“…he sucks too.” Chances are you’ve heard that if you’ve been to a Pitt home basketball game in the last few years. If not, let me explain: after each visiting player is introduced, the students yell “sucks!” and after the opposing head coach is announced they yell “he sucks too!” All while holding up a special Zoo newspaper in front of their faces.

Why bring this up? I got to thinking about it after reading “Over The Top” by Grant Wahl in Sports Illustrated. Basically it explains that excessive vulgarity and taunting by fans (mostly students) is getting out of control to the point where it’s become dangerous. Whether it be UAB fans angering Memphis players enough to almost make the players storm into the stands, or maybe the parents of a visiting player hit with objects thrown by fans (i.e. Indiana’s Eric Gordon whose mom was hit with a cup of ice in Illinois). There’s a line and it’s being crossed more and more.

How about in Oregon? Stan Love, father of UCLA’s Kevin Love, received a horrible welcome when UCLA played the Ducks.

Stan says his family was pelted with popcorn cartons and empty cups, as well as a barrage of profane ­insults (“every filthy word you can think of”), including screams of “whores” that made Kevin’s grandmother cry. “There were six-year-old kids with signs saying KEVIN LOVE SUCKS. It was the grossest display of humanity I’ve ever been involved with.”

Did I mention that Stan is #6 on the Oregon all-time scoring list?

“To think I’m sitting at the school where I played ball, and just because my kid ­didn’t pick Oregon he gets abused like that? I’ll never go back there.”

To put that into perspective, that would be like Pitt fans doing this to Brandin Knight (14th leading scorer in Pitt history) if he were to have a kid that played for Georgetown. Way to go there, Oregon.

So how about our very own Oakland Zoo? They got mention the the SI article:

There may not be nearly as many ­incidents of racism and anti-Semitism in college arenas as there were in the 1960s, but in the year 2008 many fans are waving anti-gay signs, which often appear on national TV broadcasts. Last month a Pittsburgh fan held up a BROKEBACK MOUNTAINEERS sign when the Panthers met rival West Virginia.

But is it really that bad if it’s not directed at one player in particular? Well it’s certainly better than singling out one opposing player, such as fans have done for Levance Fields (“taser!”) among others. Sometimes it is a bit much, even at the cheers directed at the entire team, especially if the f- and s-words are involved. At West Virginia last Monday, the “F— you Pitt” and “Eat s— Pitt” chants were audible through the television. Members of the Zoo have dropped occasional f-bombs but nothing to that extent.

Back to the “sucks” chant though — it’s been clear that the team and Jamie Dixon aren’t really the biggest fans of it. The Oakland Zoo spent some time trying to figure out something new to do during pre-game intros. Eventually they decided on singing the Victory Song which began on January 2 against Lafayette. The “new tradition” lasted for about 15 seconds.

The fact is that “sucks” just isn’t a vulgar word compared to other things heard in college arenas. The audio folks at the Pete have started to play music while the visitors are being introduced, which seems counterproductive in some way. There’s nothing like helping to get the other team pumped up while being introduced in your own building.

Maybe it’s because I’m not that sensitive to swearing that it doesn’t affect me as much. Sometimes the personal attacks can be too much though, but I also think sometimes people are too quick to call something “hurtful”. It comes with the territory of playing D-I hoops, especially in a big conference.

It certainly crosses the line when things are thrown at visiting fans and players’ parents. To my knowledge, nothing like this has happened in the Pete and I hope it stays like that. Also crossing the line? Throwing things onto the court, which happens much too often and recently in Arizona (video link). Lastly, it seems as though WVU prides itself on the reputation that a Pitt fan can’t walk around Mountaineer Stadium by themselves without having things hurled at them and possibly being punched. How far is too far? That is.

Sorry to be away for a couple days. With the conference tournaments and then the NCAA Tournament looming, I’ve been working on a bunch of things for FanHouse at AOL. Trying to get things ready on that end — and I’m not. Add in the usual offline chaos, and it’s been hard to get back to the mothership.

Media-wise, it doesn’t appear that there’s much new. There’s the recaps from the loss in Morgantown talking about the lack of defense, rebounding and players searching for answers.

There’s the sky is falling/no it isn’t stories regarding the NCAA Tournament.

There’s wondering about the bench struggles. Wondering why the team is suddenly just not playing well. And simply, what’s next?

When a team is struggling, I do understand the questioning of the coach and if he’s the right guy. I think the people now coming out 5 years later saying “we should have gotten Calipari,” have been waiting a while for another chance to complain about this. I find it kind of silly, since I think Calipari was mainly interested in using Pitt for another raise — as he usually does. It’s also worth noting the resentment many seem to have towards Dixon for being courted by Arizona State a couple years ago leading to a raise. Given how Calipari plays that game annually and often goes one better by getting his name floated for other gigs — I can’t even begin to guess the animosity he would have built as his salary is over $1.8 million these days.
Judging by the chat transcript, I’d say P-G beat reporter Ray Fittipaldo has gotten a bit sick of getting e-mails of how Pitt is on a downward spiral.

Ray Fittipaldo: I think people have become spoiled. Making the NCAA tournament is no longer a thrill. People expect it at the very least. The way things have gone the Sweet 16 has sort of become a run-of-the-mill occurrence. Like it or not, Pittsburgh is a city that has celebrated championships with all of its major sports teams. Pitt lives in the shadow of the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates (they’re still major, right?). People want to see Pitt take that next step. Dixon is charged with that responsibility. It’s not easy, but he and Ben Howland are the ones who created the expectations. I’m not saying it’s fair, but I think he realizes that coaching in a sports town like Pittsburgh there are certain expectations that fans have. It’s not a bad thing.

A program doesn’t just go up every year even when it is improving. There are steps back, and bumps (and injuries, can’t forget injuries). There were plenty who believed the program was going to go to seed after the 2004-05 season ended with a thud. The returning talent didn’t appear to measure up, and things were a mess.
The good news for Pitt is they have a needed break before the final home game — and senior day — against DePaul. Then a few more days before the BET. The team needs it (and I think we fans needed it as well).

It’s a good thing Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim doesn’t give in to hyperbole or anything. Starting in upstate NY, there was an admission that Pitt never quit — and it was impressive.

What Brown did Sunday was drain two 3-pointers in the final three minutes of the game to thrust a dagger deep into the pulsing postseason hearts of the Orange men.

Brown was hardly alone in providing the Pitt heroics.

His teammates poked away balls from Syracuse dribblers or clamped them in a trap. Levance Fields sank eight free throws in the final 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Pittsburgh smothered Syracuse shooters and forced SU to seek supporting Orange men to make plays.

And suddenly, a Pittsburgh team that trailed by 11 with 3:49 left in the game, had beaten the Orange 82-77 in a breathless, bewildering final few minutes.

Jim Boeheim was a moody fella after the game. He took 30 minutes after the game before showing up for a press conference. At that point he spoke for all of 98 seconds and walked away.

“It’s the most disappointing game I’ve ever been involved with. To play that well — we really haven’t played well in a long time — and to play that well against a very good defensive team was a tremendous accomplishment,” Boeheim said.

“But the entire game we kept turning it over and at the end when we had the lead and just had to take care of the basketball we made three just unbelievable turnovers and that’s the game. There’s nothing more to say.”

There was more. He did not mention getting a technical foul which made it a two possession game after Fields sank those FTs along with the two he sank after grabbing the missed shot. You know, doing his part to kill any chances. He also put the blame on his players and their “youth.”

Young guys are going to make mistakes. They knew we had timeouts. Donte Greene didn’t call it when he threw the ball to Ramon. He had timeouts and plenty of time to make the call.

As the Syracuse blogger noted, it’s not like Boeheim was prohibited from calling the timeout. Is he saying he didn’t recognize his team was in trouble there?

The coach wasn’t willing to take any blame or talk, but a sophomore stood up for the Orange. Paul Harris has always been a guy willing to take the blame when his team doesn’t do well, and this was no exception.

“No, I wasn’t fouled,” said Harris, certainly one of the straightest talking players you’ll ever run into. “I take the blame. I’m not going to blame anyone else. I panicked.”

Damn shame the kid picked Syracuse over Pitt. His friend and point guard for the Orange was rather candid about how hard this loss was for the team.

“This is going to be a hard one to get over,” said Syracuse guard Jonny Flynn, who tied his career-high with 28 points. “I’m not going to say we can get over this one right when we leave the locker room. This is a game that we had. We had this game won.”

The Orange had the game won because of Flynn’s 28 points and six 3-pointers. Because of Harris’ 18 points and six steals. Because of Greene’s slump-breaking 23 points on 10-for-18 shooting.

Instead, the final 3 minutes and 30 seconds will go down in Syracuse lore along with Vermont, Richmond and “Manley Field House is officially closed.”

That’s some great company in the annals of painful Syracuse losses. Pitt has now beaten Syracuse 4 straight times at the Carrier Dome. The only other team to do that was Villanova from the 89-90 season through the 92-93 season (PDF).
The box score is something. Outside of Green, Flynn and Harris the rest of the Orange took 6 shots for 8 points — Onuaku had 5 of the shots and 7 of the points.

Pitt had 5 players score in double digits — Young (19), Benjamin (17), Fields (13), Ramon (12) and Brown (12) — plus Blair had 8 points.

The Pitt players don’t deny being a bit stunned that they pulled it off.

“That’s probably the best comeback I’ve ever been involved in,” Young said. “We were down 11 with three minutes on the clock. That’s incredible. It shows the confidence we have in each other. Coach says to play all 40 minutes, and we did.”

…

“I don’t think we did everything right for 40 minutes, but we did for the last three minutes,” Dixon said. “We seemed to do exactly what we wanted to do.”

Coach Dixon didn’t even pretend that he expected the Pitt comeback.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon called it perhaps the “most unconventional or most unforeseeable” victory he’s ever witnessed.

“There haven’t been many endings like that,” Dixon said.

Ron Cook lauds this Pitt team for still winning games despite all of the injuries.

“Coach Boeheim was telling me he’s never had a season like this in his 32 years because of their injuries,” Dixon said. “But we’ve had twice as many guys hurt. We’ve had four [including reserves Austin Wallace and Cassin Diggs]. And the list of injuries we have that guys are playing with is endless.”

Dixon said Keith Benjamin wouldn’t be playing with an infected finger if Pitt’s bench wasn’t so short. He also said Brown and Ronald Ramon probably are looking at shoulder surgery after the season. He didn’t even mention Blair, who has a bad shoulder and a bad knee.

“Coach Dixon told us that other coaches told him he should just pack it in this season and think about trying to get ready for next year after Mike and Levance went down,” Benjamin said. “But he and our other coaches never stopped believing in us. The guys in our locker room never stopped believing …”

And then when they lose, we question their heart and toughness.

I rarely bother with something like this, but Jay Bilas ticked me off enough on College Gameday with his statements that Young fouled Harris. It seemed that he was trying to make some broader point about Big East officiating and went back to the ‘Nova-G-town game. It was a completely scattershot in whatever his point was (and let’s just abstain from the whole “Bilas hates Pitt” stuff — he doesn’t). The replay showed that Harris had lost control of the ball and that he and Young were both going for it. Young got there first and then the contact.

Paul Harris made no excuses.

“I basically let them take the ball from me,” Harris said. “That’s all it was. They didn’t foul me or nothing.”

‘Cuse fans aren’t saying he was fouled.

It’s also very clear that Orange fans are more than a little frustrated with a team of talented 5-star players. This will be the first time since the 1980-81 and 81-82 season that a Syracuse team doesn’t go to the NCAA Tournament for 2 consecutive years.

On another note, I don’t think we need to recruit so many 5 star, shoe camp All-Stars. Let’s get one or two and surround them with solid, gutsy, hard-working, intelligent ballers (ie: Pace, O. Hill, Moten, E Thomas, L. Sims, Warrick, etc). Enough loading the team up with slack-ass, idiotic playmaking, no-desire-having, all-talk-no-action, waste-of-talent, looking-for-scouts-in-the-stands type of players.

Talent or not, it’s a team sport.

Probably a little over the top in reaction, but there is a point. Chemistry and playing as a team means almost as much as talent. There are no steadying influences on the court for Syracuse. They have no players on the floor who can tell them what to expect in the situations. At this point in the season. UConn went through it last year as well, despite all of their talent.
Interesting thing when Dixon called the second last timeout with 3:37 left.

As he gathered his team around him, he told them that they might not win Saturday’s game, but that he would not permit them to quit.

“It wasn’t called to chew nobody out. It wasn’t called to be negative,” said Pitt guard Keith Benjamin. “It was just called to let us know the bench was fighting for us. And we gotta keep playing.”

Dixon ordered the press, something he’s rarely done this season. The defense, said Pitt guard Ronald Ramon, energized the Panthers.

I don’t think Pitt can do a press for very long, but in short spurts it has it’s place.

Well, I hope the next coach at Providence proves to be as much a patsy for Pitt as Tim Welsh’s Friars. 10 years, and getting lucky with Ryan Gomes to show for it. Even then, they were one-and-done. A team that has no fundamentals. They just shoot. I can’t even respect them.

That said, I always worry. This team did beat UConn in Hartford because they were incredible from outside in that game. Always a fear. Great work on the liveblog Dennis. I have to say, though, if they had upset Pitt, Dennis would have been banned from basketball liveblogging at the very least in games with supposed patsy teams. No, I’m not blaming him for the Rutgers loss, but that would have been an unsettling trend.

Pitt won 82-63, and it was nice to get an easy win after so many stressful ones.
Not much to say about this game.

Pitt was a little lazy to start the game on the perimeter. Providence made them pay. Right away, though, it was clear how sloppy a team Providence is. They can shoot and run up and down. They have no defense and they don’t even pass real well.

In the first half, that style was clearly tempting the Pitt players. Pitt just wanted to run around as well. It is fun, but it meant Pitt got lazy on defense trying to outscore the Friars.

The good in the first half: Pitt was 18-32 (3-8 on 3s). Only 3 turnovers and 13 assists. Shockingly Blair had 0 rebounds in the first half. This was Young’s kind of game with the running.

Pitt also got Providence to commit 8  turnovers — okay, the Friars helped on several.

The bad in the first half: Providence shot 15-26 (5-11 on 3s). Lazy defensive effort. A bit of gambling on steals — because it was more fun — but gave up easy baskets.

In the second half, clearly the team got the message from Coach Dixon that they can play offense, but not at the expense of poor defensive effort. The Panthers went on a 21-4 run to make a 5 point halftime lead, a 22 point walk to the end.

It also helped that Providence was extremely streaky in their 3-point shooting. They were hot for the first 5 minutes and hot for the final 5 minutes. It was that other 30 minutes that killed them. The Friars finished 9-22 on 3s.

Pitt by contrast shot 5-11 on 3s, with Ramon making all 5 on 7 attempts. Between the poor Providence defense and some confidence by Ramon, he looked fantastic. He finished with 15 points, 6 assists, 2 steals and 2 turnovers.

Heck, probably the best thing about this game was that it was a confidence booster for the whole team on offense (well, maybe not Gilbert Brown’s perimeter shooting — but even he had good with 4-4 on free throws).

On the post-game interviews. Naturally Dixon wouldn’t give anything about whether Fields will play on Friday at Marquette: “it’s day-to-day.”

Sam Young’s interview amused the hell out of me. He actually cracked a smile. I really don’t know how easy it is to tell when he is pouting, and when it is his normal expression. He seems to have a naturally dour look. Plus his body language generally pushes a sense of discomfort. He kept hunching forward.

I could probably do a lengthy post on how bad a color analyst Mike Jarvis is, but his post-game interview was even worse. In doing some highlights with Young there, Jarvis actually said to Sam Young that he looks just as happy to make a good pass as he is scoring.

Sam Young just looked confused. Like he couldn’t even believe there was a comparison of the two. He didn’t actually answer with a yes to skip past the inane, softball question. He just kind of moved away from the question. Even Young couldn’t buy into that.

Programming note: On FSN Pittsburgh at 10:00 pm tonight, Under The Lights: Pitt Road Trip will be shown. The previews for it look entertaining as they follow the Panthers trip to New York for the game against St. John’s.

Watch it or DVR after the Providence game tonight. Liveblog/open thread on the way…

Bradley Wanamaker has taken a lot of criticism in his limited minutes. I suppose it’s because there were more expectations for him.

Q: I have been very disappointed in the play of Brad Wanamaker thus far. I thought he was a heralded point guard. I find his play to be quite sloppy and his shooting to be atrocious, especially at the foul line. He has shown minimal improvement. For next year, how do the incoming guards look to back up Levance, and who would be the shooting guard?

FITTIPALDO: Wanamaker was a shooting guard in high school. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon tried to make him into a point guard in the early part of the season, but Wanamaker struggled and that experiment was aborted.

If Wanamaker finds a niche at Pitt, it will be at shooting guard. Wanamaker and incoming freshman Nasir Robinson (Chester, Pa.) will likely battle for the starting job at shooting guard next season. Another incoming freshman, Travon Woodall (St. Anthony’s, N.J.), is likely the backup point guard.

Sometimes, the light goes on later rather than sooner for players. Wanamaker has struggled this season, but he came to Pitt as a top 100 player. I’m sure the coaching staff is hoping that his freshman year is an aberration because the Panthers have a big hole to fill at shooting guard next season with the departure of Keith Benjamin and Ronald Ramon.

First impressions last. I’ve mentioned the Antonio Graves comparisons. Not in terms of talent. I’m talking about development and I might as well throw in perception. Some never forgot Graves as a raw, nervous freshman forced to play because of no depth at the guard spots. Wanamaker will be up against that as well.

I did expect more from him, but I also see flashes and hints of what could be. It’s just not going to be this year.

Of course, he is going to face competition from Nasir Robinson who gets the usual positive reviews that include “tough” and/or “gritty” every time he competes in something. This from the “Primetime Shootout” in Philly.

Nasir Robinson is headed to Pittsburgh next year to play for Jamie Dixon. Nasir has a motor that never stops. He plays hard every time he hits the floor and is an undersized combo forward. Nasir brings that Philly toughness to the floor every night. He dominates on the inside grabbing up everything around the rim. Nasir has a nice feel for the game not only does he play strong on the inside, he sees the floor and makes the big play when needed.

Eric Hall at the Beaver County Times hits a rare daily double with two pieces in a week that state the obvious, even if the answer isn’t: Pitt needs to make free throws and shoot better. Throw in Ron Cook’s piece about Pitt needing to score more points, along with the shooting slump story. The problem is, that there isn’t a good answer. I’m reasonably certain that the coaches and players are aware of the issue, and would like to provide a solution.

Think Pitt and Coach Dixon will get to escape silly coaching carousel speculation this year? Think again.

No more John Brady at LSU means LSU needs a new coach, and the first place the school will look is Southern California’s Tim Floyd. It’s no secret LSU has always been Floyd’s dream job because he’s from the area. But living in Los Angeles — and coaching in the new Galen Center — is kinda dreamy too, and the early word out of Baton Rouge is the school might not be willing to pay the type of money it would take to lure Floyd from the sweet situation he’s enjoying.

If LSU won’t pay, Floyd probably won’t move — in which case some obvious targets are Virginia Commonwealth’s Anthony Grant, Ole Miss’ Andy Kennedy and Washington State’s Tony Bennett. But for the sake of argument, let’s pretend Floyd does move to LSU because that’s when things could get really silly.

Would Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon then take the Southern California job?

(Perhaps. But I’m not sure he’d want to battle UCLA’s Ben Howland).

Would Xavier’s Sean Miller then move to Pittsburgh?

(Definitely. He would move to Pitt in like 1.2 seconds)

So yeah, the speculation is endless and head-spinning and tiresome.

Sigh.

Mostly just the quick and dirty link round-up. I’m doing better, but the 10-month old has the dreaded ear infection — clinginess and things no one wants to read.

Two big talking points in the stories: Ronald Ramon’s game-winning 3 (obviously) and the free throw reversal.

The 3-pointer by Ramon was also a way to contrast what happened at Villanova last month.

The victory set off a wild celebration at sold-out Petersen Events Center, which had never witnessed a Pitt buzzer-beater, and ended a string of near-miss, last-second losses for the Panthers this season.

Among them was a one-point loss at Villanova in which Ramon turned the ball over on the team’s final possession.

“That Villanova game was a bad feeling,” Ramon said.

This time, Ramon, a senior and one of the campus’ most well-liked athletes, was the hero.

As for the  free throw reversal.

During the timeout, the officials reviewed the foul and took Alexander’s two points off the scoreboard. They then made freshman Cam Thoroughman go to the line for the one-and-one opportunity.

It turned out to be a four-point swing in favor of Pitt. Thoroughman missed the front end, and Pitt rebounded. Brad Wanamaker made a jumper for a 50-45 lead.

“The assistant coaches saw it from the very beginning,” Dixon said. “They told me it was the wrong guy. I was very surprised that they checked it after they were made. But we were saying it the entire time.”

The officials were able to review the play because Huggins called a timeout. If one second had ticked off the clock they would not have been allowed to make the review.

The writers at the game, never saw the replay or telecast. So they didn’t really learn that Blair was the one being held by Thoroughman as Alexander went over his back — which is why there is no mention of that in the stories. That’s probably why Huginns and Thoroughman after the game did admit that Alexander shouldn’t have been shooting free throws.
Interesting version of Huggins feelings after the game.

“I think it’s pretty apparent that we can beat anybody, we’ve got to suck it up and go play,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “The reality is we’re depending on people we shouldn’t depend on. We just don’t score. We’re supposed to be a good shooting team, at least that’s what I was told.”

During the game, Huggins vented frustrations on junior forward Joe Alexander, arguably the team’s best athlete. Alexander finished with five points on 2-for-22 shooting.

After the game, Huggins continued to criticize Alexander.

“Pitt’s a good defensive team but I don’t think they’re so good that Joe can’t hit the rim on his first three or four shots,” Huggins said.

He also had hard words for Smith, who left Ramon open on the game-winner.

“We had four guys switch and one guy decide he was going to push up. Wellington thought he needed to go help and (Ramon) hit a big shot,” Huggins added. “That was one guy we talked about that we couldn’t let beat us – him and Sam Young.”

Huggins, in his first year at West Virginia and coaching players recruited by current Michigan coach John Beilein, looked anxious to get his own talent in after this loss, the Mountaineers’ third in four games.

“I need to play guys that will listen,” Huggins said.

I’m not totally surprised that WV media and some WVU players are saying that they lost the game more than Pitt won it.

“Pitt didn’t beat us. We beat ourselves,” said sophomore guard Joe Mazzulla, whose best scoring game at WVU went for naught. “That’s not to take anything away from them or to say they didn’t play well. They did. But it was just out mistakes that beat us, mental and physical both.”

After all, if Pitt had been the one to miss over 50% of the free throws on top of the lousy shooting from most of the team, how many of we Pitt fans would be saying the same thing?

I read Vingle’s semi-hatchet effort on Pitt was more about pointing out how badly WVU blew an opportunity. I would counter only that with the way both teams shot, it would be a highly frustrating loss for either side.

WVU partisans see the missed looks by Alexander and Butler. Pitt fans see the numerous open lay-ups by Blair, the missed 3s by Benjamin and Ramon. WVU had the amazing number of missed FTs — though that was balanced out by Mazzulla having a career game.

So, yeah, it seems like whining and not wanting to give Pitt the due for winning. It’s just that I’ve been guilty of it enough times and will be plenty more times.

Several little bits and stories that I had collected but not posted before the Cinci loss.

SI On Campus sings the praises of how Pitt responded to all of the injuries.

In college basketball, depth is the great unknown. Coaches don’t know if they’ll need it and fans don’t really know if their teams have it — until a player or two gets injured and everybody finds out.

…

Jamie Dixon, on the other hand, is in finding out what his Pitt squad is made of. December injuries to starters Mike Cook (torn ACL) and Levance Fields (broken foot) seemed to decimate the Panthers, who struggled in a subsequent loss to Villanova. National pundits piled on, all but banishing Pittsburgh from March Madness months before Selection Sunday. But then a funny thing happened. Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin — Dixon’s replacements at point guard and small forward, respectively — each scored 18 points in Monday’s upset of No. 5 Georgetown. Happy days were back again.

Similar theme in the Hartford Courant‘s BE Notebook story.

“We’ve had to change, but change is part of the game,” Dixon said. “We’ve lost two or three starters every year for the last four or five years. You have to make adjustments and play to your strengths.”

While Pittsburgh is running more, the biggest changes have come in practice, Dixon said. The Panthers are essentially down to a seven-man rotation and, depending on the turnout of walk-ons on a given day, often don’t have enough players to go 5-on-5 in practice. The emphasis has been on preservation — avoiding injury and resting overworked players — and on skill and instruction.

“We have limited the contact,” Dixon said. “We’ve probably done more conditioning but less 5-on-5 because we don’t have the bodies. We’ve had very good intensity and very good focus.”

That part about the practice, probably came from a story in the P-G last week about having to lighten the intensity of practice.

I do wonder about how DeJuan Blair keeps getting considered a “lightly recruited” player. He wasn’t heavily recruited as a sophomore if that’s what they mean. His recruitment was anything but light in his senior year, as he showed full recovery from knee surgeries.

Lots and lots of stories about Pitt beating G-town. There was one national writer who was expecting a very good game.

Game to watch this week: In case you haven’t caught on, we’re working on a theme here. Your reigning player of the week meets your reigning team of the week Monday night at 7: Georgetown vs. Pitt at the Petersen Events Center — televised by ESPN on Big Monday — where the Panthers try to remain among the contenders for the Big East championship by taking down the clear favorite. Georgetown’s preference for a measured pace should work well for the Panthers, who no longer are deep enough to push things as much as they would prefer. If you’re not curious how rugged, wide-shouldered Pitt freshman DeJuan Blair will fare against Hibbert, you might need to ask yourself if you really love this game.

Mike Miller at MSNBC.com was impressed by what he has seen from Pitt.

Guess Pitt missed the memo about writing off this season.

For the last few weeks, the Panthers have heard about how tough their season will be without starters Mike Cook and Levance Fields. But a 69-60 win against No. 5 Georgetown should silence any remaining doubters and reestablish Pitt as a Final Four contender.

It’s amazing what a few weeks, a good coach and lots of talent will do.

I love this team, but I would hesitate with Final Four talk right now. Hyperbole either way, always seems to be the downside of instant punditry. That said, Miller’s entry pretty much echoed the national theme on the game and Pitt (Jan 15 entry).

Let the record show that I’m finished expecting Pittsburgh to collapse just because Levance Fields and Mike Cook are sidelined with injuries. I mean, there’s no way they can be as good without those two key players as they were going to be with those two key players. But that 69-60 victory over Georgetown is an indication that No. 15 Pitt will still be more than competitive as long as DeJuan Blair (15 points and nine rebounds) and Ronald Ramon (18 points and four assists) remain on the court, and if Jamie Dixon holds this together he’ll be the easy pick for Big East Coach of the Year. As for Georgetown, is it time to question the fifth-ranked Hoyas? They’ve played just two ranked teams (Memphis and Pitt) and lost both games by comfortable margins, making their 13-2 record almost meaningless.

ESPN’s Jay Bilas was happy to sing the Pitt praises after the game and in an online chat (Insider subs.).

DJ (Pittsburgh): Can we finally put to rest the idea that Pitt will struggle to make the NCAA tournament after the injuries? They might be a protected seed!

Jay Bilas: Aren’t the Panthers amazing? Ramon and Benjamin have been incredible, and Pitt has become even more efficient over the past five games. Jamie Dixon has shortened his playbook, and has simplified things. And, he believes in his players and empowers them to break free of limiting roles. Pitt will be in the NCAA Tournament.

…

Mike (Atlanta GA): How was the atmosphere at the Pete for last night’s Pitt/G-town game and which player impressed you the most?

Jay Bilas: Awesome. I was really impressed with Blair and his work ethic. Also, Benjamin and Ramon were truly outstanding. Gutty win for Pitt. That place is one of the great atmospheres in college basketball.

Doug Gottlieb had a lot of Pitt fans pestering him in his online chat.

Zak (Pittsburgh): Pitt sure looked like an NIT team last night, didn’t they? Doug, admit you are biased against the Big East because of your problems at Notre Dame.

Doug Gottlieb: Yeah, uh, my bad. Hey be honest, any other team loses their starting PG and their leading returning scorer who is also their best passer, you would think they were going to fall off too right?

Jamie Dixon is one terrific coach to keep this thing going. BY the way, anyone else think LeVance Fields looks like Donovan McNabb?

He got grief for forgetting to include DeJuan Blair (and Donte Green) in his list of top freshmen — to be fair, I think chats are tricky since you do have to respond off the top of your head. It’s easy to miss things. He then put Sam Young in a list of seniors who have really developed their game (adding for Young, “wow has he improved”) — and was again called out on not realizing Young is a junior.

Not a big Gottlieb fan, but I’ll admit to smiling a little at this bit.

John (Milwaukee): Bilas and Phelps picked Notre Dame to win at Marquette only to have MU beat them by almost 30. Will MU surprise people or was this just a fluke?

Doug Gottlieb: Digger picked ND? Noooo…..really?

The ESPN College Basketball Insider podcast (mp3) from today had Gottlieb apologizing over his NIT comments. Singing the praises of Coach Dixon for what he is doing with the team.

Dick Weiss of the NY Daily News has been a big believer in Pitt, and that hasn’t changed.

Senior guard Keith Benjamin, the former Mount Vernon High star, scored 18 points, his fifth straight double-figure performance. That helped make up for the fact the Hoyas did a good job shutting down Sam Young, Pitt’s leading scorer.

Young did his part on the defensive end, combining with 6-6 freshman Gilbert Brown and Ty Biggs to shut down Georgetown’s 6-9 sophomore star DeJuan Summers, who shot 0-for-7 and did not score.

“That was very big,” Benjamin said. “Down there, they hold him up to be like their next Jeff Green (the former Hoyas star now with the NBA Sonics). Sam started it, being physical with him, taking him out of his rhythm. That was somebody we needed to take out of the game.”

Pitt is 91-8 at the Pete and owns a 13-game home winning streak. But Georgetown had beaten Pitt four of the previous five games. With that in mind, this was the type of character win that should do wonders for a team that refused to melt down.

The AP wire article, of course, has a huge impact on national perception.

What few considered was this: Not only would they stay ranked without point guard Levance Fields and small forward Mike Cook, but they are moving up in the ratings after an initial drop.

The 15th-ranked Panthers, down to No. 20 a week ago, pulled off one of their most impressive victories in recent seasons Monday night, never trailing in a 69-60 victory over No. 5 Georgetown.

The way they played – getting outside scoring from Keith Benjamin and Ronald Ramon and a strong inside presence from freshman center DeJuan Blair – the Panthers didn’t look like a team that’s interested in dropping out of the poll anytime soon.

The Georgetown excuse reasoning for the loss seems to be the fact that they shot 3-20 on threes.

Fifth-ranked Georgetown was just 3 of 20 from beyond the arc (15 percent). It was the Hoyas’ worst three-point shooting performance since they shot 14.3 percent (2 for 14) in a loss at Duke in December 2006.

Freshman Austin Freeman, a 46 percent shooter, and sophomore forward DaJuan Summers, a 38 percent shooter, were both 0 for 4 from three-point range. Wallace made just 2 of 7 three-point attempts; the first one came on a half-court heave at the halftime buzzer, and the other came in the final 12 seconds, after the game was decided.

“They’re a good defensive team, but we were getting a lot of shots that we usually hit, and a lot of good looks,” said Wallace, who is 3 of 14 from beyond the three-point arc over the past two games. “Just the shot wasn’t falling tonight. We were trying to take different things to try to get something going down low, but we just couldn’t get it right tonight.”

Not so easy to buy, as Seth Davis explains:

The larger problem for the Hoyas is their three-point shooting is suspect once they hit the road. In their two losses at Memphis and Pitt, the Hoyas shot a combined 6 for 34 from behind the arc. It’s not just the low percentage that bothers me, it’s the high number of attempts. As I’ve said before, the biggest difference between playing at home and on the road is that at home, you can fire up threes, but on the road you’ve got to take it to the cup. It was also disconcerting to see Pitt’s guards slice their way to the basket so often with relative ease.

The Hoyas may have taken a bunch of threes that were open, but they clearly didn’t want to shoot it. They were frustrated because they couldn’t get the ball inside and Pitt’s defense took away the precious backdoor cut of their offense. Settling for the three, when it was not part of the offensive play effects the confidence of the shooter. Not to mention, the physical toll of being bumped and playing Pitt. It was a physical game that wore on the Hoyas.

Georgetown does take a hell of a lot of 3s. Almost 39% of their shot attempts are 3s (307 out of 788). Astounding when you consider the talent of Hibbert inside — not to mention Macklin. Plus DaJuan Summers and Austin Freeman should be attacking the rim more. Summers, especially, is guilty. He is a wing player with talent to attack. Instead, just over half of his shot attempts are 3s. That’s timid and a waste.

The WashTimes writer who thought Pitt was talking too much before the game thought Georgetown lost the game because they were inexplicably slow.

Two days removed from their win over Connecticut, the Hoyas looked dead-legged from the start last night against the Panthers (15-2, 3-1). They were a step slow on their defensive rotations and atypically inaccurate on offense.

“We were flat,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said after the Hoyas gave up a pair 18-point efforts to the Pitt backcourt of Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin. “I don’t know what to attribute that to. This was a pretty big game.”

The Panthers approached it as such, promising revenge for last season’s consecutive losses to the Hoyas and making good on those claims before a sellout crowd of 12,508 fans at Petersen Events Center.

Georgetown’s starting five failed to match Pitt’s passion.

Again, this has to do with a more physical game. The tough defense kept G-town off. Look, when Pitt lost to UCLA in the Sweet 16 game, Pitt had the same problem. They got bumped, outworked and it threw off everything on offense. Pitt struggled to make shots. Just like G-town experienced last night.

Now to the local coverage. Funny coincidence. Both the P-G and the Trib. start the opening graph of the game stories with the same two words.

So much for Pitt treading water until Levance Fields returns to the lineup. The Panthers emphatically announced last night that they are still Big East championship contenders even without their star point guard.

No. 15 Pitt defeated No. 5 Georgetown, 69-60, at the Petersen Events Center. The Panthers (15-2, 3-1) are one last-second loss at Villanova away from being alone atop the conference standings. As it is, they are one of five teams tied for first place this morning.

“It’s definitely a big win for us,” senior guard Ronald Ramon said. “We were looking forward to this game. We just wanted it more.”

And…

So much for poor, injury-plagued Pitt needing to claw to a decent Big East record to make the NCAA Tournament.

So much for the skeptics, who howled the Panthers’ grand hopes were snapped with Levance Fields’ broken foot.

The P-G story also noted something that was also pointed out in the comments.

The tone of the game was set before the opening tip. After the national anthem, Blair approached Hibbert to shake his hand, but Hibbert walked the opposite direction toward the Georgetown bench.

“I don’t care if he doesn’t shake my hand,” Blair said. “It won’t make me or break me. I don’t care if he shakes my hand after the game. I guess he was mad or something. He tried not to.”

Blair got the better of Hibbert in the paint. Hibbert had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, but he was frustrated by Blair’s quickness and did not get prime post position for much of the game.

“It was a tough game all around,” Hibbert said. “I wasn’t playing my best today. We were all a little off.”

Uh-huh. It’s a non-issue. Let’s not turn this into some mini-Belichick-Mangini thing.

Ramon was the hero of the game.

Breakout games aren’t usual in a player’s senior year.

Especially to a player who’s started on and off in his four years.

Especially to a player who’s been so important to his team’s success for his four years.

But to Ronald Ramon, the past three weeks have been anything but usual.

After all, not only has he really stepped up as the point, but he had a great shooting night.

“With the things that have been going on here, the guys going down, we’re stepping up every game,” Ramon said. “It’s something we have on our backs. Teams feel they have a better chance of beating us because we’re missing some guys.”

Pitt’s been missing Ramon’s shooting touch since his move to the point. In his first three games in place of Fields, Ramon took 15 shots. He began to look for his start against Seton Hall and finished with 14 points.

But his 18 points on 6-for-9 shooting, including four three-pointers, came as a bit of a surprise considering the talent of Georgetown’s guards.

“Ronald, you know, he’s pretty good,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said.

Ramon several clutch baskets, including a wild three-pointer as the shot clock expired to give Pitt an early 20-15 lead. His leaner before the half kept the Panthers ahead heading into the locker room, even after a halfcourt shot from Jonathan Wallace.

Ron Cook also sings Ramon’s praises. Mike Prisuta seems not to like players and coaches dealing in cliches, even as he essentially riddles his own writing with them.

“I think we just wanted it more,” Pitt’s Ronald Ramon said afterward.

Most night’s that’s a cliche, but on this one, Pitt had earned the right to reach such a conclusion.

Sustaining that desire will go a long way toward making believers out of more than just Pitt’s wagons-circling players and coaches.

I get the feeling that Pittsburgh columnists are going to want to cover Pitt a lot more. Not only are the Steelers done (and they can write those “what needs to be done” columns any time); but this Pitt team has multiple storylines that are easy to write and this is a team that is fun. The joy of the college game is still the kids. It may inch closer to de facto professional leagues every day, but the game is still played by kids. The exuberance and fun they have still can break into even the most cynical. Plus, Pitt is still winning.

Plenty of names on hand at the game.

Some of the dignitaries in attendance were mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, Jeannette quarterback Terrelle Pryor, Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch, Steelers kicker Jeff Reed, former Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko, former Pitt basketball star Billy Knight and coach Jamie Dixon’s father, who flew in from California.

“It’s the Forum east,” quipped Pitt associate athletic director E.J. Borghetti.

And an extra day or two to enjoy the win.

Things that I just haven’t gotten around to linking or posting.

Bruce Feldman at ESPN.com lists 10 teams he expects to take a big step forward in wins.

2: Pittsburgh

All hail the ‘stache! The Panthers emerged from a four-game losing skid to upset No. 23 Cincinnati and finished off the season by wrecking the title hopes of West Virginia in Morgantown. Pitt will return many of the leaders of the nation’s No. 7 defense as well as one of the country’s top young running backs in LeSean McCoy. They also hope to get back smooth WR Derek Kinder, an All-Big East pick in 2006, who underwent season-ending knee surgery during training camp. QB Bill Stull, another former starter, also will return from injury, and he will try and beat out Pat Bostick, the talented true freshman who finished the season as Pitt’s starter. DT Gus Mustakas, a rugged inside presence, missed the final 10 games of the season after knee surgery and also should be back, as will tackle machine Scott McKillop. I think the Panthers’ patience with Dave Wannstedt will pay off with a return to the Top 25 next season and maybe even a Big East title.

A few individual honors. The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) — which is essentially the Eastern schools from UConn, BC, Syracuse, PSU, UVa, WVU and such — named LeSean McCoy the rookie of the year (PDF). In addition to McCoy also being named to the all-star team, Jeff Otah, Greg Romeus and Scott McKillop were also named to the squad.

Romeus and McCoy were also honored by being named to the Football Writers Association of America All-Freshman team.

A couple days ago, I noticed a slew of hits from a premium WVU message board. Oddly enough, they concerned a post that had nothing to do with them and was 18 months ago. The issue was Charlie Taaffee who served as a Pitt assistant in 2006. Taaffe left to go back to being a head coach in the CFL. He had a disasterous first year back, but there was nothing to suggest he was leaving. He had even hired some new assistants.

Turns out he was big in the rumor mill to be hired as offensive coordinator at WVU. Those reports later turned out to be false and recanted.

Therefore, if the reports are credible, recently fired O-line Coach Paul Dunn is now a candidate for the job in Morgantown.

Late to just get through some things.

Shockingly, Doug Gottlieb might be reconsidering a slightly hyperbolic statement (Insider subs.).

I may have overreacted on ESPN News when declaring Pitt an NIT team due to injuries. Pitt played its tail off in its loss to Nova on Sunday. Jamie Dixon had great depth early on, and his style of preaching mental toughness helps the Panthers battle through this incredibly tough time.

From a basketball tournament in Houston last week, one of Pitt’s late recruits, Dwight Miller was playing. He made Van Coleman’s list of players that stood out.

This active rebounder and low block scorer had some moments in Houston, scoring 13 points and grabbing eight rebounds in the game we watched. If he ups his intensity he will be a force.

Seth Davis at SI.com, unsurprisingly puts Pitt in his “sell” category in his annual “Stock report” on NCAA Tournament Teams. I think the reasons are well known at this point.

You’ll want to keep an eye on this one because there’s still some talent here, but even though the Panthers put up a good fight at Villanova on Sunday before losing, the reality is they have lost two starters to injury, including the one guy they could least afford to lose in point guard Levance Fields. Not only is Ronald Ramon not a point guard, but if Ramon is running the offense, that means he isn’t catching the ball on the wing. They’re saying Fields might come back from his foot injury at the end of the season, but I doubt that will leave him enough time to take the Panthers deep into the NCAA tournament.

There’s a good chance Pitt will use a little more zone, as they did late against ‘Nova. Just don’t expect too much.

Ramon is going to have a hard time getting shots running the point. That was already rather obvious. Not sure he should try too hard to force it.

Ron Cook felt Pitt at least had a mental victory in Philly. Coach Dixon, though, doesn’t buy that stuff.

“Our guys feel they should have won this game — no matter how many players we have,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said, the deafening roar from the home crowd after Villanova’s 64-63 win still ringing in his aching ears.

“We still have the guys to get it done.”

Dixon seemed more disappointed, more frustrated, maybe even angrier after this game than he has been after other losses, although the truth is he has been so successful that there really hasn’t been much of a sampling to gauge. Maybe it was because he knows Pitt wasted a big chance to get a precious conference road win mostly because of 22 turnovers, some of which could be attributed to being without Fields — the team’s best player — and others to fatigue from having to play with such a short bench. More likely, though, it was because he knows this game quite likely provided a damning glimpse of how this Big East season will play out.

Contrast this approach with the poor mouthing and moaning by the coach of Pitt’s opponent on Saturday.

But Gonzalez, whose team is in Milwaukee to face No. 15 Marquette tonight in its second Big East game of the season, would argue that the loss of guard Paul Gause is more devastating to Seton Hall than Pittsburgh’s losses are to the Panthers.

“Pittsburgh loses Mike Cook and Levance Fields and they put in Terrell Biggs and Keith Benjamin — now, we would kill for those guys,” Gonzalez said after the Pirates’ victory over Morgan State on Saturday. “When Seton Hall loses Paul Gause, we can’t absorb that loss, like some of the rich people in the conference. We don’t have enough players, enough talent. So, it’s a fight. For us to win any game from here on out without Paul is going to be tough. Because it’s tough to win a league game on the road with him, it’s going to be really tough without him.”

Whether that is some sort of blunt assessment or a motivating tool to send a message to his players in the media, I don’t think much of it. It’s one thing to pull a Lou Holtz and puff an opponent. It’s another to essentially tell your team, they don’t have the talent to compete.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Pirates lost tonight to Marquette. It was a good effort by Seton Hall, and they were definitely helped by the fact that the refs swallowed their whistles on a lot of inside stuff — we can only hope for similar officiating when Pitt faces Marquette.

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…

Let’s see, Gene Collier yesterday in a chat actually fielded a Pitt question.

jimmy_g: The devastating injury losses that the Pitt basketball team has suffered may be too much to overcome. How do you see this affecting their remaining season?

Gene Collier: Negatively and substantially. With Cook and Fields out, 30 percent of the scoring is gone, not to mention their experience. Fields ran the show. Now the show goes on without a front man. Fields could return by March. DuJuan Blair has broad shoulders, but not this broad.

You may sense a theme as Andy Katz at ESPN.com had his own chat (Insider subs.).

Fo Sheezy, Pittsburgh: Andy: Let’s cut to the chase. With the injury bug in full force, what can we expect of Pitt the rest of the regular season? The Panthers looked like a top-10 team after the Duke game, but the Fields injury is an absolute killer. He is the best player on that team, and he plays the most important position. So here is my 2-part question…(1) Where do you see Pitt finishing in the Big East? and (2) What have you heard as far as the time table for a possible return for Levance Fields? Thanks!!

Andy Katz: Is that your real name?

Well, Fo, I can tell you that the world didn’t end at Pitt. Nope, there is no Chicken Little roaming around Petersen. Jamie Dixon is still very optimistic after Ronald Ramon had 10 assists and no turnovers. I totally disagree with Doug Gottlieb, who said Pitt is going to the NIT now. The Panthers will win games, especially at home. The Big East, save Marquette and Georgetown, is even and there are plenty of games to be had. As for Fields, think more Padgett than Cook. The surgery went well and the feeling is that he will be back possibly during the Big East season instead of in the postseason.

Finally there was the Ray Fittipaldo chat today.

7_man_rotation: Do you think Pitt can go .500 in Big East play and how many Big East games do you think they need to win to get into the NCAA tournament?

Ray Fittipaldo: I think if Pitt goes 9-9 in the Big East the Panthers would be giving themselves a chance. That would give them a 21-10 record entering the Big East tournament. If Pitt wins one game in New York I think they would be assured of a spot.

Pitt cannot have any letdowns against teams like Rutgers, Seton Hall and St. John’s this season because beating the upper echelon teams in the league will be difficult with Cook and Fields. I’ll predict they’ll play two games under .500 without Fields. But depending upon when he comes back they could still make a run a berth in the tournament.

needdepth: What are our chances against Nova? Can we match up?

Ray Fittipaldo: Villanova is not a big and strong team. Jay Wright has some nice guards and small forward types, but Sam Young and DeJuan should have a big edge on the inside. I think it will be a matter of whether Pitt can contain Scottie Reynolds. He’s Villanova’s best player and the Panthers will need to keep him in check if they want to have a chance.

The ‘Nova game scares the hell out of me because ‘Nova’s guards are slashers and penetrators. If (when?) they get past Ramon and Benjamin, they can be the ones that will get Blair and Young in foul trouble.

With the loss of players for Pitt, they fell in meaningless power rankings. ESPN.com dropped them to 15.

Like aging, coaching ain’t for sissies. Down two starters, Jamie Dixon is now coaching on the fly just as the Big East schedule dawns with a Sunday date at Villanova. One idea — get the ball in DeJuan Blair’s hands more. The sensational freshman forward took just six shots in a win against Lafayette.

And yet, for whatever reason, they have Dayton behind Pitt at #16.

Luke Winn at SI.com dropped Pitt, but has them at the top of of his “On the Cusp, Tier 1.”

Pittsburgh (11-1): The Panthers’ ugly loss at Dayton normally wouldn’t be enough to knock them out of the rankings. They do, after all, have a win over Duke on their resume. But with Mike Cook and Levance Fields now out of the equation, Pitt no longer resembles the scary team we saw at the Garden before Christmas.

I don’t have a problem with these rankings.

That’s exactly what this game was. Sure, Pitt had a horrible night (both by their own doing and some back luck) but Dayton — especially Roberts — played very well. Exceptionally well, maybe even reaching “unreal”. He finished with 31 points with 15 of those coming from three pointers, some of which were taken from very deep. It seemed like he couldn’t miss all game, but neither could any other UD players. They shot 52% from the field compared to Pitt’s 29%. Marcus Johnson (15) and Kurt Huelsman (12) also hit double figures. Add in the fact that they hit 22 of 28 free throws and out-rebounded us 41-34, even though coming into the game we were at +11 rebounds per game against our opponents.

That was the tip of the iceberg during a flat our horrible game for Pitt. Pitt settled for some of the worst shots I’ve ever seen a basketball team take. Tyrell Biggs is not a three point shooter, but that’s not what he seems to think. Sam Young is a forward too, but he threw up two treys. Ronald Ramon, who’s job is to hit a damn three, went 0-6. As a team, we were 3-25 from deep. Ouch.

Moving to DeJuan Blair, who came back down to Earth after a great game against Duke where I think a lot of people forgot he’s just a freshman. He picked up two fouls early, sat most of the first half, and had to play most of the second half with four fouls. This was the first really hostile environment he’s faced and he made plenty of “freshman mistakes”.

Back to Ronald Ramon though. Oh geez, Ronald Ramon. Ramon is basically worthless if he’s not going to hit threes, especially some of the wide open looks he got tonight. He’s a liability on defense and has no real speed or quickness. At 6-1 (6-4 with the hair) and 180 pounds, he definitely has no size and when Fields went out he looked lost while running the offense at PG. He misses hitting wide open players with passes because he lacks court vision and always seems like he’s a step behind everything else. Problem is, with Gil Brown and Keith Benjamin filling in for Mike Cook and Brad Wanamaker only a true freshman who needs some work, our options are limited and Ramon will continue to see the minutes.

As TMG says in the comments:

Ramon didn’t play tonight, but some walk on was using his jersey.

No, my 7 year-old brother isn’t even a walk-on yet. [/Ramon rant]

Of course, Ramon only played the point because of Field’s injury. Obviously it looked like a foot or ankle type of thing but it seems like no one has any real information. The AP report said nothing of value and the radio guys didn’t seem to know much either except it’s some type of sprain. The severity is the big question. Losing Cook for the season was bad, but losing Levance for an extended time (which hopefully isn’t the case) is just horrible. I know this debate has been going on for a while — Fields is one of the best point guards in the nation. He’s the man on this team.

None of the views ESPN had showed the actual injury but he backed into where the cheerleaders were sitting so a good guess would be he stepped on one of their feet or something. A bit surprising that ESPN only had three camera angles, since usually they have a camera to focus on every single player. I guess the other five hoops games plus three bowl games used up every resource the network has.

Lastly, with the way college basketball games are broadcast today, trying to fit them into a two hour time slot and hoping they don’t spill into the next game’s air time is not working anymore. Commercial breaks at every chance they can get (media time outs every four minutes) make the games run longer and longer. Add in the general rule of thumb that every minute of game time ends up translating into about two minutes of real time and a smaller number of games are going to fit into the time slot. Although it’ll never happen (having less teams play means fewer markets are interested), networks like ESPN should show fewer games but give them each a 2.5 hour window. [/ESPN rant. Two of those in one post — I need to cut back a little.]

To end this great night, Penn State won the Alamo Bowl. Still, the sky is not falling. We’re 10-1 and it’s just one non-con loss against a good team.