You can make the case that Pitt had been getting closer to a big win. The Miami game. Louisville last week. Those games were within grasp. Just that awful mix of inconsistency on offense and weak defense, that all but had Jamie Dixon publicly questioning his team’s mental make-up. Still, the big win had been elusive.

They had good wins — at ND (the only loss ND had at the Joyce Center all season) and sweeping Syracuse. Only one “bad” loss — the home decimation to NC State.

But so many of the losses were plain demoralizing because they weren’t close. Whether by the end — Virginia and at Louisville — or throughout — at Clemson and at UNC — they were losses that gave no sense of hope. No real, “we can build on this,” feeling.

So coming out on Senior Day and absolutely overwhelming Duke in all facets of the game was unexpected, but oh, so needed. For Dixon. For James Robinson and his teammates. For the fans.

I wondered how the team would respond to missing the opportunity against Louisville — who is now the only team Pitt hasn’t beaten as a conference foe since joining the ACC. They gave limited effort against UNC after Miami. This time they responded.

Chris Jones missed double figures with nine points, but grabbed a game-high eight rebounds in his fifth consecutive start.

“The Louisville loss stung,” Jones said about the Panthers’ 67-60 setback against the No. 11 Cardinals on Wednesday. “We had an angry practice the next day. Guys really took another step in buying in.”

One win doesn’t change things. Honestly, they could easily lose the next two. VT is a much better team at home (beating Virginia and close losses to UNC and Louisville), and Buzz Williams coached teams tend to do well against Pitt. GT has actually somewhat surged with home wins over ND and Clemson last week.

And it’s not like there aren’t the defensive issues have gone away. I had to check several box scores to be sure it wasn’t a typo to realize that Mike Young only played 17 minutes on Sunday — because of his defensive effort. Something that led to not starting at UNC. Has had coaches and former players trying to get through to him.

Long after the Petersen Events Center emptied on Tuesday night, [Tray] Woodall and assistant coach Brandon Knight pulled Young aside for an impromptu pep talk. The two links to Pitt’s recent past and perhaps the most important player in the Panthers’ uneven present huddled for more than half an hour. When it was over, Woodall took to Twitter to offer a reminder and maybe hope.

”Passion,” Woodall tweeted, followed by another that said simply ”Panther Pride.”

Young only played 5 minutes in the second half. He had those emphatic dunks to start the half, but got pulled and never saw the court again. Even when Duke got the game down to 10 points with nearly 10 minutes left.

Young has been the Panthers best offensive player but Dixon has been trying to send some not so subtle messages in recent weeks that he needs to buy in on the defensive end fully and become a much more consistent rebounder and physical presence. It has been a season-long struggle between player and coach and we saw him get benched to start the North Carolina game and we’ve seen Ryan Luther slowly but surely play more minutes every night. And like I wrote in my last post — the team is better defensively when Maia is in the game despite his physical limitations (meaning, he is a little undersized for a center and he isn’t a high level athlete). The message sent here by Dixon (Jeter played 24 minutes, Luther played 24 minutes and Maia played 14) is pretty simple — “we just won a really big game with other guys leading the way….” Young has a good head on his shoulders and I’d expect he will respond to this the right and that’s a good thing because if he does what Robinson has done — take his game to another level, the sky is the limit for this Pitt team. Pitt needs Mike Young to take the next step from being a good player who is really productive, to a guy who is a great player. He has the ability to do that and Jamie has been pushing hard to bring it out of him.

It’s a bit disturbing that the struggles to reach Mike Young are still ongoing. More worrisome is that it is becoming more open this late in the season. And no, Mike Young is not a cancer. Nor is he the only issue on this team. But he is one of Pitt’s best players. He’s a junior who should be a team leader. And he seems to be struggling to meet those standards.