Not going to be (or at least shouldn’t be) a lot on basketball this week. Should be a liveblog tomorrow for the Robert Morris game (right, Luke?), but then focus on football and the Backyard Brawl. Hopefully tonight I can get some of my thoughts from the two games posted.

Lots of stories from the Friday event as you would expect. Travon Woodall was named to the all-2K Tournament team. Woodall had a solid performance in both games. While he missed that crucial free throw at the end, he more than made up for it by showing defensive smarts on Corey Joseph.

“He’s a freshman, so I was trying to get him out of control a little bit,” Woodall said. “At the end of the game, I kind of had an idea that he would try to take the shot because he hadn’t gotten (much), so I just tried to get up in there and bother him.”

Now keep in mind that Joseph isn’t just a random freshman forced to start. Joseph was one of the top guard recruits in the country. High basketball IQ (allegedly) and very likely will be jumping to the NBA before is eligibility is up. Pitt shut him down all game and then in the end, Woodall stayed with him and forced him to curl away from the basket rather than letting him drive. He stayed between him and the basket the entire time. Joseph was not prepared to look for anyone else by that point and hoisted a poor, poor shot.

Why? Becuase he has learned and listened to what his coaches told him about the player and he knew the situation.

“I knew since I missed the shot, I couldn’t just hang my head,” said Woodall, who finished with seven points and five assists. “I said I have to stand here, make this defensive stop and give my team the win.”

“Coach kept telling me that he wanted to drive left,” continued Woodall about the play. “At that moment, I saw somebody on the right side, so I knew he wanted to take me one-on-one and try to get the layup. He didn’t have a chance to get into a groove, so I just took him and tried to force him into a bad shot.”

Then there was the Tournament MVP — Ashton Gibbs. Gibbs had the monster second-half that gave Pitt the win.

Then Gibbs knocked down a 3-pointer of his own. Followed by a couple free throws … followed by a jumper … followed by another 3. In a span of 119 seconds, interrupted by two Texas free throws, Gibbs rattled off 10 Pittsburgh points.

“I just knew that it was time,” Gibbs said. “It was time to step up.”

The Panthers now led 49-40 — but the Longhorns had another run left in them. Texas narrowed the margin to a single point once more, 63-62. Pittsburgh had possession, with less than 90 seconds left.

Take a guess who took the shot — and buried it.

He stepped up and carried the team when it needed him on offense. But what got most media folks who hung around for the postgame honors was what Gibbs did then.

After Ashton Gibbs was named Most Valuable Player of the Coaches vs. Cancer event at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, he motioned for his entire team to join him at midcourt.

Officials from the Gazelle Group wouldn’t let his fellow Panthers come with him to receive the award, but Gibbs’ effort spoke volumes.

“It’s a team game,” the junior guard from Scotch Plains, N.J. said after scoring 19 of his team-high 24 points in the second half as No. 5 Pitt downed Texas, 68-66, in the championship game.

“I wouldn’t have done it without my teammates. They screened for me and they looked for me in open spots. They got me the ball. It’s a team game. I’m a team player first and then individual awards come with it.”

To say he does Pitt fans, students and alum proud is putting it mildly.

Pitt’s inside game is still something of a question mark. Zanna’s performance against Maryland was encouraging. And I thought Dante Taylor looks a lot better than he did last year. He still has a tendency to be a little weak going up for close scores. Choosing to shoot too low and making it easy to block rather than going stronger. But his footwork is better, especially on defense. Some thought the inside for Pitt is better than expected, while others see it as a continuing concern.

Despite winning with 79 points on Thursday, since Pitt scored 68 and held a Longhorn team that wants to run and gun in check, the typical “blue-collar” grinding defense, beat-em-up Pitt stereotype was in force. Make no mistake, Pitt can and will play a tough defense, but this team has a lot more offense and ability to run than in the past. The fact that Pitt can alter its style and tempo accordingly to make it harder on a team — like Texas is just another one of this team’s strengths.

Jason King at Yahoo! nails it.

Still, each time Pittsburgh defeats teams stocked with bigger, faster, more athletic players who are months away from becoming future millionaires, Dixon hears the same comment.

The Panthers, people like to say, win ugly. Dixon smiled when the refrain surfaced again.

“I guess that’s better than losing pretty,” he said, and in some ways it was hard to tell if Dixon was amused or annoyed.

“Offensively, we’re one of the most efficient teams in the country year in and year out,” he said. “We outrebound people. We don’t turn it over. To me, those are pretty good stats. I don’t know what adjective you want to use.

“All I know is that we have good kids that play hard and believe in each other. That’s what helps you win.”

Dixon’s philosophy couldn’t have rung any truer in the Garden, when Texas did everything it could to overtake Pittsburgh’s 10-point second-half lead. Three times during the final six minutes, the Longhorns pulled within a possession of Pittsburgh – only to see Dixon’s squad answer with a clutch shot on the other end.

These rest are all well worth reading for the warm glow of team. All are strong on the team concept of Pitt along with the greater than the sum of their parts stuff.

Whether it is the fact that this team is well-disciplined and low-ego:

Yet, a team with one likely surefire NBA guy just came out on top over a Texas club that could feature a trio of first-round picks.

“They understand their roles,” Texas coach Rick Barnes said of Pittsburgh. “And they play hard.”

Those are a pair of compliments that rank about as high as you’ll get via an opposing coach.

They defend, screen for their teammates and don’t have much flash or sizzle.

In a day and age where style usually wins out over substance, Dixon’s somehow managed to flip that with his players.

Dana O’Neil at ESPN.com has the piece that really pushes that storyline.

Yet when Dixon went out to evaluate them, he wasn’t merely measuring their vertical leap and checking out their crossovers; he was looking for guys willing to check their egos at the door, searching for a kid who might have been a high school phenom but was content to average 12 in his college career.

In other words, these are guys just like him.

Dixon is different from many of his peers. He is not a preening promoter yearning for the spotlight. He wants to coach, not shill, sell, Tweet or boast.

And he’s not about to let his players act any differently.

“He gets his point across,” Gibbs said. “He yells. Oh yeah, he yells. If you don’t play defense and rebound, you don’t play. It’s pretty simple.”

Dixon, though, is hardly a modern-day Bob Knight. Demanding? Yes. But he’s not interested in breaking his player’s will. Rather he gets players with the right kind of will to begin with.

That was a lesson J.J. Moore had reinforced against Texas. He was in for barely a minute late in the first half, and that was it. Why? Because right after he got in, he tried to do it all himself on offense. He got the ball and tried to force a wild shot. He never even looked around for open teammates. He was trying to show he should be out there. Instead, he showed why he wouldn’t return. Coach Dixon did it with plenty of other freshmen who didn’t think of the team. Whether it was Keith Benjamin, Woodall and now Moore. Moore was more interested in trying to score by himself than in the team. It was a mistake, and I’m sure Moore will learn and be better from it.