Sepich: Pitt’s Big East era ends in disappointing defeat

NEW YORK — Saying goodbye is never easy.

But it’s especially hard when the ending could’ve been so much different.

That was the case for the Pitt men’s basketball team Thursday afternoon as it disappointingly bowed out of the final Big East tournament before its transition to the Atlantic Coast Conference next season, losing to Syracuse 62-59 in a dramatic contest at Madison Square Garden.

In a manner fitting of the many great Big East tournament games over the years, the Panthers stormed back from a 13-point halftime deficit to change the dynamic of what had been a one-sided battle in Syracuse’s favor.

With 32 seconds remaining, Talib Zanna stood on the free-throw line with a chance to tie the game and potentially send it to overtime.

But Zanna’s foul shot rolled off the rim, Syracuse gathered the rebound, and the Orange converted all of their free throws to win the matchup between the two future ACC schools.

Tray Woodall’s demeanor in the post-game press conference expressed the overwhelming sentiment of missed opportunity.

“We were prepared to come into this tournament and win,” the disappointed Woodall mumbled, “but I guess now we’ve got to focus on the NCAA tournament.”

The sight of sulking Panthers at Madison Square Garden has become too familiar for Pitt fans.

The building that housed so many incredible memories transformed into a house of horrors in recent years.

After winning the Big East championship game in 2008, Pitt won just one more at the fabled conference tournament: a first-round victory over No. 12 seed St. John’s in 2012.

That stat seems inexplicable, considering the Panthers advanced to the tournament final in seven of the previous eight years. But such is the unforgiving nature of Big East basketball.

Sure, future ACC tournaments for Pitt and its fans will be both fun and exciting. New memories will be created; new heroes will be made.

But it’ll never be the same as the Big East tournament.

The surprise run Brandin Knight and the Panthers made to the 2001 Big East championship game, which sparked the program’s recent success; the double overtime defeat to Connecticut in the 2002 final; the dominating performance against the Huskies to win the 2003 title and the stunning four-wins-in-four-days 2008 triumph led by Sam Young won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

“The Big East has made our program, and we’ve had great runs in this tournament,” Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said, stating the obvious after his team played its final game in the Big East. “It just didn’t happen this year.”

For a men’s basketball program with several players from the New York area, the Big East tournament at the so-called “World’s Most Famous Arena” was as good as it got. Every player who signs for a Big East school dreams of lifting the conference-tournament trophy on the Madison Square Garden floor.

Woodall told me last week with certainty that he believes the Big East tournament is tougher to win than a national championship.

If true, this statement bodes well for Pitt’s hopes at making a run in the NCAA tournament, which starts next week, but even the most optimistic Panther fan would admit that winning a national championship is a long shot for this year’s good-but-not-great team.

But as the Panthers’ second-half run proved once again, hope springs eternal for unpredictable Pitt.

“We’ll dwell on [the loss] for a few hours tonight, and then we have to move on,” Woodall said.

However, moving on from such a tremendous basketball conference could prove difficult for Pitt players and fans alike.

Write RJ at rms104@pitt.edu.