Cue Shirley Bassey and the Propellerheads, the collaborators on the musical ditty so favored by ESPN during tournament week, the one about history repeating itself. Pitt has been snubbed by the NCAA seedings people. Again. Last year, Ben Howland griped about a second seed, the fourth of such seeds because the Panthers were in the region with the first of the No. 1 seeds, Kentucky. Howland is gone, but when Jamie Dixon gathered his team in Petersen Events Center on Sunday evening, the memories were rekindled. This time, Pitt got a No. 3 seed, the fourth of that sort because the Panthers are in the same regional bracket as Saint Joseph’s, the fourth of the No. 1 seeds. Dixon, unlike Howland, wasn’t complaining for public consumption. “The facts are we’re 29-4, and we’re getting an opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament,” said Dixon, whose team will travel to Milwaukee to face Central Florida Friday. Some of Dixon’s players were not as tactful. “I thought we were going to get a No. 2 seed when we lost (to UConn in the Big East tournament championship Saturday),” senior Jaron Brown said. “But if we had won the Big East, I thought we were going to get a No. 1.” For a guy whose “basketball IQ” is praised on virtually every broadcast of a Pitt game, Brown got this surprisingly wrong. He was not alone. “We all expected to be No. 2 at least,” point guard Carl Krauser said. “It’s always a lack of respect when it comes down to Pittsburgh.” In the emotions of the moment, the Panthers were having trouble coming to grips with the No. 3 seed and the fact that if the seeds hold up, they would play sixth-seed Wisconsin in a second-round game virtually in the Badgers’ burrow. It took senior guard Julius Page to recall that just a couple of years back, Pitt got to play rounds one and two of the NCAA Tournament at Mellon Arena. “That’s just how it goes,” Page said. “Teams had to come in here and play us on our home court.” Well, it wasn’t actually Pitt’s home court, just as the game in Milwaukee would not be played on Wisconsin’s home court. It would just seem that way judging by the sea of red in the stands. Plus, Pitt had been a higher seed back then. But consider that, just as neither Kentucky nor Pitt made it out of the region last year, the seedings could be forgotten quickly this year, too. While we most likely are safe in presuming Pitt will beat Central Florida, Wisconsin isn’t a given over Richmond, which won at Kansas in January when the Jayhawks were ranked 10th. But assume Pitt and Wisconsin both win. That means Pitt, regular-season champion of a tough Big East and conference tournament runner-up, is playing the champion of a Big Ten Conference that is not having a particularly strong year. Pitt matches up well with Wisconsin, too. Now, to long-term benefits of Pitt’s bracket. If St. Joseph’s is, indeed, the least of the No. 1 seeds, Pitt has been spared the potentially more difficult task of having to make it past Kentucky or Duke or Stanford to reach the Final Four. If Pitt reaches the Sweet 16 round again, it’s likely to find No. 2 seed Oklahoma State there. Pitt’s inside strength could tip that battle, against a Cowboys team loaded with swing men. In the regional final, it should be Saint Joseph’s or No. 4 seed Wake Forest. Pitt was snubbed again, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad deal all the way around.

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