SOUTH

The mood on the court immediately following the game and in the locker room afterward was more been-there-done-that subdued than it was cut-down-the-nets euphoria.

Although Pittsburgh actually hasn’t been here and done this, the Panthers reacted to their second-round victory over Cal Sunday more as if it were a regular-season win than the first Sweet 16 berth in school history.

“What’s there to jump around about? We haven’t done anything yet,” Pitt swingman Chad Johnson said.

Johnson is the Panthers’ only senior and, as a transfer from Nebraska, the only player on the team who had played in the NCAA Tournament before this year. Prior to this season, Pitt hadn’t been to the NCAAs since 1993, hadn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 1991 and hadn’t won two in at the Big Dance since 1974.

“We want to go all the way, and we believe we can go all the way,” Johnson said. “Nobody around here is just happy with making it this far. There’s still a road ahead of us and that’s what we’re focused on. If you look at all the guys around here, you see that getting to the Sweet 16 is not enough.”

Pitt’s season has already been a special one, and has potential to turn even more extraordinary. Next up for the No. 3 seed Panthers is No. 10 seed Kent State in Thursday’s 7:38 p.m. South Regional semifinal at Rupp Arena in Lexington.

The Elite Eight awaits. Though Kent State is one of the storybook tales of this tournament, it represents the third consecutive unranked opponent for Pitt, ranked No. 9 nationally.

Pitt star Brandin Knight wasted little time after Sunday’s win before he began to raise awareness of the danger Kent State presents, saying, “A lot of teams Kent State has played (vanquished No. 7 seed Oklahoma State and No. 2 seed Alabama) haven’t respected them.”

Knight preached more hunger from he and his Pitt teammates.

“I don’t think you can go into any game saying you’re satisfied with what you did in your last game,” Knight said. “We’re going to Kentucky thinking about making it to the Elite Eight, and hopefully if we play again Saturday that victory would put us in the Final Four.”