Some more items to pass along.

If you worry/wonder/never had it cross your mind that perhaps since Birch is a Pitt commit you might be viewing his performance last night through Blue and Gold glasses, the final note at ‘Cuse blog TNIAAM on the game should be reassuring.

And as for Pitt-bound Khem Birch…yikes, you guys. One-and-done that guy…

No.

Either it was shyness, or something else, but the difference between the Khem Birch during practices and the one that showed up during the game continues to be the thing that most observers noticed.

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Okay, guess it’s time to clear some links. Not really any need for game recaps, right?

So, um, congratulations Coach Dixon on being named Sporting News Coach of the Year.

Coach of the Year honors go to Pitt’s Jamie Dixon, whose philosophy of player improvement led Pitt to a 27-5 record, 15-3 Big East record and Big East regular-season championship. The Panthers have won at least 20 games and 10 in the Big East in each of Dixon’s eight seasons and few of his players transfer if their careers start slowly. Never once have you heard of his team splintering because players were focused on their draft statuses.

“I think that’s the type of sacrifice you have to make to become a Pitt player,” senior forward Gilbert Brown says. “If you sacrifice for the team, you’ll have the outcome. I think that’s the environment Coach brings to the team.”

Outstanding timing.

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No, I’m not dead.

I had to take a little time away. That was one of the most devastating losses. Ever. If Pitt had lost on the put-back with 2.2 seconds left. It may have been a bit better. But, well, you know. That pushed me close to the edge.

Writing and putting so much of what I think online, has taught me to be more cautious about being online when my emotions are so overwhelming. I suppose having seen so many others do incredibly stupid things over the years when they reacted blindly has taught me something.

There’s also the fact that I hate self-pity. And anything I wrote in the aftermath would have been the, “Woe unto me and all Pitt fans. We suffer so. We’re cursed. Pitt will never win it all. Why do we/I put ourselves through this?” That whole vein of utter bullshit. I just needed to back away.

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Butler. America’s college basketball sweetheart. Whatever. It’s game to advance to the second weekend. No jumping ahead. Fill in the cliche. One game at a time. One half at a time. One 4 minute section of the game at a time.

Not much to say other wise. As is every game at this time of the year. It’s a big one. The biggest until the next one.

Hopefully, everyone understands the rules at this point. Moderated chat. Comments controlled for repetition, idiocy, trolls, because I don’t like you, and complete whim — bwah-ha-ha. Yeah, I’ve been drinking, why do you ask?

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Okay, if you live in one of these areas, these are the links for Pitt gamewatches:

Cleveland, OH

Denver, CO

Los Gatos, CA

New York, NY

Philadelphia, PA

Scottsdale, AZ

San Francisco, CA

Washington, D.C.

I wish I could do the Cleveland one, but it just won’t happen today.

I’m kind of amused by that, but as I said before: Pitt loves to find reasons to make themelves the underdog.

“It may actually benefit us,” said guard Gilbert Brown. “I think we thrive in being in an underdog role when people don’t expect us to succeed. So it plays in our heads and we want to go out there and prove everybody wrong that thinks differently.”

Adds Wanamaker: ” … the Pitt program has always been overlooked. But we take that as motivation, especially playing against a team like Butler. As we’ve said they’re America’s team. So it just motivates you more.”

Butler is also playing underdog/disrespect cards. See the thing is. Pitt is favored by around 7.5 points. Lots of the punditry is saying that Butler can win, but still picks Pitt. Don’t get me wrong. I’m nervous. I’m always nervous. But I have to laugh at the lengths that Pitt players (and possibly the coaches pushing these buttons) are going to find disrespect and underdog cards.

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Before I do the media rundown of Pitt’s 23 point win over UNC-Ashville, I’ll take a moment to explain why I wasn’t too worried about Pitt’s start yesterday.

First, Pitt had been off for over a week. You have to expect some rust — and sure enough it was there. Second, you just cannot keep trying to read too much into every moment of a game. It becomes easy in hindsight after a team loses. Oh, there were the signs. It becomes the cliche — weak spot X finally caught up to team Y. But in a one-and-done format it comes down to the teams, their skill and talent, match-ups and luck.

Look at Louisville. Coming into the Tournament, they were the runner-up in the Big East Tournament. They had won seven of their last nine. Beaten teams like Pitt, UConn and Notre Dame. They looked like the second hottest team in the Big East. They came out and laid an egg against Morehead St. Maybe they would have come back to win if Knowles hadn’t gotten hurt in the second half, but would you, did you in your bracket expect that?

Remember Pitt last year? Absolutely dismantled Oakland in the opening game and then lost to Xavier. Or how about a few years back, when Pitt won the Big East Tournament? They throttled some poor team and then played horribly against Michigan State to bow out early. The year Pitt went a Scottie effin’ Reynolds lay-up short of the Final Four, Pitt putzed around for most of the game against ETSU.

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Is that how you feel? That because Pitt started out rusty and played a less than outstanding first half, that the final score masked issues?

Nah. Sorry. I wasn’t that worried or bothered. UNC-Ashville was playing as hard as they could in the first half and piled up the fouls trying to match Pitt. Pitt dominated on the boards. They were rusty in the first half. Shooting poorly, more than anything else — 11-30. The defense was there, however, and Pitt pulled away steadily in the second half.

Media recap tomorrow.

Next up, Butler. They got by ODU in the final second — literally with a Matt Howard basket as time expired. Now I won’t lie. Butler makes me nervous. A guy like Howard has the potential to be streaky with his shooting from outside. And if he is dragging Nasir Robinson outside on shots, it hurts Pitt for rebounding. Then there’s Shelvin Mack.

And yes, Pitt players know they have to play better in the first half.

Indiana native McGhee, who grew up about 40 miles northeast of Butler, knows Pitt can’t afford any more slow starts.

“We played real sluggish in the first half,” McGhee said. “We didn’t move the ball well. We had some careless turnovers. If you do that against a good team like Butler, you are going to burn yourself down into a hole.”

Butler-Pitt is set for 7:10 pm on Saturday, March 19.

Adjust your life accordingly.

Okay. I can’t liveblog today. The game tips right when I have to pick up my daughter. Just comment away here. Right now, I’ve switched to the ODU-Butler game.

Let’s see, the local ties of UNC Ashville. A headcoach from Edgewood, who chose NC State over Pitt in the 60s.

Biedenbach, who still has family in Pittsburgh, had narrowed his college choices to N.C. State and Pitt.

But when N.C. State’s Everett Case — the legendary coach Dixon just passed for most wins in the first eight seasons — and assistant Press Maravich came calling, Biedenbach headed for Raleigh, N.C., to become a two-time, all-ACC selection.

“I considered Pitt strong,” he said. “I liked the ACC, and at that time Pitt was averaging about 500 fans a game. I love Pittsburgh. I’m a big Steelers fan. (N.C. State grad) Bill Cowher and I are good friends.”

500 fans/game? Yeesh. Makes the turnouts during the worst of the Willard era seem packed.

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Just a final reminder to sign up and play the PittBlather Bracket game.

Fabulous Cheap Leftover Prizes for the winner.

The 1st round was technically, last night. I don’t know anyone that actually calls it that. If the NCAA is so eager to avoid any stigma with “play-in” games, maybe just call it “The Opening Round” and still make Thursday/Friday “1st Round.” I think people might actually be accepting of that if you make just a small concession that the Tuesday/Wednesday games are not the same as the true start of the tourney. More like an introduction.

The point, which was quickly lost, was that Pitt will play UNC-Ashville on Thursday.

“We’re real excited, everybody’s ready to go,” Dixon said.

UNC Asheville (20-13) won the Big South Conference championship. The team’s first impression of the Bulldogs came from watching a first-round game live rather than film that had been edited and dissected.

“It changes a lot because you get a better feel for what the team is capable of doing,” senior Brad Wanamaker said.

When watching film, “It shows a lot of their strengths,” Wanamaker said. “It really doesn’t show their weaknesses. When you watch a game live you see little weaknesses in a team, and for us to watch it as a team [Tuesday night], it’s going to be great.”

UNC-Ashville will probably make Pitt (fans) a little nervous during the game. Simply because of a kid named Dickey, who showed he can bomb away from outside. UNC-Ashville can also play inside a bit, so Pitt will get challenged for rebounds.

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Thanks as always to Luke for setting things up and running the bracket. I’m behind in so many other things, it’s one last thing to try and get to.

Okay, here’s the prize set-up for the winner.

— $50 Barnes & Noble gift card

— a couple (cheap) Pitt t-shirts that I picked up at the Pitt Stop (Size L only).

This is in addition to the regifted schwag collection that carries over from the football bowl challenge since that was unclaimed:

– 8 GB jump drive in the form of Nike branded military dog tags

– Padded black Nike drawstring bag

– Jim Beam branded flask

– Brewzkey bottle opener

– Flying Dog branded pint glass (and if you are of legal drinking age, a good beer to pour into it)

— this t-shirt in size Large

So if you haven’t done your bracket. Head here to follow the instructions.

My sister lives in Houston, so I have a place to stay. I’m still working on the wife accepting the idea of me running away for the first weekend in April — without returning to find the locks changed.

Here is the entire schedule for NCAA Tournament basketball games. Pitt is set for Thursday, 3:10 pm on truTV (Ch. 246 if you have DirecTV). Calling the game will be Tim Brando and Mike Giminski.

The log5 analysis puts Pitt’s chances of winning the whole thing at 7.5%. Lowest of all the #1 seeds.

Let’s look at the Southeast bracket snap judgments:

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