PITTSBURGH — The Oakland Zoo — otherwise known as Pitt’s student section — were lined up outside of the Petersen Events Center hours before the game. Late stragglers were making their way to the arena an hour before Friday’s 7 p.m. tip-off and were on their cell phones looking to get some seats saved for them by their friends ahead of them in line.
They booed West Virginia players while they warmed up and then every time they came out of the locker room. Some wore yellow construction hard hats with Pitt’s logo on the side. One student, who looked every bit like he wasn’t even born yet in 2007, when the Panthers’ football team dashed West Virginia’s hopes for a shot at a national title with a 13-9 victory, held up a the obligatory “13-9” sign.
They jumped around and screamed whenever ESPNU’s camera crew was close by and created quite the unfriendly environment — as they should — for the Mountaineers during WVU’s 68-53 victory against Pitt.
“Their students were really into it,” said West Virginia guard Chase Harler, who improved to 3-0 against Pitt during his college career. “They were getting on us pretty good, but it wasn’t really anything we haven’t heard in other road games.”
The rest of the crowd? There was a good mix of WVU fans in the arena, which was also the case when these two teams met here in 2017, but if the reviving of the Backyard Brawl is an actual rebirth to what was once a top-notch rivalry, it was hard to tell by the hundreds of empty seats throughout the rest of the arena just minutes before tip-off.
A day before, Bob Huggins used the word “if” in discussing whether or not this series would extend beyond next season’s game inside the WVU Coliseum, the last of the contracted four-game set.
“The reality is we don’t need them and they don’t need us,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “We’ll both be able to find games, but we won’t be able to find as meaningful a game as this is.”
Huggins said it was more of an athletic department issue rather than just a basketball decision, meaning both WVU athletic director Shane Lyons and Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke would have to make the call, than Huggins and Pitt coach Jeff Capel coming to a gentlemen’s agreement.
If I was Lyke on Friday, my assessment would have been: Our fans have simply lost interest in this game, so what real purpose does it serve to extend the deal?
True, when the two teams meet in Morgantown next season, it will be a near sellout, but that doesn’t help Pitt’s bottom line one bit.
And yeah, maybe Capel will get the Pitt program turned around eventually and the local fans will reinvest their interest into the program, but again, how does extending the deal with West Virginia help that happen?
For this to really work and feel once again like the rivalry like it was when both teams battled in the old Big East days, it has to be a two-way street. It can’t just be West Virginia fans loving the opportunity to use their “Eat $&%@ Pitt” chants and getting excited about WVU playing the Panthers. Pitt fans — and not just its students — have to be equally involved in the relationship.
That just wasn’t the case here in 2017 and it wasn’t the case Friday night, and so you have to ask yourself: Is this rivalry dead?
The answer to that question may not be answered until 2022, which is when the two school’s football teams will meet again in the first of a four-game series in that sport. Maybe some spirited football games will help get some of the old burners blowing again for both schools, but by the time it’s possible the men’s basketball series will have been kaput for two years.
That’s not ideal. If this basketball series isn’t extended past next season, then it’s almost like you have to start all over again in rebooting the rivalry. For the few who actually watched the remake of Footloose a couple of years ago, they know hardly anything ever good comes from a reboot.
And so now the decision falls to Lyke, because everyone knows that WVU is all-in on keeping this thing alive. Judging by Pitt’s own fan base Friday, they could take it or leave it, which doesn’t exactly put Lyke in the best of positions when it comes down to deciding what’s best for her program.
“Absolutely this series should keep going,” Harler said. “The longer you keep it going, the more chance the fans will really have to get into it from both sides. It may take some more time, but this could become a really good rivalry again.”
There is one solution, though, for the Mountaineers, that is if they are serious about keeping an early-season game that will keep WVU fans fired up. Marshall University is just a phone call away.
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