The Pitt women’s basketball team beat 11th seeded Wyoming on Saturday 63-58 to advance to the second round against 3rd see ded Baylor. They advanced this far last year but Candace Parker from Tennessee rolled right over them on their way to an NCAA title.

Baylor (25-6) limped into the tournament with three straight losses — its first three-game skid since the 2000-01 season. The Bears’ struggles were largely due to inexperience and a lack of healthy bodies. They have just one senior on the roster and haven’t played more than seven players in any game since beating Oklahoma on Feb. 17.

That one senior, however, made a big difference on Saturday, when Tisdale had 26 points and six assists in Baylor’s 88-67 first-round victory over Fresno State. “She’s the key to our offense,” junior forward Rachel Allison said of Tisdale, averaging 24.4 points in her last five games. [ESPN preview]

If they are able to beat Baylor tonight, it would be the first Sweet 16 appearance in program history. Game time is set for 7pm on ESPN2.

Women’s basketball was once a strong point of Penn State athletics, but now we have that. At least they can always fall back on their 12 NCAA men’s gymnastics championships.

And holy hell does ESPN have a lot invested in this tournament or what. After CBS picked up the exclusive rights to every game of the men’s tourney, ESPN swooped in for the women’s. I’m willing to bet if they didn’t have the women’s tournament on their networks they wouldn’t have as much of their website dedicated to the women as they do the men. Just sayin’.

Congrats to coach Agnus Berenato for putting the Pitt women’s team on the map when they weren’t relevant even two years ago. Back-to-back tourney appearances is a big deal.

I knew it was good for me to write about Pitt’s season having already been enough. Win or lose against Michigan State, it was enough. I’ve already reread that post five times – I’m positive it’s kept me from saying something I’ll regret later. I’ve had about 40 hours to digest it – I think it’s time to move on.

Having said that…ouch. That’s a tough one to lose. I can’t wait to hear the people saying Dixon still can’t win the big ones – I don’t think any coach can win when your team shoots like that. He wasn’t the one shooting 2 of freaking 17 on three pointers. Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin both played like crap and there’s no denying that. I’ve been pretty tough on both all year (especially Ramon) and this game didn’t help their cause. Still, thanks to them for giving so much to this program over the years and I hope them both the best in whatever their life takes them to next. It’s not like the seniors were the only ones to drop the ball though – everyone except for Fields played like #%@&. I’m not even mad anymore because, well, it’s over.

But hey, when Drew Neitzel is going to hit every shot he takes then you’re already fighting a losing battle. As Chas mentioned, Neitzel frustrated the hell out of everyone by both his crazy shots and his attitude. Someone I watched the game with, not a Pitt fan, commented on how much of a jerk he was and somebody from Pitt needed to foul him hard at the end of the game. I responded with some harsher words (one f-word followed by a different f-word) but whatever. Just add him to the list with Gerry McNamara and Chris Quinn – certified Panther killers.

Please don’t bring up the argument that they were worn down by the Big East Tournament. I’m not buying that excuse at all. These are 18-22 year old kids in the best shape of their lives. Sure four games in four days was tough but it was a whole week ago. The game against Oral Roberts was so easy and boring that it was like a day off anyways.

It also would have been nice for them to win for the simple fact it would have given us something to write about for another week. Blogging the offseason sucks.

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.

AOL FanHouse did something similar to a “Choose Your Own Adventure”, but it was “Choose Your Own Cinderella Team”. Starting here and picking “Pay attention to the front of the jerseys” then “Pick a team with experience” followed by “You like a team that keeps coming back to the tournament”, you’re Cinderella option is Thursday’s opponent, Oral Roberts. Their experience-based preview is here.

Oral Roberts won’t be intimidated by the bright lights. They’ve done this. Sure, they get a very hot Pittsburgh team right now, but how many times have we watched the Big East tournament champion end up losing fairly early in the dance?

ORU has been to the tourney the previous three seasons as a 16 seed, then a 14 seed, and now a 13 seed this year. The “adventure” was fun and I thought was brilliantly done.

According to the Oral Roberts official site, their mascot is the Golden Eagles (changed from Titans in 1993). The name of the costumed mascot is Eli, both for it’s biblical meaning and it’s acronym: Education, Lifeskills, and Integrity. Um, maybe they need to add an ‘f’ for “fighter.” Eli found himself in a bit of a scuffle against the IUPUI Jaguar during the Summit League title game. Of course, like most things these days, it made it’s way onto YouTube.

The best Penguins blog on the web is The Pensblog. They say Pitt won’t win because of a tough first round draw.

What would Gary Roberts do? Probably play a solid 2-3 zone (“with man-to-man principles”)…

…by himself.

[Quick aside: Bill Raftery doesn’t just yell “onions” – he draws them.]

Chances are you probably saw or heard that Bob Knight picked Pitt to win it all. He also has reiterated it more than a few times on various SportsCenter segments that he’s sticking with them. If you missed it, the video is here.

TV coverage map for the afternoon time slot? Yes.

Just a final reminder about our Bracket Challenge. See if you can beat me (you will). Commenters, what’s the name of your bracket? Just so we all know.

Terrelle Pryor mania is over – and he’s attending “The University of Ohio State.”

I’ll be watching the game at the Pete tomorrow – you should too. If you’re a part of the “general public” then feel free to come.

A nice bit of information about Oral Roberts and their offense with a couple of Summit League Coaches (the Summit League changed their name from Mid-Continent after last year).

“You’ve got to stay on them and make them beat you off the dribble,” Phillips said. “It’s going to hurt your help-side (defense) and other things. But you’ve got to hug on those guys. They will shoot anytime.”

Jarvis is not shy about shooting from anywhere on the court. His range is legendary in the Summit League. It almost as if he considers a 19-foot, 9-inch 3-pointer to be an insult.

“Jarvis is an incredible shooter. He has unlimited range,” said Kampe, whose team played Oral Roberts to a pair of close losses. “His range is one step off the bus, and he’s not afraid to shoot it from there. He will shoot anytime, any place.”

Said Phillips, “Jarvis’ range is ridiculous. He will shoot 26-27 feet. You’ve certainly got to be in full-chase mode.”

Always scary when facing a team that has a guy who shoots from outside, and can go way outside. That said, the defense of ORU — their strength — might have a mismatch issue with Sam Young.

“He’s a guy you try playing bigger men on, but he can pull them out on the floor because he can shoot 3s and put the ball on the floor,” Sutton said. “He’s going to be a tough matchup for somebody.”

Ideally, the Eagles would like to stick Yemi Ogunoye, their 6-foot-9 defensive stopper, on Young. But that could create a problem.

Young is strong enough to play power forward next to freshman center De Juan Blair in the Panthers’ deceptively small lineup. With no starter taller than Blair’s 6-foot-7, the Panthers finished fourth in rebounding against taller foes in the mega-competitive Big East, which sent eight of its 16 teams into the Big Dance.

They ripped Georgetown and 7-foot-2 Roy Hibbert on the boards 41-29 in the championship game.

If Ogunoye takes Young, the Eagles will be forced to use a smaller lineup — or have 6-foot-10 Shawn King or 6-foot-9 Marcus Lewis matched up on one of Pitts’ three guards.

“And that’s not something you want to do,” Sutton said.

The Golden Eagles have size in their frontcourt, but they rely on their guards to score. The Deadspin pants party preview also introduces us to a new Pitt blog — The Mosh Pitt. Welcome, guys.

I hate looking beyond. And I’m not, since I’m not assuming Michigan State even beats Temple — any team that can score only 36 points in a loss to Iowa, losing to Penn State and to a D-II team in an exhibition should never be considered a lock (even if they also beat Texas). I mean let’s face it, Michigan State can be one of the more unpredictable teams. That said, Tom Izzo is expressing a bit of confidence.

His expectations “are actually the highest they’ve been in a lot of years,” he added. “If we get some key guys playing well at the same time, we’re good enough to win the weekend.

“And if you’re good enough to win the weekend, it means you might have faced Pittsburgh, which has beaten (No. 2 seed) Georgetown and another two seed (Duke), and you’ve already played teams like (No. 1 seed) UCLA and (No. 2 seed) Texas during the season.”

It’s just getting them to play well all at the same time. Something they have struggled to do.

I think I would prefer more doubters like Grant Wahl at SI.com.

Bracket buster: Oral Roberts. Scott Sutton’s 13th-seeded Golden Eagles are playing in their third-consecutive NCAA tournament, and they’re blessed with more size than any other low- to mid-major, going 6-8, 6-9 and 6-10 on their starting front line. They will be taller up front than first-round foe Pittsburgh, which is riding high after its Big East tourney title, but for this game in Denver I’m predicting a repeat of what happened the last time Pitt went out west for the NCAAs and got knocked off in the first round (by Pacific in Boise in 2005).

Instead, it’s mostly positive stuff about Pitt.

SI.com: Who has the hardest road?

SD: Memphis, no doubt about it. Pittsburgh won four games in four days at the Big East tournament … clearly, with Levance Fields back, that’s a different team. Memphis will have to get past Pitt, then past Texas in Houston, where Texas has a home-court advantage — it will be burnt orange wall-to-wall.

Seth Davis also thought Pitt should have been a 3 seed.

What Pitt did in the Big East Tournament seems to have inflated lots of expectations. Bobby Knight isn’t the only one willing to predict Pitt in the Final Four.

Instead, I’m going with No. 4 seed Pittsburgh, which just battled through the Big East tournament to win the title at Madison Square Garden. The Panthers will bump free throw phobic Memphis and then Texas, if things play out according to my bracket plan, to join the three remaining top seeds in San Antonio. North Carolina, the top overall seed, takes UCLA in a classic title game.

While not predicting Pitt to win the South, Pitt is the “darkhorse” to come out of the bracket.

So how about Pittsburgh? A fourth seed isn’t that big of a dark horse, granted, but nobody from seeds 5-16 has a chance in this region.

Pitt is the hot “darkhorse” or “sleeper” team right now.

The Panthers are seeded No. 4, which is startling considering that they entered the Big East tournament last week as a No. 7 seed. But it would be hard to find a hotter team in the country than the Panthers, who became the second team in Big East tournament history to win four games in four nights. (A note of caution: the last team to do it, Syracuse in 2006, lost in the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament.)

But the reason to be high on these Panthers is that they are finally healthy after the starting point guard Levance Fields came back from a broken foot. Sam Young has emerged as one of the country’s best players, and the freshman big man DaJuan Blair is no longer playing like a freshman.

I hate being the sexy pick. I’m not saying I want Pitt to be the team everyone is predicting to flame out in the first round, but it is a little too much. I worry about the players reading too many press clippings.
This breakdown of the 1st round game, is pretty good. And not just because they go with Pitt.

Pittsburgh game plan: The Panthers will look to wear down the Golden Eagles with their efficient offense. Though not an especially high-scoring team, Pitt can push the ball to negate ORU’s defensive style, create mismatches in transition and ultimately tire out the Golden Eagles. Also, forwards Sam Young and DeJuan Blair must establish themselves on the glass.

Oral Roberts game plan: ORU wins with defense - it held opponents to 39.7 percent field-goal shooting this season. It has a pair of shot blockers in Shawn King and Yemi Ogunoye and quick-footed guards who make teams work for every point. By slowing things down, ORU might keep the game close enough at the end for guard Robert Jarvis to take over.

Jarvis generally comes off the bench, but is their leading scorer.

This story from the Tulsa paper has the Golden Eagles poor mouthing their chances.

“They’re athletic, they play hard and they play great as a team. There’s no one man. You can’t just stop one man and expect to win,” said ORU senior guard Yemi Ogunoye. “They’re playing great toward the end of the season. They’ve got all the confidence in the world right now. It’s gonna be tough for us to come out and win. Everything has to be be on that night for us,” Ogunoye said.

But it was hard to dampen the Eagles’ enthusiasm after receiving their highest seed in their three consecutive years of qualifying in the tournament.

“We’re making progress,” said senior guard Moses Ehambe. “Two years ago, a 16 seed. Last year, 14, and now a 13. So we’re taking steps up. Pittsburgh is a physical team, but I believe if we go out there and play hard and play our signature (defense), we’ll be all right.”

Worth noting that ORU is a bad free throw shooting team. Only 67%. Granted I would kill for that after what Pitt did in the last couple games of the BET, but I’m hoping the team is over those yips.

Here’s another capsule collection of the teams.

Finally a couple of the Colorado papers look at the teams coming to Denver here and here. Nothing too important.

Over at FanHouse, we did capsule previews of all the teams in the Field of 65. Here’s Oral Roberts. As noted, Scott Sutton is Oklahoma St. Coach Sean Sutton’s brother. That means he will get a full scouting report from someone who played against Pitt. Albeit, one that had Mike Cook still there.

On a personal night, one of my brother-in-law is a graduate of Oral Roberts. That’s plenty incentive to me for Pitt to win. Not that Jay cares that much. The wife is reasonably certain her brother doesn’t even realize ORU even won their conference.

Just a brief rewind, at the start of the BET, the log5 computations gave Pitt about a 3.1% chance of winning the BET.

The Pitt players aren’t worried about leaving it all behind in New York.

“This team will be ready,” said senior guard Ronald Ramon, who averaged 14.0 points per game in the Panthers’ four Big East tournament victories. “We got to come out and play hard, and play with the same focus we had at the Big East tournament. We need to just keep playing good basketball.”

Not at all.

“I’ve heard it a thousand times,” Pitt freshman center DeJuan Blair said, “and every time I heard it I said, ‘We’re not Syracuse.’ They probably just wanted to win the Big East. We’re looking for the national championship. Well, I’m looking for it. I’ve been in championships all my life. We have to stay hungry. The Big East, that is something we should have won. We just have to keep reaching.”

Coach Dixon isn’t backing away from his statements that Pitt is playing their best basketball. The players are with him on that.

“We won the Big East,” freshman center DeJuan Blair said. “But the best is yet to come.”

As for being a 4 seed, the team isn’t surprised and Coach Dixon isn’t going to complain about having to go out West — again.

Pitt is used to traveling west. The Panthers were sent to Boise, Idaho, in 2005, as a No. 9 seed for the first round (where they lost to Pacific) and were placed in the West Region last year in San Jose for the Sweet Sixteen as a No. 3 seed.

“We always seem to be out west,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “I always joke, ‘Do they know it’s Pittsburgh, Pa., or Pittsburg, Calif., without the ‘H’?”

Dixon isn’t concerned with the long trip. Pitt will fly to Denver on Tuesday and begin practicing for its seventh consecutive year in the NCAA Tournament.

“That’s just something that’s going to happen,” Dixon said. “When it gets down to it, they can’t satisfy everybody. That’s just the way it is. … Seven years ago, we stayed in Pittsburgh, and there was a huge uproar when that happened back then. Ever since, we’ve been making up for it.”

Dixon was on ESPN’s Mike & Mike this morning and repeated that theme when asked about being shipped out to Denver.

Kind of strange to read a columnist in Altoona write about Pitt needing to take another step in the NCAA Tournament.

Be ready.

You know what makes this incarnation of Georgetown frustrating. They can be classy and give credit.

Q. At the end of the first half, they were outrebounding you. Those are hustle plays. How did you address that at the beginning of the second half, because I really saw your team get out‑hustled particularly on the boards.

COACH THOMPSON III: It just happens. It’s one of those days. I agree, it did happen. And you’ve got to give them all the credit in the world. That’s a team that’s gone through a lot of adversity this year with the injuries that they’ve had.

Obviously, Jamie is a terrific coach. They’ve done a terrific job of sticking together and staying focused as a unit. So you’ve got to give just all the credit to them for what they accomplished today.

…

Q. Jessie, did that team play like a team that had played four games in four days?

JESSIE SAPP: They just played like they wanted to win. They did a lot of hustle plays. And you wouldn’t have known that they played in four days. They just played hard, and congratulations to those guys.

No backhanded slaps. No we were the better team junk. Just giving Pitt credit.

Before I go all gushy about this win, just a small question. How come Pitt can’t beat these guys at home?

I mean, Pitt beat them in Louisville and now 3 straight times at MSG. The two times Pitt has lost to the Cards since they came to the Big East have been at the Pete. Eff it, like the free throws in OT, Pitt makes them when they count.

I’m so juiced right now. That was a fantastic game. Louisville and Pitt just battled. Neither team played a perfect game, but Pitt did more and to go all cliche, showed more heart than Louisville.

Pitt was the undermanned team. Pitt was the team with more players in foul trouble. Pitt was the team with the match-up problems. Pitt was the team with the less heralded recruits.  Pitt was the team with the less accomplished coach. Pitt was the team that won.