I spent most of the day watching a lot of the Big East Tournament, and just didn’t have the energy or time to post then. I’ll try to get to some impressions and also second round action tonight.
In San Antonio, a columnist there looks at Pitt as a source of inspiration for Texas A&M in basketball.
Five years ago, the Panthers entered the Big East tournament with a lame-duck coach and one of the most miserable programs in the league.
Today, they return to Madison Square Garden not only with the conference’s coach of the year, but also with a team good enough to make the Final Four.
Somewhere, Bill Byrne might be able to take some comfort in that.
Byrne, Texas A&M’s athletic director, is no doubt too preoccupied these days to worry about what’s happening a half-continent away. But this weekend, he’d be wise to take a quick glance at Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon — if not at the man, then at the message:
It can be done.
Granted, the Panthers never went 0-16 in conference play, and they never had to battle the kind of basketball apathy that has plagued College Station for much of the past two decades.
In Syracuse, they handicapped the field yesterday, and declared Pitt the favorite. They also anticipate a wild battle between Pitt and Syracuse in the semis — of course they expected that the Seton Hall vs. Providence match-up today would be the best and that didn’t happen (didn’t you also think that? Shut up!).
In the locals, the P-G wonders about the guard play of Pitt. Specifically, will it get out of its collective slump? Does Pitt change and look for the inside scoring with Troutman and Taft first? Good questions. Unfortunately, we don’t have an answer. There’s also a puff piece on Krauser back in NYC. The best story in the P-G today, is the one on Joe Lunardi, ESPN’s bracket expert.
The Trib focuses on the Hokies winning and basically playing with house money going into the game that is now only a few minutes away. Also a rumination piece about whether Dixon will get a new contract after the season is over (probably).
