Ray Fittipaldo’s weekly Q&A is up.

Q: What is the status of coach Dixon’s contract and what are the administration’s intentions regarding a long-term extension?

Fittipaldo: Dixon signed a five-year contract in April of 2003 for $550,000 per year. He was given a one-year extension and bumped up in salary after guiding Pitt to a 31-5 record and a Sweet 16 appearance in his first season. So he has three years remaining on his contract after this season.

However, contracts don’t mean anything in this business and Pitt is going to have to ante up if it wants to keep Dixon as its head coach after the season. Dixon’s 67-15 record as head coach and the surprising start to this season means he will have many suitors once the season ends. Pitt has made many strides over the past seven seasons with its basketball program, but it is still a football school and doesn’t always understand the financial commitment is takes to maintain a top-level basketball program. While most other schools in the Big East fly charter from city to city, Pitt still flies commercially most of the time.

The other thing the scares coaches away from Pitt is the lack of a recruiting base. The talent is better now than it has been in some time, but coaches must go to New York City or other major cities to find players.

Pitt has a great arena and the fan support is getting better, but the financial commitment from the university and recruiting are two reasons Dixon might leave. Pitt must do two things if it wants to keep Dixon: It will have to raise his salary and fix the problems in the basketball budget.

I have a feeling there are several people asking WTF right now. It’s the insane nature of the beast. Right now his contract runs until 2009, so you have to expect more years to be added.

I find the flying information very interesting. Especially considering the amount of traveling a basketball team has to do, along with classes.

It is likely that Dixon will get a nice bump in salary at this rate, and I have no doubt that there will be some interest. I also think that the Pitt administration would step up on the money. The tough thing is balancing how proactive to be.

They were willing to spend for Prosser, but seemed tardy in making the big offer to Howland ahead of UCLA’s overtures — which everyone knew was coming. And yes, he probably still would have gone to UCLA anyways, but I’m just saying they seemed to wait to make their offer until UCLA rather than try to really lock him up.

Now from this week’s ESPN.com chats (all Insider subs.). Not as many Pitt questions on the chat this week.

Rece Davis:

Chris (Philly): How deep can Pitt go in the NCAA Touurney?

Rece Davis: Look, I’m not picking them to go to the final 4…probably past tournaments haunting me…but really…what’s missing. They’ve got size inside. They play hard. They’ve got a great glue guy (Kendall)…they’ve got an explosive scorer (Krauser)…they’ve got guys to keep that scorer from dominating the ball (Fields/Ramon)…hard to find reasons to pick against them…yet, I’m not diving in just yet to the final 4 talk. Definite sweet 16/elite 8 type club.

Fran Fraschilla had a bunch of questions, though.

Kurt Gies Holland , PA: How far do you think the University of Pittsburgh will go in the NCAA tourney? and is Carl Krauser and Aaron Gray one of the top PG and C’s in the league?

Kurty G Holland , PA: What is your projection on Pitt’s record by the end of the year? do you think they have what it takes to beat Uconn @ Uconn?

Fran Fraschilla: Now, Pitt is definitely the real day, by that I mean, they are comfortably in the Top 10. Krauser’s season has mirrored Daniel Gibson’s in that, by not having the ball in his hands all the time, eh doesn’t have to worry about splitting his duties between running the team and scoring. The emergence of the Panthers young PGs has taken heat off of him. Aaron Gray is certainly among the most improved players in the country and with his size, he has become a legitimate NBA prospect. I like Sam Young’s athleticism and poise for a freshman, as well.

Fran Fraschilla: Kudos to Coach Dixon for maintaining Pittsburgh’s level of play … HOWEVER, I think that UConn is a timebomb waiting to explode in a positive way. They have the deepest team in the country with at least four first round draft picks, on it. Jim Calhoun — like Bill Belichick — always seems to have his team playing it’s best at the end of the season. Can Pitt win? Yes. But 7/10 times this year, UConn is the better team.
…
Paul (Chicago): Fran, what do you see in Marquette’s future? They have a home and home with Pitt, a road game with ‘Nova, a road game with Louisville, AND the Big East tournament. Do you see them dancing with 6 or 7 other Big East teams, or will they be left to the Not Invited Tournament?

Fran Fraschilla: The DePaul game on Wednesday is critical, Paul. It’s a home game that the Golden Eagles SHOULD win. The road in the Big East will always be difficult, so, home games with St J’s, Pitt, GTown and Providence are must wins. Getting Wesley Matthews back in a couple of weeks should strengthen their backcourt depth. Dominique James is close to wrapping up Big East Rookie of the Year — watch out for Cuse’s Eric Devendorf — and Novak continues to be unconscious. So far, this team has exceeded people expectations. It has been a great coaching job by Tom Crean.

And finally, Andy Katz didn’t actually get a Pitt question.

IV (Morgantown): Hey Andy, first off thank you for giving us the recognition that a lot of media members don’t want to give our team and our state. I’m sure you probably catch a lot of grief for it. Anyway, your thoughts on what might happen in the BE standings once conference play really gets rolling?

Andy Katz: If the Mountaineers can win at Pitt then they’ve got a great shot to win the Big East. They play, as you know, Connecticut only once — at home.

And just when I was starting to think Pitt fans could be a little sensitive to perceived media slights — along come the Hoopies to raise the bar.

Seems like sports writers as a collective have discovered the Big East is ruling. Actually, it just varies. It seems like a week or two ago that plenty of people were singing the praises of the Big 11 for its depth. Then the ACC had received its usual love. Now it’s the Big East’s turn. Obviously aided because of the G-town win over Duke and UConn now being #1.

In the Boston Globe there was a story (sure to piss-off the BC fans) on the BE:

Suddenly, the Big East is getting and feeling the love, with the No. 1 team in the country in the latest polls, for the first time seven teams ranked in the Top 25, and speculation the conference will get a record seven and perhaps eight NCAA Tournament bids. The feeling of warmth has even spread to football, where a league that had to defend its right to get an automatic BCS bid suddenly is hearing that one of its teams could be ranked No. 1 in the major preseason polls.

What’s going on, Mike Tranghese? ”I’m just going to take a deep breath and enjoy it,” Tranghese said with a laugh. ”But it’s all so cyclical. Things change so quickly.”

As commissioner of the Big East, Tranghese knows cheers can turn to boos in a heartbeat. Football is a prime example. Through the early part of the fall, Tranghese had to endure complaints that the Big East did not deserve one of the six automatic berths to BCS bowls.

Then West Virginia won, and won, and won again, and defeated Georgia in the Sugar Bowl for an 11-1 season. Now the Mountaineers have received a No. 1 preseason ranking by ESPN.com and the Austin-American Statesmen of Texas, of all places, considering the Longhorns are the defending national champions.

Ray Glier at MSNBC talks a little about the Big East versus the Big 11.

Second, no, the Big Ten is not just as good.

The Big East will not get 10 teams because of — the Big East. You are starting to see it now. Louisville, over-rated by everyone including me, is not in the tournament if it starts today. Rutgers is a good team, but plays too many tough games.

Syracuse has lost three straight to Top 10 teams, but the ‘Cuse better get itself together now because they have a tough finish. Syracuse is 3-3 in the league and could end up 7-9. It plays two of its last three on the road and finishes at home with No. 6 Villanova.

Georgetown beat Duke, but the Hoyas still have a gauntlet of teams to run through in the Big East. The Big East is too good for its own good, and too greedy we might add. It will be fitting payback for stuffing itself with so many Conference USA teams.

I wonder how Notre Dame and Rutgers feel about this expansion now?

I think it is more likely the Big East will get eight teams, but it could also slide to seven. If there is a conference that can get a team in the dance with a losing record, 7-9, it is the Big East. Syracuse still has a high RPI (24) so it can manage its way into the tournament with a 7-9 mark.

As for the Big Ten vs. Big East. I’ll take UConn, Villanova, Pitt, and West Virginia over Michigan State, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

The Big East Basketball Blog has a round-up of several other stories on the Big East.

A few other things.

Isaiah Rider arrested, and shockingly it wasn’t for marijuana. He’s been out of the NBA for several years now. His previous 3 teams were the Lakers, Hawks and Nuggets. The picture used in the story, though, in a Jailblazer uni. Of course.

Mike Farrell of Rivals.com writes his POV of what happened at the Baltimore ESPNZone restaurant when Antonio Logan-El announced he was going to Penn State.

His announcement was to be carried on ESPNews and held at the Baltimore ESPN Zone, a public restaurant where anyone could attend. Logan-El and his family invited a bunch of people and they had to have known that numerous Maryland fans would be in attendance. Heck, they even invited the Maryland coaches to attend, surely a sign that he was sticking to his original commitment. No one in their right mind would make an announcement in a public place in Baltimore and invite the Maryland coaching staff if they were choosing another school, right? Wrong.

Lovely. Of course, Penn State fans will never forget Kevin Jones’ little game when he announced he was headed to VT. That’s their defense, and they are sticking to it.

Finally, a Doug Gottlieb update. Gottlieb has stayed purposefully vague on what record Pitt needs to have over the present 5 game stretch for him to accept that they are “for real” finally gives the answer.

I am giving it up to Pitt for bouncing back well from a road conference loss. If the Panthers can win three of their next four, they may prove to be a real player in the top-two seed mix.

There you have it. 4-1 while playing Syracuse, Marquette, UConn, G-town and WVU and then they may be real. Or maybe he might change his mind again.

As first mentioned last week, you had the Jim Boeheim whine over scheduling and TV. What’s been funny has been the intolerance of it this year. It started almost immediately. It just keeps coming. It’s as if sportswriters have collectively announced that they have had enough of coaches whining about how hard their schedule is.

Paul Zeise sort of cuts Boeheim some slack, but then lays into BE coaches collectively:

The Big East may be the best conference in the country, but it also seems to have become a cradle of whiners.

In recent weeks, at least 10 of the league’s coaches have been quoted in various media outlets complaining about the conference’s schedule and how difficult it is. The other six probably have as well. We just missed it.

Most of the complaints have been centered around the fact that because there are so many teams in the league there are only a few opportunities for home-and-homes (two to be exact), and that makes it more difficult to prepare for opponents because teams only get one shot at them.

Duh!

That’s the price of being a part of a 16-team league, and it is a major reason why many observers have said it is too big for scheduling purposes.

Seth Davis at SI.com is also sick of the various coach whining,

3. The we-shouldn’t-do-everything-TV-says-we-should whine. Boeheim is certainly not the first one to make this complaint. Bob Knight has been doing so for centuries. We can all pretend that these decisions should be made “for the players,” but the reality is, college basketball is a big business. And like any business, it must constantly look for ways to grow revenue. Otherwise, it might go out of business.

Boeheim should be proud of what the Big East has done to his schedule. The league did it because Boeheim has built a marquee program that people want to watch. That has also made Boeheim a very rich man. If he and his coaching brethren would like to reduce the influence of television on their sport, perhaps they could volunteer to cut their salaries in an effort to hold down expenses. Because it’s all about what’s good for the players, right?

Uh, yeah.

Not sure why, but both papers ran a story on Brandin Knight and Carl Krauser’s relationship.

“Carl truly is almost like a brother to me. My daughter calls him uncle. His son is my godson. Our relationship is a lot more extensive than the basketball stuff. There are a lot of times that we deal with things personally.”

Dixon marvels at the similarity between the two, even though Krauser’s emotion is felt more than it was with Knight.

“You always wondered how the relationship was going to work out with two guys that are so competitive,” Dixon said. “But both guys wanted to win so bad that they knew it was the right thing.”

Dixon laughed recalling the time Knight argued with him when Dixon decided to redshirt Krauser in his freshman season.

“That’s how much he wanted Carl to play and it showed how much he wanted to win,” Dixon said.

Tomorrow, with Knight possibly looking on, Krauser may play with increased passion.

“Brandin and I have spent quite a bit of time together since we’ve gotten to know each other,” Krauser said. “We both came from the same kind of background. We understand what it’s like to be the only ones out there.”

Asked to tell what he really thinks of Knight, Krauser wasted no time spilling his answer.

“I think he’s the best point guard ever to play here at Pitt,” Krauser said. “That’s my man.”

That might make for a fun debate in the off-season: over best point guard in Pitt history — Krauser, Knight or Miller.

I found this interesting as well,

“I can remember when we were recruiting Carl and people would say Brandin is there and you don’t want to go there,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “People wondered how it would work. You wondered how their relationship was going to work out.

“Their relationship has meant so much to our program. They’ve learned from each other. With Brandin, I don’t know if I’ve ever been around a smarter player. And with Carl, I don’t know if I’ve ever been around a tougher player.”

Knight credits Krauser with making him a complete player. When Knight was named Big East Player of the Year in 2002, Krauser, a pugnacious freshman at the time, was one of the biggest reasons. It was Krauser who guarded Knight every day in practice, pushing him to be a better player.

“Competing against him every day in practice meant a lot to me,” said Knight, who is Pitt’s all-time leader in assists. “There was nobody in the league who was better than Carl even then. Carl is a competitor. For me to face other guys in games … it was just like practice.”

See, I had really questioned past assertions by Krauser about that. I was wrong.

Mostly unrelated, except as another “human interest” type story is a semi-retired college professor who loves college basketball.

Dr. Chris Shinkman is serious about his hobby. What many people do for a living, Shinkman does for sheer passion for the game.

Shinkman sees more than 100 games a year, culminating in the Final Four for the past 28 years.

“I’ve been following basketball my whole career,” said Shinkman, who calls himself a semi-retired adjunct professor at Virginia. “I’ve been a lot of places and I’ve met a lot of great people. It’s just something I love to do.”

He was in Beckley Thursday to see Mountain State University in the Mountain State Coal Classic at the Raleigh County Armory.

He saw American vs. Navy Wednesday night and will be in Philadelphia for Temple-Maryland Saturday.
…
Shinkman, who lives in Bethesda, Md., said he has been a basketball fan his entire life and will travel to see teams play. But living near the nation’s capital affords him the opportunity to see teams from the Big East (Georgetown), ACC (Maryland), Colonial (George Mason) and the Patriot League (American) right on his doorstep.

He keeps a notebook when he sees a game.

“Just some notes to remind me what I liked and who I saw,” Shinkman said.

He’s seen John Beilein’s WVU squad play a couple times and came away impressed.

“I’ve seen them at the (WVU) Coliseum and I’ve seen them in Pittsburgh,” said Shinkman, who holds a Ph.D. from Pitt. “I’ve admired John Beilein ever since he was at Richmond. Everybody knows he’s a great coach. His players have individual talent, but he has created a team. For him to blend (Jo) Herber, (Mike) Gansey, (Kevin) Pittsnogle and his son (Pat Beilein), all of whom are very different, into a cohesive team is impressive.”

[Emphasis added.]

The story doesn’t indicate in what, but it would appear his doctorate is in Philosophy. Which just makes it that much more interesting to me, for whatever reason.

Yes, another round of getting to know the opponent and the fans. I’m really happy about this one.

Cracked Sidewalks has been one of my regular blog reads since they went online last year. Happily homers (aren’t we all), the guys do really solid work talking about their team. Their coverage over the spring and summer regarding the school nickname was excellent. In addition, they added a stats blog for Marquette games and the Big East basketball. As much as I question the long term viability of the present configuration of the conference, I am thrilled thatthese guys are part of the BE bloggers consortium.

Without further ado.

1. How is this team doing it? Marquette starts 3 freshmen, including Dominic James at the point. How has this team gotten this good this quickly, especially given the loss of Deiner and what seems like a raft of disgruntled transfers over the last couple of years? Marquette is playing 9 deep with only 2 seniors and 1 junior in the rotation.

Because of the injury to Wes Matthews, we are no longer starting 3 freshmen, though upon his return that may continue. In his post game interview on Wednesday, Coach Tom Crean indicated that Wesley could return in mid to late February — that’d be a huge boost to Marquette as Matthews was having a very good year, playing his best ball when the injury occurred. Thankfully, Jerel McNeal and Dominic James have elevated their play in his absence — James gets the headlines (deservedly so), but McNeal is also turning in a terrific season; he stuffs the box score routinely.

Back to your question though, I would argue the players that transferred have clearly been replaced by players that are better and more committed. Mason would have played this year, but the new kids were on par with his talent and production immediately this season. These kids have so much athleticism and they are fearless — even in the Cincinnati game where the Bearcats held a block party, the freshmen never backed down.

We have been a timid team the last two seasons with guys settling for jump shots, but now we are aggressive and fearless. That is totally embodied by the three freshmen and it opens it up for the guys that don’t tend to get physical like Novak and Fitzgerald. Novak in particular has benefited from the attention the freshmen draw from opposing players.

2. What style of a game does Marquette play on offense and defense? I realize they play at a faster tempo than Pitt and take a lot shots per game, though offensive efficiency isn’t too different, but is it a half-court, perimeter, penetration, drive and kick-out?

Defensively we play man to man or a matchup zone mostly. Crean will mix it up during the game and sometimes possession by possession. MU showed signs of becoming a full-court pressure team prior to Matthews’ injury ,but we’ve not seen that look since then.

Offensively Marquette attacks the hoop with dribble penetration from the guards (primarily James and McNeal) who also kick it back out for our three point shooters (Fitzgerald’s breakout performance against DePaul is the latest case in point). MU does not have much of a post up game, though Novak has done more and more of that. Also, with Matthews out Crean has gone to a bit more screening for Novak.

Our bigs usually get garbage points, or points off of James going to the hoop and drawing the defense to him. Our bigs do not create much on their own, and seem to have a short leash with Coach Crean. It seems like one big man per game does OK for MU — but never more than that. For example, Ousmane Barro played well against DePaul this week, and before that, Mike Kinsella turned in spirited minutes against ND. Who will it be against Pitt?

3. Novak has earned BE Player of the Week honors twice and James Rookie of the Week twice. They are the leading scorers. Novak leads the team in rebounds and James in assists. What kind of game do they like to play?

Novak still relies on his brilliant shooting from beyond the arc, he’s one of the purest shooters in the nation. He will post up from time to time, but what’s been amazing this season is how quickly Novak is able to release his shot — even with guys draped all over him, Novak will hit the deep three pointer. I still don’t think Steve gets enough shot attempts per game, however.. He’s also a 97%+ free throw shooter as well.

James is very aggressive, an extraordinary athlete. James and Dwyane Wade are the best two pure athletes to play at Marquette in decades. Some games he looks to dish first (the DePaul game this week), some he has to score a bit more (the DePaul game the week before). He has the talent for both, and is a very efficient basketball player. The team relies on him as much as Pitt relies on Krauser, and James has responded with an A/TO ratio of nearly than 2 to 1, and he’s shooting better than 50% from the field in conference play. Despite his stature, James goes in amongst the trees regularly. He’s very, very quick — DePaul was the latest team that failed to halt his dribble penetration. James is a streaky 3-point shooter and needs to improve his FT shooting — he’s really struggled from the line at times this season.

4. What sort of team gives Marquette the most trouble, offensively and defensively? Teams that shoot the 3 well. Our perimeter defense isn’t great, just ask West Virginia which set Big East and school records for 3-pointers made in their game against MU earlier this year. Defending the perimeter has been a weakness for MU for the last couple of seasons.

Defensively, there haven’t been many teams that have shut MU down this year. We have shot high 40’s or 50% in many of our games. We do get turnover happy, which is somewhat expected as a young team. Many of those turnovers seem to be self-induced, out of control playing rather than anything the defense is doing. When James is out of the game, however, we can be vulnerable to the press.

5. I know Marquette and the fans were very excited about joining the Big East. Can you talk about it a little? How long do you see the BE lasting as presently configured? Do you see a split somewhere in the future?

ECSTATIC about the Big East. Its the best thing to happen to Marquette probably since the 1977 National Title (well, that 2003 Final Four was sweet too).

It puts us in the best conference in basketball, it opens up recruiting channels on the East Coast (Crean is taking full advantage of that) and it brings new, exciting teams for the fans to see.

Even if the conference breaks up, this is a good move for us because it is likely that MU stays with the ‘basketball only’ schools league going forward. I, for one, am not convinced the league will break up. Where are these east coast schools going to go to play football? If there was a viable destination for them, I would agree but I don’t see the ACC getting any bigger. The Big 10 might take one more school but certainly will not take 4 or 5. Geography leads me to believe that everyone is staying put with the one caveat that the football schools break off across the country to form a Super Division I. All bets are off at that point.

6. When did you realize that this team would be able to successfully compete in the Big East this year, despite such a young roster?

Since you never know until you try, its easy to say the UConn win to open the season. MU played a near perfect game that night, and Novak delivered one of the great performances in Big East history.

But I think the win that initially raised expectations was the overtime win over South Carolina to claim the title at the Great Alaska Shootout. MU won three straight games up there (Eastern Washington, Oral Roberts, South Carolina) and I think that made you believe in this squad. None of the teams MU beat up there were remarkable, but given MU’s youth and the solid, veteran-laden teams they beat (ORU and the Gamecocks), it was impossible to ignore the optimism at that point.

Keep in mind, that going into the GAS, expectations were wildly inconsistent for this team. Some figured they’d struggle mightily due to the roster turnover and youth, while others thought the squad had a high ceiling. Turns out the optimists were correct — and I think that South Carolina win excited the fan base here.

Thanks again guys. My answers to their questions can be found here.

Aaron Berry’s local paper had the story on his verbal to Pitt (hat tip, Joe).

“I just felt so comfortable at Pitt,” said Berry, the spectacular wide receiver and defensive back at Bishop McDevitt. “I felt comfortable with the academics, the campus and especially the players.

“But the thing that I liked more than anything was that it was close for family to come out to a game on Saturdays,” Berry said. “That meant a lot to me.”

Berry’s announcement at an afternoon press conference at Bishop McDevitt brought a lot of smiles to his family, including his mother, Mary Anne, and teammates and coaches gathered in Tracy Hall.

But few smiles were bigger than the effusive Berry’s, who acknowledged the traditional relief that comes with making a decision, especially one that was as tight as his pass coverage.

A late surge by West Virginia, a school that had interested Berry all along and picked up additional steam with its solid Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia, was a close second.

In other stuff, Tamarcus Porter may or may not be considering other options, mainly because he took a visit to Wake Forest. Naturally, the Trib’s recruiting/high school writer Kevin Gorman hopes that means Pitt will offer Lance Jeter out of Beaver Falls. The question with Jeter, however, is how much he really wants it. He seems to prefer basketball.

One of Pitt’s final undecideds, will by Monday.

Duquesne receiver Elijah Fields, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 2005 Player of the Year, will announce his decision on Monday. He has narrowed his choices to Pitt and Penn State, eliminating West Virginia and Ohio State, which also offered scholarships.

Kind of surprised WVU got cut. They had been going hard after him and were considered the front runner. Maybe with Wes Lyons going there he changed his mind.