Well, Spring Drills start on Saturday. Pitt has its Preseason Prospectus available for Download (PDF). No shock who they put on the cover.

A little more on Pitt’s first recruit for the 2006 class.

Most scouting services don’t have player rankings on underclassmen until later in the year. However, some scouts are very high on Loheyde.

“He’s a top 10 to 15 junior in the state of Pennsylvania,” said Bob Lichtenfels, who is the Big East recruiting analyst for the recruiting Web site Scout.com. “He sort of a throwback kid, a tough, hard-nosed player. He has great lateral quickness and covers extremely well for his size.”

Actually, this is the most amusing (over)reaction to the verbal.

And so begins Pitt’s takeover of the WPIAL.
…
This is why Penn State fans should worry about Wannstedt more than
Panthers fans. While he’s never come close to winning anything as a head coach,
Wannstedt’s always been a players’ favorite, meaning he should be a formidable
foe in Pa. recruiting.

By the way, you know how Pitt was ranked in the top-20 of schools with football and basketball? Guess who was #1 in the anti-top 20?

1. Penn State The Lion fencing squad is a favorite to win a record 10th national championship this month. Hey, at least there’s been something to cheer about in Happy Valley this winter. Over the last 188 days, Penn State has been victorious just 11 times in 41 tries. JoePa’s defense could shut down anyone last fall, but the offense couldn’t score worth a lick, and the team finished with a losing record for the fourth time in five years. The basketball program, which lost 16-of-17 in the Big Ten and was 7-23 overall, has been killed by defections the last two years, and is currently in a state of chaos.
Winter MVP — LB Paul Posluszny

I think their women’s basketball team is doing well.

I don’t know if anyone else has the CSTV March Madness on Demand. Best $10 I spent (I ordered it early). I can watch the games and still be on the computer. I figure I’m going to be skipping back and forth between the WVU-Creighton game and UCLA-Texas Tech. Maybe peak in on UAB-LSU.

Additionally, you can watch the games later. Because of the score at halftime, they didn’t go back to the Pitt game in the second half. They went back a few different times for a minute or two when it was under 10 minutes left, but didn’t go back for good until the 4:42 mark. So, I am darkly contemplating, cuing the Pitt game up so I can see the first 15 minutes of the second half. Probably not a smart idea.

There is so much to be frustrated over this game. Troutman had a bad game, again. He was something like 1-5 in the first half. At around the 11:45 mark of the first half, he missed again and was fouled. The arena was only half-filled so you could hear him scream in frustration. He was taken out of his game because his defensive assignment kept drawing out to the perimeter. When that happens, he is not that good or fast. He needs to be able to stay near the basket for rebounding and better play.

Krauser had a bad start but turned it around in the second half. His ball handling and recognition in the first half was frustrating. I was actually very pleased with Taft in the second half. He couldn’t play much in the first because of foul trouble, but he picked up the slack for Troutman on the boards — getting 13. He also had 12 points on 5-9 shooting.

Ramon. Maybe it’s the shoulder, but he has absolutely no confidence in his shot right now. He plays good defense, and basically turned into Yuri Demetris. Graves and Benjamin were the only ones even remotely keeping Pitt in the game in the first half, when no one else seemed able to score.

DeGroat never got off the bench. Kendall got only 2 minutes, and McCarroll had 9. Pitt just stuck with 3 guards. No wonder Pitt ended up taking 23 3-point shots. Aside from Benjamin, the bench gave them nothing. Besides his 7 the rest of the points came from 4 starters. Anyone remember when Pitt had a bench that gave production? The big wins at mid-season over UConn and Syracuse. What happened to Aaron Gray?

Now we come to the coaching. Dixon got a free ride this season. Despite the inconsistency of the team, and more disturbingly, the lack of any visible signs of improvement or development by the players and team. Krauser and Taft still do the same things — for good and maddening. Ramon has an injury. Kendall had a spurt then disappeared. Same for Gray. DeGroat had one game and that was it. Benjamin seems to be making progress as he got over some early injuries.

Dixon is going to have to show something more next season. His grace period is ending. Part of it is his own fault. He is just so bland and cliched in his interviews. Here’s what I said about Dixon last March:

… Dixon has had a great first season, but he has been the blandest and most boring copy I’ve ever heard or read in a coach. His players love him, so there is obviously something he doesn’t show the public. Dixon needs to show this side. If for no other reason, than his own job security. He won this year, but it’s easy to say he won with Howland’s players and recruits. If he doesn’t get out in a way that makes the fans and alumni comfortable and personally like him, they will turn on him at the first bump. Show some personality Dixon. Give us a reason to like you and give you space to have problems — because problems will come, they always do.

This season, we’ve seen Dixon not to be the best gameday coach. He can go in with a game plan but he doesn’t seem able to make adjustments until halftime. He has seemed unable to cope with problems in-game. The first half of the Pacific game drove that home. Pacific kept changing the defensive looks, and Pitt was being confused by them. The team couldn’t adjust or find a way to beat it — other than just trying to hoist 3s.

At the other end, he stuck Troutman on Maraker. Ostensibly because Troutman is his best defender. The problem as we saw in the 2 Villanova and WVU games, is that Troutman is not effective against forwards who can take the ball inside and out. Get Troutman outside and he can be exposed. Dixon didn’t change the defense until the second half. Not so coincidently, Troutman started playing better at both ends and so did the rest of the team.

Dixon has also landed in the Sports Guy’s pantheon of faces:

2:44 — Down by six with 33 seconds left, Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon calls timeout, takes a few frightened steps away from the bench, then picks his nose on national TV. Not his finest hour.

2:46 — Pacific pulls away for the win — I’m 0-2 for the day. By the way, Chevy Troutman’s game today could best be compared to the performance of Tony in “Blue Chips.”
…
2:53 — Just had the following exchange:

Chip: “I can’t believe you have the Playboy Channel in your house.”

Me: “I just ordered it for this week, (the Sports Gal) doesn’t know about it.”

Chip: “Well, isn’t she going to find out when she reads the column?”

(That’s followed by me making the “Jamie Dixon Picking My Nose on National TV” Face.)

The other thing that Dixon is going to have to work on is figuring out his bench. He got some mild criticisms/questions last week.

That’s it for now.

Well, that was disheartening. Pitt, much like the previous game against Villanova, dug itself too deep a hole in the first half. They got within 5, but couldn’t make the defensive stops.

Doubly frustrating for me. CSTV’s feed for this game was blocked because it was being shown on TV. For most of the second half, though, the Cleveland market had them bouncing to the Niagara-Oklahom then to EKY-KY and finally UWM-Ala.

I’ll try to post more later.

[Originally posted to College Basketball Blog — Diaries.]

I give up.

I’ve tried to be cold and analytical about the bracket. I’ve read way too many “expert analysis” about the Tournament. Studied too many numbers.

It just isn’t working. I start building my bracket for Albuquerque, and it keeps breaking down. How can I pick against Pitt in the first or even the second round? They’re my school. By default, I have to see them in the Sweet 16. Beating Pacific. Pulling the upset over Washington, despite the trapping/pressure defense used by the Huskies that has flustered Pitt all season.

And it gets worse. I start constructing scenarios in my mind to explain how they can beat Louisville. Then Wake or Gonzaga.

I run into a brick wall with Illinois.

It’s sad, that as I poured over various draft brackets I found myself wistfully thinking of the 90s when Pitt was a non-factor and I seemed to know what I was doing in the NCAA Tournament pools.

Then it hit me: this is the biggest thing to cause me angst?

So, screw it all. I’m embracing my bias and throwing the logic out the window.

Pitt, of course, spent time in South Dakota while waiting for a new plane to get them to Boise. They got in some 10+ hours later than intended, missed their scheduled practice and broke out the “on the bright side we bonded” card. Honestly, though, if it took the plane problems in the last few weeks of the season for the bonding to happen, that shouldn’t be considered a good thing. It’s unclear if the lay-over from hell will have any real affect.

To counter that, the 12:40 Eastern start time means that Pacific will be playing at 9:40 am by their internal clocks. As you can imagine, they aren’t too wild about that. For Pacific, this is their chance to put their program on the map. Get in there with Gonzaga, Southern Illinois and Creighton. Not as a one-year flash, but as one of the perennial “name” teams from the lesser conferences that always seems to be in the NCAA Tournament.

It’s good that Thomason has dreams, though. After all, this is UOP’s biggest moment in the post-Keith Swagerty era (if you have to ask, you’re not nearly old enough). As the relentlessly avuncular Thomason says, “Whatever gives you a better chance to win the game.”

Thomason isn’t proud, but neither is he desperate. The Tigers, playing in successive NCAA Tournaments for the first time in 38 years (see Swagerty, you young punks), face a nationally known but beatable opponent in Pitt, and even though the Tigers are loaded with impact seniors, a win this a.m. in the unfortunately named Taco Bell Arena could leave UOP with the gentle glow of the late ’90s Gonzaga team that broke through the glass ceiling to national prominence.

That’s worth getting out of bed for any morning.

Naturally, though, Thomason has his doubts about that. The game time, 9:40 a.m. PST, could be tough on your deeper sleepers, and Thomason did suggest that the time was a mild annoyance. “I’ve never seen the wisdom in a game that starts at 10:40,” he said. “I don’t understand how that happens.”

Well, of course, he does understand it. CBS does the sayin’, the schools do the playin’, simple as that. What, you think counterprogramming “Live With Regis and Kelly” comes without pain?

The Pitt players are still talking confidently about what they hope to accomplish in the NCAA. Heck, Carl Krauser is talking a decent amount of smack.

“They don’t rebound, they don’t crash the boards,” Krauser said of the Tigers, who average 33.4 boards per game, five fewer than the Panthers. “Their style is different. They like to go outside with it. It’s that West Coast thing. We’re East Coast, Pittsburgh and New York. We like to bang and rebound and be in the middle of it. I think that will work to our advantage.”

Not so fast, said Pacific’s top two players. Leading scorer Guillaume Yango of France and Big West Conference MVP David Doubley of Oakland, Calif., took umbrage with Krauser’s characterizations.

Eleven Pacific players hail from California. The remaining four are from overseas.

“It’s not the first time I’ve heard people saying we’re not tough and we can’t bang with them,” said Yango, a powerful 23-year-old at 6-foot-9, 250 pounds. “They can do the talking. If they want to talk, go ahead and talk. But let’s see what happens when we get on the floor.”

Does that imply Yango and his mates can play toughball with the Panthers?

“We’ve done it before,” he said. “We know we can.”

As for Doubley, who reputedly is hard-nosed like Krauser, he wanted to clarify any misconceptions about New York and California players. His message went directly to Krauser.

“Obviously, he’s never been to the West Coast, and he’s never played against us,” Doubley said. “Because we don’t intimidate easily and there’s nothing soft about us.”

It will be interesting to see whether Krauser got under their skin, the article seems to imply it, but whether it carries over to the court will be something else.

Ronald Ramon is admitting that his right shoulder has not fully healed from an injury. There’s also this:

A Web site called collegeinsider.com has deemed Pitt’s Pat Sandle one of America’s best-dressed assistant coaches. The site sets up NCAA Tournament brackets pitting coaches against each other. Sandle is a No. 6 seed in the Southeast region, matched against North Texas’ Kobie Baker in the first round.

You can find the bracket here. Coach Jamie Dixon did not make the field of 64 for head coaches.

As for the game, Ron Cook says it is all on Chevy Troutman. You know what? I’m not disagreeing. The column is a must read, if for no other reason:

“Hey,” Troutman asked a pretty girl on her way through the trainer’s room, “are you on the gym team?”

Joe Starkey gets Fran Fraschilla to evaluate the match-up. He favors Pitt. Another match-up will be between the Centers. An advantage for Pacific, is that they are such a balanced scoring team, that shutting down one player isn’t enough.

Pitt says it intends to stick to its game plan of getting the ball inside. It has to.

Everyone seems to think this could be the best game of the day. Both teams appear so evenly matched. Of course, everyone expected the Pitt-Villanova game in the Big East to be an instant classic and…

4 hours and counting.

I’m skipping a lot of quick hit articles that have 1 line capsule takes on the games. They generally are split 50-50 on Pitt and Pacific. None have been particularly insightful. Speaking of not insightful, an article listing the favorite snacks for the Pacific players.

There are a couple, fairly good articles about the match-up. The 5 things Pacific must do to win:

Get back on defense — Pittsburgh runs the ball up the floor very quickly. The Tigers have to play solid transition defense to stop the Panthers’ fast break. Pittsburgh has one of the top point guards in the country in Carl Krauser, and their big men, Chris Taft and Chevon Troutman, run the floor very well.

Rebound: Pittsburgh is a great offensive rebounding team. The Panthers average 14.4 offensive rebounds per game and are plus nine in rebounding margin.
…
Pacific was second in the Big West in rebounding margin at plus-6.4.

Toughness: Pacific has to match Pitt’s toughness and how hard it plays.

The Tigers haven’t been comfortable in physical games. They’ve improved in this area, but they took a step back against a determined Utah State squad in the Big West title game.

The Panthers like to bang bodies and whether Pacific can handle that or not will be a big key to the game.

“They’ll try to out-tough us and push us and be physical,” said Thomason, “and the way the referees call it is going to have a lot of input. We’ll have to have those guys blow the whistle a little.”

Confidence: The Tigers have to have an air of confidence and remember how good they really are.
Execute offense: When Pacific shares the ball on offense it’s a really good team.

SI.com has a decent breakdown of both teams, though it seems a little shallow regarding Pitt (and probably Pacific). I really don’t think anyone knows for sure about this game for a variety of reasons:

1. Pitt’s inconsistency means you don’t know what they will do.
2. Pacific, despite being a top-25 team, is still a relatively unknown mid-major and given the geographic distance between the two programs, there are no writers or pundits with a good sense of how these teams will really match-up.
3. The officiating. Will the game be called close or loose?

I just don’t think anyone will be too surprised if either team wins.

Pitt Seniors trying to impress scouts. Really, Rob Petitti is the only one with a chance to be drafted on the first day. He’s trying to overcome some bad workouts.

Offensive tackle Rob Petitti plans to give it one more try after he failed to run well for NFL scouts yesterday at Pitt’s pro workout day at the UPMC indoor practice field.

Petitti, the only sure NFL draft pick the Panthers have this year, did not run at the NFL combine workouts in Indianapolis 2 1/2 weeks ago because he has turf toe, which still bothers him. He ran a 5.50 yesterday in the 40-yard dash, a slow time for tackles. By comparison, Alex Baron, considered the top tackle available in the draft, ran in the 4.8s at Florida State’s workout yesterday.

Petitti scheduled another workout for March 29 at Pitt for interested scouts.

Most of the other Pitt Seniors are projected to be free agent signees.

Coach Dave Wannstedt has his first verbal for the class of 2006.

Dave Wannstedt’s pledge to make Western Pennsylvania prominent recruiting grounds for Pitt paid off at a school where Walt Harris was persona non grata.

Gateway linebacker Dan Loheyde made a verbal commitment to Pitt on Tuesday, giving the Panthers a WPIAL star for their first recruit from the Class of 2006.
…
The relationship between Pitt and Gateway coach Terry Smith was repaired immediately once Wannstedt was hired. The Panthers quickly made Loheyde a priority, extending an offer last month at the Syracuse men’s basketball game.

In addition to Pitt, Loheyde also received an offer from West Virginia and strong interest from Maryland and Penn State. He made unofficial visits to all four schools.

“Each place he went, none measured up to what Pitt offered him,” Smith said. “I told him, once you find the right place for you, you don’t need to look any further.”

The 6-foot-2, 215-pound Loheyde led the Gators with 130 tackles, four fumble recoveries, three forced fumbles, two interceptions and two blocked kicks last season. He was named first-team All-Quad Southwest Conference and All-Class AAAA as a junior.

There isn’t a lot of data at the recruiting site profiles of Loheyde. Don’t know if he’s a top recruit or not — even the recruting sites need time to more accurately assess. This is still good, more from a PR and just to further pique the local high school interest in Pitt, at this point. There is still almost a year to actual signing day.

As posted earlier, Pitt, once more, had problems getting to their Tournament location. Not a lot to do in the Sioux Falls Airport. Bendel in passing floats the idea of the travel delays affecting Pitt‘s performance in the Big East Tournament. Not a good thought, because it suggests how soft Pitt must be, considering WVU had an even more difficult time getting to the BET and they played a game the day before Pitt did.

There is a very bizarre (to be kind) piece from Smizik about Pitt players being bitter.

So why are some of the Pitt players so unhappy? Why are they walking around with what amounts to not just a chip but an entire lumberyard on their shoulder? Instead of rejoicing in their success and fame, they come across as bitter young men who believe they have been dealt a bad hand.

The comments made by two team leaders, Carl Krauser and Chevon Troutman, after Pitt’s selection Sunday, were stunning in their level of bitterness.

Concerning the team’s No. 9 seeding, Krauser said, “That’s OK. Since I’ve been here, I realize no one in college basketball gives us any respect. We’re used to that. That’s why we’re used to being an underdog.”

Concerning the site of the team’s game, Boise, Idaho, Troutman said, “We never get a cool place to play close to home. It’s not anything to us. We just have to go to Boise and take care of business.”

Forget for a moment how blatantly incorrect those statements are and consider the spirit in which they were made.

Let me get this straight. After everyone had been telling them, they had read and seen things saying that Pitt would be a 6 or 7 seed, they find out they are a 9 seed. Their immediate response, much like the fans is WTF? Did Smizik do any real reporting? Or did he just cherry-pick some quotes from the stories published? I wonder, because there was more than one interpretation of how the players responded. Including another quote from Troutman.

“Everybody’s asking about West Virginia, but they deserve it because they swept us and went to the championship game,” Troutman said. “We played our way into a No. 9 seed, so we’ve got to work from there.”

How bitter does that sound?

As for Pitt, some don’t think they will be playing too much longer.

Yes, the Pitt basketball season has been a bit of a disappointment to players, coaches and fans who had hoped for another 30-win season and Big East championship.

It’s just not very surprising.

The questions that the Panthers had at the beginning of the season still linger as they prepare to meet Pacific in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Thursday.

Pitt has not exactly been a predictable team this year.

Looking for an NCAA Tournament bracket spoiler?

It could be the Pittsburgh Panthers.

The ninth-seeded Panthers, who open the tournament Thursday morning at Taco Bell Arena against eight-seeded Pacific, have Final Four potential.

They also could be packing their bags by lunchtime.

The Panthers have reached the Sweet 16 three straight years and fell out of the Top 25 this week for the first time in more than three years. They are 4-2 against Top 25 teams, but they have lost four of their past six games.

Right now, Pitt is a 3.5 point favorite.

Pitt has been preparing for the Tournament as if the games will be called tightly.

One thing Dixon emphasized this week and will continue to emphasize is overcoming a tight whistle. The Panthers are a physical team and have struggled to adjust their game, especially this year, when officials are quick with the whistle.

“It is imperative that we get through screens, play good help defense and rebound the basketball because they can hurt you if they get a lot of looks and if you don’t guard them tight.”

Pitt guard Carl Krauser, who, at times this year, has complained about officiating, said he believes the Panthers are capable of maintaining their tough, aggressive defense while avoiding foul trouble as long as they don’t take cheap fouls or make bad decisions.

“Coach made sure our practices were called really tight this week because you never know. We’re going out west and we’ll probably have officials we haven’t seen before and don’t know how we play,” Krauser said.

There’s also speculation about Krauser and Taft going pro after the season.

As for Pacific, they apparently haven’t been steamrolling quite as smoothly as people seem to be saying.

Pacific has been inconsistent and uneven in the four games prior to the Utah State loss, and for the Tigers to rebound from their loss to the Aggies, one would think playing in the spectacle of March Madness would be motivation enough.

But the Tigers haven’t been themselves lately, and Thomason will attempt to get his team re-organized in short order against a physical team like Pittsburgh, which boasts players like 6-10, 260-pound forward Chris Taft, 6-7, 240-pound forward Chevon Troutman, 7-0, 275-pound center Aaron Gray, and Levon Kendall and Mark McCarroll, both 6-10 and 225 pounds.

“The way we had been playing lately caught up with us. Hopefully, this is a big-time wake-up call that can get us back on track. It’s been that way all year,” Pacific assistant coach Adam Jacobsen said after the Big West championship game loss. “We kind of fell into a rut the last four games, so, hopefully this will help us relax and get back to playing Pacific basketball.”

The Tigers should be happy to get a second chance after having one of their worst games of the year against the Aggies.

Pacific has a lot of foreign and JUCO players. The one Pitt might have the biggest problem could be Christian Maraker.

As for Maraker, he also shoots 47 percent from the field, 37 percent from 3-point range and 83 percent from the free-throw line.

And, he plays well in big games. Maraker scored 22 in Pacific’s 11-point loss at Kansas in December and 19 earlier this season in an overtime win vs. NCAA qualifier Utah State.

Asked to describe his style, Maraker said he has a distinct European flare, in that he can step out and shoot from long range or slip by a defender for easy buckets. He could present a matchup problem for Pitt. The Panthers have had difficulty keeping up with inside-outside wing players (i.e. Curtis Sumpter of Villanova).

This is the kind of player that Pitt will need McCarroll, DeGroat and/or Kendall covering, with Troutman available to be there if he goes inside. I really don’t want to see Troutman getting the assignment on an inside-outside guy. It completely disrupts Troutman at both ends.

Our beloved Panthers lost vital practice time due to airplane maintenance problems.

Now, I’m not saying anything, BUT, one does wonder just how many Pacific alums live in the greater Sioux Falls, SD area.

[Original version posted to the Diaries of College Basketball.]

I don’t believe in luck. Not really. I think of myself as a fairly rational person. Then sports get involved and it all seems to go out the window.

I am still blaming myself for Pitt losing to Villanova last week. Why? Because I didn’t sit in the right chair in the living room and I didn’t have a beer. Technically I should blame my daughter for both. She was sitting in the chair, and since it was early in the afternoon on a weekday with me wathcing her while the wife was at work I couldn’t have a beer (and I promised Children and Family Services that I would stop doing that). Still, it seems wrong to blame someone under 3, so I guess it’s my fault. I followed plenty of other little pre-game rituals, but not the big ones.

Rationally, I know that sitting in the wrong seat, and not having a Yuengling during the game wasn’t what cost Pitt that game. But…

Really, this sort of thing goes back to the 1996 MLB playoffs and World Series. A bunch of us at law school got together to watch the games. We all sat in the same seats, repeating the same standards, drinking the same type of beer. The only times we didn’t meet to watch, the Yankees lost. We graduated in ’97 and blamed ourselves for the Yankees losing in the playoffs that year.

I’m very worried about what to do with Pitt’s game at 12:40 pm on Thursday. It doesn’t bode well.

So, here’s the question of the day. What are your rituals and superstitions when it comes to game day for Pitt? How bad does it get?

After some semi-literate attempts and finally some help from Chas, I managed to create my bracket. (See: McClearn, Entry 1) View at your leisure.

For the purposes of conversation, however, here are my final four picks:

Chicago: Illinois

Albequerque: Louisville

Syracuse: UNC

Ausitn: Syracuse

For the final, I predicted:

Illinois 71, Syracuse 73

I predicted UConn losing to UNC, Syracuse upending Kansas, Louisville beating Wake Forest, and Illinois fending off Oklahoma State to get to the Final Four.

I also predicted that we beat Pacific and Washington but then losing to Louisville in the Sweet 16. So, hey, I’m not a TOTAL homer.

Let the comparing of notes begin!

Just a few pieces mentioning Pitt or Pacific to pass on. A look at Pitt’s stumbles in the last few years.

SWEET 16: Pittsburgh

The Panthers have become a force in the Big East but have been eliminated in the regional semifinals three years in a row. Two of the three teams that eliminated the Panthers (Marquette and Oklahoma State) went to the Final Four. Pitt‘s best chance to get past the Sweet 16 probably was its first, when it lost in overtime against Kent State.

Pitt‘s premature eliminations partly were the result of its nonconference schedules, which led to poorer seedings than the teams’ strength warranted. Last year, for instance, the Panthers were 28-4 in the regular season and went to the Big East Tournament title game — but had only the 45th-best RPI strength of schedule. So in some ways, they were fortunate to be a No. 3 seed but were good enough to be a No. 2.

Pitt‘s schedule was weak again this season, but it will be less of an issue with the Panthers not contending for a high seed. The difference between this team and its predecessors is that it can score, although that requires wing Antonio Graves to be playing aggressively and confidently.

Oh, and since some people are sick of me making comments about the importance of the non-con, I’ll let someone else do it.

Bob Bowlsby wasn’t kidding.

For weeks, he warned us in the media. He warned you in the listening audience. And most of all he warned them — college basketball schools and coaches.

Bowlsby, the chairman of the 2005 NCAA Tournament selection committee, warned anyone who would listen that the non-conference schedule would be a vital line on each candidate’s resume.

When the bracket was released Sunday night, it was clear just how vital.

Interestingly, conference tournaments also played an enormous role in the makeup of the 2005 bracket.

Shockingly, the conference slate — the part of the season coaches think should matter most — was downplayed in the process.
…
It told the selection committee to ignore Pittsburgh’s work in the Big East regular season. The Panthers (20-8, 10-6) finished two full games ahead of West Virginia (21-10, 8-8), but West Virginia was seeded two full rungs ahead of Pittsburgh, getting a No. 7 seed compared to Pitt’s No. 9.

That was a function of West Virginia’s season sweep but also the other unexpectedly important resume line — conference tournaments. Surely no one thought what happened last week would be unimportant. But who knew it would be that important?

It means less games against teams who have an RPI below 200. Yes, the top-25 game or two would be excellent, but reducing the number of bottom feeders played is more important. Sorry, I can’t help it. This has been an issue for me since this blog started.

From the 65 storylines for 65 teams.

6. Players Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon has tried at the wing positions since senior Yuri Demetris was suspended in January for violating team rules. As important as sophomore center Chris Taft’s progress is, getting consistent offensive and defensive production at shooting guard and small forward will be more important to Pittsburgh’s tournament run.

Can’t really argue with that. In the BC game, DeGroat provided a new wrinkle. In the comeback games against UConn and Syracuse, it was Kendall.

For something fun and to feel better about Pitt. How about the rankings for schools with the best combination of football and basketball.

12. Pittsburgh — No one seemed to really want the Big East championship this year, so Pittsburgh snuck in with a huge win in the Backyard Brawl, and earned a fat paycheck to be Utah’s speed bag in the Fiesta Bowl. The 2004 season marked the anticipated debut of quarterback Tyler Palko and the expected departure of head coach Walt Harris. Indoors, the Panthers have been rather schizophrenic. The same squad that lost to Bucknell and St. Johns also won road games at UConn, Syracuse and Boston College. At 20-8, they’re the No. 9 in the Albuquerque region.
Winter MVP — F Chevon Troutman

Spring drills for the football team start on Saturday.

Wannstedt said his top three priorities in the spring are evaluating players, installing a new offense and laying a foundation for the Panthers to become tough-minded, mentally strong and physical.

That final point means practices likely will be more physical than in the past, and players will be pushed as if it were training camp. Wannstedt is an old-school coach and has a reputation for running tough practices.

Pitt is coming off an 8-4 season, a Bowl Championship Series Fiesta Bowl bid and has nine starters returning on offense and seven on defense. Usually, a team with that profile would use the spring to fill a couple of holes and tune up for the season.

But with a new coaching staff in place, every job is up for grabs.

I get the feeling there might be a few more than usual media types covering spring practice this year.

It likely won’t be avoided for much longer. Panthers versus Tigers. We can expect all the usual cliches when two teams with the same genus of mascot meet. Especially when the teams have no history. The teams have never played each other. Pitt has played a total of 5 games against Big West Conference teams, with a record of 4-1. The last time facing a Big West opponent was in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in 1981. Pitt beat Idaho 70-69.

On the West Coast, they are lining up to get on the bandwagon of the team from Stockton. San Jose claims the rights to them, despite being 75 miles away, because Pacific was originally located in San Jose up until 1925. Okay.

In the Big West championship game, Pacific had their 22 game winning streak snapped. They weren’t playing well in their tournament.

The Tigers are approaching the tournament like a new season. They know they
have to play better than they did last week to defeat a team like Pittsburgh.

Pacific committed 23 turnovers against Cal State Northridge and escaped
with a 63-61 victory in the Big West Tournament semifinals. Utah State smothered
the Tigers with a 25-6 run in the second half en route to a 65-52 win in the
championship. Pacific couldn’t match the Aggies’ physical style of play, which
is something it will address this week.

“We’d better bring our mouth guards to the game because it’s going to be a
physical game,” guard Marko Mihailovic said. “If we thought Utah State was
physical we have something coming. Pitt’s one of the most physical teams in the
country, and the Big East is one of the most physical conferences in the country
and they stand out amongst them as the toughest team in that conference.”

You get the impression that Pacific is taking their cues from Lou Holtz by building up Pitt. It continues.

Early yesterday morning, Pacific coach Bob Thomason was speaking with
friend and coaching colleague Jerry Tarkanian, who confirmed what Thomason had
suspected all along. His basketball team got a raw deal in facing Pitt in the
first round of the NCAA tournament.

“Tark said, ‘Man, that’s not a good draw for you. I’ve seen them play a
few times. They can go to the Final Four,’ ” Thomason said yesterday, taking
some time to discuss a first-round matchup Thursday against the Panthers.

Isn’t it fascinating how Tarkanian, one of the most ethically questionable basketball coaches — ever — is like every college coach’s friend? It’s not just me is it? I get that the guy is apparently friendly and charming, but he’s everybody’s buddy. How? But I digress.

The other thing working to the advantage of Pacific, is that they are heavy with upper-classmen in the line-up. A team that has played together for quite some time, and everybody knows their role.

Pitt is trying to regroup. It has now fallen out of both polls. The first time in 3 years.

Speaking of knowing roles. That is the topic in the Trib. Coach Jamie Dixon’s rotation and substitution patterns (or lack of).

A new phenomenon entered the world of Pitt basketball this season — the well-choreographed head scratch by Panthers fans.

You know the one by now. It occurs when guys like forward John DeGroat, guard Keith Benjamin and center Aaron Gray go in and out of games at warp speed, as if they are stuck in a revolving door.

DeGroat, for example, played two minutes in the Panthers’ 67-58 quarterfinal loss to Villanova in the Big East Tournament, after playing a combined 25 minutes the previous two games against Boston College (16 minutes, 10 points) and Notre Dame (nine minutes, no points).

Benjamin had not left the bench for two games before playing 15 minutes and contributing six points against Villanova.

Gray’s minutes have fluctuated more than Oprah’s weight, as have those of forwards Mark McCarroll and Levon Kendall. It can be confusing to those watching the games — and to those playing in them, as well.

Coach Jamie Dixon is clearly attempting to push the right buttons, but Pitt has lost four of six entering its first-round NCAA Tournament game against Pacific on Thursday in Boise, Idaho, and some players are uncertain of their roles.

In the story, Kendall is about the only guy coming close to saying his game is suffering for the quick hook. I have mixed feelings. There have been several games, especially in the last 3 weeks, where I don’t think Dixon clearly thought out the match-ups. Where it seemed inexplicable that one player never makes it off the bench and another only gets one minute each half to play. Going into the season, I wondered how Coach Dixon would deal with having a team with legitimate depth — a first for Pitt in more than 12 years. Right now, I’d say he hasn’t handled it with aplomb. I’m not quite willing to go as far as Joe Starkey.

Yo, Jamie, it’s mid-March. Time to decide who can play and who can’t.

Why did we see Keith Benjamin singe Syracuse for 10 points and five rebounds in 21 minutes, only to be packed away in mothballs after a bad game a week later?

Why did we see John DeGroat burn Boston College for 1 points and seven rebounds in 16 minutes, only to be buried after a shaky encore at Notre Dame?

Dixon might as well install a revolving door at the bench. From this angle, it’s clear that his schizophrenic substitution patterns are partly responsible for Pitt staggering into the NCAA Tournament with four losses in six games.

A handful of players are confused about their roles. All they know is that Dixon has a short leash — and that can breed the sort of apprehension seen on certain faces against Villanova.

Let’s not go revisionist. The Villanova loss occurred because Troutman had a bad game, and Ramon and Graves couldn’t hit a deep jumper.

Starkey gets to Ramon and Graves, questioning why they are in the game so much when they don’t shoot so well. It ignores the fact that they are the two best defensive options at the positions. Benjamin has shown flashes, but has been inconsistent on defense. No matter how much this team is not like last year, defensively, the players are still expected to put defense first. McCarroll, DeGroat and Kendall provide energy at the small forward/three guard spot, but are not good on perimeter defense or with guys off the dribble.

As far as why some guys seem to disappear from the rotation for games at a time. I think the clue was found in last week’s Q&A with Fittipaldo.

Q: What ever happened to Keith Benjamin? He had a couple of huge games earlier in the season but hasn’t played a lot lately.

FITTIPALDO: I wouldn’t say he had any “huge” games, Jeff. Benjamin scored 10 points against Syracuse in January and looked like he was coming on strong, but he really hasn’t been a factor since. He has not played in three of the past four games. Word is he hasn’t been practicing well.
Dixon seems to have found his rotation the past few games, so I wouldn’t expect Benjamin to see a whole lot of playing time unless there is foul trouble or someone gets injured.

It seems that when you don’t do well in practice, especially the young kids, you don’t get game playing time. You want the best players out there, but you also want them to be working to get better. Playing time is really the only carrot available at this point.

Right now, it comes down to whether you want Dixon to now just pick and stick with a rotation no matter what, or try to game plan and look at the match-ups.

The announced firing of Tennessee coach Buzz Peterson was not surprising. Nor is it terribly surprising to see their rumor mill include Coach Jamie Dixon in the mix (small correction, to the article, is that the next guy hired will be the fifth coach hired since Don DeVoe in 1989).

What makes me pay some attention to this was how things have worked out for Tennessee and Pitt over 10 years. After the 1993-94 season, both Pitt and Tennessee were in the market for new head basketball coaches. Both were going after the hot head coach, Kevin O’Neill at Marquette. O’Neill chose Tennessee and Pitt settled on a Rick Pitino disciple, Ralph Willard (now the head coach at Holy Cross). I remember being quite unhappy at the time that Pitt struck out with their top choice.

Neither Pitt, nor Tennessee found success with the hires in 1994. O’Neill left for the Northwestern job after the 1996-97 season — a curious decision. Never even reaching a .500 season. Willard “resigned” after the 1998-99 season.

Both programs found success with the next hire. Tennessee hired Jerry Green from Oregon, who won 20 or more games in all four years. He was ultimately fired, though, for not meeting expectations — getting out of the first weekend of the NCAA. And having an out-of-control program, as numerous players encountered legal and academic problems. Pitt’s program was turned around under Ben Howland, who bolted for the UCLA job.

Pitt has continued to enjoy success, building and strengthening the entire program; while Tennessee has floundered. Who can say what would have happened if O’Neill had chosen the Pitt job?