The Pittsburgh Panthers basketball program wasn't relevant for a majority of the 1990's, but as the 21st century came in, Ben Howland revived the program with his trademark brand of thug ball, concentrating intensely on defense and hoping the offense scraped by enough points to come out victorious.  This is a great plan for winning games - Pitt made a bunch of Big East Championship games (won one) and numerous Sweet Sixteens (never past there) - but it's tough to win a championship with no offense for six straight games, despite Howland getting awfully close with the UCLA Bruins and his style which proves to be an abomination to the game of basketball.

(I don't hate UCLA, I just hate Howland's style of play.  I'm not the only one.  The halftime score of their tournament game against Indiana last year was 20-13, and their Elite Eight game against Memphis in 2006 remains perhaps the single worst basketball game "being played at a high level" I've ever seen.)

But as Pitt prevailed against Duke in overtime over Christmas break, they looked like Jamie Dixon had finally found a perfect mix.  Gone were the inconsistent backcourts of Brandin Knight and Julius Page, the uncontrolled street ball of Carl Krauser or the plodding golem Aaron Gray - this was a very good basketball team.  Dixon had brought in freshman DeJuan Blair, a bundle of energy, post scoring and rebounding, to complement a troop of savvy veterans, led by small but sturdy and steady point guard Levance Fields.  

Even before they finished off Duke, things started to fall apart.  Senior forward Mike Cook was lost for the season on the floor of Madison Square Garden, and their next game, a 25-point loss at Dayton, found Fields going down with an injury that kept him out until this past Friday night against Marquette.  The Panthers have slogged through the rest of the Big East season, playing some good basketball (win against Georgetown, very close loss at UConn) and some truly awful games (lost at home to Rutgers, at Cincinnati and then the blowout Friday in Milwaukee).  They're at 7-5 in the Big East, two games behind Notre Dame for the final tournament bye, and a falling eight seed in Lunardi's latest projection.

So what does that mean for tonight in the JACC, as the Irish hope to extend their home court win streak and keep pace in the increasingly difficult Big East race?  Fields will still be shaking some rust off, and Blair's been nursing a knee injury, but this could still be a tough out.  Statistically, this Pitt team is fantastic at offensive rebounding, collecting over forty percent of their missed shots - and oh friend, there are missed shots.  Their three point threat is Ronald Ramon, who's only hitting 37.2% from behind the arc, although his buzzer-beating heroics against West Virginia probably is keeping Pitt out of most bubble discussions.  Senior forward (not Irish polar bear) Sam Young, probably the best player on the Panthers, is also capable of stepping back from behind the arc, so look for him, Ramon or starting guard Keith Benjamin to light the Irish up, as someone on the opposition tends to do.

The player that intrigues me the most is Blair, who resembles Luke Harangody in a lot of ways.  Both of them share quick feet, a knack for finding offensive rebounds, great hands and an endless motor.  Blair probably has Harangody in athleticism and number of smiles flashed per game, but Harangody's a better free throw shooter and more adept at getting to the line.  There's talk that Blair may be hitting a freshman wall as his production is down from the first half of the season, but he'll be playing on nearly a week's rest and has an incredibly high ceiling.  He sprung for 20 and 10 against OK State, 15 and 20 against Duke and 15 and 9 in the win against Roy Hibbert and the Hoyas.  

This Pitt team isn't as large as in recent years when the likes of Chris Taft, Chevy Troutman, Levon Kendall and Aaron Gray were clogging up the lane, but they have some length.  Junior Tyrell Biggs, who sounds like one of the big men you have to face on NBA Street, might also give us trouble with his five boards a game in limited action, but the main focus of the Irish on the glass will be getting a body (or two) on Blair and trying to limit any Ramon threes on scrambles after the initial shot. Hopefully Fields' foot isn't 100%, as that would certainly help the Irish remedy some of the guard penetration problems that have been plaguing them lately.

Despite the fact they looked like backdoor cuts, give-and-go's or any sort of basketball offense was a new, exciting, confusing discovery against Marquette, the Panthers are known to play some quality defense from time to time.  Their best defensive stat by a mile this season is their three-point stoppage, with opposing teams only shooting 31.8% from behind the arc (31st in the nation).  Thankfully, as long as Harangody rights the ship after his abysmal performance at Rutgers, the Irish don't need to rely only on three's against a Pitt front line that's athletic, but beatable.  

As far as predictions go, I haven't been confident for a Notre Dame basketball game all season, so I'm not going to start feeling warm and fuzzy now.  Right now the Irish are at a point where any loss basically knocks them out of the hunt for a Big East title unless UConn manages to drop a game (the Huskies' closing schedule is the easiest of the top four by far) and they can upset Louisville on the road.  Surviving this home stand with Pitt and Syracuse is crucial for getting a nice ticket to the Big Dance and confirming that Big East tournament bye, and there's also the matter of that home win streak and the fact Notre Dame hasn't defeated Pitt since February 9, 2003, when Chris Thomas had 24 points and Tom Timmermans logged 23 minutes of action.

Go Irish, Beat Panthers.  

(If you're interested in doing some more Panther research, head over to Pitt Blather, which is covering the Harangody/Blair match-up among other things.)