Going to split this up, because I don’t know how long Sesame Street can keep my daughter distracted. For those UConn fans that seem to be showing up this week, welcome. During football season, with a week to build up to a game, I usually try to collect some of the stories in the media from both sides. Since there is extra time for both teams, I’m using the format for this game. (Go to the October or November archives for plenty of examples if you are so inclined.) I’ll get to the Huskie side later.

Pitt Athletic Department has it’s press release for the game, along with the game notes (PDF). Here are Pitt’s prepackaged storylines for the game:

Today’s game features the two winningest teams in the Big East over the last three years and is a rematch of the last two Big East Championship games.

Pittsburgh is 17-0 at home, owns a 39 home game win streak and is undefeated at the Petersen Events Center (33-0).

Pittsburgh enters the contest with a nation-leading 22 wins. The program reached the 20-win plateau for a school record third consecutive season.

Pittsburgh’s defense leads the way as it has held 16 of 24 opponents under 60 points and 21 of 24 under 70 points.

National Coach of the Year candidate Jamie Dixon is the first rookie head coach since Bill Hodges (1978-79) to begin a season with 18 consecutive wins. The national record is 33 consecutive wins by Hodges’ Larry Bird-led Sycamore team.

You do have to wonder about how the beat reporters cover the team. Do they get suggested stories from the school? Do they share their information? I don’t know. If only we had a guy with real experience in newspapers to share some inside information. A guy who even teaches at a j-school. Know anyone, John? The two papers each have two articles on the same topics, only slightly different.

Topic 1: Freshman Antonio Graves dealing with missing a game tying/winning shot again. The Trib is brief on the subject as the lead in the notebook. The P-G does a full article on Graves coping with it, and expressing his confidence that he will make the shot at some point.

Topic 2: Freshman Chris Taft, as one of the best centers in the country. This time the P-G has it as the short lead in it’s notebook column. The Trib runs it as a full story. Both stories quote Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who said,

“I think he’s in the top echelon of centers, not just in the (Big East), but in the country,” Boeheim said. “He’s one of the top four or five guys in the country at that position.”

So, the Trib story speculates a little more as to whether he could/should/would turn pro. An unnamed NBA scout said he would be at best a late first round pick — but more likely after all the Euro-players are included, he would end up somewhere in the second round. The scout agreed with Boeheim’s assesment, but added that it was another down year for centers in college basketball. Taft is still too raw, and needs more strength. Someone should put him in touch with Mark Blount. My guess, Pitt will get to keep him for one more year — barring an academic breakdown. There are no comparisons to Okafor of UConn in the articles — does that seem strange to anyone else?

There is a column talking about the meaning of this game in terms of seeding potentials for the NCAA Tourney. It’s an empty piece. Just skip it, unless you want to read something that will have no meaning in another week. Seeding discussions are fun in the bar, but any discussion now, assumes that the top dozen teams won’t lose again until the conference tournaments.

I missed this article earlier in the week. A rare freebie on Pitt Insiders about the Seton Hall game being a Pitt “worst case scenario.” A little overwrought and few mangled phrases (how can Page’s bad game be “insulting?”), but not necessarily wrong.

Finally, Coach Jamie Dixon was on ESPN2’s barely tolerable “Cold Pizza” this morning. Rather typical coachspeak regarding the game. Lots of props given — by name — to his assistants and the seniors.