Pitt Bows Out of Elite Eight

Pitt Basketball's big run at the NCAA Tourney ended today as they were eliminated from the Elite Eight.....of their bracket. Pitt made the Final Four last year of their bracket, but couldn't seem to make it back as they went back to their form before the Big East Tournament started. Drew Neitzel, the winner of the Mike Gansey Award for "White Players that Pitt can't seem to defend" led the Spartans with 21 points and took a few years off Ron Ramon. Neitzel also picked up the "Antonio Gates Award" for unsung hero of opposing team that knocks off Pitt. Pitt won it last year for their offensive performance against UCLA. Barry Goheen was the original candidate for the award to be named after, but screw him and Vanderbilt.

Other Notes from the game:

• Keith Benjamin is appealing to the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibity. The senior didn't play a lot of minutes until this year and he made some key contributions.

"We didn't realize his potential until we started playing him more", says Coach Dixon, "There were times we actually forgot he was on the team. He was late for our team photo because we forgot to mention it to him. He had a great year for us and hopefully the committee approves his return."

Benjamin is also a finalist for the "John Degroat Award" for player seldomly used. He may be disqualified for the amount of minutes he accrued this past season. No one may win the award due to injuries of other players.

• The city had some problems knocking down St. Francis Hospital in recent days. Not because of their methods of demolishing the old hospital, but from the amount of bricks Pitt players were making in the final weeks of the season that was rebuilding the hospital. Luckily, they were able to tear it down before the game started. If they didn't it would have been another week until the building could come down.