Pitt Stomach-Punched by Kemba Walker

And thus ends Pitt's 2011 Big East Tournament experience, as quickly as it started. Jamie Dixon, one of the most successful coaches in the nation, now moves to an inexplicable 0-3 in the tournament when holding the double-bye. I didn't get to see the game live, but I think it's all the better that I missed it, given the ending. At least the Big East refs didn't screw it up. I just hope Gary McGhee's broken ankles heal in time for the Big Dance.

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Pitt Once Again Capitalizes on the Opportunity to Disappoint

One thing I've learned over the years as a fan of Pitt football: just when you start to feel the least bit good about yourself, you should prepare to be let down. It's a pattern that never fails.

PITT ROLLS ON

Determined to make believers out of people like me, the Pitt Panthers are doing quite the job. The most recent example of their surprisingly-strong play came in a 67-57 win at #15 UConn on Wednesday night, as the Panthers completed their first three-game road winning streak in school history, hard as that is to believe.

Pitt led for the bulk of the game, only momentarily falling behind when the Huskies took a 49-48 lead with 9:40 left in the second half. The Panthers would quickly regain that lead and not give it back, closing out Jim Calhoun's team for the third straight time and moving to 4-0 in Big East play, with road wins over two ranked teams.

Pitt outrebounded UConn by a a 40-31 margin, including 26-13 in the second half. The Panthers continued their excellent free throw shooting, sinking 17 of 20 and six straight to close out the game. The Huskies shot just 46% from the charity stripe on 13 attempts.

Brad Wanamaker and Ashton Gibbs led Pitt with 19 points each, and Gilbert Brown added 11. Gary McGhee topped the Panthers with nine rebounds, while scoring eight points. Stanley Robinson led UConn with 19 points.

The only down side of Pitt's game was some spotty shooting from Gibbs and Jermaine Dixon, who made just nine of their 29 shots on the night. But now's not the time for nit-picking, because a win at UConn is a win at UConn.

The Panthers, who've won seven straight, are off until a noon matchup on Saturday with Louisville at the Pete. The Cardinals are 12-5 and 3-1 in the Big East, most recently dropping a 92-84 contest with #4 Villanova on Monday.

*By the way, Wednesday was a good night for former Panthers as well. Dejuan Blair had a career-high 28 points and 21 rebounds filling in for Tim Duncan in a 109-108 Spurs win over Oklahoma City on Wednesday. In his rookie season, Blair is averaging 6.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per game for San Antonio.

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CAPTION CONTEST!

It's about time for a new caption contest after the thoroughly enjoyable Jay Cutler blockbuster, so I present to you one Mr. Hasheem Thabeet and guest at the Final Four. Caption your hearts out. And remember, you've got to leave your caption in the comments section to qualify (no email entries, please).

The best caption for this contest wins a $50 shopping spree at The Steel City Auctions Gallery. Which would be just enough to cover that Kimbo Slice autographed 8x10 photo you've been eyeing up.

The winner of the Cutler Contest was Get Fresh Designs, with this one: "I won this jersey in a caption contest on Mondesi's House." They will receive a black and gold t-shirt set courtesy of Champion.

*Prize rules: Must be redeemed within 30 days of the end of the contest (May 22, 2009). No cash value. Shipping included for all prize redemptions.

UPDATED: PITT RETURNS TO THE TOP SPOT

As expected, Pitt vaulted back into the nation's #1 slot following a dominant week coupled with losses to the previous week's top three teams. But the bigger question I had was to find out who the one person was that actually voted for UConn ahead of Pitt in this week's poll. Were they watching Two and a Half Men instead of the Pitt-UConn game on Big Monday last week? And even better is Oklahoma, who ranked #3, getting two first-place votes despite an injury to Blake Griffin. I was perplexed, and being a Pittsburgher, I was naturally disgusted that any national media member would slight us in the least.

Well, I found out that there's a site called Pollspeak that reports on how writers voted, so here's the answer to my questions:

--UConn's #1 vote was from George Geise of the Great Falls Tribune in the basketball mecca of Great Falls, Montana.

--Oklahoma's #1 votes came from Ron Morris of The State in Columbia, South Carolina, and Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated and CBS fame. I'd expect a little more out of him.

--John Feinstein of NPR is the writer who voted for Robert Morris in the polls earlier this season, and he apparently champions a smaller school for his 25th spot each week. What a humanitarian. This week, he even threw a bone to Penn State at #24.

So there you have it. Some guy from Montana is the only thing sitting between Pitt and the unanimous #1 love that it deserves. Of course, no one's opinion, not even George Geise's, matters once the field of 65 is set. But still, it's nothing but a positive for the Pitt program to be at or around the top spot. Hopefully the results will be a little better this time around.

Pitt rises again as coaches' No. 1 [ESPN]
Pollstalker [Pollspeak]
Poll Dancing: Who's that guy ranking Robert Morris every week? [The Dagger]

Update:

To answer the question someone posed in the comments section, a media member informed me that Jim Boeheim has the Big East vote in the coaches poll (one coach votes in each of the 31 conferences) and they won’t release individual ballots until the final poll when it’s a no-brainer. He also points out that the great George Geise of Montana got slammed in a "The Poll Attacks" column on CBS Sports' website for this week's vote.

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DEJUAN BLAIR

That name says it all in the wake of #4 Pitt's 76-68 win over #1 UConn on Monday night. Blair was everywhere, racking up 22 points and 23 rebounds in the Panthers' first victory over a #1-ranked team in school history. It was a performance for the ages.

Given the scores of pro scouts in the stands, this game could've literally made Blair millions of dollars. The key was his ability to stay out of foul trouble (with only two), an aspect of the game that eluded UConn's highly-touted Hasheem Thabeet, the 7'3" giant who fouled out with just five points and four rebounds on 1-for-5 shooting.

Fouls were a touchy topic all night, with Pitt getting called for nine and UConn only two at one point in the game. The announcing team of Jay Bilas and Bill "Smell Those Onions" Raftery hinted at over-officiating in the game and likewise in the conference this year, and I could see where they would say that. This game surely would've had a different outcome had Blair's 22 and 23 been neutralized by quick whistles. Luckily, things didn't play out that way.

Although they led for most of the game, it wasn't all smooth sailing for the Panthers. Their guard shooting was off-the-charts bad; Levance Fields was 2-10, Jermaine Dixon 3-8, Brad Wanamaker 0-6, Ashton Gibbs 0-2, and Gilbert Brown (technically a G/F) 0-5. That's 5-for-31, a whopping 16%.

The Levance Fields turnover-to-assist ratio finally slowed down, as it was a much more down-to-earth 5 assists/4 TOs. It wasn't Fields' finest game, but he did bury some big shots during crunch time that were crucial to the victory. He scored all of his 10 points in the final 3:09 of the game. He saved the best for last, I suppose.

Sam Young was huge, adding 25 points that were considered quiet only because of Blair's fantastic performance. Like the announcers mused, this could be the year Pitt finally puts it all together and takes the next step in March.

I was pretty amped for this game and I'd say it thoroughly met all of my lofty expectations. It was tight throughout, with the trademark physicality that the Big East has become known for; Blair flipping Thabeet on his back, Blair getting an elbow in his face from Stanley Robinson....it was all par for the course. It was a highly enjoyable night of hoops.

Pitt now sits at 24-2, and 11-2 in the Big East, with five games left: home vs. DePaul, (8-18, 0-13) at Providence (16-9, 8-5), at Seton Hall (14-10, 5-7), home vs. Marquette (21-4, 10-2) , and to close, UConn (24-2, 12-2) at the Pete. Expect the growing stable of celebrities appearing at Pitt games to turn out for that one. No word yet on whether or not Skippy will be there, but I'm pretty sure Dejuan Blair will show up.

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UPDATED: WANNY GETS A GATORADE BATH

PITT (9-3) 34
UCONN (7-5) 10

Normally, I wouldn't assume a win over UConn to necessitate a Gatorade soaking of the head coach, but after the past couple of seasons, it was a welcome sight for the Pitt Panthers today, who probably locked up a birth in the December 31 Sun Bowl with a 34-10 win at UConn. The nine wins for Pitt are the most since 1982.

The story of the day was the play of UConn's quarterbacks, who completed just six passes to their own team and five to Pitt. For the day, Tyler Lorenzen and Zach Fraser were 6-for-31 for 80 yards, numbers uglier than that girl in the peanut commercial.

Shady McCoy was once again Shady McCoy, running for 95 yards on 24 carries and scoring his 20th touchdown of the season. Bill Stull added touchdown throws of 61 and 28 yards to Derek Kinder and Nate Byham, respectively, as the Panthers brought out the big play on multiple occasions.

It was a great way to end a momentum-building campaign for the Panthers, who looked in serious trouble after opening the season with a loss to Bowling Green, which ended up a mediocre 6-6 in the MAC. But all's well that end's well, I suppose (especially if Lesean McCoy returns next season).

In other local college football news, our two dream seasons are over, and it wasn't pretty. Cal U lost in the D-2 Semifinals to Minnesota-Duluth, 45-7; and Washington & Jefferson lost the D-3 quarterfinals to Mary Hardin-Baylor, 63-7. It was fun while it lasted.

A few relevant links to add...

--Sun Bowl tickets are already on sale. So I guess it's official. They'll be playing 8-4 Oregon State in El Paso, Texas. OSU beat USC, so I suppose they'd be considered a good team.

--Full story on the Cal and W&J carnage.

--At least we can still root for Bethel Park, which advanced to the PIAA Quad-A title game with a 38-35 win in triple OT today. Way to represent the WPIAL.

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