Pick any season, the year really doesn't matter. The scenario always seems to be the same.

Pitt comes off a strong regular season and a Big East Conference tournament title game appearance, only to be shoved out of the NCAA tournament no later than the round of 16.

The reasons?

A) The Panthers lack a go-to scorer, the player who always finds a way to make a big shot or gets fouled on a drive to the basket at the very moment games are decided.

B) The toughness and physicality that are so important to the Panthers in the Petersen Events Center and Madison Square Garden aren't nearly as big a factor in a faraway NCAA venue, with no Big East officiating crews in sight.

C) Time finally runs out on a team that, for all of its 25 wins-plus seasons, rarely finds itself with a talent advantage against NCAA opponents that are lower-seeded or play in less-visible conferences. (Recent examples: Kent State, Bradley, Pacific and Marquette, which wasn't in the Big East when it eliminated Pitt in 2003).

D) For all of Pitt's devotion to shutdown defense and rebounding superiority, its opponent has better quickness and 3-point shooting.

This NCAA tournament wasn't supposed to end so soon for these Panthers (27-10), even though they reached double figures in losses for only the second time in seven seasons — not after they ran off seven victories in their final eight games, including four victories in four days in the Big East tournament.

No, point guard Levance Fields, playing so well after sitting out nearly seven weeks with a broken foot, was the steadying influence who would ease them through the early rounds. Sam Young was the reliable scorer they've so often lacked. DeJuan Blair was a man mountain inside whose size and presence would prove a difficult matchup.

So how come this NCAA tournament ended like so many others for the Panthers, with an early round exit in a game they were supposed to win — this time, a 65-54 loss to Michigan State in the South Regional on Saturday night?

For the fifth time in seven years, a Pitt team that was seeded fourth or higher couldn't win more than two games in the tournament, although this was the first of those five to lose without advancing to at least to the second weekend of play.

"I feel like after a certain point of the season, a lot of people counted us out," said Young, chosen as the most improved player in the Big East after raising his scoring average from 7 points per game last season to 18. "For us to continue on strong, win the Big East championship, get to this point of the tournament, I think we showed a lot."

Young was right. When the Panthers dropped six of 10 to fall to 19-8, with forward Mike Cook out of the lineup for good with a badly injured knee, some officials at Pitt were worried about merely reaching the NCAA tournament.

To think that, within weeks, former Indiana coach Bobby Knight would go on national TV and proclaim them as the hottest team in the country and his NCAA tournament favorite? Preposterous.

"I mean, things just seemed to be coming together," coach Jamie Dixon said.

Pitt's season appeared to turn when, trailing Syracuse by 11 points with 3Z\x minutes remaining on the Orange's home court March 1, the Panthers pulled off a once-in-a-decade comeback to win 82-79. Then came successive surprise wins over Top 25 opponents Louisville, Marquette and Georgetown in as many nights in the Big East tournament.

But the very qualities that keyed that run — ingenuity, strength, competitiveness — often don't seem to matter nearly as much when the Panthers shift away from the Big East and move onto the national stage. (At least they can comfort themselves with the knowledge that Georgetown, Marquette, Connecticut and Notre Dame are joining them on the sidelines only two rounds into the tournament.)

Still, Pitt's late surge notwithstanding, this loss might have been inevitable when the Panthers were sent to the stacked South Regional, where they might have needed to beat three teams in the Top 18 — No. 18 Michigan State, No. 2 Memphis and No. 7 Texas — merely to reach the Final Four.

"These guys had a great year and we had so many great wins that people will remember," Dixon said.

And so many mounting NCAA tournament losses that people will readily recall, too.

"Any time in this tournament you don't do the right things, you will be eliminated," Fields said.

That's where 2008 was much like 2007, and 2006 and 2005 and ...