The folks at Casual Hoya reached out to do a good old blogger Q&A. You can get an idea of how out of touch with present pop culture and local happenings by clicking over to read my answers (offered after a busy Saturday of watching basketball and drinking). Here, Andrew provides answers to some of my burning questions (asked before the Villanova game on Sunday).

1. Seriously. What the hell happened last year?

Ever hear of Murphy’s Law? No, its not the same thing as this TV show? Yeah, well last year was a perfect example of Murphy’s Law. By the end of January, everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Some blame it on team chemistry – which was apparently disrupted when Chris Wright and Jesse Sapp got in a fight during the Duke game. Some blame it on leadership, or lack thereof, as both DaJuan Summers and Sapp didn’t show a glimpse of passion or care as the season ended.

I blame it on youth. While the previous two reasons certainly had a role, Georgetown really played only three players (Summers, Sapp and Austin Freeman) who had any substantial experience running the offense. Combined with an incredibly tough schedule, quite possibly the most competitive conference ever, a demanding offense requiring reads and cuts, and a horribly weak bench – Georgetown should have played more like the team that ended the season, not the one that started it.

Losing three key players (Roy Hibbert, Jon Wallace, and Patrick Ewing Jr.) is a lot to make up for. But obviously Pitt had to ruin that excuse by doing so damn well this season. F-ckers.

2. While Pitt and Georgetown do not have the same systems, both teams are relatively slow-tempo offense and defense first. Each possession on offense, therefore is valuable. Do you worry about scoring enough?

No doubt scoring has been a problem for The Situation, err, Georgetown. It’s less an issue with the system that the Hoyas run as it is with the players they’ve got, with the starting 5 having to bring it every night with little help from the bench (to be addressed in the next question).

The upshot is that there are 3 players who can lead the team in scoring on any night: Chris Wright, the occasionally out of control point guard who is the most aggressive player going to the basket and looking for his shot; Austin Freeman, the steady 2-3 who is averaging over 20 a game in Big East play; and Greg Monroe, Gtown’s best post player and pro prospect and almost always the player with the most ability on the floor. Rounding out the 5 are Julian Vaughn, a bruiser who has been surprisingly effective both on offense and defense and Jason Clark, a sophomore who has had some great games while fading in others.

Thus far, the team seems to play to the level of the competition and with as well as Pitt’s been playing, they should be focused on offense and scoring.

3. Talk about the rotation for Georgetown. There are 4 Hoyas playing over 32 minutes/game. While the players don’t commit a lot of fouls do you worry about the players being gassed by the end of February?

We worry about the main players being gassed by the middle of January. Clearly the glaring weakness for Gtown has been the bench where a lot was expected of Henry Sims (a sophomore big) and Hollis Thompson (a freshman swing man). While Thompson has been playing consistently (but not putting up great numbers), Sims has been a big disappointment and his minutes are quickly being gobbled by freshman, Jerelle Benimon. Put simply, when the starters are on and can establish a lead, going to the bench isn’t terrifying but when they aren’t on, the Hoyas can go on long scoreless stretches due to weak bench play.

4. Will Georgetown ever consider elevating football? How do you see things playing out with rumors of Big 11 expansion?

Considering that the Georgetown football program has won 1 game in the last two years – the answer to that question is a resounding “Hell No”. This has been a tough decade for Georgetown football, who moved up to Division 1-AA from Division III in 1992. The Hoyas competed in the top half of the MAAC, until moving to the Patriot League in 2000. After that – it was all downhill.

Georgetown does not have the scholarships and facilities to move up to Division 1 football right now – there is no where to build a stadium (the current brand new facility stands uncompleted on campus due to lack of funding), and no money to dedicate to the team. I think the hope it to be competitive within the Patriot League at some point, and not get embarrassed by the likes of Lehigh and Bucknell every year. Georgetown is a decent athletic school: basketball, track, soccer, lax, crew and sailing all have received recognition in the past fews. But it is a long way away from being good in football. Mainly because people don’t care – I can count the number of full Georgetown football games I have sat through on zero hands.

(Anyone else think that Georgetown is another Esherick-esque hire and a heartbeat away from becoming Fordham in athletics from that explanation?)

Big 11 expansion is interesting. The Big East is the only power conference to include non D1-A football schools. I have no doubt in my mind that many of the big football schools would love to kick out non-football contributors, and the recent successes of the Villanova, Georgetown and Marquette programs is the only thing holding it together.

People make the excuse that the Big East will never be broken up because of its history of being a basketball conference, but look what Boston College did earlier this decade. The founding member of the Big East jumped at the first chance of more money – too bad it was a terrible move because Big East football improved while ACC football sucked after the treason.

I hope the Big 10 goes after Missouri and Nebraska and leaves the Big East alone. If they take a Rutgers, West Virginia or Pitt – I see the Big East brining in Memphis or Temple (again) in order to preserve the D1 football vs. non D1-A football split. Alternatively, some want Nova to elevate football – but I think that will eventually lead to the dismembering of the Big East as we know it. Unfortunately, money counts – and Georgetown brings nothing to the table.

Thanks to Andrew for the sharing.

While a lot of individual players got focused pieces after the Louisville game, there were also a few others that got stories. They’ve been in the tabs waiting to be put in the right place.

From last week, Gilbert Brown comes about as close as he can to talking about his suspension.

“I had to own up to it,” Brown said. “The big thing was that I was known as a good student, but this gave it a negative perception that I was a bad student. I made some bad decisions, and it was a tough process.”

It is the consequence. All achievements are questioned. Fairly or not.

The piece also discusses the position switch and importance/difficulty in Pitt’s system.

Brown’s new position is famously the toughest in Pitt’s rotation to learn and embrace. It combines strong inside and outside play. It demands equal parts penetration and perimeter prowess. It asks the player to get offensive rebounds, but at the same time stretch defenses so teammates can get opportunities.

The four is such a position that Young, who led the Panthers in scoring the past two seasons, was dragged screaming into learning it.

But in advance of filling that spot, in addition to keenly watching Robinson in this year’s games, Brown viewed game films of Young, who finally embraced his role and eventually flourished in it.

“I fully understand what he had to go through,” Brown said of Young.

And with Pitt’s success, it would seem the cries to mess with the rotation are dying. Though it seems hard to let go of the impulse to cry, “move Taylor to the Four now.”

Filed under questionable timing (and questionable factually) is a small feature on Travon Woodall from the New York Post (I’m sure for many, there is another joke here).

Woodall, a 5-foot-11, 190-pound redshirt freshman, leads the Panthers in assists (4.4). And, after being forced to sit out last season with a knee injury, the Brooklyn native has developed an identity on the team.

He has started 10 games. He is averaging 24.4 minutes. And he is distributing the ball, well, like the guards of Panthers past.

“Last year, it was frustrating to watch. But I had the chance to see some great players,” Woodall said. “I wanted to be out there. But I learned that I needed to use that to my advantage. Take those feelings and let that improve your play. I believe, in the end, that it’s added to my game now.”

His coach concurs.

“Another thing that I’m very pleased about Travon is his rebounding,” Dixon said. “We typically have guards who have excelled at rebounding: Brandin Knight, Carl Krauser and Levance Fields. His rebounding has been outstanding.”

Of course, Woodall’s stats have been plummeting. He has averaged 12.3 min/game since Big East play started. He has 13 assists and 9 turnovers in those 6 games.  The Louisville game, which was big for many had Woodall play a season low 8 minutes and commit 3 turnovers.

Woodall’s minutes have taken a big hit with Dixon and Brown’s return. He is, simply put, being outplayed by them and it is keeping him from getting out there. When he does get out there, it is very clear that he is pressing. Trying to play too fast.

I would call it the  “early Keith Benjamin phase.” In his first couple of years, Benjamin would come out with so much energy, so eager to prove how good he was, and that he belonged out there. He would end up more than negating the energy he brought by jacking up shots and trying to make ridiculous passes. More often than not, it just accelerated how quickly he would get yanked out of the game, because he wasn’t playing the same game as the other four.

Gary McGhee got big love, not just for the Louisville game, but just for the way he was playing.

McGhee is hardly a star, but Pitt would not be 15-2 and knocking on the door of the top 10 without him. He had the difficult challenge this season of taking over in the post for All-American DeJuan Blair, who, you might have heard, is showing off his game quite nicely in the NBA. He hasn’t backed down from it, giving Pitt a big body and a better-than-expected physical presence inside as a defender and rebounder. He has come a long way from the guy who picked up three fouls in one second at Connecticut last season and promptly became known to his playful teammates as “Guinness Book Of World Records.” He was huge — literally and figuratively — with 8 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocked shots in Pitt’s stunning 67-57 victory in its return trip to Connecticut Wednesday night.

“It didn’t intimidate me replacing DeJuan because I played against him every day in practice and I knew my game was right up there,” McGhee said after Pitt’s throbbing 82-77 overtime victory Saturday against Louisville. “He was one of the best rebounders in college basketball history and I held my own with him. I knew if I could rebound against him, I could rebound against anyone in the country. I knew I was ready to play in the Big East.”

McGhee’s game is hardly pretty. He has much work to do to become even a competent offensive force. “I’m trying to finish better when the ball’s dumped off to me,” he said. Blair’s hands are so much better than his, although McGhee had no trouble grabbing a rebound after a missed shot by Wanamaker in overtime Saturday and laying it in the basket to give Pitt a 76-72 lead.

Those two critical points were nice, but that’s not what Pitt counts on getting from McGhee. Clearly, he knows his role. “Defense and rebounding are what win championships,” he said. “Getting a stop for me on defense is just as good as a dunk.”

McGhee isn’t just trying to follow Blair. He is following Gray, Taft and guys like Lett who holds dear places in Pitt fans hearts for helping to launch this golden age of Pitt basketball. (And while it is increasingly looking like McGhee will end up as good as Lett (9.1 pts and 4.8 rbds/game), I wonder how many will look as kindly on him considering the players McGhee followed and the present expectations.

When Pitt was at Cinci a couple weeks ago, at one point Bill Raftery exclaimed, “I’ll tell you what Jay [Bilas], this kid McGhee is a very serviceable center!” It was a backhanded compliment that made me laugh, in part because while Rafs said it with such genuine surprise, it was never intended as an insult. It was also accurate. Through the coaches and his own work McGhee has become an integral and solid player. He has worked himself into so much better shape. He is not a star, but he is doing the job at that position.

Then there is McGhee’s teammate Brad Wanamaker. After a solid game, Wanamaker went from potential goat to hero in the final minutes of regulation. A couple of turnovers late (shocking factoid, he only had one up until that point) that kept Pitt from trimming the lead, followed by a perfect 3 in the corner on the inbound play and sinking clutch free throws to send the game to OT.

“We had many conversations, many talks,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said, 30 minutes after the Panthers’ stunning, back-from-the-dead 82-77 overtime win against Louisville, the delirious noise still ringing in his ears from a Petersen Events Center crowd that couldn’t quite believe what it was watching and Wanamaker’s starring role in it.

You think Dixon is a pretty terrific game coach? You have no idea how good he is at what he does when the gym is empty. Great coaching is about so much more than just designing a play or orchestrating the defense.

“People make a big deal when a kid isn’t happy with his playing time,” Dixon said. “I think it’s good. I want that kind of player on our team. I never want a kid to lose that desire. But, at the same time, I don’t want his disappointment to get in the way of his development. [Wanamaker] and I talked about it a lot. He never stopped working to get better. He cares so much.”

Wanamaker is second on the team in scoring, third in rebounding, second in assists, second in minutes played, second in free throw % (but first in FTA and FTM), first in steals, and yes first in turnovers. He can frustrate at times, but is there should be no question Pitt isn’t where they are right now without him.

Kids sick, life sucks.

Lots of tabs accumulated and things to touch upon. One thing that has continued, the fact that Pitt is a team, much stronger as a unit than if you looked at the individual players. And they are coming out from the shadows of last year’s accomplishments.

How are they achieving improbability after impossibility? Tenacity, toughness, great defense and rebounding. Pitt outrebounded Louisville by 14 Saturday, three days after beating Connecticut by nine on the boards. And while Louisville shot well Saturday, they were only 2 of 5 down the final 4:30 stretch of regulation, and 2 of 5 with two turnovers in overtime.

“I’ve told these guys,” said Pitt coach Jamie Dixon, “that it’s up to us to decide how good we’re going to be.”

But finding an identity, despite the early success, hasn’t been easy. DeJuan Blair and Sam Young and Levance Fields still haunt these halls. In past years, the Brandin Knights, Juliuis Pages, Carl Krausers and Aaron Grays would leave, some would wonder if the Panthers could rebound and by December, no one remembered their names.

But last year’s No. 1 ranking, a No. 1 seed and Elite Eight appearance added up to an impossible act to follow, particularly with a little-known cast of mostly underclass reserves who couldn’t get a slice of last year’s senior-dominated playing time.

How about the fact that Rick Pitino effectively helped Pitt with poor work on game management? Pitt was out of timeouts with 4 minutes left in the game. Pitt trying to stage the comeback still trailed by 5 with 20 seconds or so left — and Pitino called the timeout to let Pitt set up their inbound play.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said late Saturday he was hoping Louisville coach Rick Pitino would call a timeout in the final 20 seconds so he could set up a shot for Brad Wanamaker. Pitino did call the timeout and Wanamaker was open in the corner off the inbounds for the 3-pointer that essentially sent the game into overtime.

An interesting observation from a Louisville beat writer before the game.

*I think the key to the game will be if the Cards can stop Ashton Gibbs from penetrating and getting shots in the lane. U of L has been hurt in losses by big play from slashing guards. (Scottie Reynolds, anyone?)

He was right about players slashing to the basket hurting the Cards. Just the wrong guy. It was Wanamaker and even Nasir Robinson from the forward position attacking the basket.

Coach Dixon got very emotional about Nasir Robinson having such a big game (I hesitate to say “breakthrough” because that is only applicable in hindsight — if it keeps going), but also about the team as a whole working so hard to get better.

“I love that kid,” Dixon said. “When we recruited him I remember watching him. … You can find things wrong with him, but he plays so hard that my belief was if you play that hard and you care that much you’ll become a good player. He’s a perfect example of that.

“He brings so much energy. He is so positive and works so hard. He’s finding his role. He’s such a good kid. I’m proud of him. It was good to see.”

…

Jamie Dixon said Robinson personifies this team’s work ethic.

“The strength of this team is they want to get better,” Dixon said. “They’re willing to be coached. They understand they’re not as good as they can be. That’s a talent. That’s a gift. Some guys think they’re good enough and can’t get better.

“Our guys are working on their weaknesses. Nasir is in there working on his free throws over and over again. Then you see him hit four out of six. And they were big free throws. That’s the strength of this team.”

We spent a lot of time early in the season complaining about these kids as far as their talent level. Robinson, Wanamaker, Gibbs, Woodall, McGhee. Their work ethic, willingness to listen to the coaching, and how quickly it seems they have improved is not just a credit to them and the coaching staff. It’s also vindication for the staff that helped recruit them. Making former assistants Orlando Antigua and Mike Rice  look a little better as far as why they wanted these kids.

To those who just peek at the team, it becomes yet another year where Pitt is just plugging in players to a machine.

For Pitt it was a stirring comeback that absolutely (for a couple days) crushed the Cards as brutally as anything they experienced.

“Outside of Duke and Christian Laettner, this was the worst loss I ever had to experience,” Pitino said after Pitt’s 82-77 overtime victory.

Christian Laettner made one of the most famous buzzer-beaters in NCAA tournament history to deny Pitino’s Kentucky Wildcats a berth in the Final Four in 1992.

Much less was at stake yesterday, but Pitt’s comeback victory was tough for the Cardinals to swallow. They were up by five points with 54 seconds remaining and committed a series of gaffes that opened the door for the Panthers, who gleefully barged through to claim a most unlikely victory.

Pitt took advantage of the fact that this Louisville team is just not a team that can close.

“We know when we’re at our best how good we can be,” guard Preston Knowles said. “It’s just sometimes we get unfocused and don’t keep the right train of thought for 40 minutes. It can’t be 35. It has to be 40 minutes.”

Coach Rick Pitino said defensive mistakes have been to blame for the late losses. They’ve tried both zones and man-to-man, but it hasn’t made a difference.

In the last five minutes of their six losses, the Cards have allowed teams to shoot 51.2percent from the field (21of41) and 63.6percent from three-point range (7of11). For the season UofL opponents are shooting just 42.2percent from the field and 34.5percent from three-point range.

Cards are 0-3 against ranked teams. What seems stunning is that in those final minutes, the vaunted pressing defense by Louisville is non-existent. Some of it is that it isn’t as good in years past. The other reason is — at least with ranked teams — the teams are able to handle it.

The Panthers, overcoming 10 turnovers and three charging fouls in the first half, negated the Cardinals’ press, largely because most everyone on the floor can handle the ball with care even when Louisville turned up the heat.

“Ashton is a poised point guard, and things don’t get to him too much,” said guard Jermaine Dixon who had nine points and six assists in the second half. “We’re more versatile this year, especially because Gilbert (Brown) and Nasir (Robinson) are able to handle the ball.

“I can see why (Pitino) didn’t press and decided to stay in the matchup zone. But I was surprised they didn’t press us because they had a lot of success with it last year. I think they felt they could press Levance because they wanted to wear him down because we ran a lot of our sets through him.”

Last year, there was no one else Pitt trusted to bring the ball up against the press. Not Jermaine Dixon. Certainly not Young and Blair. Another nice side effect of Pitt being a more guard and smaller team.

One thing that has been glossed over — because Pitt won — was how badly the officials missed the foul on Ashton Gibbs’ attempted 3-pt shot with under 8 seconds left. Missing everything and after a moment of weirdness ruled that Pitt still had the ball because it was a block. If they had made the correct call it would have been Gibbs going to the line to shoot 3 FTs with around 6 seconds left and Pitt down 2.

Instead the refs were bailed out by a bad foul on Wanamaker with 1.9 seconds left and Wanamaker hitting them both to send the game to OT.

In an alternate reality if they had made that call, how scary would those final seconds have been — assuming Gibbs made all 3 or even 2 of 3. With Louisville trying to get down the court to win. Pitt fans would have been having a collective flashback to the Elite Eight ‘Nova game.

The officiating in that game was horrid. The only good thing that can be said about it, is that it was equally horrendous for both teams. So it ended up balancing out by the end. Well, I can say that now, because Pitt won.