March 11, 2006

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PITT VS. VILLANOVA POST GAME NOTES

*Pitt will face Syracuse in Saturday's Big East Championship final. Both teams needed to win three games to advance to the title game. Saturday's winner will become the first in league history to win four games to win the tournament title.

*Pitt improved to 24-6 overall on the year. The 24 victories rank tied for the sixth-best win total in school history.

*Pitt advances to the Big East Championship semifinal round for the fifth time in school history. It also marks the fifth time over the last six years that Pitt advanced to the Big East Championship Final. Pitt advanced to the title game in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. Pitt became one of two programs in the league to advance to four consecutive Big East Championship title games. Syracuse advanced to five straight from 1986-90.

*The Championship Final will be Head Coach Jamie Dixon's second as Pitt's head coach. In his first season as head coach, Dixon guided Pitt to the 2004 championship final before losing to Connecticut, 61-58.

*For the third consecutive game, Pitt outrebounded its opponent by a large margin. It outrebounded Villanova 45-27. In three Big East Championship games, Pitt has outrebounded its opponents by a combined plus-16.7 rebound margin.

*Junior Antonio Graves came off the bench to lead Pitt with 18 points. It was his fifth double figure scoring contest of the season and 17^th in his career.

*Freshman Levance Fields scored 14 points off the bench. The output was his eighth double digit scoring performance of the year. In three Big East Tournament games, Fields has averaged 11.0 points per game and 3.0 rebounds per game.

*After being sidelined with lower back spasms against West Virginia, junior Levon Kendall scored six points, pulled down seven rebounds in 23 minutes.

*Pitt improved to 15-6 at Madison Square Garden since the 2001-02 season. Prior to its two Big East Championship games this year, Pitt had lost four of its last five games at the Garden.

*Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon won his 75^th career game. He now ranks tied for sixth among NCAA Division I coaches after three years as a head coach.