Today’s shoot-arounds, practices and press conferences for the Tournament teams playing tomorrow. The Raiders left yesterday afternoon, and got to Buffalo. The disrespect, mid-major mistreatment perspective already being played.

Once in snow-free Buffalo, the team took a short bus ride to the Airport Holiday Inn, where they were greeted by a few clumps of green and gold balloons. Accommodations are doled out according to seedings — lowest seeds get the plushest digs — so Pitt is in a fancy downtown hotel a half hour away.

Hey, if you were a beat writer covering the team, you’d be pissed too about the team you cover getting stuck in the crappy hotel — because that means you are there as well.

The Dayton paper is doing what it can to find the local connections in the teams playing in Buffalo. Not to mention what could be a bad omen for Wright State.

At least two of those teams have Dayton connections, and I’m not talking about Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon’s flirting with the WSU job when Paul Biancardi got it four years ago. Pitt’s athletic director is Jeff Long, a Kettering native, and Virginia Commonwealth’s coach is Anthony Grant, a former basketball star at UD.

Oh, and Maryland’s coach is Gary Williams, who once coached an Ohio State team that played UD in UD Arena — and lost.

Once the Raiders arrived, they checked into their rooms, had lunch, rested, then went to practice.

The only bad part was on the way back to the hotel. Two cars in front of their bus slammed into two fawns trying to cross the street.

It wasn’t a pretty sight, according to sports information director Bob Noss.

Roadkill. Excellent.

Wright State was 13-15 last year, and then hired Brian Brownell from UNC-Wilmington (Sun Belt Conference CAA). Now they are 23-9 and going to the NCAA Tournament. That’s a turnaround, and the sort of thing that puts a coach on the “hot” list. Which, of course, means it is time to deny, deny, deny.

WSU athletic director Mike Cusack said that he has not been contacted by any schools hoping to talk to Brownell.

“I’m not a high-profile coach,” Brownell said Tuesday after he and his team arrived in Buffalo by charter flight. “I didn’t play at a big school (DePauw) or coach as an assistant at a big school. I’m not a known commodity.”

He’s becoming one after leading the Raiders to the regular-season and Horizon League tournament championships on the way to a 23-9 record and the school’s first NCAA tournament since 1993.

Supporters in his hometown of Evansville, Ind., think he’s a natural for the vacant job at Evansville University, a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.

Brownell said he isn’t looking.

His Wright State contract pays him $220,000/year, base salary. That actually seems pretty good for the Horizon League. One of his bonuses is another month’s pay for each NCAA Tournament game the team plays. That also applies to his assistants.
At least one of the WSU booster’s knows the score:

“Brad went out and did exactly what we were paying him to do,” said Bob Mills, whose name is one of three on the team’s practice facility. “But, you know, he went a little bit overboard. He did more. I really think you have to have a system that will reward clearly outstanding behavior in job performance.

“We may not be able to keep Brad (and his assistants) forever, but let’s try to keep him as long as we can, knowing he’s going to leave this place in a better situation than he found it.”

That’s what you have to hope for as a mid-major.

While screwing around on Facebook on Monday and filling in a bracket for one of the polls hosted there, I pressed the “randomize” button to see what it would give me. The first time I clicked it I got this.

The champions (over Albany in the final) are your Pittsburgh Panthers.
We also have the ESPN Insider projections.

Now I don’t know how they got these percentages or what they mean. The might have simulated it on a video game or let a monkey pick the winner out of a hat 100 times.

What does this all mean for Pitt’s chances Thursday? Absolutely nothing.

Look, we all know Pitt won’t go far if Aaron Gray isn’t playing well. To paraphrase another Big East Coach from last year, “we wouldn’t have won 10 [expletive deleted] games without Aaron.” I think that has fueled some of the harshness on Gray. Plain anxiety.
So, the piling on Gray seems a bit excessive. I freely admit the timing of him laying an egg in the Big East Tournament Championship leaves a lot to be desired. Gray admits he had a very bad game against Georgetown.

Gray barely looked All-Emmaus in the Big East finals. It was not what he was seeking when he returned for his senior season after flirting with entering last year’s NBA draft.

“It was a bad night,” said Gray, who averages 14.1 points and 9.6 rebounds. “I’m glad it happened in the Big East Tournament rather than the NCAA Tournament.”

Gray said he felt confident against Georgetown and wasn’t thrown off his game by the presence of 7-2 Hoya center Roy Hibbert.

“I didn’t take a shot, maybe one or two, that I didn’t think was going in,” Gray said. “Playing against big Roy, everyone was like, ‘Oh, were you a little timid going against him?’ My response is maybe I was a little too excited. My normal hook shots were going long. Shots are going off the back rim. Maybe I was moving a little big quicker.”

I do think he was too concerned with Hibbert getting a block, that he was taking too many hook shots and falling backwards, rather than trying to at or around Hibbert.

Still, you would think Gray has sucked for at least the last month the way he has been attacked by pundits and a lot of others. Joe Starkey wasn’t above overdoing it either.

What’s disturbing is the prolonged postseason shooting slump of senior center Aaron Gray. He made less than half of his shots in the first two games of the tournament and went 1 for 13 last night, including 0 for 9 in the first half. If he makes four of those, Pitt goes to the intermission down five instead of 13.

[Emphasis added.]

That’s cherry picking and massaging numbers to make the issue “prolonged.” Against Marquette, Gray was 7-16 and 10 rebounds (PDF). Yes, he was under 50%, but there was no one complaining that Gray was in a shooting slump for that game. He took a lot more shots than he usually takes — something everyone wanted. In the Louisville game, he was exactly 50% (2-4). So what Starkey was saying is that Gray shot 1 basket below 50% in the first game, but lumped the two games together. Lovely. Positively Smizik-esque.

Against Louisville, he couldn’t move without picking up a foul. Apparently that was all his fault.

All season, he has been at least equal to any big man he has faced straight-up (not one that steps out for 3s) until the BET Championship.

The Pitt women were rewarded for their good season last night during Selection Monday.

PITTSBURGH— The Pitt women’s basketball team (23-8) has earned its first-ever bid to the NCAA Tournament with a first round matchup against James Madison (27-5) on March 18 at 9:30 p.m. at the Petersen Events Center. The game will be broadcast on ESPN 2.

“This is an historic day not only for this program but also for this University,” Athletics Director Jeff Long said. “When Agnus Berenato came here, she asked for a seven year contract because that’s how long she thought it would take to turn this program around. What a testament to her and her ability to coach that it only took her four.”

Congrats to Coach Berenato and her team on making Pitt history. It’s going to be interesting since they’ll be playing a home game in the first round (and second if they make it) since you can play at your home court in the women’s tourney if you’re hosting it.

I might go to see how they do and I really hope we advance because that would mean we play Tennessee, the women’s hoops powerhouse. If that matchup happens I’ll be there for sure.

Everyone can support their team here.

At this time, I’m not aware of any Wright State blog. The best news source on the Raiders comes from their section in the Dayton Daily News (annoying free registration).

Of course, there is their official website.

A message board.

Wright State car mats available on eBay. Because, personally, I think the best way to show love to my school is put wet and muddy shoes all over the logo.

Raider fans discount their whuppin’ by LSU (in the comments) as just one of those things from December when they were still learning the system.
Now, you might think that as I live in the Cleveland area and Cleveland St. is in the Horizon League with WSU, I might have some knowledge. No. Watching Horizon League action was never high on my “to watch” list for basketball. Bad basketball is hard enough to watch, but couple it with poor coverage quality and the only way to somewhat enjoy it is completely sauced. And at that point, I’m just not getting much insight into the teams. But I digress.

The break down from the YSU assistant coach is encouraging. While DeShaun Woods seems to be the kind of guard that can cause problems for Pitt, their game is the kind that is what Pitt wants.

Wright State plays a similar game as Pitt. The Raiders like a half-court tempo with aggressive man-to-man defense, which they play about 80 percent of the time.

“They don’t want to get up and down,” Thorne said. “It’s strange. It’s the same thing as Pitt. They grind it out. They both run set plays. Wright State prides themselves on defense, similar to Pitt. They are very good defensively. They are always where they should be.”

Todd Brown, a 6-5 guard, and Vaughn Duggins, a 6-3 guard, were both named to Horizon League All-Newcomer team.

Naturally with Wright State making the Tournament for the first time in 14 years, they are giddy over their coach. Even as the whiff on Dixon was noted.

Four years ago, WSU athletics director Mike Cusack narrowed his coaching search down to two guys — Paul Biancardi and Jamie Dixon — as the replacement for fired Raiders’ coach Ed Schilling.

He chose Biancardi and you know how that worked out thanks to an NCAA violations mess that eventually followed the former Ohio State assistant from his days in Columbus.

Had Cusack hired Dixon — who now will coach his No. 3 seeded Pitt Panthers against the 14th seeded Raiders in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Thursday in Buffalo — there wouldn’t have been the headaches of the past couple of seasons. But then there almost certainly would be no Brad Brownell now either.

The present coach has been studying tape since the seedings were announced.

So instead of being happy with crumbs, he probably wanted a little more of the tournament cake — something better than a 14 seed.

Of course, some of that tightness behind the smile had to be because, as he put it, “We’re going to be here most of the night.”

Everyone at the paper seems to think it might be a good idea to definitely review the game tape of the Dayton-Pitt game.

Here are the game notes from Wright State (PDF). The entire history of the two teams are two meetings in 1998 and 1999. Pitt won both of them.

I looked around a Wright State message board that we got a few hits from (one of their fans found us and pointed it out) and here are some things being said.

My main concern is Gray — how do we stop somebody like that given our limited “big” men? get him into foul trouble? Deny him the ball? Control the tempo? Anyone with a better basketball sense than me can offer some insight here?

If the “What will Wright State do about Gray?” question isn’t the main storyline/focus for this game then I don’t know what is.

I personally like the match up with Pitt. Aaron Gray is prone to foul problems.

Gray in foul trouble aginst guards driving right at him will probably be their main plan. He sometimes fails to move his feet (and when he does it’s very slow) and instead he fouls to compensate.

Will Brad go small against Pitt? I think he should. Take the 7 footer out of the equation as much as possible. Let our shooters control the game and leave it in their hands. I think that is our best shot.

My response to this is, “Go ahead, let our seven-foot double-double machine have a 6′ 6” defender on him. Please, be my guest. No way Wright State shoots lights out enough to cancel out the 20+ points Gray would put up if WSU goes with a small lineup.

Man, I love ‘big’ schools. This is entertaining stuff. If you can’t go here and laugh, then life just isn’t fun.

I might as well be going to comedycentral.com. lol

If I were in this guy’s shoes I’d probably say the same thing. There’s always going to be some guy on a message board under some fake name like PittExpert12345 who says we’re tops in the nation when we play well and puts us out of the Top 25 after a loss.

There’s a thread that discusses the start time on Saturday, hoping that it’s not too early. Not one fan warning the others to not overlook us. Keep it up, Pitt.

Probably true enough.

With all of this NCAA tourney talk, let me take this time to remind you to sign up for the Pitt Blather Bracket Challenge.

(By the way, the title only took me about 2 hours to come up with.)

So it turns out the time I mentioned here was 8:30 central time, not eastern. Looks like another night staying up until midnight. It’s all in the name of the Panthers though — I’m sure we’ll all make it. Right? Right.

After poking around Yahoo Sports last night and this morning there were all kinds of stories about teams who will get upset or fall flat on their face.

Pitt was one of the teams that was mentioned as having the chance of disappointing an unknowing office poll selector.

Why they tank: Underneath their brute Big East exterior, these Panthers are all pink. As dominant as frontcourt Frankenstein Aaron Gray is, Pittsburgh is a team that is too much ying and yang. Guards Antonio Graves and Levance Fields are not much of a perimeter force, ranking 199th in the nation in three-pointers made per game with 6.2, but Graves can occasionally go off as his four bombs versus Louisville in the Big East semis proved. They are defensively sound in the half court, holding opponents to 40.7 percent shooting, but generate few turnovers (277th in TO%) and transition buckets. Finally, they are a strong paint team that draws a large number of hacks, but convert only 66.8 percent of their free throws. Considering the Panthers practically counteract their strengths and given their history of underperformance in the Big Dance – they failed to advance past the Round of 16 as a 2 or 3 seed in ’02-’04 – they will be caged by the Elite 8. Prediction: Sweet 16 loss to UCLA

The possibility of Pitt losing to UCLA is a surprise? Honestly, I think that’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. I can see where he would form his opinion from; chances are he only happened to watch the Big East Final and forgot about us beating two very good teams in the night before.

And then this:

Wright State (vs. Pitt) – The Raiders finished the season 23-9, but they started 3-5 as they adjusted to new coach Brad Brownell. Since Christmas, this has been one of the hottest teams in the country. Wright State finished by winning 12 of its final 13 games, including two over Butler, and both the Horizon League regular season and tournament championships. This team is much better than a No. 14 seed.

It’s mainly saying Wright St. is possibly a better team than they were seeded. Still, when Dan Wetzel was writing this I’m sure he had visions in his head of Georgetown stomping Pitt on Saturday. Looks like Gray could put up 20+ points on them though.

By the way, a few people were wondering if they would get the Pitt game in their market. If you’re too lazy to go to a sports bar, there’s always this option.

We now what time our Panthers play on Thursday and we’ve managed to escape one of the daytime slots that cause tons of know what people to miss watching it.

Update: This is 8:30 central time. It is a 9:30-ish start on the east coast.

Okay, Pitt got a #3 seed. That wasn’t a surprise — unless you were convinced that the Committee would screw Pitt.

Wright State was indeed a school Coach Dixon interviewed for the head coaching job back in 2003, but the school picked an Ohio State assistant who was later implicated in the paying players with Jim O’Brien. The new HC has been on the job less than a year.

The Mighty MJD notes how badly the Big East took it.

Honestly, while Syracuse should have gotten in, I was more disturbed about the exclusion of Drexel.

Even Big 11 partisans are a little stunned 6 teams got in.

The selection committee really hates the low and mid-majors this year:

• Butler-Old Dominion
• SIU-Holy Cross
• BYU-Xavier
• Nevada-Creighton

That’s the way to minimize the number of upsets of BCS programs by the others. Make them beat each other first.

While there is the hope for a Pitt-UCLA meeting, last year was really the Pitt-centric bracket if you recall. Pitt was in the “Oakland” bracket with UCLA (Howland), Xavier (Miller), Memphis (Calipari), Kent State (Christian) and Marquette (Crean).

The Selection Show just wrapped up and Pitt was given a 3 seed (full bracket here). It’s the West Regional which doesn’t make a ton of sense to me but I guess it’s the only way we’d be able to play in Columbus or Buffalo as a #3 seed.

Here’s the things to look at:

–The first team we’re looking at is Wright St. out of the Horizon League. They had a record of 23-9, 13-3 in conference with an RPI of 72. They got in after they took down Butler, 60-55, in the Horizon Championship Game. Other than that, I don’t know anything else about them but I’m sure over the next few days I’ll get to know them a bit better.

–Obviously the first thing you notice about our draw is the possibilities of teams we could play down the road. First is a Duke team who probably got bumped up a few seed lines simply because they are Duke.

–If everything after that continues to follow form then UCLA would likely await us. If it necessary to mention the significance of that? Dixon and Howland refuse to schedule one another. This time, they might not have a chance.

Still gotta get past Wright State though. Some people already have this penciled in but as far as I’m concerned any team that makes the NCAA Tourney can beat you on any given night. As the week goes on, we’ll give you as much as we can dig up on WSU.

It’s Selection Sunday so it’s time to really start thinking about filling out those brackets.

The Pitt Blather group is on Yahoo. To join…

1) If you don’t already have a Yahoo account, sign up for one (for free)

2) Go here: http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/men/register/joingroup

3) Click join private group

The group ID is 71331 and the password is gopitt

Ugly game last night. Chalk it up to Georgetown simply being better than us or it “just wasn’t our night” or whatever you want. I’m not here to tell you what to believe in that respect and I don’t want this to turn into a game that makes us hang our heads and completely forget about beating Marquette and Louisville.

The offense wasn’t there on many different levels.

The 42 points were the fewest points scored in a Big East championship game and were the fewest for a Pitt team since the Panthers scored 30 against Temple on Jan. 15, 1969. The 23-point margin of defeat was the most since Pitt lost to St. John’s by 24 in 2000.

The most notable was Gray, however.

Here’s all you need to know about the Big East championship game Saturday night:

Roy Hibbert had more dunks than Aaron Gray had points.

Kind of hard to place the entirety of blame on him though. It’s also too bad this was one of the games where Roy Hibbert came to play. He’s been a nonfactor more times than Hoya fans would have liked this year but last night he came to play.

Life goes on though towards the NCAA Tournament. When it comes to seeding, to me it’s always been match ups and location over actual seed number. We obviously will want to play our first round games in either Buffalo or Columbus (I’ve heard the athletic department wants to go to Buffalo rather than Columbus). We also want to play against teams who our strengths match up well against — once again, if it means we drop a seed line to play teams we can beat easier in the first and second rounds then I’m all for it.

If you like to listen to Joe Lunardi, he has Pitt at a #3 seed (in Buffalo). There’s no way we’ll move any higher and I can’t see us moving lower unless the Committee takes the Pitt hate to an extreme level.

Getting close to game time. I’m starting to sweat once more. Great.

9:11: Pitt down 6-2, 15:57 to halftime. Gray has missed three shots already.

9:21: No, not a great start. Still, only down 4.

9:37: Okay, now down 11. Gray shooting playing poorly. The whole team shooting poorly. Just 24-13 with 4:37 left.

9:47: Hibbert had his way with Gray and anyone else forced to go at him on offense. Otherwise, the G-town offense was it’s usual efficient self.

Just didn’t expect Pitt to just have no offense. Gray 0-9 and 1 point. 7-28 shooting overall. Shots are just not going down. Some of it is the G-town defense, but a lot of it is just not making the shots or taking the opportunities.

10:13: Gray now 0-10. On defense, he has let himself be abused by Hibbert. Either he is having his worst game ever, he is worn out physically in the 3d game in 3 days, or he’s got other things on his mind.

10:35: Don’t know what to say. Pitt is simply not hitting shots. I don’t think it’s fatigue. Just an absolutely pitiful shooting performance. When your best player doesn’t make a basket until halfway into the second half, it takes a toll. The rest of the team seemed to start press even more.

Pitt was able to overcome Gray as a non-factor for one game, but this was actually worse.

10:44: Credit Georgetown for their great energy and not stopping. They are still fighting and pushing Pitt.

10:55: Congratulations to Georgetown. They were the best team in the Big East this season and in the BET.

Pitt will have to wait for the seed tomorrow. I’m still thinking Pitt doesn’t do worse than a 3.

After that, Pitt has to be disappointed in the ending. It was a poor game. Still, they essentially have to forget it and get ready for the NCAA Tournament.

Sorry, didn’t mean to take this long to come back. So I’ll hit this quickly.
Kind of a strange comparison. There was this brief article that criticized Dixon for pulling Gray when he had two fouls early in the first half.

But more importantly, Gray’s elongated absence allowed Louisville to take control of the game. Soon after Gray went out, Dixon put now-center Levon Kendall on the bench for an early rest. At the time, Pitt had a 13-7 lead. When Kendall returned, Louisville center David Padgett had scored six points and Louisville had a cut the Pitt lead to one and was in the midst of a 12-1 run.

Pitt was also outrebounded 25-12 in the first half, and Louisville had 10 offensive rebounds.

Gray needed to play more in that first half, particular after Padgett and Derek Caracter picked up their second fouls. The Panthers wouldn’t have needed that 20-2 run to start the second half just to get back into the game.

Then there was this NY Post article lauding Dixon’s gamble on leaving Gray in the game in the second half when he picked up his 3d foul.

Diamond Jaime Dixon played the role of the gambling man. He rolled the dice. He put all of his chips in the middle of the table and doubled down.

He wasn’t removing his star center, Aaron Gray, who had just picked up a third foul early in the second half.

“I think most people generally go with the two-foul rule, but I’ve gotten away from [that],” said Dixon. “Everywhere I’ve been it was kind of that thinking, even with Ben. You know it’s the experience of the player. It’s the situation. Its just a feel.”

Diamond Jaime has the feel.

Just two minutes into the second half, Gray, who played just four minutes in the first, was whistled for a third foul. The Pittsburgh players turned to the bench, but Dixon just signaled the next play like a poker player saying, “Check.”

There’s a reason why coaches and players don’t like to listen to what pundits and writers are saying.

The NY Times credits all the “supporting” players on Pitt for the win.

This just in, Gray didn’t play well. But Kendall expects him to do quite well tonight.

‘He’s always been strong,” said Kendall, who had nine points and five rebounds. ”He often has his best games after a tough one. He’s mentally strong. He understand that if the bounces didn’t go his way, he didn’t get some calls, that that’s just how the game went. He’ll be ready to go, and it will be a good matchup between him and Hibbert.”

I’m sure his dad will have plenty of notes for him after last night’s game.

Although it should be noted that Mike has always felt that his son could be more aggressive. And that the Pitt coaches don’t disagree.

”They kind of yelled at me, because I’ve been a little too passive the last few games, especially in our losses,” Aaron said after the Marquette game.

Call it a hunch, but after the 0 rebound result from last night, I don’t see Gray getting 15 rebounds against G-town and Hibbert to break the Big East Tournament record for rebounds.

Kendall gets lauded for his intangibles.

Meanwhile Graves gets lauded for his second-half performance.

And of course the P-G and Trib recaps.

This is just an abbreviated early start. I have some morning offline duties before basketball all day. Back later.

Mike Ruth at the Card Chronicle has an excellent rundown — he doesn’t like Higgins and Burr either, so it isn’t just grumpy Pitt fans.

The sense from Louisville is that this was the Cards in the second half reverted to the way they had been playing before they showed up in Pittsburgh a month ago.

From the first dribble in the second half, this looked like the U of L basketball team we saw before it got the religion about sharing and protecting the basketball.

This looked like a perfect video for U of L coach Rick Pitino to show to his players for the rest of the weekend to prove to them that even though they won seven games in a row, they don’t have it all figured out.

Not when they kicked away an 11-point halftime lead against Pittsburgh in the Big East Tournament semifinals in Madison Square Garden last night. Not when they started the second half by missing six of their first seven shots with five turnovers.

One thing all Louisville partisans agree is that this was a jarring reminder to the Cardinal players not to believe their press-clippings.

Well, Pitt is now in the Big East Championship game for the 6th time in seven years.

Some are blase about it: “It is the day before Selection Sunday and that can mean only one thing: Pittsburgh must be playing for the Big East championship at the Garden. It’s practically a rite of spring.”

Others snarky, ” The perennial bridesmaids and preseason No. 1 pick to win the conference, Pittsburgh will be playing for the conference title for the sixth time in seven years after it outlasted Louisville last night in the second semifinal at Madison Square Garden, 65-59.”