Jamie Dixon joined 93.7 In Pittsburgh with Vinnie and Cook to talk about how good they feel about their preseason ranking in the Big East, whether or not it was awkward at Media Day having to answer questions about realignment, if not knowing the future of the program is concerning, and what kind of opportunity he thinks playing in the ACC presents.

How he feels about the team’s preseason ranking in the conference:

“Given we have lost three players, three very good players I think the other guys all above us have a lot more returning guys than we have but I think going by our history and what we’ve done we seem to replace very good players with very good players again. I think we’re in position in that regard. I think our guys are ready, they’re younger, but they are ready to seize the opportunity. Getting picked fourth in our league probably means you’re probably a top ten team in preseason stuff. It just again shows the strength of the conference really.”

Whether or not Media Day was awkward for him:

“No I mean people were trying to use the word awkward or strange, it wasn’t. It’s been talked about so much. I hesitate to use the word relief but I think we’ve been dealing with this for so many years and talk. I use the example of Jay Wright and I used to talk about this all the time what was gonna happen? Are they gonna add football? Are they gonna build it up to 1A football? What could happen? What would happen? All the rumors that were out there. Then once it finally did happen there was nothing you could really talk about because we rehashed it over and over about what could happen. Anti-climactic. I guess in some respects we knew it was down the road and ‘inevitable’ is the word that’s been used. Everybody was asking questions and hoping someone would say something controversial. I leave that to Coach Boeheim. He seems to do a better job of that and gives better quotes than me in that regard so I think the timing now is the question of when that is going to happen and like I’ve said all along when they’re ready and when they need to get us to move on and when they have their teams and their full schedule for football that’ll be the time that we move. We understand that and that’s gonna be good for everybody. We’ll be ready then.”

Whether or not he is concerned that he doesn’t have a clear future of what is going to happen with the program:

“I would think probably everybody else that’s probably the thinking if you include everybody generally speaking. I don’t think it’s gonna affect us either way. I guess you would like to know with some time and some warning as to when it’s gonna be. I wouldn’t like to find out in June I guess that we’re gonna be playing the ACC that next fall so I guess that would be important. We’ll survive it, it’s not gonna kill us, and we’ll survive it. We’ve gotta look out for their interests and we’ve gotta look out for our interests so we will try to do both at the same time. Not always possible but we’re gonna try and do it at this point.”

On the kind of opportunities available by moving to the ACC:

“The main thing we’ve always sold at Pitt was the opportunity to play in the best conference in the country. That is what we’ve loved about the Big East. It’s the best basketball conference in the country, I don’t think anyone can really argue that now. Our goal was to build into the best conference in the country and I think we had something to do with that. What we need now to do is build the ACC into the best conference in the country for basketball and that’s our selling point. I think as time goes on I think the ACC has the opportunity to do that with Syracuse and us joining it. Hopefully we can swing the balance of power over to the ACC once we get there. That’s a couple of years away.”

Listen to Jamie Dixon on 93.7 in Pittsburgh here

While most leagues around the country are involved in talks, there’s not really been that much official activity that’s occurred. John Swofford, the commissioner of the ACC, and his committees made sure they didn’t stand pat and wait for their fate to be decided by others. Their decision to add Pitt and Syracuse might not be a perfect scenario in everybody’s mind, but from a business perspective, Swofford appears to have made a wise, proactive move.

John Swofford joined 790 The Zone in Atlanta with Barnhart and Durham to discuss why Pitt and Syracuse were a good fit to join the ACC, the committee he put together to keep its ear to the ground on realignment issues throughout this crazy process, what the dynamic realignment talks have been like for him, the possibility of the ACC eventually becoming a 16-team league, and why the ACC decided to be proactive in adding Pitt and Syracuse at this particular moment in time.

Why are these two schools a good fit for the ACC?:

“I think for a number of reasons. They’re institutions that, from an academic standpoint, fit the profile of the Atlantic Coast Conference and our member schools extremely well. They’re schools that balance a strong academic standing with quality athletic programs. Both Syracuse and Pitt are very strong basketball programs, as we know, and also have excellent football traditions and balanced overall programs. Geographically, it bridges that gap that we’ve had between Maryland and Boston College and it closes that. We’re very excited about the addition of these two programs.”

How beneficial was it that the ACC had created a committee to keep its finger on the pulse of college athletics and realignment?:

“It was extremely helpful. We put this subcommittee, this ad-hoc committee, together about a year and a half ago when the whole Pac-16 idea came into play and we couldn’t tell quite what was going to be going on. … We just felt that we need to be on top of this on an ongoing basis. … [We] did a lot of information-digging, we looked at scheduling models for 14, for 16, looked at all kinds of profiles on various institutions. We looked at all kinds of geographic implications. … We’ve been well-prepared from an information standpoint for a good while. We’ve been relatively quiet about it because we had continued to feel that 12 was where we were settled, at least during that period of time. Then, a week or 10 days ago, began to feel that maybe we need to be proactive.”

On the ongoing shifts and realignment discussions:

“I’ve never, in my 35 years or so in this business, I’ve never seen the concern and lack of stability in terms of conference affiliation like we’re seeing today. We had had more and more schools reach out to us to inquire about possible membership in the ACC. … I think there’s just a lot of instability right now and I hope we’ll see the day, before too long, when that instability settles and we’re back to knowing sort of where everybody belongs from a conference standpoint and we can get back to talking more about athletes and games.”

What’s the thought process on whether the league should add two more programs to be a 16-team conference?:

“We’ve still got our eye on the landscape and we’ll see what evolves. I’d be surprised if our movement to 14 is the only thing that happens in the near future. I guess that’s an understatement. We’ll just see how that evolves. … In our discussions, it wasn’t just about 14, it was about 16.”

How did the thought process evolve from wanting to be proactive rather than reactive?:

“I don’t think there’s a singular tipping point to that. I think that there’s a certain subtlety there that probably comes into play with the events of the summer before last and then the Big Ten going with Nebraska and the two schools leaving the Big 12 and going to the Pac-10 to make it the Pac-12 and then it all surfaced again with the SEC and Texas A&M and their discussions, which put the Big 12 back on the radar in terms of whether they were going to be viable long-term or not. That’s still to be determined, obviously. I think all of that, together … has created kind of an environment where more and more schools that are not in conferences that were where they feel there’s long-term viability, long-term stability, have started looking around. … I think over a period of time, as we digested that … there just was a gradual growth of the opinion that we’re not sure where all of this is headed, but we are sure of our commitment to making the Atlantic Coast Conference a prominent player going forward.”

Listen to John Swofford on 790 The Zone in Atlanta here

Dixon joined 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh to talk about the recent SI column that hypothesized that Pitt would suffer from no  longer being able to easily recruit in markets like New York upon leaving the Big East, if he’d agree that the new-look ACC will be the best basketball conference in the country with the additions of Pitt and Syracuse, what kind of challenges he thinks his program will face making the transition from playing a bruising style of ball like they did in the Big East to a more finesse game in the uptempo ACC, if he at all feels bad about trying to initiate the move of his alma mater, TCU, to the Big East only to see the conference be in such flux shortly thereafter, and how he respects rivalry games but is still confident that new rivalries can be reborn provided the Panthers continue to win and get everybody’s best shot in whatever new competitive environment they find themselves in in the ACC.

On the recent Sports Illustrated column that said that Pitt hoops would suffer from not being able to easily recruit kids from New York and the other major east coast cities by virtue of their association with the Big East:

“I actually read that article, there was a lot more to that article than just that line, but I mean, there’s still planes, there’s still flights going into New York, D.C., Philly — we’re going to be in there. And hopefully we’re still going to be playing there. I’ll just have to see how it all falls out here in the near future with the rest of the league to see if there’s any more movement. But the reality of it is BC is the conference, Virginia Tech, Miami — former Big East teams — and then now with Syracuse in the league, there’s five of the 14 and there could be some others. So once it all settles, it won’t be quite as much change as it may seem initially.”

If he’d agree that the new-look ACC will be the best conference in America:

“Well let’s see how it plays out and what happens and when we all get together and what the timing is, but I think obviously Syracuse and Pittsburgh, obviously it brings some things to the table basketball-wise. And they’ve got some great programs there in the ACC and the Big East going forward. So we’ll see how things play out and progress, and who gets better in those years in the next couple of years before we all come together in the ACC.”

Whether he thinks a bruising style of play or a more finesse game is the best way to win at the college level:

“Yeah, there’s going to be a lot put into the style of play. I said this earlier, we’re going to always be known as a team that’s physical and tough and plays hard defense because we’re from Pittsburgh and the Steelers have had success. And we do try to do things as the Steeler organization does in so many ways, but the reality is we’ve been number one in the country in offensive efficiency and that just doesn’t seem to fit the story as well so that doesn’t get talked about as much. But to be the record we’ve had, you have to be pretty good both sides of the ball and do a lot of things well and play a lot of different styles and plat against a lot of different styles.”

If he feels awkward or bad about supposedly being the one who initiated the process of TCU joining the Big East, only to see the conference dissolve shortly thereafter:

“The bottom line is they’re in a better position than they would have been if they had not reached out to the Big East. So that’s the most important thing. I’m very concerned with where they end up as an alumnus, but I think they’re going to be in a much better position than where they were two years ago, three years ago, and they’re going to have more opportunities once this whole thing played. But they’re a BCS school now, everyone thinks of them as a BCS school now, and that’s the most important thing once they go forward. So I think they’re, again, going to land in a better sport than where they were several years ago.”

If he’s concerned about the potential loss of rivalry games with schools like UCONN and, of course, West Virginia:

“Yeah, I’ve talked about that before. We’ve got some great rivalries, but we became rivals with Marquette once they joined. They think of us as their rival, Louisville thinks of us as a rival. Rivalries start back up, and rivalries will be reignited and renewed when you talk about BC, Virginia Tech, Syracuse will continue obviously, and then we’ll see where this thing goes as it plays out. But we seem to end up speculating on these things so much before they’re completed or before they even happen, so let’s see how this thing finishes out. But you know, I think if we win games, we’ll have plenty of rivalries. And that’s kind of what happened in the Big East. When you have the best record in the conference, people tend to look as you as a rival, and that game becomes a little bit more important to them. So we need to win games first and foremost, and we’ll pick up plenty of rivals real quick.”

Listen here to Dixon with Joe Starkey & Josh Miller on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh

While much of the attention was on what was happening in the Midwest, Syracuse and Pitt suddenly made headlines as they were accepted into the ACC, making the move from the Big East. It’s just the latest in the topsy-turvy world of college athletics, but Syracuse athletic director Daryl Gross said the move was a long time in the making.

Daryl Gross joined The Score 1260 in Syracuse with Dan Tortora to discuss how the move came about, how Pittsburgh was the team to make the move as well, what it all means for Syracuse, how fast they were accepted by the ACC, how quickly the shift can go down, the competitiveness of his teams now that they’re in the ACC and what he is looking forward to most.

When did everything come together for a decision that it was time to move to a new conference?:

“I think it’s been a long, long, long process. When I say long, let me put some time-frame on it. When you go back to when the Big Ten announced and made a formal announcement that they were going to evaluate their conference, I think that was a time where folks started to do some self-evaluation of their own institutions. … When you start thinking about all the topics in college athletics, budgets not balancing, and those types of things, everybody’s looking at the long-term. … We’ve been doing this for a long time and we came to the conclusion that we were well-prepared to either enhance our own conference or we would be attractive for someone else if something started to move in the country. … It’s tough leaving the Big East and the history there, but it’s going to be a different world when we wake up in the next few months here. I think it’s great we were proactive and able to move fast.”

What was it that made Pittsburgh the team that would make the move with you?:

“We did this individually. They weren’t aware of us; we weren’t aware of them. Not until the end.”

What does this move mean for Syracuse?:

“Academically, it’s a great fit. I like to call it … the Ivy League of the BCS schools. I really believe that. … It’s the big picture really. And it’s nice that we happen to have the same common interests athletically.”

Was the application process handles pretty quickly or was there a little bit of nervousness in waiting?:

“I think we were at mutual agreement that it would be best for everybody. … I think that’s what made it so smooth and so fast. The dialogue was terrific and we all thought that we had a win-win situation.”

How soon can this happen?:

“We’re going to cooperate with our colleagues at the Big East and I’m sure that will all shake out when they figure out what their identity is and how we move forward. I don’t think we have an answer right now. On the other side of it, if they get another angle toward new teams in their conference, then they may want us out sooner.”

How competitive will your football and basketball teams be in the ACC?:

“We went out and played a good Southern California football team … and they’ve got the best talent in the country. … We’re very proud of our team because, except for a couple of big plays, we’re able to physically hang in there with them. … We think football-wise … we’re going to be a great contender in the ACC. Obviously, in basketball, where we’re well-more established as far as recruiting and talent and Hall of Famer Jim Boeheim, I think we have a chance to be the cream of the ACC as well.”

What are you looking forward to most?:

“I’m looking forward to stepping up. Our mission has always been to compete for national championships. What this has done for us is give us the ability to add more resources to enhance that mission. … It’s going to give us a chance to compete for national championships.”

Listen to Daryl Gross on The Score 1260 in Syracuse here

The referees of this game should be commended for calling these back-to-back fouls regardless of the game situation. We often see referees get gun shy in the big spot given the circumstances, but by all accounts both foul calls were spot on. It was a bone headed play for Nasir Robinson that he’ll have to live with unfortunately as Howard sunk the first free throw and intentionally missed the second one, so time would expire before Pittsburgh could get a shot off. Butler ran away with a 71-70 upset victory over top-seeded Pittsburgh.

Sports fans often remember the goat of the game more than the hero as Robinson’s name will be forever remembered in Pittsburgh sports history. We must give credit to the young man for owning up to his aggressive mistake. He has a great attitude towards the whole situation and looks to bounce back next year with even more motivation.

Nasir Robinson joined 93.7 the Fan in Pittsburgh with Seibel, Starkey and Miller to discuss how many times he’s replayed the costly mistake in his mind since Pitt’s devastating loss on Saturday, whether he purposely committed the foul because he had forgotten that the game was tied, if Charles Barkley has reached out to him since then, how would he describe the team’s season in spite of the early exit from the tournament, how he has been received back on campus, what he takes away from the humbling experience, and how he approaches to use the loss to Butler as motivation for him next season.

Over the last three days how many times have you replayed that rebound attempt?

“I watched the game, I watched it once, only because I watched it once. After that one time I watched it I just couldn’t watch it anymore.”

Some people were inferring that maybe on that second foul shot maybe you momentarily forgot in that split second that the game was tied and you thought you had to foul?

“No, that’s not the case. I knew how much time was on the clock. I knew what the score was. I just went after the rebound. It was a reaction. I wasn’t thinking. It was just a reaction of me just playing hard. I tried to make a play.”

Did Charles Barkley reach out to you and what did he say?

“Yeah I talked to Charles Barkley. He basically told me it was a tough situation I was in, move on, and keep my head up. He did not want me to dwell on that play, move on, and try to use that play as motivation.”

Given the #1 seed and the expectations how would you describe this season for the Pittsburgh Panthers?

“This season was good for us. We went to Ireland this summer. We played some good games over there. We played against other talent. We got the whole out of country experience. I think it was good. We won some big games. We won the Big East regular season and we came up short in the tournament, but I think this was a good year for us.”

What has it been like since you got back to campus? How have you been received?

“It’s been good. It’s been regular. People look at me saying like that’s me. I think it’s been good. Nobody has gotten out of line or done anything different. It’s been good.”

What do you take away from a loss like this to Butler?

“Just motivation. Motivation. It was the year for us to do it. We came up short. As a team we just need to get back in the gym. We’ll be preparing for next season to make it good.”

Is this going to be motivation for you next year? Are you responsible for the loss in the final game against Butler?

“My coaches and my teammates say I’m not responsible for the loss because of that one play does not reflect on the whole game. There were more plays not just that one play. Nah, I’m just going into the regular season and just work hard and like I said use that play as motivation.”

Listen to Nasir Robinson on 93.7 the Fan here

How they got here was quite incredible. First, they escaped the 8/9 game against Old Dominion when Matt Howard tipped the ball in following a frenzied final few seconds near the Butler rim. Then, against No. 1-seeded Pittsburgh, the Bulldogs got more of the same. First, they fouled the Panthers with just over one second remaining, allowing Pitt to tie the game at the free-throw line. However, the Panthers missed the second free throw and fouled Howard on the rebound, who made a free throw to win the game.

Perhaps the victories came in surprising fashion, but the Bulldogs are quickly proving that advancing in the Big Dance is no fluke and we should not be surprised that they’ll be playing in the second weekend. Next, they get Wisconsin for a chance to advance to the Elite Eight.

Brad Stevens joined 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis with Grady and Big Joe to discuss the final seconds of the Pitt victory, why the Bulldogs have been so good in late-game situations, what spurned their 11-game winning streak, what it’s like to coach at this point in the season, if we’ve gotten to the point where we can’t call Butler runs magical anymore and the matchup with Wisconsin.

What he’s telling the team after it fouled Pitt in the final seconds, giving the Panthers a chance to take the lead:

“The first thing that’s going through my mind is I hope we have more than 0.9 seconds left and they change it to 1.4. Then, we’ve got a lineup in that we’ll run a bunch of cutters on the other end of the floor and try to throw a baseball pass and see what we can get. … I’m trying my best — and it’s not always easy because you’re competitive and in the moment — to take emotion out of it.”

Why are the Bulldogs so successful in close games?:

“I think we play til the final horn. I think we’ve got guys that believe in one another and that extends throughout our entire team and staff. We’re all on one page. And then, certainly, there is an element of fortune and luck that’s involved.”

What has been the difference for the team during the 11-game winning streak:

“One of the great problems with the way the scrutiny during the season goes is sometimes you can play relatively well in certain areas and lose because you get beat on a given night. … We never mentioned the Youngstown loss again. We mentioned what we did well and tried to build on it.”

On what it’s like to coach during the tournament, especially during runs like this:

“One thing that I learned last year after this run is you’re straight going on adrenaline at this time of year and you do have to prioritize some rest. It’s a draining, draining season as it is if it ends in the conference tournament.”

Are we at the point where a Butler run is no longer magical or a Cinderella story?:

“We’re all prideful enough to think that you control your own destiny in every which way. When you’re at the gym as a coach or a player six or seven days a week for six months, you really feel like the investment is something that’s unique. We’re investing the same amount that everybody else is investing that we’re playing against. … If you want to call it magical, if you want to call it luck, if you want to call it an extra good bounce, that’s part of the game.”

His thoughts on the Sweet Sixteen matchup with Wisconsin:

“I don’t know if [Shelvin Mack and Jordan Taylor] will guard each other or not, but they’re certainly two of the better guards in the Midwest and in the country. Both have played really well. And then you look down, as well, at [Jon] Leuer and [Matt] Howard and you’re looking at guys who have also established themselves as some of the best forwards in the country. … This team is really unique in their skill level. I think they’re the No. 1-rated offense in the country and their defense is outstanding, too. Bo Ryan has himself … a legitimate Final Four, national championship contender.”

Listen to Brad Stevens on 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis here

This quarterfinals matchup between the two Big East rivals was a nail bitter all the way through living up to the hype. With less than twenty seconds remaining, UConn head coach Jim Calhoun drew up a play in the huddle that gave Kemba Walker two options for the final shot of the contest. Walker had the option to take it on his own or dump it off to the substitute off the bench in Jamal Coombs-McDaniel if he was doubled upon receiving the inbound pass.

Was there any doubt in the building who was going to take the final shot? Walker used a combination of a crossover and a shoulder roll to break the ankles of his defender, Gary McGhee, and then step back and swish the game-winning basket as the horn sounded. Walker finished with 24 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals as the junior guard out of the Bronx, New York, put his stamp on Big East tournament history.

Jim Calhoun joined WFAN in New York with Mike Francesa to discuss the great performance  by the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team against the University of Pittsburgh in the quarterfinal round of the 2011 Big East tournament, if he was surprised a great defensive team like Pittsburgh would let Kemba Walker shoot the last shot of the game, how important the Big East tournament is to this young Huskies team, did he take his foot of the pedal with this young team early on in the season when they started off so well and did the Huskies need this kind of big win in the Big East tournament to get themselves going again.

That was a very good game and a very good performance for your kids that’s for sure?

“No question. You know the biggest thing is obviously I think Kemba  is as good as a player as there is in the country and he’s valuable because he plays with six freshmen and three sophomores, therefore he does more. When we get contributions from other guys and three of our freshmen really stepped up big today along with Alex Oriakhi we’re just a totally different kind of team. Today I thought that was absolutely awesome for us and you know I have great respect for Pittsburgh. I think they could probably win the whole thing, but today we did something we don’t usually do. We out-rebounded them. We were 20-0 points off turnovers. We were stripping down on them and did a great, great, job.”

“We really were. The only switch we made put the kid Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, who’s been one of our best three-point shooters instead of having our big guy set the pick Mike, what we did was had a three-point shooter set the pick and then flair as oppose to roll, so they honored that and then [Gary] McGhee as you said ended up with Kemba [Walker] one-on-one and you know Kemba just…he actually made him [Gary McGhee] fall. I mean he’s obviously terrific with the basketball and he just pulled up for it, but you know you always second guess yourself in so many ways, but in that case that’s the way they played it.”

How important is this Big East tournament to your young team?

“Well I think you know I heard someone else say that the game against DePaul wasn’t important to us. It was [important] because it allowed us to feel good about ourselves. We know that DePaul isn’t a great team right now and I think overall bench they had was pretty good. The game is confidence. The game yesterday against Georgetown was really important to us because quite frankly for us to dominate them and they’re a very good team even without [Chris] Wright they’re a good team, number three in the country in defense and we shot 54-55%. That was a key…now we face a team in two days and we still have our offensive confidence. We at first got fairly beat up a little bit and we recovered so this time I come in and you know I always think in second chances. I talk about the kids…Friday night in Madison Square Garden for the Big East semifinals. About as special as you’re ever going to get. I think we gotta play to that. I think we fought hard enough, the ninth seed, we were like that more. We had a couple of tough games we lost at the end. When we played them back December 27th Mike it was a two-point game with about six to go and they ended up beating us by sixteen and tonight we didn’t wilt on them. We were down a little bit then we came back. I just couldn’t be any prouder of the kids. That’s what this league is about. There’s so many good teams.”

Did you take the foot off the pedal with this team after you guys had such a good start in the beginning of the season that you earned an NCAA tournament bid by December?

“Yeah a tad because they’re so young and it was always like when I was really pushing you gotta be careful about this. You push so hard that you don’t have much left at the end. I don’t want that and I’ve kind of learned that of the years that if you’re going to be really good, it’s nice to be good early, show everybody that you can get a cushion. The second time is to be really good in March because quite frankly that’s what people remember.”

Will this young team gain a lot by what happened today and tomorrow. Did this team need this?

“Yeah well we have seven freshmen. We have three sophomores, so ten of our players are coming back with all that said and cause we’re going to lose Kemba [Walker] most likely to the NBA, more importantly guys are experiencing “Big time games in big time arenas.” Every time you keep taking a step next week the NCAA tournament is nothing but good for our future and hopefully we can make a little run in the NCAA tournament. That would be great. As far as I am concerned every single game is the same and if you come out of the Big East and beat a Pittsburgh and beat some of the teams. We’ve beaten Texas. We’ve beaten as you know some of the teams we’ve beaten, you can beat anybody. I think that’s where we continue to convince our kids.”

Listen to Jim Calhoun on WFAN here

Overall it has been an outstanding season for Dixon’s team. Pittsburgh is 24-3 overall and 12-2 in the Big East. Ashton Gibbs is the Panther’s leading scorer averaging 16.7 points-per-game as he had been out with a knee injury, but looks to be coming back soon for Pittsburgh. The Panthers remained the #4 seed in the AP poll this week and fell to #6 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. Dixon feels there is still room for improvement for his team and they look to land back on the right foot in Big East play on Thursday against West Virginia.

Jamie Dixon joined 93.7 the Fan in Pittsburgh with  the Seibel, Starkey, and Miller Show to discuss his opinion on the Pittsburgh Panthers body of work this season, what was it that St.John’s did to beat Pittsburgh last Saturday, did he think Gary McGee being in foul trouble hurt his team the most in the loss on Saturday, what was his opinion on the final play of the game with Dwight Hardy’s foot on the baseline and what do the Panthers need to improve on in order to win it all.

What do you think of your body of work overall this season in the Big East?

“Umm good obviously. I mean we are in first place in a pretty good league. I think we can all agree to that. We’re playing very good basketball and we’re getting ready for our next one, so you know I think we’ve done some good things and we need to improve as always, but guys are working hard, so yeah we’re getting ready for Thursday. West Virginia will be a big game for us.”

Where was it that St.John’s got you on Saturday? Was there something you could take back if you could?

“Well obviously the last play. I mean we lost there. We were up there pretty much the whole second half and obviously they made a tough shot at the end, but we did a lot of good things. I wish we could have out-rebounded them. That’s something that we’ve done all year long. We lead the country in rebounding and came out even on the boards and I think that was something we needed to get done. We didn’t do that and obviously getting to the free throw line. They got there far more times than we did in the second half. That was something we do real well too. We get to the free throw line more than our opponents. So those are the two things, but you know we lost to a good team on a last second play. That’s a matter of inches as we all know and I guess was seen afterwards, but you know that’s how it goes in a good league. You gotta play well every night and I think that’s what makes our league so interesting because there are so many good teams and you can play one really good team and you could go play another really good team and play another really good team and you can’t even have a breakdown for even a stretch. That’s what exciting about the Big East and why it is the best conference.”

Do you think Gary McGhee being in foul trouble hurt your team the most in the loss on Saturday to the Red Storm?

“You know we really had everyone in foul trouble. I mean when you have twenty-eight fouls called on you there is enough to go around and that was the thing that I think we had to do a better job of. Again I think if you look at it we outscored them by a large margin in the field, but they outscored us from the free throw line and really we just had a number of guys in foul trouble. We’re rotating guys in different spot throughout for the entire game because we were in foul trouble early and late, so you know it’s going to happen. Usually it happens more so on the road and that was the case there, so for us Gary McGhee  played good. We kind of had the matchup we wanted to be honest and at end if you’re talking about the last play of course I think we had them right where we wanted them. We kept them to the side, forced him to the baseline behind the backboard and you really couldn’t defend it any better than really what we had. The kid [Dwight Hardy] made a great shot and somehow found some room to get it off.”

What was your opinion on the final play of the game? Was Dwight Hardy’s foot on the baseline there from your vantage point?

“Well it doesn’t really matter, that’s kind of how we look at it. You know we can sit here and talk about this and that and at the end of the day we can’t hide the things that we need to do better and the things we were deficient in and so our approach is to really focus on the thing we can control. That’s again rebounding that we didn’t do the job we needed to do. We’re not going to blame someone for the things we didn’t do.”

What does this team need to improve on here at the end of the season?

“I think we’re defending better and that’s been a good thing. We’ve really been trying to improve in that area. Just perimeter defense, we’ve got to continue to guard ball screens really well, which I think we have. We’ve done a real good job. We had a stretch where we weren’t good enough. We’re doing that. Taking care of the ball I think that’s another thing we’re really good at. All these things I’m telling you we’re at the top of the country in doing, but we just need to have them there every single good, but over the long run we’ve been as good as our record indicates, but in one game if you have a slight drop in any of those things it could really come out. Like I said the rebounding thing was we lead the country in yet we didn’t get it done against St.John’s on Saturday.”

Listen to Jamie Dixon on 93.7 the Fan here

From his vehicle, Dixon was interviewed by Joe Starkey of 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh to talk about exactly what happened on Saturday night, how he was never worried about his own personal safety even though he had some lacerations on his hands from trying to help free the trapped persons, the commendable and professional job done by the emergency service personnel at the scene, and how a few people did notice who he was at the scene. Good story.

On what exactly transpired on Saturday night:

“Yeah, going back to ESPN, they said we were going to talk about basketball, but we didn’t talk about basketball as I think about it now. Yeah with our football team playing on Saturday, great win for them Saturday of course, we practiced late so I was watching film, and then I headed home around 9:30 on 279 North. Right in front of me, this car, this SUV, was going along, and suddenly veered to its right dramatically, veered to its right, and at that point was heading straight towards a wall, I mean, heading directly towards it. It hit it head on and then flipped over a couple of times. And again, my initial reaction was there’s no way anybody’s going to survive this crash. I mean the speed and the angle in which they hit the wall, and then the flips afterward – it was just such a dramatic crash. So I pulled over to the side, and ran across the road to see what I could do, and I was the first one there because I was right behind the car. And once I got there I could see there was some smoke coming out of the car, and someone was kicking dramatically to try to get out of the car, kicking the windshield. And at that point I helped and tried to help by pulling back the windshield that was cracked from the crash. And by pulling them back, I enabled them to get out and put their legs through first, and I was able to pull them through the windshield. So that’s what it was at that point.”

On if he was worried for his own safety and well-being at that point:

“No, not really. At that point another person had joined me. Charles Green had come in and he was there. He was a corrections officer and had stopped and helped out. And another person I think at that point had joined us too. Then, a girl had pulled up, she had called 911, but then I also realized there was another person in the car and that was what I was looking for. So there was another person in the car, wasn’t responsive, seemed to have a concussion, and was not responding. So I was able to reach… I could see there was blood all over her face, and she wasn’t moving, but when I could feel and touch her, I could tell she was breathing, so I could tell she was alive. Eventually, as we went on, a couple of minutes, a couple of seconds later, she seemed to come to, but didn’t realize what had happened. But she said her leg was stuck, and she couldn’t move, and at that point, we decided we should wait for an ambulance to get her out of there. And the ambulance showed up pretty much right after that. I mean, they were there pretty quickly too.”

On if people recognized who he was at the scene:

“Yeah, I mean a couple of guys were calling me coach, so I realized when the first guy showed up, I didn’t get his name but he was calling me coach. So a couple of people realized, but we were really just working together. Like I said, a number of people stopped to help out, and they were trying to do whatever they could. Eventually the ambulance, the police, and then the fire engine came there, and we just turned it over to the professionals to do what they do. They were the ones who got the second person out. They had to cut out the windshield with a chainsaw or something to get the windshield off, and they were able to get the second person out. She suffered a broken leg, but is pretty much okay. A broken leg or broken ankle is what they thought when they were taking her away.”

(Watch a video of the victim thanking Dixon for his help here.)

Listen here to Dixon with Joe Starkye on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh

He’s actually a really good basketball coach regardless of the classification who often goes overlooked. Pitt is the only head coaching position that Jamie Dixon has  held since he coached at a secondary school in New Zealand 20 years ago. He’s done ok.

Under Dixon, Pitt is 163-45, with NCAA Tournament appearances in all seven of his head coaching seasons. Eschewing his Hollywood background, Dixon’s Panthers are typically known for their toughness and blue-collar mentality.

Jamie Dixon joined Vinnie and Cook on 93.7 the Fan in Pittsburgh to talk about the Big East conference and tournament, the fans, playing in Milwaukee, and first-round opponent Oakland.

On the Big East tournament:

“Ultimately, you are playing for your seed in the NCAAs and, as I have come to learn in the last few years, when you are as high as we are going into a tournament, it’s really hard to change your seed too much… There’s too many good teams. We would have more teams in the NCAA Tournament. Seton Hall is an NCAA tournament team. Cincinnati is an NCAA tournament team. They are as good as teams that are in this tournament. Numbers are why you can’t have more than what we have – 8. You just can’t. We are beating each other up. There just not enough wins to go around in this conference.”

On the fans’ chance to see the team improve:

“I think our fans have really taken to this team. Our crowds have been unbelievable. Our following has been unbelievable. We lost three guys that people related to and loved watching year after year – and a fourth in Tyrell Biggs. They have just really gotten excited about seeing these guys improve and see these grow individually and as a team. That has really been fun for me.”

On day after Selection Sunday:

“Usually that day after you find out where you are, you do a lot of radio and TV. Yet, you make sure at the same time you watch a lot of film and get ready. We do have a Friday game, while we are used to playing on Thursday, so it’s good to have that extra day.”

On playing in Milwaukee:

“I kind of like that. I was hoping it would be Milwaukee. I didn’t think we’d be in Buffalo. To be honest, Milwaukee is the next closest place. Milwaukee works well for us. We have played there and we know we are going to practice at Marquette. So it makes some things easier, but we still got to play well… It’s about as close as we could get, so hopefully we can get some people up there as well.”

And on first round opponent Oakland:

“Athletic. Got some experience. Will shoot the ball quick. Like to run. A lot of penetration is what they are looking to do. They have some guys who go to the glass who like to rebound with their athletic front line. Man-to-man is what we expect.”

Listen to Jamie Dixon with Vinnie and Cook on 93.7 the Fan in Pittsburgh.