Doubting Dixon? Pitt's success earns coach special treatment

The story of Monday night was Charleston over North Carolina.

Great drama.

Great upset.

Ashton Gibbs leads the new-look Panthers with 17.5 ppg. (AP)

But I'm not sure what it means in the grand scheme of things. It certainly doesn't mean Charleston is on its way to the Sweet 16, and I can't imagine it means North Carolina will find itself on the bubble come Selection Sunday. So though I enjoyed watching the game unfold, and it was fun to see Bobby Cremins get a big win, I can't honestly tell you that I learned anything from that upset other than that North Carolina isn't good enough to go on the road without Marcus Ginyard and coast to a victory.

The game that taught me something happened 650 miles away.

Pittsburgh 74, Cincinnati 71.

Basically, it taught me to keep my big mouth shut, and that Jamie Dixon is now worthy of earning The Bo Ryan Treatment. What's The Bo Ryan Treatment, you ask? It's when you resist the urge to doubt a team with a questionable roster for no other reason than the man coaching the team has proved capable of winning with any kind of roster. Ryan is the first member I put in that club, and I wrote about it last month.

Over the past three days, it's become obvious that Dixon should join him because the 44-year-old California native just backed Saturday's win at Syracuse with a win at Cincinnati, otherwise known as a place Connecticut recently lost.

"We've been doubted this whole season, from the start," Pitt guard Ashton Gibbs told reporters after Monday's win at Cincinnati. And though it would be presumptuous (not to mention egotistical) to pretend Gibbs was talking about me, I must admit I've been one of the doubters, and that I've been loud and adamant about it. I spent three straight Poll Attacks destroying an AP voter named Roger Clarkson who kept including Pitt on his ballot. I mean, I blasted the guy good. And he seemed to deserve it because having Pitt on his ballot when he had Pitt on his ballot was inexplicable ... unless, of course, Roger had already decided that Jamie Dixon deserved The Bo Ryan Treatment.

"We knew in that locker room what everybody could do," Gibbs said. "Everybody has confidence in each other, and it's really showing now."

No question.

Somehow, Dixon has taken a roster missing Sam Young, DeJuan Blair, Levance Fields and Tyrell Biggs and molded it into a winner, and he's done it despite having to play part of the season without Gilbert Brown (ineligible until Dec. 22) and Jermaine Dixon (missed eight games while recovering from foot surgery). That means Pitt has been without six of its top seven scorers from last season for much of this season, and the Panthers still only have one bad loss (to Indiana at Madison Square Garden). The other loss is to Texas. And now they've got wins at Syracuse and Cincinnati, meaning Jamie Dixon is well on his way to making the NCAA tournament for the seventh time in seven seasons.

He'll be in the Top 25 (and one) next week, too.

I promise.

It's The Bo Ryan Treatment from this point forward.