Published: March 21, 2007 12:06 am         

Pitt hoping Gray makes ‘big’ impact in Sweet 16

With all the similarities between the UCLA and Pitt men’s basketball teams, there has to be one difference that can determine which will advance past the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament.

Pitt junior Mike Cook said that senior Aaron Gray could be the difference-maker for the Panthers. Pitt (29-7) and UCLA (28-5) meet Thursday at 9:40 p.m. at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

“The biggest difference probably is Aaron, our 7-footer,” Cook said. “I think we’re pretty much even, other than the height difference at center, so it should be a good game. It’s very exciting for us to play against a good team like UCLA and a program like that, which has so much history.

“I guess it has to be exciting for everybody. But we’re a great team, too, so we just have to go out and play the best game that we can play. From now on, we’re going to face a tough team every night. That’s the way it is in the NCAA tournament. But the first games were tough games, too.’’

Senior forward Levon Kendall further dissected the matchup.

“I think their strength is probably their guards, but we’re a little more balanced,’’ Kendall said. “And I think our front line is a little deeper, so that’s a matchup we might be able to exploit. But we’re just looking forward to this game and finally getting into the Elite Eight. That’s our goal.

“Sure, UCLA has a great tradition, and we want to take our program to that next level. But I think both programs are kind of on the upswing right now. They had a down time for a while, and we’re both sort of making that run to the top teams in the country. So, we’ll see what happens.’’

Actually, Pitt is the top Big East team in the past six seasons with an 80.2 winning percentage overall (162-40) and in conference games (71-25, 74 percent). The Panthers are fifth among all Division I-A programs behind Duke (167-37, 81.9 percent), Gonzaga (159-36, 81.5), Memphis (159-37, 80.7) and Kansas (167-40, 80.7).

Pitt junior forward Keith Benjamin said that a win over UCLA would give the Panthers a spot in the upper echelon in college basketball.

“We’re definitely trying to take that next step,’’ Benjamin said. “I talked to a lot of the former players ... and everybody’s pushing for us to do it. I think it’s going to be a low-scoring game, a great defensive game, unless one of the teams can get some transition points. But neither one of us like to give up those, so it’s just going to be a great game.

“It might be the first to 50, maybe 40 the way they played the other night, but this is the challenge that we have to meet if we’re going to be great. ... If anything is going to be done from us in this game, we have to establish Aaron early, from the opening tipoff. And he has to decide what we do, but I think Aaron’s going to do a good job and lead us in this game.’’

     

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