Forty-one and three-quarters hours.

That's all it lasted, their return home to Oakland.

Talk about a Pitt stop.

Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Christina Cilli, a junior marketing major from New Castle, waits for tickets to tomorrow's playoff game to go on sale. She began waiting in line Monday afternoon and stayed overnight for a chance to get a seat in East Rutherford. Click photo for larger image. The Game Matchup: Pitt (31-4) vs. Oklahoma State (29-3) Time: 7:27 p.m. tomorrow Site: Continential Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, N.J. TV: KDKA At stake: Winner advances to the Elite Eight.

The Panthers defeated Wisconsin in Milwaukee Sunday evening, touched down at Pittsburgh International Airport near midnight, spent roughly the next day and a half sleeping and knocking around campus and cramming in some schoolwork, practiced yesterday afternoon, hopped onto a bus, then boarded an evening commercial flight to Newark, N.J., and the NCAA tournament's East Rutherford Region.

And Julius Page loved every minute of it -- all 2,505.

"To me, it's the life," Page, a senior guard, said yesterday afternoon, shortly before boarding the bus idling outside the Petersen Events Center. "All you do is fly and play basketball. It's not too much. And you get to move around like a celebrity.

"This is a good thing."

So much for any concern over Pitt's swift turnaround.

Oklahoma State has to endure the same high-flying life: play Sunday, return home, cram, depart for the next round.

True, the Cowboys had a shorter trip last weekend, from Kansas City, Mo., back to Stillwater, Okla., but they had a much longer travel yesterday to North Jersey than Pitt: about 969 miles and two flight hours more.

Whatever the case, second-seeded Oklahoma State (29-3) faces the same type of preparation as third-seeded Pitt (31-4) heading into practices today and the 7:27 p.m. tipoff tomorrow night.

A quick change

"It's been a little quicker," said Pitt Coach Jamie Dixon, who witnessed a similar turnaround last year between the second-round defeat of Indiana in Boston and the Round of 16 loss to Marquette in Minneapolis. "But they had to do the same thing. It's not normal, the Sunday-Thursday thing. But it's what we've got.

"We'll get our usual preparation in for an opponent, won't change anything. The players will miss more school, but that's a given this time of year. But we're on the same schedule, the same routine that we've done all year as far as preparation for this amount of time. So this is normal."

The coaching staff -- with assistant Patrick Sandle handling the Oklahoma State scouting report -- reviewed game tapes for the Panthers yesterday. They addressed some of the Cowboys, such as: point guard and Baylor transfer John Lucas, son of the former NBA coach and player; fleet guard Tony Allen; and sleek forward Joey Graham.

"They look like a pretty good team. A lot of athletes," Pitt senior swingman Jaron Brown said. "But we look good, too."

The preparation continues today, which still gives the Panthers more time than, say, readying for Wisconsin in roughly 41 hours last weekend after beating Central Florida in the first round.

It has been nonstop for Pitt the past fortnight: travel and bear down, play and prepare again. The Big East Conference tournament meant arriving Tuesday, playing three games in three days in New York, then a Sunday-Wednesday brief respite in Oakland. They arrived Wednesday in Milwaukee, playing two games in three days, then had a midnight Sunday-Tuesday afternoon turnaround.

"We knew, if we won, we would come home for a day or two of practice," Brown said. "I think we're used to it, anyway."

They were able to squeeze in practice yesterday with Brown and Page participating on aching ankles.

"They seemed good the last couple of days, so I feel good about them," Dixon said of those players' injuries.

"I've said all along, this team is the best practice team I've ever been around, as far competing and getting after it. Mental toughness, it's always there. You see it every day in practice. When we put the score on the scoreboard, they light up and want to compete. I think that has something to do with where we're at, with the school-record for wins."

And in East Rutherford today.