I will be going to a legal symposium all day tomorrow. No free icecream. I probably won’t be on the blog until late in the evening. Maybe one of the other guys will fill in the gap.

Use the side links to find some info. For more on UConn, go through HuskyBlog‘s links to the newspapers and UConn Athletic Department.

For just a post. Lots of good stuff over at CollegeFootballNews.com. There is the spring preview of the Big East. Less than a month until the first spring football practice.

Pittsburgh Spring practice starts March 19, Spring Game April 16
What needs working on … Pass defense. Dave Wannstedt had his faults as an NFL head coach, but there’s no questioning what he was able to do as a defensive coordinator. Pittsburgh gave up 255 yards per game through the air last season and needs to stiffen up despite the loss of starting strong safety Tyrone Gilliard.
The most important position to watch is … Receiver. Greg Lee isn’t quite the next Larry Fitzgerald, but he can certainly be the next Antonio Bryant and become the Biletnikoff winner is he comes up with another huge season. As a sophomore, Lee caught 68 passes for 1,297 yards and ten touchdowns averaging 18.9 yards per grab. Joe DelSardo is a strong enough number two to burn defenses that don’t take him seriously.
Spring attitude… Prove that this really is the best team in the Big East. No one was ecstatic about Pittsburgh being in the BCS, but it did what it had to do to get there and proved to be the Big East’s most deserving team. Now is a chance to take a step up and really be the elite power worthy of being in the BCS with a good defensive head coach and a fantastic passing game.

Then there are the storylines of the Big East. The biggest will be the ongoing issue of whether the BE should have an automatic BCS bid. Worth reading, especially #7.

Final thing is a review of all the new coach hirings and thoughts on each.

Pittsburgh
Head Coach: Dave Wannstedt
Former Coach: Walt Harris — Head coach at Stanford

Bio: After 16 up-and-down seasons with three of the most storied NFL organizations, Wannstedt, 52, heads back to college determined to lead his alma mater to the glory days of the 1970s. He’ll forever be linked to Jimmy Johnson, for whom he served as defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State, Miami and the Dallas Cowboys. Together, the two won a national championship in 1987 and a pair of Super Bowls in the early 1990s. Wannstedt’s head coaching career with the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins was a mixed bag of mediocrity and unfulfilled expectations.

The Skinny: If the transition to the college game is a smooth one, Wannstedt looks like an ideal fit for Pittsburgh. For years, the Panthers tried to lure him back home, but only after last year’s debacle in Miami did it come to fruition. He leads with passion and integrity, and has already created the kind of commotion around the Steel City that was foreign to Walt Harris. Like Pete Carroll, Wannstedt relates well to young people, and could be better suited for coaching at this level.

Putting Out the Welcome Mat: LB H.B. Blades. Already the Panthers’ top defender, Blades should become an even bigger factor in a defense that’s predicated on speed and attacking.

Seems like a cautious thumbs up for the hire. Plenty of qualifiers.

Strange and slightly worrying item (at least to me). Pitt hasn’t won more than 3 straight game since blowing through the first 10 games of the season. It’s slightly worrying because Pitt needs to win at least 3 straight to win the BE Tournament and 4 games in the NCAA to make the Final Four. That Pitt hasn’t been able to get a good hot streak going at this late date is a bit bothersome. Okay, to what is being said.

In Pittsburgh, the Trib was all over this game, with articles from Bendel, Starkey and Prisuta (haven’t they sent anyone down to Florida to cover the Pirates?). The recap:

A parade of Pitt players headed toward the locker room Wednesday night with looks of disbelief on their faces, with bubble-shaped question marks hovering overhead: How could this have happened? What in the name of tempered NCAA Tournament hopes is going on?

In a stunning late-game collapse, the Panthers watched a 14-point lead disintegrate into a 70-66 upset loss to backyard rival West Virginia in front of 12,508 spectators.

“Disheartening,” coach Jamie Dixon said.

“It’s been a long season for us,” added sophomore guard Antonio Graves.

Team leaders Carl Krauser and Chevon Troutman turned down postgame interview requests, likely because they had no answers as to why the 18th-ranked Panthers (18-6, 8-5 Big East) failed to convert a field goal in the final 7:27 and failed to put the brakes on Pitt killer Kevin Pittsnogle (22 points) for the second time this season.

WVU (17-8, 7-7) scored 30 of the game’s final 42 points, including an 18-4 run in the final five minutes, to sweep the season series against the reeling Panthers for the first time since 1997-98.

The way Pitt lost was demoralizing for fans, players and coaches.

The shocking scene at The Pete and Pitt’s initial reaction to the WVU disaster weren’t encouraging.

Even the Oakland Zoo gave up, filing silently toward the exit with 7.5 seconds remaining as the West Virginia bench gleefully waved “bye-bye.”

Dixon walked briskly off when it finally ended, navigating the length of the floor with his head down.

The West Virginia players embraced.

“Those are the type of moments that build teams,” head coach John Beilein said.

The ones the Panthers were dealing with can tear teams apart.

Freshman Ron Ramon and sophomore Antonio Graves faced the media music, while senior Chevon Troutman and junior point guard Carl Krauser, who opens every home game in the spotlight, literally, were nowhere to be seen.

And Dixon assessed the wreckage as a team effort, noting the Panthers had prepared for and worked on what ultimately led to their demise.

“It wasn’t one guy,” said Dixon, who also fielded repeated questions about why an especially active Chris Taft was watching from the bench at crunch time.

That sound you hear is the Panthers’ bandwagon emptying.

Stunning that Krauser and Troutman didn’t speak afterwards. This was a team effort to lose, make no mistake. At the same time, though, the main 3 have to shoulder a fair amount of the blame since they get a well-earned and deserved share of the credit.

Krauser had another bad game. Only 2 assists and 6 turnovers. He shot a dismal 4-13 (1-7 in the second half). Troutman had his 15 on 5-7 shooting but only went 5-8 at the free throw line — including 3-6 in the second half — could only gather 5 rebounds for the game, and had the horrible turnover at the end when Pitt still had a chance to at least tie the game. Taft couldn’t score unless he was right under the basket. He was 5-12 with 3 baskets being dunks and the other 2 put-backs/lay-ins. He missed the only two short hooks he attempted and was 0-3 at the line. While he led Pitt with 13 rebounds, 10 came in the first half. He was benched for the last 4+ minutes of the game, which he wasn’t happy about, but Coach Dixon insisted it wasn’t for his effort this time.

For Pitt, it is further questions about their (lack of) perimeter defense. It cost Pitt, not just in terms of the number of 3s made by WVU in the second half, but also opening up inside drives and baskets in the paint. WVU shot 11-18 (61%) in non-3-point shots for the game. The moving and driving to the basket was also what got WVU to the line shooting free throws 14-16 in the second half.

And once more, Pitt let Pittsnogle just go off on them. He scored 20 of his 22 points in the last 9:09. There’s getting hot and then there is just bad defense. I’m guessing both in this one.

The P-G just had one article recapping the game.

There was nothing appealing about this game for Pitt.

The Panthers, like so many other occasions this season, failed to pull a game out in the closing minutes. They missed their final nine shots from the field and did not make a field goal in the final 7:27. For the game, they shot 42 percent and were just 3 for 11 from 3-point range.

West Virginia was 13 for 18 from the field in the second half, 6 for 8 from 3-point range and finished shooting 50 percent. The Mountaineers also made their shots at the line, going 15 for 17.

“In the last 10 minutes, we didn’t do what we needed to do,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “It’s very disheartening for us. The 3-pointers are going to stick out, but they had some drives to the basket as well.”

Make no mistake, the coverage was about Pitt blowing a lead once more. About not finishing a team when they had them down. Pitt melting down.

Well, in Morgantown, it was about a stirring comeback led by Pittsnogle. How the team played with heart. Though, even in WV, there is a happy admission that the Mountaineers were helped by Pitt starting to grip.

“I think Pitt got a little nervous when Kevin started making shots,” West Virginia’s Johannes Herber said with a sly grin.

Indeed, the Panthers did get nervous. Leading by that seemingly safe margin, Pitt actually didn’t flinch when Pittsnogle started getting hot, trading two-point baskets for Pittsnogle’s first two 3-pointers and losing just two points off the lead. Free throws also kept the Panthers up by as much as 10, 62-52, with 5 1/2 minutes to play.

“They could see we weren’t going away from them,” Patrick Beilein said. “They were making shots, but we were making ours, too. And then when Kevin made like his third in a row, they were starting to look around and wonder.”

That’s when it really got interesting. Pittsnogle sandwiched two 3-pointers around two free throws, and then point guard J.D. Collins took advantage of the Panthers overplaying the outside to drive for an uncontested layup that tied the score at 62 with 2:32 left.

This win also helps WVU’s chances to get an at-large birth in the NCAA Tournament. They probably still need to win out and win their opening game in the Big East Tournament, but they look like they will finish strong.

Pittsnogle actually got yanked early in the second half for playing passively. He actually responded. The article points out, why Taft was pulled as he became a liability guarding Pittsnogle.

Pittsnogle hit 5-of-6 of his second-half shots, including all his four 3-point tries. He helped drive Taft, a rebounding demon, out of the game because he was not adequately guarding Pittsnogle.

His first successful 3-pointer, a left-side shot from in front of WVU’s bench, ignited his surge.

“(Taft) was there, but he had his hands down,” Pittsnogle said.

Taft was trying to stay too close to the basket — not let Pittsnogle get around him, perhaps — but it was giving him room to shoot jumpers. Not getting the hands up? How do you forget something so fundamental? It’s not like Taft is going for a steal.

Somehow, the team has to forget about this and get ready for UConn.

I’m not quite ready to offer the media round-up. A little more hectic this morning than expected. This week offers some disturbing parallels to a more extended 2 week period in January. In both cases it was leading up to a big meet-up with UConn. A team that suddenly can’t play defense, and loses cohesion. The difference, now, is that the time for this kind of problem should be over at this point. The former excuses about new players, starters, still finding the right mix don’t wash in late February.

This WVU game hurts, to me, because I just didn’t see it coming. I was frustrated by the way Pitt lost to Villanova, but not completely surprised. The Wildcats have the talent, were at home, and were playing well. This loss to the Mountaineers was just stunning. Pitt was at home. Had every reason to be up for the game. Should have been focused and ready. Then to just plain implode in virtually all facets of the game in the last 9+ minutes.

Ugh.