MINNEAPOLIS – There was no way to predict this, of course, no way to foretell all the prosperity that’s emboldened the Pittsburgh Panthers these last two years. There was no great influx of top-50 players. The new coach wasn’t a flashy, sexy hire, with TV-ready looks and a pitchman’s slick salespitch.
“It wasn’t like one day, everything clicked, everything made sense,” says Pitt point guard Brandin Knight. “There wasn’t one moment of clarity where we just suddenly started being a great team. These things just happen sometimes. You grow together. You learn together. And you start winning together.”
That they have done, as well as any team in the country the last two years. Pitt’s 57-10 record (before last night) the past two years equaled Duke’s for the best in all of college basketball in that time; if, at the start of last year, you would have dared suggest such a statistic were possible … well, you wouldn’t have been laughed at. You would have been scoffed.
Pitt and Duke, 1 and 1-A?
“I think that shows,” Pitt coach Ben Howland says, “just how possible things are when you believe in yourself more than other people doubt you.”
It also shows what’s possible when a team buys into the age-old basketball concepts of togetherness, selflessness and the whole being better than the sum of the parts. Yes, in many ways, it sounds like the back story to “Hoosiers,” and Butler’s Bulldogs were supposed to have cornered the market on all “Hoosiers” references in this NCAA Tournament.
Yet Pitt, which took on Marquette in one semifinal of these NCAA Midwest Regionals last night at the Metrodome, not only embodies those traits as much as any team in college basketball, Butler included. They also seem genuinely enthralled in proving just how far a team can go fueled on common goals and basic ambition.
“I think if you separated all of us out, based on our individual abilities, there aren’t a lot of teams left in this tournament that would trade their players for ours,” says Julius Page, Pitt’s leading scorer. “But the beauty of it all is that I don’t think Pitt fans would trade our team for anyone else’s, straight up. I think that says everything about what we’re all about.”
Pitt’s rise has been as steady as it’s been spectacular. After years of wandering around the wilderness under past coaches Paul Evans and Ralph Willard, the school tapped Howland, an obscure but accomplished coach at Northern Arizona. Two years ago, Pitt made a stunning rush to the Big East title game that fell short of attracting the NCAA committee’s attention.
The last two years, they haven’t waited until late to make that push. The players generally agree that it was a come-from-behind victory against Ohio State in December 2001 that confirmed what they’d all been thinking already.
“When we did that, we started feeling we were a pretty good team and we had a chance to do something pretty special,” forward Orlando Lett said. “It’s basically just carried on from there.”
Said Howland, “Ever since, every time we lose a game, there’s a lot of self-inspection as to what went wrong, and correcting those mistakes. That doesn’t mean we won’t lose again, but we know the best ways to keep ourselves out of danger. I think that’s the hallmark of a smart team and a resilient team.”
