Thu Sep 09 2010
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- For Pittsburgh, making this year's NCAA tournament -- as a No. 3 seed, no less -- after losing four starters from last year's team was widely seen as an act of overachievement.
Still, this year's Panthers are embracing the same high expectations placed on the big-name players who came before them.
"We feel as though we have the team to get to the championship game and win it," guard Jermaine Dixon said. "So we're going to play our hardest and try to get there."
It begins with Friday's game against No. 14 seed Oakland, a team that has faced some of the NCAA's best this season and been clobbered every time.
The Golden Grizzlies were beaten handily at Kansas, Syracuse, Michigan State and Wisconsin early in the season, and lost by large margins at Memphis and Oregon.
But Grizzlies players say those games came a long time ago, and they're a much better team now. Led by 6-foot-11 center Keith Benson, who averages 17 points and 10.5 rebounds per game, Oakland has won 20 of its last 21 games, including the Summit League tournament.
"We feel pretty good," guard Johnathon Jones said. "We know they have a great team and great guards and everything like that, but we feel on a neutral court we're just as equal as them. We played a tough schedule and we're ready for them."
It's the ninth straight tournament appearance for the Panthers, who have advanced past the first weekend of play five times in the last eight seasons. Coach Jamie Dixon doesn't seem to mind his players talking about winning it all, provided they don't look past the first round.
"Every team has that feeling," he said. "You have to at this point. You have to have that mentality, I think. But again our focus has been on Game 1 and that's solely Oakland."
Another tournament appearance certainly didn't seem like a sure thing for Pittsburgh earlier this year. The Panthers came into this season without four starters from last year, including DeJuan Blair and Sam Young, who went to the NBA.
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