March 16, 2008
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BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL NOTES
Pitt vs. Georgetown, Madison Square Garden, New York, N.Y., March 15, 2008
*Pitt (26-9) wins its second all-time Big East Championship with a 74-65 victory over No. 9 ranked Georgetown. Pitt also won the Big East Championship in 2003 with a 74-56 win over Connecticut on March 15, 2003.
*Sam Young was named Tournament Most Valuable Player and Levance Fields was named to the All-Tournament team. Other members of the Big East All-Tournament team include Joe Alexander, West Virginia; Jerel McNeal, Marquette; Roy Hibbert, Georgetown and Jessie Sapp, Georgetown.
*Pitt becomes the second team to win the Big East Championship title by winning four games in the tournament, joining Syracuse in 2006.
*Pitt became the first No. 7 seed to win the Big East Championship title. Pitt became the 12th lower seeded team to win the Big East Championship Game. Lower seeded teams are 12-15 in the final.
*The two teams met in the Big East Championship for the second consecutive season. The contest featured a rematch of the Pitt-Georgetown final in 2007, a 65-42 victory.
*Sam Young finished the 2008 Big East Championship with 80 points in four games, finishing just one point shy of Ben Gordon's tournament record of 81 set in 2004.
*Pitt appeared in its seventh Big East Championship Final in the last eight years. Those years include 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Jamie Dixon guided Pitt to his fourth Big East Championship Final in his first five seasons as head coach at Pitt.
*Pitt has now won seven of its last eight games on the year and is on a five-game win streak.
*Madison Square Garden is Pitt's home away from home as the Panthers are 23-8 at MSG since 2000-01. Pitt improves to 6-0 at Madison Square Garden this year and has won eight of its last nine in the "World's Most Famous Arena. Pitt also improves to 19-6 in Big East Championship games at Madison Square Garden since 2000-01.
*Pitt improves to 2-5 in Big East Championship Finals.
*Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon improved to 11-4 all-time in Big East Championship Games.
*With his 16 points, Sam Young has now reached double figure scoring in 34 of Pitt's 35 games this year and in 42 of his last 46 games played. Young has now led Pitt in scoring in 25 of 35 games. For the Big East Tournament, Young averaged 20.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, shot 49.2 percent (31-63) from the floor, blocked 10 shots and had six steals.
*Young moved into first place on Pitt's Big East Tournament career scoring list. He now has 142 career points and is ranked ahead of Donatas Zavackas (138 from 2000-03), Brandin Knight (136 from 2000-03) and Carl Krauser (134 from 2003-06). Young also moves into third on the rebounding list with 64 career rebounds and trails Jaron Brown (71 from 2000-04) and Isaac Hawkins (70 from 1997-01).
*With his 10 points and 10 rebounds, DeJuan Blair registered his 13th double-double of his career. He needs just two more double-doubles to tie the school's freshman double-double record held by Sam Clancy in 1977-78.
*Levance Fields reached double figure scoring for the seventh game in a row. It also marked his 44th career double figure scoring game. In Big East Tournament action, Fields averaged 11.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.
*With his 17 points, Ronald Ramon registered his 52nd career double figure scoring game and 15th time this year. In Big East Tournament action, Ramon averaged 14.0 points per game. He also hit 47.8 percent (11-23) from 3-point range.
*Gilbert Brown scored 12 points off the bench. It was his 10th double figure scoring game of his career.
*Pitt's 26 victories rank fifth among the all-time winningest seasons at Pitt. The school record is 31 set in 2003-04, Jamie Dixon's first year at Pitt. Dixon has guided five of Pitt's 15 winningest seasons. The only other seasons with more victories are: 31-5 in 2003-04, 29-6 in 2006-07, 29-8 in 2006-07 and 28-5 in 2002-03.
*Pitt's senior class of Keith Benjamin, Mike Cook, Ronald Ramon and Maurice Polen became just the fifth senior class in school history to win 100 or more games. The foursome is 100-34 in their 134 games at Pitt.
*Pitt improved to 4-2 vs. ranked teams on the season.
*Pitt improved to 32-39 all-time vs. Georgetown and 2-0 vs. the Hoyas this year. Pitt defeated Georgetown 69-60 contest at the Petersen Events Center on January 14.
*Pitt held Georgetown to 65 points on the evening. On the year, Pitt has now limited 25 of its 35 opponents to 70 points or less. In Pitt's four Big East Championship games, Pitt held its opponents to 64.8 points per game, 38.2 percent (92-241) field goal shooting and 30.8 percent (28-91) 3-point shooting. In Pitt's previous seven games, five opponents shot 45.0 percent or better from the floor and five scored over 70 points per game.
