Now, either team that lost was going to be officially in free-fall or a slide. Thankfully, it was ‘Nova not Pitt that has to deal with most of the issues.

Villanova fans watched as the team fell apart before their eyes. Over the next 8.5 minutes, the Panthers outscored the Wildcats by a ridiculous 19-3 margin.

The Wildcats could not score. The Wildcats could not defend. And still, Malcolm Grant, arguably among the team’s best scorers and defenders, languished on the bench.

I have to agree with the boys of Let’s Go Nova. Where exactly was Malcolm Grant? He torched Pitt last time, but played a total of 8 minutes. Not complaining, but it is a good question.

The ‘Nova slide is the longest for them in a while.

Nothing much has gone right for Villanova over the last eight days. Its defense has problems making stops, and when it does, the offense goes cold.

The Wildcats saw many of their recent troubles on display last night against 18th-ranked Pittsburgh. After a horrible start offensively, they grabbed the lead for all of 29 seconds midway through the second half, and then struggled mightily at both ends.

The Panthers ran away to a 69-57 victory, dealing Villanova its third straight defeat, its longest losing streak since dropping five in a row in February and March 2004.

Like Jamie Dixon, Villanova’s Coach Jay Wright continues to be publicly optimistic about his team’s prospects and only speaks of going forward. He also gave credit to Pitt.

“We played a hungry team tonight,” said Villanova coach Jay Wright, whose team will try to sweep Syracuse Saturday afternoon at the Wachovia Center. “Their effort kind of wore us down as the game wore on. It’s what good teams do.

“Every time they made a run, we had no answers.”

The Panthers, still playing without their only two returning starters (Levance Fields, Mike Cook), were coming off a home loss to Rutgers, which of course had just beaten Villanova at home before that. Coach Jamie Dixon was so upset that he had his guys really go after each other in practice. With all the injuries his team had suffered, he’d been giving them the benefit of the doubt. But at this point in the journey, you do what you have to do.

“We had that toughness [again],” said Keith Benjamin, who had seven assists. “That’s why we got through it.

“There are always going to be runs. You have to stay with it.”

The announcing crew and many people kept worrying when Villanova made their run at Pitt, that a Rutgers disaster would happen again.

“This was not the Rutgers game,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon defiantly said.

This time, the No. 18 Panthers responded with a 22-3 surge and beat Villanova 69-57 at the Petersen Events Center. This time, Pitt wouldn’t let it be Rutgers.

“We were staying together and staying with what we do,” said Pitt guard Keith Benjamin. “We didn’t want to fall in and do what we did the other day.”

Which is why Rutgers is now a rallying cry for this team.

Of course, Rutgers was also able to kill Pitt from outside. Something Villanova hasn’t been able to do and definitely didn’t do in this game.

Sam Young’s second half effort — and the big dunk — put a lot of spotlight on him once more.

Young, admittedly, was suffering through a slump. In last Saturday’s upset loss to Rutgers, Young was 4 of 17 from the floor. The only thing consistent about his uneven performance was his poor shot selection. He was ineffective in the second half — eight missed shots and only two rebounds — when the Panthers desperately needed his scoring ability to curtail a Rutgers run.

The slump spilled into Wednesday’s game. Young was 2 of 6 shooting in the first half. His shot selection was still poor. His decisions appeared hurried.

On this night, when the Panthers called on him again in desperation after Villanova’s 9-0 run to take the lead, Young responded. He had some sort of epiphany.

“I had a feel for the game in the second half,” said Young, with a smile not often seen on his face. “That block pretty much summed it up. I was real energetic after that.”

Imagine that. A little more effort and energy on the defensive end leads to the offense. Think Coach Dixon isn’t going to remind him about that?

He didn’t get a lot of attention or credit. Even from me. I forgot to mention him in my observations, but Tyrell Biggs did a very good job last night. Showing that he has been working at it, he got the majority of his 14 points from the free throw line.

Biggs’ 14 points were a career-high in a conference game and he earned most of them inside or at the foul line. He rolled toward the basket and was rewarded often with passes from Keith Benjamin, who finished with a career-high seven assists as he handled point-guard duties during most of the run for the foul-troubled Ramon.

Biggs played 26 minutes. He was 3-5 shooting, 8-12 on FTs, 4 rebounds, 1 block and 0 turnovers. His free throw shooting has been improving as the season has gone on. It’s not 85%, but it is inching upwards.

Sure, Villanova has struggled on 3s in recent games, but that didn’t stop Pitt from taking credit for holding the Wildcats to 25% shooting from outside.

“We really locked in,” Benjamin said. “The perimeter really got picked apart in the Rutgers game, and we really let the big guys down. We didn’t want to get picked apart again.”

Glass half-full column — Pitt gutted and got gritty to get the win.

It’s not just the scoring and rebounding that the Panthers have to manufacture while relying heavily on four freshmen, it’s the physical and mental toll that’s being exacted now that the minutes are beginning to pile up, in some cases like never before under Dixon.

All of the above appeared to suddenly be a problem while Villanova was in the process of grabbing its second-half lead.

This time, the Panthers had an answer.

“It was time to just grind it out,” guard Keith Benjamin said.

It will be until further notice.

Glass half-empty column — yeah, Pitt won but ‘Nova isn’t that good right now.

So after a below-average first 20 minutes, the Panthers came out and played worse for the first eight minutes of the second half, allowing Villanova to take a one-point lead, 38-37.

For the remainder of the game, however, Pitt was excellent, opening leads of 18 points and playing with a flair they’ve often shown in the past.

But 12 good minutes against a struggling opponent is not a sign of excellence. So where does this leave the Panthers?

About where expected with 3 true freshmen and 1 redshirt freshman in an 8-man rotation. A bit unpredictable and uneven.

Take WR Vaughn Carraway off the potential Pitt commit list. He verballed to Temple. He wasn’t a need recruit so it isn’t a great loss. Plus, choosing Temple means he won’t burn Pitt later.

Media recap will come later today. Between high winds totally disrupting my internet service and sick kids in the house, it’s been hard to get enough time and connection to post.

From the beginning of the game, Villanova made a concerted effort to get the ball inside and attack the basket. This made sense on two fronts for them. One, they have absolutely been struggling to score with perimeter shooting being a mess. The best way to try and deal with that, is to try and get higher percentage shots. Make easier scores, get the players some confidence and open things up for better perimeter shots later. Two, attacking and going inside means better chances of drawing fouls — getting to the free throw lines and getting a thin Pitt team in foul trouble.

The flaws with that were that Pitt’s guards actually did a good job of staying in front of ‘Nova’s guards and preventing deep penetration — also protecting Blair and Young from early foul issues. There is also the fact that the Wildcats’ frontcourt isn’t too good. Pena’s a decent forward, but he couldn’t shoot in traffic — he got most of his points from putbacks.

Finally, and this was going both ways, it would take an absolute mugging inside for the first 10-15 minutes before the refs would call a foul inside. They weren’t just letting them play, the refs were letting some brutal stuff happen inside. Eventually the refs called more stuff as the game went on, but early that set a tone to benefit Pitt that if you went inside, be prepared to cope with some abuse.

While Keith Benjamin ended up with 7 assists, 4 rebounds and only 2 turnovers, his 8 points came on 10 shots. Especially in the first half, Benjamin was making me nervous because he was trying too hard to create his own shot and not passing and waiting for his shot. He was overdribbling and and starting and stopping. Generally, killing time on the shot clock and put Pitt in some rushed situations to hoist before the clock expired. That was cut back noticeably in the second half, so I’m guessing the coaches talked to him about that. He took 7 shots in the first half, and only 3 in the second.

Sam Young appeared to be continuing his Rutgers struggles/frustration for almost 3/4 of the game. He was 2-6 in the first half (meaning that Benjamin and Young took half the shots for Pitt in the first half). He kept drifting outside, away from the basket on the offensive end. He finally got a couple more baskets to fall when he attacked more and by the time he had the steal, slam and the foul (that he converted) it was as if some weight was off of him and his confidence was restored. That scream after the slam seemed as much about relief and release.

Wanamaker reminds me a lot of Benjamin in the first couple of years. So eager to try and show his skills on offense, that he just loses control and tries to go 1-on-5. Yes, he got hosed on that charge when Reynolds flopped, but in only 8 minutes of action in the first half he took 4 shots (missing all of them). No big surprise that playing that reckless, that he only saw the court for 2 minutes in the second half. Ah, youth.

Gilbert Brown has so much promise. He is playing within the game plan and definitely waited for open shots. He was 3-3 for shooting and played solid defense.

Ramon drew the assignment of trying to stop Scottie Reynolds. That got him in foul trouble as Reynolds had a great second half (6-7) attacking the basket and hitting his 3s. At the same time, one miss by Reynolds seemed to be the point when Pitt roared back. Reynolds had gotten a basket and drew the foul for the 3 point play. Villanova had their first lead, 38-37 and Reynolds was 4-5 at the line with 13:39 left in the game. He had scored the last 7 ‘Nova points and all momentum was with the Wildcats. Instead he missed it — preventing Villanova from setting up pressure defense.

Pitt could only tie the game on the ensuing possession, but the defense picked up against Villanova. That’s what allowed Pitt to get out on a 9-1 run over the next 4+ minutes. No scoring for ‘Nova meant no pressure defense and turnovers.

After Ramon got in foul trouble and had to come out, the one good thing was the way the rest of the team picked up on taking care of the ball. You could see the rest of the players making sure they came to whoever was bringing the ball up court to keep them from getting trapped or making a mistake. They need to do that more often when Ramon is still in the game.