Feeling a little guilty of thinking about what Pitt can do the whole way through the Tournament? Trying to convince yourself that you should only be focused on Oakland and not to the next round? Concerned you are jinxing Pitt or bringing in bad karma by looking ahead?

Don’t be. Xavier is doing plenty of it.

So, when a possibly second round matchup popped up against three-seeded Pitt in the second round, well, it brought a little extra spice to the draw.

“We know they are in our bracket, our main goal is to focus on Minnesota, nothing is guaranteed,” Jamel McLean said. “Minnesota is our prime objective. Hopefully we see Pittsburgh and we will take that game from where we left off last year.”

So, yeah, they are trying to focus on Minnesota, but their fans can’t stop looking ahead.

I am loving Xavier’s chances of making it into the second weekend of the tournament.  Jordan Crawford is the kind of player that a team can hitch their wagon to.  Minnesota will have a great defense set up to slow him down but I think Crawford is ready to shine on the big stage.  Terrell Holloway has been very strong recently and Mark Lyons has been a weapon off the bench.  I like our bigs against the Golden Gophers bigs.  Xavier can get scoring from a variety of spots on the floor and can be tough defensively.  IF we can get a second round matchup against Pitt I see Xavier exacting revenge from last season.  IF we get a second round matchup against Oakland Friday night is going to be one hell of a good time.

The Musketeers are yet another team that benefited immensely from the dark lord, Kelvin Sampson. He who resulted in Scottie Reynolds at ‘Nova and Devin Ebanks to West Virginia. Well, Xavier has post-Sampson, Indiana transfer Jordan Crawford and another Indiana decommit in Terrell Holloway. This, more than anything else worries me about facing Xavier in the second round.

Not that Minnesota, that barely made the Tourney, lacks its fantasy goggles.

But the Musketeers, who finished 14-2 in the Atlantic 10 to tie Temple for the regular-season championship, aren’t an overwhelmingly talented team like Texas was last year.

And that gives the Gophers a shot.

“We’re excited again to make it to the big stage,” senior Lawrence Westbrook said. “And I feel like we can make a run in the tournament. We have to play like we did in the first three games of this (Big Ten) tournament, then we will be good.”

If they can make it to the second round, Minnesota has one of the easiest paths to the Sweet 16 of any lower-seeded team. The Gophers definitely have more talent than Oakland if the Grizzlies pull off an upset. Pittsburgh’s physicality could pose a problem, but the Panthers lost twice this year to Notre Dame. They also suffered a 10-point loss to Indiana in December.

I guess pre-Tournament is like spring training and it seems any sport in preseason. Everyone thinks they have a shot, and can visualize how it can happen.

Oakland may not be dreaming Final Four, but they are believing in a Sweet Sixteen run.

At Oakland, no one is lugging any extra weight. Kampe has done an excellent job with two senior leaders — guard Johnathon Jones and forward Derick Nelson. And 6-11 junior center Keith Benson is an overlooked star.

From the crushing disappointment of a year ago, when the Golden Grizzlies blew an NCAA bid by blowing a 13-point lead in the final seven minutes of a loss, something strong grew. Kampe handed out T-shirts with the phrase “Can You Finish,” and Oakland proved it could, even as it starts anew.

Oakland has won 20 of its last 21 games, and although it got hammered early by top teams — including an 88-57 loss at Michigan State — it’s a classically dangerous 14 seed.

“We were a Cinderella last time — now I think we’re just a really good team,” Kampe said. “Millions of people are gonna look at our name and have to decide, ‘Is Oakland gonna be the team that ruins my bracket?’?”

Kampe smiled broadly in his cluttered office, amid signs of what’s unfolding. He held up a yellow brick, something each player is required to carry around, symbolizing the long road in the “Wizard of Oz.” Stray from the path, bad things happen. Stay on the path, who knows what’s possible.

The numbers may not make them that much of a “dangerous” team, Pitt still has to beat them.