Senior day ruined, Pitt falling fast

Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun said something to the referees in Saturday’s game that was… Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun said something to the referees in Saturday’s game that was best left off the record.

“What I said to him, he should have given me a technical foul,” he said after the Huskies 73-64 win over the Panthers. “It doesn’t need repeating, and you don’t want to see it in the paper.”

Pitt just didn’t want to see the next day’s paper, period.

They held a six-point lead at halftime, and they blew it, being outscored by Connecticut (19-6 overall, 11-3 Big East) 42-27 in the second half. Also, in the final frame, only nine field-goal attempts found their way through the hoop for Pitt.

The free-throw line was a nightmare for Pitt (18-7, 8-6) as well. The Panthers made only eight of 15 free throws in the final 10 minutes of play, starting with two misses by Mark McCarroll, who got the start over Levon Kendall because it was senior day. McCarroll, on the year, is four of 25 from the charity stripe.

Troutman missed two crucial frees when Pitt was trailing by one, 64-63. He finished eight of 14 from the line after a four-of-five start.

“We shot ourselves in the foot again,” said Troutman, who scored 22 in the loss.

This invisible foot injury has plagued Pitt the last three games. Against Villanova and West Virginia, Pitt hurt itself with missed free throws late in the game and could not put a team away.

“We do have this problem for the last couple of games, finishing games off,” Carl Krauser said. “We just have to keep working at it. We just can’t let that happen anymore.”

Especially if they expect to make the NCAA tournament. Pitt is 18-7 and in danger of finishing 18-10 if they do not win another game. That would definitely put them on the bubble, especially with their RPI dropping to 61 after the loss to Connecticut.

Saturday’s game was a reflection of Pitt’s season: up and down. There were 19 lead changes, 12 in the first half. However, once Marcus Williams put the Huskies up 64-63 with 3 minutes, 24 seconds remaining, Connecticut never looked back. Pitt failed to make a field goal in the final four minutes, allowing the Huskies to stay alive in the hunt for the Big East regular season title.

Pitt missed 22 shots in the second half, shooting only 29 percent from the field.

“I thought early we had some good open looks,” head coach Jamie Dixon said. “We did some things well, but not good enough … We needed to shoot the ball I think at a pretty good rate to beat a very good team.”

In the game, Pitt shot only 39 percent, with Krauser and Ronald Ramon leading the way, combining for a nine-for-28 showing Saturday. Krauser, who did manage 21 points, sent 12 3-pointers flying toward the basket, but only saw two fall through.

Ramon had the same problem. He was one of seven on shots coming from beyond the 3-point arc. As a team, Pitt shot four of 22 (18.2 percent).

Connecticut, on the other hand, could not be stopped in the second half, making 14 of 24 shots from the field (58.3 percent). Four Huskies reached double-digit scoring, with freshman forward Rudy Gay leading the way, posting 17 points. Charlie Villanueva, who in the past has struggled against Pitt, recorded a double-double Saturday — 14 points and 13 rebounds.

The boards were not on Pitt’s side either. Pitt was out-rebounded for only the second time this season, 41-35. Penn State was the only team to accomplish that feat back on Dec. 11, 2004.

Because of the rebounding disadvantage, Pitt could muster only nine second-chance points in the game.

For Connecticut, the win not only extended its Big East conference win streak to seven games, but it avenged a 76-66 setback against Pitt at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn., back on Jan. 22.

“That’s been on my mind for a month,” said Calhoun of Pitt’s 17-point comeback in that game.

Now Pitt has to make another comeback.

As of right now, the Panthers are in sixth place in the Big East standings. If they lose to Boston College and Notre Dame and if West Virginia wins its final game of the season against Seton Hall, Pitt could fall to the eighth place.

Pitt was vying for its fourth straight Big East regular season title with a 7-3 record after a win at Syracuse on Valentine’s Day. Since then, Pitt has lost three straight games, and the season seems to be slipping away.

Krauser, however, does not see it that way.

“We just lost some games. We got two more games to win. We got a Big East tournament to play. We got an NCAA tournament to play. We’ve got a lot of basketball games still to play and a lot of games still to win.”

Dixon showed the same kind of optimism after the game during the senior day ceremony.

He stood at center court with a microphone in hand and addressed the Oakland Zoo and those who had remained in the Petersen Events Center.

“We had some struggles, but we’re not done,” he said firmly. “We’re not giving up.”

Pitt is back in action against the team that is at the top of the Big East standings — Boston College. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m., and it will be televised on ESPN.