Gutter: Curb your enthusiasm, Bob

So the Pitt women’s basketball team lost to Tennessee last night. No big surprises there. Tennessee is one of the best women’s basketball programs in the country, while Pitt is, in reality, still a program on the rise.

Nevertheless, if not for the shootings at Duquesne and the Penguins’ beyond-expectations performance, the Pitt women’s team could be the sports story of the year in Pittsburgh.

Consider: three years ago, in Agnus Berenato’s first year as head coach of the women’s team, the Panthers won a whopping six games (two in the Big East). They more than doubled that number the next season, with a 13-15 record. Then, last season, the Panthers took a giant step forward, winning 22 games (the first 20-win season since 1993-94 and tying the school record for most wins in a season, a mark set in the 1980-81 season). 2005-06 culminated with the Panthers just missing the cut for the NCAA Tournament; instead, they settled for a run to the Final Four in the WNIT.

Even if you don’t care about women’s basketball, any sports fan has to be able to respect that kind of turn-around. And it continued this year, as Pitt won a school record 24 games and earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the program’s history.

It seems to me that that’s the kind of story that writes itself, particularly if you’re a columnist in Pittsburgh. On top of that, it seems to me that writing a column on Tuesday night’s game would be rather easy, given that the accomplishments of the Pitt team have really been tremendous.

But apparently that’s not the case for Bob Smizik.

Let’s look at what Sir Smizik had to say on the occasion of Pitt’s first appearance in the women’s NCAA Tournament:

The predicted sellout never materialized. Neither did a hoped-for upset victory by the Pitt against powerhouse Tennessee.

Okay. So never mind that he starts by pointing out what didn’t happen in the game. Look at the way the paragraph ends.

But with the six games that took place this week in the first and second round of the NCAA tournament at the Petersen Events Center, women's college basketball took a large step forward locally and the Pitt program continued to gain respect as it attempts to climb to the elite level of the sport.

That sounds about as exciting as a brochure for a funeral home.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve always been under the impression that part of the benefit/challenge of being a columnist is that you write from a perspective. You, the writer, are part of the column and you, the writer, are what makes it work. Reporters don’t have that luxury, instead being focused on retelling events and disseminating information. The public has columnists to provide perspective; instead, Sir Smizik has given us text that would probably be too dry to appear on the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s dour website.

Sir Smizik then spends the next six paragraphs (to be fair, two of the graphs consist of one sentence each) extolling the greatness of Tennessee superstar Candace Parker. Fair enough: with 30 points, the outstanding Parker dominated Pitt and ensured the victory for Tennessee.

(I should point out that the Tribune-Review’s John Harris, who in roughly 8 months at the Trib has written just a handful of non-Steelers columns, was compelled by the Pitt-Tennessee game to devote his entire column to Parker. However, Harris did contribute a Pitt-centric piece on Saturday before the Tournament began.)

After Sir Smizik has given Parker her necessary due, he then moves onto the fact that the game did not reach Berenato’s goal of selling out the 12,500-seat Petersen Events Center.

There had been a concern that the Volunteers, whose storied success has earned them a large traveling fan base, might have a larger and/or more vocal rooting section than Pitt. It didn't come close to happening.

With help of 300 free tickets distributed to students and a reduction to $5 for the price of student tickets, a crowd 8,791 was in attendance, about 3,700 short of capacity. It was overwhelmingly in favor of Pitt and was vocal throughout the game in its support of the Panthers.

If Sir Smizik is driving at the “large step forward locally” that women’s basketball has taken, he’s got a funny way of doing it. Essentially, he’s pointing out that it took 300 free tickets and a $5 ticket price to get a less-than-capacity crowd in the door. But hey, at least they cheered for Pitt, right?

Berenato, a relentless promoter who in four years has massively upgraded what was a miserable Pitt program, several times predicted a sellout at an interview sessions a day before the game.

"I really expect a sellout as long as the media gets the word out and talks about our great game."

You got her there, don’t you Sir Smizik? Is that “Berenato…several times predicted a sellout” line an “eat your words” slap from the venerable Sir Smizik to the upstart Berenato? Is he cautioning that her mouth should not write checks that her fanbase can’t cash? Why is it necessary to throw in that jab, especially when the Pitt women’s basketball team is fresh off the highest point it has ever reached?

It seemed like wishful thinking at the time, but almost came to fruition. Berenato's attempt to put the onus on the media was uncalled for. Both the local print and electronic gave the event ample coverage, perhaps more than it deserved.

Okay, Bob, now you’re just being a dick. Honestly, I can’t see what the point of this is. Since she came to Pitt, Berenato has embraced the media at every turn. Prior to every press conference she has ever held at Pitt, Berenato has personally introduced herself to each media member in attendance. And at the conclusion of her press conferences, she announces her appreciation for the media’s attention. Berenato understands the role that the media plays in promoting a program, especially one that needs as much promotion as Pitt women’s basketball does.

And, really, why does Sir Smizik think that the event might have received more coverage than it deserved? This is the Pitt women’s basketball team making its first-ever NCAA Tournament in school history, and playing at home no less. Then throw in the fact that that two No. 1 seed, nationally-recognized teams are playing at the Petersen Events Center (Tennessee and North Carolina), and you have a pretty big deal going on.

But apparently not to Sir Smizik. In fact, while the Panthers were making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history, traffic patterns in Oakland were far more notable to Sir Smizik on Tuesday night.

The crowd was late arriving because of a massive traffic jam in lower Oakland. It took some people 90 minutes to make the 1-mile drive from the Parkway exit in Oakland to the game.

Thanks for that update, Sir Smizik. What’s the weather going to be like this week?

What the event displayed more than anything is just how far the women's game has come. No sport has come further faster in the past decade in terms of improved play than women's basketball.

No, Sir Smizik, what the event displayed is how far the Pitt women’s basketball game has come. Women’s basketball has been popular for quite some time, and the power teams have been huge draws for years. At Tennessee, for example, the court at Thompson-Boling Arena is named “The Summitt,” in honor of the Volunteers’ women’s basketball coach, Pat Summitt. I know that the Post-Gazette has sent Sir Smizik to the Super Bowl even though the Steelers weren’t in it, so perhaps he considers himself a nationally-minded scribe, but the first word in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is still Pittsburgh; as such, I don’t think it would hurt to acknowledge the fact that Tuesday night’s event displayed just how far the Pitt women’s basketball program has come.

And as to his claim that “no sport has come further faster in the past decade in terms of improved play than women’s basketball,” well, that’s an impossible-to-quantify statement that reeks of columnist looking to fill space.

Parker might have been the most accomplished player on the floor but she was far from the only one.

Pitt has two excellent players in Marcedes Walker, who scored 19, and Shavonte Zellous, who scored 18.

"Zellous was a tough guard for us," Summitt said. "It seemed like she was getting more open shots than I liked. She got off 18 shots. That was the most disappointing part of our defense."

Summitt acknowledged that Pitt is on its way up.

"Tonight is going to be a wake-up call for a lot of people in terms of seeing this Pitt team against our team and seeing how they performed,'' she said.

"We'll be back," Berenato said, "bigger, stronger and faster."

Ah, a breath of fresh air: an actual mention of Pitt in this column, a piece that is perhaps mis-titled as “Panthers, Berenato gain a lot of respect.” Only with Summitt’s quote does Sir Smizik really reference any increase in respect for the Pitt women’s basketball program. And really, couldn’t that quote have been a jumping-off point for a column that actually does reflect the growing respect for Pitt as a national program? I’m sure Summitt said more than just that one sentence; why not use the esteemed Tennessee coach’s statements as evidence of how far the Pitt program has come? It’s certainly worth something when Pat Summitt, the winningest coach in college basketball history (men’s and women’s) is giving you credit, particularly if you’re a program that has come as far as Pitt has in such a short amount of time.

But Sir Smizik doesn’t go in that direction. Instead, he closes the column with this inspiring look at the future of Pitt women’s basketball.

This event, with Berenato pushing the sport, also will be back in Pittsburgh. When that happens, they won't have to give away tickets to fill up the building.

Really gets the blood flowing, doesn’t it?

I’m not saying Sir Smizik should be a cheerleader for the Pitt women’s team, just as he shouldn’t be a cheerleader for any sports team. But this occasion, this event (as he repeatedly calls it), is big enough and represents so much that is positive about sports that it should merit some noticeable excitement from one of the city’s most-respected columnists. But it comes off as the writings of a grouchy newspaperman who has been around too long to appreciate the fact that sports can still make you feel good.

I know it’s women’s basketball, and I know that the sport turns off a lot of sports fans. But it’s a story that can inspire true sports fans, and it’s a story that deserves better than a mailed-in column like the one featured in Wednesday’s edition of one of America’s Great Newspapers.

Peak: What's great about college basketball

There’s something to be said for pure human emotion.

Sitting in a banquet/meeting room on the third floor of the Sewell Center at Robert Morris University on Saturday afternoon, in the wake of the RMU women’s win in the Northeast Conference championship game, the full range of emotions was on display.

There was RMU senior forward Sugeiry Monsac, a native of the Dominican Republic who scored 21 points on Saturday, the second-highest total in the game. Monsac was part of RMU’s unstoppable scoring force, along with junior Chinata Nesbit who scored 28. But while Nesbit and RMU head coach Sal Buscaglia spoke during the post-game press conference, Monsac just kept smiling, periodically giggling and occasionally interjecting with an exclamation of disbelief that her team is headed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

It was elation. And it was unadulterated.

Rewind 15 minutes. In the same place where Buscaglia, Nesbit, and Monsac sat discussing the post-season and the NCAA Tournament and winning the NEC and how far the Robert Morris program has come, some far more somber bodies filled the chairs, namely Sacred Heart head coach Ed Swanson and seniors Amanda Pape and Jasmine Walker.

In this scene, the soft voice of Swanson broke the silence of the room, giving the requisite credit to the victors before attempting to explain his team’s failure to a group of people who couldn’t be more unfamiliar with the squad. He was flanked by two players who combined to score 38 of his team’s 66 points, but to look at them or listen to them speak, you would think that Pape and Walker had personally tanked the game.

Actually, that’s not true. Pape didn’t speak at all during the press conference, instead holding her head in her hands, covering red eyes that were swollen with tears. She barely looked up, and by the time the press conference was over after seven or eight minutes, her tears had started again.

Oprah Winfrey, Montel Williams, and a dozen reality shows would pay millions for this kind of display of true feeling.

Such is March in American college sports. And not just the standard NCAA-bracket busting-Cinderella story-12/5 upset variety of March Madness. This was a game of two teams playing for an NCAA Tournament bid. These teams were playing for the chance to keep playing. And on a mild Saturday in Moon Township, in a gymnasium that has been surpassed by numerous high school facilities, before a crowd of 850 people (a generous estimate), the true madness of March was there.

You see, there was no chance of an at-large bid for these teams. It was win or go home. Don’t even bother to watch the Selection Monday show; if you don’t win, you aren’t getting in. That’s all there is to it. So whatever you have in you, whatever there is that drives you, whatever it is that makes you who you are, you have to dig into that, pull it up, and throw it all on the court. And that’s exactly what they did.

To recap for those who missed the NEC women’s championship game:

RMU took off in the early goings, leading 25-10 at the midway point of the first half and holding a 38-25 advantage at halftime. But Sacred Heart woke up for the second half, opening the period with a 13-1 run that put the score at 39-38. From there, it was a battle of tooth and nail, as the two teams, both playing for the chance to keep playing, went back and forth for 16 minutes. When Sacred Heart tied the score at 52 with 9:22 left, it was the game’s first tie since 0-0, and Pape’s layup a minute later gave the Pioneers their first lead of the contest.

Sacred Heart eventually established a six-point lead with 5:39 to go, but the powerful duo of Nesbit and Monsac battled back for RMU. With 4.5 seconds left and RMU ahead 68-66, Pape got a pass from an inbounds play, drove the lane, and put up a shot. The ball careened off the backboard, missing the rim and ending Sacred Heart’s season.

The (estimated) 850 fans in attendance stormed the court, and for all the emotion that would later fill the press conference room, it was magnified in the seconds after the final buzzer sounded.

Elation. Despair. Satisfaction. Disappointment. It was all there. And on top of it all was a feeling that everyone in the building could share, a feeling that no matter what else was going on in the world of college basketball, the Sewell Center in Moon Township had just played host to a game that reminded everyone in attendance of a basic truth:

This is what it’s all about.

It’s about two teams, with their futures on the line, playing their hearts out and doing everything possible to emerge as victors. For two hours that afternoon, nothing else mattered.

“I wouldn’t be in tears if I didn’t give 100%,” said Sacred Heart’s Walker, who scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Walker, along with Pape, who scored 20, each played the full 40 minutes in the game. 100% indeed.

Later that night, several hundred miles away, in a packed arena and on national television, Pitt and Georgetown faced off for the Big East men’s conference championship. It was a game that Pitt fans, players, and coaches would probably like to forget, since the Panthers put in one of their most dismal performances in recent memory.

But while the loss was disappointing, it’s hard to say that the players for Pitt or Georgetown had anything even approaching the desperation displayed by Robert Morris and Sacred Heart. Because no matter how much the Panthers or Hoyas or their coaches tell you that they want to win the Big East tournament because it means something, it is impossible that it could have meant as much as the NEC championship game.

Win or lose, Pitt and Georgetown are in the NCAA Tournament. The same couldn’t be said for Robert Morris and Sacred Heart. For those two teams, the season was laid before them in one contest: the winner would be the team that recognized the opportunity to continue playing and seized that opportunity, while the loser would be the team that didn’t have enough to earn a post-season spot.

When was the last time Pitt had a game of such magnitude? When was the last time Pitt was playing in a game with everything on the line? Yes, the NCAA Tournament games are huge and are filled with plenty of pressure, but this game was played for the right to even take part in that tournament. The weight of the world was on the shoulders of the women who took the court on Saturday, and they responded with a game that was a fantastic representation of just how much they wanted to keep playing.

There’s something to be said for pure human emotion.