Pitt Panther Prowl

Offseason Hoops Excitement

For college sports fans, especially those of us in the north where college baseball (and in Pittsburgh, pro baseball) isn’t very exciting, this is a difficult time of year.  A few months ago we were teased with football spring camps, only to be left with months of void before the season starts.  Basketball pops in and out of the news because of the NBA draft, which allows rankings to be reworked twenty different times based on who is in the draft, who is out of the draft, who is in the draft that might later be out of the draft, and who may be transferring, injured, academically ineligible, or denied parole.

In short, May through July sucks for college sports fans.

There are, of course, a few reprieves in an otherwise torturous quarter year of sports nothingness.  For example, there are those ESPN, Rivals.com, Scouts.com, Weknowmoreaboutsportsthanyou.com, and other such articles and blogs that serve to get us ready for a season that seems like it will never come.

Lucky for us, with the NBA draft looming, we have had a bit of such college hoops news coming out.  One such piece being the latest bracketology on espn.com.  In it, Joe Lunardi lists our beloved Panthers as not only a 1 seed; but as the #1 overall seed in the 2009 NCAA Tournament.

On a side note, apparently Greensboro, NC will host the 1 seeds from the South and East brackets, giving both Duke and UNC a shot at playing home games for a good portion of the tournament.

Likewise Andy Katz has nice things to say about Pitt, ranking them #2 in his super preseason poll.

The hint of Mike Cook coming back for a sixth year (after tearing his ACL in December) makes the Panthers even more formidable. Sam Young and DeJuan Blair are big-time bigs, and Levance Fields might be as good a floor leader as anyone in the country. This Pitt team could win the national title.

You hear that?  This Pitt team could win the national title.

Then there is Andy Glockner’s piece about how seniors are going to be the key this year in hoops.  Of course you can’t mention seniors without mentioning Sam Young, whom Glockner calls Pitt’s “Unassuming Leader.”

Since Pitt’s resurgence/resurrection/dawning as a basketball power, this kind of praise has been non-existent.  Pitt has often been a sexy pick as a team to watch; a gritty team from a tough conference who can beat the most explosive teams with its grind it out defense.  Never have they been a team that was being picked as a favorite for a national championship.  Never have they been a team being crowned a 1 seed by a guy who has historically been pretty hard on Pitt when putting together his brackets and analysis.

This is something new.

As Pitt fans, we have been expecting a national title since Ben Howland’s third year.  We can name the top players from each season and why most of the teams of the last eight years were well equipped to make deep tourney runs.  We have complained that the analysts aren’t giving Pitt enough props and respect.  We have then witnessed those analysts be correct, though never admitting that they were in fact so, as Pitt failed to make it past the Sweet 16.

But what we have never had is a media that seems so giddy about our beloved Panthers.  While we are thrilled with the praise, we are left wanting to write a letter such as this:

Dear Media,

You didn’t believe when we did.  Now you want to jump on the bandwagon.  Its too late, losers.

Hail to Pitt.

PS- Even though you aren’t allowed on the bandwagon, please keep writing those wonderful articles about our team.

All of this makes for an exciting, if lengthy and otherwise bland off season.  I already want to start planning my National Champion Pitt Panthers party.  Unfortunately we are still four months from the season even beginning.  Who knows what can happen between now and then?  Who knows what can happen early in the season, such as losing two pivotal starters for the year?  For now, we just have to wait with anticipation, speculating on what could happen; what might come to be.

In the mean time, it won’t hurt if we can get some more of those articles about how good our team is going to be.