I was planning a recap of the Monday night loss to Washington State for yesterday, but had some other things that needed getting done. Then I just started procrastinating.

Ray Fittipaldo’s post on it, summed a lot of the feelings up regarding the game.

I spent most of Monday working on an analysis of Pitt’s season —  what went wrong, what has to improve for the team to get back to the NCAA tournament next season — and my three basic points were all confirmed in the Panthers’ loss to Washington State in Game 1 of the CBI championship series later Monday night.

My three points —  a steep decline in the ability to defend, an almost complete lack of inside presence and point guard play  — were all factors in the loss.

Pitt’s defense was atrocious in the game. The perimeter defense, especially, was horrid. Leaving shooters uncovered all night. Yes Ashton Gibbs was still lousy on defense, but so was Moore, Patterson and just about everyone else.

For the first 35 minutes, there was no commitment to even attempt defense. It took until the final five minutes, when Pitt players realized that they weren’t going to win this game just shooting.

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Been meaning to get to this since it went down last week, but the firing of Ron Everhart by Duquesne is an interesting occurrence. A defensible decision in my view, that Duquesne managed to make into a massive mess.

To review the history, Everhart was hired back in 2006. He was one of three targets by Duquesne: Everhart, Jim Christian and John Groce. Groce was an Ohio St. assistant and didn’t want the job. Groce later opted for the Ohio University gig and is on the verge of becoming the Illinois head coach. Christian was the Kent State coach after Stan Heath, and is now the TCU head coach. Christian — who had been a Pitt assistant in the Willard error —  “withdrew” his name the day before Everhart was hired.

There was no question that Everhart was hired as much for his ties in the mucky recruiting world as it was for his turnaround history at McNeese St. and Northeastern. And when you look at where Duquesne was when he took over to where it is now, he has done a very good job of making them a competitive team once more. But Duquesne apparently wants more. You know, after all the focus they have put basketball after slashing the rest of their athletic department. Axing baseball, swimming and other sports.

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