What Rick Pitino says, becomes the rule for lazy sportswriters.

It’s impossible to prove. But there might be more contact in Big East basketball than Big East football. That supposition is based on our only up-close glimpse of Big East football, in which Rutgers watched Arizona State put up 45 points in the Insight Bowl on Dec. 27 at Chase Field.

The nation’s largest major conference – it has 16 hoops-playing members – is harking back to the days when every night seemed like a brawl. Nine of the top 60 teams in scoring defense are from the Big East.

Just ask Louisville coach Rick Pitino, whose team was outmuscled by unbeaten Pittsburgh 61-57 on Sunday.

Not that he’s bothered watching anything in the Big East. He just saw a quote from Rick Pitino and assumed it for all. Fine journalism in action.

Dick Vitale thinks Aaron Gray is the most improved player in college basketball (hat tip Joe). Far be it from me to take anything away from Pitt pub and positive stuff, but I’m not buying. Gray just didn’t play last season because Chris Taft was ahead of him in talent and what he had done. It’s not like he beat Taft out for the starting role. This is not to rip Gray, but I would consider most improved to be a player who clearly raised and improved his game. Not someone who has blossomed once in the role. Gray showed improvement in his brief spells last year. It just doesn’t work for me.

A Syracuse site ranks the toughest BE schedule (surprise, Syracuse has the hardest) for the 10 best teams. This is what he said about Pitt:

The Panthers play 10 games against the best the BE has to offer. They play Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Cincinnati at home; Louisville, Connecticut, and Georgetown on the road; and have home-and-home series against West Virginia and Marquette. Oddly, they don’t play in-state rival Villanova at all. Something I’m sure the Wildcats’ players are happy about, not having to be pulled, grabbed, scratched, clawed, kneed, and elbowed for 40 minutes. Pitt’s recent win over Wisconsin shows they will be a force in the Big East again this year.

The Big East Basketball Blog has a good preview of tonight’s game and predicts a Pitt win.

As Pitt gets on the national radar and tonight’s and Saturday’s games will be in the NY/NJ area, longtime NY Daily News Columnist Dick Weiss does a piece on Pitt.

There were also questions about whether Dixon could get a relatively inexperienced team with only two seniors to play cohesively if Carl Krauser continued to dominate the ball at the point. But the Panthers have forced us to take notice. They’re 14-0 and ranked ninth in the AP poll after defeating a ranked Wisconsin team at home and winning their first three league games. This is Pitt Week in the metropolitan area. The Panthers play Rutgers at the sold-out RAC tonight, then play St.John’s Saturday at noon at the Garden.

“I thought our league would be good, but it’s even better than I thought,” Dixon said. “Rutgers is much better than the two teams I saw on ESPN Monday – Kansas and Missouri. There’s going to be an astounding number of teams that have a shot at the tournament.”

With the NY connections of the team, expect a few more stories from the NYC papers. Especially if Pitt wins tonight.

This is Rutgers Coach Gary Waters 5th season. Pitt is the only Big East (pre-bloating) team against whom he has yet to notch a win. Overall, Pitt has won 7 straight against Rutgers, the last loss coming in 2001 at the RAC.

While starting Guard Anthony Farmer, a Freshman and the second leading scorer, did not start against DePaul because of a sore wrist on his shooting hand, he did play 27 minutes. He is not expected to miss the Pitt, game, though, he may come off the bench. Farmer is also Rutgers’ leader in assists with around 3.7/game.

Rutgers is playing much better this year, despite losing Ricky Shields. The discussion of Rutgers has to begin and focus on Sophomore Quincy Douby.

Junior guard Quincy Douby has been the catalyst. A 6-foot-3 junior, Douby leads the Big East in scoring with 23.3 points per game. No other player in the conference is more a focal point of his offense than Douby, who takes 31 percent of the Scarlet Knights’ shots from the field.

Douby averages more than 16 shots per game and is shooting 46.6 percent from the field, a high percentage for a guard. The only other player in the league who comes close to Douby’s production is Randy Foye of Villanova, who takes 26.8 percent of his team’s shots. Foye takes 15.3 shots per game, shoots 45.5 percent from the field and averages 20.6 points per game.

“You’re not going to shut him down,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “He’s going to get shots. He’s going to take shots. He’s got range. We’ve done a good job on a lot of guards this year, keeping them below their averages. You can’t let him get going. He’s been very dangerous this year.”

How dominant has Douby been? Rutgers has played 16 games this season, and he has led the Scarlet Knights in scoring in 15 of those games. And he hasn’t just racked up his points against suspect competition.

Douby scored 21 points in a loss to Illinois, 27 in a victory against Temple and 28 in an overtime loss to Villanova, the only blemish on the Knights’ league record. The fewest points he has scored in a game this season is 18 against Maryland Eastern Shore, but he played only 27 minutes in that game because the game was a blowout.

Douby is also hitting around 38% from outside the arc. His Effective Field Goal Percentage is 55.3%. I think you can expect Krauser and Ramon to take turns working on him.

If Pitt doesn’t show some better perimeter defense, this could prove to be a bad night. Rutgers shoots.

As expected, Rutgers main defensive guy Marquis Webb will be dealing with Krauser.

Webb’s defensive assignment may change from game to game, but he usually doesn’t have to look at Rutgers’ scouting report to find out who he’s going to guard. All he has to do is look at the opposing team’s stat sheet and discover the name of the other team’s leading scorer.

One night Webb may be asked to defend an All-America guard like Temple’s Mardy Collins (11 points, 1-for-9 shooting), the next he may be assigned an NBA prospect like DePaul swingman Sammy Mejia (11 points, 3-for-9 shooting).

“Normally the guy you guard plays the same position, but Marquis can really guard almost anybody,” Waters said. “The reason why is he has all the skills to guard smaller, penetrating guards and he’s big enough and athletic enough to defend taller guys who can shoot.”
…
The matchup against Krauser represents a completely different challenge for Webb, who is four inches taller but not as quick. The scouting report on Krauser is that the 6-1, 200-pound senior has a good first step and is adept at beating his opponent off the dribble. He’ll draw defenders and either spot up for a 3-pointer (a career-high 42.2 percent this season) or find an open teammate for an assist (4.4). His midrange game is solid, but he loves driving to the basket and is a good finisher.

“(Krauser) is a guy I’ve been preparing for,” Webb said, “but whoever coach Waters puts me on I’ll do my best to contain him.”

Webb isn’t giving anything away, but it’s a safe bet he’ll watch plenty of last year’s game against Pittsburgh as he explores Krauser’s weaknesses. Pittsburgh beat Rutgers 66-63 in overtime, but Krauser finished with more turnovers (nine) than points (seven) in his worst performance of the season. Three of those turnovers were offensive fouls against Webb as Krauser was hounded all night, making just two of his six shots overall.

Webb, apparently, prepares for the games by breaking down game tape of the opponent he expects to go one-on-one against.

While Rutgers has improved, the team is still seeking to recapture the true home-court advantage that made the RAC one of the more fearsome places for visiting teams to play.

A win tonight also would signal the return of the RAC wrath. It’s been two years since a ranked team left Rutgers a loser, three years since the Scarlet Knights tagged four ranked teams losers. The fans had the floor shaking last week against Villanova. Junior sharpshooter Quincy Douby said the energy was what he remembered from two years ago — when Rutgers rode a 16-2 home record to the NIT title game — and Waters said, “We have to show we’re going to hold serve.”

Waters tried saying it is too early to start worrying about quality wins and possible postseason appeal, joking, “We have to crawl before we can walk.” And yet, Rutgers will have to get off its knees eventually. The Scarlet Knights have played Pitt tight recently, dropping an overtime decision last year and threatening to upend the then-No. 5 team up until the game’s final couple of minutes in 2003.

“We need to show people we are a good team, we can play against the best teams in the country and we can win,” Webb said. “We have to seize these opportunities.”

Playing teams tough is one thing, winning is the important thing.

Last year when Ramon was having his big game against Rutgers, one of the things that stuck in RU’s craw was the fact that he was nearly a Scarlet Knight. This time, it could be Aaron Gray.

Gray’s emergence as an impact player comes as no surprise to Rutgers coach Gary Waters, who still has trouble believing Gray didn’t wind up in Piscataway.

“I thought it was a done deal. I thought he was coming here,” Waters said. “I knew he was going to be a player.”

Gray said his last two schools were Rutgers and Pittsburgh, and says “it’s very possible I could be in a Rutgers uniform right now. It was that close.”

“I think he’s a presence,” Waters said.

In a piece ostensibly about the 3 Pitt freshmen, there is a good deal of talking about the toughness and way Pitt plays.

It is possible to classify this Pitt team among the toughest, if you judge the decision on Louisville coach Rick Pitino’s comments after Sunday’s loss to the Panthers when he made reference to playing football on a basketball court.

Pitt’s size and strength wore down Louisville in the second half, when the Panthers rallied from a seven-point deficit to take a six-point lead on a driving layup by Antonio Graves, another in Pitt’s impressive reserve-guard pool, with 3:19 remaining.

“It’s how we play in practice, so it’s how we’re going to play in the game,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “A strength of this team is our depth. We’ve said it from the start of the season. It’s a good rotation we have.”

Dixon further agreed with the assessment that teams that want to be successful in the Big East must play with an attitude.

“Any good team has got to have a chip on their shoulder,” he said. “Anybody playing in this league has to have that. You’ve got to go out and prove yourself every night. That’s a common thread in this league. The teams are so good.”

Rutgers actually plays a lot of guys. They have 8 guys averaging more than 10 minutes a game. One more at 9 minutes and another at 7.5. They will have the bodies to throw at Pitt.

There are always the game notes for Pitt and Rutgers (PDF). Last year, Pitt had to go to OT to pull out a 3-point win. That game was noted for Ronald Ramon’s hot shooting. Pitt had been coming off two bad losses at home — Georgetown and Bucknell — and was part of a bad stretch for Pitt. After the Rutgers game, they gave away a big lead and had to rally to beat Seton Hall. That was followed by the loss to St. John’s. There was just some bad craziness at that point last year.

Looking at the game in capsule view, summarizes something of the theme.

Rutgers has a decent record, but really needs some big time wins to play their way into the bracket picture. Pitt is unbeaten on the year and continues to play well against tough teams. This is not going to be an easy game for the Panthers to win though. Rutgers is very tough at home and nearly upset Villanova in their last home game. They also managed a big road win against De Paul in their last game. Rutgers will be playing with a purpose because they are trying to pick up a high quality conference win, which is something they really need.

Rutgers will be tough out.

In one of the best match-up evaluations, albeit biased to the Scarlet Knights, this one really does a very good job. To get to the Rutgers win, he harps — incessantly — on Pitt’s lack of road play. That the Louisville game was the only road game was a real test. It’s worth reading the piece, though, to acquaint yourself better with the Rutgers team and expected match-ups.

As well reported, Pitt is #9 in both national polls. In the latest Big East blog poll, Pitt is inexplicably ranked #3. My vote was this way.

1. Pitt
2. UConn
3. WVU
4. Villanova
5. Syracuse
6. Louisville
7. Georgetown
8. Cinci
9. Marquette
10. Rutgers
11. DePaul
12. ND
13. Seton Hall
14. St. John’s
15. Providence
16. USF

USF with its injury depleted team seems to have a lock on the basement. Seton Hall and Providence are falling to near the bottom, and St. John’s seems to be taking a step back. Nowhere is it clearer about the depth of this confernece with DePaul, Rutgers and Marquette all trying to get into the top-8.

I’m sure many of you missed Pitino being interviewed at halftime of the game on Sunday due to flicking to the Steeler game. You can see and hear it here.

Listening to it, he wasn’t upset at the way Pitt was playing. He was upset that his guys weren’t matching them. As he said, the “refs are calling it fair.”

Glenn Wohl at the Rutgers blog “RAC ‘Em Up” and I are doing the Q&A exchange. You can read my answers to his questions here. These were his responses to some of mine.

Is Gary Waters, dead coach walking? Does he need to make the NCAA or NIT? Or just get to the BET and look respectable? Fred Hill was a great hire, obviously, just from recruiting alone, and is his ascension inevitable?

There are 3 main schools of thought on Gary Waters:

1) fire him now, he is not the man to get the job done;
2) if we don’t make the NCAAs this year, fire him; and
3) get to BE Tourney and NIT this year, NCAA next year. Anything less, then fire him.

I think he gets next year regardless, barring a major collapse this year. Many people believe Hill to be the heir apparent, whether Waters being fired or moving to greener pastures. In addition to recruiting, Hill has been credited with Douby’s return to RU. I don’t know enough about Hill’s coaching prowess and whether he is a good hire, but he is certainly active on the sidelines during games. I also don’t know if he aspires to be a head coach, as there is a good chance the Seton Hall job will open up after this year.

Quincy Douby is the primary scoring threat, and Marquis Webb is the defensive shut-down artist for the team. Who needs to help them out for Rutgers to win against Pitt? In what ways (rebounding, scoring, defense). If Pitt shuts down Douby (holding him under 15), can Rutgers win?

I don’t think RU has that one guy in addition to Douby who can pick up the load. It requires a collective effort from anyone, though Webb, Anthony Farmer, JR Inman, and one of the big men (Jimmie Inglis or Adrian Hill) are the likely candidates.

Inman would appear to be the most likely candidate due to his size and athleticism, but he is only a freshman. I think the other guys will contribute defense and rebounding regardless. They must contribute offense.

RU won at DePaul with Douby struggling for 20 (he shot 6-20) from the field. Pitt is better than DePaul, but Douby usually plays well at home. I doubt RU could win if he doesn’t get 20-25, which is a big problem for RU. Last year, Webb shut down Krauser and Ramon stepped up for Pitt. Last week, RU held Ray in check, and Kyle Lowry stepped up. Not sure we have that guy on our roster.

Why should people believe that this year will be different for Rutgers? By that, I mean will they be the team that plays very well at home, getting an upset or two, but look lost away from the RAC? Not to be mean, but the reputation Rutgers has earned is that it just is not a good road team.

You’re not being mean, just truthful. RU still needs a signature victory, which we all hope is tomorrow night. At a minimum, they must beat the weaker teams (St. John’s, USF, Seton Hall) on the road.

The reason to believe this year will be different? A few:

1) Douby has elevated his game. He is no longer just a long-rage bomber. He can drive to the basket, and is a more proficient passer.
2) The halfcourt defense is much improved.
3) The freshman are contributing, especially Farmer and Inman.
4) Webb may be the best defender in the league, maybe the country. He simply shuts down his opponent, which includes to date, Mardy Collins (Temple), Allen Ray (Nova), and Sammy Mejia (DePaul).

There will be more exchanges coming.

Here are the Pittsburgh papers’ stories on Tamarcus Porter committing.

“He loved the facilities when he went to camp there last summer and he just feels like it would be a place for him to play early,” said Pahokee coach Leroy Foster. “He loved coach [Dave] Wannstedt and also [assistant] coach Charlie Partridge, who recruited him.”
…
“He’s a very versatile player,” Foster said. “You can put him anywhere on the field and he will give you results. He’s a tough competitor who plays a physical style.”

Porter also visited Boston College in September. Foster said Porter also had scheduled visits to Virginia and Wake Forest, but will cancel those trips. Foster also said he expected Porter to wait a week or two before making a decision, “but I think this whole recruiting process was just getting too much for him.”

The Atlanta Journal Constitution looks at teams that are surprising in the recruiting front. Headlining the group of 5:

1. Pitt. On the field, the Panthers lost to Ohio University and Rutgers in Year 1 of the Dave Wannstedt era. Off it, they’ve whipped Florida State, Michigan and Southern Cal.

The nation’s top-ranked tight end — Nate Byham of Franklin, Pa. — turned down half the Top 25 to commit to Pitt. Fellow Pennsylvanian Dorin Dickerson, a top-five receiver recruit nationally, picked Pitt over LSU, Michigan, Nebraska and Ohio State.

With 21 commitments, the Panthers are poised for a top-10 finish.

“They are killing it,” Scout.com analyst Jamie Newberg said.

Nice to read.

Everyone wants to talk about the polls and rankings.

Pitt has been ranked in the top 10 in each of the past four seasons. So when the Panthers cracked the top 10 of both polls yesterday for the first time this season, it didn’t exactly make waves among the players.

“You can tell from the preseason rankings that they don’t really mean much,” junior forward Levon Kendall said of the polls. “I don’t think we were in the top 50 when the season started. They’re not really representative of the truth. It’s something you really try not to worry about too much. It’s nice to get the recognition, but there’s always going to be critics and there’s always going to be people who doubt you no matter what you do.”

Pitt is No. 9 in The Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN polls after its first victory against a top-10 team Sunday at Louisville. It is the first time since December 2004 that Pitt is ranked in the top 10.

Levance Fields makes this point.

“A lot of people probably are going to start taking us a little more seriously,” said Pitt freshman Levance Fields, who scored a team-high 13 points against the Cardinals.

Coach Dixon is trying to downplay it.

“We don’t go really too much by the rankings,” he said. “It’s not something we really pay attention to. It’s brought to our attention, to be honest. You want to win each game out. If you do that, you’re going to be in those type of rankings. The biggest emphasis is improving every time out. We’ve got to get better in a lot of little things.”

Pitt (14-0, 3-0 Big East) reached the top 10 last year for three successive weeks at No. 10, but finished the season out of the polls after a first-round loss to Pacific in the NCAA Tournament.

“This team has improved from the beginning of the year more than any team I’ve been around,” Dixon said. “From the exhibition games through the 14 (regular-season) games, they’ve improved tremendously. But we have a lot of areas we can improve in. Maybe that’s because of our youth.”

In fact, Coach Dixon is not enjoying the national attention to some degree, because people keep questioning the legitimacy of the team. And just how good is Pitt?

And, as far as being tested?

“I’ve had that first-test question about eight different times this year. We’re used to that first test. It seems like it’s not a test once you win the game in some people’s eyes, but we’ve played good people. Again, Wisconsin is three in the RPI so I guess we’ll have to get the one and two RPI teams to get a real test in some people’s minds. But, hey, we’re going to play very good teams and we’ve got to continue to improve. We don’t think we’re anywhere near where we need to be and our guys understand that and that’s been our emphasis all year. This team has improved throughout the year, dramatically, more so than any team I’ve been around in 14 years and it continues to get better.”

Pitt was supposed to be tested by traveling to South Carolina. Then facing Wisconsin. Then conference play opening with Notre Dame. Then a trip to Louisville. It does seem rather monotonous to keep being questioned. Still that’s what happens when you’ve effed with perceptions.

Pitt was supposed to be rebuilding. They were supposed to be a struggling bubble-team at best this year with all the new players. They weren’t supposed to be in the top-25, let alone the top-10.

That has been a real factor in holding Pitt back, just as it kept teams like BC or Wake in the polls longer than they should. Preseason perceptions, and not wanting to let go. Stewart Mandel at SI.com had a bit discussing that.

It seems to me the pollsters are still clinging to the pecking order they established in November, so much so that a team that started the season unranked (Ohio State) still can’t eclipse a team that started in the top 10 (Louisville) even if both have similar resumes. Considering the teams have now played as many as 16 games in some cases, the AP and Coaches’ polls have got to be the slowest-reacting organizations since FEMA.

I realize this is not football, in which I’m an AP voter and in which one loss can send a highly ranked team spiraling. Given that basketball teams play 30-plus games, one has to be careful about reading too much into one bad week. I was puzzled when then-No. 2 Texas dropped just four spots after its Dec. 10 debacle against Duke at the Meadowlands (which was followed by a blowout loss by Texas to Tennessee in Austin). But the ‘Horns have since beaten Memphis (on the road) and Villanova. They’re not worthy of No. 2, but it’s probably a good thing they didn’t fall to 22, either.

At some point, however, you’ve got to stop giving teams the benefit of the doubt. Kentucky has been a walking train wreck all season, yet it took until last week for the Wildcats to finally fall out of the Top 25. Ditto for Wake Forest, despite having more home losses to DePaul (one) than it does point guards.

No one likes being wrong. So you give those teams you picked a little benefit of the doubt as long as you can. That would be during the non-con, when few teams are truly tested and you can rationalize things easier. Conference play tends to shake things out.

Sorry, late start today. Other duties that kept me from being chained to the computer. Stuff, soon.

Gottlieb has a nice gig. He has his schtick where he attempts to be controversial by going against the conventional wisdom and popular things. It gets him pub, generates attention and makes his minders at ESPN happy. Reality and consistency have no place in this world.

Right now, Pitt is hot, so it is time to hate on Pitt. Keith got into it with him during his chat (Insider subs) today. Keith specifically challenged him with regards to a comparison to Florida. He refuses to directly answer.

Now it starts to get fun as we have Mr. Gottlieb as one of the first ESPN.com “experts” to put Pitt in his Power-16, back in December.

Pitt makes my Power 16 because they played and won a road game! Their stay could be short-lived if they do not become more effective on offense as Wisconsin comes to Peterson Events Center.

His definition of “effective” must be different from others. The South Carolina game was ugly, but proved to be the exception.

Now, Gottlieb on the air and in his chat denigrated what Pitt has done so far, because they just haven’t done enough — other than winning — even if no one really expected much from them. So what does he write in his weekly watch, this week?

Texas A&M lost two games but gained a ton of respect in the Big 12 this week. The Aggies lead most of the Oklahoma State game behind Acie Law‘s 35 points before falling 79-77 on the road and then controlled Oklahoma at home Saturday before Terrell Everett‘s 3-pointer with six seconds remaining helped the Sooners to a 45-44 road win.

Billy Gillispie has charged life into a program that has never won a Big 12 tournament game. He has caught some heat in the conference for playing the league’s weakest non-conference schedule during both of his seasons in College Station, but this week, A&M is at Kansas State and Iowa State and we’ll find out if all the confidence the Aggies built up in the nonconference season will hold up, especially after two tough losses.

So, let me get this straight, a team that has a non-con SOSof 303, had home wins against Auburn and Penn State by a total of 10 points compared to Pitt by a combined 74, has lost their close conference games to teams like Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, not to mention losing to Pacific (not that there’s any shame in that), and beat North Texas by 2 points. But they are impressing?

The cheap and easy assumption (and shot) is that since Gottlieb got his second chance at Oklahoma State after his, uh, incidents at Notre Dame is that he is showing just a touch of bias. I don’t think so. It’s part of his schtick.

Really, how do you argue with someone who has no opinion, only a desire to generate “controversy?”

Sorry for the lengthy silence. Drive back from the family visit in Lebanon. Oddest thing. Listening to Pittsburgh sportstalk both on Friday and today during part of the drive, all I heard was talk about this Steelers-Colts playoff game. Not one damn word about Pitt. I just don’t get it.

A new verbal for Pitt, Tamarcus Porter. This information from Pittsburgh Sports Report e-mail update.

Porter, 6’1″ and 170-pounds, can play wide receiver, cornerback or free safety at the next level. He chose Pitt over Boston College, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Virginia, Maryland and a host of others. Porter is the fourth Floridian in Pitt’s current recruiting class and will join Pahokee teammate Ricky Gary in the Panthers’ class of 2006.

Porter is classified on some recruiting sites as “athlete.” A top-50 athlete in Florida. The last couple of years have demonstrated the value of speed and “athletes” if used properly. Both Rivals.com and Scout.com list him only as a 3-star recruit, yet he held offers from lots of “name” programs, suggesting that he might be raw, but with lots of potential. If you are looking for optimism, ESPN’s Scout’s Inc. (Insider Subs.) is higher on him, giving him a 6.9 on their 9 point scale (Ricky Gary and Kevin Collier both get 6.9).

Porter is a playmaker every time he touches the football on both offense and defense. He is so fun to watch because his ability to make people miss is uncanny and he is a “ballhawk” as a free safety which is where we believe he will end up in college. One of the better overall athletes in this class with great flexible hips and fluid movements. He possesses an excellent feel for the game, has natural football instincts and always seems to be around the football. Has good size and strength. Plays with a great motor. Flies around the field and shows very good aggressiveness in run support. Has good short area quickness and burst when coming forward. Has good balance and body control. Takes solid angles in pursuit, sifts through traffic smoothly and is a sound and consistent tackler. Shows great range and could match up versus the slot if need be. Certainly has the tools to matchup with tight ends and backs in man coverage. The problem with Porter is that he lacks elite top-end speed. If he was faster he would be receiving national recognition as a recruit and would also be just as viable a recruit as a receiver as he is a safety. However, this guy is a football player with burst and explosiveness and his playmaking skills compensate for his lack of ideal speed.

They rank him as the 24th best Safety in the country. At only 170 pounds, he will be getting bigger, stronger and faster. I suspect the keyword is “upside.”

Meanwhile, the jewel of Pitt’s recruiting class receives a nice award and Pitt’s past is there to give it to him.

Dorin Dickerson didn’t know what to expect of the Pittsburgh Athletic Association Mercury Award banquet, so the West Allegheny star was surprised Friday night when Tony Dorsett took him aside to give him some advice.

Dickerson, a Pitt recruit, became the fifth recipient of the PAA’s Mercury Award, sponsored by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and presented annually to the top high school football player in Western Pennsylvania.

“It shocked me at first when I walked in. This is a really big award,” said Dickerson, who was presented the trophy by Dorsett and Bill Fralic. “I’m excited I got to share it with the greatest players to come out of Pitt.”

About 2 weeks to NLI day.

Shocked. Shocked I am to find that the Pittsburgh media seems otherwise focused on this whole Steelers football thing.

Pitt has built its reputation in this millennium on the reputation of tough physical play. To some, a throwback to the roots of the league. Personally, I think it’s overstated. A convenience for writers who can reference the Steelers, football and the steel-making industry.

Still, there was no doubt about the tougher team yesterday.

But all the talent and coaching expertise in the world couldn’t prepare Louisville for the physical battle it faced against the Panthers. The Cardinals got to see up close how physical the Big East Conference was yesterday when Pitt bullied them all over the court, played fierce defense and got huge efforts from its talented freshmen to win at Freedom Hall, 61-57.
…
The No. 12 Panthers (14-0, 3-0) remained one of three undefeated teams in Division I, and they did it with their two best players in foul trouble for much of the game. Krauser played 31 minutes and scored eight points. Junior center Aaron Gray played 24 minutes and had 10 points.

Pitt was feeling it after the game.

The swagger was there. Oh, it wasn’t a blatant display, but there was no denying the Pitt basketball players were into a subtle strut Sunday following a 61-57 victory against No. 10 Louisville that extended the 12th-ranked Panthers’ unbeaten streak to 14 games.

If Pitt (14-0, 3-0 Big East) was an unknown commodity before yesterday’s physical scrap in front of 19,947 at Freedom Hall, the word may get out now pretty quickly.
…
“We came out and we out-toughed them,” Pitt guard Carl Krauser said. “We’re still undefeated, and we’re just going to try to get a win on Wednesday (at Rutgers).”

Of course, Pitt has now started a grinding part of the schedule.

“It’s going to be tough,” Gray said. “We just started classes this week, and the coaches stressed that we have to get everything in order because we’ll miss a lot of school while we’re on the road. So, that’s going to be a real task, but it’s going to be important to see how we come out of it.

“A lot of it’s mental, so we have to take care of ourselves. We’ll be on the road, and then we come back for a day to go to class. And then, we go on the road again. So, we have to get adjusted to playing in new arenas and new cities, but we have a pretty tough team that should be able to handle it.”

In Louisville, there is much surprise over not being able to bang inside (yes, they overuse the football analogies).

Instead, the shot chart showed the Cardinals (13-3, 1-2 Big East) couldn’t run between the tackles — to continue the football analogy. They made 8 of 14 three-point shots (57.1 percent) but only 5 of 10 layups. In the free-throw lane they made just 7 of 22 shots (31.8 percent).

Even 25 points from Terrence Williams, matching the highest-scoring game by a freshman in Pitino’s tenure, wasn’t enough to overcome the edge in strength and experience for Pitt (14-0, 3-0).

“It’s like a street game in there,” sophomore Terrance Farley said. “You’ve got to go in with elbows and pushing if you have to. … We all have to adjust.”

The Louisville players just sat around their lockers after the game, openly disappointed.

But the game’s key sequence was taking place on the other end. Beginning with a three-pointer by Levance Fields with 12:02 left, the Panthers scored on 10 of 11 possessions, turning a seven-point deficit into a 56-51 lead. Williams scored 11 points in that span, but the Cards never regained the lead.

That is big offensive efficiency. Doing something with every possession.

Right now, the game seems to have really shaken Louisville’s confidence. Not to mention the media’s.

The Cardinals lost their second straight Enormous East Conference home game yesterday. They extended their losing streak against ranked competition to three games. They needed a validating victory, but they had to settle for close in a 61-57 loss to No. 12 Pittsburgh.

This defeat could sting mercilessly. Louisville played well enough to win, even with Dean limping, even with all their experienced players struggling. And the Cardinals still lost. And halfway through the season, they still seek that elusive, reassuring big win. And they can’t be certain when they’ll find it.

And yet, somehow, I think Louisville will be there in the end of the season.

If you haven’t checked out Keith’s post on the game, do so. He has some good thoughts on Levance Fields’ impact this year.

The AP article seems to have generated some annoyance. Let me first point out the obvious, the writer doesn’t get to choose the title of the story. That is left to the editors, and usually at the papers who publish. So if you are pissed about the word “survive,” the ire is misdirected.

Coach Dixon said this about the game.

“Very good win against a very good team, well-coached and a tough athletic group. We just found ways to gut it out. I wouldn’t say we came out and shot the lights out. It wasn’t our prettiest game. It was tough and we battled through. We had guys in foul trouble. Aaron (Gray) and Carl (Krauser) played the whole game with their hands in their pockets. They adjusted and that’s a good thing. We played our usual rotation, playing a lot of guys and it benefited us a lot tonight. We’ll continue to do that. It’s the best thing for this group. So many guys made big plays.”

Nothing to disagree there. It wasn’t pretty. It was, though, the way Pitt wanted to play it. Pitt made Louisville expend a lot of energy at both ends.

Rick Pitino was hilarious at halftime. Some took his comments about the physical play as whining. It was some gamesmanship, and the truth is his team adjusted at the half to play hard. He understands that the Big East is this way.

“That was very physical game. We allowed them to push us around on the glass. This isn’t C-USA, which is a finesse league. This is a football league in a basketball league. This is a tough league. “

Maybe I’m being kind, but I take that sort of comment as a message to his own team, to “get used to it.”

“That was a real tough, physical basketball game. They hurt our zone with the high pick. We were totally prepared for it and didn’t execute it. It comes down to simple execution at the defensive end sometimes and we didn’t execute it. After playing unbelievable defense in the first half, we broke down def. in the 2nd half. It really hurt us in inopportune times. I’m proud of our guys. I thought they played with great heart and great effort. We just get beat by better teams.”

They did play a very solid defense, but Pitt keeps showing an unshakable confidence that they will come back. That they will prevail. We saw it against DePaul. It was there against Notre Dame, Wisconsin and South Carolina. It is infectious.

Pat Forde for ESPN.com (and he lives in Louisville and used to cover the team) was impressed by Pitt — even if most of Pittsburgh hasn’t noticed.

Three questions into his postgame news conference in Freedom Hall, Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon had a query of his own:

“What’s the Steelers score?”

The Steelers score was the only score that truly mattered in Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoon, which is too bad for the Panthers. Rarely, if ever, has an undefeated team’s road victory over a top-10 team been more obscured than this one.
…
But while Louisville was undeserving of its top-10 ranking, Pitt is richly deserving of inheriting it. This game afforded the Panthers the right to be taken seriously until someone rises up and beats them.

“We showed how tough we are,” said freshman guard Levance Fields, who fearlessly stuck five big jumpers and scored 13 points off the bench. “We have mental, physical toughness, guys that just want to win. We want to keep going on and on.”

That toughness trait keeps going on and on in the Pittsburgh program. Give the Panthers credit for this much: The rugged, no-frills, defense-and-rebounding grinder approach implemented by Ben Howland has continued unbroken (and un-beautified) under Dixon.

As for the game itself, here’s the advanced numbers.

Pitt
Poss 63.4 Pace Moderate
O-Rating 96.2 D-Rating 89.9 (Eff. Margin +6.3)
eFG% 44.3 PPWS 0.95
A/TO 1.3 TO Rate 18.9% A/B 75.0%
Floor Pct 50.8% FT Prod 26.4

Louisville
Poss 66.6 Pace Moderate
O-Rating 85.6 D-Rating 91.7 (Eff. Margin -6.0)
eFG% 47.9 PPWS 1.01
A/TO 0.6 TO Rate 25.5% A/B 52.6%
Floor Pct 40.0% FT Prod 22.9

Going into the game, Pitt’s possessions in a game (FGA – OR + TO + .475*FTA) was 67.8 and Louisville was 68.7. So, I was minorly annoyed when the announcers talked about how Louisville liked to run more. They really don’t. They like to try and get up court quickly, to set the plays. They don’t run like it’s track meet to take a lot of shots. The way a team like Memphis, UConn or Washington does.

On the Offense and Defense Efficiency Ratings, Pitt wasn’t too far off its average (85.4) on defense but lower on the offense (110.2). Lousiville did a good job on stopping Pitt’s offense, but could not overcome Pitt’s defense. This comes through when you see that Louisville was held significantly below it’s usual offensive efficiency (106.9). Louisville played about it’s normal defense (90.7).

Both teams stress defense first and it showed. Both teams, even with the effective field goal percentage (which weights the 3-point shot), weren’t too far apart on shooting. What made the difference was that Pitt outrebounded on the offensive glass, had more free throws and 4 fewer turnovers.

I continue to be impressed by Pitt’s assist ratio. 15 assists on 20 baskets. That’s just outstanding.

The bench production was huge, once more.

This NY Post story on Mike Davis is interesting because, suddenly his coach is hedging a lot more on his academics.

While Davis is confident he will be qualified for college next year, Notre Dame coach Bill Barton is not so sure.

“Mike’s got a lot of work to do,” Barton said of Davis, who didn’t get off the bench yesterday and still needs to take the SAT. “He’s a work in progress.”

Earlier, he had been a bit more positive about the academics.

And a little more about the Beaver Falls-Aliquippa game with Pitino and Dixon in attendance.

While Cardinals coach Rick Pitino and assistant Marvin Menzies got the prime seating – directly behind the Quips’ bench – Panthers coach Jamie Dixon was surrounded by a large Pitt contingent in the front row below the basket.

Pitt director of basketball operations Orlando Antigua, basketball alums Curtis Aiken and Brandin Knight and football stars Tyler Palko and Darrelle Revis, as well as several boosters, gave Pitt a strong presence.

Although Pitino was there to see Pope, he spent the game asking questions about 6-foot-6 forward Jonathan Baldwin. The athletic sophomore scored 22 points on 11-of-16 shooting and threw down three breakaway dunks in the Quips’ 73-71 victory.

I can’t get this mental image of Palko, Revis, Knight behind Dixon and Antigua confrounting Pitino in the parking lot with threats of violence if he shows again. Baseball bats are involved.

As usual, comment before, during and after.

HALFTIME UPDATE: Pitino looked like a blood vessel was going to burst about the tough play. Welcome back to the BE.

Pitt, except for Fields couldn’t hit a 3. Louisville, nothing but 3s — wide open 3s. Pitt doing a great job inside on the boards. Graves seems to have McCarroll Syndrome this year.

Louisville 26-25.

FINAL UPDATE: Pitt Wins 61-57!!

Huge road win for Pitt. Fields provided the 1st half spark to keep the team in the game. Ramon provided great defense, as did Kendall. In the second half, the team just kept plugging and, well, wow. More later. I think I might see if the Steelers can hang-on.

The Cardinals got a career game from Terrance Williams when Padgett still didn’t assert, Dean hobbling and Palacios hesitated