With five teams from the Big East in the Sweet Sixteen, this seems like an ideal time to engage in a little premature Big East triumphalism. Especially after having to endure the past year of Big East football (and having to hear nothing but ess-eee-seee arrogance).

It’s a full slate of Big East bloggers representing the teams in the Sweet Sixteen to discuss this coming week. Laugh at the lesser conferences and poop on the hopes of others.

The participants include:

Mike Rutherford operator of the Card Chronicle, who is feeling a lot better about getting a haircut this time.

Sean Keeley who directs Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician (Syracuse) and knows who Devendorf has on speed dial.

Andrew Porter from UConnBlog will be explaining the magic of Jim Calhoun’s hospital visits.

Chris of I Bleed Blue and White (Villanova) who will be taking time away from stalking the Wildcats.

Come on by at about 9pm tonight. We will discuss some of the match-ups. What we are looking for in the games. Is there still cross-support amidst the Big East programs or simple hate? And plenty of other things.

I’ll be moderating, and if time allows we will take some questions. The liveblog can be found when you Click Here

Awesome. CBS is sending Bill Raftery and Verne Lundquist up to Boston to continue stalking Pitt.

The truly obsessed and early arrivers can go watch Pitt practice on Wednesday from 2:10 – 3 pm at the TD Banknorth Garden. Xavier practices at noon.

For those who wish to make the argument or ask why other teams that struggled in the first or second round do not seem to be getting the same level of grief that Pitt has gotten. It is not some perceived disrespect. It is because Pitt struggled in both rounds.

The other teams in the Sweet Sixteen that were expected to contend for a national championship and did not blow out opponents in both games: Louisville, Michigan State, Memphis, Villanova, Duke and Oklahoma. They only had struggles in one game. You can argue fair or not. And I know that most Pitt fans feared the potential  Oklahoma State match-up far more than the Tennessee one because of the press and 4-guards. That just comes off as trying to justify and make excuses.

It’s unimportant. Pitt is in the Sweet Sixteen. It would have been nice to have done it with less drama, but teams that looked stronger than expected in the first round like Dayton, Maryland, Texas A&M, Wisconsin and UCLA are no longer playing.

All that matters is winning and moving on. Pitt has done that after the first weekend.

If you saw the first half of this game, you witnessed some amazing shooting from both teams. Of course if you wanted to see that glass as half-empty, I guess you could have called it poor defense–Bill Raftery quipped that both coaches must have signed a non-aggression pact. All during that time, however, the Panthers were also collecting offensive boards in bulk. They’ve been known to do that on occasion. The hero for Jamie Dixon’s team was Sam Young, who not only scored 32 points but also snagged five offensive boards. (He even recorded three blocks.) Right now Xavier coach Sean Miller is printing up T-shirts for his team: “Don’t Go for Young’s Shot Fake.”

Heck, right now, Pitt may be the heavy favorite to win on Thursday, but it is Villanova people love. Just like others are falling over themselves to jump back on the UConn bandwagon in the West bracket. It’s a weekend of perception. Lingering impressions of domination will do that.

Those who didn’t look closely, only took note of Sam Young’s awesome 32-point showing.

“I was hot,” said Young, who was 9-for-12 from the floor, including 3-for-6 on three-pointers, in the first half. “I felt like I’d be more aggressive.”

Pitt finally got OSU to cool off in the second half, limiting the Cowboys to 33.3-percent shooting. And although others may find fault with the Panthers’ performance in Dayton, don’t count Dixon among them.

“We had to find a way to beat a very good team on a good night, and we did,” Dixon said. “And we did it with rebounding and our toughness, and the defense really stepped up in the second half.”

And there is no question that Young was the headline for the game. He deserves a lot of love. When Sam Young is in a groove, he can take over a game and the offense really can fly.

What is important for the next game, though, is how Levance Fields looked.

2. Levance Fields has regained his pre-Big East tournament groove. Since injuring himself on Mar. 7 against Connecticut, the senior point has scored just six points in each of two games. But on Sunday, he went for 13 (three more than his season average) and added nine assists.

More importantly, he says he’s back to 100 percent health. He even indulged reporters after the game by running down a checklist of potential injuries that might be — but aren’t — bothering him. The finger he jammed seconds before the first half ended against OSU? “Aw, that’s nothing,” he said. Proof of that: he came back on the following possession to drain a three-pointer with three seconds left. He also went unaffected by a mid-court collision with Moses. (More on that later.) “And the other injury,” he joked afterward, meaning the groin tweak that’s been nagging him. “Nope. Not affecting me.”

Oh, and this is great.

From courtside, Fields’ second half collision with [Marshall] Moses looked a little fishy, particularly when Young leaned to the downed point guard’s level, whispered something, and came away smiling.

Afterward, Fields revealed how the exchange had gone. “[Sam] said, ‘You’re playing it up, right?’ ‘Yeah,’ I said. I was playing it up.” He added, “Someone probably should have warned me about that [pick]. Thank goodness I’m not the smallest guy in the league.”

Heh. Probably not as funny in Stillwater.

Coach Dixon acknowledged the importance of the game forFields.

Dixon said he just now is getting healthy again. “He didn’t practice for two weeks. He just started practicing again last week. Practice is important …

“This was a big game for Levance. He needed this, needed it for his confidence. We’re a different team when he plays like that.”

Fields had nine assists and just two turnovers. He set up Young for a 3-pointer that gave Pitt a 74-72 lead, then made a layup and a killer 3 to make the score 79-74.

“My coaches and teammates really believe in me and want me to have the ball with the game on the line,” Fields said. “There’s no greater feeling than knowing that. “

Of course, some people can only watch the game and think how next year those players won’t be there (sigh).

You know one of the nice things about heading to Boston for the regional? It means an old school hoop-head sportswriter in Bob Ryan is right there. He may be a general sports columnist, but his love has always been for basketball. He was in Dayton watching Pitt.

And then there’s Fields, a senior who’s on his last Panther roundup. He knows what the stakes are, too. But it’s been a long, tough road for the tank of a point guard, what with two injuries and a lot of frustrating recent moments on the floor.

With his team trailing by 1, he got into the lane and whipped a pass to his left to fellow senior Sam Young, who had kept the Panthers afloat in a wildly exciting first half (49-49) with 23 of his 32 points. Young drilled his fourth 3-pointer of the game.

A Marshall Moses follow-up tied it at 74 for the Cowboys. Fields has been battling a pulled groin, and he only had gone to the hoop with authority perhaps twice since arriving in Dayton. But now he decided the time had come and off he went, slicing in for a pretty lefty layup, plus free throw (which he missed). But Pitt never would trail again.

Oklahoma State’s James Anderson missed a three. On the ensuing Pitt possession, a second-chance deal, Dixon called time out with five seconds left on the shot clock, and what transpired was a coach’s dream. Young passed up a good shot to give Fields a better one, and Fields nailed a right-corner three.

“Two good players making a play,” Dixon said. “We always talk about the pass making the shooter, and that pass made the play.”

…

Blair finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds, but Oklahoma State accomplished its goal of neutralizing the frightening pivot force. Confronted with a constant front and back double team, he only took one shot in the first half.

It’s a pick-your-poison strategy, of course. The Cowboys had to hope no other Panther would, you know, go off. But Young did. This is a guy who has dropped 31 on UConn and who has an almost old-fashioned game that combines good open shooting with lots of neat ball fakes leading to artful banked floaters and the like. He knows what he’s doing. He’s got a retirement party face and he really does play as if someone gave him a waiver in order to have a 10-year college career.

“I was kind of piggy-backing off my last game,” he said with a shrug. “I was feeling good and I wanted to be aggressive.”

Pitt has made its way to Boston with a C-minus/D-plus game against East Tennessee State and a B/B-minus game against Oklahoma State. The Panthers have been turning it over too much, and that has to stop. But they are coming, and Dixon is not apologizing for anything he saw in Dayton.

“If you’re still alive, you’re playing good ball,” he insists. “Any coach will tell you that. But you can always get better, and any coach will tell you that.”

Fields seemed to be finding himself — or simply getting healthier — in the Oklahoma State game.

Fields admitted he didn’t play well in the Big East tournament against West Virginia, when he had an uncharacteristic five turnovers. He also wasn’t happy with his effort in the first round against East Tennessee State, which pressed Pitt into committing 18 turnovers in the near-upset. Oklahoma State forced two straight turnovers late in Sunday’s second half by putting on a 1-3-1 press. Though only one of the miscues was assigned to Fields, he took credit for both.

“Being a leader and a point guard, I take the blame,” he said. “I’m not trying to take it to be a hero or a scapegoat. It’s just the truth. It starts with me.”

For Pittsburgh to finish past the Sweet 16, it will need more than Fields’ grit. No other No. 1 seed had as difficult a time getting out of its pod than the Panthers.

Well, yes, no excusing the performance against ETSU. Otherwise, though, aside from maybe LSU, there was no No. 8 as underseeded and playing as well as Oklahoma State has been playing. (To say nothing of being a horrible match-up nightmare for Pitt as we have been saying since the brackets were announced.)

The Panthers looked dreadful doing it, and on the heels of their first-round flameout in the Big East tournament against West Virginia — a 74-60 loss — Pittsburgh’s legitimacy as a No. 1 seed was under some scrutiny.

Not after this game.

Oklahoma State didn’t play like a No. 8 seed. Oklahoma State didn’t look like a No. 8 seed. And in reality, the Cowboys should’ve been seeded higher. Their RPI (No. 19) and strength of schedule (fifth nationally) and 8-2 record in 10 games leading to Selection Sunday all suggested the Cowboys were better than a No. 8 seed. And they were.

And they got Pittsburgh’s respect.

And now Pittsburgh has mine.

Big relief to you Pittsburgh fans, I know. Hey, great, Pittsburgh has a sportswriter’s respect. Let’s throw a party.

Good point. But after pointing out just how unimpressive Pittsburgh was Friday against ETSU, I must point out how impressive it was Sunday. And to do that, it must be made clear just how good Oklahoma State was for most of this game. The Cowboys played a nearly perfect first half, shooting 63.6 percent on two-pointers and 62.5 percent on 3-pointers and 100 percent on free throws. The Cowboys had 15 assists and four turnovers. They couldn’t have played any better.

And they were tied at 49 at the half.

That’s how good Pittsburgh was. Pittsburgh was as good as Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma State was damn near perfect.
…
Dixon tore into his team at halftime — “Man, he’s a motivator,” said DeJuan Blair — and after that, this game was Pittsburgh’s. The Panthers tightened up their defense and controlled the backboard, outrebounding Oklahoma State 41-21 for the game.

Not that Coach Dixon even admitted ripping into his team at the half.

Jamie Dixon’s locker-room message at halftime Sunday was a mixture of realism and optimism.

“I just said, ‘They’re not going to shoot it that well in the second half,’ ” the Pitt basketball coach said. “Maybe that was wishful thinking, but it did turn out that way.”

It hasn’t been pretty. The team knows they haven’t been as good.

“Right now, we’re not playing on all cylinders,” Fields said. “We’ve got to do better when we have leads. We took our foot off their throat today and they made plays. The thing that stands out for me is the turnovers. We had 18 in the first game, 14 today. We average about 10. But we did exactly what we needed to win, cut down on the turnovers, and outrebounded them by 20.”

Pitt outrebounded Oklahoma State 41-21 and collected 21 points on second-chance baskets. “Our guys were scrapping and clawing and doing everything possible. It’s just that we would go up 10 feet and DeJuan Blair and Sam Young would go up 11,” Cowboys coach Travis Ford said.

Young led Pitt with 32 points and eight rebounds. Blair, a 6-7, 265-pound sophomore, had 10 points and 12 rebounds, but scored just one point in the first half and was never the overwhelming factor he was against East Tennessee State, when he had 27 points and 16 rebounds.

At least Blair was in one piece after Oklahoma State point guard Bryon Eaton stumbled on a drive in the first half and crashed his shoulder into Blair’s leg. “It was a little stinger,” Blair said. “It was hurting. I was scared for a minute. But I had to jump up so everybody wouldn’t be worried. Then, I went to the back and I was aching. It was hurting. But I got stretched back there and it was all right. I’m just going to ice it and hopefully it will be better.”

Over on the Oklahoma State side of this, it was that they did not keep shooting 63% on threes in the second half.

Before Sunday, the school record for 3-pointers in an NCAA Tournament game was 10, set in a 2005 Sweet Sixteen loss to Arizona.

OSU matched the record by making 10 in the first half against a Pitt team that prides itself on defense.

But the season is over because Cowboy shooters committed the sin of cooling off.

OSU, which was 17-of-27 from the field and 10-of-16 from 3-point range in the first half, shot 9-of-27 from the field and 2-of-12 from 3-point range after halftime.

“I wish we could have kept hitting like we were in the first half,” OSU senior guard Terrel Harris said.

Maybe it was a bad omen for the Cowboys that the score was tied at halftime, never mind that they couldn’t miss and never mind that Pitt center DeJuan Blair had only one point.

We all make the comments of living by the three and dying by the three with a team like OSU. Beyond simply the Cowboys regressing towards their averages, the three by Levance Fields to tie the game before the half was as big a dagger 3 as anything.

You want cheap symbolism? I got your cheap symbolism right here.

Like most of the games played here this weekend, the Panthers and Cowboys filled 40 minutes with collisions, drama and swings of momentum and emotion.

Point guard Levance Fields sealed Pitt’s victory with a step-back 3-pointer from the right corner, a shot after which he stepped back too far and stumbled into a table.

The shot and stumble epitomized the Panthers’ play here this past weekend. It was neither graceful nor dominating, but it was effective enough for the Panthers to advance. After beating Oklahoma State, 84-76, top-seeded Pitt will face No. 4 seed Xavier on Thursday.

Fields acknowledged the obvious when he was asked if the Panthers were clicking in all aspects of their game. “Right now, we’re not,” he said. “But it’s about finding ways to win. We had two tough games, but we found a way to win.”

The lack of winning pretty is a theme.

Here’s the positive spin on that. When Pitt has had the letdowns this year, it seems to come right after big dominating wins. Where they totally dominated and everyone was singing the teams praises. That is not happening. Pitt is doing enough. There are still plenty of doubts and questions.

That makes it that much harder to start buying the press clippings and hopefully will make the team keep pushing.

More later

Thank goodness Pitt and Xavier played on Sunday and get to play at 7:27 on Thursday night. It means only a few days of the most obvious storyline between all the Sweet 16 teams.

You may have heard something about it. Apparently Sean Miller used to be a point guard at Pitt in the late 8os. He was pretty good and played on some pretty good teams that underachieved like no body’s business — though still fondly remembered. Oh, and he’s a Western PA native and the son of a longtime, successful high school coach in the area. At least that’s what I’ve heard.

Of course, these days Sean Miller is one of the top “young” coaches. Actually what he is is one of the better coaches not coaching at a BCS program. And therefore, atop the list of speculation every year when openings come. Last year it was Indiana and Oklahoma State in the rumor mill for him.

This year it’s Alabama, Virginia, Georgia, Arizona and maybe Kentucky.

Of course, Pitt coach Jamie Dixon has often been the subject of rumors for other programs coming after him — this year it is Arizona. That always fuels the speculation that Pitt would “bring Sean Miller home.”

That, and the always annoying segment of the Pitt fanbase, that feels it is most important that Pitt have a “Pitt guy” and a guy from Pittsburgh who “gets it.” The ones that have that touch of xenophobia.

So, yeah, for the last several years the two coaches have been interwtined in coaching speculation.

Now, they finally face each other in the Sweet Sixteen game.

Where Pitt is trying to do what no Pitt team has ever done.

Yeah, good thing there’s a relative short turn-around this week.

One of those days. The laptop abruptly has decided it might want to die on me. Now my satellite is in reset mode.

Clearly my mistake is that I haven’t been drinking enough.

It’s a good thing I don’t believe in omens or anything.

So we’ll see if I can get everthing up and running in time.

UPDATE:

Okay. Things are looking up. The laptop fired back up, shortly after halftime of the Syracuse-ASU game. Satellite is fine. All is well. At least as long as nothing goes wrong with the Mega March Madness feed.

Let’s do a liveblog. The fun will start around 2:45 pm.

You can find the link by Clicking Here.

That game. When I got up this morning, I really had trouble believing the game went that way. That perhaps all the basketball I’ve been watching for the last couple days, and indeed the past couple weeks, had thrown me off in short term memory. Then I had my morning coffee and it all came flooding back.

In something that should surprise no one, Coach Dixon refused to publicly say anything negative. Even saying the sort of things that are patently ridiculous.

Dixon spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to put a positive spin on the win, bragging up East Tennessee State as if it were UCLA of the ’70s. “There’s no way this team is a 16 seed.” He took it to such an absurd level that he actually said, “This game went exactly how I thought it would.”

Honest to goodness, Dixon said that.

I guess it beats telling the truth and saying, “You know, we really stunk today.”

Anyone who has followed Pitt basketball and paid attention to Coach Dixon over the years can only shrug. It is always more of a stunner when he says anything that remotely looks like a public criticism of his team. That has never been his approach and anyone who expects otherwise is deluded.

That’s not to say he won’t be all over the team behind closed doors and in practice for that effort. It’s just that Dixon is not going to kill his players to the media. He’ll defend them. Protect them and take the hits for saying the insane things.

He won’t ignore some things that they did wrong.

“We just came in looking to hit the glass hard,” senior forward Greg Hamlin said. “We heard they weren’t a very good defensive rebounding team, so we just tried to attack the glass and get second chances.”

Pitt only had nine offensive rebounds, seven by Blair. All 13 of Sam Young’s rebounds came on the defensive end.

Dixon said Pitt’s effort — which comes one game after WVU outrebounded Pitt in the Big East quarterfinals — was unacceptable.

“The rebounding concerns me,” he said. “That’s our strength. We’ve got to get that done.”

The one thing Dixon did acknowledge — sort of — is that Levance Fields still is not right.

To be blunt, Fields hasn’t been the same player since injuring his groin against Connecticut in the final regular season game. After recording 10 points and 12 assists with two turnovers against UConn, Fields has totaled 12 points and 12 assists with eight turnovers in his past two games.

“Obviously, we’d like Levance to have been healthy the last couple of weeks, but that’s not the case,” Dixon said. “We’re trying to play through it. But the longer we go, the better he’ll feel. He felt better (yesterday) than he did last week.”

Right now, Fields won’t say that there is a problem. With his groin or anything.

“No [team] is a pushover in the tournament,” Fields said. “Unfortunately, we happened to be the No. 1 seed that had a scare. People will say this and that, but Pitt will be playing on Sunday. It’s the tournament. We have to play better as a collective group, but our stars stepped up today, and that’s what you need in games like that. We survived. That’s the biggest thing.”

Actually, it was really only one star that stepped up yesterday. DeJuan Blair carried the team for major stretches.

“I’m hungry,” he said. “Feed me.”

It wasn’t his stomach that was growling. It was his pride. His team looked sloppy and disinterested, and East Tennessee State wasn’t going away.

So, the Grizzly Blair ate.

Blair, playing in his third NCAA Tournament game, lifted top-seeded Pitt past a first-round scare, beating ETSU, 72-62, on Friday afternoon in an East Region game at UD Arena.

The first-team All-America sophomore center finished with 27 points and 16 rebounds, outmuscling the Atlantic Sun Conference champion.

“Either you ride or you get run over,” Blair said. “I’m not getting run over.”

Blair tied the most points by a Pitt player in an NCAA Tournament game in the past 21 years. Only one Pitt player — Jerome Lane — has ever had more rebounds in a tournament game.

Ashton Gibbs came up with timely plays off the bench.

Gibbs scored 10 points, including some clutch shots down the stretch when the game was still in doubt. Gibbs boosted the lead to eight with a 3-pointer with 1:14 remaining and 21 seconds later sank two free throws after East Tennessee State cut the lead to six.

“It feels good,” Gibbs said. “Last year I was trying to skip class just to watch the tournament. It’s a great feeling to contribute in a positive way.”

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon played Gibbs 18 minutes because starting shooting guard Jermaine Dixon was in foul trouble and ineffective for most of the game. Gibbs was 2 for 2 from the field — both 3-pointers — and 4 for 4 from the free-throw line.

“He played very well,” Jamie Dixon said. “I think it was a couple of things. First of all, Jermaine was in some foul trouble and was a little banged up. Gilbert [Brown] has been a little banged up. We went with [Gibbs]. He’s a very good freshman, a very good player, and he made big plays throughout. We have a lot of confidence in Ashton Gibbs.”

At least a couple players acknowledged the poor effort.

At least until the final few minutes, the Panthers lacked the necessary will and wont to win a national title. On offense, they stood still instead or working for shots. On defense, they idly watched East Tennessee State, a team which couldn’t compete with Pitt’s size, get 20 offensive rebounds.

Clearly, this game was about the size of the player’s hearts. And the Panthers’ hearts didn’t appear to be in this one.

“They definitely out-hustled us,” Pitt guard Jermaine Dixon said. “We did more watching than we did boxing out. They got their hands on every ball.”

“They wanted it more than us,” teammate Brad Wanamaker said.

The Panthers weren’t the first No. 1 seed to overlook their first-round opponent, and they won’t be the last. But with the margin of their lead an eyelash away from being a single point at halftime _ a bucket by ETSU’s Mike Smith at halftime was reviewed and nullified _ one would have expected more urgency in the second half.

That is probably the thing that has most fans frustrated. The continued lack of effort in the second half.

It’s one thing for it to happen in the first half. That is almost understandable. It happens a lot, and Pitt has played more than a few games where the full effort seemed lacking in the first half. But then, Pitt would come storming out to sieze control of the game in the second half.

That didn’t happen in this game and that, more than anything else, fuels Pitt fan frustration and punditry letting loose with this sort of thing.

We’re going to go ahead and call this the worst any top seed has played in a first-round game, ever. Feel free to challenge that assertion, but the East Tennessee State Bucs shot 30.7 percent from the field, made just 4-of-22 from 3-point range, missed half of their free throws and still nearly became the first No. 16 seed to knock off a No. 1.

Others have come closer: Western Carolina against Purdue in 1996, Princeton against Georgetown in 1989. This game will not become part of NCAA folklore. Pitt wound up beating ETSU by double digits, 72-62. Folks arriving home from work Friday afternoon might have done no more than lift an eyebrow at that margin, but those watching on television – and especially those filling UD Arena – know just what they saw.

And of course, fuels the general feeling that someday a No. 16 will beat a No. 1. Thankfully it was not yesterday.

Hopefully what they read after the ETSU game will have an impact. Frankly, if I’m Coach Dixon, I scatter these throughout their locker room. I slip them under their doors tonight. Let them read some of this.

Your bracket is screwed. Yes, you. Because you picked Pittsburgh to win the East Regional, and maybe even to beat someone in the Final Four. Hell, maybe you got really ambitious and picked the Panthers, who did after all look so dominant in the almighty Big East this season, to win the whole 2009 NCAA tournament.

Well, you’re screwed. Your bracket is screwed. Because this Pittsburgh team was lucky to beat 16th-seeded East Tennessee State in the first round on Friday. Pittsburgh won 72-62, but the margin was that comfortable only in the final seconds. It was a one-possession game in the final 2½ minutes, and if ETSU could shoot at all — a weakness I highlighted Thursday after watching its dreadful shooting in practice — the Bucs would have beaten Pittsburgh.

By 20.

Pittsburgh was that bad Friday, which means your bracket is that screwed. Don’t be mad at me. Be mad at Pittsburgh, which was constructed by Jamie Scheyer-Face, er, Jamie Dixon, who coached Friday with more intensity than any of his players showed. Or any two of his players showed. Or any five of them.

Let them know the doubts aren’t just back for one game. They are questioning Pitt’s heart. They are questioning the team’s fire and if they can show up for more than one big game. Make them get that chip be about sustained quality. Not just one game.

Whether Pitt is actually favored on Sunday against Oklahoma State, it will become a trendy “upset” pick.

In describing the ETSU game, Pitt center DeJuan Blair described his team’s offense as one that’s not going to blow anyone out. They average 78 points per game. “We’re the type of team that likes to slow the game down and let the game come to us.” How well that plays against OSU remains to be seen. The Cowboys proved earlier in the day in Dayton that they can run with just about anyone, taking their up-tempo game against a more rigid offense, Tennessee’s, with a solid center presence. OSU, on the season, drops an average of 81.

The Cowboys will go right at Blair, attacking him with backdoors and pick-and-rolls to the basket, as they did against Tennessee. With any luck, they’ll lure him into foul trouble. But even if Blair keeps out of trouble (as he did against ETSU) and repeats his solid first-round effort (16 boards; 27 points on 10 of 17 shooting), he’ll need some serious assistance from his guards, who weren’t up to the task today. Fields and Jermaine Dixon combined for just six points.

“We know how good we are, but we didn’t show it today,” Fields said. “We weren’t rattled by [ETSU] or anything. We just have to execute much better next game.” Or else.

Sure.

There’s no way this is a No. 16 seed,” Dixon said of ETSU. “I watched them play.”

Fine, maybe ETSU is not a #16 seed. Even if they are a #13 seed, Pitt should not have struggled like this.  We’ve seen this Pitt team play all season. They are capable of so much more — if they want to.

I realize after a performance like that, it is hard to be optimistic. I am not even pretending to be optimistic. All I can say, is that we won. Just like Memphis survived yesterday. Like No. 1 UConn did against No. 16 Albany in 2006. At least Pitt never trailed in the second half.

It also means that there is little chance that Pitt thinks it can cruise.  There’s also this. I think back to the way Pitt blew out teams with ease the last two years then struggling and not doing as well in the second round — losing twice and needing OT to win. That’s the best I can do.

Levance Fields said this yesterday when meeting the media.

“Our goal is to survive and advance,” Fields said

In that respect Pitt did what they needed.

18, 19, 20 turnovers. Whenever the final stats come out it won’t be pretty. Lousy passing and players not coming to the ball. Not showing the energy expected or needed. It came down to Pitt’s superior talent being enough and ETSU really being a poor shooting team.

I guess, for us. Vent now. Get it out of the system. Go with the self-pity. Run with the venom and negativity. There’s a 24-hour period for this. Then just let it go.

Okay, here’s a link to another place that is streaming the game.

I have to help work the liveblog of all NCAA action over at FanHouse. Feel free to stop on by.

Lots of links to put out for Pitt.

Pitt has accomplished more than credited this decade.

A puff piece on how far Coach Dixon has come, and he’s now more intense.

Fear of being the first #1 seed to fall to a #16 seed is always present.

ETSU comes with dreams of being the first.

ETSU will try to press. Somehow I don’t think it will be the same as Louisville’s or Villanova. Or even Seton Hall’s.

Human interest story on ETSU’s Kevin Tiggs.

Is Dayton a hot ticket with both #1 seeded Pitt and Louisville? Or because Ohio State is playing there? Or is it less so, because Dayton is playing in Minneapolis today?

How do you do a story that talks about stats and psychology for Pitt in the NCAA Tournament without that many numbers?

Is Pitt already too tight for the NCAA Tournament or merely all business.

Pittsburgh had its news media availability midmorning Thursday, and the Panthers presented a serious and stoic public face.

Guard Levance Fields closed his eyes for a minute or two at the podium, as if meditating, while taking questions. Forward Sam Young did not crack a smile. And in the locker room, the rest of the Panthers were mostly quiet, watching other tournament games on television. All business, on the Pitt end.

“Our goal is to survive and advance,” Fields said.

Louisville, meanwhile, met the news media on Thursday afternoon. The Cardinals were all smiles, loose and full of laughter. In the locker room, guard Edgar Sosa took over for a local television station, posing questions to his teammates while others howled in the background. The Sosa Show, he called it. Funny business, for the Cardinals.

I guess it depends on whether Pitt succeeds.

A puff piece on Levance Fields. And another piece that happens to bring up that the court is the same place where he broke his foot. Also mentions again how serious Pitt is about the whole thing.

They hope to change that this year, in large part by not overlooking their early opponents. In fact, when a reporter here asked if they would be watching Louisville, another No. 1 seed from the Big East Conference who is playing the first two rounds here, forward Sam Young cut off the question before it was finished with a hearty “No.”

“We’re way too mature to make that foolish mistake again,” he said, noting that Pittsburgh did that last year and in this month’s Big East tournament. “A lot of times when you get a high seed, you look too far ahead.”

Finally, senior Tyrell Biggs gets a little love in USA Today.

Shh. Make sure Pitt players don’t read this. They don’t need to feel too cocky.

How can ETSU score on Pittsburgh if it can’t even score on itself?

I just sat through the ETSU practice, where the Bucs ran up and down the court in a series of 4-on-3, 3-on-2, and even 2-on-1 scoring opportunities. And the Bucs couldn’t score. Almost ever.

Don’t get the wrong idea. ETSU doesn’t appear to have a great defense. The Bucs simply couldn’t make a shot. Mike Smith, their No. 2 scorer at 15.5 ppg, was particularly atrocious. Granted, this was practice. And maybe the Bucs are nervous. But the arena is empty and the television cameras are turned off and the players on defense are teammates, not killers from Pittsburgh.

If ETSU is nervous now … ETSU is in big trouble on Friday.

Basketball Prospectus has their log5 probability chart as to who comes out of the East. Take it for whatever it’s worth. In the same breath, they do capsules of each team.

Hopefully Pitt coaches and players are taking it one game at a time. Everyone else is already looking longer at Pitt as a storyline.

Pittsburgh: DeJuan Blair raises them from an OK defensive team to a good one, so any time he goes to the bench with foul trouble, bad things can happen. That’s the biggest reason to worry about their chances, because they need Blair to avoid foul trouble for six straight games to win the title. Their ridiculously efficient offense is also keyed by Blair, who recovers nearly one in four of their missed shots. All the Sam Young in the world won’t save them in the game Blair plays 19 minutes.

They also hit on Oklahoma State and give them a “punchers chance” against Pitt should they meet.

Not that Pitt is likely to play zone to protect Blair.

4. Can Pitt finally get past the Sweet 16?

During this decade, Pittsburgh has elbowed its way to the top of the college basketball hierarchy, only to tumble down the mountain — often earlier than expected — in the tournament. Since 2002, the Panthers have been seeded third, second, third, ninth, fifth, third and fourth, yet they have never advanced past the Sweet 16. Five times they’ve been eliminated by a lower-seeded team, most notably in 2006 when 13th-seed Bradley beat No. 4 Pitt in the second round.

This year should be different. The Panthers received a No. 1 seed for the first time, giving them the most favorable draw they’ve ever had. More significant, the Panthers rank second nationally in rebound differential and 10th in field-goal percentage. Don’t expect a Pitt stop anywhere short of the Elite Eight.

It’s the same theme here and  here.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon doesn’t shy away from the obvious: For the Panthers to be taken seriously as one of the premier programs nationally, getting to a Final Four usually helps promote the premise.

Assuming Dixon stays at Pitt, and there’s no reason why he won’t, the Panthers will have other opportunities to advance. But during Dixon’s career he has never had the pieces in place the way he does this March.

…

Pitt won’t be considered a lesser program if it bows out early, but this is Pitt’s best shot to alter its image to the mainstream fan. A major difference this season is the Panthers are a No. 1 seed. That provides them the better opportunity to at least get to the Sweet 16. Beating Oklahoma State or Tennessee won’t be a walk since both are capable of running past the Panthers. But Pitt should be favored to get at least through the second round, where it could have a rematch with Florida State, a team the Panthers already beat earlier this season. The Panthers haven’t been to the Elite Eight since 1974.

No pressure or anything.

If you feel like talking or commenting on the NCAA Tournament games, go right ahead.

There’s also the Real Sports story on Coach Dixon. I haven’t seen it because, well, I don’t have HBO. It was movie channels or a sportspack. Obviously, I went with sports. Hopefully it will be posted to that site in due time.

Gary McGhee gets a lot of abuse from the fans for not developing as much as hoped/expected in his sophomore year. Some actively rooting for him to transfer. Still, even McGhee gets love back home. He says all the right things (and yes, I know the story writer took some liberties with, well, reality).

“I’m having a great time,” McGhee said on a borrowed cell phone as he passed through security. “We have a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. It’s a great experience.”

The 6-foot-10, 250-pound sophomore and Highland grad is averaging 1.3 points and 1.7 rebounds in seven minutes per game. He’s valuable for his defense, rebounding and ability to spell All-American DeJuan Blair off the bench.

McGhee said practicing against Blair each day has helped improve his game.

“He makes me better every day,” McGhee said.

Steady improvement has been the hallmark of McGhee’s career. He grew from a somewhat pudgy 6-foot-7, 255-pound freshman at Highland into the man mountain he is today.

He averaged 20.6 points, 11.6 rebounds and 4.2 blocks during his senior season with the Scots. That was enough to earn him 2007 Herald Bulletin Player of the Year honors.

His playing time has been sparse thus far at Pitt, but he could see time Friday.

“I hope I get out there,” he said. “I’m just going to work as hard as I can and help out my teammates.”

He’s got the cliches, down pat.

Levance Fields gets a full backstory piece from SI.com. It’s a little surprising. We get the full bits on Sam Young and DeJuan Blair, but Fields has never gotten the full puff piece for anything other than his game.

The neighborhood still tugged at Fields, though. One night, Xaverian president Sal Ferrera drove Fields home, but when he reached the student’s block, Fields would not get out. Drug dealers were standing on the corner. They wanted the hoops star to sell for them. “He had options,” said Ferrara, who arranged for Fields to live with a teammate’s family for two weeks. “He made the right choice.”

On the court, Fields also struggled. When Alesi sat his star player for three games, the coach said publicly Fields had caught the flu after a middling stretch, but, in reality, it was a cover. “He was suffering from the disease of ‘me’,” Alesi said.

Adds Fields: “I was being kind of a cancer to my teammates.”

The message clearly resonated with Fields. The Clippers, who were 12-11 before Fields sat, won all three games without him and parlayed Alesi’s gamble into city and state titles with Fields directing the team. “Great players have his selfishness,” Alesi said. “He had to gain composure.”

There were things Fields needed to learn when he went to Pitt. At the Panthers’ first weight-lifting session, Biggs, Fields’ roommate, noticed the stocky guard struggling through bench presses. Asking if he was OK, Fields reassured him, but then disappeared. Searching for him, Biggs saw vomit on a backroom door and then happened upon Fields throwing up into a bathroom toilet. “He’s hit the iron hard ever since,” said Biggs, a chiseled forward.

Fields was also back practicing with the team before they left for Dayton.

“I practiced today the whole time and I’m feeling pretty good right now,” Fields said right before he boarded the Panthers bus to go to the airport.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said the development is excellent news for the Panthers because they’ll need a healthy Fields to make a run to the Final Four and perhaps win the national championship.

“He’s a tough player,” Dixon said. “He was out there today and looked pretty good, it is a very good sign because he seemed to be moving well and he didn’t seem be bothered much at all. We’ve had almost a week to rest it but I think the key now will be later today how it feels and how he feels once we get on the plane and later at the hotel. But it is a good sign if he’s saying he feels good now.”

The full week off may not have been intentional, but we we will go with the presumption that it will work out better with the big dance.

Their trip cut short in New York, where they routinely rule the Big East Tournament, the Panthers refreshed and rejuvenated for the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

“It (helps) more mentally than physically,” Panthers guard Jermaine Dixon said. “I mean, when we were in AAU, we’d play five or six games a day. So, it’s not that we’re tired physically.”

The mental exhaustion of a 31-game season — where 18 of those games came in the grinder of a Big East Conference that produced five of the top 12 seeds in the NCAA tournament — cannot be overrated. But for only the second time in seven seasons, the Panthers didn’t have a quicker turnaround to the NCAAs after reaching the finals of the Big East Tournament.

And of course, the usual: Blair needs to stay out of foul trouble (really? again?).

Blair has been cleaning up with being named an All-American by just about every media outlet.

Blair was named a first-team All-American yesterday by the United States Basketball Writers Association. He was joined on the first-team All-American team by Stephen Curry of Davidson, Blake Griffin of Oklahoma, Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina and James Harden of Arizona State.

It marked the first time since 1974 that a Pitt player was named a first-team All-American by the USBWA. Former Pitt great Billy Knight earned the honor that season.

He was also named 1st team All-American by Sports Illustrated, as well. Sam Young was put on the 2nd team. Levance Fields placed on 3d team — which I’m really happy to finally see something for Fields.

The regional covers for the NCAA Tournament are out. This is the one we care about:

Courtesy of Sports Illustrated

I’ll be getting the Big 11 version out here. Looks like I’ll have to ask my dad to save this one for me.