Continuing the media recapping from Pitt’s 67-57 win over UConn.

Even Bob Smizik acknowledges that he was so wrong about this team.

Neither graduation, nor eligibility expiration nor NBA defection has managed to stop this bunch, which might be longer on determination than ability but which has far more ability than most of us believed.

…

When the Panthers were outscored, 14-3, midway through the second half and lost what had been a 10-point lead, I was positive they were done. It was a nice run, but there would be no stopping this Connecticut onslaught.

I had forgotten the enormous heart that these Pitt teams have. This is trite, I know, but Jamie Dixon teams do not walk away. When adversity is at its greatest is when they seem to most step it up the most.

He lavishes some much-earned and deserved praise on how well McGhee played. Something with which I agree. McGhee played an outstanding game where he handled their big guys without help. Some of that comes from the passivity with which the UConn big men played. Gavin Edwards is UConn’s own “serviceable” center and McGhee handled him. The other UConn bigs did little other than follow their training to stay straight-up for blocks but offer little else on offense or defense.

This is not to diminish the work by McGhee. He helped keep them one-dimensional and clogged the inside to make it hard for Dyson and Walker to do much in the way of penetration. He would not let himself be bodied or pushed out of position — which he has often shown a propensity to allow.

Ray Mernagh compliments himself for offering a safe hedge in the preseason.

So I looked for something I had written back in September and sure enough, found the following thoughts from my Around the Big East post on 9/1/09: One national columnist — the excellent Jeff Goodman at Fox — recently opined that this was a rebuilding year for Pitt no matter what…Maybe. I know Jamie Dixon hasn’t experienced a rebuilding year yet (read NIT berth). Check back in mid-January. Before then is way too soon to count out Dixon and the kids he targets to play for him. It would not shock me to see Pitt in the hunt once again come the third or fourth week of the conference season. It’s what they do.

So there you go. Let the record show that I had some initial faith in this Pitt group — especially Jamie Dixon…

Not exactly Kreskin, but better than a lot of others I suppose.

If you can get past the cliched, trite, and downright crappy “this Pitt team is a reflection of the hard-working, blue-collar, tough, gritty city in which the university resides” opening from Dana O’Neil– tough, I know — but it’s a good piece on the game and how Pitt is blowing expectations out of the water.

The Pittsburgh Panthers aren’t just tough. They are the classic underdogs, annually counted out to comical proportions.

Jamie Dixon’s band of misfit toys all were very good players in high school, but none were quite the great ones.

Jermaine Dixon? He needed to go to junior college.

Gilbert Brown? He was in the mix for McDonald’s All-American status, but didn’t quite make the cut.

Ashton Gibbs? He was an all-stater, not an All-American.

And yet here they are again.

Gene Collier acknowledges the need to revise expectations of this team.

These Panthers, following in the fresh footprints of Dixon’s best team ever, a 31-5 unit that came within a whisper of the Final Four, either want to be awfully good or are at least willing to throw themselves on the floor trying to be.

That was both the literal and metaphoric reason they were only the fourth team to win at Connecticut in the past 44 games.

“I think it was just an example of what coach Dixon always emphasizes, which is being tough,” said Gilbert Brown in 26 minutes of Pitt’s seventh consecutive win. “You see how Ashton [Gibbs] almost turned the ball over and then gave up his body? I think this game tonight is where all that toughness really came out.”

When I was watching the game I paused and rewound that moment a few times. Maybe it was the opponent. Maybe the montage before the game made it fresher in the mind. Gibbs dive to recover the ball after it was poked free and call the time out. Before any UConn player had a chance to react made me think of Brandin Knight in the BET Championship game against UConn diving for the loose ball and calling TO while Huskies stood around.

John Gasaway at Basketball Prospectus is still trying to figure out how Pitt is doing it. Looking at returning possession minutes for this years team comepared to last year, shows that Pitt simply more than any other BE team that went to the NCAA last year has less experience by a wide margin. He notes that Pitt should be playing more at the level of 2008 Ohio State — NIT. Gasaway tries to figure out why. Primary reasons he finds is that Pitt is playing defense far better than they have the past couple of years, Ashton Gibbs’ emergence and surprisingly that McGhee and Taylor have been more effective than expected in filling DeJuan Blair’s shoes.

Of course, if there is one thing that sets Gasaway to burning it is use of rebound differentical — he sees it as a relatively meaningless stat. Of course, we all know that Coach Jamie Dixon is passionate about having Pitt outrebound opponents.

UConn held a four-rebound edge on the Panthers at the half at the XL Center. Dixon urged his team to outrebound the Huskies by eight in the second half. The Panthers nearly doubled that, outrebounding the Huskies by 13 in the second half.

It was a major factor in Pitt’s 67-57 victory.

“We had to get that changed,” Dixon said of the rebounding advantage UConn held at the half. “We had to get that turned around and we did. Clearly that was the difference. We just battled.”

I happen to agree that rebounding differential is not a big deal. Too many factors can skew it — bad shooting or good shooting being the primaries. That said, UConn’s front court — despite their size advantage — was pathetic.

UConn’s starting frontcourt of Ater Majok, Alex Oriakhi and Stanley Robinson combined for just 12 rebounds. Oriakhi had all nine of his rebounds in the first half while Robinson had a season-low two.

“For Stanley Robinson to get two rebounds in a game is almost bewildering to me,” Calhoun said.

Not to me. Stanley Robinson looked impressive in the first half — as long as you only looked at the offense. He has this talent, but no effort on defense. His big solo slam came because he was loafing on defense.

Pitt had gotten a steal and raced the other way. Kemba Walker made a tremendous interception of a bounce pass and was able to get it right back down to Robinson who was all alone for an easy slam.

Only, when you watched the replays, you saw that when Pitt took off after the turnover, and most of the UConn players were hustling to prevent an easy transition bucket, Robinson barely moved. He slowly turned up-court and lightly jogged after the play. He made no effort to get down there. Only when he saw Walker get the steal did he move. He raced to his basket.

Should it surprise anyone that when the game got tight and plays had to be made in the final 10 minutes, Robinson was non-existent?

Jerome Dyson was the second half impact. He suffers most in UConn’s offense with their inability to play half-court offense. He can run, but he is most dangerous when given a chance to attack the basket on plays. He did that in the second half, but all too often he had to do it without his teammates helping.

Believe it or not, still a couple more stories to work into a media recap. Later.