Pitt received a verbal (via Big East Basketball Report) from Austin Wallace.

Austin Wallace knew what he wanted. First off, the 6-9 power forward from LaSalle wanted to go straight to college, not to prep school like some colleges wanted him to. He wanted a campus out of the city, but not too far. And most of all, Wallace wanted a team that had players he was comfortable with.

Wallace, it turns out, wanted Pittsburgh.

Saturday night, Wallace called Panthers head coach Jamie Dixon and gave him a verbal commitment.

“They told me to come with my toughness and they would help me get to another level,” Wallace said. “They said they would make me a better player. I was comfortable there. I didn’t want to go to a school because of a head coach or a coach, because what if he leaves? I wanted a school where I liked the players and the school.

“I wanted Pittsburgh. They had one scholarship left and I didn’t want to wait and have to go to a second choice.”
…
Louisville had shown some interest in Wallace early in the summer, but wanted him to go to prep school. Wallace, a B student who is on track for freshman eligibility, did not want to wait. Other schools – Florida Atlantic, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Marquette and Purdue – wanted him right away. The difference came when Wallace visited Pitt last weekend.

Most indications had him choosing between Pitt and Florida Atlantic (where former ND & UNC Coach Matt Doherty is now coaching).

Wallace appears to be something of a project, to judge the recruiting sites evaluations. He isn’t highly rated at the moment, but is considered to have a lot of room to develop very quickly. He recently had a growth spurt to go from around 6’7″ to 6’9″. He needs to get stronger, though. He’s still sticklike at around 210 pounds.

Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News has a post on Krauser coming back to Pitt and advice to him if he wants to raise his stock: involve the rest of the team.

Last year, there frequently weren’t many options that seemed more appealing than Krauser trying to get himself a shot. It might change this season. Inside, 7-footer Aaron Gray is a better pure post-up player than predecessor Chris Taft, who relied almost exclusively on his athleticism. Power forward Levon Kendall now is best-known for scoring 40 points in Canada’s upset victory over the U.S. national team at the U-21 World Championship. The team’s wing players still are young, but in their second seasons instead of their first.

If Krauser works to involve them all, his own shooting percentages should increase as the quality of his shot attempts improves. Scouts’ views of his ability to manage a game could be enhanced. He has played for teams that have made three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, two of which reached the Sweet 16. He could make it four in a row, five for the program. That’s not guaranteed, but this is: Krauser will complete his degree requirements in December. That cannot be a bad thing.

Krauser will have to remember that. Shoot-first point guards are a dime-a-dozen in the NBA. The ones that distribute and make the players around them better are the special point guards.

Season tickets went on sale to the general public today. These are tickets with out the blind/priority “donation” requirements.

The Athletic Department also announced a new program for student tickets. The previous system was apparently plagued by problems and glitches that caused a lot of hard feelings amongst students in the way the system (didn’t) functioned. Hopefully this will work better.

Amazing what winning 2 straight can do for your optimism.

Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko is starting to get that old feeling again, and that’s good news for the Panthers, whose offensive struggles early in the season have cost them a chance to win at least two games.

Palko played his best game of the season Saturday in the Panthers’ 31-17 win against the South Florida Bulls at Heinz Field as he completed 15 of 21 passes for 203 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Not coincidentally, the Panthers’ offense was more efficient than it had been all season.

Palko’s performance, in fact, was somewhat reminiscent of the way he played down the stretch last year when he led the Panthers to six wins in their final seven games and a berth in the Bowl Championship Series Fiesta Bowl. He said the reason he and the offense have played increasingly better each week is simple: Experience.

“I’m still learning things but I am getting more comfortable,” Palko said, “and we as a team are getting more comfortable. I know people don’t want to hear excuses, but we’re in a new system with new coaches, and sometimes it takes a little bit of time to settle in and get a good feel for what we’re trying to get accomplished on offense.

“You have to remember, I am almost like a rookie in this after playing three years in a different system. I’m starting to settle in, though, so it won’t be long before that guy you remember from last year is back.”

Isn’t it startling the difference when the offensive line gives him a little more time to throw? Palko was still sacked 5 more times — bringing the season total up to a conference worst 24 — but on about 3 of them they were more the result of him holding the ball too long then simply the O-line getting run over.

Next, is Syracuse. Last year was the legendary “Lame Duck” game, which exceeded my expectations as both teams lost coaches. I always worry about Syracuse. I feel like I’m channelling Lou Holtz with on of his “Temple scares the hell out of me,” type pronouncements in the week leading up to the game.

Sure they are 0-3 in the Big East and have only a win against Buffalo. Still, I did see them play a good, close loss against UVA. I just see a very desperate team that Pitt, far too often has not put away when given a chance.

They are, though, struggling horribly in the first year under Greg Robinson. They are still trying to adjust to a West Coast Offense. And how desperate is Robinson for trying to excuse the bad performance? He’s actually using Pitt and Coach Wannstedt as a positive model in a press conference yesterday.

Robinson on keeping the team confident:
“That’s probably the biggest task of all. I like our players. They’re resilient. I’m not going to take that lightly and I’m not going to assume that it’s all huggy-kissy and all that. No. We all have to dig in. I talked to our team. Pitt was 1-4. They were 1-4 and one time ranked 23rd in the country. They hung in there, now all of the sudden, they won two in a row. I guarantee you they didn’t feel very good. I think that we have those kinds of people. Like I say to you, it’s an issue; one that we’re sensitive to.”

That’s inspiring. And sensitive, and very tender.

Syracuse has their game notes available (PDF). A simple tale of the tape comparison:

SU OFFENSE — UP DEFENSE
15.3 ——- Scoring ——– 19.9
264.5 — Total Yardage —- 322.6
117.3 — Rushing Yardage — 158.6
147.2 —Passing Yardage — 164.0
63.6 —– Total Plays ——- 69.7
36.5 —- Rushing Plays —– 42.1
27.2 —– Passing Plays —– 27.6
4.2 —— Avg. Per Play —– 4.6
3.2 —— Avg. Per Rush —– 3.8
5.4 —— Avg. Per Pass —— 5.9
11.0 —– Avg. Per Catch —– 12.1
2.3 ——– Turnovers ——— 1.2

SU DEFENSE ————— UP OFFENSE
22.8 ———- Scoring ———– 25.1
339.7 ——- Total Yardage —— 347.7
168.2 —— Rushing Yardage —- 121.1
171.5 ——- Passing Yardage —- 226.6
68.3 ———- Total Plays ——– 69.1
41.8 ——— Rushing Plays ——- 37.0
26.5 ——— Passing Plays ——- 32.1
5.0 ———- Avg. Per Play ——– 5.0
4.0 ——— Avg. Per Rush ——– 3.3
6.5 ———- Avg. Per Pass ——– 7.0
12.4 ——– Avg. Per Catch ——- 12.9
2.5 ———– Turnovers ———- 2.0

According to the numbers, ‘Cuse isn’t particularly good on offense or defense.

And for the Big East, according to conventional wisdom, that isn’t a good thing.

You can excuse the commissioner for perhaps not sharing in the euphoria.

West Virginia, which is without a marquee player and is under the radar nationally, has the inside track for the Big East’s automatic BCS bid.

Louisville, the preseason favorite and the team the Big East was counting on to be its showcase program, is yet to win a league game. Three weeks ago, it was embarrassed in a 45-14 loss against USF.

“Short term, it probably wasn’t the best result (for the Big East),” Tranghese said. “But long term, I think it was the first indication of what we believe — that South Florida’s got a chance to be very good.”

On second thought, maybe not.

On Saturday, USF was hammered by Pitt. And USF barely showed a pulse in losses against Penn State and Miami.
…
The Big East has an 18-12 record against non-conference foes this season — but only 12 of those wins came against Division I-A programs. The league has gone 0-5 against ranked teams and is 4-9 against teams from other BCS conferences.
…
“We still have our ups and downs, in terms of wins and losses,” Tranghese said. “But at least we know who we are, what we are and what we’re trying to do. I think this is the first step in that whole process.”

Just about everyone (aside from Syracuse) is still alive for winning the Big East. I mean, Pitt is still under .500, but is now 3rd in the Big East. More disturbing, Rutgers is 2nd.

Mediocrity pervades all of college football this season.

Go ahead, pick the best team in the Big 11. Michigan State has lost to Michigan and OSU. OSU has lost to Penn St. Penn St. has lost to Michigan. Michigan has lost to Wisconsin and Minnesota. Minnesota has lost to Penn St. and Wisconsin. Wisconsin has lost to Northwestern. Northwestern has lost to Penn St. Iowa lost to OSU. There are a bunch of good teams, but have any of them looked like they will be top-10 teams by the end of the season? Which one are you that sure of what to expect from game to game?

One entire division of the Big 12 is a crap shoot, and after Texas and maybe Texas Tech the rest of the conference is easily dismissed.

The SEC is tough as always, but after Georgia it’s starting to look like “any given Saturday.”

In the ACC, VT looks like the best but they have consecutive games coming in late October — their traditional collapse point — versus BC, Miami and then at UVA.

It is more acute for the Big East because this is the first year of the new alignment, and the schools have not represented well outside of the conference. The only team to look even decent out of conference was Louisville with big blowouts against Oregon State and North Carolina. But they tanked against USF and choked the game away versus WVU. Pitt — well we know that deal.

WVU is about the closest to having any credibility, but no one actually is sure. They beat Maryland — who may be improving — but then struggled to hang on against East Carolina. The VT game seems to be looking better, even though they lost, but that is contingent on the Hokies continuing to dominate.

So while all of college football seems to have taken on an NFL-esque flatlining, parity look for the season, the Big East hasn’t been able to provide even a Cincinnati Bengal illusory team.