I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that there is some grousing about the disparity over the foul shooting — Pitt had 25 FTAs to Washington’s 8.

Two of the three officials were from the Big East, including the head referee, so that can be safely called a Big East crew (no one seemed to know where the third official was from). UW coach Lorenzo Romar tried to be tactful afterward when asked about the officiating and UW’s 25-8 disadvantage at the free throw line, but assistant Cameron Dollar was a little more forthcoming.

“Twenty five to eight and we’re going inside every time,” Dollar said. “But that’s what happens on the road.”

…

As for my thoughts on the officiating against Pitt, I wouldn’t say the Huskies lost the game because of it if only because I’m not one of those to ever blame anything solely on the refs — officiating is so much a matter of perspective, and I think that if it’s looked at with an objective eye it usually turns out to have been pretty even.

But the free throw disparity is worth pointing out in a game where the Huskies were the ones going inside all the time while Pitt was the team doing more from the perimeter. That said, UW’s guards got beat a lot off the dribble, which is what led to a lot of the fouls. Quincy Pondexter picked up four fouls in 17 minutes, for instance, largely because he had trouble keeping his man in front of him. I was just passing along that there were some who thought it odd that Jon Brockman and Spencer Hawes shot a combined two free throws despite taking a combined 29 shots from the field (both free throws by Brockman).

As for what crews work games, it’s usually decided upon at the time of scheduling. Given that a Big East crew worked this game, I’m sure that means a Pac-10 crew will work the game when Pitt comes to Seattle next Dec. 8.

I understand, and if the positions were reversed, I’m sure we’d be a bit pissed. In defense of the  way the game was called, the refs let the players inside bang, rake and push. If you look at the box score, the inside players for both teams got many calls. It came down to guards getting checked and fouled penetrating and going to the hoop.
You know, I realize that some of these stories are played out for Pitt fans. Stories talking about Jamie and Maggie Dixon  — fairly or unfairly — almost become especially anything regarding Levon Kendall. That said, he is something approaching a local kid for Washington State coming from Vancouver.

Pittsburgh pays a return visit to Seattle next season, but that will be too late for Kendall.

“Yeah, I was pretty disappointed,” he said. “I was ragging on my coaches, ‘Thanks a lot, guys. You book a home-and-away with the closest school in the States to Vancouver and you guys had to book the home section while I was still here.

“It would have been really nice to play close to home, especially in my senior year.’”

Considering how “homecomings” have worked out for NYC area players and Cook in Philly — well, let’s just not discuss the possibilities.

Some perspective for Washington — and it tells you how disappointing a season it has been for the Huskies — there’s some looking at the bright side.

For the first time this season, they went against a ranked team in a big-time road environment and didn’t blink.

They went into a citadel of physical Big East Conference basketball and didn’t back down.

However, the result also reminded them of home: a 65-61 loss to No. 7 Pittsburgh – the exact same score as their Wednesday home loss to No. 10 Washington State.

“We haven’t done very well on the road this year, but (Saturday) I thought maybe we turned the corner,” UW coach Lorenzo Romar said. “We didn’t win the game, but I was proud of how our guys approached the game.”

The mileage was important and oft-repeated.

Twenty-five hundred miles from home, the Washington Huskies might finally have found themselves.

Officially, it was another road loss as the Huskies bowed to No. 7-rated Pittsburgh on Saturday at the Petersen Events Center, 65-61, their eighth road defeat in nine games this season.

But unlike a 30-point massacre just two weeks ago at Arizona or similar blowouts at Washington State, UCLA and Gonzaga, this one came down to a missed shot here, a bad bounce there.

“Hopefully we turned a corner today,” said UW coach Lorenzo Romar. “I don’t think three weeks ago we would have been able to do what we did today. We talk about the hopeful maturation of our team and even in spite of our loss last game against Washington State, I just think we are becoming a better and better basketball team. A few years ago [in February of 2004] we went to North Carolina State and it was a similar game to this [a 77-72 loss]. We came up short but you could just see that this team is starting to jell.”

Lorenzo Romar, like Jamie Dixon of Pitt is a positive, not saying a negative word about his players to the media kind of coach.

This didn’t really come through on the telecast, but interesting.

Gray wasn’t around for interviews afterward, having suffered a sprained ankle late in the game when he fell awkwardly after colliding with Jon Brockman while battling for a rebound.

Brockman was booed loudly and admitted that, “It might have looked like I threw him down. But he landed on my ankle [which caused him to fall].”

Gray could miss a game or two, though teammates said they were hopeful he would be back quickly.

Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon applauded Brockman afterward for coming over to the Pitt bench to check on Gray.

“He’s a class kid,” Dixon said. “That’s a class program.”

Not that there wasn’t some trash-talking. Adrian Oliver and Mike Cook got into it.

Oliver showed that edge when he got into a brief staredown with Pitt’s Mike Cook late in the first half after being called for a foul while going after a rebound.

“He said something to me so I said something back to him,” Oliver said. “I think he was surprised. I think he thought we would just back down. Like this is the Big East and we would just back down. I was showing him we weren’t going to back down.”

Heh. No, that was something Cook likes to do and hasn’t done enough lately. Getting into it with another player, tends to motivate him. So, let’s just say thank you to Oliver.