Binghamton acting head coach Mike Macon is just trying to make sure his team’s psyche isn’t further damaged after the game.

“You kind of try to see their psyche going into a game like this,” Macon said. “A lot of guys never played a team like Pitt in their careers. We had three guys returning who played Duke last year, but they didn’t get a high measure of minutes. It was a quantum leap (from the opener against Bloomsburg).

“This is where we want to be. How do we get there? Accept the challenge. Go out and be tough. Go out and let people know you’re here.”

Little side note, the story above from the Binghamton paper was written by the P-G Pitt beat writer, Ray Fittipaldo. Outstanding to pump out two different stories for the same game. That’s working smarter.

His P-G story focused on the backcourt performance of Gibbs and Woodall. Mainly Gibbs since he was drilling the 3s.

“I knew it was going to come sooner or later, so I wanted to be patient with it,” Gibbs said. “I wanted to be unselfish and take the open shot. I have confidence in myself. If I have an open one, I’m going to be confident enough to make it and keep shooting.”

That is exactly what he did in the first half when he almost single-handedly beat the Bearcats on the scoreboard. Gibbs had as many points at halftime as Binghamton (17). He made five of his six 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes, including three in a span of 1:45 midway through the half. All five 3-pointers came in a little more than nine minutes.

Woodall, though, very quietly notched a double-double with 10 points and 13 assists. The assists totals were helped by the fact that Pitt made 50% of the shots. Not as many loose balls and plays that weren’t set.

Plus when you pass to Gibbs and he drills 3s, it really helps pad the stats.

Gibbs made six 3-pointers on the way to a career-high 22 points, highlighted by a searing first-half run in which he made five 3-pointers in a 9-minute, 6-second span.

“I knew it was going to come sooner or later,” he said. “I just wanted to be patient with it.”

It was the most 3-pointers by a Pitt player since Levance Fields made six at Cincinnati on Jan. 24, 2007. No Pitt player has ever made more 3s in a game at the Pete.

Woodall, though, is playing humble and giving credit to watching Fields.

Woodall’s assist total — which ties the seventh-best ever by a Pitt player — came in his second career start. By contrast, Fields, the player Woodall is trying to replace, didn’t get his first double-digit assist game until his 66th start (as a senior against Miami, Ohio), and surpassed Woodall’s 13 assists only once in 100 career starts at Pitt.

Woodall said watching Fields last season while taking a redshirt is the reason for his progress.

“That’s him helping me,” Woodall said. “It’s almost like me cheating to get 13 assists, because he helped me out a lot.”

Pitt outrebounded Binghamton by only 6. It wasn’t because of the frontcourt. Robinson grabbed 10 and McGhee and Taylor combined for 10 boards. Coach Dixon was bothered by the guards not getting after the long ones.

“We’re concerned for obvious reasons,” Dixon said. “We have to get our guards to rebound more, especially on the long 3s. The guards have to get those.”

Coach Dixon was also named 2009 USA Basketball Coach of the Year thanks to coaching the U-19 team to a gold medal.

“Jamie Dixon has established himself as one of the finest collegiate coaches there is in the game today and this past summer he proved himself on the international court too,” said USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo. “In leading the USA Men’s U19 Team to the World Championship, he not only accomplished something that the U.S. had not done since 1991, but to do so he had to quickly form a team from 12 individual players and earn their respect and confidence. He obviously did so and his team responded by winning it’s nine games in an impressive team manner.”

Butler’s Shelvin Mack was the quote from a player lauding Dixon.

“(Coach Dixon) helped my game out a lot,” Mack said in a news release from USA Basketball. “He stressed that I should be more of a leader and more vocal. Since I was a point guard, I was more in control in making sure everyone got the ball in the right position, and he helped me accept that role. He made it clear that my job was to get everyone involved, stay positive and not worry about individual goals.

“His practices were very intense,” Mack continued. “Everything was full speed, so you had to pick up things quickly. But he emphasized the right things, the things you need to do to be successful.”