Panthers in dire need of win

For the second time this season, Pitt looks to bounce back from a stunning loss by taking on… For the second time this season, Pitt looks to bounce back from a stunning loss by taking on the defending national champions.

Volleying for position in the upcoming Big East Tournament (March 9-12), the Huskies (18-6 overall, 8-3 Big East), winners of six of seven, including six straight conference wins, venture into the Petersen Events Center for a 3:45 p.m. tip-off tomorrow.

The Panthers squandered a 14-point second-half lead Wednesday night in a 70-66 loss to unranked West Virginia and can ill afford to lose another game if they hope to earn a first-round bye in the Big East Tournament. No team has ever won the tournament without receiving a first-round bye.

Pitt successfully bounced back from an early-season loss to St. John’s with a 76-66 comeback win over the Huskies four days later in Connecticut. UConn led by as many as 17 before Chevon Troutman scored 25 of his career-high 29 points in the second half to help Pitt pull off an improbable comeback.

Troutman’s success inside was largely due to the ineffectiveness of the Huskies’ three-headed monster inside, headlined by sophomore Charlie Villanueva. In the meeting earlier this season, Villanueva, despite scoring 14 points, hit only six of his 15 field-goal attempts. In two games against Pitt last year, the 6-foot-11-inch forward scored only three points, including a game in which he did not score at all, a 75-68 Pitt victory in the Pete.

Also neutralized in the Jan. 22 game was freshman Rudy Gay. A Big East Rookie of The Year candidate who averages 11 points and 6 boards a game, Gay managed only two points, both coming from the free-throw line, and wasn’t effective rebounding the ball.

The Panthers (18-6, 8-5), as in all of their 18 victories this season, also controlled the glass that night, out-rebounding the Huskies, 41-34, fueled by 12 Troutman rebounds, seven of which were on the offensive end. Controlling the boards is never easy against the Huskies when sophomore Josh Boone is patrolling the paint. The sophomore from Mt. Airy, Md., averages 13.4 points and 8.9 rebounds a game, but scored only six points and pulled down four rebounds in 13 foul-plagued minutes.

In building a large lead in the Jan. 22 meeting, UConn relied on the outside shooting of junior Rashad Anderson. The team’s leading scorer, Anderson hit all five of the Huskies’ 3-pointers on his way to 19 points, but the rest of the team was a combined 0-for-15 from behind the arc.

UConn has gotten used to playing without its starting shooting guard, however. Anderson and his 13.8 points per game have been on the sideline for the past four games with a right-leg abcess. After it started giving him problems the day of his team’s Feb. 7 game in Syracuse, he fell ill.

The next day, he went to a hospital near campus to have it treated, only to have it evolve into an infection, which threatened his life. A few days later, he could barely breathe, his kidneys were malfunctioning and both his temperature and blood pressure had skyrocketed.

The junior spent 13 days in the hospital before being released, noticeably thinner, but healthier nonetheless. His return to the court is uncertain at this time.

Also rooting from the bench is another Husky ridden with health problems. Freshman A.J. Price had a brain hemorrhage in October and was in critical condition for nearly three weeks. He has since fully recovered, but will not see the court this season.

Pitt hasn’t lost three straight games since the 2000-2001 season. Pitt’s last victory was on Valentine’s Day over Syracuse, with a loss to Villanova sandwiched between that and the loss to the Mountaineers.