Looks like others noticed the timing of Pitt’s basketball schedule release.

Considering it was released amid the hysteria of college football’s opening weekend and the heart-pounding drama of Steelers roster cuts (Grant Bowman, we hardly knew ya), Pitt’s 2004-05 basketball schedule might have escaped your notice.

Maybe that was the idea.

I would go with yes, that was the idea.

But enough bashing.

To be fair, Pitt has good reasons for playing so many cream-puff home games every year, and it’s not as if they’re the only ones doing it.

Have you seen Syracuse’s non-conference slate lately?

Not the only one’s doing it is hardly a good excuse. As for Syracuse. I did take a look.

No question it is an easy one, with Albany, Colgate and Binghamton — not to mention University of Northern Colorado entering their second year of Div. I play. Of course, they are also playing Oklahoma State. But here’s the sad thing for Pitt. You average out the 2003-04 RPI of the teams Syracuse is playing (and since Northern Colorado wasn’t even listed I placed them at #327) they still average out at 170.45. Pitt’s was at 184.91. They manage to play a tougher overall schedule.

Starkey runs through the excuses, but he admits it sucks and understanding the reasons doesn’t make it any more palatable.