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1. NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen tweeted out a number of links Monday to the NCAA site where the exact team sheets are online for the selection and seeding process. The selection committee’s transparency process up until the actual computer votes for selection has been a long time coming, but is welcomed. Now everyone can easily see what the committee looks at in evaluating the raw numbers.

2. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon never panicked as the Panthers went to 0-7 in the Big East. He said not having Travon Woodall healthy was a big deal. And it clearly was for Ashton Gibbs and the rest of the team. The Panthers have won three straight (the latest at West Virginia on Monday) and have a winnable Big East schedule that could put the Panthers on the bubble in March. Unlike teams in the Pac-12 and leagues outside the power six -- Pitt has opportunities for quality wins. Also, Pitt will be judged on when Woodall was healthy and when he was not.

3. Missouri coach Frank Haith has to be a finalist for national coach of the year. On Monday Haith coached one of his best games against his mentor and former boss, Texas coach Rick Barnes. Going zone on the final possession was a tremendous move. Haith may not win the award (KU’s Bill Self could win it within the Big 12), but he has done a marvelous job coaching the Tigers without its top post player from the preseason. There have been no hiccups in taking over this team.

Editor’s note: ESPN.com writers Eamonn Brennan and Myron Medcalf are joined by ESPN Insider John Gasaway to discuss several burning questions in college basketball.

The weekends that don’t look great on paper are usually the ones filled with wackiness. Who should be on upset alert?

Eamonn Brennan: "Upset alert" flows a little bit better than "'top-10 team playing a solid conference opponent on the road' alert," but whatever we want to call it, I'm leaning toward Kansas. The Jayhawks travel to Ames, Iowa, for a Big 12 battle with a solid Iowa State team, and one that just so happens to have its best player -- forward Royce White -- matching up with Kansas's frontcourt beast, forward Thomas Robinson. Robinson and Jeff Withey could make life very difficult for White in the paint, but White's versatility could cause the Jayhawks some issues. A re-energized Hilton Coliseum crowd should be in full voice, and if the Cyclones can keep it close down the stretch, they might be able to pull off what Texas couldn't the previous Saturday.

John Gasaway: Sound the alarm and batten down the hatches because the upset alert's on full blast for Syracuse. They're welcoming West Virginia to the Carrier Dome on Saturday, and I just can't imagine the Mountaineers playing two consecutive terrible games. (Oh, yeah, they were terrible against St. John's, trust me.) I'm guessing that by now Bob Huggins has spoken to his team and pointed out the flaws in its performance in a calm, nonjudgmental and supportive manner. I also think Jim Boeheim's players are a little more freaked about Fab Melo's absence than they need to be -- or at least they're playing like it. I say the Mountaineers win a tight one.

Myron Medcalf: Kansas could fall Saturday in Ames. The last time Iowa State and Kansas faced off, the Cyclones took an early double-digit lead but couldn’t maintain it in the Jayhawks’ 82-73 win Jan. 14. But Hilton Coliseum will be rocking for an Iowa State team that’s due for an upset. Royce White is the key.

It’s a little early to be talking about the bubble, but what team has a particularly important game this weekend?

Brennan: BYU. The Artist Formerly Known as Joey Brackets placed the Cougars among his first four out in Monday's bracket update, and that's about right: At 18-5, the Cougars don't have much in the way of quality wins, and they were shellacked at home by Loyola Marymount last week. On Saturday, they'll host Saint Mary's, which beat them soundly (98-82) in the teams' first matchup in Moraga, Calif., on Dec. 29. A victory here would be huge for conference competition, obviously, but it also would go a long way toward improving a résumé that needs improvement amid a schedule that simply doesn't offer many marquee matchups the rest of the way.

Gasaway: It's never too early for bubble talk, particularly in Tuscaloosa, where Alabama is improbably playing its way into this conversation for a second consecutive season. The Crimson Tide were supposed to be a shoo-in for this year's NCAA tournament, but at 13-7 overall and riding a four-game losing streak in conference, Anthony Grant's team is suddenly looking very bubbly. The Tide would be well advised to win that home game against Arkansas on Saturday.

Medcalf: Middle Tennessee might not need the Sun Belt tourney title to reach the NCAA tournament this year. The Blue Raiders have won 12 in a row, and they have a Top 60 RPI. A win against Vandy this weekend puts this underrated team in at-large contention and the Top 25 discussion.

What player or individual matchup are you most looking forward to this weekend?

Brennan: I'm extremely excited to see West Virginia's Kevin Jones go head to head with Syracuse's vaunted 2-3 zone. If you had to design a player to play against said zone, and that player wasn't a lightning-quick point guard with unimpeachable handles, you'd do pretty well with Jones. Long, active and versatile, WVU's star forward can attack the rim, drain 3s from the perimeter, rough it up on the offensive boards and, perhaps most important, provide a go-to option at the elbow -- the 2-3's most vulnerable spot.

Gasaway: It is so on: Michigan's Trey Burke vs. Ohio State's Aaron Craft, in Columbus on Sunday. As if Wolverines and Buckeyes needed a reason to get up for a game against each other, these two point guards were made to be rivals. This was supposed to be the year we all hailed the sophomore-year development of Craft, who's still a lockdown defender but has added new dimensions to his game on offense. Oops. In the "Big Ten point guard" category, a lot of the ink's been going to a flashy freshman instead (go figure). Burke's been fantastic as the floor general for a Michigan team that thinks it can get the program its first Sweet 16 since 1994. I’ll be by my TV for this one, with popcorn.

Medcalf: Thomas Robinson vs. Royce White. Robinson might be the best the player in the country right now. But he rarely picks on someone his own size. Enter 6-8, 270-pound White, who put up 18 points and 17 rebounds the last time Iowa State played Kansas. Should be a war between these two giants.

What’s a slightly off-the-radar game that we should be keeping an eye on?

Brennan: I'm not sure you can call a 3 p.m. ESPN game between two high-profile Big East foes "off the radar," but, given Pittsburgh's struggles in Big East play this season, we (rightfully) haven't heard much about Georgetown's trip to the Peterson Events Center this weekend. But if I were a Georgetown fan, I'd be a little bit nervous. It's not that Pittsburgh has suddenly turned a corner; this week's win against Providence was nice, but it wasn't a season-changer. Still, Travon Woodall appears to be getting healthy, which frees Ashton Gibbs to play his more natural off-ball shooting guard spot, and the Hoyas have found themselves in close games pretty frequently this past month or so. Georgetown should win. But I'd be wary.

Gasaway: Virginia Commonwealth at Georgia State on Saturday. You remember VCU, of course, from a little thing called last year's Final Four. This season, Shaka Smart has the Rams in the thick of the CAA race at 8-2, right behind 9-1 George Mason. Meanwhile, GSU started out strong, but the Panthers have lost three of their past four. Ron Hunter's team has to defend its home floor if it's going to stay in the conference chase. Georgia State has the league's top defense but will be hard pressed to stop Bradford Burgess & Co. This one's off-radar but on my agenda.

Medcalf: Arkansas at Alabama, on the surface, means nothing. Neither team is in SEC contention right now. But I’m convinced that, if Bama loses this game -- it would be its fifth consecutive loss -- it will never recover, and it will go from Top 25 team to NIT or worse by the end of the season. A third consecutive win for Arkansas could push the Razorbacks, who beat Michigan last weekend, in the opposite direction … toward an NCAA tourney slot.

Seven straight losses to open Big East play. A defense allowing opponents well over a point per possession. The usually impenetrable Peterson Events Center and the rowdy fans that inhabit it have borne witness to five -- count 'em, five -- home losses in 21 games. Coming into the season, Pittsburgh was 149-12 in the Pete.

In short, it's been the most un-Pitt of Pitt seasons in 2012, as Jamie Dixon's team, long a haven for underrated prospects blossoming into veteran stalwarts, has suddenly run short on defensive stoppers, ball handlers and glue types. The result has been the Panthers' worst year in memory, a rare plunge for one of the nation's most consistent programs. Needless to say, no Pitt fan is used to this.

Perhaps it's understandable, then, that the Panthers' fans weren't exactly out in force at the Pete on Wednesday night. Pittsburgh got a win -- its first in Big East play, and its first at home since the Dec. 23 loss to Wagner -- 86-74 over Providence. Previously injured point guard Tray Woodall combined with shooting guard Ashton Gibbs for 39 points, 13 assists and just two turnovers in the win. As Pittsburgh news goes in 2012, this is exciting stuff.

Unfortunately, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Ron Cook, the signs of promise in the Pitt backcourt were witnessed by a startlingly small Peterson Events Center crowd -- a sign of the current tough times in Panthers' program. To wit:

It was hard to believe it was The Pete.

It was sad, actually. [...]

You easily could count the number of people sitting in the 100 courtside seats in the 12 luxury boxes. The Oakland Zoo -- the arena's famed student section -- was only a third full despite tweets earlier in the day urging kids to get off their "arse" and come out to support their struggling team. Eight minutes into the game, ushers still were moving fans down from the upper levels to make the lower bowl full. That might have happened over the years for some of the one-sided non-conference games against the likes of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Houston Baptist and Maryland-Baltimore County, but I can't remember seeing it at a Big East game. I also can't remember coach Jamie Dixon nearly begging -- OK, lobbying -- for the fans to come out, as he did Jan. 16 after Pitt's loss at Syracuse. He and his program have been much too successful to have to do that.

Yeah. Yikes.

Cook draws a larger conclusion from this information: Namely, that Pittsburgh is a tough pro sports town, that it's hard to gain traction as a college entity here, and once you have it -- as Pitt hoops obviously has -- all it takes is one losing season before the attendance starts to dry up. That's a shame, but it appears to be the reality. There also seems to be a trend of great student sections simply not showing up these days. Between the Zoo and the Cameron Crazies (who are struggling to get 700 kids in a 1,200-seat section some nights), let's hope this doesn't become a thing. Of course, it's easy to turn up for a big game, or when your team is riding high in the Big East. It's a lot more difficult to show up and support your peers when they're struggling.

But if Pitt ever needed a rocking, rowdy, filled-to-the-rafters Peterson Events Center, that time is now.

The best team in the Big East lost this past weekend, but the best team is still the best team. A few other things did change in this week's power rankings, though. Let's take a look:

1. Syracuse: The Orange finally fell and looked as lousy in defeat as they looked great in 20 victories. But one bad loss on the road without starting center Fab Melo does not a bad team make. Syracuse is still easily the best team in the Big East, though the road continues to be unkind with a Monday trip to Cincinnati without Melo.

2. Georgetown: The winner of the ever-revolving No. 2 slot goes to the Hoyas this week, but not necessarily in convincing fashion. Georgetown shot 3-of-24 in the first half at home against Rutgers and made only 12 field goals on the day, but did end up surviving.

3. Marquette: The Golden Eagles have yet to see the best of what the conference offers, but give Buzz Williams’ team credit: They keep winning while everyone else falters. Marquette has won four in a row.

4. West Virginia: Fortunately for the Mountaineers, these rankings aren’t based on basketball smarts, because Darryl "Truck" Bryant's foolish and unnecessary floater against Cincinnati would push WVU to the bottom of the list. As it is, the 'Eers have won three in a row.

5. Cincinnati: The Bearcats are two-thirds of the way through one of the more difficult conference runs, beating UConn in Storrs and losing to West Virginia in Morgantown in overtime. Now for the big test: Syracuse, ticked after dropping its first game of the season, on Monday.

6. Notre Dame: Perhaps the Irish should schedule more games against No. 1 teams. Notre Dame upset Syracuse for its eighth win against a top-ranked team. This after losing to Rutgers on the road.

7. Louisville: What a difference Kyle Kuric makes. Kuric played despite a balky ankle, scoring 21 in a much-needed win for the Cards at Pitt.

8. South Florida: Quietly, while no one was paying attention, the Bulls are building up their best Big East record to date at 5-2. South Florida has won three in a row and five of the past six. Where did this come from?

9. Connecticut: The Huskies’ troubles continue, with four losses in six games, including to a rebuilding Tennessee team in Knoxville. UConn has a tough upcoming slate, at home versus a confident Notre Dame team and then on the road at Georgetown.

10. Seton Hall: The Pirates’ margin for error is slim, evidenced by back-to-back losses to South Florida and Villanova. Seton Hall remains a dangerous team, capable of beating anyone but equally susceptible to bad losses.

11. Villanova: Progress comes in baby steps for a Wildcats team trying to find its way, so a home win against Seton Hall and a come-from-behind overtime victory at St. John’s counts significantly.

12. Rutgers: The young Scarlet Knights are going to be in every game. It’s just winning them that’s difficult. Rutgers gave Georgetown all it could handle but couldn’t steal a road win.

13. DePaul: The struggles continue for the Blue Demons, losers of five in a row and six of seven since league play began. This week could be a good one for DePaul, with young Rutgers and St. John’s teams on tap.

14. St. John's: The troubles also continue to mount for the Red Storm, who are mired in a four-game losing streak with little relief in sight. This week, St. John's hosts West Virginia and then travels to Duke.

15. Providence: After battling back-to-back ranked teams in Syracuse and Marquette, the Friars enter a three-game run of winnable games. Providence plays at Pitt and South Florida and then hosts Rutgers. Nothing is a gimme when you have one league victory, but at least the Friars will have a chance.

16. Pittsburgh: What else can be said about the Panthers? With "College GameDay" on campus fueling the energy in the Pete and Travon Woodall back in the lineup, Pitt still lost to Louisville. The Panthers host Providence on Wednesday in a Big East battle of the basement.

1. Kentucky coach John Calipari said the Wildcats aren’t where they need to be at this stage in the season, especially with Louisville on deck Saturday. “We’ve got a ways to go,’’ Calipari said. “I would have hoped in the (Lamar) game we would have shown improvement. We’re not executing the way we need to be right now. Indiana executed better than us. Louisville can be that same kind of team.’’ The players that Calipari knows will likely produce on a given night are Anthony Davis (on the defensive end) and Doron Lamb and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (on the offensive end).

2. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said Travon Woodall probably shouldn’t have played at Notre Dame. Dixon said Woodall wasn’t ready to return from the groin injury that kept him out of the previous six games; he went 0-for-5 in the loss to the Irish. Meanwhile, Dixon said the Panthers saw defensive slippage in the defeat, something that must be corrected before the Panthers host Cincinnati on Sunday.

3. Saint Joseph’s still won’t release graduate student Todd O’Brien to play at UAB, a likely requirement for him to get a waiver that has been denied twice. The NCAA responded to the inaction, through spokesperson Erik Christianson: “It is extremely rare for an NCAA member to oppose a student-athlete transfer, and St. Joseph’s opposition was an important factor in both the NCAA staff’s and the independent Division I Subcommittee for Legislative Relief’s review of this waiver request. The Subcommittee also spoke directly with Mr. O’Brien, UAB representatives and Mr. O’Brien’s legal counsel as part of the appeal process. These decisions are never easy, and the Subcommittee’s final determination was based on all facts and views presented.”

1. Pitt’s inability to score more than 60 points in the past two games is befuddling. The Panthers were playing a possible NEC contender, note possible, in Wagner and then played one of the Big East's bottom third teams in Notre Dame. Yet the Panthers couldn’t crack 60 points and lost both matches. The Panthers were 1-of-14 on 3-pointers against the usual porous Irish defense Tuesday. Travon Woodall was back from an injury and struggled -- 0-for-5 overall, 0-for-3 on 3s. Still, this is a Panthers team that shouldn’t be this offensively challenged. The Panthers were 2-of-15 on 3s against Wagner with Ashton Gibbs shooting 1-of-7 on 3s. The trend will mean that Pitt will slip down to the muddled middle of the Big East for only the second time in Jamie Dixon's eight seasons unless something drastically changes. Pitt has finished in the top two five times, and finished fourth, fifth and seventh -- in 2008 -- once.

2. Minnesota lost to Illinois in double overtime in the Big Ten opener for both teams Tuesday night. But Gophers coach Tubby Smith may be doing his best coaching job -- at the U. The Gophers were thin in experience heading into the season. Losing Trevor Mbakwe to a season-ending knee injury last month should have devastated them. Granted the schedule was soft in many spots but the Gophers still went into that Big Ten opener at 12-1. The Gophers still have a long way to go to ensure a postseason berth but to be this competitive, and playing with this much confidence with such an inexperienced crew, is a credit to Smith and these players.

3. A URI news release says coach Jim Baron will re-evaluate senior guard Jamal Wilson's status in a week after he was suspended indefinitely. But a source with direct knowledge inside the Rams’ program doesn’t expect Wilson to return based on a series of missteps. Wilson may be averaging 17.5 points a game but the Rams have won just one game this season and are one of the biggest disappointments in the country. The Rams are leaning heavily on freshmen since the upperclassmen have been subpar. Baron, who normally has had URI competitive in the A-10, despite not making the NCAAs during his previous 10 years, has two years remaining on his contract. It’s hard to say if he’s under any heat since cash-strapped URI would have to come up with money it may not have to make a change.

Over the summer, it appeared Ashton Gibbs was preparing to be Pittsburgh's de facto do-everything guard. He was already one of the nation's best pure shooting guards; despite his quirky release, in 2011 Gibbs posted a 127.9 offensive rating thanks to a 60.9 effective field goal percentage and a 64.3 true shooting percentage. When Gibbs came off a screen or caught an inside-out pass from one of Pittsburgh's countless offensive rebounds, his shot usually went in.

But to get to the NBA -- where shooting guards are typically bigger and much more athletic -- Gibbs will have to prove he can play some point, too. The question, then, was whether he could do so and still have an effective senior season for a team in the thick of the national title chase.

As SI.com's Luke Winn proved (in handy chart form!) in his first 2011-12 power rankings, Gibbs was one of the more shoot-first guards in the country last season. The expectation that he would suddenly change that tendency in one season seems unrealistic. He might be more versatile, but he can't be a distribution-minded point guard and a hyper-effective spot-up shooter at the same time. Which means Pittsburgh guard Travon Woodall, a three-year contributor getting his chance to start as a junior, will have to inherit a very important role in the makeup of Pittsburgh's offense. Is he ready?

According to Pittsburgh assistant Pat Sandle, the backcourt transformation won't be quite as pronounced as Gibbs might have expected over the summer. Woodall is going to take over the majority of the pass-first point guard responsibilities, leaving Gibbs to focus on what he does best -- making shots. From the Post-Gazette:

"[Distributing] comes naturally to him," Sandle said. "Because Ashton is such a dynamic shooter we didn't want to take that away from him. We want him to concentrate on moving without the ball and getting his shots. Tray can get into the gaps and make plays. Traditionally, that's what we're looking for."

Of course, Woodall is also going to have to knock down a few shots: He shot just 29 percent from three last season, and his effective field goal percentage was a paltry 42.9 percent. He's been in the gym all summer, and he says he expects his percentage to "shoot up tremendously just based on me being confident shooting the ball." If so, Pittsburgh's backcourt will get a major boost. But if teams can focus on Gibbs, shading him closely on screens and leaving Woodall standing near the three-point line, the Panthers usually reliable offense could struggle -- at least early in the season. We'll see.

For the next month or so, our friends at The Mag are previewing one high-profile school per day for their Summer Buzz series. For the sake of all that is synergistic, yours truly will be attempting the same, complementing each comprehensive Insider preview with some adjusted efficiency fun. Today's subject: the Pittsburgh Panthers.

If you've been hanging out this summer, you'll remember this visit with Pittsburgh guard Ashton Gibbs at the Nike Skills Camp in Chicago. Gibbs, who might be the purest shooting guard in the college game, was participating in the Deron Williams Skills Academy. Naturally, he was surrounded by point guards, players used to facilitating teammates and finding their own shots. Gibbs, on the other hand, has been a curl-screen-and-spot-up 2 guard for his entire career. So why sign up for a point guard camp?

Gibbs' reasons were both collective and individual. To have a shot at the NBA -- the senior tested the waters before returning to Pitt this spring -- he has to prove to scouts that he is capable of playing a combo role; he lacks the size and athleticism most NBA scouts want in modern shooting guards. More pressing, though, is coach Jamie Dixon's need for Gibbs to do so much more with the ball in his hands. The Panthers are going to remain as tough as ever on the interior. The steady inertia of Dixon's program practically guarantees it. But for the first time in recent years, questions exist. Chief among them: Can Gibbs do what he's done in his first three seasons -- hyper-efficient spot-up shooting, basically -- while also taking a larger and more diverse command of the offense?

In today's Summer Buzz, ESPN Insider LaRue Cook delved into the Synergy scouting data to prove just how drastic a change this might be:

According to Synergy Sports, more than half of Gibbs' plays last season were spot-ups or screens, and nearly 50 percent of his jumpers were of the catch-and-shoot variety. In other words, Gibbs wasn't generating a ton of points for himself or for others on his own. So Big East teams would be foolish not to double every time he crosses half court, meaning those reserves and blue-chip recruits Dixon keeps stocked better be ready to produce. If not, Pitt won't have an easy march to its 11th consecutive Dance.

Anyone who's watched Gibbs the past three seasons recognizes as much. He's at his best running to space off the ball, where he utilizes screens in classic, fundamental ways. It's as simple as reading your defender and deciding whether to curl, fade or slip; well-coached eighth graders learn this stuff, but so few players execute it well at the college level. Gibbs, on the other hand, is as good as anyone. If not better.

There is some good news here. For one, despite the loss of guard Brad Wanamaker, Pittsburgh does have a suitable replacement in junior Travon Woodall, who notched an assist rate of 28.6 percent in reserve duty last season. Likewise, Pitt's main offensive attack in 2011 came thanks to offensive rebounding, and while the Panthers will no doubt miss the bruising presence of Gary McGhee on the offensive boards, it retains Nasir Robinson (who grabbed a promising 9.5 percent of available offensive rebounds despite playing next to his rebound-hogging counterpart) and will add a top-ranked center (and arguably the highest-profile recruit of Dixon's tenure) in forward Khem Birch. Many of Gibbs' open looks came as the result of rebounds and kick-outs. It's fair to assume many of those same looks will be available in 2012, too.

In other words, Pittsburgh's not going to stop rebounding the ball. That's the most important feature of this team, one that has kept its offense among the nation's best for the past few seasons. But the Panthers weren't just a chuck-and-grab bunch like, say, West Virginia in 2011. They were also efficient before the ball hit the rim, hitting 39.5 percent of their 3s, the 12th-highest percentage in the country. Will those looks still exist for Gibbs? Will he be able to get them if he is the primary ball handler? Will defenses honor high ball screens, or will Gibbs face constant traps and hedges? And if he does, will he be able -- and this is one of the things he said he has worked on all summer, including at the Nike camps -- to attack those matchups with the panache of an experienced ball handler?

We know Pitt will rebound. We know it'll be tough inside. We know Robinson, whose crucial mistake led to Pitt's upset loss to Butler in the NCAA tournament, will be as durably motivated as ever. And we know Gibbs will be able to make open shots. What we don't know is how everything will work before the ball goes into the air. If Gibbs evolves into the multifaceted player he wants (and needs) to be, then there's little reason for concern. If Woodall is as capable as he was last season, then it might not matter. But if neither of those things happen, a team whose offense has drive its recent success will find itself struggling to score for the first time in years. That's not a welcome prospect for any Pitt fan. We'll see.

Leprechauns aren't inherently scary, but if you fear little mystical creatures, or watched "Leprechaun" at an inadvisably young age, then I can see why you might have an innate fear of the little guys. They're like clowns: They shouldn't be scary, and most of the time they're not ... but you can see why people get scared.

Which brings us to Pittsburgh guard Travon Woodall. The Brooklyn native (by way of Paterson, N.J.) is to join the rest of the Panthers for a 12-day, six-game tour of Ireland, which sounds like an awesome time. For his part, Woodall seems a little concerned about the chances of encountering a leprechaun. From SNY's Adam Zagoria:

"I'm nervous because the thing I'm scared of the most is leprechauns," cracked Woodall, a 5-foot-11, 190-pound point guard who starred at St. Anthony under legendary coach Bob Hurley. If the leprechauns don't get him, the food might.

"I have no clue what I'm going to eat," Woodall said. "I'm going to go out there and get a box of Lucky Charms."

OK, OK, I'll admit it: The Irish have terrible food. I say this as a distant descendant who's never actually been to Ireland, but whose mother used to make corn beef and cabbage from time to time. Obviously I know what I'm talking about. Cabbage, dude. Gross.

Anyway, the Panthers embarked on their trip Thursday, and yours truly will be keeping an eye on the trip. Why? For one, it's always interesting to see how teams discuss their summer trips after they return. And for another, I want to see if Woodall spots a leprechaun. We could be rich!

MILWAUKEE -- Some quick halftime thoughts from a game that looks unlikely to fall in line with the insanity of Thursday's upset bonanza:

• Pittsburgh has been able to get easy buckets in the paint almost at will. Oakland hung around for much of the first half thanks to some efficient offense of its own, but the Golden Grizzlies' stretchy 3-2 zone hasn't been much of a puzzle for the Panthers. Oakland will have to either find a way to keep Pitt out of the middle of that zone -- good luck -- or just hope to go on an offensive flurry of their own in the second half. Neither seems particularly likely.
• "Flurry" isn't the best way to describe Pittsburgh's offensive performance in the first half. There's no real individual brilliance on display. Instead, in typical Jamie Dixon-esque fashion, the Panthers have slugged and slogged their way to a really impressive first-half point total. Their lineup is balanced, they're getting easy looks, and they're converting. It's simple. It's impressive. It's working.
• Oakland's Ledrick Eackles completed one of the craziest and-1's you'll ever see ... until it was waved off as an offensive foul. Eackles drove into Pittsburgh guard Travon Woodall, bounced off, flicked the ball at least five feet above the rim and then watched from his prone position on the ground as it softly trickled through the hoop. Even as a charge, it was a beautiful thing to behold.
• Woodall has been a consistent presence, coming off the bench and scoring five points, not to mention running the Panthers' show from the point position. Leading scorer Ashton Gibbs spent much of the first half on the bench and didn't register a point.
• Not usually an offensive presence, Pitt center Gary McGhee scored eight points on 3-of-4 shooting, anchoring Pitt's balanced attack throughout the first. (Guards Jermaine Dixon and Brad Wanamaker likewise added eight points apiece.)
• It's usually easy to tell the little guys from the big boys -- the No. 14 seeds from the No. 3s -- merely from the uniforms each team wears. (Tiny schools' unis typically look far more like the jerseys you might see at your local high school gym. Sometimes worse.) Oakland's uniforms have plenty of that know-it-when-you-see-it mid-major quality, but that doesn't stop them from being some of the coolest threads in the entire tournament. The Golden Grizzlies sport an all-black uni with gold lettering and trim, which they back up with all black socks and all black shoes. It's a tough look. An added bonus: Oakland's players' names are placed conspicuously beneath the numbers on the back of their uniforms. As the old saying goes, variety is the spice of awesome jerseys. Or something like that.