Whenever Ben Howland finds a few hours between painstaking preparation for Pittsburgh’s season and the torturous recruiting road, he likes to sneak out, avoid attention and enjoy a movie with his two children, Meredith and Adam.

But this year Howland’s season was scripted like something on the big screen of a Steel City cinema.

“Whenever I get a free moment, that’s what I do,” Howland said earlier this year. “I saw ‘Vanilla Sky’ a couple weeks ago. I really didn’t know what was going on. I’m really looking forward to seeing ‘A Beautiful Mind.’ ”

While Howland may not have seen the Oscar winner this season, his team is worthy of an equally prestigious award — Big East breakout team of the year.

Although “Vanilla Sky’s” script bewildered Howland, little else has this season. Not Syracuse’s 2-3 zone, Georgetown’s brutal frontline or Rutgers’ ferocious home-court advantage. It took an impressive performance from underdog Kent State in the Sweet 16 to finally end Howland’s Pittsburgh production.

Howland’s biggest challenge was changing the Panthers’ perceptions of themselves. Shooting guard Julius Page told the Pittsburgh Tribune that earlier in the season he debated transferring because he wasn’t starting and felt the Panthers would always be losers.

“I don’t think anybody knows this, and coach Howland probably doesn’t know this, but I was almost out the door,” Page told the paper. “I wanted to go to another school because I wasn’t getting a lot of attention. In the preseason, I didn’t think we had the talent. I didn’t think everybody was committed to push themselves to being good. I felt negative tension.”

Seemingly, only Howland believed the Panthers deserved a place among the league’s elite.

“I thought we’d go undefeated,’ Howland said earlier in the season about his preseason prognosis. “I didn’t think we’d lose.”

And the confidence spread as the Panthers racked up win after win against the likes of Morgan State, Northern Arizona and Robert Morris.

This year’s Panthers, often praised for overachieving, have been the epitome of a team and still hold more talent than they are given credit for.

Pittsburgh tied for the league lead with three players earning All-Big East honors, including Co-Player of the Year, Brandin Knight. The junior point guard continually controlled the pace of games, prompting Howland to refer to Knight’s basketball IQ as equivalent to Einstein’s.

“I’ve coached a bunch of great point guards,” Howland said. “I’ve coached Brian Shaw, and I coached John Stockton at Gonzaga. Brandin is right up there with Stockton as far as basketball IQ goes.”

Knight, though, is more than just a college floor general — he could be an NBA first-round draft choice. Compare his numbers with his older brother, who was selected No. 16 in 1997.

Brevin Knight averaged 16.3 points and 7.8 assists as a senior, while Brandin averaged just under 15.6 points and 7.2 assists this year. At an even six-foot, the Pittsburgh point guard also is two inches taller than his diminutive brother.

Howland’s spring of youthful talent doesn’t dry out there. Howland believes the high-rising Page has a future NBA career. The Panthers also return three other starters in Jaron Brown, Donatas Zavackas and Ontario Lett.

Only sixth-man Chad Johnson graduates, and Knight has already announced he intends to return for a senior season. The expectations have led Pittsburgh to extend Howland’s contract through 2008-2009, making him among the four highest-paid coaches in the conference.

“Everything is here for me,” Howland said yesterday at a press conference. “We’re moving into the best on-campus facility in the country, the Peterson Events Center next season, and we have a great group of players.”

Only two problems remain. The Panthers won’t be sneaking up on anyone anymore, and their coach might get a little more attention at the movies.

Draft dodging (PLEASE BOLD)

After suffering from an exodus of players migrating to the NBA, the Big East looks to be holding on to the majority of its superstars this year. Along with Knight, Troy Bell and Darius Rice have stated they will return for at least another year.

The lone exception looks to be Caron Butler. Although he said he’ll decide in three or four weeks, both Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun and Butler said he would probably leave if he’s assured a spot in the lottery in order to take care of his two children. Current mock drafts on NBADraft.net have Butler going with the ninth pick.

Are you kidding me? (PLEASE BOLD)

(BULLET) We have a feeling Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins was kidding us. It’s more than a little challenging to understand his rationale in nearly leaving a national power for a middleweight squad in a heavyweight conference.

Huggins’ program is well known for failing to graduate players. Maybe the coach ought to take a few more classes of his own.

(BULLET) Before taking the court against Maryland in the Elite Eight, Calhoun testified to being as sensitive as a 20-pound lead weight, saying he couldn’t imagine a team carrying him off the floor, even if they’d won the national championship. Less than two days later, Calhoun choked back tears after realizing he wouldn’t see his team practice the next day.

Numbers Never Lie (PLEASE BOLD)

14 – Villanova, plagued by turnovers all season, including 31 against Virginia Military Institute, limited itself to its third-lowest turnover total in a 63-57 loss to Temple. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, the Owls gave the ball away a grand total of three times.

8 – Up until yesterday, if Miss Cleo told Syracuse fans they’d be one of eight teams remaining in college basketball, they would have been buying plane tickets for Atlanta. Unfortunately, she would have left out the most important part — the tickets would be worthless when the Big East’s last surviving team traveled downstate to Madison Square Garden.

Yup, he said it (PLEASE BOLD)

Calhoun said this team made him feel like a kid again, but according to Butler, he still has a ways to go.

“He won’t rap,” Butler said. “And he tells horrible jokes, but I’m so thankful to him.”

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Published on March 26, 2002 at 12:00 pm