The Long and Winding Road of a Pitt Fan

A little music for this blog:

Being a 27-year-old Pitt fan is hard work. Think about this, I was 19 months old when Dan Marino took his last snap as a Panther. Since then, there have been some ups and downs, but mainly downs. Paul Hackett. Barry Goheen and the Vanderbilt Commodores. Back To The Future with Johnny Majors. Fred Primus. Chris Seabrooks. The entire 1995 recruiting class of Ralph Willard (minus Vonteego Cummings). Khalid El-Amin. The Swinging Gate. MAC teams like Kent State, and as recently as this fall, Bowling Green... just to name a few. It seems Pitt athletics play with your mind and heart more than any teams in the history of sports. Just when your hopes are high, they come crashing back to earth. Well this time, down is the only direction Pitt can go, and that is fine with me.

The Pitt Panthers Men’s Basketball team is the new #1 team in the nation for the first time in the history of the university. It is also the first time that I know of that ANY Pitt team was ranked number one since that final season for Marino in 1982.

The moment I saw my first basketball game, I fell in love with the sport. Add the fact that my first game was a Pitt game, in which they won in overtime, and what could be any better, right? Every since that night, I was addicted. I watched every game that was on television and listened to the games that weren’t. When I played, I wasn’t Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson, I was Sean Miller or Jason Matthews. I thought the Little Panthers were amazing halftime entertainment and wanted to be one.

My father and some of his fellow FIJI brothers have been going to the Big East Basketball Tournament in New York since 1988. Oddly enough, I happened to be sick from school the opening day of the tournament every year since 1988. I remember watching Sean Miller play his last game as a Panther and losing to a winless Miami team that just entered the Big East. I watched in awe during the Ray Allen vs Allen Iverson championship game in 1996. I remember watching Ricardo Greer turn in the first and still only triple double performance in Big East Tournament history. These are just some of the reasons I was ecstatic when my dad invited me to join the Crew as an early high school graduation present in March of 1999. I had heard all the stories, watched all the big games, and now I was going to experience the real thing.

As usual, Pitt lost Wednesday night before we even arrived in New York, but I still loved every second of New York and all of the basketball. I was hooked and have attended every year since. I would like to say that my presence in New York is what changed things for the program, but it was not. After the championship game that year, the whole group walked down the street and into The Blarney Stone on 33rd to get a drink and watch more basketball. (yes I was underage, but the others were not, and no bar is going to turn away thirsty FIJI’s if they know what is good for business.) At that point the only game that was on was Weber State playing Northern Arizona in the Big Sky Tournament Championship. We sat down and watched the game, and my Funcle (fake uncle) Harry commented on the rumors we had heard about the coach of Northern Arizona, possibly being the next coach at Pitt. We watched the rest of the game with a little more interest as we criticized every move the guy made. Of course, Northern Arizona lost the game, so we, in turn were not impressed by his coaching ability. That coaches name: Ben Howland.

The 2000 season was a bit of growing pains for the Panthers and their new leader. They once again were ousted on Wednesday before we arrived in New York.

Beginning in 2001 though, the Panthers, led first by Howland and now by Jaime Dixon, have been the best team in the Big East Conference and one of the best teams in the nation. They have appeared in seven Big East Tournament Championship games in eight years, going 19-6 during that span (my record is 17-6 all-time at the BET, missing two 1st round games).

Even though all of this seems like it has been nothing but success recently for the Panthers there have been some downfalls. All of these happened in March, all of these happened in the NCAA Tournament. In 2002, at Jeremiah’s house, we watched Indiana upset #1 ranked Duke, opening the door for Pitt to stroll into the Final Four, only to also get upset that night by 10-seeded Kent State. Or in 2004 when Pitt played Oklahoma State for the right to play St. Joe’s and get to the Final Four. Being very confidant that beating Oklahoma State was the tough game, and that St. Joe’s was incredibly overrated, we again lost and still had not made it past the Sweet 16. In 2005, sending Chevy Troutman out to end his career at Pitt with back-to-back losses to Villanova in the Quarterfinals of the BET and to Pacific in the 1st round of the NCAA’s. In 2006, we saw Pitt roll Kent State (a revenge game for every Pitt fan that remembered the agony of the '02 loss) and Bradley upset Kansas, only to then watch Bradley upset Pitt also, two days later. And last year, Pitt losing to Michigan State in the 2nd round.

This Pitt team is special. They are more athletic than years past. They have the dynamic scorer that they lacked in years past, and they are the deepest team that Pitt has ever had. And right now, they are on top. I do not expect the number ranking to last all season, but I do like the possibility that this year's “let-down” will not end the year. The Panthers are #1 in the country right now, which is a dream come true for a fan like me. However the more important time to be #1 is that first Monday in April. With this Pitt squad, they very well could be!