Never have decided out how to treat the Backyard Brawl for basketball when it’s a home-and-home. Treat it with an “A” and “B”? A “1” and “2”? Just annoying to me.

No question, the Pitt players enjoyed making the WVU fans go silent with the win.

“Once we got our lead, we kept building and building,” Fields said. “They didn’t have much to cheer for.”

With the win, Pitt (18-1, 6-1) remained in fourth place in the Big East and improved to 6-1 on the road this season. It was only the seventh time in its past 56 home games that West Virginia lost at the Coliseum.

“It was a very good win in a lot of ways,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “We did a lot of great things.”

It was almost eerie.

As the Panthers were wrapping up Sunday’s victory, Young noticed something unusual about WVU’s coliseum.

“It got really quiet in here,” Young said. “I don’t think I have ever heard it that quiet here.”

Young said the Coliseum is usually one of the loudest places that the Panthers play at during the year.

“The fans here love to talk to you and they are vocal,” Young said. “They can mess with your head if you let them.”

More important not to let them mess with the sheep.

WVU’s defense was looking anything but like its strength by the time Pitt finished with them.

Pitt outscored West Virginia, 38-24, in the paint. The Mountaineers had no answers for Blair and Young’s strength in the middle.

“They started guarding me over the top, and I was able to seal them off,” Blair said. “I was just catching it and finishing.”

Pitt led, 49-47, with 14:18 remaining, but the Panthers began to pull away after going on a 14-4 run. Young scored eight of those points to lead the charge.

Dixon made two big 3-pointers a little later to put the game out of reach. With Pitt up by 10, Dixon made a 24-footer from the wing to put the Panthers up, 66-53. A minute and a half later, he put the dagger in the Mountaineers’ hearts with another 3-pointer that gave the Panthers a 16-point bulge with 7:10 remaining.

Shortly after that, the home crowd began an exodus into the cold West Virginia night while a few hundred Pitt fans stuck around to enjoy the victory by chanting “Let’s Go Pitt.”

As usual with Pitt, the second half was stronger than the first. Pitt was able to do what it wanted.

WVU coach Bob Huggins lamented, “They got us out of doing in the second half what had kept us in the game in the first half. We didn’t pass the ball and we have to move them.

“I felt we could rebound as long as we moved them, as long as we kept them out of the lane. You can’t have those big, round bodies stand in the lane and we just got down and tried to stop them in the lane and that is a recipe for disaster.”

…

Butler said, “This is a big loss. We’ve got to get back to work hard. I was pretty tired down the stretch. But Pitt was the better team. We can take positives from this game. If we do things right, we will be all right.”

Bryant said, “We let the game get away from us in the second half. It’s tough to play against a team like that. Pitt probably is the best team we’ve played this year.”

Ruoff agreed. “We can’t make mistakes like we did when Pitt was pulling away and expect to win. Yes, I think it’s the best team we’ve played so far. We didn’t switch well on defense tonight. We can learn from this.”

Yeah. Under Huggins, I’m guessing the Hoopie practice wasn’t a lot of fun today.

I’m not sure how any sportswriter would even associate the phrase “moral victory” with WVU after a game like that, but someone asked Huggins. I’m surprised the guy is still alive.

Bob Huggins wasn’t accepting any moral victories after West Virginia’s 79-67 loss to No. 4 Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoon.

“I’m not a big proponent of losing to learn, I think you’ve got to learn every time you go out and play,” said Huggins, the Mountaineers’ second year head coach. “I told this bunch the very first day that we can win and we’re going to win, but we can’t not do things right and win, and when we haven’t done things right it has got us.”

Size matters, and WVU’s lack of it cost them against Pitt.  Well, size and strength. Georgetown has size, but lacks the strength to go with it. The hope for WVU watchers is that they might become Pitt when they grow up.

On Sunday night? West Virginia gave its all, especially in the first half. But if you looked around the court, you saw that any Mountaineer would have a tough time starting at his respective position against Pitt’s starters.

Truck Bryant wouldn’t start over Fields. Da’Sean Butler wouldn’t over Sam Young. Certainly Wellington Smith wouldn’t over Blair. Maybe Alex Ruoff over Jermaine Dixon. (That’s a big maybe.) Maybe Devin Ebanks over Tyrell Biggs. But Biggs is 250 pounds, while Ebanks is, what, 195?

Argue amongst yourselves over that. The question is, can West Virginia’s team grow into Pitt?

The player that dominated in the second half, of course was Sam Young.

Still, perhaps West Virginia could have overcome all of that. There was something even more rudimentary, however, that it is tough to ignore: When Sam Young wasn’t on the floor for Pitt, West Virginia stayed right there. When he was unshackled from his foul-induced pine-time early in the second half, though, he simply elevated the Panthers to another level.

Young felt good all game, it was the fouls that kept him down.

“In the first half I felt like was on but, because of the foul situation, I had limited minutes,” said Young, who notched his second straight 22-point performance after four straight games of 14 points or fewer.

“In the second half, I don’t know. I felt like the guys they had checking me was a little slow-footed.”

They looked that way, too.

It was good to see Young bust out. It’s important that he keeps it up, because Pitt won’t succeed in the goals they have (and the expectations the fans have) if Young is not attacking the basket.

Good news, Tyrell Biggs should be okay.

Biggs collapsed to the floor late in the first half and writhed on the court in obvious pain. After a couple of minutes, he gingerly walked off the floor with a bruised right knee. Biggs returned to play 11 minutes in the second half. Coach Jamie Dixon rushed onto the court after Biggs fell.

The 6-foot-8, 250-pounder hasn’t missed a game since his freshman year, playing in 93 in a row.

“He was in tremendous pain,” Dixon said, “and that’s rare. That’s why when he went down. I was very concerned.”

Phew

What has become clear with nearly half the conference slate played, the Big East is best divided into 4 tiers: Top, Promising, Not horrible, Bottom feeders.

Bottom Feeders: Rutgers, DePaul, Seton Hall and St. John’s. With the exception of DePaul, these are still dangerous teams. They are buried in a deep conference. Whether it’s lack of depth because of academics and transfers (Seton Hall), injuries (St. John’s), bad coach (Rutgers) or just an overall mess (DePaul). They strike me as more dangerous the longer into the season because they become more desperate and have less to lose.

Not Horrible: USF and Cinci. Stan Heath is making strides with this team. I think he’s playing a little too close to the edge of catastrophe with the Island of Misfit Toys with talented but flagged transfers, but there are clearly some flashes and talent. They gave Syracuse and ‘Nova scares. They stayed with Pitt for a half.  Cinci was killed again with injuries. Still, a scary team on any given night.

Promising: Good teams with too many flaws to know what to expect. This is where the bulk of the teams are meeting: Providence, WVU, Villanova, ND, Syracuse and Georgetown. Whether it involves issue of depth, match-up problems, youth, one-dimensional, or just not enough options. These teams can get hot for a stretch. They are especially dangerous at home. They are also just as likely to go cold and look like they should be lower. Four or five of these teams will make the NCAA Tournament.

Top: UConn, Louisville and Pitt. The best teams. They have the mix of coaching, talent, depth and experience. The teams are relatively injury free. They can score and defend.

Now if you counted, I only have 15 teams. Marquette is the team I’m just not sure about. Their record (6-0) says Top. The team and my instincts, though, say Promising. No real interior presence. A 1st year coach. A veteran team that has run hot-and-cold in the past couple years.

In conference play, they’ve had 4 of their 6 games at home. Their best conference wins came at home against WVU and ‘Nova. They played two of the games against the worst of the conference — at Rutgers and DePaul. Against Providence, they had to rally late to win on the road.

Their non-con also offers little in clues. They lost to Tennessee in Nashville. They needed a 3 at the buzzer to beat NC State on the road. They beat a down Wisconsin team by 3. Got pounded by Dayton outside of Chicago.

The truth is, Marquette will be the big unknown until the final two weeks of the season: at G-town, UConn, at Louisville, at Pitt, Syracuse.