I'm away and didn't have a chance to vote in the latest Big East basketball power rankings run by Andrew over at The UConn Blog, but here are the results. Pitt sits in 12th right now ... which is probably too high. Syracuse is still in first and looking like the conference's dominant team.

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When Ashton Gibbs announced that he was returning for his senior season over the summer, it was assumed that he would continue to build off of his tremendous season from a year ago. The reason for the return was generally to improve in some key areas that gave NBA scouts some worries - mainly being able to create his own shot. Unfortunately, not only did that not really happen, but his bread and butter, shooting from the perimeter, has dissolved as well.

Getting back to that first point - It was somewhat clear during the non-conference portion (and painfully obvious during conference play) that Gibbs still couldn't create his own shot. He still wasn't strong enough to drive into the lane and draw fouls, and when Tray Woodall was out or playing poorly, he had a lot of trouble scoring. With Woodall out of the picture, defenses would double up on Gibbs and his shooting numbers suffered as a result. He would get his double figures, but they came at the expense of taking several shots.

I agree with what Chris Dokish says here in his diagnosis of next year's team.

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At this point in the season with the way Pitt has been playing, getting that 16th win and thus guaranteeing at least a record of .500 for the season should be the goal. Unfortunately, that goal will have to wait for another game as South Florida completed the season sweep of Pitt by jumping on Pitt's lackadaisical effort on defense in the second half and ultimately winning 56-47 at the Pete.

While Pitt was bad defensively, the offensive side had its moments. USF looked like they may win this one early in the first half when they jumped out to an 11 point lead. But Pitt withstood the blow and fought back to actually take the lead at one point in the first half and entered the break only down 1 point. J.J. Moore was a big reason for that, as he had 2 thunderous dunks to go with 11 first half points that kept Pitt in the game. Moore finished with a team high 21 points.

USF began the second half on another run to grab a 9 point lead early in the second half, but Pitt came back from that as well to get within 3. But then South Florida did what they did to beat Pitt in Tampa - play outstanding defense and force Pitt to make jump shots, which they have struggled to do throughout the season. Pitt once again had difficulties even putting the easy tip shots in the bucket.

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Time for another installment of the weekly Big East Power Rankings. As always, they're hosted by Andrew over at The UConn Blog. Keep in mind, the voting took place after this past weekend.

Pitt seemed to make good progress after winning four in a row, but that all came to an abrupt stop with road losses to South Florida and Seton Hall. So how did that affect Pitt's standings in the weekly rankings?

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Here are observations from the atrocity that was last night's game:

• Turnovers are one thing, but I have never seen a point guard make the kind of lazy passes that Tray Woodall does. Cross-court passes that simply shouldn't be made. His calculated, almost methodical style of running the point, helps him make those nifty backdoor passes and quick dump-offs on the break. But, my goodness, some of these attempted passes looks like he doesn't care. I take that back. The kid wants to win, but you have to be smarter and more self-aware that EVERY team in the Big East has players that defend the passing lanes well. Here's a quote from Tray after the game:

They were denying every pass. We didn't do a good enough job getting open. They were taking advantage of some of our short cuts, getting out on the passing lanes, and had a bunch of steals.

I simply don't buy it that West Virginia was playing exceptional defense last night. Was anyone else just absolutely disgusted with these careless passes?
• In the second half, John Johnson made, quite possibly, the worst bounce pass I have ever seen as he got near the paint. We all know he has a good shot, but he scares me in an Ashton Gibbs-type of way - meaning he'll never develop true comfort around the basket. Just a gross pass.
• J.J. Moore shot better last night. We all know he can elevate around the rim, but if he can step out 15 to 20 feet, he'll keep defenders honest and open up the driving lanes.

More thoughts after the jump.

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Another game and more of the same for Pitt. Be honest - this season can't end soon enough for most of us.

Pitt has had trouble scoring all season long and Thursday's game against West Virginia was no different. For the second time this season, the Panthers didn't even crack the half-century mark, finishing with only 48 points. And then again also shot a horrific sub 40% from the field.

If there's anything I'm surprised about this season, it's how poorly Pitt has shot as a whole. The Panthers are typically known for getting easy shots mostly due to sharing the ball and finding the open man. But Pitt is simply unable to make shots and for all the analysis we might want to make, if you can't score, you can't win. I don't care what anyone says - there's no complex reason the team is struggling so much. If you continually shoot under 40% like Pitt has done this season ... that's the problem.

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As I wrote earlier today, don't expect this to be the last Backyard Brawl in basketball. Not sure it'll get played next season, but I've got a hard time believing the two schools can't find some common ground and work something out with the abundance of non-conference games in basketball.

Tonight's game, just like the others left, is a huge one. I like the fact that Pitt gets this game at home, obviously.

One thing to know about the Mountaineers, though. As I mentioned in the SB Nation Pittsburgh preview, West Virginia isn't as bad as their recent record indicates. They Mountaineers have lost five out of their past six games, but all have been extremely close as they lost by a combined 21 points. Pitt won the last game in Morgantown and is playing at home, but look for a tight game tonight.

How do you think tonight's game will turn out? Leave your pre-game thoughts below in the comments section then check back and comment live during the game.

Be sure to join Cardiac Hill's Facebook page and follow us on Twitter @PittPantherBlog for our regular updates on Pitt football and basketball.

With news of West Virginia heading to the Big 12 next season, cue the panic that the Backyard Brawl is done after tonight's game. Football is an entirely different animal with only three non-conference games, but basketball? With so many non-conference games available, barring a Hatfield-McCoy type feud between the two schools, the Brawl is almost assuredly going to continue.

For starters, Pitt has made it a point to play a school like Robert Morris every season. That's obviously because it's a local game, but I can't imagine that game would be as important to the athletic department as a game against the Mountaineers. The game against the Colonials isn't anything like the City Game, which is steeped in tradition. I'm not calling for the Robert Morris games to end, I'm merely pointing out that if Pitt can find room to play the Colonials, they can certainly find room for a great rivalry like West Virginia.

Then throw in all of the other fluff non-con games out there every year. The bottom line is that Pitt has plenty of opportunities to find room for WVU.

And I think it will happen.

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