Vukovcan: Another Hopeless March Becoming Too Common for Pitt Basketball
“You don’t know what ya got till it’s gone.”
That famous phrase is certainly one that applies to the state of the Pitt men’s basketball program.
Words such as hopeless, embarrassing, non-factor, irrelevant are words that many fans use when talking about Pitt hoops, and that’s sad for old-timers like me.
Senior Night used to be a big night at The Pete as the fan base was able to show their appreciation for Panther players that won a lot of games and provided great memories for them throughout their careers.
Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case and certainly won’t be tonight.
Instead of having a sellout or near sellout crowd, The Pete, which used to provide one of the best atmospheres in college basketball, will likely be a ghost town with very few in attendance.
That’s a shame for the players, especially for someone like Cam Corhen, a player that’s given his all to the Pitt program over the last couple of seasons. Despite being in less-than-ideal surroundings and the losing, not once has Corhen gone through the motions and not given his all.
All of that speaks to his character and should be celebrated but it’s nearly impossible to do so in an empty arena.
That brings me back to my original point — man do I long for the days when Pitt men’s basketball was rolling and a factor in college basketball.
Looking back, the days of Jamie Dixon are something that most people in town took for granted and man do I wish they were back.
This is the time of the year where all Pitt fans were debating which seed the Panthers would be in the NCAA Tournament and which region they’d be placed in.
Dixon replaced Ben Howland as head coach in the 2003-04 season and in 11 of his 13 seasons, they were a participant in March Madness. 11 of 13 seasons.
Counting this year, in the 10 seasons that Dixon has been gone, Pitt has only made the tournament once.
I remember being one of those people that complained about Pitt basketball underachieving under Dixon, looking back and living through what we’re dealing with now, man was I wrong for doing that.
Everyone was greedy and took all of that winning for granted and who knows if we’ll ever see days like that again.
I hope the Robert Morris basketball fans are enjoying what’s going on with their men’s and women’s programs. After earning a spot in the tournament last season, Andy Toole’s team will look to make a return visit starting tonight as the Horizon League Tournament begins.
The truth of the matter is, Pitt men’s and women’s basketball are a mess with no light at the end of the tunnel.
Over the upcoming weeks, we’re going to find out how serious the University of Pittsburgh is about winning and being relevant in the ACC. Are they just happy to be in the ACC and collect a yearly membership check and does winning even matter to them?
We’ll start to find out real soon the answer to those questions and if they do, maybe March will be fun again for basketball fans in Pittsburgh.
