By Maggie Samole / Sports editor

History seemed to repeat itself Saturday night as the Pittsburgh Panthers made another early exit from the NCAA tournament.

The Panthers don’t have a problem reaching the national championship tournament, but have struggled to advance past the opening rounds in recent years. This year proved to be no different as they were upended by the No. 5 Michigan State Spartans, 65-54.

By Maggie Samole / Sports editor

For the first eight minutes of their matchup against Oral Roberts, Pitt’s men’s basketball team played well, but just couldn’t seem to pull away.

However, after a 3-pointer from junior point guard Levance Fields at the 11:40 mark of the first half, the Panthers seized the lead and sprinted to an 82-63 opening-round victory in the NCAA tournament.

By Sean Coyne / Staff writer

It’s around 2:30 p.m. and sophomore Anthony Portman is already knee-deep into March Madness. He’s watching the Georgia-Xavier matchup and there are 33.8 seconds left on the clock. Xavier is leading 68-61 and Georgia has just missed a much-needed three-point shot. All of this is while Portman checks up on scores and stats online.

“This one’s over,” Portman says. The CBS broadcast then switches from the Georgia-Xavier game to the Kentucky-Marquette game. “I wanna see Kentucky beat Marquette. I hate Marquette.”

All of this madness is nothing new to Portman, who says he was a Pitt fan from birth.

By Maggie Samole / Sports editor

Being a Pitt basketball fan, I’m used to letdowns.

The team is pretty much guaranteed to make the Big East tournament final every year, but only once during the span of my time on the Pitt bandwagon had they cut down the nets in Madison Square Garden.

That is, until this past Sunday when they upset top-seeded Georgetown 74-65.

I can still remember the last time they won the title.

Living out in the middle of cow country, I grew up a deprived child without satellite or cable TV. I listened to Bill Hillgrove and Dick Groat call the game on 96.9 FM and imagined what was happening in my mind’s eye. When the final horn blew and the Panthers pulled out the victory over the UCONN Huskies, I ran outside to holler in celebration. I’m sure my neighbors thought I was crazy.

i think this would be cool for people to print off

By Sean Coyne / Staff writer

In an old-fashioned Big East powerhouse shoot-out, Connecticut came out on top of the Pitt men’s basketball team 53-60 in Saturday’s rivalry match in Hartford, Conn.

This latest conference loss may be the one that finally knocks Pitt (No. 21 ESPN/USA Today) out of the Top 25 polls.

The Pitt men’s basketball team was stunned by a 77-64 loss to Rutgers in Big East conference play on Saturday. In a season of hard losses to unranked teams, Pitt couldn’t underestimate any opponent, especially a Big East opponent. Still, in the 100th home game at the Petersen Events Center, Pitt fans never saw this one coming.

There have been two games for the No. 2 Panthers in their first nine that were possible upsets—the Massachusetts Minute Men and Florida State Seminoles, who beat then No. 4 Florida. The Pitt men’s basekbatll team handled each with ease, beating UMass, 85-68, and leading by 30 points for most of the game against the Seminoles before winning, 88-66. That bodes well for the Panthers as they face their toughest two games of the season so far at Wisconsin and at Oklahoma State