The Sports Monitor

The rumor mill is churning and Pitt coach Jamie Dixon is the one being tossed about. USC reportedly is after Dixon, who just suffered another early exit in the NCAA tournament as the Panthers' coach. If Dixon does go, would it help Pitt? It's a tough question to answer. Pitt has had some good regular seasons under Dixon. They are an annual choice for the Big Dance, too. It's when the postseason comes around that Dixon has his troubles. It's hard to imagine that his teams haven't been able to live up to their billing at tourney time, so it would stand to reason that finding a new coach could change this. I'm not opposed to seeing Dixon leave, but I don't think it's an easy answer. When Ben Howland left Pitt for UCLA, people around Pittsburgh thought the Panthers would be able to get a big-name coach to fill the vacancy. To their surprise, they couldn't. They had to promote Dixon, then an assistant. It worked out, but it also shows ...

This is the round where the Pitt Panthers basketball team usually gets kicked aside in the NCAA tournament. It's also the round where I think Pitt could very well lose, especially if you think history repeats itself. As you've probably heard already, Pitt's opponent, Xavier, is coached by former Pitt point guard Sean Miller. It's an intriguing storyline. It's also a recipe for disaster for the Panthers. Xavier can hit the 3s, plus they have some depth up front. And don't think for a minute Miller's players don't want to do anything in their power to get a win. Pitt stumbled in its first two games in the tournament but it stands just one win from the Elite Eight and two wins from a trip to Detroit for the Final Four (anyone see the similarities to the Steelers' Super Bowl XL run yet?). There's a lot of support out there for the Panthers and many believe this is their year. A win tonight and I'll start to believe, too.

If you didn't watch the Pitt Panthers' first-round NCAA basketball tournament game Friday afternoon and just saw the final score of 72-62, you might have thought it wasn't a that bad game for the Panthers. You'd be wrong. The game was much, much closer than the final score indicated. In fact, East Tennessee State thought an upset was brewing. One quote, in particular, stood out after reading the game stories. "We had them. We just couldn't get over the hump," ETSU guard Kevin Tiggs told reporters after the loss. They were a pretty confident bunch and realized an opportunity slipped away. Pitt escaped, to put it mildly. And if it wasn't for DeJuan Blair's monster game (27 points, 16 rebounds), the No. 1-seeded Panthers might have made history for all the wrong reasons. Now, a matchup against Oklahoma State looms Sunday. Maybe the close call against East Tennessee was a wake-up call. Maybe the Panthers just needed to shake off the rust after a layoff...