First, barring any shocks tomorrow, Pitt will be #2 and it won’t be in dispute. Pitt is off until the 11th.

The acceleration of news cycle. Bloggers and such, means that sports news orgs are now getting instant opinion stuff out on big games. There was little competition when Pitt-Georgetown was on other than Ohio St.-Minnesota or the International Bowl.

That meant quick love for Pitt.

So it’s time to cement Pitt as the Big East favorite and biggest threat to North Carolina this side of Tyler Hansbrough jumping off a house, breaking his leg and ending his career prematurely, because the Panthers were fantastic at Georgetown, grabbing nearly as many offensive rebounds (18) as the Hoyas did total rebounds (20) thanks to a 20-point, 17-board effort from sophomore DaJuan Blair.

That’s strong.

That’s convincing.

That’s why the Panthers should be the unanimous No. 2 team in the country.

And just so we’re clear, it’s not that I ever doubted Pitt, because it’s always been clear that the Panthers have a great coach (Jamie Dixon), some great experienced talent (Sam Young and Levance Fields) and a developed habit of winning. It’s just that I have trouble pushing teams to the top of the rankings when they haven’t beaten anybody of note (that, by the way, is the reason I have UCLA ranked lower than the Bruins are in both the AP and Coaches poll), and entering this weekend the Panthers were 13-0 with their best win coming by single digits over a Florida State team that had previously lost by double digits to Northwestern.

Meantime: No. 1 North Carolina had wins over Michigan State, Notre Dame and Kentucky; No. 2 Connecticut had wins over Wisconsin, Miami and Gonzaga; No. 4 Oklahoma had wins over Davidson, Purdue and Southern California; and No. 5 Duke had wins over Michigan, Purdue and Xavier.

In other words, Pitt’s resume was less impressive than the other four teams in the top five of the latest AP poll.

Before anyone starts complaining, even before the game Gary Parrish said Pitt was the #2 team in the country.

The game returned a lot of attention to Blair in the context of Pitt making a statement.

The Pittsburgh players termed their game against Georgetown a statement game, a chance to disprove those who believed the Panthers’ No. 3 ranking was built on nothing more concrete than a cloud of underachieving opponents.

The Hoyas were the perfect foil. Just five days earlier, they went into Connecticut and stomped the second-ranked Huskies. Now they were gunning for No. 3 in a building where they hadn’t lost since January 2007, a stretch of 29 consecutive games.

The Panthers got their statement, a 70-54 victory that now stands as John Thompson III’s worst home loss since the first game of his Georgetown career.

Blair provided the exclamation point. The sophomore almost single-handedly outrebounded the Hoyas, pulling down 17 boards to Georgetown’s 21, and chipped in 20 points to cement the double-double.

“Of course that inspires me,” Blair said of the lovefest that encompasses Thabeet and Monroe but never him. “I always have to show people more. It’s been that way my whole life, so I don’t really care about what people say about them. I’d rather just prove what I’m all about.”

…

“We know people were saying, ‘Yeah but who did Pitt play?'” Blair said.

When the Panthers gathered in the huddle, they actually said “statement game.”

“Yeah I heard that,” Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon said. “We didn’t bring a banner or anything along to practice but I heard them say that. We’re getting better. To me, that’s our statement.”

Of course, that also means welcoming having the target on the backs. Pitt is at the top of the Big East food chain at the moment.

After months of playing second-fiddle to Big East powers UConn and Louisville, the Panthers weren’t ready to let the Hoyas become the new talk of the town after their surprising defeat of the Huskies on Monday. Instead, Blair and his frontcourt partner and roommate Tyrell Biggs dominated the game inside, leaving the Hoyas struggling for any chance at the boards. The two combined for 34 points in the paint while Blair pulled down a Hoya-heartbreaking 18 boards.

“That’s my roommate. We’re best friends,” Blair said after deferring some of the credit to Biggs. “We’re trying to be the best frontcourt in the nation.”

And as big of a statement game for Pitt as this win was, it was also a coming out party for Blair. The sophomore said he had been concentrating on proving that along with his team being the best, he, in fact, was the premiere center in the Big East — not Uconn’s Hasheem Thabeet or Monroe, whom he had played with at the Amare Stoudemaire Skills Camp in June.

At the end of the game, it was very clearly heard the contingent of Pitt fans in the Verizon Center. In the comments, the size was put as significant. The Hoya fans were aware of it as well.

(11:54 am) There are a whole lot of Pittsburgh fans here. A bunch scattered in the lower bowl, and then practically all of the upper deck. So far, they’re louder than the Hoya fans.

…

(1:52 pm) Summers gets his season high today with those free throws. Hoyas are still down by 18, though, and the Pitt fans are getting a bit obnoxious.

Only “a bit?”

Not a surprise to be the lead at ESPN.com’s college bball page

My less homerific recap of the game is at FanHouse.

Maybe I’m just negative, but I am holding my breath to find out what the status of Gilbert Brown and his left shoulder is. Hopefully it’s just a stinger and they didn’t feel like risking anything. This and the Rutgers game, was showing how much better and confident he was feeling as he was coming back from various injuries.

It is no exaggeration to say that the only thing keeping Georgetown in the game for the first half was DaJuan Summers. 16 points on 6-9 shooting and 3-3 on threes. And he was doing that even with the defense on him. He was — as Dan Shulman put it — shooting over the defense. Not much you can do when a guy was that hot. The rest of G-town was shooting 3-18, 1-7. Well, the FT shooting helped them too. They went 8-10.

In the second half, even as Georgetown initially got closer and even, I was a little less worried. The refs were letting the teams bang a bit more inside. I was annoyed at first since Pitt was being hacked, but then it became apparent that the refs were calling it both ways, so that only helped Pitt with controlling the paint. Georgetown looked unwilling or unable to battle in the paint.

Georgetown went with the typical strategy of doing everything to keep Pitt on the perimeter. To try and deny the ball inside. The problem was that while Pitt shot poorly on 3s again, Georgetown was in no position to get rebounds. They had no answer for Blair. But Biggs, Young and plenty of Pitt players were getting right in there to grab the ball. Plus, while Pitt may not have made from outside the perimeter, the Panthers were 29-49 inside the arc.

I’m still waiting for Levance Field to come around on offense. His shot has no touch or confidence. Like those of us watching, it seems that he isn’t sure what will happen when he shoots.

It is a joy to see the light go on for players. It’s been that way for Biggs all season. For Brad Wanamaker it seems to have happened in the past couple games. He looks so comfortable coming into the line-up right now. He knows what he’s supposed to do and is embracing it. He doesn’t look intimidated out there.

Almost lost in all of this was Sam Young. He struggled a little in the first half — clearly trying to show friends and family — but was the team player he thrives as in the second half. He finished with 14 points and 8 rebounds.

Oh, and this.

Plenty of people questioning the ability of Pitt to go deep in March with their offense. Specifically the struggles on the perimeter. One exception would be Mike DeCourcy. He points out that Memphis got to the national championship game shooting nearly the same clip. Pitt at least shoots less 3s than Memphis. Which means that the team is less dependent on them or necessarily doomed if it is a cold shooting perimeter night.

But typically you can find — even in the most supportive writers — this from Fran Fraschilla (Inisder subs):

Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon: One more outside shooter
I love a lot about the Panthers, most of all their toughness. The defense and rebounding will keep them in virtually every game this season. And Dixon’s “foundation” of DeJuan Blair, Sam Young and Levance Fields rivals anyone this side of Chapel Hill. If there is an Achilles’ heel, at the moment, it is their inconsistent 34 percent outside shooting. Freshman Ashton Gibbs, who hails from the same high school as former Panthers star Brandin Knight, might be the guy who can help the most.

Or FoxSports.com’s Jeff Goodman:

Pittsburgh (12-0) — I’m not sold on the fact that Pittsburgh is the No. 3 team in the country, but the Panthers are certainly a team capable of making an Elite Eight or even a Final Four run. Jamie Dixon’s team is built around three players — point guard Levance Fields, versatile forward Sam Young and big man DeJuan Blair. Jermaine Dixon gives the Panthers a lock-down defender on the perimeter, but Pittsburgh still needs to find a consistent perimeter shooter.
Notches: Siena, Washington State, Texas Tech
Formidable Test: Jan. 3 at Georgetown
Key Question: Will the Panthers make enough perimeter shots when it matters?

I’m not saying I’m not concerned. I’m just waiting to see how things play out after the first week or two of Big East play. That’s when we’ll have a better sense of how things are really going.  Not to mention seeing the rotation really settle more.

No, seriously. They nearly knocked off Duke last year in the NCAA Tournament as a #15 seed. They are the class of the Atlantic Sun.

Belmont, which counts country music stars Lee Ann Womack, Brad Paisley and Trisha Yearwood among its graduates, is favored to win its fourth consecutive Atlantic Sun Championship. Last season, the Bruins beat a Big East school (Cincinnati) and an SEC school (Alabama), both on the road, before losing its upset bid against No. 2 seed Duke, 71-70, in Washington, D.C. in the NCAA first round.

Belmont, which went 25-9 last season, led the Blue Devils in the final minute, losing on Gerald Henderson’s coast-to-coast layup with 12 seconds to play. The effort earned the Bruins a standing ovation from the fans at the Verizon Center.

“I know how good they have been over the years,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon. “They are a very good shooting team.”

Belmont ranked fourth in Division I last season in 3-pointers made per game (10.5). The philosophy hasn’t changed this season despite the deeper 3-point line. If anything, the extra foot has helped a squad loaded with sharpshooters. In two games this season the experienced Bruins are shooting 41.1 percent from behind the arc, making 11.5 per game.

In other words, Pitt’s perimeter defense will get a test. And if they get hot from outside, it could be a rough ride.

This is the first of three games home games not to be televised. Depressing. Big props to the Pitt Athletic Department for making the video feed available on their site. Especially the FREE portion.

Pitt’s three-game PantherVision Network broadcast package will include the matchup against 2008 NCAA Tournament participant Belmont (Nov. 25), City Game rivalry against Duquesne (Dec. 3) and contest against Vermont (Dec. 6).

Internet game broadcasts will include live game action, post-game interviews, statistic graphics, score updates, live play-by-play and color commentary. John Sanders along with former Pitt basketball standout Curtis Aiken will handle play-by-play and color analyst duties respectively. Director of PantherVision Production Paul Barto will oversee production.

A link to the broadcast can be found prior to each game on the www.pittsburghpanthers.com home page, Basketball Game Day Central, and Panthers on the Air. The new Panthers All-Access platform runs on Microsoft Silverlight technology making it faster and easier to navigate.

I really have to credit the athletic department for making it free. This would have been an easy way to push the subscription to All-Access, but instead they are making it available to all.

I still think it will get picked up.

Right now, it will be shown on ESPN360.com, according to the Game Notes (PDF) press release.

Here’s the list of broadband providers that have an agreement with ESPN360.com.

If this stays untelevised, it’s just plain humiliating for the Big East.

So, I got an e-mail from a marketing firm that specializes in “digital media communications” this afternoon.  They are looking to drive traffic to Circuit City and their fall football marketing. Usually I ignore these type of e-mails since there is usually a questionable tie-in, but this one might be of interest.

Specifically a live chat with Dan Marino set for tomorrow at the Circuit City site. So if you want to go ask him about his Pitt days. Maybe what he thinks of the job Wannstedt is doing. How things went down at the end of his career with the Dolphins with Wannstedt and Johnson trying to push him out. Heck if enough Pitt fans flood the board with questions on what he thinks of what is happening at his alma mater, it definitely would shift things away from the NFL talk that is expected.

Or you can go to this thread and post a question early.

Okay, power rankings, polls and such. Stewart Mandel at SI.com starts Pitt out at #23 in his power rankings.

After watching a recent Panthers practice, I’m convinced that this is a bona fide top-25 team, with a superstar tailback (LeSean McCoy), a stud freshman receiver (Jonathan Baldwin) and a dominant D. But the O-line will keep them from rising much higher.

Last year Todd McShay at ESPN/Scouts, Inc. picked Pitt as his sleeper team from the Big East. If at first you don’t succeed…

I’m going back to the well with Pittsburgh. In fact, I like the Panthers so much they’ve become my pick to win the Big East in 2008. Coach Dave Wannstedt and his staff have recruited well the past four seasons, so the talent is in place to make a run.

Junior Bill Stull has been sharp in camp, emerging as an efficient quarterback for the pro-style scheme. As long as Stull protects the ball and makes sound decisions, RB LeSean McCoy will do the rest. McCoy rushed for 1,328 yards and 14 scores as a freshman last season. He should be even more potent with a full season of experience and a full offseason of conditioning under his belt.

MLB Scott McKillop and DE Greg Romeus anchor a defense that should again be one of the Big East’s most dominant units this fall.

The Panthers should be 4-0 heading into their October 2 showdown at South Florida. Playing Rutgers and West Virginia at home should also help them navigate through a difficult schedule down the stretch.

Not a shock that McShay is high on Pitt. He’s a player evaluator. In those terms, Pitt makes sense as his pick.

ESPN.com’s Big East writer, Brian Bennett has burning questions (there’s ointment for that) for Pitt. Three questions to be exact.

The first question is about the overall depth of the team. The final question concerns the coaching. Gee, what could the middle question concern?

2. How will the offensive line hold up?

Pitt replaces three starters from last year’s line, including NFL first-rounder Jeff Otah and fourth-round pick Mike McGlynn. Head coach Dave Wannstedt hasn’t expressed much confidence in new starting right tackle Joe Thomas so far. New offensive line coach Tony Wise, who spent the last 18 years in the NFL, needs to get this group in shape so it can block for LeSean McCoy and keep Stull upright.

Thoughts of the state of the O-line are now bordering on obsession for me. I need this season to start, just so I can see how they look for myself.

The preseason blogpoll is complete. Individual balloting by bloggers here. My ballot was here. Pitt gets little love from the college football blogosphere.

I did the visiting lecturer thing about Pitt for Every Day Should Be Saturday a couple days ago.

If you use Google Calendar I put Pitt’s football schedule out there. It includes any TV coverage. If the time is still TBA, I defaulted to 12pm. In the Google Public Calendar search, paste the following Google ID: 9cldc578j0hk5nt7jajmsskp9s@group.calendar.google.com to find it.

Heh.

Cue “Cease and Desist” letter from ESPN in 3… 2…

Finally, the Octonion returns. Just in time.

Over the weekend was the big feature on defensive coordinator Phil Bennett. Not about his defensive philosophies or the standard fare of players talking about new attitude and how much they like playing for the guy. This was the personal side with how he lost his 1st wife to being struck by lightening and the importance of work (coaching) and family kept him going.

In a rare move of actual promotions, Pitt actually sent out an e-mail yesterday promoting the story. Even more, they had links to a video of DC Bennett talking about getting the defense ready. If they actually embraced the last couple years of internet video, they’d have links to allow the embedding rather than having to launch it separately. That’s more on the CSTV system that operates the Pitt website and this stuff, though. They are still using Windows Media Player.

There’s also a video montage of the practice from Saturday. Not much to really take from it other than seeing Jonathan Baldwin make a spectacular one-handed leaping grab. He’s wearing #82, but trust me, there is no confusing his presence.

Another weekend feature was on the drudgery of players going through training camp.

It’s one that is based on precision, as every minute is accounted for during camp from the time the players awake by 6 a.m. until their 10:30 p.m. curfew. Sleep becomes a precious commodity, and the sound of the whistle an annoying way to wake up.

“I set my alarm clock one minute before and one minute after they blow the whistle,” said senior left guard C.J. Davis, in his fourth training camp. “I hate the whistle. Sometimes, it’s hard because you get out of practice and feel like you just laid down and then you hear that whistle at the crack of dawn.

“The days are long, but the nights go fast. It always feels like we don’t get enough rest. Our strength coaches say that too much of anything is not good for you, so I’ll have to take their word for it.”

…

Before they know it, they will put in a 15-hour day at Duratz Athletic Building filled with meetings, practice and more meetings.

I’m assuming there’s food.

If this sort of thing shows up on a message board, it gets little credence.

You read here earlier about the importance of Pitt F Sam Young’s being invited to work as a counselor at Nike’s Vince Carter Skills Academy so he could absorb some lessons about perimeter play as he transitions from functioning primarily as a power forward. It turned out his experience there was a smash. Observers report Young dominated the other top college wings who worked the camp.

If it shows up in the Sporting News‘ Mike DeCourcy’s tidbits, it gets a bit more. Either way, it’s the sort of thing we want to believe.

I know. His power rankings in the season always seem to suggest a slightly dour view to Pitt. Maybe there’s bias. Maybe Pitt is a team he simply won’t give as much credit towards until it has a bigger March impact. It’s also possible.

That said, he’s also been there with praise after the Big East Tournament. His pre-pre-power rankings for the upcoming year starts Pitt at #6. I happen to like Winn, since he is one of the few basketball sports writers willing to look deeper at numbers and statistical information.

So, yes, I saw his story talking about potential effects of moving the 3-point line back 1 foot for the upcoming season. In his final section it looked like Pitt got singled out as being at risk.

But the most interesting case study will be at Pittsburgh, which was seventh-worst on that list. Last season, defenses were kept honest by the shooting of junior Sam Young (38.3 percent, 44 threes) and seniors Ronald Ramon (37.2 percent, 67 threes) and Keith Benjamin (37.0 percent, 51 threes). The Panthers’ overall percentage was dragged down by the abysmal aim of point guard Levance Fields (27.7 percent, 28 threes) and Gilbert Brown (24.4 percent, 19 threes) — both of whom will likely be in the starting lineup now that Ramon and Benjamin are gone.

If defenses sag down against Fields’ penetration, and use help to double super-sophomore DeJuan Blair in the post, can Pitt make them pay? The Panthers are finding their way into plenty of preseason top 10s, but they won’t be a contender without being able to pose some semblance of a threat from beyond 20-9.

The point, though, was he was looking at numbers from NCAA Tournament teams. In that final section — those  Tourney teams that had the lowest shooting % on 3s — Pitt was not just the only preseason top-10 team for this coming season, but the only consensus pre-season top-25 team. That makes Pitt the team with that question mark. On a national level, who cares if UNLV or Georgia is going to struggle with the transition if it isn’t even a sure thing if they’ll even be in the rankings? I take it as a bit of respect and a note on the expectations that Pitt merited the discussion.

Really, even in if the line wasn’t moving back a foot, it would still be the big question mark on  the team going into the season — and a concern for Pitt fans. A literal change of guards. With Ramon and Benjamin gone. Especially Ramon. For all his struggles through injuries last season, Ramon was still the guy expected to take and be consistent on 3s. This is why there is some thought as to Ashton Gibbs coming in right away to help Pitt with that, and why the signing of Jermaine Dixon seems a little curious considering he isn’t exactly a 3-point marksman.

There’s a couple reasons I stay away from the area of recruiting news beyond linking to info from others and basic opinion. As much as we all crave the info. The scoop. The inside info. There are days when the whole thing just makes you want to take a chemical rinse to wash it all away.

Let’s face it, the whole nature of recruiting has a natural “eww” factor. We are talking borderline stalking of young, athletic boys — by multiple parties. And fans are on websites and forums obsessively tracking and going on emotional rollercoasters over their plans. I try not to think too much about that.

From highly accomplished and acclaimed coaches doing whatever it takes to convince some kid in high school to come sign, to the recruiting sites breathlessly reporting on the latest impulses of a 16-year old boy. And so much crosses each wire. The coaches and assistants feed some info to the recruiting sites to maneuver and relay info to the recruits. The recruiting sites use that info to have scoops. Everyone knows the game and plays it. I don’t want to say all sides use each other, so much as carefully share information to maximize their own interests. Even the kids at this point. They understand. Probably better than most of us.

It also means those that do write on recruiting are generally stuck with info that comes off as vague unless it comes from the kids, the family or the high school/AAU coaches. College coaches and the assistants aren’t allowed to talk on the record about recruits. That’s an NCAA no-no. So anything gleaned from sources within an athletic department have to be protected. It can’t come back, which requires a certain nebulous quality in conveying that side of the info.

On the academic issues, there’s a lot of problems in tracking that. There are privacy/verification issues of the student. Plus, these things are fluid. Heck, I posted on FanHouse about how Arizona commit Brandon Jennings has not yet academically qualified. It doesn’t mean he won’t get qualified. But right now, he hasn’t. It has an impact on how early a commit can get on campus and people want to know. So even if ultimately it comes to nothing, it gets reported at that moment.

The Pitt women’s basketball team beat 11th seeded Wyoming on Saturday 63-58 to advance to the second round against 3rd see ded Baylor. They advanced this far last year but Candace Parker from Tennessee rolled right over them on their way to an NCAA title.

Baylor (25-6) limped into the tournament with three straight losses — its first three-game skid since the 2000-01 season. The Bears’ struggles were largely due to inexperience and a lack of healthy bodies. They have just one senior on the roster and haven’t played more than seven players in any game since beating Oklahoma on Feb. 17.

That one senior, however, made a big difference on Saturday, when Tisdale had 26 points and six assists in Baylor’s 88-67 first-round victory over Fresno State. “She’s the key to our offense,” junior forward Rachel Allison said of Tisdale, averaging 24.4 points in her last five games. [ESPN preview]

If they are able to beat Baylor tonight, it would be the first Sweet 16 appearance in program history. Game time is set for 7pm on ESPN2.

Women’s basketball was once a strong point of Penn State athletics, but now we have that. At least they can always fall back on their 12 NCAA men’s gymnastics championships.

And holy hell does ESPN have a lot invested in this tournament or what. After CBS picked up the exclusive rights to every game of the men’s tourney, ESPN swooped in for the women’s. I’m willing to bet if they didn’t have the women’s tournament on their networks they wouldn’t have as much of their website dedicated to the women as they do the men. Just sayin’.

Congrats to coach Agnus Berenato for putting the Pitt women’s team on the map when they weren’t relevant even two years ago. Back-to-back tourney appearances is a big deal.

This is more for posterity. The win is over. Time to focus on the next game.
I guess Tim Higgins can take solace in the fact that fans of every Big East team hate him. He probably feels that means he is doing his job well and fairly. That’s the interesting thing from the Marquette perspective. Jerel McNeal was nearly run by Higgins.

This time, it appeared as though he ejected McNeal from the game as McNeal was seated on the bench. Higgins stopped play, walked over to the scorer’s table, then walked down the sideline and stopped in front of McNeal and twice gestured with his arm as though he was kicking him out.

McNeal and Crean appeared stunned. Then Higgins, perhaps realizing the storm of controversy that doubtless would have surrounded such a move, appeared to change his mind and allowed McNeal to stay, instead warning the bench area to keep quiet.

(Rosiak questioned some of the fouls called on McNeal, including a little bump on Young as he drove. Conveniently ignoring that they called similar fouls on Pitt. Not wild about the officiating, but it was bad both ways.) That was where McNeal seemed to lose his mind on the bench. It does seem that McNeal was going a little beyond emotional at that point.

Tim Higgins went over to the Golden Eagles’ bench and gave a stern verbal warning to McNeal, who had been jumping up and down and screaming profanity in protest of a call. It appeared as if Higgins ejected McNeal, as he pointed to the locker room, but McNeal returned to the game a few minutes later.

As has happened so many times recently in the Big East tournament semifinals, Pittsburgh left an opponent frustrated and on the wrong side of the scoreboard.

As another paper put it, McNeal spent much of the game chewing his fingernails from the bench.

Sure enough, the moral victory stuff I mentioned at the end of last night was a theme for Marquette after the game. I understand and they should go with that. Heck if it had been Pitt in that situation, we know Dixon would have spun it that way, but it is a touch predictable.

In a game that had a lot in it, it’s a bit of a shame that Tyrell Biggs got shorted in the local papers for his contributions. Biggs gave Pitt 31 minutes for a foul-plagued DeJuan Blair. He provided 6 points on 50% shooting and 8 rebounds. He had a block and only 1 turnover. He stepped up for Pitt in the game. I suppose it makes some sense. Both recaps were essentially game recaps. As newspapers, they had deadlines and the lateness of the game meant the newspaper beat writers were up against it — which also explains the minimal amount of quotes in the stories. Even the post-game pressers had to be limited in what they could use.

Eric Hall at the Beaver County Times, though, did work Biggs into his recap.

Consider where these Panthers (25-9) stood after a punishing loss at West Virginia two weeks ago. The Panthers just wrapped up their fourth loss in six games. Hope was disappearing. The players appeared disconnected. They weren’t playing together.

Consider that the hero of Thursday’s win was Gilbert Brown, the redshirt freshman with the unusual shooting stroke and some questionable decisions. He played 36 minutes against Louisville, many more than his career high.

Consider that the hero of Friday’s game was Tyrell Biggs, an inconsistent player who has never delivered on potential that had him on Duke’s wish list. But Biggs played in foul-ridden DeJuan Blair’s stead, 31 minutes worth of rebounding (he had eight) and good defense.

Consider that only once in the history of this event had a team won the night after winning a game in overtime. But the Panthers broke out to a 16-4 lead and never trailed.

Consider that Sam Young, the volatile member of this team, evolved into a leader and has scored at least 21 points in all three games this week. On Friday, he had a game-best 22.

“There’s something about the Garden,” said point guard Levance Fields, who reclaimed his leadership role after a tenuous return from an ankle injury. “Special things happen.”

Revenge always feels good.

“Oh man, we really wanted to get back at them after that,” said Pitt swingman Gilbert Brown. “We came out flat that game. They took a big lead early in the second half and started celebrating. I mean, (Marquette guard David) Cubillan was actually dancing to the crowd.

“We kept that mind.”

Last year was a revenge tour for Pitt with Marquette and Louisville. So was this year. Now it’s time — hopefully — for revenge on G-town for last year.

Because the Panthers will remember:

A 26.2 percent shooting night (16-61) to set a tournament record for fewest points in a 65-42 loss.

The Hoyas celebrating their first Big East tournament championship in 18 years.

John Thompson III clearing his bench with 11/2 minutes left.

Patrick Ewing Jr. giving his old man a hug and handing him a Big East championship cap.

Roy Hibbert scoring 14 of his 18 points (with 11 rebounds) in the first half and dominating shell-shocked Pitt center Aaron Gray.

There’s fatigue factor with Pitt’s short bench, but you can’t argue with the results.

There’s a lot of focus on Levance Fields now returned and fully integrated within the team again.

It’s no coincidence that Pitt is making this surge at the same time he’s rounding into the form that made him the team’s best player before his injury.

“A lot of people thought it was going to be easy to come back and be ready to go right away,” Dixon said. “Even Levance probably thought it was going to be easier than it was …

“I thought it would take us two weeks for him to get into it, us getting used to him and him just getting his legs and getting knocked down a few times. So I think I just kept encouraging him. I think there was some frustration at times with Levance, but he got through it and our guys have confidence in him.

“We’re where we wanted to be right now.”

Fields still isn’t shooting well. He made 3 of 10 shots last night and is an abysmal 8 for 31 in the tournament.

Still, there’s no one on the Pitt team that you want to have the ball in his hands late in a game more than Fields. It’s his confidence that his next shot is going in.

Mandel at SI.com likes what he has seen as Pitt has gotten healthy with Fields back.

Suddenly, they’re one more win from doing it again — and they’re almost certainly headed for a higher seed in the NCAA tournament (No. 5?) than they had in their own conference tourney.

“I don’t think anybody really knew what to make of our team with all the injuries,” said Dixon. “This is a team that had to change in midstream three, four times.”

One of the biggest, if unnoticed impact of the injuries came not in games, but in practices, where for much of the season Pittsburgh has flat-out lacked the bodies to go full-throttle. Dixon said that Fields only began practicing again the week leading up to their regular-season finale against DePaul.

As they’ve begun to return to their more customary, “rugged” practice style, there’s been a noticeable improvement in their defensive performances. The last time the Panthers faced the Cardinals, a 75-73 home loss on Feb. 24, Louisville shot 57 percent; on Thursday night, they hit just 37 percent.

“Practice is where it starts,” said guard Ronald Ramon. “We weren’t able to go after each other, do the ‘aggressive drills,’ as we call them. But now that guys are healthy, we’re able to go five-on-five, get after it. Now when we go on the court and play games, the chemistry’s there.”

Even Luke Winn is giving Pitt a shot.

If Pitt can knock off Georgetown tonight — a scenario that seems entirely plausible — the Panthers have a legitimate case for a No. 5 seed. They were considered an 8 or a 9 heading into this week, but they’re making a push based on these facts:

• Momentum. Winning seven of its final eight regular-season games, with two of those victories coming over Louisville and Georgetown, would make Pitt look rather attractive in the eyes of the selection committee.

• The Negative Momentum of Current Fives. Vanderbilt (with its opening-round loss to Arkansas in the SEC tournament) and Indiana (which lost a stunner to Minnesota on Saturday) are slumping into the dance, and neither team has much of a non-conference resume. Whereas Pitt has a win over Duke.

• The Levance Fields Argument. The Panthers only have two bad losses on their resume — at Cincinnati on Jan. 19 and against Rutgers on Jan. 26. Both of those happened while Fields was hurt. There’s no doubt the selection committee will take this into consideration.

Everyone has been focused on the chaos of the bubble. Arguably, seeding will be a bigger mess. Seeds for lines 3 through 7 are incredibly unclear to me. That’s going to be the big talk coming out of selection Sunday. Not the bubble teams that got screwed, considering how badly so many of them did at the end to hardly make the case. The stories will be about what the selection committee was thinking when they seeded the teams.

To recap, Pitt loves playing at MSG. While it is unprecedented in Big East history for one team to play in the BET Championship game 7 times in 8 seasons, the fact that Pitt has only won it once is still an issue.

Given the way that Pittsburgh wins at the Garden every March, it’s understandable that people say the Panthers own the Big East Tournament. But really, it’s more like a lease. Pitt is always giving it back on the final night.

Georgetown has looked very good, but it turns out John Thompson III is a superstitious one.

In case you didn’t see Gateway HS’s Shayne Hale choose the Pitt hat during the Army All-American Game.

NBCSports.com Video Link

It should also be noted that WR Jonathan Baldwin impressed scouts.

Baldwin was right with DeVier Posey all week when it came to being the best receiver on the East and his touchdown in the game was a thing of beauty. He’s too big to handle for cornerbacks.

He is generally ranked as a 4-star recruit but after his showing over the last week, he could get bumped up to a 5-star prospect. As if stars even mattered…