Let The Madness Begin
Pitt Built For Deep Tournament Run
By Scott Robertson

Billy Packer isn't much for cartoons, his role being the No. 1 men's basketball analyst for CBS Sports and thus the top analyst for March Madness, the NCAA men's basketball tournament that gets under way this month. But he can't escape thinking about The Flintstones when he watches this season's University of Pittsburgh team play.

No, Packer isn't thinking of Fred, Barney, Wilma or Betty. He's thinking more along the lines of Mo, Mateen and Charlie.

"The teams that are successful in the NCAAs are experienced and do not get dominated inside," Packer said. "They also have great guard play. This Pitt team has all of the above. They remind me, in terms of their toughness, of that Michigan State team that won the national championship."

Packer likened the Panthers to the 1999-2000 Michigan State national title team nicknamed The Flintstones because several of its key players came from Flint MI. That team was led by the guard play of Mateen Cleaves and Charlie Bell, who play in a manner similar to that of Pitt's Julius Page and Brandin Knight. The difference between the teams, Packer said, was that the Spartans of 2000 had the explosive scoring of Morris "Mo" Peterson, a dynamic this Pitt team lacks.

"Pitt doesn't have that kind of player, and that means they could get into a situation where scoring could be a problem," Packer said. "They do it with power and good defense. But the problem a team faces in the tournament, since it's a one-and-you're-done format, is that you can run into a guy on a given night who is just lighting it up. How will they handle that?"

Based on that question, PSR researched the NCAA Tournament performances of Big East teams since the conference was formed for the start of the 1979-80 season. The idea is to provide a look at where Pitt might end up seeded in the tournament, and where the Panthers might find themselves in the first round.

Since its inception, the Big East has sent 111 teams into the NCAA Tournament. Those teams have played 281 games, posting a 174-107 record along the way. Of the 111 who got in, 47 made it to the Sweet 16, including Pitt and Connecticut last season.

Twenty-six Big East teams have advanced to the Elite Eight, and 10 to the Final Four, although the conference has not had a Big East team in the Final Four since UConn got there on the way to the national championship in 1999.

That Final Four appearance by the Huskies broke a three-year drought for the conference, and is only the second Big East appearance in the Final Four since Seton Hall lost the national title game to Michigan in 1989. Only Syracuse, which lost the national title game to Kentucky in 1996, joined UConn as a Big East team to make the Final Four during the 1990s. The conference has had three national champions—UConn in 1999, Villanova in its magical 1985 run and Patrick Ewing-led Georgetown in 1984.

A deeper look into the past shows what the Panthers could face this post-season. Barring injury, they will enter Madison Square Garden later this month as the favorites to win the Big East Conference Tournament. Pitt has made its only appearances in the conference title game the last two seasons, and has lost both times, in 2001 to Boston College and last season to UConn. Of the 23 tournament champions thus far, only 12 advanced to the Sweet 16 (the 1981 champ, Syracuse, played in the NIT).

If the Panthers win the conference title, they might head West. While 11 of the 22 conference champs have played in the East Region, seven have been sent to the West Region—St. John's has gone West after two of its three championships—and the remaining four have played in the Southeast Region.

Pitt has made seven appearances in the NCAA Tournament since joining the Big East, and the results have been less than stellar. Pitt has won only five of 12 games in its seven appearances, two of those on the way to the Sweet 16 last season, the only time the Panthers have advanced that far.

Pitt played out of the Midwest Region three times, losing to Louisiana Tech in the first round in 1985, beating Eastern Michigan in the first round but losing to Vanderbilt and Barry Goheen in the second round in '88, and losing to Ball State in the first round in '89. The Panthers have played out of the Southeast Region twice, beating Georgia in the first round but falling to Kansas in the second round in '91, and losing to Utah in the first round in '93. Pitt beat Marist in the first round and lost to Oklahoma in the second round out of the West Region in 1987.

While things can change drastically given injuries, shooting slumps and bad breaks, the Panthers of 2003 look like a strong bet to contend for a national title. A mid-February survey of projected brackets showed the Panthers all over the map.

CBSSportsline.com had Pitt the No. 3 seed in the East Region behind No. 1 Louisville and No. 2 Oklahoma. According to that projection, Pitt would have faced Santa Barbara in the first round.

ESPN.com put the Panthers in an even tougher spot—the No. 3 seed in the Midwest behind No. 1 Arizona and No. 2 Texas, with a first round game against former Pitt coach Ralph Willard's Holy Cross Crusaders.

Both of those projections came out with a handful of regular season games left, not to mention conference tournament play, and changes will occur.

Packer puts little stock in any projected match-ups, and believes this team's fate is in its own hands.

"I think rather than who can beat them, it's a question of will they beat themselves?" Packer said. "They have the ingredients. I like the make-up of their team. But in this tournament, you never know.

"Sometimes you get veteran teams like Pitt who say, this is our last chance and we are not going to be denied, and they have a great tournament run. But other teams tighten up knowing it's their last go-round before they lose key players. Then the battle becomes not their opponents, the battle becomes themselves.

"But if this team can get on a positive roll, they're going to be tough to beat."

Scott Robertson is an Associate Editor of the Pittsburgh Sports Report.