A bit late, but the kid has a cold.

Let’s start with the personal POV. Over at the Courtside Seats, Mike is frustrated. Mike has been totally stand-up in calling the Huskies as he sees ’em, and was gracious in the defeat of his team. Obviously, I haven’t heard his radio broadcasts, but if he is even half that professional in his broadcasts, then I expect I will hear him in the future.

The Hartford Courant probably has the most and best overall coverage. They even provide a recap of the 5 biggest games over the last 6 years. There was no common theme to the reporters coverage, which is nice. Each had their own take. For one, it was the fact that Pitt just manhandled UConn.

There is nothing subtle about the Pittsburgh experience.

Especially at the Petersen Events Center.

The Panthers climb inside your brain with their talk. Then they climb inside your uniform to make it stick.

Not the greatest mental image to have, but you get the point. For the column piece it was all about poise. UConn is lacking it. Plenty of compliments for Pitt, but ultimately the column is a critique about the soft play of UConn.

UConn’s biggest rival in this season of grand expectation is Poise State.

The Huskies’ toughest opponent is Patience A&M and patience in the p.m., too.

Their most dreaded competitor is mental toughness.

Until they find – what is it the French call it? – that certain sang-froid, UConn isn’t going to win the national championship.

UConn’s 75-68 loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday was merely further proof.

Make no mistake, Pitt is the best thing to happen to UConn athletics in recent years and the Petersen Events Center is one of the best things to happen to Big East basketball in a long time.

St. John’s and Georgetown may prompt tales of romance in our neck of the woods, but the hard fact is Pittsburgh, with its long football history and hardscrabble, non-negotiable basketball team, is where the future action is for our state.

Then there’s the issue of Okafor’s second half disappearing act. It seems, that Pitt has his number.

Okafor, UConn’s national player of the year candidate, has had his struggles in the past with the Panthers’ physical style. They have found ways to rattle him throughout his career, whether riding him out of the post so he doesn’t get good position to score, or surrounding him with multiple players down low.

For the record, I don’t disagree that Okafor got hosed on that call for his 4th foul. It was clearly a block, but if you believe Pitt won because of that, you’re just too far gone. Even Calhoun has conceded that wasn’t the reason UConn lost.

The toughness and ability of Pitt to finish was admired.

The Huskies weren’t exactly out-toughed as they held a 38-31 rebounding advantage — led by Josh Boone’s 13, nine of which came on the offensive end — but every time UConn needed a big basket, it failed to convert.

Pitt led 36-28 at the half, but the Huskies got the deficit down to four points on a Gordon 3-pointer with 13 minutes, 11 seconds remaining. After two Brown free throws for Pitt, Boone tipped in a miss to get it back to four points at 47-43 with 11:41 left.

But that’s when Pitt took over on separation Sunday in the Big East.

The Panthers scored the next 11 points, the first seven coming on free throws, to take a commanding 58-44 lead. The run was capped on a Chris Taft dunk with 7:41 remaining

“That run was about it for us,” Boone said. “But no matter if they’re up seven or down seven, they’re still going to run their stuff and keep taking time off the clock.”

The reporters covering the Huskies have to be commended for their fairness. There wasn’t whining about Pitt bullying or bad calls in the coverage I have read. There was, in fact, admiration for how well Pitt did what it had to against UConn.

Other Coverage

Number 4 vs. #5 gets attention, having one of the teams being UConn means the NYC papers will pay a little more attention. The New York Times write-up, came courtesy of one of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnists (Chuck Finder). Guess their guys were all in LA for the NBA all-star game.

NY Daily News columnist Dick Weiss, definitely felt Pitt is just the tougher team.

The Panthers were just too physical for Connecticut in a 75-68 victory, leaving Calhoun to lament his team’s lack of toughness afterward.

“This team doesn’t show any emotion,” he said. “I’m trying to remember the last time our kids came into the locker room and just went crazy … maybe two years ago against Arizona. We beat Oklahoma by 40 points and it’s, ‘Oh, well. Ho-hum.’ We have a bunch of nice kids on this team, kids you’d like to take home with you. What I’d like to have is a couple kids I wouldn’t want to take home.”
…
Calhoun was like that as a player and is like that as a coach. But aside from senior point guard Taliek Brown or defensive specialist Shamon Tooles, no one on this talented Connecticut roster falls into that category.

No one on the Huskies (19-5, 7-3 Big East), especially 6-10 All-America center Emeka Okafor, wanted to address the subject of country club living right now. “They beat us, so I can’t say anything,” he said.

But that’s what separates these two teams right now. And it is why Pitt (23-2, 9-2) has emerged as the team to beat in this conference.

This is a team that plays with a chip on its shoulder.

Fun With Personal Biases

A couple articles caught my eye, because the bias is so blatant.

Take this from the Philadelphia Inquirer writer, who has clearly decided that local St. Joe’s has the player of the year in Jameer Nelson.

One nationally televised opportunity for Connecticut center Emeka Okafor to show that he – not that point guard from the little Philly school – is college basketball’s player of the year is gone now, lost in the frenzied Petersen Events Center.

Pitt fans can only shake their heads. This was the sort of thing that was written after the loss to Miami regarding Fitzgerald and the Heisman. That, “see, I knew it,” line of crap.

Sadly, the Altoona Mirror only offers a tease of Lee’s favorite columnist. I hope Lee will provide a full, frontal Fisking of this.

The collapse of the Big East has created a dark cloud over the Pitt football program.

But the basketball team has given the Panther faithful plenty to cheer about, and even with the 2005-2006 additions of powers Louisville and Cincinnati to the Big East, it’s clear the road to future conference prominence will continue to run through here.

Finally, for those UConn fans who seem to wonder why Pitt still seemed pissed about Calhoun’s talent vs. team comment from last year, I’ll try a quick explanation. When Pitt won last year, Calhoun made it in a very backhanded compliment sort of way along with a lot of complaints about how Pitt wasn’t getting called for fouls like UConn was. In the context of the stories, Calhoun seemed almost dismissive of Pitt. Coach Howland played up the talent comments in part to stick up for his players, but also to keep them fired up about UConn, considering the Big East Tournament was only a week or so away. Considering what Pitt did against UConn in the Big East championship, I’d say it worked.