On the topic of regional SI covers. In addition to Pitt there were: Gonzaga, UNC, ‘Cuse, MSU, and Oklahoma,

We’ve been warned that tomorrow will provide plenty of old-Pitt player stuff.

Jason Matthews and Darelle Porter are flying in from Pittsburgh. Bobby Martin, a personal trainer to college and professional athletes, lives in Boston.

Of course, Sean Miller wanted to go to UNC (thank you Roy Williams).

Miller, though, is only talking about the game.

“For us, I think where it really starts and stops is to be physical ourselves, to not allow them to dominate the glass. I don’t think they nearly get enough credit for being a great offensive team. Their transition – they get dunks and easy baskets that break your backs,” Miller said in Wednesday’s press conference. “We have to be rock solid in our transition defense and rebounding, two things that we’ve been very good at this season. And for us to have a hope, I believe, of advancing or beating them at the end of the game, you’d have to see us do a great job in those two areas.”

There was an additional note of Pitt looking rather loose at the open practice today.

Xavier players had no shortage of confidence during their 50-minute walk-through practice or press conferences. But Pitt had more. Panthers players laughed and joked around during their practice session. Some, like Fields, abandoned the team shoot-around in the final minutes to sign autographs.

Something our own correspondent, Brian mentioned.

A columnist doubting Pitt’s mental toughness.

To me, it’s more than tactics. The Panthers have yet to fully demonstrate the kind of mental toughness in the tournament that allowed them to do so well in the Big East. If they had there wouldn’t have been two close calls against inferior competition.

He’ll only be satisfied judging by his final statement if Pitt wins in a blowout. Whatever.

Since that brings us back to that whole matter of breaking through the Sweet Sixteen, there is this story from Bob Ryan.

There is great local pressure on this team because the recent success has made it the equivalent of a pro franchise in a city lacking NBA basketball. The Panthers have sold out every game in the 12,508-seat Petersen Events Center since it opened in 2002 (and where they are 99-10) and they have developed a rabid following that far transcends Pitt alumni.

This is the best team in Pitt history and this is the Last Chance Saloon for Messrs. Young and Fields, two high-quality seniors.

Pitt has done all this to itself by raising the bar so very high. Duke, Villanova, and Xavier can afford to fall short. They are all playing with house money here. But the Pitt Panthers must understand that if they do not at least make it to the Final Four, there is a question they will be hearing all spring, summer, and perhaps for the rest of their lives.

“Hey! What happened?”

I really don’t want to have to answer that question.

There still seems to be plenty that think Pitt can make the Final Four, or at least people aren’t moving from their picks before the Tournament started.

Here’s a sort of vague, three reasons why each team will win bit.

2. The Three Musketeers. Xavier is hard to shut down — and even harder to catch on a significant off night — because it doesn’t rely on any one player to carry the offense. B.J. Raymond, Derrick Brown and C.J. Anderson all average double-digit points and are all equally capable of leading the offense if one teammate is struggling. Nine different players scored in the Musketeers’ first-round victory over Portland State, with Anderson leading the way at 14. Brown, Raymond and Dante Jackson all scored 13.

3. Crashing the boards. Pittsburgh’s best offense is sometimes simply throwing a shot up and letting rebounding machine DeJuan Blair collect his millions. That strategy might not work against Xavier because the Musketeers are even better at splitting rebounding duties than they are with balancing the scoring. Xavier enjoys a plus-7.9 advantage on the glass and boasts seven players averaging between 3.5 and 6.0 rebounds per game.

A group of three that can lead the offense, a team with experience and they rebound. No wonder the Pitt players see similarities.

Pitt’s 6-foot-7, 265-pound DeJuan Blair will encounter 6-9, 255 Jason Love in the middle; the Panthers’ Tyrell Biggs (6-8, 250) and Xavier’s Derrick Brown (6-8, 277)possess similar outside shooting skills; and Pitt’s wing scorer, Sam Young, who goes 6-6, 220, will face C.J. Anderson, who measures precisely the same.

But in the backcourt, it’s a much different story: Xavier possesses B.J. Raymond and Dante Jackson, who stand 6-6 and 6-5, while Pitt’s Levance Fields is only 5-10 and Jermaine Dixon is 6-3. But, Jackson is not the ballhander that Fields is, and Raymond isn’t the threat from long range that Dixon is.

Of course, the hope is that Fields is feeling even better and that the Oklahoma State game was only the start of his return to form from in the regular season.

If anyone doubts Sam Young’s importance, just take note of how his minutes are way up as the season got to the end.

Young’s workload is increasing in March. After playing 35 minutes or more only three times in Pitt’s first 27 games, the second-team All-America has averaged 37 minutes in the past seven games. Young is relishing the extra work, posting 29-, 31- and 32-point games in that stretch. “As we’re going on, I think a little less rest is probably a possibility,” Dixon said.

He played all 40 minutes on Sunday.

Ashton Gibbs gets a full puff piece.

A solid upbringing produced a self-assured young man who carries a 3.3 grade-point average as a communications major. Gibbs’ work ethic was instilled by his father, Temple, who played college football — this is not a misprint — at Temple, where he roomed with future NFL Pro Bowl cornerback Kevin Ross.

“I learned at an early age that working hard is vital if you want to be good at anything,” said Temple Gibbs, an electrical contractor whose football career was cut short by a knee injury.

Bob Farrell, basketball coach at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, N.J., said Gibbs might be the best shooter he’s had in 32 years on the job.

And Jermaine Dixon had his own backstory fleshed out.

Not long ago, Pitt guard Jermaine Dixon was Jermaine Cooper. That’s when he finally decided to disown the Cooper name the way his father disowned him all those years ago. It’s what his half brothers, Phil and Juan Dixon, wanted. It’s what their mother, Juanita Dixon, would have wanted.

Jermaine Dixon still talks fondly of his mom, who died of AIDS in 1994 when he was 7. “Even though she had [heroin] problems, she was a great mother. She always made sure we were good.”

There isn’t much nice for Dixon to say about his father, Robert Cooper. He bailed when Dixon was a baby.

“I wonder about him sometimes,” Dixon said. “I wonder what he’s thinking now. I wonder what he thinks when he turns on the TV and sees me.”

Don’t think too much about him. He is not worth it.