Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Re-Born Backyard Brawl Still Lacking Old Vigor
December 10, 2018 12:41 PM | Men's Basketball, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A couple of games is not going to undo what six years of inactivity did to the Backyard Brawl.
There were moments during Saturday's 69-59 West Virginia victory when it sort of felt like the old Backyard Brawl once the WVU students revived their culinary suggestion chant to their Pittsburgh friends, or seeing the five technicals, 49 fouls and 50 turnovers that were committed by the two teams during the game.
At one point, Pitt had twice as many turnovers as made field goals, and the Panthers finished with seven fewer field goals than miscues.
West Virginia wasn't much better, especially late in the game when things appeared to be well under control. WVU's inexperienced guards treated the basketball like a lit stick of dynamite as the Mountaineers' double-digit lead dwindled to eight with less than two minutes left to play.
That's kind of how these games used to be when the two battled each other in the same conference, whether it was in the Eastern Eight or the Big East.
An announced crowd of 13,670 showed up for Saturday's game, and 7,748 were at last year's contest in Pittsburgh – one of Pitt's largest crowds at the Petersen Events Center last season – so the people are still coming.
Pitt coach Jeff Capel did manage to work up a pretty good sweat on the sidelines spending as much time on the floor as his players, particularly when things started turning sour for the Panthers late in the first half.
Capel eventually drew the game's fifth technical foul early in the second half protesting a call or non-call. If some of the Pitt players are to be believed, he was disputing a no-call since there seemed to be a lot those on Saturday.
"They're a team that fouls the whole time and the refs don't call it," Pitt freshman guard Xavier Johnson said afterward.
That was somewhat of an eye-opening comment, perhaps, but pretty tame as far as postgame remarks go for the Backyard Brawl.
It doesn't come close to what former West Virginia coach Gale Catlett said after the Mountaineers' 82-77 victory over the Panthers before nearly 17,000 at the Coliseum back in 1982.
Catlett called the Panther program "mediocre" when asked if he thought the series should continue once Pitt left the Eastern Eight for the Big East at the end of the season.
In a controversial loss to the Mountaineers earlier that year, Pitt coach Roy Chipman did something similar when he lost his mind after a lane violation call late in the game cost his team a chance to defeat West Virginia at Fitzgerald Field House.
Most of what Chipman said afterward wasn't printable, the unhinged coach frequently using the same four-letter word that rhymes with Pitt and calling the lane violation infraction a "Mickey Mouse call."
So when Chipman found out about Catlett's "mediocre" comment following the second WVU win that year he made sure it was emblazoned in the locker room for the Pitt players to see each time they entered.
When the two teams eventually met for a third time a couple weeks later in the Eastern Eight championship at the old Civic Arena, the game was almost treated like an Ali-Frazier prize fight.
I had heard that Catlett's mediocre comment remained in the Pitt locker room during the rest of the time Chipman coached the Panthers.
A year or two later, I remember Catlett once pulling his team off the floor and refusing to play when he disputed the usage of a shot clock. He only relented when a Pitt administrator marched up to his office and produced a signed game contract that stipulated that a shot clock was to be used.
There was the WVU-Pitt football game in 1961 when Panther end John Kuprok was overheard calling West Virginia's players "Western Pennsylvania garbage."
To be fair to Kuprok, he made his comment on the team bus during a trip back from a game played at Miami the week prior and his quote was taken out of context by student reporter Jim O'Brien, who used a version of what Kuprok said in his game preview in The Pitt News.
West Virginia sports publicity director Eddie Barrett was in Pittsburgh advancing the game, saw the quote, and walked over to The Pitt News and bought a dozen more copies of the paper to distribute to the coaches and influential sportswriters throughout the state.
Each time West Virginia ran a sweep toward Kuprok's side of the field, as many as five or six WVU players converged on Kuprok to take a shot at him. The pounding didn't stop until the final seconds ticked off West Virginia's 20-6 victory.
And, there was the time in 2001 when West Virginia's Richard Bryant was encouraged to say he was going to be the best Bryant out on the field when the Mountaineers played the Panthers at Mountaineer Field.
He wasn't. Pitt's Antonio Bryant was clearly the much better Bryant as he torched the Mountaineer secondary with 11 catches for 186 yards and a touchdown in the Panthers' 23-17 victory.
Then, there was the 13-9 football debacle in 2007 and all of those Western Pennsylvania prospects who were standing on West Virginia's sidelines during the game celebrating with Pitt players and coaches afterward.
Pitt, with plenty of time on their hands during the holidays, even sent out 13-9 Christmas cards to local recruits that year while West Virginia was preparing for its Fiesta Bowl game against Oklahoma.
Those were some the things that ran through my mind while watching the two teams play on Saturday.
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, 6-2 against the Panthers as a Mountaineer player and now 6-7 against Pitt as WVU's coach, admitted afterward that the game has lost much of its vigor.
"Honestly, I think it's going to take a while before West Virginia-Pitt becomes what it once was," he said. "There's been a long time between games. I think it's still a rivalry because it's close enough for both fans to get to either place, but it's not what it was."
West Virginia's muscle-flexing forward Sagaba Konate gave a half-hearted attempt at stirring things up. He was once recruited by former Pitt coach Jamie Dixon before committing to the Mountaineers, although Konate failed to say whether or not the Panthers were really his No. 2 choice.
He was clearly the best player on the floor Saturday with 16 points, nine rebounds and seven blocks.
"When I committed here I heard about the rivalry and last year we played against them and our fans almost (took over) their arena," he said. "They're not going to come in here and beat us.
"That's not happening."
It didn't, just as Pitt wasn't able to protect its arena last year when the series was revived after being dormant for six years.
Will those two Mountaineer victories be enough to get things going again?
"To be honest, it really didn't feel like a rivalry," Johnson said. "I really don't know. I guess it's a rivalry, so I guess I have to treat it like a rivalry."
We'll see if that happens the next time these two teams meet next year in Pittsburgh.
There were moments during Saturday's 69-59 West Virginia victory when it sort of felt like the old Backyard Brawl once the WVU students revived their culinary suggestion chant to their Pittsburgh friends, or seeing the five technicals, 49 fouls and 50 turnovers that were committed by the two teams during the game.
At one point, Pitt had twice as many turnovers as made field goals, and the Panthers finished with seven fewer field goals than miscues.
West Virginia wasn't much better, especially late in the game when things appeared to be well under control. WVU's inexperienced guards treated the basketball like a lit stick of dynamite as the Mountaineers' double-digit lead dwindled to eight with less than two minutes left to play.
That's kind of how these games used to be when the two battled each other in the same conference, whether it was in the Eastern Eight or the Big East.
An announced crowd of 13,670 showed up for Saturday's game, and 7,748 were at last year's contest in Pittsburgh – one of Pitt's largest crowds at the Petersen Events Center last season – so the people are still coming.
Pitt coach Jeff Capel did manage to work up a pretty good sweat on the sidelines spending as much time on the floor as his players, particularly when things started turning sour for the Panthers late in the first half.
Capel eventually drew the game's fifth technical foul early in the second half protesting a call or non-call. If some of the Pitt players are to be believed, he was disputing a no-call since there seemed to be a lot those on Saturday.
"They're a team that fouls the whole time and the refs don't call it," Pitt freshman guard Xavier Johnson said afterward.
That was somewhat of an eye-opening comment, perhaps, but pretty tame as far as postgame remarks go for the Backyard Brawl.
It doesn't come close to what former West Virginia coach Gale Catlett said after the Mountaineers' 82-77 victory over the Panthers before nearly 17,000 at the Coliseum back in 1982.
Catlett called the Panther program "mediocre" when asked if he thought the series should continue once Pitt left the Eastern Eight for the Big East at the end of the season.
In a controversial loss to the Mountaineers earlier that year, Pitt coach Roy Chipman did something similar when he lost his mind after a lane violation call late in the game cost his team a chance to defeat West Virginia at Fitzgerald Field House.
Most of what Chipman said afterward wasn't printable, the unhinged coach frequently using the same four-letter word that rhymes with Pitt and calling the lane violation infraction a "Mickey Mouse call."
So when Chipman found out about Catlett's "mediocre" comment following the second WVU win that year he made sure it was emblazoned in the locker room for the Pitt players to see each time they entered.
When the two teams eventually met for a third time a couple weeks later in the Eastern Eight championship at the old Civic Arena, the game was almost treated like an Ali-Frazier prize fight.
I had heard that Catlett's mediocre comment remained in the Pitt locker room during the rest of the time Chipman coached the Panthers.
A year or two later, I remember Catlett once pulling his team off the floor and refusing to play when he disputed the usage of a shot clock. He only relented when a Pitt administrator marched up to his office and produced a signed game contract that stipulated that a shot clock was to be used.
There was the WVU-Pitt football game in 1961 when Panther end John Kuprok was overheard calling West Virginia's players "Western Pennsylvania garbage."
To be fair to Kuprok, he made his comment on the team bus during a trip back from a game played at Miami the week prior and his quote was taken out of context by student reporter Jim O'Brien, who used a version of what Kuprok said in his game preview in The Pitt News.
West Virginia sports publicity director Eddie Barrett was in Pittsburgh advancing the game, saw the quote, and walked over to The Pitt News and bought a dozen more copies of the paper to distribute to the coaches and influential sportswriters throughout the state.
Each time West Virginia ran a sweep toward Kuprok's side of the field, as many as five or six WVU players converged on Kuprok to take a shot at him. The pounding didn't stop until the final seconds ticked off West Virginia's 20-6 victory.
And, there was the time in 2001 when West Virginia's Richard Bryant was encouraged to say he was going to be the best Bryant out on the field when the Mountaineers played the Panthers at Mountaineer Field.
He wasn't. Pitt's Antonio Bryant was clearly the much better Bryant as he torched the Mountaineer secondary with 11 catches for 186 yards and a touchdown in the Panthers' 23-17 victory.
Then, there was the 13-9 football debacle in 2007 and all of those Western Pennsylvania prospects who were standing on West Virginia's sidelines during the game celebrating with Pitt players and coaches afterward.
Pitt, with plenty of time on their hands during the holidays, even sent out 13-9 Christmas cards to local recruits that year while West Virginia was preparing for its Fiesta Bowl game against Oklahoma.
Those were some the things that ran through my mind while watching the two teams play on Saturday.
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, 6-2 against the Panthers as a Mountaineer player and now 6-7 against Pitt as WVU's coach, admitted afterward that the game has lost much of its vigor.
"Honestly, I think it's going to take a while before West Virginia-Pitt becomes what it once was," he said. "There's been a long time between games. I think it's still a rivalry because it's close enough for both fans to get to either place, but it's not what it was."
West Virginia's muscle-flexing forward Sagaba Konate gave a half-hearted attempt at stirring things up. He was once recruited by former Pitt coach Jamie Dixon before committing to the Mountaineers, although Konate failed to say whether or not the Panthers were really his No. 2 choice.He was clearly the best player on the floor Saturday with 16 points, nine rebounds and seven blocks.
"When I committed here I heard about the rivalry and last year we played against them and our fans almost (took over) their arena," he said. "They're not going to come in here and beat us.
"That's not happening."
It didn't, just as Pitt wasn't able to protect its arena last year when the series was revived after being dormant for six years.
Will those two Mountaineer victories be enough to get things going again?
"To be honest, it really didn't feel like a rivalry," Johnson said. "I really don't know. I guess it's a rivalry, so I guess I have to treat it like a rivalry."
We'll see if that happens the next time these two teams meet next year in Pittsburgh.
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