Between the birthday party for my daughter yesterday and doing the family thing for Father’s day today, I was happily away from the computer and not obsessing about the Gray decision. In fact, I just didn’t get online until late this afternoon. Other than some involuntary twitching at times from not typing at a keyboard for such a length, it was a good break.

Gray’s decision to come back is unquestionably a good one for Pitt. It means the team loses only one starter and one other player who was a relatively minor bench player by the end of the season. From a financial and profile perspective it is unquestionably big for Pitt. It means Pitt will be a pre-season favorite to win the Big East Conference, which in the last year of the present BE TV contract means plenty of TV appearances to be expected on ESPN and CBS. It means selling out the home slate shouldn’t be a problem — even if the school pursues a hard patsy non-con schedule.

It also means a more difficult conference schedule with the three home-and-homes likely with WVU (almost a given if there is any seriousness to the idea of rivalries) and then Marquette, Georgetown, Syracuse, UConn and/or Louisville for the other two. It also means a possibility that Pitt could go a second year of the new Big East without facing USF. Other teams expected to be near the bottom Pitt could miss would include Providence, Seton Hall, Notre Dame and Rutgers.

Another season of big expectations for Pitt. Like the football team in recent years, the basketball team has been up and down with respect to expectations and what they do. Hopefully 2006-07 will see something of a correlation to expectations and performance.

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Junior center Aaron Gray will be back for his senior season at Pitt. Gray had until 5 p.m. today to decide whether to return to the university or remain in the NBA draft.

He faxed a letter to the NBA offices in New York today to make his decision official.

Gray had been projected as a first-round pick in the draft, but he did not receive any guarantees from NBA teams that he would be their first round pick.

Expect Pitt to be a pre-season pick to headline the Big East. More later.

UPDATE (6:15): Forget later for the moment. Here’s the press release from Pitt.

“I am extremely excited that Aaron will be returning to the court for us next year, but I am even more excited that he will be representing the University of Pittsburgh,” Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon said. “He embodies everything you want a student-athlete to stand for. While his progress has been substantial over the last three years, I believe his improvement in the coming season will be even more dramatic. From the information we gathered from NBA people, the consensus was that Aaron would have been a first round pick in this year’s draft or next year’s draft. Either way, he will have a long NBA career. Along with his parents, Mike and Sandy, Aaron has always made decisions for the right reasons and this is just another example.”

“In discussing my options the last couple of weeks with my family and Coach Dixon, I feel that it is in my best interest to return to Pitt for my senior season,” Gray said. “My options were to play my senior year and graduate from the University of Pittsburgh or play in the NBA. This decision will allow me to achieve both goals. I’m looking forward to continuing the success that we’ve established at Pitt and finishing my career with fellow seniors Levon Kendall, Antonio Graves and Doyle Hudson.”

Whoo-Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!