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Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com or 412-263- 1468.
Amidst the backdrop of the new-age Petersen Events Center, Pitt celebrated its first 100 years of men's basketball last night, and what a gala it was. About 85 lettermen returned to campus and to the building in which almost none of them played to honor the occasion.
The current team honored the occasion in its own customary way with a 81-68 victory against Providence that raised its record to 21- 4. The ninth-ranked Panthers will be playing for a first-round bye in the Big East Conference tournament when they play at West Virginia tomorrow night.
The Pitt administration did it right, bringing the lettermen on to the floor at halftime and introducing all of them. The biggest ovations, not surprisingly, went to the most recent letter winners - - two darlings of the Petersen Center and two major building blocks of the program's current success, Brandin Knight and Julius Page.
The great Don Hennon took a bow and the crowd of 12,719 remembered the brilliant scorer and playmaker of the 1950s who averaged 24.2 points a game in his career. So did Sam...