Caution: "Pitt"-fall Ahead

Jerome Lane, a legend in his own right at Pitt, is best known for his one-handed jam that shattered the backboard in a shower of glass, allowing Bill Raftery to utter his famous “Send it in, Jerome!” line.

Twenty years later, however, the only shattering going on today may be in the house of glass that is the current state of Jamie Dixon’s squad.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Pittsburghs dream season, which looked so bright after a December 20th upset of No. 10 Duke, may have taken a turn for the worst at the hands of the Scarlet Knights Saturday evening.

Rutgers managed to pull off a colossal upset over the Panthers on their home floor, 77-64, their second win over a ranked team this week.

The loss sent New Jersey State home with a renewed sense of hope in the Big East, and sent the Oakland Zoo sulking toward the exits for only the ninth time in the history of the Petersen Events Center.

The 13-point loss tied the Panthers largest margin of defeat at home in Big East play. Louisville dropped Pitt by a baker’s dozen at home last season—but this was 9-11 Rutgers, a team that had been scoring less than 50 points per game in conference so far in 2008.

This loss should not come as a shock to Panther fans. Since losing senior Mike Cook to a torn ACL in the overtime win vs. Duke, Pitt has limped to a 5-4 record. To make matters worse, Levance Fields has been MIA with a broken foot for weeks now, and despite his guarantee to be back by early February, help really can not come soon enough.

Ronald Ramon, a natural shooting guard, was asked to take over the point in Fields’ stead, and has done so admirably. The problem with putting the offense in the hands of Ramon is that his assists are up, but his productivity is way down. He has gotten less looks from long range and has struggled since dislocating his shoulder against Dayton.

Without Fields, teams have been able to work on super-freshman DeJuan Blair, leaving the scoring in the hands of Sam Young. That plan works until a game like today, when Ramon and Young combined to go 5-27 from the field.

The good thing for Pitt is that the team has shown the ability to beat top-tier teams like Duke and Georgetown, but if they want to be considered among those teams and earn a top seed in this year’s NCAA tournament, they can not drop two of three games to teams like Rutgers and Cincinnati.

It should be noted that the doomsday scenario for the Panthers could be an over-reaction, but they need to get better—and in a hurry. 

Pitt has a tough three-game stretch coming up that should tell us who the Panthers really are. Wednesday they entertain Villanova, followed by a trip to Big East-rival Connecticut, before returning home to face West Virginia in the hard-court edition of the Backyard Brawl.