Pitt's March Madness Directed at Lady Bulls

[Brad]

Pitt women's team not selected for NCAA field

Disappointed Panthers not selected for NCAA tournament field despite high expectations

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

By Chico Harlan, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

They had planned a party. Pitt officials decorated a clubhouse-sized suite at the Petersen Events Center with balloons, colored in blue and gold. Caterers provided a sundae bar. And then the players and coaches of the Pitt women's basketball team took seats in front of a flat-screen television and learned, as heads dropped and a few tears fell, that their party stage would never have its celebration.

When the women's NCAA tournament announced its field last night, the Panthers waited through an hour of team-by-team unveiling. The studio hosts at ESPN called the names of 64 teams and, like that -- through silence -- Pitt (19-10, 9-7 Big East) watched its hopes disappear. Thirty-one seasons without an NCAA bid grew into 32.

Pitt will still play in the postseason -- later in the night, it learned of a 2 p.m. Saturday game at the Petersen Events Center against Delaware (24-5) in the WNIT -- but even so, the team lost its chance for a moment of historic celebration.

"This is hard for me," head coach Agnus Berenato said, facing the university officials and media members after the announcement. She wiped a few tears. "We thought tonight we were going to make history."

Instead, the team endured its toughest hour of the season. Before the seedings were announced, players clutched pens and empty bracket sheets. The ESPN cameras, though, only showed other teams celebrating: first Rutgers, then Army, later Oklahoma. When South Florida was announced as a No. 9 seed in the Bridgeport, Conn., bracket, several players groaned with dismay.

The selection committee invited seven Big East teams to the tournament., including the Bulls, a fellow Big East bubble team that the Panthers had beaten twice.

"It's unusual, when you've beaten somebody twice in your conference, that South Florida would get in and we wouldn't," said Carol Sprague, a Pitt senior associate athletic director who served for five years on the NCAA women's selection committee.

Just more than 30 minutes through the selection show, when 48 of the 64 teams had been announced, Berenato wiped away a few tears. She knew the logic: tournament certainties St. Johns and Notre Dame still hadn't been announced, and the tournament was unlikely to jam three Big East teams in one quadrant. Berenato turned to Sprague and whispered, "We're not in."

When it became official, she gathered her team for five minutes in a private room. Players emerged saying the right things -- "If we play the way we can, we should be champions of the NIT," sophomore center Marcedes Walker said -- but they remained thereafter in the suite area, some crying, some talking quietly. They, like Berenato, were upset about losing a spot to 19-11 South Florida, which similarly finished with a 9-7 conference record. They wondered, also, how Boston College could earn a bid with a 6-8 Atlantic Coast Conference record and a five-game losing streak to end the season.

"I think we should have made it," Walker said. "I never doubted [before today] that we were in."

Berenato had coaxed her players into such a mind-set. During the days preceding the tournament announcement, she explained to her team the reasons it belonged in the bracket. She asked them to practice with the intensity of a team planning on an NCAA trip. She even encouraged the celebration-ready stage, arguing that her team deserved the experience, even if it resulted in nothing but a letdown.

"We always tell our ladies, you work hard, you bust your butt, you go through walls and it will happen for you," Berenato said later, as the suite room emptied. "And it didn't happen for us."

Story Link

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There's no crying in basketball, well, at least there shouldn't be...

[USFan]

hmmm.. A USF vs. Pitt rivalry in women's basketball?

[Greg Auman]

what story doesn't mention is that USF's RPI is 43, while Pittsburgh is 67. main difference is strength of schedule -- USF's is 22nd-toughest in the nation; Pittsburgh's is 72nd.

Compare nonconference opponents, listed with RPI:

PITTSBURGH                  SOUTH FLORIDA

64  Missouri (L)            1 UNC (L)    

100 Penn State (L)       6 LSU (L)

116 William & Mary (W) 19 Michigan State (L)

160 Robert Morris (W)   74 Florida Int'l (W)

164  Duquesne (W)       102 N. Arizona (W)

180 Pepperdine (W)      121 Tex-Arlington (W)

199 Vermont (W)           160 Robert Morris (W)

227  Towson (W)           174 UMBC (W)

270  San Diego State (W) 203 Colorado (W)

285 St. Bonaventure (W)  257 North Florida (W)

300  Akron (W)                 297 Jacksonville (W)

                                        298 Tenn.-Martin (W)

those three big nonconference games meant a lot. USF lost all three, by a combined 82 points, but it helped in the strength of schedule.

[flsportsfan83]

"They had some good wins, over DePaul, over Notre Dame, and we obviously felt they warranted that seed," said Jodi Comstock, chair of the selection committee.

[Jewbull]

Email their coaching staff and inform them why they did not get in:

Head Coach

aberenato@athletics.pitt.edu Agnus Berenato 648-8360

Assistant Coach Caroline McCombs 648-8348

Assistant Coach

jwilliams@athletics.pitt.edu Jeff Williams 648-8753

Assistant Coach

sralph@athletics.pitt.edu Shea Ralph 648-1826

Director of Women's Basketball Operations

sgreen@athletics.pitt.edu Shana Green 648-9710

Secretary

fmsst7@pitt.edu Felisha Hamiel  

[USFGriff]

JewBull,

Where`s the class?  Why dont you email the USF coaches to wish them luck?

[Jewbull]

Class?? did you read the article, they did not understand why USF was in and they were not, therefore I thought the friendly thing to do is email them Greg's post about RPI and SOS so they have a clear understanding. Just educating a fellow Big East institution, no harm in that.

[Velcro]

They know why they didn't get in... they are just upset and trying to justify it.  They are in denial.  You know they have seen the comparison... sos... rpi, etc.  

[USFGriff]

Well, for starters, I read the article again and no mention of the Basketball Secretary making any comments.  Can you tell me where her quote is located?

[BULLfreak]

Looks like someone (PITT) needs to stop placing those cupcake teams on their schedule