Panthers ready to tip off

Neither the Pitt men’s nor women’s basketball team is satisfied. Both went to the NCAA… Neither the Pitt men’s nor women’s basketball team is satisfied. Both went to the NCAA Tournament last year, but each is ready to start a new season and improve upon successful years that ultimately ended in disappointment.’ ‘We thought we were going to the Final Four,’ said women’s coach Agnus Berenato yesterday at basketball media day. ‘We were crushed when we lost to Stanford [in the Sweet 16]. I told my crew to pack for two weeks.’ It was the best showing in school history for the women’s team, improving from the year before, when the Panthers made their first Tournament appearance, losing in the second round to eventual champion Tennessee. Pitt hopes to change a few things this year, mainly its tempo. Berenato said the team expects to push the ball on offense and use its depth at the guard position to improve the defense as well. ‘The thing we’ll add this year that’s different from past years is we will be a full-court pressing team,’ said Berenato. Also helping make the team quicker will be the return of point guard Jania Sims, who started 13 games for Pitt last year before being forced to sit out because of academic ineligibility. ‘I was happy they made it as far as they did,’ said Sims. ‘But now that I’m back, we’ve got to make it further.’ Coming into the season, the Panthers have been either left out of most preseason rankings or included at the tail end of them. ‘We just want other teams to know that Pitt is still here,’ said senior guard and All-American candidate Shavonte Zellous. ‘I don’t want people to think it was a mistake and we just lucked up last year.’ On the other hand, the men’s team is a consensus top-10 pick in numerous publications, thanks to returning starters Levance Fields, Sam Young and DeJuan Blair, who said the ranking doesn’t mean much right now. ‘We still have to go out there and work hard,’ said Blair. Men’s coach Jamie Dixon said it was nice to be recognized, but outside of a few returning guys, Pitt has a very young team. Although practice starts today, Dixon said he’s been pleased with what he’s seen from the new players in their summer workouts. One key injury last year was to Fields, who broke his foot but came back toward the end the season. He then reinjured himself over the summer, but both he and Dixon said the foot is doing fine for now, and he doesn’t expect to miss any games. Besides staying healthy, the biggest hurdle for the Panthers this year might be making it out of an extremely tough Big East conference. ‘We already broke the record [for most NCAA Tournament bids from one conference with eight in 2006],’ said Dixon. ‘This year, we will break that record.’ Dixon spoke highly of the conference, and having nine teams ranked in the top 25, he said it ‘could be the best conference in the history of college basketball.’