Led by Ashton Gibbs 24 points, the #7 seed 2011 Pitt Panthers nipped the 2009 Villanova Wildcats in first round action. Gibbs was 5-6 from long range in the game and 7-7 from the charity stripe.Brad Wanamaker helped out with 12 points and Gilbert Brown had 11. Pitt overcame a 20 point performance by Dante Cunningham for the Cats. The Panthers shot 51% for the game. Perhaps this gives Pitt a little revenge on this 09 Villanova team that knocked their 09 version out of the NCAAs in the Elite 8.

Heading into the week which will feature the Round of 64 in the Calhoun & Boeheim Regionals, it is interesting to note a few things. First, BC has been terrible. It’s funny, actually. Second, Syracuse has struggled as well suffering 9 losses already in this tournament. Finally, although we expected upsets everywhere, it’s been fairly predictable so far. In fact, of the 16 teams that have already advanced to the Round of 32, only one of them played in the Play-in Round. This means that other than the #12 seeded ’05 Syracuse team, every team in the Thompson and Carnesseca Regionals that played in the Play-in round has now been eliminated. This makes our bigeasthoops.com crew happy, as it seems we did a good job of seeding the teams, so far.

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