City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: The Untouchables’ GM is CoBL writer Aron Minkoff. That’s not why I’m writing this. -- JV)

Though Pitt and Syracuse’s basketball programs are both now in the Atlantic Coast Conference, there was a distinctly Big East feel to the court at Philly U on Thursday night.

That’s the best way to describe the atmosphere when the ‘Cuse alums of Boeheim’s Army took on the Pitt-centric core of The Untouchables.

Old-school, Big East battle.

And fittingly, a group of former Panthers who had handled the Orange’s famed zone defense in college so well showed they haven’t forgotten their old tricks. The Untouchables are in TBT’s quarterfinals, three wins away from $2 million, after a 91-84 win over Boeheim’s Army.

“At Pittsburgh, we had a lot of success against their zone,” said Jermaine Dixon, who played two seasons at Pitt (2008-10) after two seasons at the junior college level. “We knew exactly what we wanted to do.”

Indeed, aside from a few rough offensive stretches, the Pitt alums worked that 2-3 zone to the tune of 44.4 percent from the floor (28-of-63), including 13-of-31 (41.9 percent) from 3-point range.

It was a familiar scene to those who watched classic Big East games like an 82-77 Pitt win at the Carrier Dome in 2008 that ended with a furious last-minute comeback, or the 82-72 Pitt victory on Jan. 2, 2010 that was Syracuse’s first loss of the year and its only defeat in its first 25 games.

In fact, between 2004-2011 -- when the Pitt members of The Untouchables wore Panther uniforms -- they were 8-1 against Syracuse, with the lone loss coming to Gerry McNamara and Co. in the 2006 Big East Tournament championship.

“Numerous battles against them, we were looking forward to this matchup...we just wanted to keep our good streak going against them, even though it’s years later,” said Levance Fields, who played at Pitt from 2005-09. “We feel like, no disrespect, we own Syracuse.”

Dixon (22 pts, 4-6 3PT) and Fields (13 pts, 3 ast) were both key for The Untouchables in the win, as were Pitt alums Gil Brown (14 pts, 10 rebs), Gary McGhee (3 pts, 15 rebs) and Antonio Graves (12 pts, 4-7 3PT).

Though both Syracuse and Pitt left the Big East for the ACC in 2013, along with Notre Dame and Louisville, all players on the court on both sides were still in school under the old configuration -- in the minds of those involved, the only configuration.

"Growing up, my brother went to the University of Maryland, so when I started watching basketball, it was pretty much all ACC for me," Dixon said. "When I got to the Big East, the competition and how physical it is, it just brings a different dynamic to the game. And I love it. Any time I could play against a Syracuse, a Villanova, it’s fun to us, it’s just something that we live for. And playing with my guys, former players, it’s great for us.”

Even the Untouchables players who didn’t go to Pittsburgh -- Ricky Harris (UMass), Cameron Clark (Oklahoma) and Davon Usher (Delaware) -- knew what this game meant, besides the obvious cash payout that’s now one win closer.

“The Big East rivalries are definitely intact, I know how big it is to them,” said Harris, who was 40 points shy of 2,000 during a standout career at UMass from 2006-10. “We’re competitive guys, we’ve always been underdogs our whole lives, and we want to show people we can still play basketball five-to-six years out of college and we’re starting to bring our names back to light and (prove) ourselves again.”

The Untouchables, along with Boeheim’s Army, were just two out of quite a few collegiate alumni teams entered in the TBT field; squads made up primarily of Bradley, Colorado, Gonzaga, Marquette and Virginia Commonwealth alums also made it into the Super 16.

The win moves The Untouchables into the final of the Northeast region of The Basketball Tournament’s four-region field, where they will face off against City of Gods, a team without a common school but a geographic region: the roster all hails from the D.C./Maryland/Virginia (DMV) region.

Led by former Drexel guard Phil Goss, plus Chris Wright (Georgetown), Dermarr Johnson (Cincinnati) and several others -- including a few who have seen NBA stints, like Xavier Silas -- City of Gods is out to better its semifinal finish of last year.

They showed their depth and talent in a 99-83 win over Team F.O.E. in an earlier Super 16 game on Thursday, getting seven players in double figures and shooting better than 50 percent from the floor.

“We’ve had a bad taste in our mouths since last summer,” said former Maryland power forward James Gist, who’s played for six different European clubs over an eight-year pro career. “We’ve been talking all year long, staying in contact, keeping up with everybody and we’ve just been motivated to come and get ready for this tournament this summer. Our plan is to win.”