I feel like there should be Facebook updates on this. “Levance’s groin feels good today, not so much in the tailbone.” I just don’t know. It’s like this injury is randomly moving around.

First it was a bruised tailbone. Then it was that he strained his groin. Now it seems to be some sort of sports hernia. The actual severity of any of these things is in dispute. One minute he can barely stand, the next he is good to go.

He’s sitting out practices, but there for games. It doesn’t help that Pitt and Coach Dixon have contributed to the confusion and questions over his status. Maybe they feel it is creating some sort of advantage. I don’t see it. Teams are going to prep assuming he’s healthy. It’s not like putting Gibbs, Wanamaker and/or Dixon out there instead is going to confuse them.

Yet Fields’ status barely gets a mention compared to Ty Lawson’s toe.  I guess, because at least Lawson’s injury has remained in one spot.

Either that, or make sure you are plugged into (and your work network is not blocking) March Madness on Demand.

Pitt will take on ETSU at approx. 2:55 pm on Friday.

The announcers will be Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery for both rounds. Awesome

Getting a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament is great. It is recongnition of a fantastic season by Pitt. It is also a sign of respect by the basketball powers that Pitt is not only given a #1 seed after failing in the BET badly, but just how many pundits seem to be putting Pitt in at least the Final Four.

It’s also a little unnerving. To some degree, Pitt fans like the team almost seem to prefer the “no respect” and “no one believes in us” chip. That is not the case. Not by a longshot. Pitt is a favorite.

We can complain and be annoyed when it is brought up yet again how Pitt has never made it past the Sweet Sixteen in the modern Tourney and never won more than two games in any format of the NCAA Tournament. There is nothing to do about that. It’s a huge glaring detail about Pitt basketball. It can’t be ignored. The only way it can be excised is to make it past the Sweet Sixteen.

That is up to the team. No fan is seriously worried about the first round foe. It’s that looming second round game that is the first unnerving thing.

First, since it is an 8/9 game, it is a pick-em. I have no sense of who will win.  They are close by every measure. In RPI Tennessee is 18 and Oklahoma State is 20. In Pythag winning % they are 32 and 33 and nearly identical in offensive and defensive efficiency. There’s a slight difference in pace, but not significant.

I doubt the coaches are sure, so that presents a problem just in game planning ahead of time

Tennessee likes to press, but they are a spotty/streaky shooting team that makes it difficult for them to do it consistently. The lack of a good point guard also can bog them down many times. In general, their guard play is spotty, but they throw a lot of them at you. They are reliant on their front court with Wayne Chism and Tyler Smith.

Oklahoma State, by contrast is guard oriented. They have four guards — James Anderson, Byron Eaton, Terrel Harris and Obi Muonelo — that play 30+ minutes a game. They also like to press, as Coach Travis Ford is a Pitino disciple.

The second round game is not any tougher than any other #1 seed faces. It is the match-up that makes me nervous.

There is no doubt, as Coach Dixon has said, this team has a chance to do/be something special. That is the thing. They have to do it. Literally, one game, one half, one possession at a time.

And Pitt goes to…

the East Bracket as the #1 seed.

That means Pitt goes to Dayton then Boston

Louisville took the overall #1 for the Midwest.

UConn #1 in the West

UNC #1 in the South

Wow. Big East with 3 #1

Less than 5 hours to the Section Show. I really can’t see any way Pitt doesn’t get a #1 seed. They’ve been in the top-4 all but one week in the polls this year. They have the top RPI.

There is really no logical way to put Pitt on the second line. They can’t argue about Fields’ health because then they would have to drop UNC and Ty Lawson’s toe a notch.

It is really about finding out if Pitt will be in the East (Dayton and Boston) or West (Philly and Glendale).

I have a hunch that Louisville just played their way to getting the Midwest #1 (Dayton and Indy).

It just comes down to this in the A-10 final. I get a cheap laugh everytime an announcer mentions, Jason Duty, in that standard clipped announcer voice, so that it comes out “Doodie.”

I just turn into Beavis everytime call out Duty.

So why not carry that into the NCAA Tournament?

While I’m not sure Pitt or any team should feel good about the idea of having a No. 1 next their name — whether it is ranking or seeding  — this year, I still think Pitt will get a #1 seed. Of course, I can’t help but think if Pitt somehow got bumped to #2, that would put a huge chip on their shoulder that would really help.

Right now, best guess: UNC, Pitt, Louisville and Memphis/Duke.

Obviously that would change if Louisville loses tonight and/or Duke loses its semi or the ACC Championship game.

Oklahoma is done for the #1 seed. They have struggled down the stretch with and without Blake Griffin. They and plenty of other teams stumbling in the conference tournaments works really well for Pitt in that it further minimizes their importance.

Michigan State probably had the best case and played like crap against Ohio St. in the semi to cost them. Live by the argument that the way they were rolling and going through a conference tournament, die that way, Mr. Izzo.

Pitt is ranked #2. They still holds the #1 RPI. Their SOS is #8 and Pitt holds a 8-3 record against RPI top-50 competition.

Best guess, Pitt will still be going to Dayton for the first round of action. After that…

North Carolina will be in the South Region, but the Panthers could end up in the Midwest (Indianapolis), West (Phoenix) or East (Boston) regional.

Sophomore center DeJuan Blair isn’t much concerned with where and when Pitt will play in the NCAA tournament. He said Pitt’s seed in the NCAA tournament is secondary to fixing some of the problems the team faces in the next few days before its first NCAA game.

“We can’t worry about where they put us or worry about anything else,” Blair said. “We just have to worry about us. The sky is still the limit for this team. We had a little bit of a letdown, but everything is going to be all right for us.

“We’ll just keep playing, and Coach will keep motivating us. We can’t worry about anybody else, where they put us or our head won’t be on the game. … We’ll be all right.”

Hopefully.

I have not been curled up and fetal over the loss. The conference tournaments (writing a lot over at Fanhouse) and everything that has happened this week (included a flooded basement) has deprived me of much sleep and available time.

I have to admit, though, before the conference tournament began I had pictured another BET Championship. And a post entitled “Three’s a magic number.” Why? Presumably Pitt would have beaten WVU and UConn three times in one year and then beaten Louisville in the championship game (third time in a row to knock out L-ville in the BET).  Naturally the script came no where close to working out.

I’m not really down with the whole “beneficial loss” argument. I would have liked to at least made it one more game. Not to mention it is never good to lose to WVU. Frankly, they scare the crap out of me for next year. Devin Ebanks used the BET to make it his coming out party. Huggins must be sending Kelvin Sampson a new cell phone every other week as a thank you for screwing up so badly at Indiana.

That said, it didn’t “expose a weakness” in Pitt. Yes, they struggled with the 1-3-1. Credit to WVU for switching defenses. At times they even threw a match-up zone in there just to keep shifting things around on Pitt. That’s part of why Huggins is such a good coach. He has a team that was well schooled in the 1-3-1 from the previous regime, that he can have them put that out there without much warning or prep. He uses the advantages he has well.

BTW, please use facts to back up your argument or you undermine your credibility. Example:

The Panthers don’t have super-talented players. They don’t have great outside shooters like Connecticut, who can make an opponent pay for switching to a 1-3-1.

Pitt is going to throw the ball inside to Blair, and that’s that. The Panthers made it easy for West Virginia. Too easy.

UConn? UConn is your example. UConn shot 34.8?% on threes. Pitt shot 35.4%. At least use a team that shoots better than Pitt.

Pitt shot poorly in the second half. Heck, despite shooting over 50% in the first half, there were at least 3 shots that just did not fall. Bad shooting definitely hurt.

Pitt played a bad game. WVU played a great one. That’s why the score was so lopsided. WVU still would have won the game, but Pitt made it worse with bad shooting.

“Wherever they put us, we’ve got to play better than we did today,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “We just didn’t execute. We got outplayed in every area. We got what we deserved.”

…

“We feel down right now and for the next couple of hours,” Blair said. “But this is motivation. We didn’t grind it out like we usually do and we’ve got to blame ourselves.”

Pitt has reached the Big East final seven times in the past eight seasons, but never advanced past the Sweet Sixteen with any of those teams.

“It really doesn’t matter where they put us,” Blair said. “We’re just going to have to grind it out. I know this is hard to say but I’d rather lose in the Big East Tournament and win the NCAA than win the Big East and lose in the NCAA. We’ll be all right.”

By the way, in case anyone was wondering, Coach Dixon also shared the blame with the coaching as well. Here’s the full quote from him.

In the second half, we just didn’t execute. I think we were — we weren’t coached well, we weren’t prepared well again for some things and we just got outplayed in every area. So, you know, it’s just one of those games. We’ve got to do a better job and again, this is a very good team. They’ve only lost to good people. We had beaten them twice this year but both were tough games and they really did outplay us in every aspect today so, you know, we understand that we got what we deserved and the responsibility falls on ourselves.

In the transcript from the post-game presser, Dixon also second-guessed himself over putting Biggs out there late in the 1st half and that 3d foul that kept him out to start the 2nd. A team failure.

Blair seemed a bit all over the place after the game. Ah, youth. At one point going conspiracy.

“The refs, they have it out for me, I guess,” he said. “They want to get DeJuan Blair out of the game.”

The next going mature.

“We’re going to use this as motivation,” Blair said. “I hate to feel like this. I felt like this after we lost to Providence and we bounced back. We’re an excellent bounce-back team.”

That was encouraging to hear.

So was this:

“I don’t know what to do about the refs,” Blair said, quietly. “I guess I have to handle them better.”

And the team can not take anything for granted.

One more time with WVU-Pitt. Both teams were plenty familiar with each other from the summer. Add in playing twice in the season. There should be no surprises from either team.

So far today and yesterday, it’s been chalk. Let’s keep it going.

The fun starts at about 7.

Over here for the fun.

Looks like Pitt’s shoe company does not want to miss out on a chance to cash in (and let’s face it, part of why they do these contracts is with the anticipation/hope of such things) on the success.

This was sent to me by their PR people.

The “March is a Brotherhood” series includes Pitt. They are doing a series of 5 videos featuring NBA stars — who never went to college — adopting a team.

That’s the Atlanta Hawks’ Josh Smith — and no, he’s not actually rocking Tyrell Biggs’ number, that’s his number.

They have the “brotherhood t-shirt” and released a vegas-gold replica jersey using #45. Gee, wonder why.

So, tonight is Pitt’s first game in the Big East Tournament. Right now it is about being in the familiar.

Whether it’s superstition or consistency, the Pitt men’s basketball team follows an exact routine during their trips to the Big Apple.

The Panthers stay at the same hotel, eat at the same restaurant, practice in the same gym and even use the same bus driver.

“Our team,” coach Jamie Dixon said, “is a creature of habit.”

That familiarity may be one reason why Pitt feels so comfortable at Madison Square Garden and has reached the finals of the Big East Tournament seven of the past eight seasons.

“It’s hard to explain,” Dixon said. “Maybe (our routine) has something to do with it.”

The interesting thing in this game. Pitt and its fans have talked about how part of why Pitt has had so much success at MSG in recent years involves all the kids from NYC and the NY/NJ area that are coming back there. Tonight, the edge in that goes to WVU.

In Pitt’s rotation it is: Fields, Biggs and Gibbs with the local ties. On the Hoopie side there’s: Da’Sean Butler (NJ), Devin Ebanks (Long Island), Kevin Jones (Mt. Vernon), Darryl Bryant (Brooklyn) and Wellington Smith (NJ).

Does Pitt prefer being the perceived underdog? Well, they really won’t be in that role for a while. They are definitely not under the radar.

Speaking of under the radar:

Fields has three double-doubles in a row, averaging 12.3 points and 10.7 assists per game. How hot is the 5-foot-10 senior? In the past three games, he has more double-doubles than either DeJuan Blair (two) or Sam Young has in the past month. Fields also needs 15 assists to break Brandin Knight’s single-season assist record of 251.

The Sporting News, named DeJuan Blair an All-American.

DeJuan Blair, So., F/C, Pitt. Although he averaged more points and more rebounds, and outplayed Connecticut’s Hasheem Thabeet in two head-to-head meetings — both Panthers’ victories — Blair shared Big East player of the year with Thabeet. That mistake will not be repeated here.

Sam Young made the 3d team.

Pitt is about a 4 point favorite tonight.

More silliness from out west.

Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon was the most popular choice when 31 Pac-10 media members were asked whom they’d most like to see named UA’s next coach, according to an Oakland Tribune survey published Wednesday.

Dixon received six votes, while Randy Bennett of St. Mary’s was second with four and Mark Few of Gonzaga was third with three.

Other votes included: Steve Lavin, ESPN analyst; Steve Kerr, Suns GM; Pat Summitt, Tennessee women’s coach; and … Lute Olson.

But Dixon was not first when voters were asked whom Arizona will actually hire. That prognostication most often went to Few (six) with Dixon (four) and Tom Izzo of Michigan State (four) tied for second. UNLV’s Lon Kruger had three votes.

I’m not surprised that many picked Dixon. He’s not mean to the media.

Seriously? There are that many people in the media out there that think Izzo is leaving Michigan State? Where he is one of the highest paid coaches in the Big 11? Where he was an assistant? The fact that Izzo is a Michigan native? That he has no problems recruiting, and has won a national championship at MSU? Yet, that many really believe he will be lured out to the desert?

I would have preferred a tepid “no comment” or the obvious lie of, “I’m not even thinking about that right now.” Instead, DeJuan Blair had to be too honest, too emotional, and provide too much to parse after accepting his co-Big East POY award.

“I want to stay at Pitt, just so everybody can say, ‘We loved him,'” Blair said. “It’s up in the air. It depends on this year. But I want to stay.”

Blair is a projected first-round draft pick, but he said his heart remains in the Steel City.

The 6-foot-7 sophomore center said the ceremony last week to retire Brandin Knight’s jersey got him thinking about his legacy at Pitt. Knight, a Pitt assistant coach and former All-America point guard, is one of only four Pitt players to have his number retired.

“I want my jersey to be retired like Brandin,” Blair said. “That’s an inspiration to look up and see your jersey every day. Just to stay and be loved in Pittsburgh. … I’m always going to come back. I’m always going to be here.

“We’re going to see how it goes.”

As I said when McCoy made his declarations of coming back, I’m not holding him to it. There’s nothing to hold him to.

I have no doubt he loves it at Pitt. I have no doubt he knows all about the possibilities of legacies and all those things. I also know the money is out there and that the NBA is another league heading for a major economic shake-up.

My hope is that he leaves, because he can stand up at a press conference and declare that he has accomplished everything he wanted at Pitt — including that trip to the White House.

At the very least, he will be going through the draft evaluation this year.

As for the co-Big East POY award and sharing it with Hasheem Thabeet.

Not that Blair believes it should be that way.

When asked if he was OK sharing the award, Blair said: “What do y’all think?”

His smile said the rest.

Few people seem to get how Thabeet got as many votes. All BE Commish Mike Tranghese has said is that it was one of the closest votes ever, and that five players received 1st place votes.

Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own players and had to submit their ballots Friday, the day before Pitt beat Connecticut for the second time this season.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon declined to reveal his ballot but said he factored in which player led the regular-season champion.

“I always try to pick a guy from the team that won it,” he said. “I had (Louisville senior Terrence) Williams up there.”

For Blair, it was probably best, that the voting had to be in early. Sam Young and Terrence Williams both came up with big games for their teams.

Way to go, Robert Morris.

Back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1992. Well earned.

Big congrats to Mike Rice after his coaching apprenticehip that included St. Joe’s and Pitt.

Also, thanks for providing another bump for Pitt’s RPI and now making it three non-conference opponents Pitt faced,  that will be in the NCAA Tournament (Siena and FSU).

So, should teams tank the Big East Tournament? That’s the question in the Wall Street Journal.

Looking at the last 20 Big East Tournaments, 38 of the 40 teams that made the final went on to play in the NCAA Tournament. Of those teams, 14 of them, or 37%, were upset by a lower-seeded team — and many of those upsets were plug ugly.

There’s a chart, though, that somewhat undermines the thesis.

Here’s how the teams that reached the finals of the last 20 Big East tournaments have done in the NCAA Tournament, based on their seeds.

• Met Expectations: 53%
• Beat Expectations: 10%
• Lost By Upset: 37%

So, 63% of the time they at least won the games against lower seed opponents before falling to higher seeds. The theory might have more validity if compared by teams that played four games in four days to make the BET Championship game. Something Pitt doesn’t have to worry about this year, but last year?

“I was pretty tired. Last year, I feel it affected us a little bit,” Blair said.

Does this prove the popular opinion that Pitt puts too much emphasis on the Big East Tournament? Maybe the Panthers should rest their key players to get primed for a Final Four-or-further run. Blair’s comments certainly point to that.

But last year’s situation may have been more circumstance than correlation. Playing for your immediate future tends to wear one down.

The Panthers were desperately trying to re-acclimate themselves with point guard Levance Fields, who was getting healthy on the court after missing six weeks with a foot injury. They emitted every ounce of energy just to make sure they got into the NCAA Tournament, a bid they still hadn’t secured as the Big East Tournament opened.

“We were still finding ourselves in game (No.) 30 or 31,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said.

These Panthers’ already know much of their NCAA Tournament future: They’ll be either a one or two seed when the event begins next week. That’s not to say the Panthers won’t dispense the same type of effort, merely that the mental anguish won’t be as taxing.

As for conference tournament champions not fairing well in the NCAA Tournament?

Recent numbers suggest that is bunk.

Of the automatic qualifiers for the six BCS conferences (Big East, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC) over the past three years, eight of the 18 advanced to the Final Four. Those 18 teams had a combined 54-15 Tournament record. Four of the past five national champions won their respective conference tournaments.

More pointedly, Big East champions have fared just as well.

Three of the past 10 Big East champs have advanced to the Final Four, with two of those teams (Connecticut in 1999 and 2004) being crowned national champions.

That’s why the double-bye is so important. No one — no one is going to tank it. No coach is going to hold something back. The players and coaches are not wired that way and would never approach it that way. So, if at all possible, you want as much rest and to be limited in the amount of games you have to play.

Nothing could be worse for teams like WVU, Marquette and Syracuse, but to get too hot and make it to the championship. They are  not deep enough to hold up without the mental toll as well. Marquette especially would be burned out by the mental side. They are still trying to figure out what they are doing without Dominic James.

Last year, Pitt defied log5-based preview. They are not nearly the longshot this year, but still not the favorite.

Back to Pitt, specifically, of course they are planning to win the BET.

And the Panthers are keeping an eye on the even bigger picture. They are keenly aware of what’s in front of them, and how it’s been beyond their reach in the past.

Despite wins over Marquette and Connecticut, the Panthers feel that this season is just beginning.

And that starts at the Garden.

“The coaches kept saying that we haven’t played well (recently),” said Blair, who has a poster of Final Four site Detroit hanging on his bedroom wall. “We haven’t played to our abilities.

“But everybody wants to go out on top.”

Sam Young, having busted out of a brief slump is looking to keep it going.

The 6-foot-6 senior forward seems to be tuning up for another big effort. Young is averaging 22.5 points and 7.5 rebounds over the past six games. He is shooting 54.6 percent from the field in that span.

Young, a native of Clinton, Md., also was named a first-team all-Big East selection and was the Big East Player of the Week.

“I think he’s been pretty good all year long,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “He’s been playing very well. He played really good defense on Saturday. He’s taking good shots. Layups are good shots and he’s had a lot of layups.”

To say nothing of reprising his performance in the BET, but this time carry it further.

“I think about it all the time,” Young said. “I’d watch the film, see exactly how I played, see how I was successful in those games.”

Young’s Garden Party was one of the great performances for any Pitt player at the Big East tournament. He scored 21 points in the first-round victory against Cincinnati, 21 in the overtime quarterfinal win against Louisville, 22 in the semifinal victory against Marquette and 16 in the championship win against Georgetown.

“He led and everyone followed,” sophomore guard Brad Wanamaker said.

Young joined Julius Page as the only other Pitt player to win the Big East tournament’s most outstanding player award. Page won the award after the Panthers claimed their first tournament championship in 2003.This week, Young is hoping to do something that only one other player in the history of the Big East has done — win the most outstanding player honor twice.

Patrick Ewing of Georgetown achieved that feat in 1984 and ’85. Of course, that would mean Pitt would have to repeat and win a third tournament championship.

Young is up to the challenge.

“If the opportunity presents itself, I’ll try to do that to the best of my ability,” Young said. “I can’t let something like that slip away.”

…

Wanamaker believes Young is motivated by Pitt’s early exit from last year’s NCAA tournament.

“It seems like he has some unfinished business,” Wanamaker said. “He feels like he can lead us to a championship.”

If you didn’t watch any of the CBS college basketball studio — either after Pitt trumping UConn or even on Sunday, you most likely heard Seth Davis declare that Pitt would win the national championship. So, really, Mr. Davis, don’t play coy now.

All right, let’s cut to the chase here. Who is going to win this thing?

I like to save my official pick for the Selection Show. If I spoiled the suspense here, what reason would you have to watch? While I always reserve the right to wait until the last possible moment to make up my mind, let’s just say it’s pretty unusual for a city to celebrate both a Super Bowl championship and an NCAA championship in the same year. This is feeling like one of those years.

Always with the (deserved) accolades for Young, Blair and Fields. The discussion of potential with Gil Brown, Wanamaker and Gibbs. Let’s not forget the defensive stopper and slashing threat in Jermaine Dixon. His hometown paper has a piece on him, where it turns out many in his own community don’t seem fully aware.

“It’s funny; I had couple people from high school talk to me like, ‘Oh my God, I saw you on TV, man. I had no idea,'” he said. “Some of my old friends, I’ll run into them and they’ll be like, ‘What’s up, Coop?’ like, maybe they don’t know. People always used to call me Coop, so I’ll have to be like ‘No, I don’t go by that anymore.'”

The nickname, short for Cooper, is part of the reason people do not connect the current Panther to the ex-Bengal. He grew up in a prestigious basketball family, the younger brother of both Washington Wizards guard Juan Dixon and former Providence College player Phil Dixon.

They share the same mother, Juanita Dixon, but Jermaine has a different father, Robert Cooper. Dixon said his older brothers (“my father figures”) pushed him to change his last name from Cooper for years. Shortly after leaving Blake, he finally had it legally changed.

But that only scratches the surface of Dixon’s quiet ascension to the Big East.

He’s thrived and is loving it at Pitt.

“It’s crazy,” he said. “It’s been crazy. It’s a dream come true. And no matter what happens, I will be right back here at Pittsburgh next year. Hopefully, I’ll be on the football field getting that ring.”