Forgotten Man
Gilbert Brown Sat While Pitt's Season Slipped Away
By Ray Mernagh

It ended too soon.

That's what resonated from the voice of the kid from Brownsville, trying to explain what transpired down the stretch of the East Regional Final of the NCAA Tournament. How a four-point lead and possession of the ball with 3:00 left in regulation turned into a 78-76 punch-to-the-Adams-apple-loss that he was still trying to regain his breath from. Facing the media horde in the bowels of the TD Banknorth Garden and flanked by his two pillars, DeJuan Blair and Sam Young, Levance Fields-Pitt's "Little General"-struggled mightily before succinctly summing it up.

"It went from having a chance to go to overtime and possibly winning the game," said Fields, "to the season being over." Fields closed his eyes and lowered his head with the last word.

OVER.

Yup, it was over, and at least a game too soon for this group. Somehow, after surviving precarious efforts against their first three opponents, Pitt finally played a game that resembled the team that twice beat fellow top-seed UConn during the season. A squad with two soon-to-be-pros that twice rose to the No. 1 ranking in the national polls before hitting some turbulence in the Big East tournament and the early rounds of NCAA play now looked primed to take it up another notch thanks to the Herculean efforts of Young and Blair. But just like that, it was over.

The storyline coming out of Beantown following the loss was that Jermaine Dixon's turnover and subsequent foul leading to a three-point play by Villanova's Dwayne Anderson was the turning point in the game. Pitt went from being up four with the ball to only up one, all in a span of about five seconds. Another theory being thrown around was that the role players didn't step up enough in their support of Blair and Young. There was also some valid questioning of late-game decisions made by coach Jamie Dixon. But nobody mentioned coach Dixon's biggest mistake, maybe because he was sitting on the bench from the 7:39 mark of the second half until 38 seconds remained in the game. The one player who'd proven he was capable of playing to Young and Blair's level-on this night when it was oh-so-needed-was left on the bench, seemingly forgotten.

The storyline being ignored was about the role player that DID step up - Gilbert Brown. Brown's play stood out to me while watching the game's broadcast enough that I questioned why he wasn't in the game more while watching. But it was after watching the tape with the sound down, taking notes on the positive and negative contributions of every player on each possession, when it became apparent to me that Brown being on the bench was a huge difference, possibly THE DIFFERENCE in the game. I don't have the space to go possession by possession so I'll summarize my scout of Brown's second half performance for you: Brown played about eight minutes in the half and during those eight minutes he was +10 on my sheet. Brown was by far the most capable passer into the post from the wing, and threw it into Blair five or six times, resulting in Blair either finishing the play, getting fouled, or hitting a cutting Young for a bucket. Brown drove the baseline and drew fouls. Brown grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back in. Brown helped on Young's man once when Sam got caught up in a pick and the help resulted in an air ball. Brown was making plays left and right.

I don't like trashing a college player; it's not right and that's not what I'm doing here. Brad Wanamaker and Jermaine Dixon made big shots, defended their rear ends off, and contributed mightily to the success of this team for a large part of the season. But both of them played tentative against Villanova - especially Wanamaker. Neither seemed to recognize either when, or where, to get Young and Blair the ball during the second half. They both reversed the ball on multiple occasions rather than throw it into the post. Wanamaker, who somehow finished the game with zero turnovers, drove the ball into the gut of the defense several times. Fields even struggled with driving into a crowded middle and throwing a pass into the post so poor that Blair ended up walking trying to reach it.

Everybody wants to talk about Jermaine Dixon's turnover and foul, but nobody seems to recall that just a possession earlier he saved a terrible pass from Fields by snatching it out of the air with his left hand and nailing a tough jumper as the shot clock wound down to put Pitt up four. The point is that Wanamaker, for a greater part of the second half, was clearly out of sorts, refusing to look at the basket or into the post when catching the ball on the wing, and throwing a pass at the feet of a startled Young that led to a Young travel.

Wanamaker will bounce back. He'll be a solid guard, maybe even more than that, for the next two years. Dixon played with tons of courage in catching that ball and hitting that shot in what was his first ever big-time college moment. He'll likely have a very good senior year. But Brown was the guy for this game and somebody on that bench should've realized it.

This was Jamie Dixon's first huge test as a coach, and frankly, he came up short.

He'll learn from it.

Basketball, especially to Dixon, is a collaborative effort of all the parts. But parts like Blair and Young are different - they need to be leaned on until they either break, or win you a championship.

If both Blair and Young get three more shots Pitt is probably getting ready to play North Carolina in Detroit. Blair finished 9-9 from the field while Young was 10-17 (19-26). The rest of their teammates shot 6-26, a figure that includes Brown's 2-4 effort. Gil Brown could've gotten Pitt those shots... if he'd been given the chance.

Instead, it's over.

Ray Mernagh is the publisher of Hoopfactor.com and is authoring a book on the Mid-American Conference.