Defense leads Pitt to 59-41 NCAA Tournament victory against Iowa State
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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Guillermo Diaz Graham just couldn’t help it. He needed to open his mouth and unleash all his emotion with one scream.
Even though he would rather not.
Screaming is what everybody — Pitt players, coaches and, especially, the 16,150 at Greensboro Coliseum — were doing Friday while the Panthers (24-11) fought their way into the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a 59-41 upset victory against No. 6-seed Iowa State. Next up: No. 3 Xavier of the Big East at 12:10 p.m. Sunday with a Sweet 16 berth at stake.
That’s Jorge on the left, Guillermo on the right pic.twitter.com/0G2c81jf49
— Jerry DiPaola (@JDiPaola_Trib) March 18, 2023
The final score made the game look like an easy victory, but it was far from that for most of the afternoon.
One of the game’s most significant moments happened with 7 minutes, 11 seconds left and Pitt holding onto a 10-point lead that no one could be sure would last.
Diaz Graham took a slick pass from his twin brother, Jorge, found himself all alone in the paint and his slam gave Pitt a 12-point lead that grew from there.
He let out a scream to rival the one he bellowed when his block saved the Mississippi State victory Tuesday.
Before the game, Pitt’s freshman 7-footer said he had a stern talk with himself when he made a promise:
No more screaming.
“I feel like last game I was really nervous, and I was speeding up everything,” he said. “This game, I was trying to calm down. I think that helped me to play with patience and (to play) smart.
“When you make a big play, you want to scream. Just calm down and let’s get the next play.”
But, Guillermo, what about your reaction to the dunk?
“I did scream,” he said. “OK, I have to scream now. There was so much energy inside of me. That was the only one.”
Who could blame him? It’s not every day a freshman from the Canary Islands takes a pass from his twin brother in an NCAA Tournament game and punctuates the play with a slam.
“That ball coming from my brother, especially, I know it was going to be big time,” he said. “Just grateful for the opportunity to be here with him.”
Jorge added, “I said it before: I’m going to start to play point guard.”
He told a story from practice Thursday when Guillermo dunked on Jorge and Nate Santos.
“He was talking trash,” Jorge said. “So I told him, ‘OK, you want to talk now, but just do it in a game.’ So he did, and now I have to shut up and say thank you for making my assist.”
In the end, senior guard Jamarius Burton gave the scream his blessing.
“His energy was tremendous and contagious,” he said.
Diaz Graham’s emotions aside, the victory was fueled by Pitt’s defense that allowed the fewest points to an NCAA Tournament opponent since 1940.
Iowa State (19-14) struggled to find any kind of shooting touch, even a bad one. They ended the game with a beyond-bad percentage of 23.3% (14 of 60). Until the final 4 minutes, 38 seconds, the Cyclones had scored only 30 points after missing 23 of their first 25 second-half attempts.
Pitt seized a 22-2 lead to start the game while Iowa State failed to record its first field goal until the 9:55 mark.
Through much of the game, Iowa State had trouble dealing with Pitt defenders who stayed close to anyone with or without the ball, slapping at them, trying to be as disruptive as possible.
Iowa State was especially anemic from the 3-point line, missing 19 of 21. Even the free-throw line was no place for a Cyclones player to be. They shot only 57.9% there (11 of 19).
“Our defense really united us and allowed us to get out in transition, allowed us to get easy shots,” Burton said.
Coach Jeff Capel likes when his team scores, but the Panthers had trouble doing it, shooting only 34.1% (14 of 41). But he knows it’s defense that wins in March, and he called his team’s effort on that end of the hardwood “elite.”
“What an unbelievable defensive performance,” he said. “I said to these guys in the locker room, we were a really good defensive team for the majority of the year, except for the last month of the season, and we’ve really dialed back in these past two games and played at an elite level. Really, really proud of them.”
His pride stretches to all corners of the locker room:
• To Nelly Cummings, who scored 11 of his game-high 13 points in the second half. Included in his total were two 3-pointers, one when the outcome was in question, another with 62 seconds left as the final dagger.
Jamarius Burton, another ride on the merry-go-round with his buddies. pic.twitter.com/Vq99AsJZ0t
— Jerry DiPaola (@JDiPaola_Trib) March 18, 2023
• To Burton and Greg Elliott, who added 11 and 10 points. Elliott shared game rebounding honors (eight) with Guillermo Diaz Graham, who added nine points and three blocks.
• Federiko Federiko, who played only 11 minutes on an injured knee but helped keep the starters fresh.
“We understand it’s win or go home,” Burton said. “It really amped us up. We locked in on the scouting report even more.
“We’re continuing to fight for one another. We’re a brotherhood. We’ve talked all year about our genuine relationships. The bottom line is we don’t want to stop playing with each other.”