Panthers finally hitting stride after injury-riddled year

Guard Levance Fields, perhaps Pitt's most indispensable asset, finished with 13 points and six assists against No. 2 seed Louisville. AP

NEW YORK -- It's what every coach in the country hopes for, and it's exactly what Jamie Dixon's Pittsburgh team is doing: Peaking in March.

In the Panthers' case, however, they didn't have much of a choice.

Having endured a nightmarish season full of injuries -- losing two players to season-ending injuries and playing without dynamic point guard Levance Fields for the majority of conference season -- Pittsburgh arrived here this week finally healthy (at least as much as possible) and finally clicking. With a 76-69 overtime upset of Big East second seed Louisville on Thursday night, the seventh-seeded Panthers regained the attention of anyone who'd long ago tuned out the team that, way back in December, once sat 11-0 after toppling Duke.

Returning to the site of that game, Madison Square Garden -- their self-proclaimed "home away from home" (five of Pittsburgh's players hail from the New York area) -- the Panthers scored what is easily their most impressive win since then. The timing was no coincidence.

"We're playing our best basketball right now," said Dixon. "We really looked [toward] these last four games and this tournament for us to be ourselves, be the team that we can be, and that's what we're becoming."

A quick look at the box score would indicate that Thursday night's win was primarily the result of their two frontcourt studs, Sam Young and DeJuan Blair, who combined for 37 points and 20 rebounds. Certainly, they were outstanding.

But in a game where the margin rarely swung larger than four points one way or the other down the stretch and required five extra minutes of work, the impact of an elite floor general like Fields was unmistakable. He made just 3 of 12 shots but had six assists, just one turnover and helped hold Louisville guards Edgar Sosa, Jerry Smith and Andre McGee to a combined 2-of-21 shooting.

Meanwhile, role players like Gilbert Brown, Keith Benjamin and Brad Wanamaker played with the confidence that comes with having been thrown into the fire due to the injury epidemic.

"I can't say enough about the [adversity] we've been through," said Young, who scored 21 points in the previous night's win over Cincinnati. "To see guys come here, step up and make plays shows a lot."

It was in the game following that Duke win, a then-stunning 80-55 defeat to Dayton, that Fields broke his foot. The Panthers basically treaded water without him, then suffered a three-game losing streak (at Marquette, at Notre Dame and vs. Louisville) upon his initial return. They sunk all the way to seventh place in the conference, a steep drop for a program that's played in six of the past seven conference championship games.

Suddenly, they're one more win from doing it again -- and they're almost certainly headed for a higher seed in the NCAA tournament (No. 5?) than they had in their own conference tourney.

"I don't think anybody really knew what to make of our team with all the injuries," said Dixon. "This is a team that had to change in midstream three, four times."

One of the biggest, if unnoticed impact of the injuries came not in games, but in practices, where for much of the season Pittsburgh has flat-out lacked the bodies to go full-throttle. Dixon said that Fields only began practicing again the week leading up to their regular-season finale against DePaul.

As they've begun to return to their more customary, "rugged" practice style, there's been a noticeable improvement in their defensive performances. The last time the Panthers faced the Cardinals, a 75-73 home loss on Feb. 24, Louisville shot 57 percent; on Thursday night, they hit just 37 percent.

"Practice is where it starts," said guard Ronald Ramon. "We weren't able to go after each other, do the 'aggressive drills,' as we call them. But now that guys are healthy, we're able to go five-on-five, get after it. Now when we go on the court and play games, the chemistry's there."

They couldn't ask for better timing than to find that chemistry in March.