, played 37 minutes, hit a 3-pointer, grabbed five rebounds and blocked two shots, including one with two seconds left that otherwise might have ended Pitt’s season. Instead, the Panthers (23-11) prevailed 60-59 and advanced to face Iowa State (19-13) at 3:10 p.m. Friday in a first-round game in Greensboro, N.C.
The block surprised Diaz Graham as much as it did the Mississippi State shooter, 6-11, 245-pound senior Tolu Smith.
“I did a block. I don’t even know how, with my left hand,” Diaz Graham said. “I usually don’t use my left hand.
“He’s bigger than me, but I’m going to fight more than you. It’s exhausting, but we won, so it was worth it.”
Said coach Jeff Capel: “I mean for Guillermo, as a freshman, to start in the NCAA Tournament and play 37 minutes against an all-conference (SEC) player that’s a graduate, that’s a grown man … ”
Without Diaz Graham, Mississippi State might be playing Friday.
“Doing what he did at the end of the game was specific,” Pitt’s Blake Hinson said. “But throughout the game, really holding his own is huge. That’s one of the best stories of the day, if not the best.”
Added Diaz Graham: “Every time I look behind me, I can never imagine myself being here right now. I appreciate the moment. I enjoy the moment.”
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Pitt played one of its best games on defense in the victory against Mississippi State, a poor shooting team that missed 16 of 18 3-pointers after hitting 4 of 5 to start the game. Only one team inside the ACC (Louisville, twice) failed to score 60 against Pitt.
Yet Pitt wasn’t perfect at the end. Shakeel Moore missed a wide-open 3 from the corner with two seconds left. “How did that guy get open? I had no idea,” Hinson said. “Luckily, he missed it.”
Then, D.J. Jeffries had a clear path to the rebound, but his put-back failed to find the cords.
But Pitt had enough fight, clutch play and good fortune to improve to 7-3 in games decided by three points or fewer. It was a tense game for 40 minutes, but Pitt’s Greg Elliott said he was too consumed by the moment and his love for the game to feel his heart beating.
“I didn’t feel it beating, for real,” he said. “I was just out there playing basketball. I didn’t see the crowd. It felt like another day at practice. I knew the magnitude of the game, but I can’t think about it like that. I just have to go out there and play the game I love and just make plays.”
The next hurdle is trying to beat No. 6 seed Iowa State, perhaps without Federiko. Capel is making no promises his 6-11 center will be back on the floor.
“If we would have played later in the week, Thursday or Friday, maybe there was a chance he could have been ready for that,” Capel said. “There’s a chance he could be ready for Friday. We’re very, very hopeful.”
When Federiko told teammates he couldn’t play Tuesday, Elliott made him a promise.
“I told him I’d make sure he gets to play in an NCAA Tournament,” he said.