The NCAA tournament has provided the rest of the country an opportunity to learn something we already knew: The Pitt basketball team is special. Basketball fans and media members are discovering that these Panthers are an uncommon group. They're learning that Pitt is a throwback, a team that is fitting of all the cliches, a team where substance decisively triumphs over style.

Quite simply, the Panthers are the personification of team. They're the regular-season champions of the Big East Conference, they're ranked ninth in the Division I and they're in the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16 without anything approaching a superstar. They're a team that somehow, some way finds a way to win.

They have a passion for victory and are willing to do the little things that are required to achieve it. Unlike too many teams of today, they have no interest in shortcuts. They win the old-fashioned way: fundamentals, hard work, unselfishness. Although they won the Big East regular-season championship and were runner-up in the conference tournament, the Panthers didn't get a player on the league's seven-man first team.

Senior leadership is considered an important part of success in college athletics. Pitt has it in abundance. From Toree Morris -- who might not be happy about sitting on the bench after starting 52 games in his career, but who does so without complaint -- to Jaron Brown and Julius Page, two young men who embody the finest traits of leadership, the Panthers lead the nation in the intangibles that produce victory.

At the same time, Brown and Page have not been ruffled by the leadership contributions of Carl Krauser, a sophomore who is in his first year as a starter. Obviously, Krauser has much to offer and Brown and Page welcome it.

It's kind of funny that some people are just learning about Pitt because the Panthers could easily be the favorite in the NCAA tournament. They could be the toast of college basketball and a No. 1 seed.

Pitt lost four games this season by a total of 10 points.

Although Saint Joseph's has lost only once this season, that lone defeat was by 20 points. It's the same with the other four teams remaining in the field with six or fewer losses. Oklahoma State, the team Pitt plays Thursday night in an East Rutherford Region semifinal game, has lost three times by a total of 27 points. Duke has lost five times by 36 points, Connecticut six times by 51 points and Illinois six times by 77 points.

Indeed, a compelling case can be made for the Panthers being the best team remaining in the field. The events of the weekend lend credence to that belief. Two No. 1 seeds, Kentucky and Stanford, were eliminated. So were two No. 2 seeds, Gonzaga and Mississippi State. The door to the Final Four isn't wide open for the Panthers, but it's ajar. Oklahoma State and the winner of the Saint Joseph's-Wake Forest game stand between the Panthers and college basketball's Promised Land.

If they only could shoot.

If all you knew about the Panthers was their ability to shoot, you might be more likely to think their record is 4-31 rather than 31-4.

Over the past 10 games, more than enough to form a trend, Pitt is shooting 42 percent from the field. That's worse that it appears because that number is inflated by a lot of layups. A better indicator of the team's shooting inadequacies is its percentage from 3-point range. Pitt has made a woeful 24 percent (25 of 104) in its past 10 games.

Of more significance is the shooting of the of the team's top-three scorers, Krauser, Page and Brown. They've taken 55 percent of the team's shots this season, but in the past 10 games they've been successful on only 31 percent of them. They've taken 77 percent of the team's 3-pointers, but in the past 10 games have made only 23 percent of them.

In second-seeded Oklahoma State, the Panthers face a formidable opponent. The Cowboys won the Big 12 Conference's regular-season and tournament championships. Like Pitt, they have four players with scoring averages in the double figures. Unlike Pitt, they had two conference players of the year. Tony Allen was selected by the coaches, John Lucas by the media.

Considering the way the Panthers struggled to beat Central Florida and Wisconsin and considering their obvious deficiency in what is believed the most important skill in the game, how can you pick them to beat Oklahoma State?

But considering the size of their hearts, how couldn't you pick them to beat Oklahoma State?