The small forward/third guard position for Pitt has been a revolving door all season. Now John DeGroat is the latest to provide a spark at the position. So, that means he gets the media love today.

DeGroat, a little-used reserve forward, scored 10 points in 16 minutes, giving Dixon a much-desired spark from the small forward position that has been a trouble spot all season.

“Hard work pays off,” said DeGroat, the 6-foot-6, 220-pound junior-college transfer. “I’ve been working hard all season. The opportunity finally came tonight. I just tried to take it. My team needed me.”

DeGroat’s 16 minutes were his most since he played the same amount against St. John’s in mid-January. He played 21 minutes in the 10 games before the one Monday night at Boston College and had not played in three of them, including the loss Saturday against Connecticut. He had six baskets in Big East play before Monday night.

Against Boston College, he had five, all off offensive rebounds. He was in the right place at the right time, retrieving errant misses for easy baskets.

“I crash the boards hard,” DeGroat said. “I get pretty much the garbage stuff. I can hit an open jump shot, but I like to go in there and bang with the big boys. I’m too fast for them.”

I think Coach Dixon was coaching him on his quotes. They seemed to have been paraphrased from Bull Durham.

“[Dixon] has been searching and trying to find the right person. I still may not be the right person. But all I know is I just want to win.”

He has, to be fair, apparently been working real hard in practice and getting closer. And that put-back slam was excellent.

“Oh, wow — I haven’t had one of them in a long time” said DeGroat, who last dunked in a game a year ago, while playing at Northeastern (Colorado) Junior College. “It helped me a lot. It got me fired up for the rest of the game.”

DeGroat went on to score 10 points, all on offensive rebounds, and showed why he is Pitt’s resident garbage man at practices, the guy who cleans up after missed shots.

“Ask my teammates about it — they’re always complaining about me being around the rim,” said DeGroat, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound native of Monticello, N.Y. “(My style) definitely frustrates people. Once I get people to that point in a game, they’re done. Their mind is gone. I do the garbage stuff, but I can also hit the open shot. But I’d rather go bang with the big boys because I’m too fast for them.”

Although one game does not make a season, DeGroat could be emerging at a time when coach Jamie Dixon is looking for some help at the “three” or small forward position.
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But several of his teammates got the sense that a night like Monday was coming — and that DeGroat could be instrumental in coming games.

“He didn’t surprise me,” Taft said. “He plays like that in practice every day. He’s a workaholic. He’s an energy guy. Whoever he’s guarding in practice, he makes them play their best game. He got his chance in this game, and he jumped on it.”

A common theme in discussing DeGroat is that his work ethic is unparalleled.

“He’s always the first one at practice,” Krauser said. “And he’s always on the bench cheering for us. I’m just glad to see him do the things he did in that game.”

I’m not sure how much of a chance he will get against ND. ND tends to use 3 guards so Benjamin may get more time to match-up. Depends on whether DeGroat can be fast enough on defense.

So, the question of POY got tossed out there and I started thinking about it. Like the MVP in baseball, there is no real criteria. It isn’t just stats, and it tends to favor players on winning teams. This year in the BE is all about the power forwards. They dominated in the league this year. This is my short list of the 6 best candidates:

Ryan Gomes, Providence
Hakim Warrick, Syracuse
Craig Smith, Boston College
Jared Dudley, Boston College
Chevon Troutman, Pitt
Curtis Sumpter, Villanova

I’ll spare everyone the suspense and just say that I think the award will go to Hakim Warrick. If you want to know why, then you have to wade through the rest.

While it isn’t a rule, the performance in conference games probably gets weighted higher than in the overall numbers (as of March 1). At least, that is my theory. That is when the coaches see the other players, the games are more important, have a higher profile and get more TV airtime.

If the award was given out on overall statistics alone, Gomes would win hands down. He’s the leading scorer in the BE, 3rd in rebounds and is the only one of the group to rank in the top-15 in both assists (11th – 3.56/gm) and steals (14th – 1.54/gm). He is also one of the better 3-point and free throw shooters in the league. The problem for Gomes is that he is on a vastly underachieving team that has only 3 conference wins. He — fairly or not — is perceived as a guy who gets his numbers because he is the only good player on the team and has to do everything. That he will get the numbers but not the wins. That he is soft. Still, his numbers are so good, that he gets into the discussion.

But this award is about more than numbers. In the 2001-02 season, Caron Butler was the best player but ended up being co-POY with Pitt’s Brandon Knight. Knight earned it not for his stats, which were good but not eye-popping, but because he was the leader of a Pitt team picked to finish 6th in their division (out of 7) that won their division. Pitt so far exceeded expectations and Knight’s floor leadership was recognized, especially as the coaches were not yet aware of the importance of Page and Brown.

UConn doesn’t have a candidate this year, because Charlie Villanueva was offensively unproductive in the first half of the season. He came on very strong in conference play, but for POY it was too late. Josh Boone, also of UConn, faded as Villanueva ascended so he took himself out of consideration. The shear amount of talent on the UConn team is also why their point guard, Marcus Williams won’t be considered.

Troutman will get a lot of second and third place votes, but won’t win. His stats are just not quite good enough, and the late season slide by the team really cost him. I think he stood a good shot before Pitt lost 3 in a row. He has earned the grudging respect and admiration from all the coaches in the league. He is considered one of the most complete players in the BE.

In my view, Sumpter should get some strong consideration, but probably won’t. He has helped Villanova finally start living up to the potential on the team. He has played big in wins over Kansas, Pitt and BC. His numbers are most comparable (as is his game) to Jared Dudley of BC. What costs him, though, is that he is not a great defender and he has been very anonymous for most of the year.

Before the Pitt game, Jared Dudley was considered to be ahead of his teammate, Craig Smith for consideration for POY. His performance on national TV didn’t just cost him in terms of a loss and dropping him from 5th in scoring (16.5) to 7th (16.0). It cost him in perception. He came up small for everyone to see. If this game happened 2 weeks ago, Dudley would be the top candidate, because there was time to recover. Dudley is a great defender, 10th in steals, averages better than 3 assists in a game, and has the best assist to turnover ratio in the Big East for a non-point guard. Unfair or not, a bad game late has a lingering affect. Especially when his teammate, Craig Smith played so tough.

Smith has very good numbers. He is second in rebounds (8.4) and fourth in scoring (18.0). He plays a great defense, and benefits from the halo effect of how far BC exceeded preseason expectations. Two things work against Smith. His teammate, Dudley is also a candidate. That means there is a good chance of vote splitting that hurts him.

The other factor is that he is on BC. With BC leaving the BE that will cost him. Maybe not consciously, but I think several of the coaches will knock him down a point or two. Believe me, Al Skinner is going to win and deserves the Coach of the Year award, but if G-town hadn’t faded in February, it would have gone to John Thompson III.

This brings it to Hakim Warrick. Warrick has had a great season and has great numbers for one of the top teams. Second in scoring (21.1) and fourth in rebounds (8.3). Warrick has been named BE Player of the Week 5 times this season (PDF, page5). No one else has more than 2. Warrick has also had 12 double-doubles this season. He is the team leader on Syracuse.

It would be completely deserving.I just don’t see how he doesn’t end up winning it. About the only blight, is that he came up small in two late, back-to-back losses to Pitt and BC.

I have to admit, seeing Holy Cross high in the RPI and a good possibility of being in the NCAA Tourney has caused me to wonder for a while, what if Pitt ended up playing the Crusaders as coached by Ralph “it was a tough loss” Willard. Greg Doyel takes it a step further as one of the potential storylines for the NCAA:

5. Pitt vs. Coaching Ghosts: Imagine the Panthers running into the coach they fired (Holy Cross’ Ralph Willard, canned in 1999) in the first round, the coach they replaced him with (UCLA’s Ben Howland) in the second round and the coach they really wanted (Wake Forest’s Skip Prosser, who declined to follow Howland in 2003) in the Sweet 16? It could happen if the Panthers, who have been coached just fine by Jamie Dixon, get a No. 5 seed, Holy Cross a No. 12, UCLA a No. 13 and Wake Forest a No. 1.

Well if that happened, then we would know that the NCAA Selection Committee has a warped sense of humor.

This was a black-and-white game. There was no different perspective from one partisan side to another. Pitt just put a complete hurt on the Eagles. BC was outplayed, dominated and humiliated. BC’s team leader knew what happened.

Craig Smith, who led Boston College with 22 points, said his team was intimidated by the Panthers, who have won six consecutive games against Boston College and 10 of 11.

“They came into our house and bullied us,” Smith said. “They basically showed every other team out there that the way you can beat us is to be physical. We’re not going to be intimidated the next time we play them. We’re not going to be the same team.”

He does realize that there is not a member of that BC team that has beaten Pitt? How embarrassing to be ranked as th #5 team and be intimidated at home, on Senior Night, in front of a sell-out… and Doug Flutie was on drums.

The Pitt players, though, are feeling real good at the moment.

“That was us tonight, the real Pittsburgh team — physical and tough,” said junior point guard Carl Krauser, who had 10 points, seven assists and seven rebounds. “I could jump through the roof right now. I’m ready. Everybody’s ready.”

While Pitt was celebrating this must-win, first-place Boston College (23-3, 12-3) was trying to figure out what went wrong, considering it lost for the first time in 17 home games and got destroyed on the boards, 49-27, and outscored in the paint, 40-18.
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“This was basically do or die for us,” sophomore center Chris Taft said.

That might explain why the Panthers were virtually unstoppable in the second half. They outscored the Eagles, 44-25, putting a cap on a tumultuous two weeks that saw them lose to Villanova, West Virginia and Connecticut, the latter two defeats occurring at home.
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Pitt held Boston College (which shot 31.1 percent from the field) without a field goal for 10 minutes in the first half and forged a 20-12 lead after a flying follow-up dunk by DeGroat.

“Felt real good,” he said.

The Panthers hung onto a 28-25 lead at the half before opening things up. Graves hit all three of his 3-pointers in the final half, Taft threw down two monster dunks, DeGroat followed three off-the mark shots with easy layups, and, before BC knew it, the game was out of hand.

Does Pitt plan to play this way the rest of the year?

“We have no choice, otherwise we’ll be watching the games on TV,” Krauser said.

The game pretty much puts Pitt in the NCAA Tourney. Now it’s just a matter of climbing up in seedings.

In Chestnut Hill, once is a fluke and twice is a disturbing trend.

Boston College might want to think about canceling future senior sports festivities.

The school’s two darkest athletic moments this academic year have been the Senior Day football blowout loss to Syracuse that cost Eagles a BCS berth, and last night’s basketball debacle against Pittsburgh on Senior Night.

“It’s funny about Senior Night sometimes,” BC coach Al Skinner said. “Sometimes it works for you, and sometimes it works against you. You want so badly to do well for your teammates.”

Maybe before their BE Tournament game, Mike Tranghese can come out and honor BC for being a founding member of the Big East?

BC Coach Al Skinner wasn’t spinning this.

Standing in the hallway outside of his team’s locker room after last night’s game, Boston College coach Al Skinner was asked if he liked anything about what he had just seen.

“No. There’s nothing,” Skinner said after his fifth-ranked Eagles were pushed around by Pittsburgh in a 72-50 Senior Night blowout. “Every guy that’s on their roster that played for them – there was nobody we defended.

“We were dominated. It’s just that plain and simple. They dominated us.”

Jared Dudley who couldn’t do much on offense also felt honest.

“They just had it easy tonight,” said BC’s Jared Dudley, who had season lows of four points and three rebounds and shot 1-for-8 in 36 minutes against a body-up, man-to-man defense. “We didn’t come ready to play. We didn’t match their intensity. They had more at stake than we did, and they played like it. They were physical with us. They pushed us around, and we really didn’t respond to it.”

You know, it bears repeating how Pitt has snapped the two longest home win streaks for BC, and how much Pitt has owned BC.

Playing for its postseason survival, Pittsburgh arrived in Conte Forum with a three-game losing streak but put a sobering smackdown on the Eagles, 72-50, before a sellout crowd of 8,606. The Panthers, playing a familiar spoiler role, pinned BC (23-3, 12-3) with its third loss of the season and first at home, snapping a 19-game home winning streak. Pittsburgh, which snapped BC’s 25-game home winning streak in 2001, extended its mastery over the Eagles to six consecutive wins and 10 in the last 11 meetings.

Dudley seems to think there is something about Pitt.

What is it about Pittsburgh? “They just seem to have our number,” said BC sophomore forward Jared Dudley, who was held to a season-low 4 points in the 72-50 loss to the Panthers. BC suffered its sixth straight loss to Pittsburgh, and 10th in the last 11 meetings. BC’s only victory in that stretch came in the championship game of the 2001 Big East tournament.

Nice to know how far Pitt is in their heads. Pitt could very easily be seeing BC in the semi-finals of the BE Tournament.