Deja vu: Again, Pitt falls early

The Panthers’ strengths don’t seem to play well in the NCAA tournament.

PITTSBURGH — Pick any season, the year really doesn’t matter. The scenario always seems to be the same.

Pitt comes off a strong regular season and a Big East Conference tournament title game appearance, only to shoved out of the NCAA tournament no later than the round of 16.

The reasons?

UThe Panthers lack a go-to scorer, the player who always finds a way to make a big shot or gets fouled on a drive to the basket at the very moment games are decided.

UThe toughness and physicality that are so important to the Panthers in the Petersen Events Center and Madison Square Garden aren’t nearly as big a factor in a faraway NCAA venue, with no Big East officiating crews in sight.

UTime finally runs out on a team that, for all of its 25 wins-plus seasons, rarely finds itself with a talent advantage against NCAA opponents that are lower-seeded or play in less-visible conferences.

(Recent examples: Kent State, Bradley, Pacific and Marquette, which wasn’t in the Big East when it eliminated Pitt in 2003).

UFor all of Pitt’s devotion to shutdown defense and rebounding superiority, its opponent has better quickness and 3-point shooting.

This NCAA tournament wasn’t supposed to end so soon for these Panthers (27-10), even though they reached double figures in losses for only the second time in seven seasons — not after they ran off seven victories in their final eight games, including four victories in four days in the Big East tournament.

No, point guard Levance Fields, playing so well after sitting out nearly seven weeks with a broken foot, was the steadying influence who would ease them through the early rounds. Sam Young was the reliable scorer they’ve so often lacked.

DeJuan Blair was a man mountain inside whose size and presence would prove a difficult matchup.

So how come this NCAA tournament ended like so many others for the Panthers, with an early round exit in a game they were supposed to win — this time, a 65-54 loss to Michigan State in the South Regional Saturday night?

For the fifth time in seven years, a Pitt team that was seeded fourth or higher couldn’t win more than two games in the tournament, although this was the first of those five to lose without advancing to at least to the second weekend of play.

“I feel like after a certain point of the season, a lot of people counted us out,” said Young, chosen as the most improved player in the Big East after raising his scoring average from 7 points per game last season to 18.

When the Panthers dropped six of 10 to fall to 19-8, with forward Mike Cook out of the lineup for good with a badly injured knee, some officials at Pitt were worried about merely reaching the NCAA tournament.