I feel that the '03 Pitt win was every single one of those criteria, and since that was the win that propelled us to our national championship in my eyes, I feel it meets the program changing criteria. It just had everything, a massive statement win, two amazing teams, rushing the court twice, the bomb that went in for Pitt that didn't count, all of it. It just felt different after that win, I am a little too young (32) to state the case for a lot of the earlier program wins, but everything felt different after that Pitt game, Melo clearly stood head and shoulders over every player in the game that year, G-mac had the moxy and for once I knew heading into March that we were going to be the toughest out in the tournament.
I remember when it appeared we were gonna get blown out by Oklahmoma State early just how confident I was, Instead of the here we go again, another stupid march loss feeling creeping in, I noticed that their buckets were of the difficult variety, I knew the zone had them befuddled, and I knew that if we could beat that veteran, tough Pitt team, that we would find our way through, I turned to my father when we were down by like 17 and said, this is gonna be a blowout, but not the way everyone is thinking. I think the MSU and Pitt wins helped settle everyone on the court down too, and the rest they say, is history.
