I looked around a Wright State message board that we got a few hits from (one of their fans found us and pointed it out) and here are some things being said.

My main concern is Gray — how do we stop somebody like that given our limited “big” men? get him into foul trouble? Deny him the ball? Control the tempo? Anyone with a better basketball sense than me can offer some insight here?

If the “What will Wright State do about Gray?” question isn’t the main storyline/focus for this game then I don’t know what is.

I personally like the match up with Pitt. Aaron Gray is prone to foul problems.

Gray in foul trouble aginst guards driving right at him will probably be their main plan. He sometimes fails to move his feet (and when he does it’s very slow) and instead he fouls to compensate.

Will Brad go small against Pitt? I think he should. Take the 7 footer out of the equation as much as possible. Let our shooters control the game and leave it in their hands. I think that is our best shot.

My response to this is, “Go ahead, let our seven-foot double-double machine have a 6′ 6” defender on him. Please, be my guest. No way Wright State shoots lights out enough to cancel out the 20+ points Gray would put up if WSU goes with a small lineup.

Man, I love ‘big’ schools. This is entertaining stuff. If you can’t go here and laugh, then life just isn’t fun.

I might as well be going to comedycentral.com. lol

If I were in this guy’s shoes I’d probably say the same thing. There’s always going to be some guy on a message board under some fake name like PittExpert12345 who says we’re tops in the nation when we play well and puts us out of the Top 25 after a loss.

There’s a thread that discusses the start time on Saturday, hoping that it’s not too early. Not one fan warning the others to not overlook us. Keep it up, Pitt.

Probably true enough.

With all of this NCAA tourney talk, let me take this time to remind you to sign up for the Pitt Blather Bracket Challenge.

(By the way, the title only took me about 2 hours to come up with.)

So it turns out the time I mentioned here was 8:30 central time, not eastern. Looks like another night staying up until midnight. It’s all in the name of the Panthers though — I’m sure we’ll all make it. Right? Right.

After poking around Yahoo Sports last night and this morning there were all kinds of stories about teams who will get upset or fall flat on their face.

Pitt was one of the teams that was mentioned as having the chance of disappointing an unknowing office poll selector.

Why they tank: Underneath their brute Big East exterior, these Panthers are all pink. As dominant as frontcourt Frankenstein Aaron Gray is, Pittsburgh is a team that is too much ying and yang. Guards Antonio Graves and Levance Fields are not much of a perimeter force, ranking 199th in the nation in three-pointers made per game with 6.2, but Graves can occasionally go off as his four bombs versus Louisville in the Big East semis proved. They are defensively sound in the half court, holding opponents to 40.7 percent shooting, but generate few turnovers (277th in TO%) and transition buckets. Finally, they are a strong paint team that draws a large number of hacks, but convert only 66.8 percent of their free throws. Considering the Panthers practically counteract their strengths and given their history of underperformance in the Big Dance – they failed to advance past the Round of 16 as a 2 or 3 seed in ’02-’04 – they will be caged by the Elite 8. Prediction: Sweet 16 loss to UCLA

The possibility of Pitt losing to UCLA is a surprise? Honestly, I think that’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. I can see where he would form his opinion from; chances are he only happened to watch the Big East Final and forgot about us beating two very good teams in the night before.

And then this:

Wright State (vs. Pitt) – The Raiders finished the season 23-9, but they started 3-5 as they adjusted to new coach Brad Brownell. Since Christmas, this has been one of the hottest teams in the country. Wright State finished by winning 12 of its final 13 games, including two over Butler, and both the Horizon League regular season and tournament championships. This team is much better than a No. 14 seed.

It’s mainly saying Wright St. is possibly a better team than they were seeded. Still, when Dan Wetzel was writing this I’m sure he had visions in his head of Georgetown stomping Pitt on Saturday. Looks like Gray could put up 20+ points on them though.

By the way, a few people were wondering if they would get the Pitt game in their market. If you’re too lazy to go to a sports bar, there’s always this option.

We now what time our Panthers play on Thursday and we’ve managed to escape one of the daytime slots that cause tons of know what people to miss watching it.

Update: This is 8:30 central time. It is a 9:30-ish start on the east coast.

Okay, Pitt got a #3 seed. That wasn’t a surprise — unless you were convinced that the Committee would screw Pitt.

Wright State was indeed a school Coach Dixon interviewed for the head coaching job back in 2003, but the school picked an Ohio State assistant who was later implicated in the paying players with Jim O’Brien. The new HC has been on the job less than a year.

The Mighty MJD notes how badly the Big East took it.

Honestly, while Syracuse should have gotten in, I was more disturbed about the exclusion of Drexel.

Even Big 11 partisans are a little stunned 6 teams got in.

The selection committee really hates the low and mid-majors this year:

• Butler-Old Dominion
• SIU-Holy Cross
• BYU-Xavier
• Nevada-Creighton

That’s the way to minimize the number of upsets of BCS programs by the others. Make them beat each other first.

While there is the hope for a Pitt-UCLA meeting, last year was really the Pitt-centric bracket if you recall. Pitt was in the “Oakland” bracket with UCLA (Howland), Xavier (Miller), Memphis (Calipari), Kent State (Christian) and Marquette (Crean).

The Selection Show just wrapped up and Pitt was given a 3 seed (full bracket here). It’s the West Regional which doesn’t make a ton of sense to me but I guess it’s the only way we’d be able to play in Columbus or Buffalo as a #3 seed.

Here’s the things to look at:

–The first team we’re looking at is Wright St. out of the Horizon League. They had a record of 23-9, 13-3 in conference with an RPI of 72. They got in after they took down Butler, 60-55, in the Horizon Championship Game. Other than that, I don’t know anything else about them but I’m sure over the next few days I’ll get to know them a bit better.

–Obviously the first thing you notice about our draw is the possibilities of teams we could play down the road. First is a Duke team who probably got bumped up a few seed lines simply because they are Duke.

–If everything after that continues to follow form then UCLA would likely await us. If it necessary to mention the significance of that? Dixon and Howland refuse to schedule one another. This time, they might not have a chance.

Still gotta get past Wright State though. Some people already have this penciled in but as far as I’m concerned any team that makes the NCAA Tourney can beat you on any given night. As the week goes on, we’ll give you as much as we can dig up on WSU.

It’s Selection Sunday so it’s time to really start thinking about filling out those brackets.

The Pitt Blather group is on Yahoo. To join…

1) If you don’t already have a Yahoo account, sign up for one (for free)

2) Go here: http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/men/register/joingroup

3) Click join private group

The group ID is 71331 and the password is gopitt

Ugly game last night. Chalk it up to Georgetown simply being better than us or it “just wasn’t our night” or whatever you want. I’m not here to tell you what to believe in that respect and I don’t want this to turn into a game that makes us hang our heads and completely forget about beating Marquette and Louisville.

The offense wasn’t there on many different levels.

The 42 points were the fewest points scored in a Big East championship game and were the fewest for a Pitt team since the Panthers scored 30 against Temple on Jan. 15, 1969. The 23-point margin of defeat was the most since Pitt lost to St. John’s by 24 in 2000.

The most notable was Gray, however.

Here’s all you need to know about the Big East championship game Saturday night:

Roy Hibbert had more dunks than Aaron Gray had points.

Kind of hard to place the entirety of blame on him though. It’s also too bad this was one of the games where Roy Hibbert came to play. He’s been a nonfactor more times than Hoya fans would have liked this year but last night he came to play.

Life goes on though towards the NCAA Tournament. When it comes to seeding, to me it’s always been match ups and location over actual seed number. We obviously will want to play our first round games in either Buffalo or Columbus (I’ve heard the athletic department wants to go to Buffalo rather than Columbus). We also want to play against teams who our strengths match up well against — once again, if it means we drop a seed line to play teams we can beat easier in the first and second rounds then I’m all for it.

If you like to listen to Joe Lunardi, he has Pitt at a #3 seed (in Buffalo). There’s no way we’ll move any higher and I can’t see us moving lower unless the Committee takes the Pitt hate to an extreme level.

I don’t have a ton of time to post, so I’ll make my point short and simple. Obviously we played a very ugly game last night. It seems we’ve been doing plenty of that in the last 4-5 games. There are things to be worried about. The shooting of Graves and Fields, the fact that teams realize they can let Ramon dribble all he wants to create a shot since it’ll never happen, the defense from almost everyone, the amount that Gray touches the ball, and the fact that this team lacks any kind of swagger.

It’s a long enough laundry list. But starting on Thursday, the real season starts. We go up to NYC (and play in the ugly 9 pm time slot) and we’ll probably get a chance at revenge against Marquette. Then Louisville. The Georgetown. Then we’ll play in the NCAA tournament.

Teams go on hot streaks and cold streaks but the great thing about sports, especially college hoops, is the fact that things can turn around in an instant. I’m not making any sort of guarantee about that, but the possibility is there. If you need any sort of proof, look at how the Florida Gators finished the regular season last year.

The season is far from over. The season is not down the drain and the sky has not fallen…at least not yet.

No doubt you’ve seen some sort of ad for this: March Madness On Demand from CBS where you can watch streaming video of games from outside of your viewing network online for free. I used it last year and enjoyed it since I don’t have any extra TV packages for the March Madness holiday. To sign up early for a “VIP pass” to avoid waiting time when the games actually roll around, go here. I don’t believe you’ll be able to watch Pitt games at work using this however due to certain restrictions. My solution: just stay home!

Also on that page is a countdown with days, hours, minutes, and seconds to Selection Sunday. Yes, I’m excited.

As expected Pitt took a tumble in the power rankings that come along. Pitt fell to the 3 seed line on ESPN.com.

Sort of Kansas Lite in the sense that Pitt looks good for awhile and then does something inexplicable, like getting smoked at home by Louisville. I expected more consistent scoring punch from Mike Cook. They need someone to help Aaron Gray.

Range of the votes from 6 to 14.

Luke Winn at SI.com drops Pitt to #14 from 8. I wouldn’t mind so much if it weren’t for the fact that he still keeps Marquette ahead of Pitt — despite what would appear from his comments to be greater concern and questions about the Golden Eagles.

Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News tries to make sense of a week of upsets and closer than expected calls for a slew of teams this week.

Is it possible it’s something like that for the guys who play the game? In the past week, we saw Pittsburgh, Texas A&M and North Carolina — three of this season’s elite teams — lose at home. And though they lost to capable opponents, they did not lose to elite opponents. Florida fell in a deep hole against an Alabama team that previously treated the road as if it were radioactive. Ohio State nearly blew a 21-point halftime lead at lowly Penn State.

It seems there is a tendency at this time of the year for the best teams to lose focus, because they know how long the year has been and because they know what’s up ahead. Texas Tech at home on a Tuesday night in February does not seem to be as big a deal as the Big 12 tournament and the NCAAs. But on that Tuesday in February, it’s bigger.

It’s comforting, but probably a little too easy.

I missed this on Monday, and that was probably for the best, but Gray got some love at SI.com.

The most attention Pitt 7-footer Aaron Gray gets comes from opposing coaches. So why isn’t the Big East preseason Player of the Year, who averages 15 points and 10 rebounds, getting the attention of other centers like, say, Greg Oden? Gray’s game may not be aesthetically pleasing, but there’s no denying he’s consistent. And so much of what he does doesn’t translate to the stat sheet. His drawing of double teams allows Ronald Ramon, Levance Fields, Antonio Graves and Sam Young to get open for threes and he gives the Panthers unparalleled experience in the paint. The knock against Gray is he can’t hit free throws (58.5 percent on the season) and he hasn’t improved to the level many expected when he turned down NBA riches to return to Pittsburgh for one final season. But on Saturday against Providence he showed the heady and dependable play that makes him so dangerous. With the Panthers trailing, Gray picked up his third foul with 16:01 to play, but coach Jamie Dixon kept Gray in the game. Gray responded with one of his most effective halves of the season. He played all but three minutes and scored 13 of his 22 points to put Pitt ahead before leaving after a hard fall with 2:37 remaining. The problem with Gray is everyone expects more and his dependable play has gone underappreciated.

Interesting observation about Dixon taking Gray out of the game with foul trouble.

Q: How much is a star player actually worth to his team?

A: To be revealed later this week. But based on the data I have, I found it interesting when Jamie Dixon went to the coaches playbook and pulled Aaron Gray after he picked up his 4th foul against Louisville last night. Sure, Pitt was down by 15 to Louisville, and the game was slipping away anyway. But there was just over 14 minutes remaining, and at that moment, Jamie Dixon conceded a loss.

Mixed feelings. I get what Pomeroy is saying. It was a conservative, safe move. But since Pitt needed him to get to the point where he would matter, there was just as much support to leave him in the game.

This is about as close as Jamie Dixon has ever come to questioning his players performance publicly.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said he still doesn’t understand why his team acted as if they hadn’t seen a zone before when Louisville zoned the Panthers in beating them Monday night at the Petersen Center. Pitt played well against Syracuse’s zone but was befuddled by Louisville. As expected, Dixon said when Derrick Caracter plays well for Louisville that changes their dynamic inside because of his ability to take away some attention from David Padgett.

I know this has been hashed, and re-hashed, but it is a good question. Maybe it was the higher level of athleticism, but Pitt really struggled to create the spacing on the court. Zones haven’t really been a big problem most of the year for Pitt.

Seth Davis at SI.com had a listing of seeds and still had Pitt as a #2 seed.

Elsewhere, I might have bumped Pitt down to a No. 3 after getting shellacked at home by a surging Louisville squad, but the teams on my three line still haven’t done enough to move up. (Marquette, which won at Pitt, would have been an easy choice if it hasn’t lost badly at Georgetown.)

And that was before Tuesday night’s activities. Not to mention on Wednesday with Marquette losing to DePaul.

For whatever it’s worth (and it is of questionable value), Dick Vitale lists some of the future great coaches of college basketball and includes Jamie Dixon in the list along with John Thompson III, Tony Bennett, Sean Sutton and Billy Gillispie.

Dixon, in his own style, has created something special with his players. His Panthers understand how to play on both ends. The only gap on the résumé is the team’s inability to get past the Sweet 16.

Something tells me this squad is ready to make a serious run this year. Pitt has a terrific combination in Levance Fields, a real creator, and the big guy in the middle in 7-foot Aaron Gray. I suspect this team will bring a smile to the Pitt cheering section known as the “Oakland Zoo.”

That would be nice.

Now when WVU comes to the Pete, no gay slurs. Get creative with the insults, but keep it classy.
I have to admit, that I was wondering what exactly the Hoopies were screaming at Aaron Gray. No one wanted to actually say it. I suppose I was expecting something relating a little more to Deliverance. You know, something about making him squeal like a pig or such. Nope not even that original apparently.

On Wednesday night, while the Mountaineers were losing to Pitt, students chanted ”Gray’s a faggot” at Aaron Gray.

Yeah, that’s effective.

I have some theories about Pitt fans and the basketball team. I don’t think Pitt fans are unreasonable, overly negative or anything like that. I’m also hesitant to speak in blanket terms — especially in the immediate aftermath of a bad loss, I generally like to give a 24-hour “getting over it” period. But after the comments here and on the message boards I have to write something. The lack of perspective sometimes gets disturbing.

I think, more and more, that Pitt fans treat the basketball season as a football season. It’s kind of natural. Pittsburgh is a football town, and it’s the mentality. Where every loss is the end of it all. All hope for significant post-season is lost. That all flaws are permanently exposed and will be exploited without doubt from here-on out. That the team is doomed to early failure — again.

The basketball season isn’t like that. There are going to be bad nights, regardless of the talent or the coach. (Hell, ask UConn. There are going to be bad years.) There are going to be nights where the shots don’t fall, the team comes out flat. The energy, somehow, someway is inexplicably lacking.
There are also going to be nights where the other team comes out and does everything right. Where they have so much more energy and their execution is flawless and the ball hits right for them.

There aren’t many teams that can do what Louisville did last night for even a little while, never mind a complete game. Louisville hadn’t done it all season. It’s a team that a week ago lost to Villanova and Georgetown — teams Pitt had previously beaten. Pitino is a Hall of Fame coach with great talent and his team lost at home to Dayton and UMass this year.

Pitt has put away WVU in Morgantown by 13. No other team has beaten the ‘Eers in Morgantown this year. Pitt has beaten DePaul in Illinois where the same Blue Demons beat Kansas, and the Jayhawks also lost to Oral Roberts. Pitt lost to Marquette who lost to ND State and fell at home to Syracuse by 12.

I know that some of the anxiety is all about the NCAA Tournament and the seeding. I understand. I was the one who got annoyed over a mock bracket and the assumptions that led Pitt to being a 3 seed. In a mock bracket. The seeding helps in getting the weaker teams to move closer to the Sweet 16 and hopefully beyond. It is also the prestige issue of seeing Pitt on the #2 or even #3 line.

Yes, I know there are bad match-ups teams that will just make things more difficult to play. Or schemes that will give Pitt problems. That will be there regardless of the seed, though.

The thing is, Pitt could still go out in the first or second round. And you know, so could just about every team listed in the top-25. The #1 seeds may almost be set in my mind, but the field is just unpredictable. This Tournament may not have a George Mason but the difference between the 2 seeds and the 9 seeds seem smaller than ever. Even the 1 seeds don’t look that far superior. It just takes one bad game, or one really spectacular game. Regardless of the talent, the system and the coach.

“We Hardly Knew Ye”

The men and women of Pittsburgh are digging up the most depressing clothes they own for tonight’s funeral and reception. The loss to Louisville last night saw the end of our chances at getting the #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

As he (or she…or it…) lay dying in a back room at the Petersen Events Center, suffering from a case of too many turnovers and sloppy play, he uttered the final words, “I hope you guys don’t kill my brother, the #2 seed, too.” Shortly after, as the game clock struck 0:00, so did the clock on his life here in Pittsburgh.

He (or she…or it…) is in much greener pastures now. Places like Pauley Pavilion, the Dean Smith Center, the Kohl Center, the O’Connell Center, and maybe even Value City Arena. We barely knew you, and we can only hope your brother leads us to the same happiness we had hoped to gain from you.

(**Que sad organ music)

The Big East has seen a few big games today with some implications for Pitt.

First was Georgetown walking all over Marquette. I have a hard time believing we can drop three games to the Golden Eagles after this game, but hey, this is the Big East. Every game is tough and every game can surprise you in some way. From a Pitt standpoint we get a little more breathing room at the top spot in the conference standings. Georgetown is one game back and Marquette is 1.5 back.

The real upset was West Virginia over Ben Howland’s Bruins. Although it was 10 am in the internal clocks of UCLA players and starting PG Darren Collison didn’t play, a loss is a loss in the eyes of the RPI–something which means a good deal to Pitt at this point.

According to ESPN InsiderRPI (subs. of course), UCLA had the #1 RPI before the loss (Pitt with the 3rd RPI) and it will be interesting to see how that shapes up once it is updated.

Should it be a choice between Pitt and UCLA for a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, our win over WVU and UCLA’s loss could both play a big part in that decision.

By the way, four weeks from tomorrow we’ll know if Pitt gets screwed again by the selection committee.

I did a post today for AOL about the NCAA letting 20 writers take a crack at putting together a mock bracket based on all the information the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee has. It really was a good idea.

Now, let me just add that I am now pissed at the writers. They put Pitt as a #3 seed. Seems Kansas and A&M were both given #2 seeds.
If I understand how it worked, in their mock-up Pitt ended up losing the Big East Tournament to Marquette (and it would appear that Pitt was swept by Marquette in the regular season). So Marquette was a #2 seed. Naturally Marquette was the lowest #2 seed and Pitt was the highest #3 seed. And since they are the same conference, Pitt got bumped lower in the brackets. Geez, even in the mock Tournament selection, Pitt gets slammed.

That said, it seems like an interesting experiment. And actually damn smart move by the NCAA.