Plenty of Pittsburgh coverage. Philadelphia is perfunctory.

In Philly, they had one reporter there. His report is short and dry. Other Philly papers relied on the Associated Press’ Pittsburgh sports writer Alan Robinson for the story.

At the Trib, the winning of the Big East regular season championship almost seemed secondary to this non-story.

…but the happiest moment might have occurred afterward, when freshman center Chris Taft promised that he will return for his sophomore year.
…
Taft amassed 16 points and 11 rebounds, went 7 of 10 from the field, and led a crucial eight-point run in the first half that ripped into a 14-point deficit. Three nights earlier, he scored 24 points on 10-of-11 shooting in a 27-point rout at Providence.

“I’ll be back for sure,” Taft said, quashing any rumors that he is considering a premature jump to the NBA. “My focus right now is on winning the Big East Tournament.”

Oh, please. If Pitt makes a Final Four run, and Taft performs like he did yesterday; the amount of exposure, attention and whispering in his ears will make it impossible and silly not to make the move. He’d get pushed into the first round. It just shouldn’t be a major discussion right now. There’s a chance and it is directly proportional to how far Pitt gets in the NCAA Tournament. Still the focus was on the job by Taft and Troutman inside.

The P-G game story was about Taft and Troutman and the Pitt defense.

Pitt held Villanova to 23 points after halftime and 28 percent shooting. The 45 points were the fewest the Wildcats scored this season.

Pitt has held six teams below 50 points this season and did it for the second time in three games.

“Defense is the easiest part of the game,” Page said. “It’s pride. If your offense affects your defense, you’re not a player. As long as you keep stopping teams from scoring, you’ll be in the game. Hopefully, your offense comes around, and that’s what happened today.”

The defense enabled the Panthers to win, despite shooting 35 percent (17 for 48) from the floor. That’s their second-lowest shooting percentage of the season, trumped only by the 31 percent effort in the 49-46 overtime loss to Syracuse a week ago.

Of course the offense of Pitt — or lack thereof for the second time in 3 games — is a concern.

While a lot of football coaches will tell you that defense wins championships, Pitt (27-3, 13-3) might need to hone its offense as the competition gets progressively stiffer through the conference and NCAA tournaments.
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Although Pitt came back from its 17-3 hole — keyed by Taft’s eight consecutive points in the first half and four points at the start of a 16-0 run early in the second half — the icy start and close game until Pitt pulled away from a 37-37 tie at 8:27 of the second half spurred Taft to make a promise.

“We’ll try to never get down like that again, and we never will,” he said. “Come tournament time, people are going to be more aggressive and they’re going to be focusing more on your plays. If we get down like that, we’re going to get in trouble.”
…
In three of its past four games, Pitt has been held to 22 points or fewer in the first half. The Panthers scored 20 before halftime in a 68-58 win at Georgetown, and 22 in a 49-46 overtime loss at home to Syracuse. Overall, they have been held under 30 points in the first half 12 times.

While it isn’t fair to put all the blame on one person, Julius Page’s horrendous shooting is the most noticeable.

On the downside, Page’s shooting slump hit new lows in a 59-45 victory over Villanova. He shot 0 for 8 from the field, making him 16 for 54 (29.6 percent) in his past eight games.

Page finished the regular season with a career-low field goal percentage of 39.1 percent.
…
Nothing worked. Page missed two layups and five 3-point attempts. He did sink 5 of 6 free-throw attempts.

“I’m obviously in a slump,” Page said in a quiet moment later, as he walked with his 4-year-old son, Dredon. “I’m missing open shots that I usually make, but it’s not because of a lack of confidence, it’s because I’m not used to playing defense on a daily basis like I’ve been playing the past couple of games.”

Tired legs?

“Definitely,” he said. “On one pull-up shot, it felt like I was an inch off the ground.”

Everyone wants to help him. Former Pitt guards Curtis Aiken and Jason Matthews were speaking with him about his shooting at halftime.

Page keeps saying all the right things, but he is clearly bothered by both the slump and the attention.

In the columns, Ron Cook focuses on Taft’s impact (and a little on how it is good he isn’t going to turn pro for another year, sigh), and saving the day.

Two plays Taft made in the second half showed just how much he has improved. In each case, he beat his man, made a left-handed shot and drew a foul. The Pitt coaches loved it because he took his time, didn’t rush to make something happen and allowed traffic to clear around him. They also loved that he used his left hand. The scouting report on him earlier in the season was that he could only go to his right.

“Teams have been playing me that way all season,” Taft said. “They try to take away my right hand. I just say, ‘Thank you,’ when they do. That gives me the chance to show I can beat them with either hand.”

Taft deserves his success. He has worked countless hours on his inside game with the Pitt coaches, especially Orlando Antigua. He also has played close attention to Troutman, who is a master of sealing off defenders with his large behind. Troutman led Pitt with 17 points yesterday and is shooting 65.7 percent.

Mike Pirusta, however, wants to savor the Big East Regular Season Championship.

The celebration that followed was as heartfelt as it was well-deserved. Balloons descended from the rafters and popped like firecrackers upon reaching the crowd. Tears decorated the face of Julius Page. The Big East Conference championship trophy was hoisted at mid-court. The pep band blasted out the Pitt Fight Song and the NCAA Tournament theme that CBS has made so recognizable over the years. Toby Keith was once again heard warbling over the arena speakers (“How Do You Like Me Now?”).

Jamie Dixon addressed the fans as the best in the nation.

And Toree Morris fired his commemorative hat and T-shirt into the Oakland Zoo.

The symbolism of the moment was unmistakable, but Morris maintained he wasn’t trying to make any sort of statement about there being more work to do or about Pitt having bigger goals to capture.

This was special enough all on its own that the big center from Oliver Springs, Tenn., was simply overcome with emotion.

“I just did it to show my love for those guys,” Morris said. “I don’t know everybody, but I know the guys that started the Zoo when we were freshmen, when the year before that we weren’t the ‘Beast of the East.’

“I really do love those guys.”

The feeling was more than mutual on a day when Pitt basketball once again achieved, in a manner that takes the program to a previously unattained level of excellence.

Other Notes

The Trib beat reporter looks at the awards for the Big East, and sees Pitt dominating. He pencils Jamie Dixon in as Coach of the Year; Carl Krauser for Most Improved; Chris Taft is Rookie of the Year; Jaron Brown for Sportman of the Year. He lists Okafor of UConn for Player of the Year and Defensive Player, but he puts Page a close second for Defensive.

A good way to judge the interest in a program is to see how many papers pick up the AP stories on the team. This Alan Robinson piece on Pitt’s possibilities in the NCAA, for example appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Seattle Post Intelligencer, LA Times, Atlanta Journal Constitution; and in papers in California, Georgia (a couple), South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, Mississippi and even the Philly area.

Then there’s this profile piece from Robinson on Jaron Brown that just ran in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Big East Seedings

Here’s the match-ups for the Big East Tournament (it hasn’t been updated as yet). Syracuse beat UConn today (they rested Okafor, damn them), so Syracuse gets the #4 seed and the bye in the first round. Pitt will face the winner of the Rutgers-VaTech game on March 11. Syracuse will play the winner of Boston College-Georgetown. Assuming Pitt and Syracuse win, they will meet each other in the semis. It won’t be easy for Pitt to get to the Big East Championship game.