Pitt Has Mighty Muscles - Not Stuff to Win

DAYTON, Ohio -- DeJuan Blair's arms are so humongous, he wears bicep bands, tiny strips of cloth stretched to the brink of snapping. At 6-foot-7 and 265 pounds, he could play tight end in the NFL or enter the Octagon, proving it Sunday when he shook off a furious collision that left Oklahoma State's Byron Eaton literally crying in pain on the bench. Levance Fields, too, could put on the big pads as a safety, absorbing a blindside pop in the chops and bouncing right back up. Sam Young? A 6-6, 220-pound wideout, no doubt, when he isn't listening to Go-Go music.

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What America wants to know, though, is whether these three astounding athletes can lead the University of Pittsburgh to a national championship in ... basketball. And my continuing take, after watching Pitt nearly blow its second-round game after almost becoming the first No. 1 seed to succumb to a No. 16 seed, is a firm no. This team tempts fate too often. This team doesn't handle the ball well against smothering pressure, as shown in a gruesome performance against East Tennessee State. This team lapses into mysterious lull periods and grows careless, such as when Fields lazily whipped a cross-court pass halfway to Chillicothe, allowing Oklahoma State to rally and take a late lead. This team isn't as technically solid as the elite contenders, relying on explosiveness and board-pounding but capable of losing to anyone at any time.

Even Fields, who recovered Sunday to make the biggest three-pointer of his life and lead Pitt on its 84-76 survival mission, acknowledged that his club isn't playing its best basketball when the urgency of the NCAA Tournament demands it. "Right now we're not,'' he said. "But it's just about getting it done and finding ways to win. And we had two tough games, but in both games, we found a way to win. The thing that probably (hurts) the most is turnovers, 18 (Friday) and 14 (Sunday). We've got to cut down on that. We average about 10 in the season. With us cutting down on that, it gives us more opportunities for shots, gives us more opportunities for offensive rebounds for the ball. Right now, we're not on all cylinders, but this tournament is about surviving and advancing.''

"It's a tough bracket we're in," argued Blair, who managed 10 points and 12 rebounds after a first-half collision that left him with back pain. "We're just fighting through it."


Tough bracket? East Tennessee State and Oklahoma State? Sorry, we need to see Pitt do more than survive and advance this time. Style points matter more in a program dogged by the stigma of never having reached a Final Four, at least in the tournament's modern era. Since 2002, first with Ben Howland and then with disciple Jamie Dixon, the Panthers have averaged 27 wins a season. But they've never cracked through to the Elite Eight, making their top seeding in the East Region something of a flimsy perch. Survive and advance? That isn't what Connecticut did in its collective 82-point slaughters. That isn't what North Carolina, Villanova, Syracuse and Oklahoma did. Those teams made statements in both rounds. Pitt, which has talked of making history, just about made history of the wrong sort in committing 18 turnovers and giving up 19 offensive rebounds in its opener. If ETSU made more than half its free throws, Pitt would have lost the game -- and lost face forever.

Xavier would seem a favorable opponent in the Sweet 16 in Boston, but that's the round where Pitt traditionally goes to die. And knowing how Villanova offers its own brand of physicality, I'm starting to like Jay Wright's chances of reaching the Final Four more than Dixon's. Another year without a national championship means another year outside the sport's pantheon, looking in. Dixon knows that won't sit well with those who cares about such things.

"It puts you on a different level,'' he said of a national championship. "That separates you. We need to win one to put ourselves on the same level with those schools that have."

Is this team capable? "We can put the ball in the basket,'' Dixon said. "We're unselfish, and we've got balance inside and out. I know they've got stats that show as far as points per possession, and we've kind of been at the top of the country the entire year. The only thing recently is the turnovers have been higher than usual. That's not characteristic of us, and that's the thing we've got to control and do a better job of. So we're going to really emphasize that here in the coming days.''

Pitt can be proud of the way it finished against Oklahoma State. The Big Three made every big play in the deciding moments, starting with a layup by Fields and his dagger three from the corner, made possible by a Young pass and pick. With 40 seconds left, Blair went high for yet another offensive rebound and scored on a putback, easing the tension. This team's game is rebounding and brute force, with a 42-21 advantage (19-5 on the offensive boards). But here's a better question: Why does a team with such lopsided edges struggle so often? Oklahoma State went daffy in the first half with 10 three-pointers, but had only two in the second half. How did the Cowboys stay in until the end?

"Our guys were in there scrapping and clawing and doing everything possible they could to rebound," coach Travis Ford said. "We would go up 10 feet and Blair and Young would go up 11."

Young also scored 32 points, consistently nailing first-half treys to keep with OSU. That's the thing about Pitt -- Fields, Young and Blair are three of the biggest stars of March. But sometimes, the three aren't clicking at once. "I didn't really give my team nothing in the first half," Blair said. "I'm going to have games like that. But when we're all clicking, we're going to be tough to beat."

It's getting late, gentlemen. At least Young was there with the bailout plan. "I was in the zone,'' he said. "I shot it well from three the last game, and I wanted to come back out and try to piggyback off of that. And I started taking a couple of shots and everything started opening up for me. It all just came together.''

Blair avoided foul trouble, the fatal flaw in Pitt's losses this season. But now he has to worry about his back after his violent dust-up with Eaton. "I was out for a hedge, and he came shoulder first into my leg and it pushed my leg back a little bit,'' he said. "It was a little stinger, I guess. You saw how everybody was scared for a minute. I was scared myself. When I went to the (locker room), I was back there aching. It was hurting. I got stretched back there and it was all right. I'm just going to ice it and hopefully it will be better.''

Louisville, my favorite to win it all, had a similar late scare in the nightcap at the University of Dayton Arena, a submerged hall that looks like a junior-high school gym beside the fast-food joints and trucks of Interstate 75. Mighty Siena, one of those charming darlings that still bring romance to March, went on a run and took a four-point lead with seven minutes left. Imagine a Catholic liberal arts school of 3,000 students, upending a No. 1 seed in one of the colossal upsets ever. But the difference between Pitt and Louisville is Rick Pitino, the master, who called successive timeouts and reminded his players to emphasize their trademark defense. It helps to have the tournament's most complete player is Terrence Williams, who took responsibility late with his scoring, rebounding and passing. When he was growing up, Williams emulated Michael Jordan. Now?

"Magic Johnson always looked to pass, and he always smiled," Williams said. "That's where I get it from."

Fields isn't quite as smooth. He actually looks a little soft in the middle. But if Pitt is going far, he'll avoid the bad cross-court passes and continue dominating in crunch time. "Being a leader and a point guard, I take the blame," he said. "I'm not trying to take it to be a hero or a scapegoat. It's just the truth. It starts with me. As a point guard, that's what you always want. And I like to think my coach and my teammates all trust me in that situation, having the ball. Down the stretch, Sam did a great job of being unselfish and throwing it back out to me, and it was an open shot and I made it.''

Though we've seen some fabulous finishes and fun games, there is an air of predictability so far. For the first time in tournament history, the top three seeds went 24-0. I originally picked four Big East teams -- Louisville, Pitt, Syracuse and UConn -- to reach the Final Four.

I still like three of them.