From Andy Katz’s Daily Word for December 6,

Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon finally gets to display his team in a marquee game Tuesday — in the Jimmy V Classic in New York. The Panthers will play Memphis, the first team on their schedule this season that was ranked, or even likely will be ranked. Dixon gets defensive about a schedule that has included Howard, Robert Morris, Loyola (Md.), St. Francis (Pa.) and Duquesne, thus far. Dixon is playing three freshmen quite a bit, so building confidence for them isn’t odd. He’s also a bit hamstrung by the fact he has to play a bad Duquesne and a struggling Penn State (on the road Dec. 11), since both schools are in-state. Getting Richmond at home is a good game, as is South Carolina. Dixon wouldn’t mind playing a ranked team, but says he really struggles to get true home-and-home series.

A few points. Yeah, it is actually good and necessary this year to play some of the non-starters, freshmen and sophomores more, to see what they can do. But they don’t need virtually all of the non-con to do so. Of course he gets defensive, he’s lying. Well, maybe not lying so much as spinning. He’s being the good company man about this. From what I understand, Pitt is in a situation where it needs as many home games as possible to help pay down some of the astronomical cost overruns that were incurred in completing the Petersen Event Center. This severely limits the number of away games it can do in the non-con portion of the season. Given Pitt’s relatively recent ascension into regular top-20 rankings, I would expect a lot of schools would do the home-and-home but expect Pitt to come to them first.

This, hopefully, will be the last year they try to schedule such a weak non-con and will go on some more road games. They have to. The novelty for the Pete has worn off. Last year, they were not getting near the crowds for the non-con games because they were so bad. This year, they are struggling with attendance. So much so, that they were offering package deals for the non-con schedule — all 9 games plus the 2 exhibitions — for around $100 (Is that right, Pat?). Sure they may have been in the cheap seats, but the fact that they were resorting to that can’t be encouraging.

Well, Seth Davis and I have been blasting Pitt for it’s hideous non-con for 2 straight years, and they haven’t listened to us.

Sorry, had to vent. This was supposed to be about tomorrow. Well, in a minute. First, a positive. Chevon Troutman was named Big East Co-Player of the Week. He shares the honor with Hakim Warrick of Syracuse (PDF). Pitt moved up 2 spots in both polls. Now #12 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and #11 in the AP Writers. That’s the one problem with railing against the weak non-con — hard to argue with the successful results so far.

The press releases are out for the Pitt-Memphis game in the Jimmy V Classic. As are the game notes (PDF). The good news is it is on ESPN at 7pm. The bad news, Dick Vitale will be involved. Here’s what Vitale has to say about the game.

Jimmy V would also be proud to see some of his coaching buddies hooking up on the court. In the first game, Memphis takes on Pittsburgh. The Panthers are underrated, because people talking about the Big East this season usually mention Syracuse and Connecticut but don’t include coach Jamie Dixon’s squad.

The Panthers have an outstanding inside-outside duo with Carl Krauser at the point and Chris Taft inside. They can create an unbelievable dilemma for most clubs defensively. Chevon Troutman is a force on the boards, and Pitt plays tremendous defense.

Memphis is an athletic team, but early in the season the Tigers have had to search for their identity. They’ve had a difficult time playing five-on-five basketball. But they do an outstanding job in transition and on the offensive boards.

For coach John Calipari’s team to be successful, Sean Banks has to be a star, living up to his billing by playing to the level he’s capable of. Memphis has been a Dow Jones team — up and down, baby! Rodney Carney is happy to be back at the mecca of college basketball, Madison Square Garden. He was so impressive in the Coaches vs. Classic event.

So it’s the athleticism of Memphis against the defensive ability of Pittsburgh.

At least the phrase “diaper dandy” wasn’t used (yet).

Storylines you can expect regarding Pitt during the game (mostly culled from the game notes): The NYC connections for Pitt (Krauser, Taft, Ramon, McCarroll, Milligan, DeGroat and Benjamin); Pitt is 11-3 at MSG since 2002; 20 straight wins against non-con opponents (obviously excluding the NCAA Tournament); defense, defense, defense; John Calipari was an assistant at Pitt under Coach Paul Evans in the 80s.

I’m a bit rusty on game notes for basketball, so the first try may not be the best.