ANDERSON, Ind. — Gary McGhee is looking forward to his last NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament as a player for the University of Pittsburgh.

Looking forward is something McGhee has always done. In the last week, no one would blame McGhee if he had taken to wearing blinders.

The most recent image of the former Highland Scots standout ingrained in the minds of basketball fans isn’t one that qualifies as pretty.

In the Big East men’s basketball tournament against Connecticut on March 10, McGhee and the Panthers were tied with the Huskies 74-74 in the closing seconds.

Pitt’s defensive strategy called for the Panthers to switch on every screen. While McGhee started out guarding UConn’s center, there were enough defensive switches that the 6-foot-11, 250-pound McGhee ended up guarding the 6-1, 172-pound Kemba Walker.

The highlight has been played many times on ESPN and other media outlets. One moment McGhee is standing at the free throw line with his arms extended to make himself as big as possible and putting a hand in Walker’s face. The next he’s falling to the floor of Madison Square Garden as Walker drains a 17-foot jumper from the top of the key at the buzzer to beat the Panthers.

In the postgame press conference, Panthers head coach Jamie Dixon offered an apology to his senior center for putting him in that position against the quicker Walker.

While McGhee appreciates his coach’s sentiment, he didn’t look for an excuse.

“I know (Dixon) has confidence in me as a defensive player. It’s nice that he said that, but he doesn’t have to,” McGhee said. “Kemba made a great play. But I’d want to guard him again. If I had to do it again, I think I’d block the shot.”

In his senior season McGhee is scoring just under seven points a game and averages 7.6 rebounds per contest. The Panthers’ center has blocked 44 shots and started all 32 games.

McGhee and Pittsburgh’s time to lick their wounds ended on Selection Sunday as the Panthers received the No. 1 seed in the Southeast Region of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The Panthers will play UNC-Asheville on Thursday.

“It’s a little interesting. The first thing I thought was whether or not we could find a place where we could get truTV — that’s what the game is being shown on,” Dixon said. “The situation is a little bit unique, I guess, different. I’d rather be in that position than be a No. 5, 6, 7 or 8 seed. It’s part of being the No. 1 seed. I think we can adapt and get ready for it. Plus, we’ll have another game (film) of them, a recent game, too. Often times you don’t get as many recent games from those teams as you try to track them down.”

McGhee is well aware of the fact that the Panthers haven’t ventured to the Final Four since 1941. A look at his Twitter page shows that his posts routinely center on three things: Thanking God for another day, hyping up himself and his teammates before games and posting #1941 to represent the goal that this year’s Panthers are aiming for in the tournament.

“It’s the last go around (for me). Of course, you want to make it as special as possible,” McGhee said. “The last Final Four for Pitt was 1941. We want to makes this (tournament) one to remember.”

Pittsburgh (27-5) will be heavily favored in its first game. A No. 1 seed has ever lost to a No. 16 seed in NCAA tournament history.

A possible second-round game with last year’s NCAA runner-up, the Butler Bulldogs, could await the Panthers. With it comes the chance of a mini-Olympic Athletic Conference reunion between McGhee of Highland and Butler’s Matt Howard, who played his prep basketball at Connersville.

While the prospect of that matchup would be intriguing for fans, McGhee isn’t counting on anything.

“There are a lot of good teams all over the country,” McGhee said. “Anybody can win.”

The Southeast Region features top-flight programs and traditional powers from top to bottom.

In addition to Pittsburgh and Butler, there’s fifth-seeded Kansas State, a darkhorse pick to win the tournament; Wisconsin and its stalwart defense; head coach Steve Lavin’s resurgent St. John’s squad; Gonzaga, a darling of March Madness; BYU with star shooting-guard Jimmer Fridette; Michigan State, a regular fixture in the Final Four in recent years, and No. 2 seed Florida, the last program to win back-to-back national championships.

“I guess you can say that it puts pressure on you. My sophomore year we had the No. 1 seed, and we didn’t get to the Final Four — as you know, we got beat in the Elite Eight,” McGhee said. “It’s definitely something that we want to accomplish. We like the pressure. We want the pressure on us. This is a very good team. We want to get to our goal, and that is Houston and the Final Four.”