In addition to all the other pre-season polls, the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll came out. The coaches poll puts Pitt at #17. This is actually higher than most other pre-season rankings. The Pitt Athletic Dept. press release is here, along with their two themes you can expect to see for most of the season — barring any negative surprises.

Pittsburgh has now been ranked among the nationÂ’s Top 25 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll in 48 consecutive polls.
…
Over its last three seasons, Pittsburgh has compiled an 88-16 record and .846 winning percentage, a winning percentage that ranks first nationally during that period (1. Pittsburgh, 88-16, .846; 2. Duke, 88-17, .838; 3. Gonzaga, 81-16, .835).

One other thing, from the very end of an ESPN.com Andy Katz chat session.

Stacy (Pgh, PA): Speaking of Big East Champs…Pitt came in second last year and is getting no kind of respect. You didn’t even mention them when saying CT and Cuse were potential Big East Champs! Pitt lost 3 players, 1 of which hardly contributed last year, and they are gaining a year of experience in coach Jamie Dixon and Taft (who will be one of the top players in the country this year) Krauser, and McCarroll. Not to mention the returning dominant defensive and clutch guy, Chevy Troutman. I know some leadership roles need to be filled from the loss of Page and Brown, but I know Krauser is up to that task! What’s up with the lack of respect???

SportsNation Andy Katz: Stacy, putting Pitt as the third or fourth best team in the Big East isn’t a slight. The Panthers lost Jaron Brown and Julius Page, two of the biggest winners in the program. This team will still be very good (see a nice cozy home schedule) and should be a factor in the Big East race. I love Carl Krauser’s toughness and Chris Taft is one of the top frontcourt talents in the country. But Jamie Dixon told me last week he’s got seven players competing to start at small forward. This team is a work in progress. I’m not down on them at all.

It’s a little too soon to be complaining about lack of respect for Pitt B-ball. Pitt is going to get deserved crap for its weak-ass non-con. Once more it will have to prove itself in the conference. That means, though, people won’t know much about the team until sometime in January.

Syracuse plays UConn tomorrow. Pitt has the week off, and apparently the Pitt coaching staff has been out on the recruiting trail for the first half of the week while the players had light workouts. I guess that is part of the reason for no news out of Pitt football.

A puff piece on Junior linebacker, J.J. Horne. Horne leads Pitt in sacks — with 3 1/2. One notebook piece focusing on offensive lineman Charles Spencer. Spencer converted from defensive tackle during training camp to help provide some needed depth on the line.

Since Syracuse still has a game to play, the media hasn’t had a chance to talk to Syracuse Coach Paul Pasqualoni about his season on the hot seat. So instead, the media talked to Walt Harris and what he thought about what Pasqualoni’s season on the hot seat. And we have two perspectives. From the aforementioned notebook by Zeise:

A bizarre sequence took place after practice when a television reporter asked coach Walt Harris his thoughts on the plight of Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni, who might be fired at the end of the season. Fans have called for Pasqualoni’s job and he has also reportedly received threats.

Harris busted out in laughter when asked if he could “feel for what that guy is going through?”

“I don’t know quite how to take that,” said Harris, who has been on the hot seat this season. “I mean, like it doesn’t happen anywhere else?”

Then here is Bendel’s version:

Harris, whose team is off this weekend before playing at Syracuse a week from Saturday, laughed at the irony of the situation when a question was posed about Pasqualoni’s current state of affairs in upstate New York.

Harris knows a thing or two about being scrutinized, despite leading the Panthers to four consecutive bowl games and to a 5-2 record this season.

“I don’t know how quite to take that,” Harris said, when asked if he feels for his colleague. “It’s (not) like it doesn’t happen anywhere else, you know?”

Harris flashed a sly grin after making that statement.

Either way, it looks like Coach Harris has acquired a sense of humor (gallows humor?).

Finally, from a question to Sportsline writer, Greg Doyel:

Looking into your crystal ball … do you think the Big East breaks up in five or so years (football schools in one group, non-football schools in the other)? Seems to make sense for the football side to eliminate the “hybrid” situation that plagued the conference prior to being plundered by the ACC. Regardless, the football schools would make a leaner, and perhaps meaner basketball conference: UConn, WVU, Pitt, Syracuse, Louisville, Cincinnati, USF, Rutgers.

Most observers expect one more aftershock from last summer’s expansion, and for that shock to involve the Big East and (maybe) Notre Dame. How it all plays out, and when, I can’t say. But you’re asking me to guess, so here it goes: The Big East football schools break off and convince Notre Dame to join them in a new Division I-A league, while the Big East’s leftovers (Marquette, St. John’s, Seton Hall, etc.) pick off a few A-10 schools for their basketball-only league.

This was something I hoped they would do right away (still don’t see the ND part happening, but that’s another issue). I was pissed when they didn’t. Hindsight suggests they didn’t split immediately because the football schools needed Tranghese and his close relations with the other conferences built up over the year to preserve the BCS connection. Tranghese had made public statements that he would not be commissioner either conference if the Big East split between the football and basketball-only schools. Therefore, the only thing to do (in the short term) is go to the present situation. The split will happen and both sides will want it to happen in a few years. A few years with the awkward basketball schedule and they’ll be screaming for it.