| The grind of a fortified Big East Conference schedule is heading toward the postseason, where it can be safely assumed now that the Pitt basketball team surely will find a place.
The Panthers, happy to escape Providence with an 85-77 victory, returned home Thursday for a quick pit stop between road games. They'll face Marquette on Saturday night in Milwaukee in a rematch of a 77-71 Pitt victory on Jan. 28 at Petersen Events Center.
Marquette (16-8, 6-5) played host to No. 17 Georgetown last night.
"We've just got to keep doing the things that we're doing and keep getting better," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said, repeating the season's theme of this latest Panthers team to win 20 games. In all, Pitt (20-3, 9-3) has posted 20 victories five consecutive seasons, which extends a school record.
"We came into this year thinking we were going to win 20 games. A lot of people didn't," said sophomore guard Keith Benjamin, who has scored 31 points off the bench in the Panthers' past two games. "It's really not that important to us right now. We know we're in the (NCAA) tournament now, but we're still going to come out and play hard. We want more wins, as many as we can get this season from this team."
Benjamin hesitated, then bit his lower lip and cocked his head just slightly while fixing his eyes in reflection on the floor ahead of him.
"Right now," he said, finally, nodding his head in confirmation, "we've totally come together, and it's going to be something special for the rest of the year."
What the Panthers have accomplished thus far -- that 20-3 record, after losing two of their top three scorers from last year's 20-9 team, and a No. 9 ranking -- already is a special season.
No matter what happens from now on.
A clean sweep of the team's remaining four regular-season games would give the Panthers a 24-3 mark and place them in prime position for a first-round bye in the Big East tournament in March.
"I think we're supposed to win the rest of the games we play in," Benjamin said. "We're going to come out and play hard and try and get a win at Marquette."
It's debatable whether the Panthers will sweep their remaining games. The road ahead is tough, beginning with the rematch against Marquette, which owns a victory over No. 1 Connecticut.
Later, there are rematches with Providence at home and at No. 11 West Virginia, as well as the home finale against Seton Hall, which, like Pitt, has defeated WVU this season.
In Providence, R.I., Aaron Gray scored 22 points and narrowly missed his 14th double-double of the season (he finished with nine rebounds) to lead Pitt to its come-from-behind victory over Providence on Wednesday.
The Panthers trailed by nine points in the first half and by 37-34 at halftime before using a 17-2 run, including 12 points from Gray, to take control in the second half.
John DeGroat's 3-point shot gave Pitt its first lead of the game, 45-44. DeGroat, though a starter in all 23 games so far, is averaging only 12.0 minutes per game in his final college season.
"He understands his role. He's a starter and the coaches and players all have confidence in him," Pitt junior Levon Kendall said. "We all support each other equally. That's the type of little things that make teams good."
Providence (11-11, 4-7) wasted a career-high 28-point effort by Donnie McGrath after the Friars had hustled their way into the lead.
"I didn't think our defense was good early on, but they had something to do with that," Dixon said. "We played well in the second half."
Dixon said the slow start at Providence can serve as a reminder to his players that nothing comes easy in the beast known as the Big East.
"We had to make some adjustments and learn from it," he said. "Players have got to remember that. Coaches have got to remember that. It's not an excuse. We know there's things to improve on." | 