My excuse this time. Going to the in-laws tomorrow and trying to get everything together, finished and just done. Add in the fact that I want to get there early so I can plant my ass in front of their TV and watch basketball all day, and well, I’m not always the perfect son-in-law. Hell, they don’t really care. All they want is to see their grandkids.

Let’s start with the locals. The story was Levance Fields hitting the game winner.

Fields, the Brooklyn native with many of his friends and family among the 19,544 in attendance, finished with a game-high 21 points on 7 for 13 shooting. Blair had 15 points and 20 rebounds, and Sam Young added 17 points and seven rebounds.

…Fields, shooting only 27 percent from 3-point range this season, worked off a ball-screen by Young, who was playing center in Blair’s absence. Fields pulled up and made the game-winner — something he mimicks at practice every day — over Duke 6-6 junior David McClure.

The cost in the game was huge with Mike Cook out with a torn ACL and other ligaments just because it wasn’t gruesome enough.

Yesterday’s news confirmed what Dixon and the Panthers knew in their hearts last night. Dixon was having trouble holding it together after the game. He got choked up speaking about Cook at the postgame news conference. Tears welled in his eyes. It was Dixon who held Cook’s hand and cradled his head when he was sprawled on the floor, screaming in pain 30 minutes earlier.

“We knew right away,” Dixon said. “As soon as I got to him, he said, ‘Coach, it popped.’ You just knew at that point.”

This will make Pitt an even smaller and less experienced team. Even if Gilbert Brown does fine, there is no one else at the small forward position to back him up. Keep in mind that Brown has also battled injuries this season and last. That means guards Wanamaker and Benjamin will see more action. Benjamin is 6’1″, though a senior. Wanamaker is a 6’4″ true freshman. No matter what, that will be an issue.

DeJuan Blair has continued to impress as a force inside.

Blair continually outworked and outmuscled Duke’s slender frontcourt players, pushing them aside like they were rag dolls. He was the big reason Pitt dominated the rebounding margin by 14 (53-39).

“DeJuan is a beast,” Young said. “I have no words to describe him. It seems like he has magnetic hands. He’s confident. He doesn’t play like a freshman.”

Austin Wallace was able to rejoin the team on the trip. The NYC area players got to stay behind and be with family after the game.

It’s come to this. Joe Starkey goes for the online/blogging stunt of a “running diary” or “liveblog-esque” thing of his attempt to watch 3 different games. In other words, simply recap with timestamps, try a couple jokes with slice of life things that his wife said to him, and little actual content. Yeah, like I need that competition.

Down in North Carolina, this was about Duke blowing a big first half lead and a lack of toughness by the Blue Devils. Especially the toughness issue.

To understand that outcome, look at the Pittsburgh basketball roster stacked with strong, physical players, compare it to the Duke roster packed with lanky, quick athletes and know that the Blue Devils lost a 12-point halftime lead because the Panthers hammered them down inside.

But also look at how the Devils couldn’t finish layups or hit open 3s and how they failed to play fast and realize that the Devils also got beat by the Panthers’ effort.

Frustrated Mike Krzyzewski said after the game that toughness is a Pitt trademark and that it showed when the Panthers (11-0) played tougher than his Devils (10-1).

“I am not just disappointed, I am very disappointed,” Krzyzewski said. “You come here, you are playing in the Garden against a really good team, an outstanding program. We should have had more energy and toughness.”

The comments from Coach Krzyzewski should be taken with some cynicism. Those words were as much about a veteran coach sending a message to his players as “speaking truth” or anything like that. It’s a pointed way to let the Blue Devil players know they aren’t going to do much in March if they aren’t ready to do the gritty things.

Moving back to the city where the game was played. Plenty of coverage there.The obvious was that the game winner came from a local product.

“I was going for the win,” the Brooklyn kid from Dumont Avenue in Brownsville said.

Then he did just that.

The junior out of Xaverian High School, where he was coached by Jack Alesi of Grymes Hill, knocked down a step-back three-pointer from the top of the key inside a packed building in his hometown for a 65-64 overtime victory against Duke last night.

…

Dixon called for the “Five set” in the Panther playbook. It gives Fields the opportunity to drive the ball to the rim or take a perimeter jump shot.

But even before Pitt broke the huddle, the other players knew there wasn’t going to be any drive to the basket.

“I told them,” said Fields, whose best friend on the team, fellow guard Mike Cook, had gone down with what looked to be a serious knee injury moments earlier. “I said to them, ‘I’m taking a three-pointer for the win.’ “

Interesting. The play was his the entire way. Of course, since Fields was the only Pitt player able to hit a 3 and the only player on the court shooting 50% at that point, calling the play for for Fields was not exactly the risky move.

There was the theme of Pitt’s toughness, but it kept coming back, repeatedly to Fields hitting the 3.

Pittsburgh’s basketball team has had a gritty, physical personality under Jamie Dixon.

But no one was tougher on Thursday night than Panthers point guard Levance Fields.

The 6-foot junior made a game-winning three-pointer from the left of the key with 4.7 seconds remaining to give the 11th-ranked Panthers a 65-64 overtime victory over No. 6 Duke in a Garden game between two heavyweights. But afterward, all Fields could think about was his best friend Mike Cook.

…

“I had tears in my eyes,” said Fields, who starred at Xaverian in Brooklyn and had his family and friends waiting for him in the stands. “He and I worked so hard this summer losing weight. This was his last year. After he went down, coach called us to the bench and said, ‘Let’s win this one for Mike.'”

The Andy Katz write-up for ESPN.com made it clear how much Mike Cook means to the team and Dixon.

It was special because Cook has been a special player for the Pitt program since transferring from East Carolina three years ago. After the game, as Dixon had a brief moment alone in the coaches’ locker room, despite the euphoria of winning a thrilling game, Dixon’s eyes watered as he held back tears as he spoke of his fondness for Cook.

“He’s grown so much and become a leader and so liked by the players and really bought into our program,” Dixon said of Cook. “We had a lot of heart-to-hearts during his redshirt year.”

… And the Pitt coach said Cook’s commitment to the Panthers’ program and its ideals made the injury even more difficult to digest.

The nice thing, is that Pitt is getting national credit for winning this game. That they earned it, not Duke giving it away.

To be sure, Duke did not give the game away. Rather Pitt took it from them. Whether it was Blair blocking shots on the interior or guard Ronald Ramon working the ball-handlers, Pitt executed at a higher level than the previously undefeated Blue Devils.

“I think they played tougher than we did,” said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. “They took over that game with persistence and toughness.”

Blair, of course continues to impress.

The Duke lead grew as large as 31-15, and it still was at 16 points entering the final minute of the first half. That’s when the Panthers began dragging themselves back into the game, and the four points they scored before the break were essential in convincing them the night was not over.

From there, Blair deflated the Devils as if he were squeezing the air from a playground basketball. He didn’t score a basket until 9:15 remained, but he drew foul after foul along the baseline. He went only 5-of-8 on foul shots in that stretch, but Singler and Nelson wound up in foul trouble, and Blair’s teammates began to play with confidence.

Fields will get the headlines for his team-high 21 points and the beautiful jab-step that created room for the game-winning 3-pointer. The only number that really screams about Blair’s effect on this game was his 20 rebounds. His impact was so much greater, though. He was like an overwhelming left tackle, emphatically but quietly protecting his quarterback.

To some, this was Blair’s national coming-out party in a season of top freshmen.

NBADraft.net listed 4 players from the game as prospects. Only one was a Pitt player.

DeJuan Blair (Pitt, 6’7″ 265 lbs.): Beast. The freshman had twenty rebounds in the game. What more needs to be said? Blair, in part thanks to his 7’3″ wingspan, swatted away three shots in the game as well. Making matters more disconcerting for opponents is the fact that Blair seems to always have a smile on his face. The big body possesses very soft hands for such a bruiser. He was an anchor in the middle for Pitt the way Shelden Williams and Carlos Boozer used to be for Duke. Coach K can only dream about having a beast like Blair lacing it up for Duke this year.

Now on Jay Bilas’ chat today (Insider subs.), there was talk of the Pitt-Duke game. Only one whining question, Bilas shot down.

Jacksonville NC: Will Blair see any more punishment for the intentional foul in Thursday nights game against Singler?

Jay: No. It looked worse than it was. Singler fouled Blair first, and it was not called. The kid got an intentional foul, what more does one want? He’s a good kid that was playing hard. No big deal beyond that.

I’m sure Duke fans were eager for Henderson to be suspended last season after breaking Hansbrough’s nose.

Otherwise, it was sad at the loss of Cook, love for Blair and Pitt in general.

Michael: (New York, NY): Great game last night at the Garden, Jay! Do you think it was Pitt’s win or Duke’s loss?

Jay: Both. Pitt and Duke both did good things to put them in a position to win, and both made mistakes to put themselves in a position to lose. Both are top ten good, and both will benefit from the game. The only real downer was Pitt’s loss of Mike Cook. He is a great kid, and seeing him hurt was gut wrenching. I thought Jamie Dixon showed a great amount of compassion for his player on the floor and afterward. That will be a tough loss for Pitt. He is a really good college player.

…

Matt (Pittsburgh, PA): What’s going on Jay? How would you rate Levance Fields play against some of the top point guards in the country?

Jay: Right up there. Fields has a really low error rate, and really makes a lot of plays. He is disciplined and really plays smart. I love him as a competitor. He is really solid.

The PTI guys weren’t the only one’s eating crow after the game. CollegeHoopsNet.com also conceded getting it wrong.

Finally, Joe Lunardi gives some love to Pitt (Insider subs).

And now, the only time Panther fans tell me to put a sock in it is when I don’t seed their team as high as they would like. Last night at Madison Square Garden, a few Pitt partisans — when not lamenting that “Duke gets every call” — made sure I knew exactly how they felt.

So, Panthers, this one’s for you. When Levance Fields buried his 3-pointer in overtime to complete a thrilling and emotional win over the Duke Blue Devils, I went scurrying for the record book. Not the NCAA records, mind you, but my own little cheat sheet of occasionally helpful facts.

And you know what? Pitt defeated the program with the best aggregate RPI of the last five years. With an average RPI of 7.0 from 2003-2007, Duke is statistically light years ahead of the No. 2 school on the list (Kansas, 12.6).

Who is third on that same list? My first guesses would have been North Carolina or Michigan State or maybe Arizona. Maybe even Wisconsin or Texas, as those two programs seem to play the RPI game well just about every season.

Yet all of those schools are looking up at the University of Pittsburgh. With an average RPI of 13.6 since its current run of excellence began, the Panthers have been as consistently good as any program in the country (and by far the best in the Big East during that time). So when your Friday paper calls this victory an upset, perhaps it is.

But not by much. And, for Pitt basketball, that may be the greatest compliment of all.

One more thing for Pitt to stick in the game notes.