So, uh, about that “shock the world” and “expect a miracle,” not so much. Mild concern for the first 5-8 minutes when Pitt was clanging shots and the Golden Eagles were shooting well. Then reality set in. Not to mention a 2-part great spark plug performance.

Keith Benjamin may have struggled with his shot in the first half (0-5) but he was attacking the basket and got fouled. Most importantly, he made 5-6 on free throws which seemed to encourage the whole team. Then Gilbert Brown came off the bench throwing down baskets. Again, attacking the basket rewarded. It seems, he is still feeling confident.

That opened the perimeter up along with the needed obsession to watch Blair and Young — hey, at least ORU wasn’t completely fooled by Young’s pump fake — left Fields and Ramon wide open to drain 3s. The ORU defensive prowess, clearly wasn’t nearly as good as advertised.

Pitt took care of Oral Roberts 82-63. Clearly, taking them seriously.

It also means, Pitt has gotten past the “worst case” scenario.

Best Case: Absurd Big East tourney roll carries over, picks up steam with Bob Knight endorsement, shatters Sweet 16 ceiling and does not end until the Panthers are in San Antonio losing a pitched championship battle to North Carolina. Sam Young keeps blocking shots, Levance Fields and Ronald Ramon keep making jumpers, and nobody can get close enough to take advantage of Pitt’s scattershot free-throw shooting.

Worst Case: Take the Panthers out of the Garden and you take the starch out of the Panthers. Absurd Big East roll ends in thin mountain air against experienced Oral Roberts, intensifying the belief that Pitt will not get beyond the Sweet 16 anytime this century, no matter how it comes into the Big Dance. Panthers return home to watch West Virginia going farther.

It’s not just Knight penciling Pitt in for deeper than the Sweet 16. Scary. At least the players are saying they are paying no attention.

“Anything that’s said outside the locker room is not even an issue for us,” guard Sam Young said. “If it’s not us, if it’s not the coaches, if it’s not the staff, we try not to even pay attention to it. We’re still going to come out with a chip on our shoulder. We’re still going to be hungry.”

Said guard Levance Fields: “That Big East championship may be in the minds of the fans and you all, but that’s over with for us.”

Speaking of scary, it’s always disturbing when some sports sites send writers from other sports — who haven’t covered or paid attention to anything else the whole time — to cover a region. In this case, sending Sporting News CFB writer Matt Hayes to Denver. Nice things to say about Pitt, factually, um, huh?

The NCAA Tournament? Hell, at one point, Pitt was in danger of missing the Big East Tournament. How bad did it get? How about guys playing out of position in games. And practices consisting of only film study and shot drills because there weren’t 10 guys to scrimmage.

Missing the BET? When was that a possibility? After Pitt lost their first game of the conference slate?  And don’t get me started on whatever attempt at a timeline there is in the piece.

Pitt played solid defense once more. Only ORU hitting some wildly deep 3s kept them from being completely destroyed. The Golden Eagles were only 13-41 (31.7%) inside the 3-point line.

As for concern that Pitt’s physical play will get them in trouble outside of the Big East. I guess it’s always a worry, but for Saturday’s game against Michigan State, it shouldn’t be a big issue. Of course the toughness of the team is no longer in any doubt.

Finally, time to talk. You know it’s the NCAA Tournament and Pitt is on people’s minds when a Jerry Micco chat actually has a lot of (any?) Pitt basketball talk. There’s also the Ray Fittipaldo chat.

I’m home, but with the kids. That means I can’t be liveblogging. Dennis is at the Pete.

Pitt is just not allowed to lose this game. The wife’s oldest brother is a huge honkin’ Ohio State fan, which is annoying enough. To have her other brother with direct bragging rights just cannot happen.

Halftime: Pitt killing right now. 47-24.
Or as Gus Johnson put it: Pitt’s not messing around.

Oral Roberts, despite having similar inside size, means nothing on offense. The Golden Eagles are continually just hung out shooting long jumpers.

Pitt is shredding this vaunted ORU defense, like they are nothing.

They are taking uncontested jumpers and just blowing past every ORU player.

McGhee has already seen some action late in the first half — and scored.

I expect to see Wanamaker in the second half.

So far, this is just the perfect game to keep only one eye upon.

Any doubt ESPN may have had for signing Bob Knight to whatever amount they paid, has to be gone. While we keep watching, hoping, that he at least goes on a blue streak that gets a sustained bleep as if he were off camera — this and this are positively brilliant — people remain riveted to what he is saying.

He goes off and picks Pitt to win the NCAA Tournament on the ESPN Selection show and everyone notices. Even the players and coach. I think Knight got a bit caught up with Pitt. He made his debut on ESPN and had to primarily focus on the Big East Tournament. Just a bit of myopia.

He’s sticking with Pitt, though.

“They really, really impressed me because they won that game with Georgetown in a way where they didn’t have to make a miracle shot, they didn’t have to come from behind to do it,” he said.

“Pittsburgh just manhandled ’em. Played them off the court, really. I’m still high on Georgetown. One game changes the tournament committee’s opinion, never mine, but I’ll get to the tournament committee in a minute.

“Pitt with [Levance] Fields, and [DeJuan] Blair and [Sam] Young inside are just tougher than hell, and [Jamie] Dixon is a tough coach that really works them hard and stays on them.”

He is impressed, too, with UCLA’s Ben Howland, Dixon’s former boss at Pittsburgh. And don’t tell Knight that some people are going to say Howland can’t win the big one if UCLA doesn’t win the title after consecutive trips to the Final Four.

“That’s bull . . .,” he said. “Just getting there is such a difficult proposition. You’ve got to win big ones to get there. Jesus, I wish people would spare me that.”

As for why Knight was doing an interview in the first place.

“Obviously, I’m getting paid to do this,” he said nicely.

Knight was in L.A. for a one-day whirlwind tour as a spokesman to promote DirecTV’s Mega March Madness package.

I love that package.

But Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News, disagrees.

Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight anointed Pitt as his choice to win the NCAA title. That statement proves coaching basketball can be easier for some than analyzing it.

If Pitt were to win the title, it would be one of the shortest modern teams to do so. The Panthers start a 6-7 center (DeJuan Blair) and 6-6 power forward (Sam Young). They typically use one reserve big man who stands 6-8 (Tyrell Biggs).

Knight’s prediction writes a check Pitt’s team can’t cash. Pitt fans who’ve wondered why their team can’t get past the Sweet 16 — generally, it has been because the other teams were better — will point to Knight’s prediction and claim the Panthers underachieved.

Nope — it’s Knight who underachieved. His analysis has dropped to the level of his wardrobe.

Gee, and I just assumed the sweaters with the ESPN logo was because ESPN wouldn’t let Knight sell the ad-space to O’Reilly Auto parts.

This is a post I never expected to write. Definitely not something I want to write. Not now on the day of the NCAA Tourney. Not ever. This is the first time I have ever come across plagiarism.

One of the things I do regularly on this blog is aggregate Pitt content. Read and gather as much as I can then try and put it out there in a post with a common thread. Whether it is a game recap or a storyline that various media folk follow.

So, very late Sunday night/early Monday morning, I finally got to posting the various links I had gathered over the previous 24+ hours after Pitt won the Big East Tournament.

One of the links in that group was the short piece from Eric Hall at the Beaver County Times about how Dixon has earned and should stand alone from Ben Howland (EH-BCT). The time-stamp online was for 12:56 am on March 16.

On Monday afternoon, while gathering more stories I found this story from Dale Grndic on Scout.com (DG-S) which I just lumped in my tabs as “Dixon love” after a quick skim. That evening, when I had time to put together a new links round-up I took a closer look at the story and felt like I had already read it somewhere else.

I had.

EH-BCT:

If any doubt of Jamie Dixon’s coaching ability existed, it disappeared this week. If any part of his success was still being attributed to Ben Howland, it vanished Saturday.

Dixon’s fifth season as the Pitt Panthers’ coach has been his best. Better than the 31 wins of his first season. Better than the Sweet 16 of last season.

The Pitt Panthers are the Big East champions after Saturday’s 74-65 victory over No. 9 Georgetown. That’s a statement few could have imagined a few weeks ago.

For the better part of two months while dealing with injuries, Dixon kept the team together though its common thread was hanging by one. And now that the Panthers are primarily healthy, Dixon has the group believing and rolling heading into the NCAA Tournament.

DG-S:

It’s been questioned several times this season, but the phrase “Howland-Dixon Era” for the Pitt men’s basketball program should finally be vanquished.

Jamie Dixon, deep into his fifth season at Pittsburgh (26-9), certainly should stand alone now. Sure, Ben Howland, his mentor, brought back the Panthers program. Dixon certainly maintained that high level from the outset, but this arguably has been his best season.

That’s better than reaching 31 wins in his first season, 2003-04, and better than the Sweet Sixteen performance last spring. Pitt’s 74-65 win against ninth-ranked Georgetown earned Dixon his first Big East title. Howland won one in 2002, but the Panthers didn’t have to go through what this season’s group has.

For the better part of two months while dealing with injuries, Dixon kept the team together though its common thread was hanging by one. And now that the Panthers are primarily healthy, Dixon has the group believing in itself and playing its best basketball heading into the NCAA Tournament.

EH-BCT:

Dixon managed to unite this team just before it was prepared to dissolve and just before the most imperative portion of the season was set to begin. His in-game moves, often criticized, were for the most part tremendous. He out-coached the likes of Rick Pitino and Tom Crean and John Thompson III.

It’s an impressive list. Those coaches have all been to the Final Four.

Dixon showed he’s worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as those coaches.

He also proved mentioning Howland’s name in the same sentence isn’t necessary any more.

DG-S:

Pitt could have fallen apart completely, but Dixon wouldn’t let it. His in-game moves, often criticized, were for the most part tremendous. He out-coached Rick Pitino, Tom Crean and John Thompson III in a three-day span. That’s quite an accomplishment. Pitino has a national title on his resume, while Thompson III was in the Final Four last spring. Crean got there before as well.

However, Dixon’s name should be mentioned during any conversation about top basketball coaches in the NCAA. Howland is in that category as well, for getting Pitt its initial Big East title and two NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearances, as well as what he has accomplished at UCLA.

In case you hadn’t figured it out, the bold print are where the sentences are virtually identical.

This had me stunned. Frankly, I was hoping that there was some sort of mistake with the by-lines. Grndic has done freelance work for the BCT in the past, so maybe there was a mistake with that.

After all, Dale Grdnic has been a sports reporter on Pittsburgh sports for years. He has covered all the sports teams in Pittsburgh. He has written a book on the Steelers. He’s quality and his peers think well of him.

I fired off an e-mail to Eric Hall late Monday night and set about trying to find and e-mail for Dale Grndic’s. I didn’t get it until the next day around noon. By that time, I had already heard from Hall who confirmed it was his story and knew nothing about the Grdnic piece until I had sent him the link. He was very surprised.

I got a response from Mr. Grdnic shortly after I sent the e-mail. He asked me to call him to discuss it. I wasn’t able to make a phone call until Wednesday, shortly after 9 am. There was no denial.

So, yes. Dale Grdnic did commit plagiarism. The reason. The excuses. The justifications are ultimately irrelevant. It was done, and Mr. Grndic will have to own what he has done.

I take no pleasure in this. Frankly, there’s a significant part of me that wishes I hadn’t found this. It would have been easier. It also would have been easier to let it slide. It wouldn’t, however, have been right.

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