With five teams from the Big East in the Sweet Sixteen, this seems like an ideal time to engage in a little premature Big East triumphalism. Especially after having to endure the past year of Big East football (and having to hear nothing but ess-eee-seee arrogance).

It’s a full slate of Big East bloggers representing the teams in the Sweet Sixteen to discuss this coming week. Laugh at the lesser conferences and poop on the hopes of others.

The participants include:

Mike Rutherford operator of the Card Chronicle, who is feeling a lot better about getting a haircut this time.

Sean Keeley who directs Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician (Syracuse) and knows who Devendorf has on speed dial.

Andrew Porter from UConnBlog will be explaining the magic of Jim Calhoun’s hospital visits.

Chris of I Bleed Blue and White (Villanova) who will be taking time away from stalking the Wildcats.

Come on by at about 9pm tonight. We will discuss some of the match-ups. What we are looking for in the games. Is there still cross-support amidst the Big East programs or simple hate? And plenty of other things.

I’ll be moderating, and if time allows we will take some questions. The liveblog can be found when you Click Here

It just comes down to this in the A-10 final. I get a cheap laugh everytime an announcer mentions, Jason Duty, in that standard clipped announcer voice, so that it comes out “Doodie.”

I just turn into Beavis everytime call out Duty.

So why not carry that into the NCAA Tournament?

I have not been curled up and fetal over the loss. The conference tournaments (writing a lot over at Fanhouse) and everything that has happened this week (included a flooded basement) has deprived me of much sleep and available time.

I have to admit, though, before the conference tournament began I had pictured another BET Championship. And a post entitled “Three’s a magic number.” Why? Presumably Pitt would have beaten WVU and UConn three times in one year and then beaten Louisville in the championship game (third time in a row to knock out L-ville in the BET).  Naturally the script came no where close to working out.

I’m not really down with the whole “beneficial loss” argument. I would have liked to at least made it one more game. Not to mention it is never good to lose to WVU. Frankly, they scare the crap out of me for next year. Devin Ebanks used the BET to make it his coming out party. Huggins must be sending Kelvin Sampson a new cell phone every other week as a thank you for screwing up so badly at Indiana.

That said, it didn’t “expose a weakness” in Pitt. Yes, they struggled with the 1-3-1. Credit to WVU for switching defenses. At times they even threw a match-up zone in there just to keep shifting things around on Pitt. That’s part of why Huggins is such a good coach. He has a team that was well schooled in the 1-3-1 from the previous regime, that he can have them put that out there without much warning or prep. He uses the advantages he has well.

BTW, please use facts to back up your argument or you undermine your credibility. Example:

The Panthers don’t have super-talented players. They don’t have great outside shooters like Connecticut, who can make an opponent pay for switching to a 1-3-1.

Pitt is going to throw the ball inside to Blair, and that’s that. The Panthers made it easy for West Virginia. Too easy.

UConn? UConn is your example. UConn shot 34.8?% on threes. Pitt shot 35.4%. At least use a team that shoots better than Pitt.

Pitt shot poorly in the second half. Heck, despite shooting over 50% in the first half, there were at least 3 shots that just did not fall. Bad shooting definitely hurt.

Pitt played a bad game. WVU played a great one. That’s why the score was so lopsided. WVU still would have won the game, but Pitt made it worse with bad shooting.

“Wherever they put us, we’ve got to play better than we did today,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “We just didn’t execute. We got outplayed in every area. We got what we deserved.”

…

“We feel down right now and for the next couple of hours,” Blair said. “But this is motivation. We didn’t grind it out like we usually do and we’ve got to blame ourselves.”

Pitt has reached the Big East final seven times in the past eight seasons, but never advanced past the Sweet Sixteen with any of those teams.

“It really doesn’t matter where they put us,” Blair said. “We’re just going to have to grind it out. I know this is hard to say but I’d rather lose in the Big East Tournament and win the NCAA than win the Big East and lose in the NCAA. We’ll be all right.”

By the way, in case anyone was wondering, Coach Dixon also shared the blame with the coaching as well. Here’s the full quote from him.

In the second half, we just didn’t execute. I think we were — we weren’t coached well, we weren’t prepared well again for some things and we just got outplayed in every area. So, you know, it’s just one of those games. We’ve got to do a better job and again, this is a very good team. They’ve only lost to good people. We had beaten them twice this year but both were tough games and they really did outplay us in every aspect today so, you know, we understand that we got what we deserved and the responsibility falls on ourselves.

In the transcript from the post-game presser, Dixon also second-guessed himself over putting Biggs out there late in the 1st half and that 3d foul that kept him out to start the 2nd. A team failure.

Blair seemed a bit all over the place after the game. Ah, youth. At one point going conspiracy.

“The refs, they have it out for me, I guess,” he said. “They want to get DeJuan Blair out of the game.”

The next going mature.

“We’re going to use this as motivation,” Blair said. “I hate to feel like this. I felt like this after we lost to Providence and we bounced back. We’re an excellent bounce-back team.”

That was encouraging to hear.

So was this:

“I don’t know what to do about the refs,” Blair said, quietly. “I guess I have to handle them better.”

And the team can not take anything for granted.

So, tonight is Pitt’s first game in the Big East Tournament. Right now it is about being in the familiar.

Whether it’s superstition or consistency, the Pitt men’s basketball team follows an exact routine during their trips to the Big Apple.

The Panthers stay at the same hotel, eat at the same restaurant, practice in the same gym and even use the same bus driver.

“Our team,” coach Jamie Dixon said, “is a creature of habit.”

That familiarity may be one reason why Pitt feels so comfortable at Madison Square Garden and has reached the finals of the Big East Tournament seven of the past eight seasons.

“It’s hard to explain,” Dixon said. “Maybe (our routine) has something to do with it.”

The interesting thing in this game. Pitt and its fans have talked about how part of why Pitt has had so much success at MSG in recent years involves all the kids from NYC and the NY/NJ area that are coming back there. Tonight, the edge in that goes to WVU.

In Pitt’s rotation it is: Fields, Biggs and Gibbs with the local ties. On the Hoopie side there’s: Da’Sean Butler (NJ), Devin Ebanks (Long Island), Kevin Jones (Mt. Vernon), Darryl Bryant (Brooklyn) and Wellington Smith (NJ).

Does Pitt prefer being the perceived underdog? Well, they really won’t be in that role for a while. They are definitely not under the radar.

Speaking of under the radar:

Fields has three double-doubles in a row, averaging 12.3 points and 10.7 assists per game. How hot is the 5-foot-10 senior? In the past three games, he has more double-doubles than either DeJuan Blair (two) or Sam Young has in the past month. Fields also needs 15 assists to break Brandin Knight’s single-season assist record of 251.

The Sporting News, named DeJuan Blair an All-American.

DeJuan Blair, So., F/C, Pitt. Although he averaged more points and more rebounds, and outplayed Connecticut’s Hasheem Thabeet in two head-to-head meetings — both Panthers’ victories — Blair shared Big East player of the year with Thabeet. That mistake will not be repeated here.

Sam Young made the 3d team.

Pitt is about a 4 point favorite tonight.

More silliness from out west.

Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon was the most popular choice when 31 Pac-10 media members were asked whom they’d most like to see named UA’s next coach, according to an Oakland Tribune survey published Wednesday.

Dixon received six votes, while Randy Bennett of St. Mary’s was second with four and Mark Few of Gonzaga was third with three.

Other votes included: Steve Lavin, ESPN analyst; Steve Kerr, Suns GM; Pat Summitt, Tennessee women’s coach; and … Lute Olson.

But Dixon was not first when voters were asked whom Arizona will actually hire. That prognostication most often went to Few (six) with Dixon (four) and Tom Izzo of Michigan State (four) tied for second. UNLV’s Lon Kruger had three votes.

I’m not surprised that many picked Dixon. He’s not mean to the media.

Seriously? There are that many people in the media out there that think Izzo is leaving Michigan State? Where he is one of the highest paid coaches in the Big 11? Where he was an assistant? The fact that Izzo is a Michigan native? That he has no problems recruiting, and has won a national championship at MSU? Yet, that many really believe he will be lured out to the desert?

I would have preferred a tepid “no comment” or the obvious lie of, “I’m not even thinking about that right now.” Instead, DeJuan Blair had to be too honest, too emotional, and provide too much to parse after accepting his co-Big East POY award.

“I want to stay at Pitt, just so everybody can say, ‘We loved him,’” Blair said. “It’s up in the air. It depends on this year. But I want to stay.”

Blair is a projected first-round draft pick, but he said his heart remains in the Steel City.

The 6-foot-7 sophomore center said the ceremony last week to retire Brandin Knight’s jersey got him thinking about his legacy at Pitt. Knight, a Pitt assistant coach and former All-America point guard, is one of only four Pitt players to have his number retired.

“I want my jersey to be retired like Brandin,” Blair said. “That’s an inspiration to look up and see your jersey every day. Just to stay and be loved in Pittsburgh. … I’m always going to come back. I’m always going to be here.

“We’re going to see how it goes.”

As I said when McCoy made his declarations of coming back, I’m not holding him to it. There’s nothing to hold him to.

I have no doubt he loves it at Pitt. I have no doubt he knows all about the possibilities of legacies and all those things. I also know the money is out there and that the NBA is another league heading for a major economic shake-up.

My hope is that he leaves, because he can stand up at a press conference and declare that he has accomplished everything he wanted at Pitt — including that trip to the White House.

At the very least, he will be going through the draft evaluation this year.

As for the co-Big East POY award and sharing it with Hasheem Thabeet.

Not that Blair believes it should be that way.

When asked if he was OK sharing the award, Blair said: “What do y’all think?”

His smile said the rest.

Few people seem to get how Thabeet got as many votes. All BE Commish Mike Tranghese has said is that it was one of the closest votes ever, and that five players received 1st place votes.

Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own players and had to submit their ballots Friday, the day before Pitt beat Connecticut for the second time this season.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon declined to reveal his ballot but said he factored in which player led the regular-season champion.

“I always try to pick a guy from the team that won it,” he said. “I had (Louisville senior Terrence) Williams up there.”

For Blair, it was probably best, that the voting had to be in early. Sam Young and Terrence Williams both came up with big games for their teams.

So, should teams tank the Big East Tournament? That’s the question in the Wall Street Journal.

Looking at the last 20 Big East Tournaments, 38 of the 40 teams that made the final went on to play in the NCAA Tournament. Of those teams, 14 of them, or 37%, were upset by a lower-seeded team — and many of those upsets were plug ugly.

There’s a chart, though, that somewhat undermines the thesis.

Here’s how the teams that reached the finals of the last 20 Big East tournaments have done in the NCAA Tournament, based on their seeds.

• Met Expectations: 53%
• Beat Expectations: 10%
• Lost By Upset: 37%

So, 63% of the time they at least won the games against lower seed opponents before falling to higher seeds. The theory might have more validity if compared by teams that played four games in four days to make the BET Championship game. Something Pitt doesn’t have to worry about this year, but last year?

“I was pretty tired. Last year, I feel it affected us a little bit,” Blair said.

Does this prove the popular opinion that Pitt puts too much emphasis on the Big East Tournament? Maybe the Panthers should rest their key players to get primed for a Final Four-or-further run. Blair’s comments certainly point to that.

But last year’s situation may have been more circumstance than correlation. Playing for your immediate future tends to wear one down.

The Panthers were desperately trying to re-acclimate themselves with point guard Levance Fields, who was getting healthy on the court after missing six weeks with a foot injury. They emitted every ounce of energy just to make sure they got into the NCAA Tournament, a bid they still hadn’t secured as the Big East Tournament opened.

“We were still finding ourselves in game (No.) 30 or 31,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said.

These Panthers’ already know much of their NCAA Tournament future: They’ll be either a one or two seed when the event begins next week. That’s not to say the Panthers won’t dispense the same type of effort, merely that the mental anguish won’t be as taxing.

As for conference tournament champions not fairing well in the NCAA Tournament?

Recent numbers suggest that is bunk.

Of the automatic qualifiers for the six BCS conferences (Big East, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC) over the past three years, eight of the 18 advanced to the Final Four. Those 18 teams had a combined 54-15 Tournament record. Four of the past five national champions won their respective conference tournaments.

More pointedly, Big East champions have fared just as well.

Three of the past 10 Big East champs have advanced to the Final Four, with two of those teams (Connecticut in 1999 and 2004) being crowned national champions.

That’s why the double-bye is so important. No one — no one is going to tank it. No coach is going to hold something back. The players and coaches are not wired that way and would never approach it that way. So, if at all possible, you want as much rest and to be limited in the amount of games you have to play.

Nothing could be worse for teams like WVU, Marquette and Syracuse, but to get too hot and make it to the championship. They are  not deep enough to hold up without the mental toll as well. Marquette especially would be burned out by the mental side. They are still trying to figure out what they are doing without Dominic James.

Last year, Pitt defied log5-based preview. They are not nearly the longshot this year, but still not the favorite.

Back to Pitt, specifically, of course they are planning to win the BET.

And the Panthers are keeping an eye on the even bigger picture. They are keenly aware of what’s in front of them, and how it’s been beyond their reach in the past.

Despite wins over Marquette and Connecticut, the Panthers feel that this season is just beginning.

And that starts at the Garden.

“The coaches kept saying that we haven’t played well (recently),” said Blair, who has a poster of Final Four site Detroit hanging on his bedroom wall. “We haven’t played to our abilities.

“But everybody wants to go out on top.”

Sam Young, having busted out of a brief slump is looking to keep it going.

The 6-foot-6 senior forward seems to be tuning up for another big effort. Young is averaging 22.5 points and 7.5 rebounds over the past six games. He is shooting 54.6 percent from the field in that span.

Young, a native of Clinton, Md., also was named a first-team all-Big East selection and was the Big East Player of the Week.

“I think he’s been pretty good all year long,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “He’s been playing very well. He played really good defense on Saturday. He’s taking good shots. Layups are good shots and he’s had a lot of layups.”

To say nothing of reprising his performance in the BET, but this time carry it further.

“I think about it all the time,” Young said. “I’d watch the film, see exactly how I played, see how I was successful in those games.”

Young’s Garden Party was one of the great performances for any Pitt player at the Big East tournament. He scored 21 points in the first-round victory against Cincinnati, 21 in the overtime quarterfinal win against Louisville, 22 in the semifinal victory against Marquette and 16 in the championship win against Georgetown.

“He led and everyone followed,” sophomore guard Brad Wanamaker said.

Young joined Julius Page as the only other Pitt player to win the Big East tournament’s most outstanding player award. Page won the award after the Panthers claimed their first tournament championship in 2003.This week, Young is hoping to do something that only one other player in the history of the Big East has done — win the most outstanding player honor twice.

Patrick Ewing of Georgetown achieved that feat in 1984 and ‘85. Of course, that would mean Pitt would have to repeat and win a third tournament championship.

Young is up to the challenge.

“If the opportunity presents itself, I’ll try to do that to the best of my ability,” Young said. “I can’t let something like that slip away.”

…

Wanamaker believes Young is motivated by Pitt’s early exit from last year’s NCAA tournament.

“It seems like he has some unfinished business,” Wanamaker said. “He feels like he can lead us to a championship.”

If you didn’t watch any of the CBS college basketball studio — either after Pitt trumping UConn or even on Sunday, you most likely heard Seth Davis declare that Pitt would win the national championship. So, really, Mr. Davis, don’t play coy now.

All right, let’s cut to the chase here. Who is going to win this thing?

I like to save my official pick for the Selection Show. If I spoiled the suspense here, what reason would you have to watch? While I always reserve the right to wait until the last possible moment to make up my mind, let’s just say it’s pretty unusual for a city to celebrate both a Super Bowl championship and an NCAA championship in the same year. This is feeling like one of those years.

Isn’t everyone glad, my vote didn’t count for Big East Player of the Year ( and to steal from Bill Simmons, “the answer, as always, I’m an idiot.”)?

Connecticut’s Hasheem Thabeet and Pittsburgh’s DeJuan Blair, two of the nation’s top centers, have been named BIG EAST Co-Players of the Year by a vote of the league’s head coaches who were not permitted to vote for their own players.

The sharing of Player of the Year honors is the first since 2001-02 when two players from the same schools, Connecticut’s Caron Butler and Pittsburgh’s Brandin Knight, were tabbed by the BIG EAST coaches.  Splitting the award between two players has occurred five times in the 30-year history of the BIG EAST.

Both players helped their respective teams to 15-3 BIG EAST records which tied for the second place in the conference.

This season, Thabeet was the defensive anchor to Connecticut’s success.  The 7-3 junior averaged 13.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and a blocked shot mark of 4.5 that is second in the nation.  With 89 blocks in league games this season, Thabeet is already second on the all-time BIG EAST blocks list with 243, trailing Patrick Ewing by only five.  Thabeet has been named BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year for the past two seasons.

Blair was the force in the paint for the Panthers.  The 6-7 center averaged 15.6 points and a league-leading 12.4 boards.  He shot 59.6 percent from the floor and posted 17 double-doubles.  The sophomore was the only unanimous selection to the All-BIG EAST First Team.  Last year, Blair was named BIG EAST Co-Rookie of the Year.

No tally of the final votes to see if Sam Young (arguably) took any votes from Blair. The ballot had to be in on Friday — before Sam Young overpowered UConn again.

The Pitt press release notes that Blair is the third Pitt player to get BE Player of the Year honors with Knight and Charles Smith.

Blair was also named the District II POY by the US Basketball Writers Association. District II encompasses NY, NJ, DE, DC, PA and WV. Coach Dixon took Coach of the Year honors. On their all-D-II team Blair, Sam Young and Levance Fields were all included.

Gary Parrish at CBS Sportsline lists his picks for Conference POYs and COYs. He gives the Big East awards to DeJuan Blair and Coach Dixon.

Parrish  also likes Blair enough to name him to his list of 1st-team All-Americans. And he put Sam Young on the 3d team.

Technically, it is underway, but since the Big East Tournament is a pure TV event if it isn’t being aired anywhere but over the internet I’m not so sure that it has really started.

Anyways, just for quick scanning, here’s a sampling of some of the Big East Tournament previews.

Philly paper, no surprise, is pulling for a run from ‘Nova.

This one is just capsules on each team. Grouping by favorites to teams likely to be gone before the favorites even arrive.

Capsule summaries are popular things. Especially with 16 teams to have to preview.

This preview piece thinks Pitt won’t make it the championship game, because this year Pitt should be going deeper in the NCAA. At least that seems to be what it is saying.

Still, Pitt has to be considered the favorite, both because of what they keep doing in the BET and the way they are playing.

In Mike DeCourcy’s preview, he doubts that Pitt will be looking to do anything but try to win the whole thing.

Following Pitt’s victory Saturday over the Huskies, coach Jamie Dixon was asked how the Panthers would approach this tournament. They won it a year ago and spent so much energy they hadn’t much left for the NCAAs. And with a shot at a top seed and the kind of NBA-type talent they’ve lacked in the past, this could be their best chance in years at NCAA Tournament success.

Dixon said the Panthers would go to New York looking to improve. He figures they’ll have to keep getting better to excel in the NCAAs, and he doesn’t see how that’ll happen if they don’t deliver the best possible effort at Madison Square Garden.

Of course, the mantra this year is that Pitt wants more than just the BET.

“We’re looking at the Big East,” senior forward Sam Young said Saturday afternoon after Pitt defeated Connecticut in the regular-season finale at the Petersen Events Center. “We know it’s here, and we’re focused on it. But at the same time we’ve got our eyes on the prize. Pitt has had trouble getting past the Sweet 16, and we feel like we’re the team that can finally do it. The sky is the limit for us.”

Oh, yeah.

The polls came out yesterday, and somewhat surprisingly Pitt came very close to being #1 in the AP Writers poll. Of the 71 voters, 33 put Pitt at #1, 35 had UNC, 2 chose Memphis and 1 went to Louisville. Gary Parrish at CBS Sports decided Pitt was #1.

The Coaches were a bit more static about not changing their #1 team.

That’s all right. I don’t think anyone really wants to be the #1 team in the polls at this point.

The only thing Pitt wants with a #1 next to itself will be the seed lines.

“I think it’s almost certain to happen,” he said. “There will be two from Pitt, UConn and Louisville.”

Lunardi, who held a national conference call last week, predicted Pitt is a lock to receive its first-ever No. 1 seed when the brackets are announced Sunday, especially with wins over Marquette and Connecticut in the past week.

But he feels there is almost no chance three Big East teams will receive three No. 1 seeds, regardless of what takes place at Madison Square Garden this week.

“Some people are trying to paint whether all three (Pitt, UConn and Louisville) should be on the top line,” he said. “I don’t see that happening. Maybe it’s political, but even if you take all that out, it’s hard for people to fathom that three of the best four teams are in the same conference.”

By location, Pitt is almost certain to be at Dayton. That would have their first round opponent be the winner from the play-in game.

As for the announced All-Big East teams, Sam Young repeats putting him in a limited company.

This is only the second time Pitt placed two players on the all-Big East first team — Charles Smith and Jerome Lane in 1986-87 were the originals — and the third time that three Pitt players received all-Big East honors in the same season.

Young becomes only the fourth Pitt player to earn all-Big East first-team honors twice. The others were Aaron Gray (2005-07), Brian Shorter (1988-90) and Smith (1986-88).

A total of 16 players received all-conference honors — six on the first team and five on the second and third teams — in voting by Big East coaches. Coaches were not permitted to vote for their own players.

“I think it was a tough call for the coaches (to determine) which of our three to vote for,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I’m glad they all got honored.”

Not that seeing Fields all the way down on 3d team wasn’t a shock. Even Coach Dixon — while trying to be neutral about it — seemed to be taking a shot at his fellow coaches.

The biggest surprise was that Fields was named to the third team. Fields leads the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (4.1), is second in assists (7.6 per game) and averages 10.9 points per game. His assist-to-turnover ratio is almost twice as good as Marquette’s Dominic James (2.7), his closest competitor in the Big East.

Two other point guards made second-team all-conference ahead of Fields — Connecticut senior A.J. Price and Syracuse sophomore Jonny Flynn.

“It’s not a surprise,” Dixon said. “Sometimes, I think I value what point guards do more than other coaches. I look at what they do more than the scoring. I put more value on assists than the fans, coaches and media do. His assist-to-turnover ratio should be a bigger story than it has been. But then again, he’s a senior and it’s an old story.”

Roughly translated:  they are shortsighted, clueless fools.

NBE Basketball Report gave their awards.

DeJuan Blair took POY honors. Sam Young was 1st team All-Big East, Fields was 2nd. Coach Dixon was COY and they gave Ashton Gibbs honorable mention for freshmen.

You can have that silly official list of All-Big East and POY (coming tomorrow) stuff. Made up of votes from coaches in the conference.  What do they know?

Here’s the results of a Big East Bloggers roundtable. A big thanks to the East Coast Bias for deciding to pull this together.

DeJuan Blair took home player of the year honors amongst BE Bloggers. Lots of good stuff in the polling. Including a lot of underrated/overrated things. On the all BE-team. A fun read.

Meanwhile, John Gasaway at Basketball Prospectus picks DeJuan Blair over Blake Griffin for national POY (hat tip to Joe).

Sure enough, Blair is the more efficient offensive weapon, but the magnitude of the difference here (keeping in mind that Griffin’s offensive rating is of course excellent in its own right) can’t be attributed to workload alone. Part of it is Blair’s superiority on the offensive glass. Another factor helping Blair in this comparison is that he commits fewer turnovers than Griffin does, even when adjusted for each player’s prominence in their offense. At least one part of this difference in efficiency, however, can be explained even more simply: Blair shoots fewer free throws. With these two players, that’s a good thing.

That being said, throw Griffin at any of ten recent seasons and I’d wager you’d find me supporting him for POY in six or seven of them. Alas, this year is different.

DeJuan Blair is both one of the most efficient offensive players in the nation and the second best defensive rebounder in major-conference hoops over the past five seasons. His unprecedented offensive rebounding has played a major role in making his team quite possibly the single most effective offense in the country. When he’s in foul trouble, Pitt fans get visibly nervous. When he’s not, they have the sense that their team can do anything, up to and including beating Connecticut twice. He flipped Hasheem Thabeet over his head. He wears what appear to be headbands on his biceps. He even commits steals.

It’s enough to make him my Player of the Year. Congratulations, DeJuan.

Nice.