Pitt Panther Prowl

UConn loss good for Pitt?

This might be a strange comment, and many die hard Pitt fans might be taken aback by it, but I really think that the most recent loss for Pitt, 60-53 loss to UConn, is actually a good thing in the grand scheme of the season. In terms of watering down the tournament resume, that may not be a good thing. If Pitt can’t win a few more, with a very difficult schedule coming up, they might not make the tourney at all.

So why do I think this latest loss is a good thing? First of all, it is to Pitt’s benefit to fall to a 6 or 7 seed in the NCAA tournament. Pitt has beaten a lock for a 1 seed before being plagued by the crippling injuries they currently face. They also beat a likely 2 seed down two starters. Even down two starters, Pitt actually looked better against Georgetown than they did against Duke. Even at full strength, which they won’t be for the NCAA tournament, I am not sure Pitt could beat Duke again. I certainly don’t see them beating UNC or Memphis, two other locks for 1 seeds. On the other hand, we already know Pitt can beat Georgetown. I think they could give Wisconsin or Tennessee a solid run. And I would actually welcome a match-up with UCLA. Pitt’s best shot at getting past that stumbling block, the Sweet 16, is to finish with a low enough seed to have to go through the 2 seed to get to the elite 8. There was a point at which Pitt looked like a good shot at a 3 seed; but since that is completely out of the question at this point, Pitt’s best shot is to get a 6 or 7.

Under normal circumstances, it would be foolish to root for a lower seed. But we know that Pitt is getting Levance Fields back really soon and they will likely become a more competitive team once he settles back into the rotation. So a 7 seed Pitt team with Fields back in the lineup may well play much like the 2 or 3 seed team they looked like the first half of the season. While Fields isn’t going to come back and make Pitt a final four team, he should give them enough of a boost to make a nice tourney run again. With him back, there is no reason they aren’t a Sweet 16 team again. And since it is clear that a point guard is the missing piece right now, he could be enough to take this team to the next level, given the right match ups in the tourney.

There is another reason that the UConn loss is a positive for the Panthers and their fans. Aside from the Rutgers game, where Pitt took the second half off, the Panthers have been in a position to win every conference game thus far. So there is no doubt that this is a capable team that can still hang with the best of the Big East. This was especially evidenced in their sound victory over Georgetown, a game that was never in doubt. But that win seems to have ignited within Panther Nation the feeling that, much to our surprise, this team was really every bit as good without Cook and Fields as they are with them. With the first couple of losses (Villanova and Cincinnati), the games were so close that we were left with the feeling that all we were really needing was that clutch finisher that we know Fields is. After all, both came down to the last possession.

What we failed to consider was that with Fields in the lineup, neither of those games would have come down to the final possession. The Cincinnati game in particular made it clear that if we had Fields, who could have slashed through that zone and created openings, the game would have been dramatically different, with Pitt likely having good leads near the end instead of needing to find points as time wound down. Likewise, if Fields had been in the lineup against UConn, Pitt likely never relinquishes the lead they had built up in the first half. He would have been able to slash in to the foul line or further, forcing attention to him, and allowing passes to DeJuan Blair, Tyrell Biggs, and Sam Young who then wouldn’t have had to face as much pressure from two fierce shot blockers. And if the pressure didn’t step up and respect Fields as he drove down the lane, he has shown ability to make teams pay for that mistake either with a sweet foul line floater, or taking it straight to the hole.

Given how close the conference losses have been, and given the fact that Pitt has played better against the good teams than the mediocre to bad teams, we have continually been left with the feeling that Pitt is still [almost] an elite team that really could win the conference regular season crown. What I think the UConn loss does is it shows the opposite. This isn’t a really good team that is finding ways to lose. This is a really limited [due to injury] team that is almost finding ways to win games they should lose. Just look at the teams that UConn beat coming into the Pitt game. With wins over Marquette, a very hot Cincinnati, Louisville, and [then no. 8] Indiana, is there really anything to be ashamed of that we lost to UConn? Absolutely not. They are the hottest team in the conference right now. And while the sting of the loss leaves us feeling like another one got away, we would be better to consider that this team is currently playing at a much higher level than we thought they could when Cook and Fields first went down. When Fields went down against Dayton, most of us immediately started talking “next year”. Then Pitt gave us a false hope with a sound win. But they are really playing above themselves right now, especially given the 8-man rotation featuring 4 freshmen.

Instead of feeling the let down of a team that can’t close the deal, we should really allow ourselves a certain amount of satisfaction and anticipation. If Pitt can keep these games within 1 possession at the end; if they can lead the entire game against these teams, but lose it in the last few minutes; then we should have a great feeling of excitement at how differently these games will go in a few weeks with our floor general back in the line up. We do need to give Fields a few games to get things going again. It would be unreasonable to think that he could come back after missing a month and a half and play 35 minutes at full speed. But he will work his way back, and the team really will be as good as we all want them to be right now. When that happens, this will no longer be the team that should have been written off, but that refuses to go away; and it will become the team that nobody wants to face, especially in the Big East Tournament.

All this should give us an appreciation for just how hard this team really works; how they never quit, not matter how dire the circumstances. It is that work ethic, that commitment to aspiring to excellence, even in the most unfavorable of circumstances, that has defined this team throughout the entire Jamie Dixon era. And it is that ethic and commitment that is shining so brightly these days.

So thank you to UConn for helping us to regain perspective on our season and on just how lucky we are to have these guys still playing at this level. Thank you to Ronald Ramon, Keith Benjamin, Gilbert Brown for giving us unexpected guard play in the face of losing our point guard; thanks to Blair, Biggs, and Young for refusing to let anyone out-muscle or out-man you, even if we are under-manned; even thanks to Brad Wanamaker and Gary McGhee for giving those guys enough rest during the games to go back out and keep it close at the end. You guys have given us great hope in a season where we should have none. You have shown us that a few injuries don’t end our hopes. And you have shown us that, while you aren’t a great team right now, all we need to do is hold on for another couple of weeks, and there will be reason to hope again. Most of all, thanks to Jamie Dixon, who hasn’t made or accepted excuses; thus keeping us expecting more than we reasonably should, and still giving us reason to be excited about Pitt hoops during this difficult time.