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.

As you may have figured, I did not bother paying Pitt/Yahoo! for the streaming feed. Nor did I pay the $20 extortion fee from ESPN for the “Full Court” slate of the night.

[Bit of an aside. Aside from guys who are not married, or are not sports writers or involved in sports business and get reimbursed for the expenses, who else will pay the full season package for “full court.” Further, what genius at ESPN figured they could make more money making people pay $20 for one night of all the games on the list rather than an option for just $10 for one game? Do they really make more money that way? I’m just asking, because I know I could have rationalized a couple of the games at $10 a pop on TV, but not $20. And don’t even get me started on how ESPN.com charges you the same price to watch on your computer — lower quality and smaller picture, all at the same price!]

Instead I did the live stats at the Pitt web site. Well, actually I just had the wife updating me, as I gave our daughter a bath. Not good. She’s at the age where kids like to repeat your words. Especially the ones that have a lot of emotion behind them.

I’m waiting to see the box score splits and the full play-by-play from Pitt. But the general box score is astounding. Pitt got 13 more shots, 7 more FT attempts, 19 more rebounds (15 more just on offense), a 14 point lead with under 10 minutes left. I’m not sure I would have believed it if I saw it.

I see that Pitt is up by 10 at the half, 34-24.

Feel free to comment during and after the game.

A few more articles regarding tonight’s game.

Here’s Blue and Gold News.com’s breakdown of the game.

After getting gunned down from beyond the arc in the second half of WVU’s win at the Coliseum earlier this month, one of the most interesting points to watch for in the game is Pitt’s defensive tactics. Will the Panthers attempt to lock up against WVU in man to man, where Kevin Pittsnogle has an advantage from the perimeter over any defender the Panthers might deploy against him? Or will they go to a zone that spreads out to the line, and hope that the Mountaineers can’t take enough advantage of the mid-range gaps in such an alignment to get a win away from home? Either way, the magic 70-point mark will be WVU’s goal, as the Gold and Blue haven’t lost a game when reaching that point total this year.

Just as important, however, will be West Virginia’s defensive effort. Foes have shot the lights out against WVU’s shorter and lighter lineup for much of the Big East season, so much so that the Mountaineers 6-7 conference record is something of a surprise. Although WVU has managed to creep close to the .500 mark in the league with such a burden, it will be very difficult to get a win at the Petersen Events Center if the Panthers shoot close to the 50% mark that has been the norm for West Virginia opponents during the league season.

Pitt has only let 2 BE opponents break 70 points this season: WVU and ‘Nova. Both losses.

Another WV columnist see the keys in 3s.

For instance, three is what WVU needs plenty of and what the host Panthers are surprisingly yielding at alarming rates. In other words, the Mountaineers might need another game with 13 3-pointers to beat Pittsburgh for the second time within three weeks.

Then there is the matter of how many times Pittsburgh has fallen in its three-seasons-old, on-campus, 12,500-seat Petersen Events Center.

I think we all know that the Mountaineers will be hoisting plenty of deep shots tonight. The question are, will Pitt be forcing them to take uncomfortable shots.

Another columnist thinks WVU has to make its run this year.

The grind toward spring has become about more than games for WVU, however.

The Mountaineers, eighth in the Big East Conference standings, need to go on the road to sustain — and improve — success in Coach John Beilein’s third-year program.

The quandary there is about more than the 2005-06 Big East hoops arrival of Louisville, Marquette, Cincinnati, DePaul and South Florida.

If WVU doesn’t land more talent, it’s going to be an annual battle just to make the 12-team conference tournament after a season that will be no Garden party.

Boston College will be gone to the ACC, but programs like Connecticut, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Villanova, Pitt and Georgetown aren’t going to perennially regress.
…
The Mountaineers need someone who can play a lot, immediately. WVU loses seniors Tyrone Sally and D’or Fischer and Beilein has a junior-heavy team with his son, Kevin Pittsnogle, Mike Gansey, Joe Herber and Jarmon-Durisseau Collins.

Sitting out is 7-foot Robert Summers, a Penn State transfer. Bulky, 6-7 forward Brad Byerson, after two seasons of basic inactivity for WVU, may be thinking transfer.

You get the talent by winning. Winning makes the program more attractive and opens more doors to the better recruits. This is especially true for programs like Pitt and WVU. Schools that don’t have a strong local recruiting base for basketball. That have to look for pipelines.

The stories for today are about what you would expect in this game. Pitt is looking for revenge.

“We feel like we owe them quite a bit,” Pitt sophomore forward Levon Kendall. The Panthers lost to the Mountaineers on Feb. 5. “We want to really stick it to them.”

WVU had been reeling at that point, and then with the win against Pitt was the start of them winning 4 of 5 games.

The other standard is Pitt not taking WVU lightly this time.

Immediately after the loss in Morgantown, Pitt players said they lost the game because they took the Mountaineers lightly. It was a lesson learned, and something the Panthers are guarding against in the sequel.

“It’s not that we weren’t ready,” Kendall said. “We just made some mental mistakes. We feel like we should be able to beat them. It was a tough loss to take with it being a rivalry thing. We’re looking for some revenge.”

Pitt lost the game at West Virginia because Kevin Pittsnogle, a reserve forward, had the game of his life. Pittsnogle started because D’or Fischer was sick. He responded by scoring a career-high 27 points.

Pittsnogle, a 6-foot-11 junior, made 4 of 9 from 3-point range. As a team, West Virginia was 13 for 40 from behind the arc. Pitt forward Chevon Troutman said limiting Pittsnogle is the most important objective the Panthers have for this game.

“If he comes out and gets hot, it’s going to be a problem,” Troutman said. “If not, we probably should be able to pull this one out.”

Either Kendall was the main guy available to the media this week, or he was the only one with good quotes.

As for Pittsnogle. That game also turned his season around. As is the standard when these two meet, is discussing how Pittsnogle was also recruited by Pitt.

Down in Hoopie Land, this game is part of the whole “bubble watching.” For WVU, this game is vital. Of course it is their biggest rivalry game, but it is the toughest remaining game on their schedule. If they lose it would likely mean needing to win out the rest of the games and winning at least 2 games in the BE Tournament. The latter being very difficult as they would likely end up facing BC in the 2nd round. Winning tonight would at least give them an argument if they go out in the second round.

Like last time, it can be expected that WVU will be looking to bomb 3s early and often. For Pitt, the guards have to resist the urge to try and answer every 3 with one of their own. Pitt ended up taking 20 3-point shots in the loss last time. They need to be patient with the offense and control the pace.

I guess we’ll find out how Pitt’s perimeter defense plays tonight.

Game notes for the WVU-Pitt game are out for both WVU and Pitt (PDF). Still no explanation for what game and why the discrepancy between the schools for the number of times they have played each other — WVU has the series record at 90-77 in their favor; Pitt has it at 77-89.

At this point, there is nothing new in the storylines. Both teams need this game. WVU to keep it’s fading NCAA Tourney hopes alive. Pitt to help get at least 4 or 5 seed in the NCAA and to keep in the top-5 of the BE to get a 1st round bye in the Big East Tournament.

The only story is one from WV about how the Mountaineer players tend to dive for balls among other things.

“I don’t mind being on the floor taking charges or diving for the ball,” Herber said. “Sometimes I’m trying to slam into someone and get them out of the zone and he releases contact. And you fall down.”

Beilein does not want to rein in Gansey’s enthusiasm. He did, however, have a talk with Herber.

“The coach told us when the Big East refs came in before the season to try and help us and tell us what to do and not do, they said about one-third of the refs thought Joe was the biggest flopper in the league,” Gansey said.

“I think he’s stopped that,” Beilein said. “He realizes that in this league, if he’s going to get a good call, he can’t fake calls.”

What do you expect. Herber is from Germany. Watched and played too much soccer is my guess.

Last week, I did a couple posts about the non-con and RPI calculations. I got some e-mails questioning my obsessiveness. I wouldn’t say they questioned my sanity, but they wondered why I was still so bothered by it. Part of it has to do with my biases. My first love in sports is baseball. I’ve always loved the game and I love the numbers. I don’t run my own figures, but I know and understand derivatives, regression charts so that I can get into some of the crazy figures.

Sports like basketball and football are much harder to simply quantify the same way. The RPI, though is an interesting tool that can help provide insight into the quality of a team. And of course, it is a major tool in figuring out the who gets in and the seedings of the NCAA Tourney. It is also one of the few mathematical formulas available in basketball, hence my interest.

It has its flaws, though, and the tweaking done to the formula this year may have been a bit much. Even Joe Lunardi, who has gotten a nice gig at ESPN for RPI and “Bracketology” points out the problems (Insider Subs.)

The NCAA turned the RPI on its ear by weighting road wins (and home losses) at 1.4 while devaluing home wins (and road losses) to 0.6. In other words, winning on the road is now worth more than twice as much as winning at home and losing at home hurts more than twice as much as losing on the road. These values were apparently based on the rather crude arithmetic that, across all levels of Division I men’s basketball, home teams win a little more than two-thirds of the time.

This is part of why Pitt’s overall RPI was hurt so badly. The home losses to Bucknell and Georgetown — providing huge boosts to those team’s RPI really hurt Pitt. Lunardi also fails to mention the other reason for the change — to encourage teams to go out and play some games on the road.

My macro-thinking followed these lines: Every year there are a handful of teams for which the RPI just doesn’t jive with a commonsense appraisal of their respective records.

This is probably to be expected when you’re dealing with more than 300 teams in more than 30 different conferences. If we were to look back at each season, we’d be able to identity these few teams fairly easily and also see that the selection committee did the same in its evaluations. No harm, no foul in other words, provided any new formula didn’t worsen this condition substantially.

All of which brings us to 2005. And, while the new RPI is rewarding most teams that perform well on the road, it is failing miserably in the commonsense department.

Instead of three or four teams each year for which the numbers must be discounted, we have at least triple that (and probably more). Instead of becoming a more reliable tool, I believe the RPI is now much less so.

If you think there will be no outcry, just wait until Selection Sunday. I’m guessing there will be a whole lot of head-scratching as committee members try to figure out how Vermont could lose two out of three and keep an RPI in the high teens.

Lunardi lists a half dozen teams who have RPIs that are just out of whack with common sense. Pitt isn’t one of them, but it helps explain the rankings for Holy Cross and Old Dominion. Teams that are high in the RPI despite a relatively unimpressive record of wins, but lots of “good” road losses.

Next year the Big East schedule will be a mess with 16 teams. TV will drive the schedule, so teams won’t even know who they will play and how many times for at least 4 more months according to Andy Katz.

The Big East expects to let the 16 teams for the 2005-06 season know who they will be playing in June after CBS and ESPN make their selections.

Dates and times wouldn’t be set until over the summer, but the matchups will be dictated by television. So if CBS requests Louisville-Connecticut, you can expect ESPN will want the same game. That means those two teams would be matched up in a home-and-home series.

A number of these scenarios will occur. If both television partners want certain games, then those would likely be the home-and-home matchups. The Big East won’t lock in primary-rival partners like the 12-team ACC does.

The Big East will play 16 games in 2005-06 and go through a two-year cycle with the schedule. Teams will play 10 teams once, three teams twice and two teams not at all.

Expect some games to happen naturally, like Louisville-Cincinnati and Marquette-DePaul.

The ACC sent out its schedule for the next three seasons but then abruptly withdrew it after it was released. The league needs to address equity issues before agreeing to the schedule.

I repeat: the BE will be splitting apart in a bout 5 years.

Add Seth Davis of SI.com to the list of those who have been unimpressed with Chris Taft this year.

Chris Taft can’t possibly still be thinking about the NBA. Can he?

Of further note with Davis. At the end of his column, is a list of weekend games he will be picking on Friday. Davis is now 0-4 in picks involving Pitt. He picked against Pitt, 3 straight times and then went with them against Villanova. He has the UConn game listed. I’ve already sent him a request not to pick Pitt for the rest of the year. If anyone else wants to do so, it can’t hurt. Just be sure to mention your favorite tune from the Radiators.

In the early summer of 2003, Billy Gaines, a Pitt receiver, went to a church cookout along with his best friend and roommate, Kicker David Abdul. Gaines and Abdul got drunk at the cookout, and decided to explore the church and found themselves up in the crawlspace above the ceiling. Gaines slipped and fell head first to his death.

The alcohol was supplied to them by the only adult of legal drinking age at the cookout — Rev. Henry Krawczyk. Today the priest was given 7 years probation. This was agreed in a plea bargain with the *ahem* blessing of Gaines’ parents, “who didn’t want the priest to go to jail.”

The parents, by the way still have their $75 million dollar lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, in part because they failed to properly supervise and discipline Krawczyk for past incidents of supplying alcohol to minors.

No, those are not the measurements for some anime chick. That’s 36 points off of 3-pointers, 17 points from free throws, and 27 points inside the arc from the Villanova game.

The issue of perimeter defense has once more reared its ugly head.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon talked about how his team needed to do a “better job defending,” how it had “some breakdowns” and how it “came up short in a few areas” after an 80-72 loss at Villanova two days ago.

It was revealing stuff for a guy who rarely criticizes his team in public. But it might have also been necessary for a coach who is trying to keep his 17th-ranked Panthers (18-5, 8-4 Big East) in check as they get closer to tournament play.

The Big East tourney tips off at Madison Square Garden in 15 days; the NCAAs open in 23.

That means Dixon has precious little time to shore up his areas of concern, most notably a perimeter defense that has yielded far too many 3-point baskets in recent weeks.

Villanova was the latest opponent to victimize the Panthers from the outside, going 12 of 23 from 3-point range for a 52.2-percent success rate. It should be noted that the Wildcats rank third in the Big East in 3-point shooting percentage (37.4) and have won six of seven games when they’ve produced 10 3-pointers or more, but that doesn’t mean Dixon let his team off the hook easily.

“We have to be better,” he said.

In the past five games, three Pitt opponents have hit for double-digit 3-pointers. West Virginia, which plays at Pitt on Wednesday night, went 13 of 40 in an 83-78 overtime upset of the Panthers on Feb. 5, and Notre Dame went 14 of 29 from long range in a down-to-the-wire 68-66 loss at Pitt on Feb. 12.

What’s more, in three of the Panthers’ four Big East losses, they’ve yielded at least 11 3-pointers. Georgetown went 11 of 21 in a 67-64 win at Petersen Events Center on Jan. 5.

Pitt with its defense, forces teams to take a lot of outside shots. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but as Ken Pomeroy points out with yet more stats, Pitt’s opponents to get over 30% of their points from 3-point shots. Out of 330 teams, Pitt is 279th in amount of % of points scored from 3s (and the stats don’t reflect on the Villanova game).

As far as what that means for the last 4 games, BC and UConn are teams more like Pitt, in that they like to get the ball inside. UConn, especially as Rashard Anderson is out, is definitely going to be going inside more than they did last time. ND and WVU, as we all know are teams that will and can make 3s. Those two games will be the ones to watch with regards to what Pitt does to shore up the perimeter defense.

A notebook piece, observes that Levon Kendall hasn’t been shooting much, or particularly well in recent games.

Aaron Gray comes in for another puff piece (I think this is his 3rd or 4th this season). This one focuses on his improvement during the season. The biggest thing I’ve seen on offense, is he is getting much better about catching the ball and going right up for the basket. Earlier he would either re-grip the ball or put it on the floor before jumping. This allowed a defender an extra second to either try and block, foul or get in position where Gray had to give up what should have been an easy 2. It really showed against ‘Nova when they focused much of their interior defense on Troutman. Gray was left alone for most of his baskets.

Joe Bendel, writing for ESPN.com (Insider subs.) about how recruiting went in the Big East leads with Pitt.

New Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt hit the recruiting trail running — and he looked like an old pro doing it.

The former boss of the Miami Dolphins and Chicago Bears had been out of the college game for 16 years, but you wouldn’t have known it by the way he hustled to retain the lion’s share of Walt Harris’ recruits.

He also brought in a few of his own, most notably running back Conredge Collins of Coconut Creek, Fla., the plum of this year’s 24-member class.

“Whenever there is a coaching change, it is very difficult to hold onto recruits,” said Wannstedt, a Pittsburgh alum who stepped into the job on Dec. 23 after Harris departed for Stanford. “That’s what other schools look for; they’re always looking for a crack in the armor. … We were able to hold onto the majority of the ones we wanted, and, in the [late going], we found a way to add three or four more players.”

Recruiting analyst Tom Lemming rated the Panthers’ class second in the Big East behind West Virginia’s. In addition to Collins, record-setting quarterback Bill Stull of Pittsburgh’s Seton-LaSalle High and defensive lineman Craig Bokor of Pittsburgh (an original member of the 2004 class who went to military school) were considered keys to the group.

Collins, the son of Tony Collins, former New England Patriots 1,000-yard running back, and Stull, who was set to go to Kentucky, committed under Wannstedt’s watch. Collins said there was a buzz in Florida when word spread that Wannstedt had taken over at Pittsburgh. The same occurred in western Pennsylvania.

“We’d like to recruit in a 300-mile radius from here … and, of course, we’ll continue to go into Florida,” Wannstedt said.

Eleven of the Pittsburgh signees hail from western Pennsylvania, which is significant, because Harris was criticized for his inability to lure enough players from his back yard. Six other states send at least one player to Pittsburgh, including Florida (6), New Jersey (2), New York (2), Ohio (1), Virginia (1) and Maryland (1).

“We have to reestablish ourselves at home,” Wannstedt said. “It is a priority, I can guarantee you that. We can’t let these guys leave and go someplace else. There’s too much talent here.”

Pittsburgh returns nine starters on offense and seven on defense from last year’s Fiesta Bowl team. A couple of the newcomers could make an immediate impact, notably Bokor and Collins (who could improve a running game that managed just 2.6 yards per carry). A good portion of the class likely will redshirt, though Wannstedt made it clear that every position is open.

Wonder who ESPN.com will tap next fall for the Big East Notebook? They tend to rotate with a different beat writer every year.

Pitt definitely isn’t the only one scheduling the Div. I-AA football programs. Auburn just added Western Kentucky.

At this point, I’ll introduce Pat Hill. You know him as Fresno State’s brash and bold coach, a guy who has built a program from the scrap heap and will play anyone, any time, any place to gain respect.

So I placed a call to Hill last week and told him Auburn just added a home game against Division I-AA Western Kentucky to complete its 2005 schedule. And before I could ask the question, he gave the answer.

“We called them,” Hill interrupted. “We wanted to play them. I guess their schedule was already filled.”

No, it wasn’t. Fresno officials called before Auburn added Western Kentucky, and Hill is speaking with a politically correct tone because, well, he’d love a shot at Auburn somewhere down the road. Yeah, good luck with that. Auburn has bigger fish to flop.

Like The Citadel. Or Western Kentucky. Or big, bad Ball State.

This is why Auburn wasn’t one of two teams playing in the Orange Bowl national title game last season, why the Tigers were stuck in the Sugar Bowl politicking for respect. Respect? Play someone with a pulse outside your conference, then we’ll talk.

Wait, I take that back. Aubie played USC in the 2002 and ’03 seasons and lost by a combined 47-17. The Tigers also played Georgia Tech in 2003 and lost 17-3. Hence, the reason for last year’s brutal nonconference slate of Louisiana-Monroe, The Citadel and Louisiana Tech. And the reason the Tigers weren’t playing USC in the Orange Bowl.

Look, Auburn shouldn’t have to apologize for its schedule; it plays in the SEC, the toughest conference in college football. But like it or not, teams must prove themselves outside of their conferences to earn style points. It’s as much a beauty pageant as it is a demolition derby.

Auburn was put in this predicament after Southern Miss bailed out of a game because of conflicts with the new Conference USA schedule. But here’s the hitch: Southern Miss informed Auburn last September. University officials knew for five months — through a magical unbeaten season, through the controversy of not being able to play for the national title because of a pathetic nonconference schedule — that they needed a nonconference game for 2005, yet they chose to continue down the same path.

This season and next season, it likely won’t be that type of issue for Pitt. But if Pitt continues to improve and seeks to get on the national stage, then the non-con will be vital for Pitt. Unlike Auburn for example (or the Pitt basketball team), the Pitt football team does not get to fall back on the argument of a brutal conference schedule. Not with Rutgers and Cinci every year.

At the very least, Pitt needs to start looking into scheduling some non-cons with teams like Fresno and Boise St. There is plenty of risk, but Pitt is going to have to start taking some chances in that area.

West Virginia has convinced themselves that they are somewhere on the NCAA Tournament bubble. So coming off a home win against 3-9 Seton Hall yesterday, they see that game against Pitt on Wednesday as their big opportunity.

Against the hapless Pirates, they generated 15 turnovers that they turned into 26 points.

“Playing Pitt is a huge game for us,” Herber said. “It’s as hard as it gets. Pitt is one of the best home teams in the country. They’re going to be fired up because we beat them. It’s going to be a hostile crowd. I hope we’re going to be ready.”

“Sometimes you’re trying to get on the bubble, so to speak, and can’t play anybody to get noticed,” Beilein said. “Pitt’s a great team. To beat them on the road will be very difficult to do. But it would be a great win for us, to help us finish strong here in February.

“I know there will be extra focus in practice getting ready for this game.”

Focus is fine. The question is, does this team have the confidence and desire to win in the Steel City. We know the talent is there for the upset by the result of the Feb. 5 game.

“We definitely have the desire,” Herber said. “We know every game makes or breaks our season right now. We approach every game as the last one. This one gives us a lot of confidence.”

So maybe, just maybe, they can steal one in the Peterson Center.

Of course Pitt needs this game, this is not the time for consecutive losses. Especially not to lose at home to the Hoopies.

This is the only game down the stretch for Pitt that won’t be on national TV. This creates a quandary for me. Do I waste the $5 or so to get Pitt’s internet broadcast? I’ve resisted all season, and now it would essentially be for just one game. Yes, it’s only $5, but I totally disagree with Pitt’s policy of making you pay to get the streaming broadcast. They should do it free, to reach a broader base.

So what I need is Logic 2.0″ (anyone who read Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency should know what I’m talking about). That is, I need to have a reasoned, logical method of reaching the conclusion that I should pay for the broadcast.

In the ‘Burgh, the game is being chalked up to just one of those games where ‘Nova was hitting 3s. Carl Krauser, though, had some issues about the way the refs were calling the game.

“My mouth has been quiet for quite a while — and I haven’t disrespected any refs,” the Pitt junior said. “That’s not the reason we lost the game, but it helps. Today, I got really aggravated.”
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“I kind of felt like Shaq out there — you know, when Shaq gets hacked all the time,” said Krauser, who helped the Panthers whittle a 13-point deficit with 5:37 remaining into a three-point deficit on two free throws with 1:38 to go. Pitt would never get any closer. “I’ve kind of felt like that for a while now. This is the first time I said anything. I’m out there working as hard as anyone else.”

Krauser believes his physical, all-out nature is working against him.

“I guess they think I’m tough, so they think I’m looking for contact every time,” he said. “That’s not the case. More than 90 percent of the time, I get hacked and hit and blood (on me). They look at you like you’re tough and you’re supposed to keep playing. It’s frustrating.”

Whether Krauser is correct in his assessment of the officiating is debatable, but this much is certain: Villanova exploited Pitt’s perimeter defense, which has been an area of concern much of the season.

Mixed feelings. There were times when it looked like Pitt was being mugged out there, and even the ABC crew seemed to point out more missed calls going against Pitt, but how much right does Pitt have to complain about physical play — especially in the Big East? Add in the fact that ‘Nova had 2 players foul out, had one more PF called on them than Pitt, and that includes 5 fouls Pitt committed in the last minute; and it’s hard for me to fairly judge the officials as being a top-5 factor for the loss.

Barring a complete collapse by BC, Pitt will not win a share of a 3rd regular season Big East title.

Interesting note from NY Daily News writer Dick Weiss about Jay Wright and the Villanova team.

This is Wright’s fourth year in the Mainline, the same year things started to click in when he was at Hofstra and began producing perennial NCAA caliber teams at that America East school.

No this is not the America East conference, but with their talent returning and a year older next year, they should be considered the primary dark horse team in the BE in 05-06 in early handicapping.

In Philly, where they ignored the game until it was over, they are jumping back on the bandwagon. In fact, they are now thinking that ‘Nova is peaking at the right time this year and next.

TIMING CAN BE everything, and quite frankly, fourth-year Villanova coach Jay Wright has picked the perfect time to get his Wildcats back on the national scene.

It’s not fair to say that this season would have been ‘Nova’s last chance to re-establish itself as a perennial NCAA Tournament program, the kind that top recruits would again put on their consideration list. But considering what’s coming next in the Big East Conference, this was probably going to be its best.
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Syracuse and UConn are established national powers. Louisville, Cincinnati, Pitt and De Paul are big time players on the national scene.

Georgetown, Notre Dame and St. John’s are name brands that can easily become household names again.

In a conference like that, Villanova can’t afford to be out of the spotlight any longer because it’s just going to get harder and harder to find.

As for the ‘Nova fans, well you stay classy:

A mob was preparing to storm the court yesterday at the Pavilion, where Villanova was putting the finishing touches on an 80-72 Big East Conference victory over No. 17 Pittsburgh.

Then there appeared to be some wavering. Was such a celebration appropriate for the occasion?

The Wildcats’ student section began chanting over and over: “Pitt’s not worth it,” and “Not an upset.”

But when the final horn sounded, a sea of blue T-shirts flooded the floor anyway, and No. 25 Villanova had won for the fifth time in its last six outings to the delight of a sellout crowd of 6,500.

Right. The last time they beat Pitt was the BE Tournament in 2000. Still, look at this way, has beating Villanova ever caused any student section anywhere to come running out on the court? Didn’t think so. It mattered to the ‘Nova players:

“It was great to get a win against them,” Ray said. “I hadn’t beaten them since I’ve been here. The first half, [Pittsburgh] was playing me and trying not to let me get any shots off. In the second half, I found ways to find my shots.”

Their point guard, Mike Nardi, gets a puff piece to the extent that he is touted as the “one of the finest point guards in college basketball.” He had 13 points, but only had 4 assists and 3 turnovers. Not exactly the game that demonstrated this.

West Virginia at home, Wednesday night.

One of our regular readers, Jamie, and I have been getting into it a little in the comments for this post. All very friendly, just a slight disagreement on some things. Jamie — and I’m paraphrasing — suggests that this loss came because ‘Nova was just going off on their 3-point shots. That they just couldn’t miss, especially Ray. The same thing that happened with WVU and Georgetown — teams were hot from outside. No question that was a big factor.

My point is that ND was similarly hot, but Pitt pulled out the win. The difference between the losses and the win was that Pitt was forced to respect the inside game. Pittsnogle and Salley for WVU also took the ball inside and scored. That was what Sumpter, Foye and Lowry did. Sumpter, to me was far more impressive and a threat than Ray. He shot 3s well, and took the ball inside for jumpers and lay-ins. In the ND game, Pitt completely eliminated any inside presence by ND. ND lacked a consistent penetrater or anyone inside who could dominate. It allowed the guys inside –Troutman and Gray — to stay closer to the basket where they are comfortable. Most of ‘Nova’s guys were moving inside and out. Only Nardi — their point guard — tended to stay to the perimeter.

This Villanova team has had talent. It was horribly inconsistent last year. This year it is still inconsistent, but much improved. Next year is their chance.

I had to snicker, during the telecast yesterday. At some point, late in the game, Elmore made a comment that Villanova was one of those teams no one in the BE or in the NCAA Tournament wants to play late in the season. And I couldn’t help but think that applies to the entire top-7 of the BE. Any given night.

Well, for Pitt to finish the season on a strong note Pitt needs to win 3 of their next 4. WVU, UConn, @ BC and @ ND.

First, all respect to ‘Nova. They had a game plan for dealing with Pitt, and executed it well. Everyone looks to Allen Ray as being the reason when he went off hitting 5 of 6 3s at one point in the second half as keying the win. They were big scores no doubt. They were created, though, because Pitt had to respect Villanova making shots inside. Curtis Sumpter — who could go inside or out on his own, Lowry and Foye; all 3 could penetrate and take shots from anywhere. Pitt was chasing these guys all over the place. It kept Pitt off balance. It gave guys like Ray and Nardi a chance to set up or take a shot right off of a screen.

How many times did you see Troutman all the way out on the perimeter? That just shouldn’t happen. It wasn’t just the foul trouble that limited Troutman to only 4 rebounds. He was not inside to get position.

Villanova shot the ball well from everywhere. In the first half, they shot 4-7 from beyond the arc and 9-19 everywhere else. In the second half, despite how it seemed, they shot a little worse 8-16 on 3s and 4-11 the rest. For the game, they shot over 47%. Pitt can’t win when an opponent shoots that well against them. Few teams can.

Still, the frustrating thing, as I look at the box score. Pitt was so close despite it all. It just took too long before they got it together to make that final run, and the hole was too deep. Against Syracuse, they were down by 8 with almost 7 minutes left. This time, down by 11 with a little more than 4 minutes left. Krauser worked it hard in the last couple minutes, finally drawing the contact to get Sumpter and Sheridan to foul out on consecutive possessions. Pitt got it to within 3 with a minute and a half left — 71-68. They just couldn’t stop Villanova.

Ray hit a tough jump shot on the penetration and drew the foul. Then at the other end, Krauser got trapped on a double team. No help was coming right away and when he tried to split it, he went down and was called for the travel. At that point, Pitt was forced to start fouling, and the final score ended up 80-72.

Here’s what can make it even worse to me. You look at Pitt’s offensive numbers for the game, and you realize they were essentially only 1 or 2 shots from their season average by percentage. Pitt shot 4-13 on 3s, 30.8%. Make one more of those and it is suddenly at 38+%, closer to Pitt’s average of 41%, and it raises the overall shooting percentage to about 49%. Same with free throws. Just one more conversion and they would have been about at their season average. I know, pointless. Just one of those things when you look at the numbers after a while.

Individual comments

Aaron Gray had a solid game. Gave Pitt 15 points, 7-8 shooting, in 15 minutes. A lot of easy buckets when other players drew the attention. What I liked, was that he caught the ball and put it right up. He didn’t try and put the ball on the floor first. A major step and a big reason why no one was able to contest his shots. Only 2 rebounds, though. Villanova was creating a lot of long rebounds with their jump shots. He still needs to work on free throw shooting.

Chris Taft played well. 11 points and 8 rebounds. A couple points where he settled for a short jump hook, rather than muscling inside further for the better shot. Team’s leading rebounder in the game.

Ronald Ramon did not look comfortable. He expended a lot of energy on defense, which was good, but the speed of Villanova’s guards definitely caught him off-guard. He did not seem happy with his shot.

Antonio Graves actually played better defense than usual. He needs to be better with his shot selection, but is showing more willingness to try and penetrate on offense — he just needs to finish. Grabbed 7 rebounds, necessary when the rebounds are coming out further.

Levon Kendall actually played well for being totally out of water for this game. Despite ‘Nova’s fast guards, Kendall did a good job of keep them in front of him in his 18 minutes. Played very smart.

I keep hoping that Mark McCarroll will suddenly get it going. It just hasn’t happened. The scariest thing is when he goes to the free throw line. McCarroll is now 4-23 (17.4%) at the line this year. Even basketball stats guru, Ken Pomeroy estimated that McCarroll may be the worst FT shooter in the major conferences.

Carl Krauser had a rocky game, but he still nearly pulled it out at the end for Pitt. 16 points, with half coming at the FT line. He had 5 rebounds, and 4 steals. Unfortunately he also had 6 turnovers and only 2 assists.

Chevon Troutman was the focus of ‘Nova’s defense. He constantly faced double teams, but did a good job of passing out of them, as represented by having 4 assists and only 1 turnover. Still, not a good game for Troutman. Only 9 points and 4 rebounds. The Wildcats were able to draw him out to the perimeter on defense where he there was more room for the ‘Nova players to run and avoid banging against him. As a result, he got into foul trouble and had to sit for a stretch in the second half.