Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News looks at college basketball individual awards.

Most Improved Player

Front-runner: Aaron Gray, Pittsburgh. Gray averaged 4.3 points and 2.8 rebounds as a sophomore, playing behind Chris Taft. With Taft in the NBA, Gray is averaging a double double and has become the foundation of Pitt’s fifth straight 20-win season.

The field: Je’Kel Foster, Ohio State; Thomas Gardner, Missouri; Chris Lofton, Tennessee; Kevin Pittsnogle, West Virginia; Al Thornton, Florida State.

The race: This isn’t an official award, though it is in the NBA. Gray is a terrific player, but his enhanced production has a lot to do with opportunity. He was good last season but played behind another future pro.

The best choice is Foster, now a better ballhandler and defender. His shooting has improved from 43.5 percent last season to 55.1 percent, and he nearly has doubled his scoring average.

Now, DeCourcy isn’t dissing Gray. He’s been a fan of his since the end of last season.

Once again there are some early entrants who won’t be sorely missed next season.
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Chris Taft, C, Pittsburgh. The Panthers can replace the 13.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game Taft produced as a sophomore. It’ll be tougher to find someone who can manage more than 11 field-goal attempts for every one assist. Pitt’s concerns mostly are on the perimeter. It will be just fine with 7-0 Aaron Gray in the middle. Gray has better post moves than Taft and is unselfish. Gray does not move as well, but Taft was so unsound defensively that his athleticism rarely made a difference.

He called that one.

Okay, by now I’m sure most of you have read through Paul Zeise’s belated post-signing day Pitt football Q&A. Since there’s just a wee bit of space-filling going on in the blog this week, I’ll now get to some thoughts.

Looking ahead — spring should be very interesting because the Panthers are going to be extremely young in a number of key areas and a lot of guys on the team that are veterans are going to have to really push hard in order to win jobs at open positions. Even so, this is one year that the real competition for jobs won’t begin until the fall when this class arrives.

There are 26 recruits and I expect about 19 of them to have a legitimate chance to make the two-deep and maybe about half of that number to have a legitimate shot at a starting job. So this team is going to be an extremely fun offseason because the team that lines up to play Virginia may be completely different than it is right now.

It’s exciting and scary at the same time when you start thinking about each part of the team. Just how many new starters, and how wide open many of the positions will be. Running game, receivers, O-line, secondary, D-line. The lines especially. Zeise states that Juco Jeff Otah and incoming freshman Joe Thomas are expected to start this season on the offensive line.

You have to figure the spring practice will be crucial at wide receiver and tailback.

Derek Kinder and Joe DelSardo are the default nos. 1 and 2 receivers, but both know they will get pushed very hard come the fall. As for the rest, players like Pestano and Chandler need to show some consistency and real improvement if they don’t want to end up limited to special teams.

Tailback is more interesting. While there will be a lot of expectations that Collier will grab the job come the fall, Stephens-Howling will want to try and show he can carry at least half the load. Then there is Conredge Collins at fullback.

Lots and lots of questions. Zeise almost seems ready to dismiss the sophomore and junior classes as lost. I don’t know. While there is a lot of potential and higher-ceiling talent coming in — and that makes things very exciting as for the future and potential — they are still unknown and they have to learn the system.

Expectations for Pitt are going to be wild and varied. People will point to Penn State and wonder why not Pitt?

For starters, Penn State already had a defense that was top-notch and just needed to get the offense better. Pitt has issues on both sides of the ball on the lines I don’t think it is as easy at a skill position to plug in a freshman. I think the lines are going to be a real concern for at least a couple more years.

I’m not sure what to expect from Pitt this season, but the Blue-Gold Scrimmage at Heinz Field should be a curious event.

So Pitt’s offense is ahead of the defense at this point.

Pitt is giving up a respectable 63.1 points per game, but that number is not indicative of the type of defense the Panthers have been playing lately. They are yielding 69.5 points per game in Big East Conference play, which is 10th out of 16 teams in the league.

In the past six games, Pitt is giving up 71 points per game, and three opponents have scored 77 or more points in that span.

The offense, meanwhile, is playing better than at any other time in the Jamie Dixon-Ben Howland era. The Panthers are averaging 74.3 points per game. The only team that fared better in the past six seasons was the ’02-03 squad that averaged 0.6 points per game more than this one. But that team only averaged 72.2 in Big East games.

In the past few weeks, the offense has been soaring. Pitt has scored 76 points or more six of its past eight games. To put that in perspective, Pitt scored 76 points or more eight times in 36 Big East games the previous two seasons.

“Every team is different,” Dixon said yesterday after practice. “We don’t have a Jaron Brown or a Julius Page defensively. We just don’t. Those were senior guys, fourth- and fifth-year guys. We need to get better in a lot of areas, and defense is one of the areas.”

Dixon said this season has been strange because many of Pitt’s games have been low-scoring, then morph into high-scoring affairs at the end. He pointed to the 100-97 double-overtime victory against Notre Dame as an example.

Dixon also noted that the defense has been inconsistent. Great games have been followed by subpar ones. He said that comes from inexperience.

Looking at the schedule, it seems worth mentioning that only in the UConn game did Pitt give up a lot of points to a team not shooting a lot of 3s. Coach Dixon points out that the changes to the conference in terms of teams and style is a major factor.

“Right now, we’re shooting the ball better,” Dixon said. “That’s been obvious. Oftentimes, it’s the teams you’re playing against and the style, too. I think our conference has changed over the years. West Virginia has completely changed their style of play. Georgetown has changed their style of play. And you have five new teams this year. The diversity of the teams has definitely changed things. That has something to do with it.”

Aside from Pitt and UConn, most of the teams in the Big East don’t exactly have dominating front courts. More of their offensive system is being run from the wings or guards. Where in the previous few years you had BC, Syracuse, G-town, ND, Providence and Pitt playing with strong frontcourts. Happy to slug it out inside and battle. Now things have changed.

Villanova, Marquette, Louisville, WVU, Rutgers, Seton Hall, ND, DePaul, G-town, Providence and Syracuse all attack from the perimeter. Either with guards taking 3s, screens and motion offense, or with forwards on the wings taking guys off the dribble to go inside or pull-up. Only Pitt and UConn will play with guys posting up right around the basket with any regularity (and success). That’s going to have an impact on scoring and the number of possessions in the game.

To honor the Pitt basketball Centennial and all-Centennial team, Pitt will be going old school against Providence.

Pitt will honor more than 80 former men’s basketball players, when the Panthers wear blue throwback uniforms for their Big East Conference game Saturday against Providence at Petersen Events Center.

The 1960s replica uniforms will feature gold block lettering with gold piping around the sleeves, neck and shorts.

The unis are supposed to be made available on Pitt’s online auction and at team stores as well — go figure. Nothing was there at this time.

Then, there is a piece on “bracketolgy.” As we all are aware, Pitt is expected to be a 3 seed, though 2 or 4 are not out of the question.

*Sigh*

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: there will be no resumption of the Pitt-Penn State football series until the old man is dead and buried.

Usually, we have to wait until the end of summer when the coaches do media events for the annual topic to be raised. I really prefer to wait until then, when I can say I don’t want to bother with the dead end subject and then find myself wasting many posts on it anyways because I can’t help myself.

Not this time. Neil Rudel decides to start in with it early — it’s not like a long time Penn State writer would know anything about basketball — with this article. Long story short, he proposes a 10-year deal with 6 in State College and 4 in Pittsburgh. I ignored the article after I read it on Saturday, because it’s just more of the same noise.

Now you have this response, which is also the same noise.

It’s all irrelevant. It’s not going to happen at this time. Paterno is too old, too stubborn, too vindictive and too powerful for there to be any change in the present situation. Pitt could capitulate (not that it should), and he’d still find a new reason for it not to happen.

So, yeah, we can rail about it. Vent. All the stuff. You can talk to friends and family who will not really argue too hard against it because they too want a rivalry game back. But, we all know it’s not going to happen.

Best thing is to just let the ADs keep talking and communicating quietly and when Paterno is 6 feet under and the year long mourning at PSU is over let the series resume.

For those still trying to figure out how giving $6 K to a foreign kid who you wanted to play basektball for you cannot be grounds for immediate termination, check out Seth Davis’ info on the contract that Jim O’Brien had with Ohio St. (a banner day for Jason in Columbus).

You might wonder how a coach who has brought NCAA scrutiny on his school could successfully sue said school for millions. The answer is that Ohio State negotiated itself a lousy deal. Flush with affection for O’Brien after he took the Buckeyes to the Final Four, Ohio State rewarded him with a six-year deal that not only paid him $1.2 million annually but also severely limited the reasons OSU could fire O’Brien for cause. The contract specifically stated that there would have to be a finding of guilt by the NCAA — not just a serious allegation — before Ohio State could cut the coach loose. The deal even went so far as to outline a scenario in which O’Brien could keep his job in the face of an ongoing NCAA investigation.

Former Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger testified during the trial that the notion of keeping O’Brien on as coach after the alleged violations were disclosed would be “untenable.” Judge Clark ruled that Ohio State “bargained away its right to immediately dismiss plaintiff simply because of the inconvenience occasioned by a protracted NCAA investigation.” In other words, you may have signed a bad deal, but you still have to abide by it.

I’d make some jokes about the Ohio government’s corruption and campaign contributions’ direct relationship with which lawyers get hired, but I suspect most don’t care and wouldn’t know about it.

Actually that may be small potatoes compared to the latest anti-trust/class-action lawsuit filed against the NCAA and schools.

Now it has come to this: A federal antitrust lawsuit filed late Friday in Los Angeles seeks to prohibit the NCAA from telling member colleges they cannot offer athletic scholarships up to the full cost of attendance — and could expose the NCAA to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for past wrongs.

The class-action claim was brought on behalf of Division I-A football players and major-college basketball players, whose programs generate the overwhelming amount of revenue that flows into college athletic departments. Under antitrust law, any current scholarship athlete, as well as any player in the past four years, qualifies as a plaintiff.

The suit does not list a damage amount but is structured in a way that suggests the NCAA pay a heavy price should the court find that the association acted illegally in its capping of scholarship costs. The lawsuit applies to 144 colleges, so the 20,000 or so affected athletes would have been shorted a potential $117 million, an aggregate figure that represents the gap between the grant-in-aid and the official cost of attendance over the past four years.

Damages get trebled under antitrust law, pushing the potential penalty to $351 million.

The NCAA limits scholarships to the cost of school, books, food and shelter. It does not cover travel expenses, phone usage and anything else that usually gets calculated into the cost of attending school. Roughly $2,500 per year.

In the past, the NCAA has taken the position that it needs to control all terms of the athletic scholarship in order to preserve its notions of amateurism and what it calls “the unique character” of college sports. Some universities also claim they cannot afford to give an extra $2,500 to athletes.

In 2003, though, [NCAA President, Myles] Brand came out in favor of the proposal, suggesting that the additional funds could be drawn from the NCAA’s 11-year, $6 billion television contract with CBS.

“We should provide student-athletes with the full cost of attendance,” he said at the time.

The NCAA membership subsequently declined to move on his recommendation.

Unlike under Brand’s idea, the plaintiffs do not ask that colleges be required to pay the cost of attendance, only that universities be given the option to do so with their revenue-producing athletes. They say most programs can easily afford to pay the additional $245,000 a year that would bring the 85 football and 13 men’s basketball players up to the desired level, even if the NCAA does not step up to cover the costs. For schools with a basketball team, but no Division I-A football team, the increase would be $32,500.

I don’t see this lawsuit succeeding with that approach — as much as I may personally agree with it. Every BCS conference school and school that wants to crash the BCS would have to offer the full cost. They’d be at a competitive disadvantage, so the “option” really isn’t unless the school wants to lose a lot of games and not get the talent.

The NCAA will also argue that it can’t just offer the full cost option only to the big-time athletic programs. The NCAA and athletic departments — regardless of the fact that there are usually a completely separate AD staff for the football and the men’s basketball programs at the big schools — are integrated and part of the entire athletic department for a school.

And to a large degree they can make a good case. The 85 scholarships for football aren’t separated from the rest of the total athletic scholarships. That’s why with Title IX, athletic departments have to create enough female sports programs and offer scholarships in the same number to comply with federal law.

Exactly how can a lawsuit prefer the football and men’s basketball programs in terms of financial support only based on the overall money involved in the sport?

I look forward to what Josh Centor at the NCAA blog has to say about this. And, no Josh, I haven’t forgotten about the prep school stuff. I intend to get back to it and your thoughts.

It looks like 2 and a-half Pitt players have signed free agent deals with the Steelers.

The Steelers added 19 free agents to their roster Friday, including three with ties to Pitt.

Quarterback Rod Rutherford, linebacker Malcolm Postell and running back Mike Jemison played college ball for the Panthers, though Jemison finished his career at IUP.

Rutherford was a member of the Steelers’ practice squad last season, but injured his foot late in the year and was placed on the reserve/injured list last month. He still accompanied the team to Super Bowl XL in Detroit. Postell and Jemison will try to earn spots on the practice squad or the 53-man roster.

Postell and Jemison were allocated to NFL Europe.

That still is not enough to get me to watch.

It also seems that Pitt WR Coach Aubrey Hill is a candidate for the same position down at the University of Miami. He hasn’t been interviewed, though. Hill played at Florida in the 90s and is from the Miami area.

A story about the now annual post-season ritual for OSU football seniors and juniors who declare early: the autograph circuit.

For Ohio State senior football players, there are three distinct seasons each year. Regular season. Bowl season. Autograph season.

When the Buckeyes won the national title with their victory in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl, what had been a smattering of signings morphed into a nearly statewide circuit of public and private autograph shows. Owners of memorabilia stores, online autograph retailers, agents, middlemen and players all know the deal and how to find each other.
…
“Going to Ohio State, the older guys talked about it,” said senior offensive lineman Rob Sims, a Nordonia High School graduate. “The national championship [year] those guys were cleaning up. I’m sure a big player like A.J. could probably do one every day. I just go where I fit in and make as much as I can.”

It is a madness in this state. Every week it seems since the season ends there is an autograph session somewhere in the Cleveland area. I can’t imagine what the frequency is in Columbus.

Believe me, I don’t begrudge college football players cashing in on stupidity. Just remember to report those payments, kids. That’s how they got Pete Rose.

For example, one expert said that Hawk could be paid $5,000 for some events, sometimes less and sometimes more. As the most popular Buckeye, Hawk will turn down signing opportunities while he prepares for the NFL draft and his remaining OSU class work. But appearing at 10 to 20 events could earn Hawk upwards of $50,000.

Less-popular players, appearing at a handful of events, may pull in about $2,000 total.

Hawk, Carpenter and Schlegel are to appear as a linebacker trio on March 3 at the Cleveland Auto Show. A show spokesman said they would be paid a total of about $10,000 for signing two hours of free autographs, with Hawk, the main draw, getting a larger chunk.
…
Officials at the University of Michigan, at Penn State, at Notre Dame, at Texas and at Southern California said that no equivalent organized autograph frenzy exists for those popular programs.

Come on, I have faith in Texas. Just one more little selling point CheatyPants McSweatervest can point to during recruiting season.

Now, I’m starting to get why college coaches wouldn’t mind shutting down a lot of the combines, camps and junior days. There is always something, somewhere and a need to be there.. Even now.

For example, this weekend Rivals.com has a junior day at Akron. They’ll continue throughout the country. The idea seems somewhat appealing in what they describe they are offering.

It’s become clear that parents, coaches and recruits often go into the recruiting process uneducated. Many people are merely focused on how tall and how fast a player is, but they don’t care about the recruits themselves.

At Rivals.com, we have a different goal. Sure, we care about how talented a prospect is and rank players accordingly on our web sites, but we also feel that it’s important to assist the recruits when it comes to understanding the recruiting process.

Instead of just finding out how fast or tall you are, Rivals.com hosts a series of Junior Day events across the country that help recruits and their family members get important questions about the recruiting process answered from coaches, speakers, parents of former recruits and players that have just completed the recruiting process.

The countervailing, cynical view is that this is just another chance for the recruiting site to make contact with top prospects around the country to better glean inside info and recruiting information in the coming year.

Then there are the Nike Football Training Camps (with Rivals.com) that take place at college campuses — all of which just happen to be Nike Schools. Of course there is one at State College.

One of the most decorated players in Western Pa. following the 2005 season was productive two-way player Dom DeCicco out of Jefferson Hills Thomas Jefferson. The 6-3, 198 pound safety/wide receiver was a second team all-state pick after a big year in which he helped his team to an 11-2 mark with five interceptions on the defensive side of the ball to go along with 28 catches for 600 yards and 15 total touchdowns. DeCicco, a great athlete with bests of 4.6 in the 40 and a 35-inch vertical jump, had 11 TD catches a year ago, and also returned two punts, one kickoff and one fumble for scores. Currently he lists his favorite colleges as Penn State, Tennessee, Pitt, Ohio State, Iowa and West Virgina, and he’ll attend the May 6th NIKE Camp in State College.

I’m not trying to just pick on Rivals.com, it’s just that their information was easier to locate. Scout.com hasn’t put their dates out there yet (or I couldn’t find it) — and they had at least 8 last year. Well, they do have the kicking camp announced. And we know about the one at Pitt. That doesn’t even begin to include all of the other combines, clinics and events each state has.

I’m sure some have been wondering why I haven’t posted about Coach Wannstedt and Pitt getting their first verbal for next year, a little more than 2 weeks after NLI day.

That Chris Jacobson wanted to play football at Pitt was one of the worst-kept secrets in Western Pennsylvania. The Keystone Oaks offensive lineman revealed his intentions before Signing Day.

Jacobson finally made it official Saturday.

The 6-foot-3, 285-pound guard made a verbal commitment to Panthers coaches at the UPMC Sports Performance Complex on the South Side, becoming Pitt’s first recruit from the Class of 2007.

“That’s where I want to be,” said Jacobson, who also had a scholarship offer from West Virginia and was drawing interest from Miami (Ohio) and Penn State. “I wanted my family and coaches to be involved in my college education so they can be a part of it.”

The timing of Jacobson’s announcement is perfect for the Panthers, who are planning to play host some of the state’s top juniors on Saturday.

Jacobson can now turn recruiter for the Panthers. He said he plans to start with teammate Myles Caragein, a tight end-linebacker projected to play on the defensive line and Seton-La Salle offensive lineman Gino Gradkowski, a fellow Dormont native.

I am very happy that the first verbal is a lineman. Pitt or any team will not excel unless they have the players on the lines. The fact that the kid has wanted to be a Panther and was ready to go is great.

“He doesn’t want to go anywhere else or look anywhere else. He wants to be a hometown kid,” said Keystone Oaks coach Nick Kamberis. “With the recruiting class Pitt got this year, it’s really kind of a no-brainer. They’re going to be good.”

Kamberis accompanied Jacobson to Pitt yesterday, along with Jacobson’s parents. They met with Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt.

“If you’re a WPIAL kid and you go in and talk with coach Wannstedt, you’re coming out of that meeting wanting to go to Pitt,” Kamberis said. “He’s just awesome. After sitting with coach Wannstedt, if I had some eligibility left, I’d be going to Pitt as well.”

Of course, long-term hearing a local high school coach rave about Coach Wannstedt is even better. Even Bruce Feldman at ESPN.com took note at the early start (Insider subs).

I don’t know what to think at this point. I mean, it’s great that Pitt can get out in front with some of these kids this quickly. It can only help further juice ticket sales — hopefully — for Pitt football.

My mind is barely ready to discuss recruiting, though. I know Junior Day is this weekend and the Scout.com combine will be the following weekend. Then maybe a month or so before Spring practice?

It has a hot-stove league feel to it, but there is real sport going on with the basketball team that is less speculative and fantasy about what could be. Of course the b-ball team is off for the week, so now I can crack open the door a bit. Honestly, this is the first opening to take some time on it.

And yes, I know about the Zeise Q&A. I’ll get to it later.

This late in the season and a week in-between games. (Is it mid-terms already? I thought that was the week before Spring Break?) That has to throw things off for stories. It means spacing some things out, and using filler material. For everybody.

That means the stories today are on rankings. A facile RPI discussion from the Post-Gazette. Of course it dredges up Pitt’s past RPI versus where it got seeded in the NCAA.

Pitt’s strength of schedule is 44th, the worst rank of any team in top 10 of the RPI. But the Panthers gain points in several other categories. In the new formula that was adopted a few years ago, road losses count as 0.6. Home losses count as 1.4. So, in the eyes of the selection committee, Pitt has 2.4 losses.

Pitt is 15-0 at home this season and 5-4 away. The Panthers also have fared well against other top teams in the RPI. They are 11-1 against teams in the RPI top 100. They are 2-2 against teams in the top 25, 3-1 against teams 26-50 and 6-0 against teams 51-100.

Pitt’s only bad loss came at St. John’s. The other three came against Connecticut, Georgetown and Marquette, which are all in the RPI top 28.

That should be 11-3 against teams in the RPI top 100. The story uses the RPI put out once a week by Jerry Palm. Unfortunately, it is already a week old when used in the story (the RPI SOS in the story was dated Feb. 14). When the new version comes out, Memphis will actually have a weaker overall SOS (see the daily updates provided by Ken Pomeroy).

The other major problem with this story is that by using the CollegeRPI data, you don’t see the non-con SOS which is what penalized Pitt in the NCAA seedings the last couple of years.

The Panthers also are benefiting from the strength of the Big East and the performance of their non-conference opponents. Other than Duquesne, Maine and St. Francis, N.Y., Pitt’s non-conference opponents are playing well.

Throw Vermont and Robert Morris in there as well (RPIs of 219 and 216). Not to mention it appears Coppin State just cannot get under the 150 RPI mark. That means 6 of Pitt’s 11 non-cons have RPIs lower than 150 and only 2 of the remaining 5 were under 100.

Believe me, the NCAA selection committee will have plenty of excuses to give Pitt a 4 seed at this point. The teams where it will be interesting to compare in seedings come the Tournament will be Illinois, NC State, Florida, BC and George Washington.

The Trib. story is probably even lighter as all it discusses is how Pitt barely moved in the Polls. Not to mention how the other Big East teams fared in the polls.

Okay, latest polls are out. Pitt is treated very well. The Panthers are #9 in the AP and #10 in the Coaches. The Coaches poll continues to baffle as they stubbornly keep Florida in at #9. I am starting to harden on my theory about many voters wanting to keep the #1 team from each BCS conference ahead of the #3 team in another no matter what.

If there is a team that can complain about being disrespected, it is Marquette. Not only did they not make the top 25s, the Writers put them at about #28 while the Coaches buried them at #32. A very good record, back-to-back wins against top-25 teams in 48 hours, and tied for 5th in the Big East. My feeling is that Marquette got screwed in a numbers game of not wanting more than 5 teams from the Big East in the top-25.

On top of that insult, in the latest Big East Power Poll, the voters inexplicably put them 5th — barely ahead of Georgetown but easily behind Pitt. Aside from Villanova, no team had a better week than Marquette. Again, I call on the other voters to make your vote known. Only fellow Pitt blogger, Keith Wehmeyer does this — despite his fundamental character flaw of being a BoSox fan.

Anyhow, this is my ballot.

1. Villanova — Beat #1, become #1. Keep winning to stay #1.
2. UConn — Still think they are the best team, though.
3. WVU — I nearly dropped them lower, but they did bounce back well against G-town. UConn was just too good.
4. Marquette — They do need Novak to be “on” in games against top teams to win. If he’s off, they can lose to anyone.
5. Pitt — Can’t put them ahead of the team they lost to in the past week.
6. Georgetown — Need to stop the slide soon.
7. Cinci — Andy Kennedy deserves so much credit. I admire this team.
8. Seton Hall — I can’t help it, the phrase “smoke and mirrors” is the only thought whenever I read about another Pirate victory.
9. Syracuse — There’s some amusement in watching Syracuse games, just to hear announcers puzzling over what’s wrong with this team.
10. ND — Finally beating the soft-underbelly opponents.
11. Louisville — Never thought I’d see a team coached by Pitino just look like they want to give-up.
12. Rutgers — Douby do, but no one else does.
13. Providence — Their players probably improve the graduation rates for the Big East.
14. St. John’s — Just so tired. No depth. Playing tough, physical defense every game has them wiped at this point.
15. DePaul — Not even one year in and there are already whispers that DePaul doesn’t have the commitment to compete in a major conference.
16. USF — Looking to become the first BE team to go 0 for the conference since Miami went 0-18 for the 1993-94 season.

I’m glad Pitt isn’t playing USF this season. The pressure for any team facing them has to be huge. Who wants to be the one to give them their first win in conference?

Just because I had to dig a little on whether a team had gone 0 for the conference, I’ll share a little more. The only other time it happened was in the BE’s first season when each team only played once. Providence went 0-6. Seven times a team has only won a single game in conference: WVU (01-02), St. John’s (03-04), BC (89-90 and 90-91), Seton Hall (82-83 and 84-85) , and Miami (91-92).

Apparently the coach and players weren’t happy after losing.

Instead, as hard as they tried, these resilient Panthers were not accepting defeat well after they nearly overcame a 10-point second-half deficit. Pitt’s Aaron Gray missed two free throws, and Marquette’s Steve Novak made two in the final 24.7 seconds to determine the outcome.

Afterwards, Dixon appeared distraught, as did Gray, Pitt’s budding superstar center who was forced to sit on the sidelines for nearly half the game with foul difficulties.

If there is any consolation, though, Pitt can realize the final decison went down to the end, as do so many similar Big East matchups.

“It felt like a rivalry game out there. It was a great atmosphere,” Pitt guard Antonio Graves said.

And unlike a previous loss at St. John’s — the Panthers’ first defeat after 15 victories to open the season — it was not a lethargic performance for Pitt, which was facing a Marquette team full of hostility three weeks after being handed a bitter six-point setback by the Panthers at Petersen Events Center.

In this instance, Dixon said “there is such a fine line between a win and a loss.”

I’m glad they weren’t being philosophical after the game. I’m glad they were upset, frustrated and bothered. It was a tough, close game and they lost. As hard as they worked to comeback at the end, they just didn’t finish. They had chances especially down the stretch. Even before the Gray missed free throws.

When Pitt was coming back from its 10 point deficit and Young missed 3 straight free throws. Or with 1:18 remaining and Pitt trailing by one, failing to grab the rebound off of a Marquette missed shot. Allowing the Golden Eagles to run off more than 30 seconds.

On the issue of fouls, Pitt really is limited in its complaints in my view. Gray and Kendall both committed some dumb fouls — especially a couple over the backs — that you can’t blame on the way the game was called. Only that strange technical on Gray made no sense.

“There’s no question it changed the game,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “It changed what we wanted to do. But those things are going to happen. You have to deal with it. We’ve done it before.”

It’s not the first time this season — and probably not the last time — Gray was in foul trouble. He was in foul trouble against Wisconsin, Louisville and Rutgers, but Pitt managed to win those games without Gray’s usual presence.

“I don’t know if they were bad fouls on my part or not, but I have to be smarter,” Gray said. “I have to pick my spots on when to be aggressive. It was my fault. The other guys who came in did a great job of keeping us in the game.”

The Panthers have been able to overcome the foul trouble because they have a deep bench. Pitt’s bench outscored Marquette’s bench, 36-22. Freshman guard Levance Fields had 14 points and freshman forward Sam Young and junior guard Antonio Graves added nine points apiece.

The loss of Gray and Kendall was felt more on rebounding and allowing second chance points. Marquette went just as deep as Pitt, and actually committed more fouls — just spreading them out much more. Pitt even had more free throw attempts — even with the intentional fouling at the end. Pitt just didn’t make them (13-22, 59.1%). Pitt had its worst road free throw shooting game since Louisville (14-24, 58.3%).

Coach Wannstedt is hitting it hard right now and probably up until Spring practices. These are just the ones that got announced in papers. I suspect there are plenty of others.

On Thursday he is the keynote speaker at the annual dinner for The Traffic and Transportation Association of Pittsburgh (??) at the Sheraton Station Square.

Next weekend, he will be in Allentown.

This year’s clinic will be held on Thursday, March 2, Friday, March 3, and Saturday, March 4. It will be held at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Allentown. This year’s feature speakers will be Larry Coker of Miami, Joe Tiller of Purdue, Dave Wannstedt of Pittsburgh, Randy Edsall of Connecticut and Chan Gailey of Georgia Tech.

I’m a little stunned abou this since Pitt is an Adidas school, but also because the Scout.com Combine is that same weekend — albeit on Saturday, so there will be time for Coach Wannstedt to get back. I would guess that part of the reason Coach Wannstedt is going is as a favor to the Clinic Director, Jim Tkach. The father of Tyler Tkach who is part of the 2006 Pitt recruiting class.

That would explain why Pitt’s Junior Day is this weekend.

In mid-March Coach Wannstedt will be in Wilkes-Barre.

Tom Karam, former president of Southern Union Co., and attorney Murray Ufberg will be honored March 16 at Genetti Hotel and Convention Center at the 23rd annual Friends of Scouting Dinner.

The event recognizes community servants and spotlights Scouting programs in the six counties of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Scouting service area. University of Pittsburgh football coach Dave Wannstedt will be the event’s keynote speaker.

Proceeds from this dinner go to the Northeastern Pennsylvania Council Boy Scouts of America.

Coach Wannstedt is definitely not limiting himself to Western Pennsylvania this year.

There is a very warm and very touching piece about Ronald Ramon learning about basketball and life from his parents — but especially his relationship with his father. It is well worth reading it all. Hopefully no feminists/Title IX fanatics will read it too close or they will get upset about this small part.

Ricardo drilled his son on more than basketball. He taught him to be respectful of coaches and teammates and to put academics first. When Ronald’s grades slipped, his father threatened to take away basketball.

“I wanted him to set an academic example for his sisters,” Ricardo said.

Ramon has four sisters, and for some reason I hear strangled shrieks of outrage that a father would think the athletically gifted son needs to set the example for his daughters with his academics.

As for later, a story on once Tennessee recruit, now at Hargrave Military Academy (Sam Young prepped there) and potential Pitt recruit Tyler Smith.

John Calipari, Tubby Smith and countless others have come to recruit Smith.

Kentucky, Memphis and Pittsburgh are presently at the top Smith’s short list. Iowa comes next. He’s already visited Pittsburgh and Iowa and plans to visit Kentucky and Memphis after graduation. Florida, Indiana and Arkansas have tried to woo Smith after signing his Hargrave teammates.

There will be no visit to Tennessee.

“(Bolivar Central guard) Willie Kemp and (former Ridgeway center) Pierre Niles are going to Memphis, and Coach Cal is a real cool guy,” Smith said. “Pittsburgh’s in the Big East, and it doesn’t get any better than that. You get to play in places like Madison Square Garden, which is everybody’s dream.

“I don’t want to go through another situation like Tennessee. I want to do it where I can enroll in summer school. I’ll decide possibly at the end of March, but probably in April.”

Smith is considered a top-20 small forward in the 2006 recruiting class. He took a visit to Memphis at the end of January and is considered to be tough and athletic (i.e., he would be a fit at Pitt).

Final story is just this little aside in the Indiana angst over who should be the next coach at Indiana.

As for Majerus, he may have better credentials than anyone else IU could consider: 422 victories in 20 seasons, a .742 winning percentage – 21st best all-time – and 11 trips to the NCAA Tournament. But Majerus, 57, has serious health issues. And he has said the only college job he’d be interested in is Southern Cal. There are some “hot” coaches around, too, like Rick Barnes at Texas, John Calipari at Memphis and Jamie Dixon at Pitt. But who knows if any of those guys would consider IU a step up.

It says something for the Indiana psyche that they even question whether their head coaching position is one of the most desirable in the country. Personally there isn’t much I like about the state that looks like a spent, dripping penis; but that’s just me.

To the victors go the spoils, so Cracked Sidewalks has their take on the game. It’s easy to forget, as we get so wrapped up in what Pitt didn’t do, that Marquette has players that did plenty to give their team a chance. As I pointed out previously, Marquette grabbed 10 offensive rebounds in the game. All in the second half. As much as that can be blamed on Pitt players not doing a good job boxing out — and arguably that was where Kendall was missed with foul trouble — Marquette players did a great job of following the shot and not giving up on a possession until the ball was either in the basket or Pitt had secured it. They were admirably tenacious on offense.

If you think I’m harping too much on the rebounding, it’s just that is supposed to be Pitt’s big strength, and it is supposed to help offset weaker areas for Pitt like consistent free throw shooting.

“We put ourselves in a position to win, but it just came down to free throws. There is such a fine line between a win and a loss. It would have been good if it would have went in, but we need to play better defense through the game instead of put our selves in that position.”

“It is just a different deal. They set better screens. For whatever it was, we were running into the screens.”

“It was two good teams playing well. They made free throws, we need to win the rebounding battle more than we did. Have to do a better job of avoiding them. We need to cut down on turnovers, we made a few too many travels tonight. When they shoot the ball well they become harder to guard. They played great and did a good job. THey are well coached and would never count them out.”

Part of why Marquette shot so well in the first half was that they were doing a great job at setting solid screens. Something Coach Tom Crean must have noted against Providence. In the second half, Pitt’s strong bodies started wearing on them, and the picks were not holding so well. That led to a lot lower percentage of field goals for Marquette as shots weren’t so open.

For Marquette, the overarching storyline is about back-to-back wins within 48 hours over top-20 teams. Something any coach of a NCAA Tournament bound team wants to be able to remind his players and increase the confidence of being able to win.

Just two days after knocking off No. 17 Georgetown, they upended the ninth-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers, 84-82, on Saturday night in front of a record crowd of 19,007 at the Bradley Center that was in full throat and hungry for some payback over a Big East opponent that’s fast becoming a new rival.

“A great exclamation point on one of those weeks that guys won’t forget any time soon,” Marquette coach Tom Crean said. “Starting it with a loss on the road (at Rutgers), coming back, getting better in the practices. Preparation from the coaches and the players was fantastic.

“But really, this game came down to playing with a lot of heart, a lot of toughness. Both teams did, but we were able to come away with it, which is a great feeling for everybody in the locker room.”

For the Pittsburgh media, it is about the creation of a rivalry.

A rivalry is born.

Three weeks after Pitt outmuscled Marquette in a six-point victory at home, the teams waged another ferocious physical battle Saturday night before 19,007, the largest crowd to watch a college basketball game in Wisconsin.

This time, Marquette found a way to please its home fans, emerging with a wild 84-82 victory over No. 9 Pitt.

Steve Novak scored 27 points to lead Marquette (18-8, 7-5 Big East), which defeated its second nationally ranked team in three days and third of the season.

Pitt (20-4, 8-4) had defeated Marquette, 77-71, on Jan. 28 at Petersen Events Center in a game that infuriated Golden Eagles coach Tom Crean because of an injury suffered by prized freshman Dominic James on a play Crean claimed was a blatant no-call against Pitt.

Personally, I think it’s a little early to make such declarations, but then I’m conservative in that. Rivalries need more than one season of meetings. Maybe in another year or two — depending on whether the teams get another home-and-home set.

I will give one exception to what I just said. What could make this a rivalry after only one year is if the teams meet in the Big East Tournament for ostensibly the rubber match. Home, away and neutral in one season might just accelerate things to full rivalry in only a year.

Someone saw a different game than what I saw.

Pitt wanted to play physical with Marquette. Marquette wanted to play finesse.

In the end, finesse won out. Marquette exposed Pitt’s perimeter defense and won, 84-82, at the Bradley Center.

Marquette converted 10 3-pointers and made more than half of its shots from the field. Steve Novak led the Golden Eagles with 27 points and made five 3-pointers. Dominic James had 16 points and Wesley Matthews 13.

Pitt was led by Carl Krauser’s 18 points. Levance Fields had 14. The Panthers had to play much of the game without junior center Aaron Gray, who was in foul trouble for most of the night. Gray had just eight points and missed two free throws with 24 seconds left that would have given Pitt the lead.

The rest of the story is just a game recap, but I’m still puzzling over the “finesse” claim. I saw a strong, determined Marquette team that went toe-to-toe with Pitt. A team that was perfectly willing to drive the lane, penetrate, go for rebounds. The set solid screens and good picks. Just tough and hard play. Where was the finesse?

At the half, Marquette retired the jersey of Maurice Lucas. Lucas was a Pittsburgh native who played at Marquette from 72-74 before going pro.

“It’s very nice. It’s a great feeling and it helped complete the cycle of basketball for me,” said Lucas, who also was celebrating his birthday yesterday. “I didn’t realize it wasn’t retired because I’ve been in the Hall of Fame here for so long.”

To his credit, Lucas eventually got his degree from Marquette in 1982. He is presently an assistant coach for the Portland Jailblazers.

Keith Wehmeyer has plenty of thoughts on the game, as well. Definitely a full read.