Lots and lots of stories about Pitt beating G-town. There was one national writer who was expecting a very good game.

Game to watch this week: In case you haven’t caught on, we’re working on a theme here. Your reigning player of the week meets your reigning team of the week Monday night at 7: Georgetown vs. Pitt at the Petersen Events Center — televised by ESPN on Big Monday — where the Panthers try to remain among the contenders for the Big East championship by taking down the clear favorite. Georgetown’s preference for a measured pace should work well for the Panthers, who no longer are deep enough to push things as much as they would prefer. If you’re not curious how rugged, wide-shouldered Pitt freshman DeJuan Blair will fare against Hibbert, you might need to ask yourself if you really love this game.

Mike Miller at MSNBC.com was impressed by what he has seen from Pitt.

Guess Pitt missed the memo about writing off this season.

For the last few weeks, the Panthers have heard about how tough their season will be without starters Mike Cook and Levance Fields. But a 69-60 win against No. 5 Georgetown should silence any remaining doubters and reestablish Pitt as a Final Four contender.

It’s amazing what a few weeks, a good coach and lots of talent will do.

I love this team, but I would hesitate with Final Four talk right now. Hyperbole either way, always seems to be the downside of instant punditry. That said, Miller’s entry pretty much echoed the national theme on the game and Pitt (Jan 15 entry).

Let the record show that I’m finished expecting Pittsburgh to collapse just because Levance Fields and Mike Cook are sidelined with injuries. I mean, there’s no way they can be as good without those two key players as they were going to be with those two key players. But that 69-60 victory over Georgetown is an indication that No. 15 Pitt will still be more than competitive as long as DeJuan Blair (15 points and nine rebounds) and Ronald Ramon (18 points and four assists) remain on the court, and if Jamie Dixon holds this together he’ll be the easy pick for Big East Coach of the Year. As for Georgetown, is it time to question the fifth-ranked Hoyas? They’ve played just two ranked teams (Memphis and Pitt) and lost both games by comfortable margins, making their 13-2 record almost meaningless.

ESPN’s Jay Bilas was happy to sing the Pitt praises after the game and in an online chat (Insider subs.).

DJ (Pittsburgh): Can we finally put to rest the idea that Pitt will struggle to make the NCAA tournament after the injuries? They might be a protected seed!

Jay Bilas: Aren’t the Panthers amazing? Ramon and Benjamin have been incredible, and Pitt has become even more efficient over the past five games. Jamie Dixon has shortened his playbook, and has simplified things. And, he believes in his players and empowers them to break free of limiting roles. Pitt will be in the NCAA Tournament.

…

Mike (Atlanta GA): How was the atmosphere at the Pete for last night’s Pitt/G-town game and which player impressed you the most?

Jay Bilas: Awesome. I was really impressed with Blair and his work ethic. Also, Benjamin and Ramon were truly outstanding. Gutty win for Pitt. That place is one of the great atmospheres in college basketball.

Doug Gottlieb had a lot of Pitt fans pestering him in his online chat.

Zak (Pittsburgh): Pitt sure looked like an NIT team last night, didn’t they? Doug, admit you are biased against the Big East because of your problems at Notre Dame.

Doug Gottlieb: Yeah, uh, my bad. Hey be honest, any other team loses their starting PG and their leading returning scorer who is also their best passer, you would think they were going to fall off too right?

Jamie Dixon is one terrific coach to keep this thing going. BY the way, anyone else think LeVance Fields looks like Donovan McNabb?

He got grief for forgetting to include DeJuan Blair (and Donte Green) in his list of top freshmen — to be fair, I think chats are tricky since you do have to respond off the top of your head. It’s easy to miss things. He then put Sam Young in a list of seniors who have really developed their game (adding for Young, “wow has he improved”) — and was again called out on not realizing Young is a junior.

Not a big Gottlieb fan, but I’ll admit to smiling a little at this bit.

John (Milwaukee): Bilas and Phelps picked Notre Dame to win at Marquette only to have MU beat them by almost 30. Will MU surprise people or was this just a fluke?

Doug Gottlieb: Digger picked ND? Noooo…..really?

The ESPN College Basketball Insider podcast (mp3) from today had Gottlieb apologizing over his NIT comments. Singing the praises of Coach Dixon for what he is doing with the team.

Dick Weiss of the NY Daily News has been a big believer in Pitt, and that hasn’t changed.

Senior guard Keith Benjamin, the former Mount Vernon High star, scored 18 points, his fifth straight double-figure performance. That helped make up for the fact the Hoyas did a good job shutting down Sam Young, Pitt’s leading scorer.

Young did his part on the defensive end, combining with 6-6 freshman Gilbert Brown and Ty Biggs to shut down Georgetown’s 6-9 sophomore star DeJuan Summers, who shot 0-for-7 and did not score.

“That was very big,” Benjamin said. “Down there, they hold him up to be like their next Jeff Green (the former Hoyas star now with the NBA Sonics). Sam started it, being physical with him, taking him out of his rhythm. That was somebody we needed to take out of the game.”

Pitt is 91-8 at the Pete and owns a 13-game home winning streak. But Georgetown had beaten Pitt four of the previous five games. With that in mind, this was the type of character win that should do wonders for a team that refused to melt down.

The AP wire article, of course, has a huge impact on national perception.

What few considered was this: Not only would they stay ranked without point guard Levance Fields and small forward Mike Cook, but they are moving up in the ratings after an initial drop.

The 15th-ranked Panthers, down to No. 20 a week ago, pulled off one of their most impressive victories in recent seasons Monday night, never trailing in a 69-60 victory over No. 5 Georgetown.

The way they played – getting outside scoring from Keith Benjamin and Ronald Ramon and a strong inside presence from freshman center DeJuan Blair – the Panthers didn’t look like a team that’s interested in dropping out of the poll anytime soon.

The Georgetown excuse reasoning for the loss seems to be the fact that they shot 3-20 on threes.

Fifth-ranked Georgetown was just 3 of 20 from beyond the arc (15 percent). It was the Hoyas’ worst three-point shooting performance since they shot 14.3 percent (2 for 14) in a loss at Duke in December 2006.

Freshman Austin Freeman, a 46 percent shooter, and sophomore forward DaJuan Summers, a 38 percent shooter, were both 0 for 4 from three-point range. Wallace made just 2 of 7 three-point attempts; the first one came on a half-court heave at the halftime buzzer, and the other came in the final 12 seconds, after the game was decided.

“They’re a good defensive team, but we were getting a lot of shots that we usually hit, and a lot of good looks,” said Wallace, who is 3 of 14 from beyond the three-point arc over the past two games. “Just the shot wasn’t falling tonight. We were trying to take different things to try to get something going down low, but we just couldn’t get it right tonight.”

Not so easy to buy, as Seth Davis explains:

The larger problem for the Hoyas is their three-point shooting is suspect once they hit the road. In their two losses at Memphis and Pitt, the Hoyas shot a combined 6 for 34 from behind the arc. It’s not just the low percentage that bothers me, it’s the high number of attempts. As I’ve said before, the biggest difference between playing at home and on the road is that at home, you can fire up threes, but on the road you’ve got to take it to the cup. It was also disconcerting to see Pitt’s guards slice their way to the basket so often with relative ease.

The Hoyas may have taken a bunch of threes that were open, but they clearly didn’t want to shoot it. They were frustrated because they couldn’t get the ball inside and Pitt’s defense took away the precious backdoor cut of their offense. Settling for the three, when it was not part of the offensive play effects the confidence of the shooter. Not to mention, the physical toll of being bumped and playing Pitt. It was a physical game that wore on the Hoyas.

Georgetown does take a hell of a lot of 3s. Almost 39% of their shot attempts are 3s (307 out of 788). Astounding when you consider the talent of Hibbert inside — not to mention Macklin. Plus DaJuan Summers and Austin Freeman should be attacking the rim more. Summers, especially, is guilty. He is a wing player with talent to attack. Instead, just over half of his shot attempts are 3s. That’s timid and a waste.

The WashTimes writer who thought Pitt was talking too much before the game thought Georgetown lost the game because they were inexplicably slow.

Two days removed from their win over Connecticut, the Hoyas looked dead-legged from the start last night against the Panthers (15-2, 3-1). They were a step slow on their defensive rotations and atypically inaccurate on offense.

“We were flat,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said after the Hoyas gave up a pair 18-point efforts to the Pitt backcourt of Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin. “I don’t know what to attribute that to. This was a pretty big game.”

The Panthers approached it as such, promising revenge for last season’s consecutive losses to the Hoyas and making good on those claims before a sellout crowd of 12,508 fans at Petersen Events Center.

Georgetown’s starting five failed to match Pitt’s passion.

Again, this has to do with a more physical game. The tough defense kept G-town off. Look, when Pitt lost to UCLA in the Sweet 16 game, Pitt had the same problem. They got bumped, outworked and it threw off everything on offense. Pitt struggled to make shots. Just like G-town experienced last night.

Now to the local coverage. Funny coincidence. Both the P-G and the Trib. start the opening graph of the game stories with the same two words.

So much for Pitt treading water until Levance Fields returns to the lineup. The Panthers emphatically announced last night that they are still Big East championship contenders even without their star point guard.

No. 15 Pitt defeated No. 5 Georgetown, 69-60, at the Petersen Events Center. The Panthers (15-2, 3-1) are one last-second loss at Villanova away from being alone atop the conference standings. As it is, they are one of five teams tied for first place this morning.

“It’s definitely a big win for us,” senior guard Ronald Ramon said. “We were looking forward to this game. We just wanted it more.”

And…

So much for poor, injury-plagued Pitt needing to claw to a decent Big East record to make the NCAA Tournament.

So much for the skeptics, who howled the Panthers’ grand hopes were snapped with Levance Fields’ broken foot.

The P-G story also noted something that was also pointed out in the comments.

The tone of the game was set before the opening tip. After the national anthem, Blair approached Hibbert to shake his hand, but Hibbert walked the opposite direction toward the Georgetown bench.

“I don’t care if he doesn’t shake my hand,” Blair said. “It won’t make me or break me. I don’t care if he shakes my hand after the game. I guess he was mad or something. He tried not to.”

Blair got the better of Hibbert in the paint. Hibbert had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, but he was frustrated by Blair’s quickness and did not get prime post position for much of the game.

“It was a tough game all around,” Hibbert said. “I wasn’t playing my best today. We were all a little off.”

Uh-huh. It’s a non-issue. Let’s not turn this into some mini-Belichick-Mangini thing.

Ramon was the hero of the game.

Breakout games aren’t usual in a player’s senior year.

Especially to a player who’s started on and off in his four years.

Especially to a player who’s been so important to his team’s success for his four years.

But to Ronald Ramon, the past three weeks have been anything but usual.

After all, not only has he really stepped up as the point, but he had a great shooting night.

“With the things that have been going on here, the guys going down, we’re stepping up every game,” Ramon said. “It’s something we have on our backs. Teams feel they have a better chance of beating us because we’re missing some guys.”

Pitt’s been missing Ramon’s shooting touch since his move to the point. In his first three games in place of Fields, Ramon took 15 shots. He began to look for his start against Seton Hall and finished with 14 points.

But his 18 points on 6-for-9 shooting, including four three-pointers, came as a bit of a surprise considering the talent of Georgetown’s guards.

“Ronald, you know, he’s pretty good,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said.

Ramon several clutch baskets, including a wild three-pointer as the shot clock expired to give Pitt an early 20-15 lead. His leaner before the half kept the Panthers ahead heading into the locker room, even after a halfcourt shot from Jonathan Wallace.

Ron Cook also sings Ramon’s praises. Mike Prisuta seems not to like players and coaches dealing in cliches, even as he essentially riddles his own writing with them.

“I think we just wanted it more,” Pitt’s Ronald Ramon said afterward.

Most night’s that’s a cliche, but on this one, Pitt had earned the right to reach such a conclusion.

Sustaining that desire will go a long way toward making believers out of more than just Pitt’s wagons-circling players and coaches.

I get the feeling that Pittsburgh columnists are going to want to cover Pitt a lot more. Not only are the Steelers done (and they can write those “what needs to be done” columns any time); but this Pitt team has multiple storylines that are easy to write and this is a team that is fun. The joy of the college game is still the kids. It may inch closer to de facto professional leagues every day, but the game is still played by kids. The exuberance and fun they have still can break into even the most cynical. Plus, Pitt is still winning.

Plenty of names on hand at the game.

Some of the dignitaries in attendance were mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, Jeannette quarterback Terrelle Pryor, Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch, Steelers kicker Jeff Reed, former Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko, former Pitt basketball star Billy Knight and coach Jamie Dixon’s father, who flew in from California.

“It’s the Forum east,” quipped Pitt associate athletic director E.J. Borghetti.

And an extra day or two to enjoy the win.