Coach Dave Wannstedt has 788 followers at last count to Coach Jamie Dixon‘s 1031. This despite Wannstedt more than doubling Dixon’s output. I’m guessing the success of the U-19 team helped. I like to think they have a friendly wager going to see who will have more by the end of the year.

The basketball program — past and present — is loaded with Tweeters.

There’s Jermaine Dixon,

Brad Wanamaker,

Gilbert Brown,

Austin Wallace,

Gary McGhee (locked),

and Travon Woodall.

As for recent former Panthers, Ronald Ramon is a private guy. Sam Young and DeJuan Blair, of course. Mildly surprised that Young is actually Twittering and not locked. Sean Brown has his.

Julius Page has one for his business activity. I think this is Jaron Brown‘s.

Disappointed not to find Twitters for Aaron Gray, Ricardo Greer, and especially Carl Krauser.

I’ll try to get to football at a later point.

I realize the latest Big East Commissioner from the Providence College cabal has stressed the need to improve the Big East’s bowl tie-ins as a top priority. And I don’t disagree since that is the most immediate contract. At the same time, he dismisses the need for a 9th team in football.

Well, the football stuff and the bloated side of basketball is in need of being addressed because of the impact on the TV money.

This shows the current set-up for TV deals in the conferences.

It is no surprise that the Big East has the worst contract of any of the BCS conferences with a 6-year/$200 million arrangement with ESPN/ABC for football and basketball. The Big East wasn’t in a position of strength having just lost three football teams and being on double-secret BCS probation.

Still, it is hideous even compared to the inept work of the Pac-10:

• ABC/ESPN: Five years, $125 million for football

• Fox Sports Net: Five years, $97 million for football

• ABC/ESPN: Six years, $52.5 million for basketball

(All run through 2011-12.)

However the Big East allocates the money to football schools versus basketball only schools, it is not good for the football schools overall. Guessing that $100 mill gets a roughly 8-way split ($12.5 mill) and the other half gets a 16-way ($6.25 mill), that’s a paltry $18.75 million over the course of the 6-year deal (or $3.125 mill/year).

Even the Pac-10 clears over $5 mill per team per year with their contracts, and they are considered to have the dumbest negotiators in big-time college sports.

This only underscores one of the problems with the Big East’s basketball side. It is just too big. Too many slices of the pie. Couple that with the too small football side that can’t get even close to the same drawing power of the other major conferences, and this will be a looming catastrophe for the football programs competitively. And eventually for the basketball side as well.

BONUS UPDATE: Brian Bennett on his Big East football blog for ESPN has some more disturbing numbers on where Big East teams lie on the overall list of what D-1 programs take in for overall revenue:

Now think about this: The top Big East teams made less than half of the revenue that Texas and Ohio State generated. Ten of the 12 SEC schools, 10 of the 11 Big Ten schools, six of the 10 Pac-10 schools and half the Big 12 ranked ahead of the top Big East revenue maker.

This list isn’t all about football, of course, and some schools sponsor several sports that bring in money. But we all know that football is the rainmaker, and those that have the most cash usually find the most success. The gap between the SEC and the Big East (and possibly everybody else) only figures to widen given the SEC’s new lucrative TV deal.

39. UConn: $54.7 million

40.: WVU: $54.3 million

44. Louisville: $52.2 million

45. Rutgers: $50.2 million

54. Syracuse: $44.7 million

61. Pittsburgh: $39.7 million

66. South Florida: $34.7 million

67. Cincinnati: $33.9 million

Yeep. Here’s the full chart.

Getting closer to real focus on the 2009 football team.

Big East Media Days are coming. In roughly 2 weeks, media folk will descend on Newport, Rhode Island for golfing, lobsters and clams (and yet I still have not received my invite). They will contendedly speak well of the atmosphere and setting before professing to random guesses as to the order of the top-6 teams in the conference (and toss a coin over Louisville and Syracuse for #7 and #8).

There will also be the player interviews. Unlike the past couple years, there are no clear “stars” coming into this season in the conference outside of USF’s George Selvie. This is who Pitt will be bringing:

• Greg Romeus, Junior, DE
• John Malecki,Senior, RG
• Nate Byham, Senior, TE

Romeus and Byham make sense since both are top playmakers for Pitt. Byham should be a top candidate for All-American and Mackey Award honors. Romeus is considered one of the best DEs in the conference and a potential top-player at the position in college.

Malecki is something of a surprise. Reliable. Consistent. A senior anchor on the O-line.

Yet, no sign of the senior QB. Bill Stull is glaring by his absence. Perhaps Coach Wannstedt is trying to protect Stull from being asked about the way he ended the season and prevent early talk of a QB controversy.

It won’t work. If anything, not bringing Stull will fuel the questions and theories that Stull is anything but a lock to be the starter.

A week after media days, Pitt will kick of its own media day and the start of practice. August 11 is the day, making them one of the last BE teams to start practicing.

Brian Bennett, the Big East football writer for ESPN.com, has done a great job all summer with material. I haven’t linked or given him enough credit for making the ESPN.com BE Blog a daily read. A couple weeks ago, he had an interview with Pitt Defensive Coordinator Phil Bennett.

I would think Aaron Berry also has to be one of those leaders, too, right?

PB: No question. I’ve been very fortunate in my career to have coached some great corners. His feet are as quick as Terrence Newman’s, and I don’t say that lightly. I think Aaron knows it’s time and he’s got to become more consistent. He’s worked hard this summer and he knows what he means to this team.

He had some issues this spring and was suspended for the final couple of practices. Do you think he’s got everything in order now?

PB: I do. Everybody says this, but if you’ve ever heard or watched me, you know I’m pretty tough on them. I’m demanding. I just think Aaron learned some lessons, as we all have, and I think we’re fixing to see him step up and have the type of year that we all think he’s capable of having.

I know it’s early, but do you see any incoming freshmen who might earn their way into some playing time this year?

PB: I mentioned Dan Mason, and we’ll give him a look. We’ve got a young man named Jason Hendricks that we’ll look at. But it’s just too early. I think Dave will tell you this, that hopefully our program is to a point where, no, we wouldn’t be counting on any of them to play as freshmen. But there are variables that happen, and you have to deal with them, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

The defense, as everyone know will be counted on to be a dominating force. When you start running through the questions at various positions/units the questions on defense are mostly about players stepping up this year (like Aaron Berry and the rest of the secondary). The only spot where it’s a true question mark on the defense is at linebacker.

Offense though, has questions at QB, RB, the O-line (esp. Center). Add in the unknown factors for punter and kicker and there’s a lot to wonder.

Joe Starkey did a scattershot column on Pitt, Coach Wannstedt and recruiting. Ostensibly about recruiting the 2010 class and needing to cast a wider net, he ends it with the need to win this year.

Junior quarterback Pat Bostick was a big-time recruit who has yet to fulfill his potential. Wannstedt believes Bostick and incumbent Bill Stull “have talent,” along with redshirt freshman Tino Sunseri and true freshman Kolby Gray.

Wannstedt expressed confidence in that group and said: “We’re on a few championship quarterbacks this year (recruiting-wise), and I believe we’ll get one.”

That would certainly round out the Class of 2010, but the pressing issue at Pitt is 2009.

It’s time to build on that 9-4 record and win a conference title.

It is telling that a team that lost its stud running back, has questions at QB, a new OC, and a new punter and kicker is considered a legit team to win the Big East. Is it another down year in the conference or just that no one really knows anything about the other teams?

ESPN has released its crews for the upcoming college football season.

Pam Ward is still employed.

Doug Flutie and Bonnie Bernstein are out of the picture. As is Paul McGuire.

Matt Millen for some inexplicable reason will be doing college football analysis on ABC afternoon games with Sean McDonough.

Jesse Palmer is getting more exposure.

Bob Griese is fading. Down from the ABC afternoon games to the ESPN noon games with Chris Spielman and Dave Pasch.

Erin Andrews will be on the sidelines for Thursday and Saturday night.

College GameDay is unchanged with Fowler, Corso and Herbstreit with Howard hanging around.

Studio shows College Football Final will remain unchanged with Rece Davis, Lou Holtz and Mark May.

Big East regional games will be Mike Gleason and John Congemi with Quint Kessinich on the sidelines.

ESPNews Overdrive show will include Dari Nowkah, Shaun King and Kordell Stewart.

About early starts for home football games this year? Pitt has 7 home games. 4 in the conference. No times for any of them have been confirmed, but it looks like up to 3 conference home games could be noon starts.

The Big East announced the 2009 Big East Game of the Week schedule. These are games that get the noon start. Well, they sort of announced it. ESPN gets first dibs on most of the games, so we won’t actually know for sure until a couple weeks before each game. That said, three of Pitt’s home conference games are potential BE Games of the Week.

Sat., Oct. 10 *    Connecticut at Pittsburgh or West Virginia at Syracuse

Sat., Oct. 24 * Louisville at Cincinnati or Connecticut at West Virginia or USF at Pittsburgh

Sat., Nov. 7 * Connecticut at Cincinnati or Louisville at West Virginia or Syracuse at Pittsburgh

I guess the good news is that Pitt is under consideration for plenty of ESPN network appearances if they do well enough in the non-con.

Of course, it is looking like those of us going to the games may be slaves to the early start to feed the bitch goddess of TV revenue.

From Coach Wannstedt’s Twitter page.

Just, um, wow.

Not sure what the Venn diagram looks like for Pitt fans outside of the Pittsburgh media market that would want to watch a rebroadcast of the Blue-Gold game and has the NFL Network. I’m guessing it’s kind of small.

Nonetheless, if you fit that intersect tune into the NFL Network at 3pm (EST) on Saturday, April 18:

The two-hour telecast gives the Panther Nation an early look at the new faces and established stars on this year’s Pitt team, which is already receiving advance praise as one of the country’s Top 25 teams.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt provides color commentary during the game, while Rob King calls the play-by-play action. Additionally, former Pitt coach Serafino “Foge” Fazio and Jory Rand give special reports from the field.

Fans will also be treated to an array of special features and guest appearances by former Pitt linebacker H.B. Blades, now of the Washington Redskins, and Jeff Otah, an offensive tackle with the Carolina Panthers.

Well, I know how I’m wasting my Saturday afternoon.

On the topic of regional SI covers. In addition to Pitt there were: Gonzaga, UNC, ‘Cuse, MSU, and Oklahoma,

We’ve been warned that tomorrow will provide plenty of old-Pitt player stuff.

Jason Matthews and Darelle Porter are flying in from Pittsburgh. Bobby Martin, a personal trainer to college and professional athletes, lives in Boston.

Of course, Sean Miller wanted to go to UNC (thank you Roy Williams).

Miller, though, is only talking about the game.

“For us, I think where it really starts and stops is to be physical ourselves, to not allow them to dominate the glass. I don’t think they nearly get enough credit for being a great offensive team. Their transition – they get dunks and easy baskets that break your backs,” Miller said in Wednesday’s press conference. “We have to be rock solid in our transition defense and rebounding, two things that we’ve been very good at this season. And for us to have a hope, I believe, of advancing or beating them at the end of the game, you’d have to see us do a great job in those two areas.”

There was an additional note of Pitt looking rather loose at the open practice today.

Xavier players had no shortage of confidence during their 50-minute walk-through practice or press conferences. But Pitt had more. Panthers players laughed and joked around during their practice session. Some, like Fields, abandoned the team shoot-around in the final minutes to sign autographs.

Something our own correspondent, Brian mentioned.

A columnist doubting Pitt’s mental toughness.

To me, it’s more than tactics. The Panthers have yet to fully demonstrate the kind of mental toughness in the tournament that allowed them to do so well in the Big East. If they had there wouldn’t have been two close calls against inferior competition.

He’ll only be satisfied judging by his final statement if Pitt wins in a blowout. Whatever.

Since that brings us back to that whole matter of breaking through the Sweet Sixteen, there is this story from Bob Ryan.

There is great local pressure on this team because the recent success has made it the equivalent of a pro franchise in a city lacking NBA basketball. The Panthers have sold out every game in the 12,508-seat Petersen Events Center since it opened in 2002 (and where they are 99-10) and they have developed a rabid following that far transcends Pitt alumni.

This is the best team in Pitt history and this is the Last Chance Saloon for Messrs. Young and Fields, two high-quality seniors.

Pitt has done all this to itself by raising the bar so very high. Duke, Villanova, and Xavier can afford to fall short. They are all playing with house money here. But the Pitt Panthers must understand that if they do not at least make it to the Final Four, there is a question they will be hearing all spring, summer, and perhaps for the rest of their lives.

“Hey! What happened?”

I really don’t want to have to answer that question.

There still seems to be plenty that think Pitt can make the Final Four, or at least people aren’t moving from their picks before the Tournament started.

Here’s a sort of vague, three reasons why each team will win bit.

2. The Three Musketeers. Xavier is hard to shut down — and even harder to catch on a significant off night — because it doesn’t rely on any one player to carry the offense. B.J. Raymond, Derrick Brown and C.J. Anderson all average double-digit points and are all equally capable of leading the offense if one teammate is struggling. Nine different players scored in the Musketeers’ first-round victory over Portland State, with Anderson leading the way at 14. Brown, Raymond and Dante Jackson all scored 13.

3. Crashing the boards. Pittsburgh’s best offense is sometimes simply throwing a shot up and letting rebounding machine DeJuan Blair collect his millions. That strategy might not work against Xavier because the Musketeers are even better at splitting rebounding duties than they are with balancing the scoring. Xavier enjoys a plus-7.9 advantage on the glass and boasts seven players averaging between 3.5 and 6.0 rebounds per game.

A group of three that can lead the offense, a team with experience and they rebound. No wonder the Pitt players see similarities.

Pitt’s 6-foot-7, 265-pound DeJuan Blair will encounter 6-9, 255 Jason Love in the middle; the Panthers’ Tyrell Biggs (6-8, 250) and Xavier’s Derrick Brown (6-8, 277)possess similar outside shooting skills; and Pitt’s wing scorer, Sam Young, who goes 6-6, 220, will face C.J. Anderson, who measures precisely the same.

But in the backcourt, it’s a much different story: Xavier possesses B.J. Raymond and Dante Jackson, who stand 6-6 and 6-5, while Pitt’s Levance Fields is only 5-10 and Jermaine Dixon is 6-3. But, Jackson is not the ballhander that Fields is, and Raymond isn’t the threat from long range that Dixon is.

Of course, the hope is that Fields is feeling even better and that the Oklahoma State game was only the start of his return to form from in the regular season.

If anyone doubts Sam Young’s importance, just take note of how his minutes are way up as the season got to the end.

Young’s workload is increasing in March. After playing 35 minutes or more only three times in Pitt’s first 27 games, the second-team All-America has averaged 37 minutes in the past seven games. Young is relishing the extra work, posting 29-, 31- and 32-point games in that stretch. “As we’re going on, I think a little less rest is probably a possibility,” Dixon said.

He played all 40 minutes on Sunday.

Ashton Gibbs gets a full puff piece.

A solid upbringing produced a self-assured young man who carries a 3.3 grade-point average as a communications major. Gibbs’ work ethic was instilled by his father, Temple, who played college football — this is not a misprint — at Temple, where he roomed with future NFL Pro Bowl cornerback Kevin Ross.

“I learned at an early age that working hard is vital if you want to be good at anything,” said Temple Gibbs, an electrical contractor whose football career was cut short by a knee injury.

Bob Farrell, basketball coach at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, N.J., said Gibbs might be the best shooter he’s had in 32 years on the job.

And Jermaine Dixon had his own backstory fleshed out.

Not long ago, Pitt guard Jermaine Dixon was Jermaine Cooper. That’s when he finally decided to disown the Cooper name the way his father disowned him all those years ago. It’s what his half brothers, Phil and Juan Dixon, wanted. It’s what their mother, Juanita Dixon, would have wanted.

Jermaine Dixon still talks fondly of his mom, who died of AIDS in 1994 when he was 7. “Even though she had [heroin] problems, she was a great mother. She always made sure we were good.”

There isn’t much nice for Dixon to say about his father, Robert Cooper. He bailed when Dixon was a baby.

“I wonder about him sometimes,” Dixon said. “I wonder what he’s thinking now. I wonder what he thinks when he turns on the TV and sees me.”

Don’t think too much about him. He is not worth it.

It’s hard to have a jinx when they do a slew of these by market.

Courtesy of Sports Illustrated

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

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.

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.

Technically, it is underway, but since the Big East Tournament is a pure TV event if it isn’t being aired anywhere but over the internet I’m not so sure that it has really started.

Anyways, just for quick scanning, here’s a sampling of some of the Big East Tournament previews.

Philly paper, no surprise, is pulling for a run from ‘Nova.

This one is just capsules on each team. Grouping by favorites to teams likely to be gone before the favorites even arrive.

Capsule summaries are popular things. Especially with 16 teams to have to preview.

This preview piece thinks Pitt won’t make it the championship game, because this year Pitt should be going deeper in the NCAA. At least that seems to be what it is saying.

Still, Pitt has to be considered the favorite, both because of what they keep doing in the BET and the way they are playing.

In Mike DeCourcy’s preview, he doubts that Pitt will be looking to do anything but try to win the whole thing.

Following Pitt’s victory Saturday over the Huskies, coach Jamie Dixon was asked how the Panthers would approach this tournament. They won it a year ago and spent so much energy they hadn’t much left for the NCAAs. And with a shot at a top seed and the kind of NBA-type talent they’ve lacked in the past, this could be their best chance in years at NCAA Tournament success.

Dixon said the Panthers would go to New York looking to improve. He figures they’ll have to keep getting better to excel in the NCAAs, and he doesn’t see how that’ll happen if they don’t deliver the best possible effort at Madison Square Garden.

Of course, the mantra this year is that Pitt wants more than just the BET.

“We’re looking at the Big East,” senior forward Sam Young said Saturday afternoon after Pitt defeated Connecticut in the regular-season finale at the Petersen Events Center. “We know it’s here, and we’re focused on it. But at the same time we’ve got our eyes on the prize. Pitt has had trouble getting past the Sweet 16, and we feel like we’re the team that can finally do it. The sky is the limit for us.”

Oh, yeah.