St. John’s first trip to Pittsburgh since last February’s ill-fated visit. Think the NYC media has forgotten? Not quite.

Fear not, St. John’s fans. Win or lose at Pittsburgh tonight, there will be no humiliating repeat of last season’s “sexcapades” at a strip club outside of the Steel City.

The Red Storm (8-11, 2-7 Big East) flew to Pittsburgh yesterday and will take a charter flight home after tonight’s game. No post-game trip to Club Erotica. No chance of an embarrassing pay-for-sex liaison with a woman at the team hotel.

I don’t think that McKees Rocks business establishment can buy publicity like this. Going to be a few Google searches on that today. Of course, they came in last night so how do they know there were no trips before?

He stands only six feet tall, but Vinny Accardi has become St. John’s last line of defense. Accardi is not on the back line of the Red Storm’s 2-3 zone; he is the team manager. And every night the Johnnies spend on the road, he can be found sitting in the hallway until the wee hours, just outside the players’ hotel room doors.

After St. John’s (8-11, 2-7 Big East) spent the day traveling and preparing for tonight’s game at No. 18 Pitt (15-4, 5-3), Accardi spent two hours sitting in the corridor of the Wyndham Hotel after lights out for the team. His assignment: remind those who would leave their room that it’s a violation of team rules.

If only he’d been there 368 days ago.

That’s not to say their paranoid about a repeat occurrence or anything.

As for the actual game. Funny thing, the incident from last year is not included in the “top storylines” list in Pitt’s game notes (PDF).

Pitt has had a lot more close games — wins and losses — than the last couple of years.

In 36 games last season, Pitt had seven games that were decided by five points or fewer. The Panthers were 3-4 in those games with the losses coming against Connecticut (twice), Syracuse and Seton Hall.

In 19 games this season, Pitt already has played seven such games and is 3-4. With the Big East Conference as competitive as it has been in years from top to bottom and with Pitt’s penchant for playing in nail-biters, that number likely will grow over the final eight games of the regular season and postseason tournaments.

Whether Pitt improves its record in close games could determine how far this team goes. Senior forward Chevon Troutman said something is missing from this team that had been present in previous seasons: a killer instinct.

In fact, it seemed like Troutman had a lot to say, that echoes a lot of the fans’ feelings.

“I don’t feel like teams come in here intimidated anymore,” said Troutman, the team’s elder statesman who’s played in three Big East tournament title games and three NCAA Sweet 16s. “They come in here, and they’re like, ‘OK, (Pitt) has a few losses, we can give them another one. We just have to keep plugging away, man.”
…
“I feel like we still need some work,” he said. “We’re not as polished as we’ve been in the past couple years. … We just let other people decide if we want to lose, and we have to stop doing that. I feel like we have to come out and just take over the game and show everybody that we are good and, no matter what goes on in a game, we’re going to win.”
…
“We ain’t even approaching any tournaments yet,” Troutman said, referring to the fact that the Big East tournament is a month away. “This is still like practice to us. We have to get these young fellas in the groove of the game, and it’s hard sometimes. But they’re young, and you gotta stick with them.

“I feel like we’re a more talented team than we’ve ever been. Our guards can handle the ball more, but I think our guards aren’t as defense-oriented as they’ve been in the past. But they’re still learning, and they’ll get it before they leave.”

The question is whether they’ll get it before Troutman and Taft leave.

Meanwhile, there is still a game, and while St. John’s knows Pitt will be doubly pissed from losing to St. John’s nearly a month ago and the loss to WVU, there is still hope for a big season sweep. Still, even the St. John’s players know that Pitt is not playing the same way.

What has changed most for the Panthers since then is their frontcourt play, especially senior forward Chevy Troutman. With the 6-7 Troutman and 6-10 Xaverian alum Chris Taft playing big, Pitt managed wins at UConn and at home over Syracuse since losing to St. John’s.

Ronald Ramon is still questionable for the game tonight. Benjamin will likely get a lot of his minutes. If Kendall can stay out of foul trouble, he should help and Graves might find his minutes still being squeezed. Especially if Graves doesn’t start improving on the perimeter defense.