It’s a good thing Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim doesn’t give in to hyperbole or anything. Starting in upstate NY, there was an admission that Pitt never quit — and it was impressive.

What Brown did Sunday was drain two 3-pointers in the final three minutes of the game to thrust a dagger deep into the pulsing postseason hearts of the Orange men.

Brown was hardly alone in providing the Pitt heroics.

His teammates poked away balls from Syracuse dribblers or clamped them in a trap. Levance Fields sank eight free throws in the final 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Pittsburgh smothered Syracuse shooters and forced SU to seek supporting Orange men to make plays.

And suddenly, a Pittsburgh team that trailed by 11 with 3:49 left in the game, had beaten the Orange 82-77 in a breathless, bewildering final few minutes.

Jim Boeheim was a moody fella after the game. He took 30 minutes after the game before showing up for a press conference. At that point he spoke for all of 98 seconds and walked away.

“It’s the most disappointing game I’ve ever been involved with. To play that well — we really haven’t played well in a long time — and to play that well against a very good defensive team was a tremendous accomplishment,” Boeheim said.

“But the entire game we kept turning it over and at the end when we had the lead and just had to take care of the basketball we made three just unbelievable turnovers and that’s the game. There’s nothing more to say.”

There was more. He did not mention getting a technical foul which made it a two possession game after Fields sank those FTs along with the two he sank after grabbing the missed shot. You know, doing his part to kill any chances. He also put the blame on his players and their “youth.”

Young guys are going to make mistakes. They knew we had timeouts. Donte Greene didn’t call it when he threw the ball to Ramon. He had timeouts and plenty of time to make the call.

As the Syracuse blogger noted, it’s not like Boeheim was prohibited from calling the timeout. Is he saying he didn’t recognize his team was in trouble there?

The coach wasn’t willing to take any blame or talk, but a sophomore stood up for the Orange. Paul Harris has always been a guy willing to take the blame when his team doesn’t do well, and this was no exception.

“No, I wasn’t fouled,” said Harris, certainly one of the straightest talking players you’ll ever run into. “I take the blame. I’m not going to blame anyone else. I panicked.”

Damn shame the kid picked Syracuse over Pitt. His friend and point guard for the Orange was rather candid about how hard this loss was for the team.

“This is going to be a hard one to get over,” said Syracuse guard Jonny Flynn, who tied his career-high with 28 points. “I’m not going to say we can get over this one right when we leave the locker room. This is a game that we had. We had this game won.”

The Orange had the game won because of Flynn’s 28 points and six 3-pointers. Because of Harris’ 18 points and six steals. Because of Greene’s slump-breaking 23 points on 10-for-18 shooting.

Instead, the final 3 minutes and 30 seconds will go down in Syracuse lore along with Vermont, Richmond and “Manley Field House is officially closed.”

That’s some great company in the annals of painful Syracuse losses. Pitt has now beaten Syracuse 4 straight times at the Carrier Dome. The only other team to do that was Villanova from the 89-90 season through the 92-93 season (PDF).
The box score is something. Outside of Green, Flynn and Harris the rest of the Orange took 6 shots for 8 points — Onuaku had 5 of the shots and 7 of the points.

Pitt had 5 players score in double digits — Young (19), Benjamin (17), Fields (13), Ramon (12) and Brown (12) — plus Blair had 8 points.

The Pitt players don’t deny being a bit stunned that they pulled it off.

“That’s probably the best comeback I’ve ever been involved in,” Young said. “We were down 11 with three minutes on the clock. That’s incredible. It shows the confidence we have in each other. Coach says to play all 40 minutes, and we did.”

…

“I don’t think we did everything right for 40 minutes, but we did for the last three minutes,” Dixon said. “We seemed to do exactly what we wanted to do.”

Coach Dixon didn’t even pretend that he expected the Pitt comeback.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon called it perhaps the “most unconventional or most unforeseeable” victory he’s ever witnessed.

“There haven’t been many endings like that,” Dixon said.

Ron Cook lauds this Pitt team for still winning games despite all of the injuries.

“Coach Boeheim was telling me he’s never had a season like this in his 32 years because of their injuries,” Dixon said. “But we’ve had twice as many guys hurt. We’ve had four [including reserves Austin Wallace and Cassin Diggs]. And the list of injuries we have that guys are playing with is endless.”

Dixon said Keith Benjamin wouldn’t be playing with an infected finger if Pitt’s bench wasn’t so short. He also said Brown and Ronald Ramon probably are looking at shoulder surgery after the season. He didn’t even mention Blair, who has a bad shoulder and a bad knee.

“Coach Dixon told us that other coaches told him he should just pack it in this season and think about trying to get ready for next year after Mike and Levance went down,” Benjamin said. “But he and our other coaches never stopped believing in us. The guys in our locker room never stopped believing …”

And then when they lose, we question their heart and toughness.