Pitt has some press releases. They have announced the home and away games in the Big East, but not the actual dates.

BIG EAST HOME GAMES: Cincinnati, Connecticut, South Florida and Syracuse

BIG EAST ROAD GAMES: Louisville, Rutgers and West Virginia

Not a bad home schedule for a new coach to have before the home crowd. Cinci and UConn are both going to be rebuilding. USF will be a little better than last year. Syracuse has its own new coach, and the talent was dropping. Youngstown State is I-AA. Notre Dame should be the toughest of the home games — and they too have a new head coach.

The road schedule seems more brutal: Nebraska, Louisville and WVU.

The Big East, finally got around to announcing its Big East All-Academic Team. Pitt placed 7 on the squad.

Justin Acierno, Pittsburgh Senior FB
Justin Belarski, Pittsburgh Senior C
Brian Bennett, Pittsburgh Junior LB
Vince Crochunis, Pittsburgh Senior DL
Doug Roseberry, Pittsburgh Senior LB
Dan Stephens, Pittsburgh Senior DL
Dale Williams, Pittsburgh Senior OL

Additionally, Vince Crochunis was named the Big East Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Congratulations to all of them.

Late last week, I mentioned that there was no need, and it was unnecessary piling on Harris to build up Wannstedt regarding recruiting. Some didn’t get the memo.

Dave Wannstedt will call a news conference tomorrow on national letter-of-intent day to brag about his first recruiting class at Pitt.

That beats the alternative.

It beats telling the truth.

“The previous head coach did a pretty rotten job recruiting. We got such a late start as a staff that we didn’t really have time to clean up the mess. Please, don’t judge us on this class. Give us a chance and see what we do next year and the year after and the year after that …”

The guess here is Wannstedt and his coaches will do just fine.

What a lame strawman claim. No one is judging Wannstedt by this recruiting class. For the most part, it wasn’t his class.

I’m not going to defend Harris’ recruiting tactics, and the numerous mistakes made. I will point out that Harris was recruiting with an arm tied behind his back considering his contract situation and his lame-duck status during the season. Not to mention the weakened Big East getting bashed on ESPN every Saturday. As it stood, Harris had put a decent recruiting class together. Wannstedt and his crew have already been more than respectable in what they have done since coming in.

There is nothing wrong with keeping defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads. If you listen to him for five minutes, you’ll want to play for Pitt. “He’s not just very intelligent. He has a lot of passion and a lot of enthusiasm,” Wannstedt said. “There’s no question he’s going to be a head coach after we have some success.”

If you’re concerned about Rhoads’ inconsistent Pitt defenses — great one season, horrible the next — don’t be. He’ll be a lot smarter once he has better players. Aren’t all coaches? And it’s not as if Rhoads will have total say over the defense as he did under Harris. Wannstedt’s background is in defense and he’ll have a big say in the game plans, unlike Harris, who was too busy with his quarterbacks to even notice he had a defense.

Um, if Rhoads had full say over the defense, then didn’t he also have a lot of say over who Pitt recruited for the defense? I think we all know by this time that Paul Rhoads has a better relationship with most of the media and Pitt’s administration than Harris did.

Just an overall weak column intended to suck up to the entire Pitt coaching staff.

I guess it wouldn’t bother me, considering the source, except that I recall a column absolving Harris of a lot of the recruiting disasters of last year. Oh, just click to it and read it yourself, it did not age well.

One of the kids signing a letter of intent to come to Pitt will be Bill Stull. Stull decided to come to Pitt, after previously giving a verbal to Kentucky. Kentucky head coach, Rich Brooks — who also had been an NFL head coach, is in the last year (or second last year) of his contract. Guess what is happening to their recruiting class?

The University of Kentucky football coaching staff will most likely spend the final 24 hours leading up to national signing day on pins and needles after seeing one of its top recruits opt out of his commitment and several others express serious interest in other schools.

Pittsburgh Seton LaSalle quarterback Bill Stull, who committed to UK in December, will instead sign with the University of Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

UK’s other high-profile quarterback commitment, Kentucky Mr. Football Curtis Pulley, said last night that he’ll announce his choice at a news conference at Hopkinsville High School on Wednesday. Pulley was UK’s third verbal commitment last fall, but U of L entered the race shortly thereafter and made up ground quickly.

Well, there is always Ashley Judd for Kentucky.

As far as scheduling goes, it looks like Pitt is not the only school putting I-AA teams on the schedule.

More mid-major coaches and athletic directors should follow UTEP coach Mike Price’s stance on scheduling. Price recently dumped his 2005 season-opening game at Oregon even though it called for a $450,000 payday. Publicly, the UTEP administration says it wanted another home game next season. The reality: Why should UTEP play at Oregon if the Ducks won’t play a game at El Paso? If more mid-major teams back out of one-game road contracts, it will force BCS teams to schedule more games against Division I-AA opponents — not a good selling point to prospective season ticket holders. Oregon replaced UTEP with I-AA Montana.

The advantage for Pitt, is that it could create more opportunities to do 1 for 1 games with other BCS schools if the number of willing I-A patsies drop.

Not sure how interested or how closely anyone is following the trial in Memphis over the SEC bidding for a high school recruit, or Slick Rick Neuheisel’s lawsuit. It’s given college football writers something else to yak about rather than just recruiting. I mean when a University of Miami football coach is complaining about “street agents,” it’s getting wierd. The better read is this highly cynical story with unnamed anecdotes, and a Rick Neuheisel recruiting work-around.

Actually meant to get to this yesterday, but time didn’t permit.

Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News has a couple mentions of Pitt. First, regarding, not getting stressed about the RPI with half the conference schedule left, among other things

Pittsburgh is No. 67. Wait, no, that was before the Panthers beat Syracuse. Now they are No. 46. They gradually are erasing the stain of their weak nonleague schedule. They are 2-0 against RPI top 30 teams and play four more. That will bring up their average.

The Pac-10 is No. 2 among conferences. That’s nice, but against the other five BCS conferences, the Pac-10 is 10-12. Though ranked behind the Pac-10, the Big East was 16-10 in such games, and the Big 12 was 18-14.

For Pitt, though, they have to win those games. The margin of error is smaller. Still it’s a valid point, even if I am one of the guiltiest of harping on the non-con.

In another segment, he comments about Chris Taft.

Pittsburgh C Chris Taft gets along too well with backup Aaron Gray for the Panthers to use the threat of playing Gray more as a means of motivating Taft. But they can hope Gray’s effort in running the court, diving for loose balls, setting screens and fighting through fatigue serves as an example of how Taft should be playing. A gifted big man with NBA potential, Taft did not work hard enough to improve during the offseason and has been disappointing as a sophomore. Although he is an excellent passer, Taft has only 12 assists in 17 games. However, after Pitt essentially had to take him out to defeat UConn, Taft delivered one of his steadiest, most consistent efforts in the comeback victory against Syracuse. . . .

Um, uh, I have to disagree. He was not in the game for half of the second half, when Pitt took the lead on Syracuse. Len Elmore was also on Taft during the game (about 10 minutes into the 1st half of the notes is where I mention it) for his effort and looking for shots.

Finally, from Pat Forde at ESPN.com regarding the Big East at this point:

Better Than Advertised: Boston College, ya think? Not even the omniscient Minutes could foresee the Eagles rolling along at 18-0.

Worse Than Advertised: The senior seasons of Ryan Gomes and Chris Thomas. Notre Dame is just 4-3 in league play with a 62 RPI, and Thomas is shooting a career-low 35 percent from the field. Friars forward Gomes once again has lovely numbers (19.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.8 steals per game) but that hasn’t deterred an 0-6 league start. Providence has lost all six of those games by single digits, but four have been at home.

Player of the Year (so far): The league with the best collection of big men in America has been raided by a slender sophomore wing forward, Boston College’s Jared Dudley (7). It might sound ludicrous to tout him over Syracuse’s Hakim Warrick, teammate Craig Smith, Gomes, Pittsburgh’s Chevy Troutman and UConn’s Josh Boone, but check the kid’s numbers in league games — 20.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.9 steals, 51 percent shooting from the field and 79 percent shooting from the line. He’s more versatile than Warrick and better across the board than Smith or Gomes.

Coach of the Year (so far): The Minutes will go out on a limb and plug BC’s Al Skinner (8), who brings a refreshingly calm presence to the sidelines. (Honorable mention to John Thompson III for making Georgetown relevant again.)

Freshman of the Year (so far): Rudy Gay came in with the biggest name, but Georgetown’s Jeff Green (9) has shown the most game. The 6-foot-8 Green is all over the stat sheet, ranking among the league leaders in scoring (13.9), rebounds (6.9), assists (3.8) and field-goal percentage (47.7).

Best Game To Come: Syracuse at Boston College, Feb. 19. With no return game to the ‘Cuse, a whole lot could be on the line in Conte Forum.
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COACH WHO EARNED HIS COURTESY CAR THIS WEEK:

Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon (26), who orchestrated the Panthers’ second consecutive 17-point comeback against a high-level Big East opponent. First it was a rally in Storrs to shock Connecticut, then it was a comeback at home to beat No. 4 Syracuse. Now if he can just get his guys to answer the opening bell.

Pitt answered the opening bell last night. Saturday is the next bell down in Morgantown.

A historic loss for Providence. They have never started 0-7 in Big East play, so it’s time for gallows humor. The players and coach admit that they were just physically overwhelmed by Pitt.

This time, the Providence College men’s basketball team didn’t have to wait until the final minute to lose yet another Big East Conference game.
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“It’s almost like the Steelers,” PC coach Tim Welsh said of Pitt. “They keep coming at you up the middle, off tackle. They can pound you up.”
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Throughout its four-year run atop the Big East, Pitt has played with the confidence and strength to wear out some opponents. That clearly happened here last night. PC did a solid job off the boards in the first half, with Pitt holding a 15-13 advantage, but was overwhelmed in the second 20 minutes. The Panthers ended up winning the overall rebound battle, 39-24. PC’s starting frontline had 9 rebounds, the same number of defensive boards Taft swallowed up.

“They have a lot of good inside players,” said PC’s Hill. “We stayed with them for awhile, but they keep coming at you and we didn’t keep it up.”

One sequence typified the difference between the two teams. Down 62-45 with 10 minutes left, the Friars stopped the Panthers twice but couldn’t chase down loose rebounds. Krauser, the Bronx-born guard, jumped out of bounds to save the ball and threw it high in the air and back into play. Taft then powered past Hill and slammed home an offensive rebound to bring the 11,685 fans to their feet.

In my notes about that sequence, I wrote that Pitt was just wanting the ball more. Pitt had a killer instinct going throughout the game. They were going to finish Providence, and not give them any reason to hope. And they did exactly that.

This game seemed to by the Taft and Krauser show. Especially Taft, who had a career high 25 points. His previous career high was 24, set last year against Providence.

“I was just out there, telling myself that I had to be aggressive,” Taft said. “I had that mind-set. This was a game we had to win.”

That has to be Pitt’s attitude in every game, really. The games like Providence, you can’t take easy, because you can’t lose to weaker foes. The games like Notre Dame, BC, Syracuse and UConn are games you need to prove you are among the best.

The article also notes that Pitt great, Julius Page, was at the game, but is leaving Pittsburgh and the ABA to join a team in Russia. Good luck Julius.

Krauser also gets some love for his good game and improved play.

The flamboyant Krauser, a junior point guard, finished with 19 points, nine assists (many of the flashy variety) and only one turnover in 38 Harlem Globetrotter-style minutes. Taft, a sophomore center, bullied his way to a career-high 25 points and 15 rebounds, as he and Krauser consistently displayed their New York City bravado to the overwhelmed Friars.
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Krauser, who had taken some heat in recent weeks for committing too many turnovers, controlled the floor from start to finish. The first sign that he was ready to put on a show occurred early, when he dribbled behind his back, through his legs, then behind his back again before exploding to the hoop past two Providence defenders for a double-pump layup that made it 9-4.

“I just went back to playing my style of basketball again,” said Krauser, who had 19 points in a win against Syracuse two nights earlier.

Safe to say, no one will complain too much about Krauser’s flashiness and trash talking when he is playing the way he has the last couple of games.

In an end note to the article, it says that Yuri Demetris had all charges dropped against him, but he will remain suspended from the basketball team for the rest of the season. I think that’s the right decision for the program. There’s really nothing else to say about that. Sad ending, and I hope he gets the help he needs.

Finally, a little love for Coach Jamie Dixon for weathering his first real rough patch.

It was clear that Dixon could coach, but you wondered: How would he handle the inevitable thunderstorms that strike every program from time to time?

Quite well, as it turns out.

Dixon just slapped the raincoat on and kept working when the weather got bad. He met the sorts of difficulties any successful college coach will meet if he sticks around long enough — only he faced them in a matter of a month.

Pitt lost to three inferior opponents, including Bucknell; Dixon’s name surfaced in a Los Angeles Times headline as a candidate for the USC job; and senior starter Yuri Demetris was suspended.
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You could say Dixon was forced to try new buttons because of the Demetris situation, and that he was playing Demetris way too much (Demetris doesn’t swat a Ryan Gomes shot, as Levon Kendall did last night), but his in-game adjustments against Syracuse were superb.

Dixon has been doing a fine job so far. He got the team to make the adjustment to using zone defense when needed, and it would appear that he is integrating the new players and finally responded to the challenge of giving the kids a chance. It helps that the new players seem to be buying into the system and the unselfish play.

I think it was also important to see the new players getting a chance for the future. When you go to top recruits, you can’t just tell them they will have a chance to earn playing time and start. You have to show examples. Dixon can point to Taft from last year, and to Ramon, Benjamin and Kendall all as examples of either starting or earning significant playing time on merit.

You can argue that Pitt did nothing that impressive by beating up on a team that was clearly not that good. That all Pitt did, was play at their talent and skill level. Considering, though, that Pitt lost games to teams with lower talent and skill — Bucknell and St. John’s — and had complete lapses of effort and focus that nearly cost them — Rutgers and Seton Hall — wins; this was a very strong statement game from Pitt.

Pitt never trailed in the game. After the opening tip, the best Providence could do was tie the game twice at 13 and at 15. The last time, was with nearly 11 minutes left in the half. Providence not only couldn’t seem to hang with Pitt inside, they had trouble defending them and keeping players in front of them, as witnessed by the numerous Providence fouls committed away from the basket.

The stat sheet shows a completely dominating performance and not a lot to have complaints.

Pitt shot 51.7% (30-58) overall. The only area of concern or question is that Pitt only shot 5-13 (38.5%) on 3s. You would have liked to have seen a little better shooting, especially considering how many open looks the perimeter shooters were getting. Ramon has been a little off on his shots the last couple of games. Otherwise, that makes them 25-45 (55.6%) from the rest of the field. Pitt had 39 rebounds, 15 of which were on the offensive glass, 22 assists and 9 steals. Even the always problematic free throw shooting was dead-on at 21-24.

Pitt was also able to give most of the starters plenty of time off, except for Krauser who stayed on the floor for 38 minutes. 8 players with 13 minutes or more of PT.

Chris Taft had the kind of huge, dominating game we’ve been waiting for. The kind you would expect him to have against a team like this, but hasn’t. Yes, he needs to do it more often, especially against better opponents, but this was still a great game and an important one for him to have. In only 27 minutes, he grabbed 15 rebounds (6 offense, 9 defense), scored 25 points (11-16), made his free throws (3-3), had a block and an assist. He just dominated inside.

Carl Krauser had his second straight great game. Not a lot of room for anyone to complain. Yes he showboated at a point, but with Pitt up so high, so late, you let him have his fun. He scored 19 points on 7-13 shooting (3-4 on 3s), had 9 assists, 2 steals and only 1 turnover.

Chevon Troutman almost seemed to be taking the night off, by comparison. He had a sub-.500 shooting night (5-11) for only 14 points, and only 7 rebounds. What he was doing, though, was making sure everyone was involved. He had 5 assists in the game. He also went 4-5 at the free throw line.

Levon Kendall, in his second start had a quiet night in the stats. He only had one basket on his lone shot. Only grabbed 4 rebounds, but he was concentrating on defense all night. Provided good help on Gomes and even handled him a few times solo.

Antonio Graves started, but only played 13 minutes. He was hurt by picking up 2 fouls before ESPN2 even switched to the game — had to keep everyone watching the excrutiatingly dull, foul-fest-filled conclusion of the women’s Georgia-Tennessee game. What a shock, Tennessee won. Still, his confidence looks gone. 0-4 shooting, though he did have 2 points from the free throw line. I hate seeing that. He probably shouldn’t be starting at this point, but he needs to find something to give him a lift.

Ronald Ramon struggled a bit in this game. He missed some open looks for 3s (1-5 ), and had some issues bringing the ball up court when Providence pressured. He was bailed out by several sloppy reach-ins by Providence defenders. This sent him to the free throw line 3 times for 1&1s. He nailed all 6 of his free throws, helping him to 9 points in the game. He did have 2 assists and a steal.

Aaron Gray was great in place of Taft for 13 minutes. He was 3-3, sticking with the high percentage slams or lay-ins, finishing with 9 points. He had a little trouble with Providence’s speed, picking up 4 fouls.

Keith Benjamin played 16 minutes. He had 3 points, only taking 2 shots (1-2, both 3s), and grabbed 3 rebounds and had 2 assists and 2 steals. He did commit 4 turnovers, though.

Providence just had no chance. Pitt’s starting frontcourt — Taft, Troutman and Kendall — outrebounded the entire team. Gomes had 24 points, but had to take 20 shots to do so, and 10 of his points came at the charity stripe. Providence is just in a tailspin.

More later.