The Sports Monitor

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...