When the Big East-ACC challenge died, it was mainly because of coaches like Thompson and Boeheim who didn’t like the early season battles. Now that the ACC-Big 11 challenge is a popular early season event, other conferences are getting in on the act (Insider subs.)

The Big 12 has countered with a plan to revive the Big 12-SEC Challenge. The Big 12’s original proposal was for all 12 schools to go head-to-head in a challenge similar to that held by ACC and Big Ten. But the Big 12’s John Underwood, who handles hoops for the conference, said ESPN balked at the idea. The first counter was for a 4-4-4 three-year rotation. But the Big 12 wanted more teams, so the latest proposal calls for a 6-6 split, with the games on campus sites over two seasons. This series would start in 2006 if it can be finalized.

So now the field is getting crowded — and the space on ESPN is shrinking — and the Big East has been absolutely mum on this matter.

I’m not sure if I should be pissed at BE Commish Mike Tranghese for not pushing something sooner (yet, ever?) or the BE coaches who might be resisting such activity.

As it stands, I still think a East-West battle between Big East and PAC-10 would be intriguing. You would think that could be made to happen, despite the difference in conference sizes.

So, I’m told it’s this Christmas thing and the stories should be positive wherever possible. Sure. Why not?

A fairly extensive story on John DeGroat’s hard road. Read it all. As a personal aside, the wife is a Juvi. Court Magistrate and comes home far too often with stories that will never have a happy ending. It’s nice to read one like this.

DeGroat also has an extended family at the Abbott House, a social service agency in New York that helps place children with foster families. After his problems at the group home in Yonkers, DeGroat had a short stay at the Abbott House, which placed him with the Macks.

The Abbott House brought about 30 of its children on a field trip to Pitt Dec. 10 to watch DeGroat play against Penn State. DeGroat tied his career-high with 11 points that day and visited with the children afterward. The Abbott House has decorated a wall with pictures and articles about DeGroat.

DeGroat, who is majoring in administration of justice, gives back by counseling the children when he is home.

“I’ve watched him grow into a fine young man,” said Terry Barrio, an employee at the Abbott House, who has known DeGroat for eight years. “We always knew he was going someplace. He comes back and talks to our kids. He’s a role model now. We’re all very proud of him.”

The other in-depth story is on Pitt Associate Head Coach, Barry Rohrssen.

Dick Weiss, the renowned college basketball writer for the New York Daily News, called Rohrssen “the coach with the biggest recruiting impact in the city of New York and on Long Island.”

Ahead of Jim Calhoun. Ahead of Rick Pitino. Ahead of Jay Wright, Jim Boeheim and others.

“He opened doors for the Panthers to be a top 10 program,” Weiss wrote.

Rohrssen also works closely with Pitt’s post players, including junior center Aaron Gray, who is fast-developing into an NBA prospect.

“Barry has been an integral part of the success of this program,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “He has a great coaching background, is a good recruiter with outstanding contacts and has an understanding of how we run our program.”

As Pitt’s associate head coach, Rohrssen headlines Dixon’s staff of tireless assistants, who have managed to replenish the Panthers’ roster annually with impact players. Joe Lombardi, Pat Sandle and former Pitt star Orlando Antigua round out the group.

Rohrssen, deservedly, gets much of the credit for developing Pitt’s “NY Pipeline.” He’s been rumored for several coaching jobs, and other teams have tried to poach him for their staff.

Not surprising, and it hasn’t changed from last week. No one is exactly taking Pitt seriously yet.

ESPN.com decides to have their experts talk about each of the remaining unbeatens in college basketball and their “legitimacy” (all Insider subs.).

JayBilas is surprisingly friendly:

Go ahead, bag on the schedule, but Pitt is learning how to win and is gaining confidence with new parts. Freshman Levance Fields can run the point and can move Carl Krauser off the ball so Krauser can use his strength and ability to exploit defenses without having to run the team. Is Pitt top-10 material right now? Not yet, but the Panthers are good enough to be in the top 20 during conference play.

Doug Gottlieb continues playing the a-hole position of “telling it like it is.”

A pathetic schedule that only now challenges them, Pitt does have Karl Krauser’s experience and leadership to navigate the untested waters of upcoming road games. I expect Wisconsin to give them fits at home, and I also expect Pitt to become a bubble team late in the year because of its schedule.

I really don’t disagree, but I do wish ESPN.com could spring for a copy editor. It’s “Carl,” not “Karl.”

Fran Fraschilla defends a coach:

The worst thing about Pitt’s nonconference schedule is that coach Jamie Dixon has accrued zero U.S. Air miles this season. Including a road date at Duquesne, he hasn’t even crossed the Monongahela. As long as the formula works and Pitt continues to be relatively successful in Big East regular-season play, who can really argue? Carl Krauser has been playing more at the two this season, and Aaron Gray helps provide a solid inside-outside combo. If Levon Kendall could play every game against USA Basketball, Dixon would be really excited. If they get past games at South Carolina and against Wisconsin, then we’ll talk.

Over at CollegeHoopsNet, there is a blast at Pitt’s non-con.

Pittsburgh is now 9-0 and has played… ahem: St. Peter’s, Robert Morris, Maine, St. Francis (but that’s St. Francis of New York, not Pennsylvania…as if there’s any blasted difference to a Big East team), Auburn, Duquesne, Penn State, Vermont, and now, Coppin State. John Thompson would be proud, though a tad disappointed that St. Leo and Hawaii-Loa didn’t make the itinerary. The Panthers have played some wimpy non-con schedules in recent years, and this one certainly continues the tradition. Even the best spinster couldn’t count one of those wins as impressive. (Which is the best one? Auburn? Robert Morris?) No way the Panthers deserve their #25 ranking yet, not over teams like Northern Iowa, Bucknell or even West Virginia. Hate to keep piling on here, but if Pitt doesn’t win a minimum of 21 games, they shouldn’t get a single sniff of NCAA consideration. It’s one thing for a program to schedule like this when it’s trying to learn how to win; it’s something totally different when you have a recent history of NCAA appearances. Late December games against South Carolina and Wisconsin don’t make up for this putrid ledger. Pitt is better than this.

What can you say? I think he’s over stating the number of wins by about 1. Assuming Pitt at least splits the next 2 non-cons and goes either 9-7 and picks up a win in the Big East Tournament or goes 10-6 in conference play, and Pitt is in. Let’s face it, though, other than Auburn, I don’t see any team Pitt has beaten so far that will be looked at later as a quality or even decent win.

It’s the way it is, and the RPI will factor into the NCAA Tournament decision.

Not much locally. I found this interesting:

ESPN Radio 1250’s Tim Benz took callers voicing their biggest disappointments in local sports for 2005.In no particular order, here are the top four:

1. 2004 Steelers
   After riding a 15-game win streak into January’s AFC Championship, the Steelers lost their fourth home title game under Bill Cowher.
2. Pitt. Panthers Basketball Team
   The nationally-ranked squad were knocked out of the first round of the Big East Championships and the NCAA tournament.
3. Pitt. Football Team
   After being trounced in their opener, Dave Wannstedt’s team never got it together en route to its first non-bowl season since 1999.
4. Penguins
   After winning Sidney Crosby in the NHL draft, the team has spiraled down to the basement of the Eastern Conference.

I’m not at all disagreeing. I just take it as a small positive that Pitt’s disappointments in 2005 remained that high in the local populace’s thoughts. The continuing disappointment of the Pirates didn’t even make it.

The P-G Pitt basketball beat reporter Ray Fittipaldo has a Q&A. I guess he didn’t get a lot of questions, but a good one on what Coach Dixon will be doing with the rotation. Looks to keep using 10, but the amount will probably change. For the bad, it would appear that Mr. Fittipaldo doesn’t pay much attention to the net, and especially this blog.

Question: Why did Trevor Ferguson leave? And what did the coaches think of him as a player?

Fittipaldo: Ferguson’s AAU coach told me that he was homesick and that he wanted to play closer to home. I am not sure where Ferguson wound up. What likely happened was he saw how deep Pitt was at the guard position and saw the writing on the wall. These guys are realistic. He spent the summer here playing with the guys he was competing against and probably figured he’d have a better chance of playing somewhere else. It probably didn’t help that Dixon signed another guard, Mike Cook, in July. Cook is expected to come in and be a contributor next season after sitting this season out under NCAA transfer rules.

This was posted on Tuesday, and their rival even mentioned it by the Trib. by Wednesday. Lazy work.

When Joe Paterno was named the AP Coach of the Year, I decided against saying anything. It would seem snide, petty and hardly that legit coming from a Pitt partisan. Lucky for me, Orson at EDSBS said everything I was thinking, and then some:

Instead, they go with sentiment and Joe, whose notable achievements in the past five years have been hanging referee dolls from his door and slowly watching his son turn quality quarterback recruits into scrambling, concussed pick machines. Because he’s 79! And won a lot of games a few decades ago! And he’s good ol’ Joe Pa! (Pass the scotch and tell me the one about Beano Cook and Doc Blanchard in a bar in Singapore again, Joe!)

Which are all true, of course: Joe Pa exemplifies both the Tao and De of how to be a college coach the right way, devoting the better half of his life’s effort and a considerable amount of his money to the university he calls home. Was he the best coach this year, though, comrade? And do you reward someone for cleaning up their own mess? Do you dig rhetorical sentences at the end of mini-columns? The answer to all of these questions is no, comrade. Joe Pa got it for being cute and old and venerable, and that’s lazy like falling asleep with half a burrito stuck in your mouth. (We’re looking at you, Aaron Taylor. You know it happens all the time–otherwise, how would you explain the perpetually askew mouth?)

And definitely read the comments. There’s some fantastic ND myopia. The piece mentions other candidates that were more worthy, but because it failed to mention Charlie Weis, the ND readers freaked a little. Missing the main point of the piece to complain that ND and Weis were dissed by the omission.

In case you didn’t catch it, Scout.com is doing an open-house for the weekend. So you get to see all that juicy recruiting stuff, you are too cheap to pay for (like myself). Some of the stories of note, include one on Aaron Berry, the cornerback from Bishop-McDevitt.

“Minnesota, Michigan State and Pittsburgh, “Berry said. “I’ve already visited Minnesota, back a whlie ago, and I’ve got two other visits to take. I got Pittsburgh on the 6th (of January) and I’m set to go to Michigan State, the following week (Jan. 13th).”

Another on Andy Miller, the OT/TE from Washington, PA. For amusement, compare that version to the version on the Indiana site. Nicely tailored.

All season long there have been stories about Pitt great, Bobby Grier, the 1955-56 Panthers and the ’56 Sugar Bowl. Here’s another story. This one from a paper in the town where Grier grew up and played his high school football — Massillon, Ohio.

“Joe Smith, who was the team captain at Pitt and later played and coached in the NFL, was a strong supporter of Bob’s when he first got there,” Ed Grier said. “He was one of Bob’s biggest allies. Smith stood up for him and confronted some of the guys who were opposed to Bob being on the team.

“Once they found out Bob was a regular guy who was there to play football and get an education, he was accepted.”

Bobby Grier admits he may not have appreciated the historical significance of becoming the very first black athlete to play in the Sugar Bowl, until years after he graduated from Pittsburgh.

What touched him the most, he says, was his teammates’ decision to stand by him and risk missing the biggest football game of their lives.

Grier, who bypassed the National Football League to join the Air Force and become a missile officer, gets back to Massillon several times a year to visit his sister, and says he kept close tabs on the Massillon Tigers’ run to the 2005 state championship game.

For whatever this is worth, the Eastern College Athletic Conference announced its 2005 All-ECAC team for Div. 1-A (PDF), and 3 Pitt players made the list: H.B. Blades, Josh Lay and Greg Lee.

As has already been documented Pitt has a week off, then face two difficult games to end the non-con before the start of Big East play. Can you guess what the story in the papers is today?

From the Trib.

If Pitt, off to a 9-0 start for the eighth time in its history, is concerned about facing a tougher schedule the rest of the way, the Panthers aren’t showing any signs of it.

“I already know we’re for real,” senior guard Carl Krauser said.

There are no more games against teams such as St. Peter’s, Vermont and Coppin State, whom the Panthers defeated, 77-51, on Wednesday night at Petersen Events Center.

Following a Christmas break, Pitt will begin preparations for only its second road contest of the season, at South Carolina on Wednesday. The Gamecocks (7-2) played at Temple on Thursday night.

Oh, and South Carolina lost to Temple 63-50.

And over at the P-G.

Of the 15 remaining teams the Panthers will face, only one does not have a winning record. Together, those teams are a combined 104-35 (74.8 percent).

The Panthers will find out a lot about themselves over the next 10 days. After a break for the Christmas holiday, they will travel Wednesday to South Carolina (7-2) for their first game outside the city limits this season. Three days later they’ll face No. 23 Wisconsin (9-1), their first ranked opponent of the year.

“We’re definitely excited,” junior forward Levon Kendall said. “It’s something you play for. We’ve done our best to stay up and motivated for these games. It’s a matter of pride. We want to prove ourselves and show people what we can do. We’re pretty confident about it. We get to go down to South Carolina, see what we can do, maybe surprise some people or show them what we’re made of.”

The team appears quite eager to play some tougher opponents. Not necessarily to “prove” themselves, but to just play better games.

The South Carolina game will be a night when the Gamecocks retire the jersey of their all-time leading scorer, B.J.McKie. Their players will have the winter break to stew over losing to Temple and only mustering 50 points.

Just a couple things to pass along.

Apparently the Sports Editor in the Mon Valley doesn’t even read his own parent company paper.

What’s going on with the Pitt football program?

Anyone else find it surprising that freshman tailback Rashad Jennings is considering transferring and junior wide receiver Greg Lee is leaning to the next NFL draft instead of return for his senior campaign.

Not really, and if you read anything other than wire reports, you might want to rethink that — especially regarding Jennings.

At SI.com, Stewart Mandel lists the 10 best recruiters in college. Making the list:

Dave Wannstedt, head coach, Pittsburgh: Known as a relentless recruiter in the ’80s at Pitt, Oklahoma State, USC and Miami, Wannstedt has picked up right where he left off, assembling what is currently considered a national top-five class. By reconnecting with Western Pennsylvania high schools, he had 17 commitments by the end of summer, including national top-100 prospects Dorin Dickerson, Nate Byham and Kevin Collier. Now, let’s see if he can coach them.

When you have a bad season, and end up not in a bowl, the best you can do is look to the future. With all the various all-star high school teams being announced it’s been nice to see each one contain a significant number of Pitt commits.

Keith Benjamin may be the player most in need of a few days off to clear his head. Right now he is shooting his way to less playing time. Not because he is missing so much — and he is — but because he is shooting so much. I’ve only seen one game, and it seemed he was shooting too much then, regardless of the quality of the opportunity, and not passing.

Through 9 games, Pitt has 10 players with more than 100 minutes:

TOTALS ——– MIN —- FG-FGA —– FG% — Shot Freq.
—————————————————————–
Krauser, Carl……. 271 —– 53-111 —— .477 —– 2.44
Gray, Aaron……… 224 —– 41-76 ——- .539 —– 2.95
Kendall, Levon…… 213 —– 24-50 —— .480 —– 4.26
Ramon, Ronald…….184 —— 18-45 —— .400 —– 4.09
Young, Sam………. 146 —— 21-36 —— .583 —– 4.06
Fields, Levance….. 178 —— 18-36 —— .500 —– 4.94
Graves, Antonio….. 156 —— 15-40 —— .375 —– 3.90
DeGroat, John……. 121 —— 18-41 —— .439 —– 2.95
Benjamin, Keith…150 —– 16-46 ——- .348 —— 3.26
Biggs, Tyrell……. 116 —— 12-24 —— .500 —– 4.83

Benjamin is 4th on the team in total shots taken, last in the group in shooting percentage and 7th in total minutes played.

That last number gives a rough outline of the frequency with which a player shoots when on the court (Minutes/Field Goal Attempts). The smaller the number, the more frequent the player shoots when on the court. No surprise that Krauser and Gray shoot the most frequently. Surprised that DeGroat is tied for 2nd, but he is at least making a decent percentage. Kendall may have taken the 3rd most shots on the team, but his frequency is only ahead of Biggs and Fields.

Benjamin is the worst shooter and also 4th in shot frequency per minutes played. I don’t know what the coaches are telling him in practice, but the shot frequency has only increased in recent games — not to mention his poor shooting.

Opponent —- FG-FGA — MIN
——————————–
St. Peter —— 1-3 —— 16
RMU ———- 1-3 —— 18
Maine ——— 4-5 —— 17
St. Francis —– 2-4 ——- 24
Auburn ——– 3-9 ——- 16
Duquesne —— 2-6 ——- 17
Penn St. ——– 2-7 ——- 17
Vermont ——– 1-5 ——- 12
Coppin St. ——- 0-4 ——- 13

His hoisting it would appear, is costing him minutes. Like I said, I’ve only seen him play once, but the numbers seem to suggest that what I saw has been the way he has played over the last 5 games. He is not looking to pass. He only has 13 assists. In the first 3 games he had 7. In the last 3 games: 2.

Keith Benjamin is going to have to get his game under control, or it looks like he will get buried on the bench come Big East play.

Pitt had no real problem with Coppin State. Pitt let them hang around for a while in the second half, and that wasn’t unexpected. In the end, though, Pitt put them away with a solid game and gave everyone a chance to play. Marcus Bowman hit his first basket of the year at the end of the game.

Pitt took advantage of the smallish and slender Eagles on the inside, with efficient performances from 7-foot center Aaron Gray and 6-10 power forward Levon Kendall.

Gray had 14 points and seven rebounds; Kendall 11 points and five rebounds. It was the third consecutive game Kendall has reached double figures after not doing so in the first six games.

Gray scored nine of Pitt’s first 14 points to give the Panthers an early double-digit lead. Coach Jamie Dixon said it was important to establish the inside early because Coppin State predominantly played a zone and wanted Pitt to shoot 3-pointers.

“We really did talk about getting it inside,” Dixon said. “Carl made two great passes to open the game to Aaron. Then John [DeGroat] got an open three off an inside touch.”

Krauser did not have his typical scoring game but played one of his most complete and unselfish games this season. He finished with 12 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals and 1 turnover. He was 4 for 9 from 3-point range.

Ronald Ramon also added 10 points to give Pitt 4 players with double-digit scoring. Sam Young added 9 and Levance Fields had 8 points.

Coppin State’s Coach Fang Mitchell was once again asked to talk about the 1997 NCAA Tournament game in Pittsburgh where his team upset #2 seeded South Carolina in the first round. Probably an easier topic then discussing how his team is now off to an 0-9 start.

Open thread time.

I’m actually not going to listen to the game. I am heading out to drink discuss issues and politics with other bloggers in my area.

Looking forward to reading everyone’s thoughts later.

An article today about balanced scoring on Pitt, sort of.

That’s not the way it is this season. Coach Jamie Dixon has two dependable scorers in senior guard Carl Krauser and junior center Aaron Gray. The third scoring option? Well, Dixon really doesn’t have one. And truth be told, it doesn’t concern him much.

Dixon contends he still has a balanced scoring team. It’s just that it’s hard to recognize at first glance.

“I felt it was going to be different this season,” he said. “Usually you have three or four or five guys in double figures. That’s what you think about when you think about balanced scoring. We’ll have a different type of balanced scoring. We have nine guys with five points or more. I don’t know if a lot of teams have that. That puts balanced scoring in a whole different light.”

After Krauser and Gray, seven players average between 5.0 points and 7.5 points per game. Junior forward Levon Kendall averages 7.5; sophomore guard Ronald Ramon 6.3; freshman forward Sam Young 6.1; freshman guard Levance Fields 5.9; junior guard Antonio Graves 5.9; senior forward John DeGroat 5.1; and sophomore guard/forward Keith Benjamin 5.0.

None of those seven have scored in double figures more than twice this season. Graves scored the most in one game, a modest 15 in the opener against St. Peter’s.

“It’s still balanced scoring when you look at the whole thing,” Dixon said. “The minutes are very balanced. We know who our two scorers are going to be. People are going to talk about who that third scorer is going to be. I don’t think we’re going to have that same guy every game. Our third guy will be the third different guy every night.”

The argument is that there is balanced scoring by position. Not by individuals, because there is so much sharing of time at most spots. It’s a fair point, and at this point is good.

Still, I think most would like to see one of the players start asserting more consistently. Obviously, part of it is having more playing time, but any player will have to first establish that he is the best option on defense.

In the Trib’s notebook they point out that former Panther, Chris Taft is still fighting back spasms and has been inactive for the last 3 weeks for the Warriors. He suffered the back injury during summer league, and hasn’t been whole since.

The notebook also picks up on Trevor Ferguson planning to attend NC State. Hmm. Wonder where they picked up on that?

Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News, notes that the move to shooting guard for Carl Krauser is working well.

Pittsburgh has removed some of the pressure on senior Carl Krauser by starting him at shooting guard and using sophomore Ronald Ramon and freshman Levance Fields for a lot of the point guard minutes. The change appears to be elevating Krauser’s game. Entering the week, he was averaging a career-best 17.6 points and shooting 48.0 percent. He shot 41.1 percent last year.

Admittedly he isn’t facing the good defenses yet, but it is still a great start. I also want to point out this from DeCourcy:

When a team carries an unbeaten record this deep into the season, there are two common reactions to that achievement. Teams that were ranked in preseason polls and magazines are acclaimed as legitimate national contenders. Teams that were unranked are dismissed as frauds. It’s not often that we’re all patient enough to see whether there might be a little magic in some of the latter group — or a few frauds in the former.

He was talking about Tennessee, but it seems applicable to Pitt. Jibes pretty well with what I said earlier, though he probably said it better. Keep winning and eventually they will give the love.

Finally, a strangely late story on Vermont in a rebuilding year and the first time in a couple decades with a new coach. Funny how Pitt managed to get Vermont on the schedule this year.

Last year, Vermont couldn’t find many teams that wanted to schedule it for a non-conference game. Heading into this year, teams couldn’t get the Catamounts scheduled quick enough.

The Catamounts (3-5) visited Pitt Saturday and they gave the Panthers all they could handle before running out of gas and dropping a 63-52 decision. Pitt was one of two Big East schools who won the “sweepstakes” to get a game with the Catamounts, but the Panthers had help. Gabe Rodriguez, the Catamounts’ director of basketball operations, is the cousin of Orlando Antigua, Pitt’s director of basketball operations.

Yeah, that would help.

That seems to be the suggestion of tonight’s game versus Coppin State. The last easy game for Pitt.

Pitt’s cup cake marathon continues. A win will get them to 9-0. They do have a win over Auburn who is playing well, but none of the rest will really mean much. This is the end of the cup cakes for them though. They travel to South Carolina next and are at home against Wisconsin after that. Then it’s on to Big East play.

I’m not going to pull a Lou Holtz and say that I fear an upset. I think Pitt can probably win this game with only a good 20 minutes. Having said that, I’d be very upset if they mailed it in. An argument could be made that there is more of a test for Coach Dixon. The team just got ranked, they are playing a team that is 0-8, and after this game they can head home for a few days break. It’s up to the coach to make sure the team is still ready to play and mentally isn’t already on the plane home.

Of course they are saying the right things:

Unbeaten Pitt (8-0) plays host to winless Coppin State (0-8) tonight at Petersen Events Center for the second consecutive season, but the Panthers aren’t even thinking of chalking up an automatic victory against the Eagles, who are in the midst of perhaps the nation’s most difficult non-conference schedule.

“That’s a team that definitely wants to go out there and show people they can play. We can’t underestimate them,” Pitt guard Ronald Ramon said.

Coppin State has yet to play a home game and is playing probably the most difficult non-con. This has included: Charlotte, Xavier, Illinois, Clemson, UCLA and Oklahoma. Then, after Pitt, they have Michigan and Michigan State. Give Fang Mitchell credit for scheduling like this, and pretty much covering the costs and then some for the basketball program with all of these guaranteed games.

I love the response from Ronald Ramon regarding being ranked #25 in the Coaches Poll:

“It feels good to get ranked in the top 25,” sophomore point guard Ronald Ramon said. “We want to go out there and show people we can play. But it’s nothing new. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re ranked, but we’re just going to go out and play.’ “

Pitt has not played a demanding non-conference schedule, but the Panthers have beaten Penn State and Auburn by 37 points apiece, which grabbed the attention of the voters. Ramon said he and his teammates had been out to prove they were worthy of being ranked.

“We’re a school that everyone has their doubts about,” he said. “Is Pitt as good as everyone thinks? We take that personal, and we go out there and try to play as hard as we can.”

Coach Jamie Dixon said he did not promote the polls with his players and did not expect it to be a distraction for his team.

All they can do is to keep on winning.

The ND-Pitt game scheduled for January 4 at the Pete has been moved from an 8pm to 7pm start. Apparently to avoid too much conflict. Seems there’s this thing called the Rose Bowl between Texas and USC that night. It’s possible some people might be interested in watching that.

Tomorrow night, Coppin State. Pitt game notes here (PDF). Seems one of the notes is that Coach Dixon has yet to lose in December (I would prefer March and/or April).