Ross Jr.: Rivalry days gone for Pitt, PSU – PittsburghLIVE.com:
“The topic of a Pitt-Penn State rivalry in men’s basketball is more brontosaurus than unicorn. The rivalry really did exist once upon a time, but you have to do some digging to find the evidence.
“Certainly, recent meetings have been anything but rivalry-like, and not just because Pitt’s margins of victory in the past three meetings have been, beginning with last year’s example, 28 points, 22 and 30, respectively.
“That is a factor, though.
” ‘They’ve beaten us soundly the last few years,’ Penn State second-year coach Ed DeChellis said. ‘We haven’t really given them a run.’
“That doesn’t figure to change much Saturday, when Pitt plays a 2 p.m. game in PSU’s Bryce Jordan Center. The Panthers are 6-0, fresh off a 70-51 dispatching of Memphis in the Jimmy V. Classic. Penn State is 5-3 and a 66-53 loser to Georgetown in its previous outing.
“Factors beyond a lack of competitiveness have conspired to relegate this formerly flourishing rivalry to the tar pits. …”