EDITORIAL – Dancing past the men

Forget political correctness. Leave out all the equal opportunity. The Pitt women’s basketball… Forget political correctness. Leave out all the equal opportunity. The Pitt women’s basketball team doesn’t want it.

And they don’t need it.

There’s one Pitt basketball team still on the Big Dance floor, and it’s not the one that Bob Knight picked to close down the hall and cut down the nets in San Antonio. It’s the one that slugged through the first two rounds at The Pit arena in Albuquerque, N.M., and the one now headed to play in Spokane, Wash., regardless of whether everybody knows where that is or not. It’s the one that’s steadily improved, broken records and exceeded expectations over the last five years to finally take the spotlight – the spotlight it deserves.

It’s Pitt women’s basketball: the only college basketball team in Pittsburgh that is still playing, the only one that made the Sweet 16.

Pitt’s historic, gutsy win against Baylor last night, which advanced the team to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history, is plenty of proof that these athletes, who continue to perform feats unseen by anyone ever before at this University, deserve the same attention that is given every November through March to the men’s team.

Pitt’s current 24-10 record gives it its best and longest season to date, culminating after five years of steady, confident, dependable improvement since Agnus Berenato took over as Pitt’s coach.

The men’s recent Big East championship run aside, it’s still refreshing to see a Pitt team exceeding expectations.

Fact is, there’s no room to ignore the women’s team at this point. There’s no excuse to say the men are so much better and deserve 100 percent of any Pitt basketball fan’s attention. There’s no way anyone can overshadow or diminish the quality of the Pitt women’s team’s accomplishments.

That’s the way it always should be, regardless of whether or not the men are still playing.

Built around bona fide stars like Shavonte Zellous, Marcedes Walker and Mallorie Winn, Pitt women’s basketball has laid the foundation for who-knows-how-many years of success in the future.

The above names will be remembered for as long as Pitt has a basketball program, women or men. History has been made.

There’s no need to compare the Pitt women to the men. What they are doing is remarkable in its own right.

For now, they’re not Pitt women’s basketball. They are Pitt basketball.