Okay, we get it. This Pitt team has the chance to do what has done the previous 12 opportunities: beat the number 1 ranked team in the country.

“It’s a real big game,” Pitt senior Carl Krauser said. “It means a lot to us to go out there and try to get a win on the road. We really have to stick together.”

Connecticut (18-1, 6-1 Big East) retained the top spot in the national polls Monday and is braced for surprising Pitt (17-1, 6-1), which climbed back into the top 10, at No. 9, after a week on the outside.

“We have to compete as hard as we can,” Krauser said. “It’s going to definitely be a good test for us and it’s going to be a great game.”

These are the two winningest programs in the Big East over the last 5 years. It says so right in the Pitt game notes (PDF).

Pitt is a 9.5 point underdog.

Pitt is the only Big East team to regularly challenge UConn in the BE the last few years.

Connecticut has 19 losses against Big East foes since 2001, and Pitt is responsible for a fifth of those losses.
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Krauser explained why the Panthers have been able to enjoy success against the Huskies. “I just think it’s our different style of play and the way we do things,” Krauser said. “We play physical. Not many other teams play as physical as we do. Our offense, our penetration and our shooting is different from a lot of people. We have a lot of athletes. Matching up with UConn won’t be a problem. We’ll just have to do a good job on the boards and cutting down on their fastbreak points.”

While the Pittsburgh media focuses on whether Pitt can beat a number#1 team, rather than simply beating UConn. Up in Connecticut they are addressing — wait, before I get to that, they wonder how much people in Pittsburgh are even paying attention to Pitt right now. The whole Super Bowl thing. Of course, the way they are looking at is mostly through media coverage.

“I think so,” said Panthers radio voice Bill Hillgrove. “It’s hard to get attention away from the Steelers this week, but people here know Pitt has a really good basketball team. There are people to whom this game matters. They know this team is doing very well. But, obviously, everybody’s focused on the Steelers this week.”

Hillgrove knows what he’s talking about. He is the senior member of WTAE-TV’s sports team and is in his 37th season as the radio voice of Pitt basketball. But it gets more interesting. Hillgrove is also in his 12th season as the voice of the Steelers. If he’s managing to shift his focus for one night, certainly others in Pittsburgh can do the same.

Maybe.

“We’ll have the game on, but if there’s a Super Bowl preview show on, we’ll have that, too,” said an employee at the Sports Rock Cafe, in Pittsburgh’s Strip District, who didn’t want to give his name. “Everybody knows how well the Pitt basketball team is doing, but this is the Steelers and the Super Bowl. That trumps everything.”

Interest may be limited to hard-core Pitt basketball fans, but that’s a pretty strong group. Pitt routinely sells out the Petersen Events Center and has one of the most raucous crowds in the Big East.

Interest in the game is hurt by the lack of national television and the hype that comes along with it. The two Pittsburgh newspapers — the Post-Gazette and Tribune-Review — have dominated their sections with coverage of the Steelers during the past week.

In fact, UConn has issued one credential to each of the Pittsburgh papers. It’s a big game that could go virtually unnoticed.

On the bright side, the local coverage is still better than anything Boston College ever sees.

Okay, up in Storrs UConn Coach Jim Calhoun has done his best to downplay any talk of a rivalry between Pitt and UConn in recent years. Not this time.

Coach Jim Calhoun clutched the scouting report in his hand while addressing the media Monday. Scribbled in bright red letters were the words, “Out-tough them.”

In no other regular-season game do those words carry more weight.

Ninth-ranked Pittsburgh, the top-ranked Huskies opponent tonight at Gampel Pavilion (7:30 p.m., Ch. 20), is the Big East Conference’s bully on the street corner waiting to take your lunch money. The Panthers (17-1, 6-1) have made a nice living in recent years with their toughness.

A year ago, the Panthers fought back from a 17-point first half deficit to walk out with a 76-66 win at Gampel Pavilion. A month later the Huskies won at Pittsburgh.

That’s the way it’s been between these two rivals. Pitt knocks UConn down. The Huskies get back up and return the favor. They’ve split the last eight meetings.

“Pittsburgh has turned into a rivalry game for us,” Calhoun said. “After five or six years of really having to fight Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh having to fight us to get some place, they have become a formidable opponent, obstacle, etc., for us to get to a (Big East) championship, seeding or get wins.”
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Year to year, Pitt’s roster changes but its style remains the same. UConn killer Chevon Troutman is gone. Brash guard Carl Krauser, who attended St. Thomas More, remains, giving confidence to his teammates. Junior Aaron Gray, a mobile 7-foot, 270-pound center, is one of the most improved players in the league.

Yeah, I’d say they and the media up there are taking Pitt seriously. So are the players. They remember last year.

There are two games that stick out in Josh Boone’s mind from last season. The first, not surprisingly, was UConn’s season-ending loss to N.C. State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The second was the Huskies’ 76-66 meltdown against Big East rival Pittsburgh, a game in which Connecticut squandered a 43-26 lead at Gampel Pavilion.

“As long as I’ve been here, we don’t lose in Gampel,” said Boone, adding that he often reflected on Pitt’s comeback during his off-season workouts. “There were times when you wanted to stop (working) or when you didn’t think you could give any more and you’d just think about that Pittsburgh jersey and looking up at the scoreboard and seeing you’re down 10 at the end of the game. That gives you a lot of motivation.”
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“It has become a healthy rivalry,” Calhoun said. “The kids know who Pittsburgh is. Their style is physical. They run their stuff exceptionally well, they’re deep, they’re pragmatic, they will fast break you and they’ll grind you away. They have a great belief they’re going to win as much as any team in this league. They’re tough.”

Indeed. Pittsburgh has limited 15 of its 18 opponents to 70 points or less, employs 10 players who average over 10 minutes per game and is 4-1 on the road. The Panthers have trailed at the half in five of their last six games.

“They out-tough people,” said Boone, a junior center. “From start to finish, there’s going to be a whole lot of pushing and a whole lot of shoving. That’s the kind of game they like. We do play well in those type of games. We’re a running team, but I think we’ve proved throughout this year that we can be a physical team as well.”

Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon admits he used to cringe every time “they talked about us playing like the Steelers, or a football team.”

“Now we embrace it, look at it as a good thing, and we’re proud of it,” said Dixon, whose Panthers returned just two starters and were picked seventh in the league’s preseason poll.

One advantage both teams have had this year that will be a wash in this game — depth. Using the deep bench to grind and wear down a team. UConn by running, Pitt by physical play. It won’t matter. Pitt goes 10 deep, UConn 9. Calhoun also favorably compares Carl Krauser to a hated UConn player.

“He’s not only a leader, he’s an emotional leader,” Calhoun said of Krauser, whom he likened to former UConn standout Khalid El-Amin. “He has some of what Khalid has, his strength and confidence level. … He gets fans involved.”

I don’t suppose that could entail him standing on the scorer’s table after the game at Gampel taunting the students this year, could it?

Defensively from UConn, you can expect man-to-man.

Denham Brown, who slowed Providence’s Donnie McGrath Saturday, will draw the main defensive responsibility, though he will have help. Krauser averages 16.8 points and 4.2 rebounds.

“He’s a confident player,” Brown said. “He’s real hard to guard. It’s just a matter of putting the effort out there. I don’t think he knows as much about me playing defense as I know about what he’s going to do offensively. He might see three or four guys on him. He’s going to play the same game. He’s gotten a lot better, but he still has the same personality. That makes him the same player.”

The Huskies have other concerns, such as Aaron Gray. He’s 7 feet, 270 pounds and agile.”He’s a big dude,” Josh Boone said. “He’s talented. He’s skilled. When you have a guy that big who can really play, it’s always a tough guy to handle. But we’re going to throw a couple of things at him. I’m going to try to big-to-big a little bit, just because he’s so big. Hopefully, we’re going to try to box him out a little bit and keep him off the boards.”

Hilton Armstrong will also guard Gray. Armstrong turned his left ankle in practice Monday. He walked the sideline for the last few minutes of practice, then walked off and suggested he will be ready to play.

The player that Pitt has to worry about is Rudy Gay. With his range and talent, he is the kind of athletic forward that Pitt has struggled mightily to contain. Gay’s talent remains unquestioned. It’s always and still a question of his heart and willingness to be physical.

Rudy Gay’s development into a more physical player continues with ups and downs. He took the ball to the basket with authority in a chippy game Wednesday against St. John’s, but faded Saturday against Providence.

That might be what holds him down in the Pitt game.

Final story. Everyone has an agenda. Not everyone admits it. Especially when it comes to personality clashes in the print media. We’ve seen the sniping that will go on for years at a coach (think Smizik on Walt Harris), but it’s rare to see an open declaration of opposition. Especially when it is an icon, a legend, a hall-of-famer. Jeff Jacobs at the Hartford Courant, has all but declared an open fight with Jim Calhoun. Interesting read.