WASHINGTON — As he sat in front of his locker 20 minutes after his foul on Butler’s Matt Howard ended Pittsburgh’s season, junior forward Nasir Robinson couldn’t explain what happened.
“I wasn’t thinking at all,” Robinson said through tears following Pittsburgh’s 71-70 loss to eighth-seeded Butler. “I was trying to make a play.
“It was a dumb play, and I wasn’t thinking at all.”
The play Robinson referred to came with 0.8 seconds left on the clock. After Butler guard Shelvin Mack had fouled Pittsburgh’s Gilbert Brown with 1.4 seconds left and Butler leading 70-69, Brown stepped to the foul line with a chance to win the game for the Panthers.
But after Brown made his first foul shot, the second one rattled in and out, and landed in Howard’s outstretched hands. Robinson contested Howard for the rebound, and fouled him on the arm.
Howard stepped to the line, made the first free throw, then missed the second on purpose. Pittsburgh senior Brad Wanamaker’s full-court heave clanged off the back of the iron, though he released it after the final buzzer had sounded.
“I blame myself,” Robinson said of his foul. “I am smarter than that. . . . I have been playing this game too long to make a dumb mistake like that.”
It was a stunning exit for the No. 1 seed Panthers (28-6), who had hopes of making it to the Final Four for the first time in 70 years. Instead, they find themselves going home by the end of the first weekend for the second year in a row and the third time in the last four years.
It was Pitt’s second last-second loss in less than two weeks, following Kemba Walker’s game-winning jumper for Connecticut as time expired that knocked the Panthers out of the Big East tournament.
“I think everybody remembers the losses,” Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon said. “We’ve won a number of games in the tournament, as well. But every loss is disappointing. . . . We just gotta keep working harder and keep having great years and keep putting ourselves in the position that we’re in. That’s what we’ll do, and that’s what we have done, and teams would love to be in our situation.”