First, 13-9. Now, 55-54. It almost seems too good to be true for Pitt and its people, a sports nightmare beyond belief for West Virginia and its folks.

Speaking from the Pitt perspective, though, the basketball win against the Mountaineers last night at the Petersen Events Center, which wasn't secured until an instant before the final buzzer on Ronald Ramon's fabulous 3-point shot, seems a lot harder to celebrate than that magical football win Dec. 1 in Morgantown. Yes, the Panthers took a giant step toward an NCAA tournament bid by winning a home game they absolutely had to have considering their brutal remaining schedule. But that doesn't change the bottom line. Pitt doesn't look much like a tournament team at the moment. It's not even close to the same team it was when it beat Georgetown last month.

Pitt was lucky to win. Actually, it needed the game officials to take two West Virginia points off the scoreboard to get it done. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said that sort of thing is "very common" in college basketball, which is a total crock even if it's what you would expect the winning coach to say. West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said he has never seen it happen. That makes two of us.

West Virginia's Joe Alexander made two free throws with 4:58 left to cut Pitt's lead to 48-47, all the while Dixon, at the urging of his assistant coaches, was screaming to the officials that they had the wrong man at the line. The officials shrugged him off until Huggins -- of all people -- called a timeout after Alexander's second free throw to set up his defense. That's when the officials checked the game tape, wiped out the two shots by Alexander and put Cam Thoroughman on the line. Thoroughman, of course, missed. That errant shot and the nine others the Mountaineers missed of their 17 free-throw attempts are the biggest reasons they were denied a huge upset.

"The right call was made," Dixon said. "I don't know why it took them so long."

It's a good thing for Pitt that Huggins called timeout, never imagining that the officials would overrule themselves. If play had continued after Alexander's free throws, Dixon acknowledged, Alexander's points would have counted. Who knows if the Mountaineers would have won if that had happened? All that is certain is that Pitt needed all that it had to get to 55 points. Ramon's shot -- set up by a terrific kick-out from teammate Keith Benjamin -- was about the only time all night that the Panthers looked good offensively.

As a matter of fact, it's one of the few times the offense has looked good since the 69-60 win Jan. 14 against Georgetown. The Panthers clearly don't have the same confidence in their shots.

Much of the reason for that is understandable. Pitt was not going to be able to continue at a high level without two starters, point guard Levance Fields and senior Mike Cook. Dixon is left to play four freshmen in his eight-man rotation. The best of those freshmen -- DeJuan Blair -- seems to be in something of a mini-scoring slump. He shot just 3 of 13 last night and finished with seven points.

But that doesn't change the fact that Pitt must find a way to gets its offense going again if it wants to finish the regular season strong and secure its NCAA bid before the Big East Conference tournament. It's possible Blair will find his way again; he rebounds too ferociously not to get his fair share of putbacks. It's also possible Sam Young will avoid the foul trouble that limited him to 10 points in 26 minutes last night. Then, there's Ramon, who proved again he's capable of hitting the all-or-nothing shot. He'll be even more dangerous when he can move from the point to his natural shooting guard position.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? That Fields' return from a broken foot is a nothing less than critical?

If last night is an indication, that might happen sooner than later, perhaps as soon as the game Feb. 21 at Notre Dame. Fields sprinted off the bench to join the celebration when Ramon's shot got nothing but net, practically running over teammate Gilbert Brown.

That might have been the best sight of the night.

"Winners find ways to win," Huggins said, being charitable toward Pitt.

That was a theme that Benjamin seconded.

"Knowing you can go get a win like this is what builds a championship-caliber team," he said. "We've got a couple of things to fix. But we're stopping people on defense. Once we get our offense rolling again, I think we'll be tough to beat."

At this point -- 55-54 aside -- that's something that can't be taken for granted.