Not a lot of articles today. A player piece on Mark McCarroll with a lot more of his background. McCarroll’s had a bad season by any definition. No one wished for that, unfortunately, it does not appear to be any time left to change things.

Mike Prisuta of the Trib backs the Pitt Athletic Dept‘s “Quest for Excellence” fundraising drive. He makes 3 points. 1) It’s a special time in Pitt sports — there are only a few programs in the country that finished ranked in the AP top 25 in football and are ranked in basketball; 2) the basketball team is really special and seems to be heading to a peak in play at the right time; and 3) the fundraising drive is no different from what other programs all over the country do and are doing.

Final story focuses on improved defense by the team.

“Early in the year we had a lot of young players out there,” said [Jaron] Brown, who stopped by the Petersen Events Center yesterday to visit after practice. “It was going to take time. It took us two or three years to get as good as we were. I knew it would make them look bad because we did such a good job. But this group is starting to get close to reaching some of the goals we set. This team can be as good or better than we were on defense. I’ve been watching the last few games, and they’re starting to come together at the right time.”

Pitt had nowhere to go but up after a three-game stretch in late December and early January when South Carolina, Bucknell and Georgetown all shot 50 percent or better from the field. Bucknell and Georgetown won games played at the Petersen Events Center.

But since then, the Panthers have been making steady improvement. They might have played one of their best defensive games of the season Monday night in Syracuse.

The perimeter defense is still an area of concern. Teams that have more than one legitimate deep scoring threat can give Pitt fits.

Hmm. No coach puffing pieces. Figure there has to be one lauding Coach Jamie Dixon tomorrow. He’s one shy of 50 wins, so I expect something.