A recent visit to the Pitt site may have piqued your curiosity about the teaser press release for “Panthers All-Access.” It did for me.

Panthers All-Access” is a must for the serious Pitt fan. Providing the most comprehensive Pitt coverage on the web, Panthers All-Access gives you such exclusive content as live game broadcasts, highlights, press conferences, special behind-the-scenes features and more!

Panthers All-Access will be available through a $69.95 annual subscription or $9.95 monthly subscription. Come back to www.PittsburghPanthers.com on August 7 to begin your FREE trial!

Now, when you are given that kind of limited information, and it sounds suspiciously like the Yahoo! broadcast package that costs less than half that amount, well some healthy cynicism about what is really being offered kicks in.

Despite my urge to just issue a pissed off rant, I actually opted to send an e-mail to Tim Kelly, the contact person the release listed. Tim is the Internet Services Coordinator for Pitt.

I had a 10+ minute phone conversation with Tim on Friday about Panther All-Access. So here’s some information on it.

The All-Access program is part of the CSTV package. CSTV, of course, is also responsible for the Pitt and Big East websites. So this is just another aspect being done exclusively for Pitt. At the present time, there will be no podcasting, but it will be recorded and archived streaming.

By necessity, and not terribly surprisingly, the Yahoo! broadcast package is going away. So, if you have a monthly subscription, you might as well cancel.

Mr. Kelly talked about a rather ambitious slate of offerings for the system.

Panther All-Access (PAA) will be offering live video broadcasts of the football press conferences after practices and during the season. There will also be audio clips from the practice — interviews with players and coaches. These will also be on the site as archived materials so you can listen to them at your leisure.

Other things that will be offered on PAA will be Dave Wannstedt Radio Show. On the Sunday following a Pitt game, there will be a highlight package video. Live chats with players and coaches are also in the plans.

One of the more encouraging things, might be providing feeds for the actual football games. The problem there are the rights issues. For example, Mr. Kelly said they are working to see if they can get the rights to stream the Virginia-Pitt game on September 2 since it airs on ESPNU, and “the U” doesn’t exactly have wide access unless you have a satellite. Personally, I doubt that ESPN will be that accommodating. Providing live feeds for the Toledo and The Citadel games (both not scheduled for any TV) are more likely.

Similar things are planned for basketball season. They are planning a 15-20 minute exclusive PAA basketball show with player and coach interviews. Video highlight packages the day after games as well. The Jamie Dixon Radio Show, of course, will also be available.

The big issue, though, is still figuring out if its worth $69.95/year or $9.95/month. That’s the very controversial aspect. Mr. Kelly admits he is bracing for some negative feedback for that kind of pricing. Especially with the elimination of the more affordable Yahoo! option if you just want to listen to games. Mr. Kelly is in charge of implementing the system and running it, he was not the one to set the price. He did offer to put me in touch with those who arrived at the pricing decision, and I may take him up on that at a later time.

I’m really not sure about the price-point. Especially just as its launching. It would be one thing if it was somewhat established and all the features, offerings and plans were more solidified. The plans are ambitious, but how much of them actually occur is hardly guaranteed. That could lead to some hard feelings as subscribers may come to feel that what they expected/were promised fell far short of the reality and they didn’t get their money’s worth.

This is something brand new, and I’m not sure that a limited trial period during football training camp will be enough time. Especially when they will need to get all the kinks and glitches that have to expected with a new multimedia platform.

This is the sort of thing you offer free for at least a few months while you get it up and running and make it clear how much of a value it is for fans.

A couple weeks ago there was the story about the Pittsburgh summer league in the Trib. Now the P-G adds its own story without much more new info other than to point out that it’s got room to grow.

“It’s something all the college kids around here needed,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “It’s beneficial for all of the teams from Division I through Division III. It’s been great. All the feedback I’ve been getting from the coaches at all the schools is that they’re very appreciative of the league.”
…
“The competition is good,” said Mike Cook, a guard/forward at Pitt who is preparing for his first season with the Panthers after sitting out under NCAA transfer rules last season. “The guys from Duquesne and Robert Morris are good and the guys from the smaller schools can shoot. Everyone is good. Everything I do here is getting me ready to play in Big East games.”

Cook spent his previous summers in his native Philadelphia playing with college and NBA players in a Pro-Am League. And while the Pittsburgh Basketball Club Pro-Am pales in comparison, he said the foundation for a good league was set this summer.

“This is just the first year,” Cook said. “I see this getting better.”

I pointed out when the first article ran, that Coach Dixon did some great behind the scenes work for basketball in Pittsuburgh in encouraging this. John Giammarco, the organizer of the summer league agrees.

“Now you can come and watch Sam Clancy give tips to Division III kids. That’s good stuff. We’re starting to rebuild that basketball togetherness. Jamie deserves the credit for this. He sincerely cares about basketball in Western Pennsylvania. I don’t think you could have said that about other coaches who have been at Pitt in the past.”

With Coach Dixon’s off-season extension with Pitt, there is a real possibility of seeing something long-term built with him and the basketball program here. I find that tremendous considering that there hasn’t been anything like that for I don’t even know how long.

Not sure what to read into this.

Pope, who has Pitt on his short list of colleges, was involved in an on-court altercation at the Junior AAU Super Showcase boys’ basketball tournament in Orlando, Fla.

Pope, playing for the Pittsburgh JOTS, was sent home and will miss the 17-and-under Junior AAU National Championships, which began Thursday in Orlando.

“It was how the game was played,” Pope said. “I got hit. I never threw a punch.”

Said JOTS coach J.O. Stright, “He got into a fight, which is a no-no down here. He was suspended. He’s back in Pittsburgh.”

It was uncertain whether Pope’s suspension will affect the status of his scholarship offer to Pitt. Pitt assistant coach Orlando Antigua, who was in Orlando at the AAU national championships, would not discuss Pope’s status. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon was in Los Angeles on a recruiting trip and did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The 6-foot-8, 220-pound Pope, however, said Pitt has not pulled his scholarship offer.

“That’s not true,” he said. “I talked to Coach Dixon and Coach Antigua. That’s incorrect.”

This article strikes me (pardon the pun) as an incredibly bad piece in trying to report Pope being booted from the tournament. No actual details of the incident, and the plain fact is that under NCAA regs, Pitt coaches can’t really discuss unsigned recruits in any detail. Of course Pitt wouldn’t pull the scholarship based on this. The story doesn’t even give any version of what happened. Suggesting even the reporter doesn’t know.

Just seems like the story was looking to stir something up.

On the recruiting front, Big East Basketball Blog has a look at Pitt’s work on the recruiting class of 2007.

This fine bit of cross-stitchery was done by my wife. She located an old Pitt cross-stitch design (apparently they license anything) and altered it slightly. The original design for the “Pitt” name was this style.

Not sure what I’m going to do with it, exactly. I suggested that it could be mounted on some other material and used as one of those car flags. She didn’t agree. It’s roughly 8 X 7 inches.

Any suggestions?

Gene Collier has a nearly sarcasm-free piece on Coach Wannstedt as training camp approaches.

When Wannstedt returned to Pitt before last season, he had been out of college coaching for 16 years, out of Pittsburgh for 26, and relearning both instantaneously represented a challenge with which he essentially went 1 for 2.

“The easiest things were recruiting and connecting with the community,” he said, “although I might not have been able to say that had I come from Oregon or Texas. But I had a hard time adjusting to the restrictions.

“Football hours for these guys are only 20. Twenty hours a week. I remember with the Dolphins, Zach Thomas would spend 20 hours in a day sometimes getting ready for a game. As a coach, you have so many things pulling on you in college. I could spend a month doing nothing but fund-raising. A month doing nothing but recruiting.

“But this year, I feel a lot better about what I need to spend time on.”

Even if he didn’t, within two weeks, it’ll be pretty clear.

Collier points out the lack of running game, determining the starters at receiver and the lack of an offensive line. He runs out of room before discussing the lack of a d-line.

Senior Linebacker Brian Bennet, gets a nice piece about his future career plans.

The Pitt fifth-year senior linebacker is focusing on his future after an internship with the U.S. Secret Service’s Pittsburgh field office. Instead of sacking the quarterback, the former Big East Defensive Freshman of the Year hopes to one day protect the president.

“You’ve got to be wild to even think about doing it,” said Bennett, 22, who graduated in December with honors and a bachelor’s degree in administration of justice and legal studies. “You’re throwing yourself in front of bullets. That’s the type of job I want to do, something exciting.”

…

“It makes our agents feel young again, to be able to explain the job to him and see his eyes light up,” said Matt LaVigna, assistant special agent in charge at the Pittsburgh office. “He’s going above and beyond. He does fit the profile of a candidate we’ve been looking for.”

Bennett endured a hectic schedule for six weeks. He awoke at 5:30 a.m. for Pitt’s voluntary workouts, followed by a 9-to-5 Secret Service shift and a three-hour abnormal psychology evening class.

It is a welcome diversion for someone who spent the better part of the last two years rehabilitating injuries.

“Most of the time you think about football, then reality starts hitting you,” Bennett said. “You get hurt a few times and start thinking about your future.”

After an internship with the University of Pittsburgh police department this past winter, chief Tim Delaney recommended that Bennett apply to the Secret Service.

“You read about the players who get in trouble. This is stuff you don’t read about,” Delaney said. “He’s a sharp kid. He’s a real success story. He’s not your typical student-athlete.”

It didn’t hurt Bennett’s cause that LaVigna played linebacker at Pitt from 1984-87 and can relate on a personal and professional level.

“I see a lot of me and my experiences in what he’s going through,” LaVigna said. “I did the same thing — tore a ligament in my knee and went through the rehab and played another two years. I feel his pain, so to speak.”

Bennett also learned during his background check that someone had stolen his identity. The article didn’t say how that worked out.

Bad news for Rod Rutherford, who was cut by the Steelers. Hopefully he can catch on with another team.

Then there were the stories about some Pittsburgh area HS players who are headed to Milford Academy, New Berlin, NY, one of the top prep football schools in the country. Two of the players could very well be headed to Pitt.

Aundre Wright hopes to be one of those players.

Wright was a wide receiver at Perry, and received some interest from Division I schools, but his test scores were not high enough to enroll.

“I was struggling in school in ninth and tenth grade, and by eleventh grade, it was too late to get caught up,” he said.

So his coach told him about Milford, where he can work on his grades without losing college eligibility.

When he graduates from Milford, he hopes to play college football at Pitt. He said that he has been in touch with the coaches at Pitt, and they are excited about his decision, because if he is successful academically he will be able to enroll in time for spring football.

“As long as Aundre does what he’s supposed to do, he’s going to be ready to enroll at Pitt in the spring,” Siegel said.

The other is Chris Hanna.

Hanna was an offensive tackle at Gateway, and was recruited by Division I programs. However, his test scores weren’t high enough to get admitted into college, so he will spend a semester at Milford to work on both his schoolwork and his football.

“I’m coming here to get my grades up and retake the SAT so I can play college ball,” he said.

He said he is probably going to play in college for either Illinois or Pitt.

Siegel said that if he has a good year, he expects to turn himself into one of the country’s elite prospects. That’s part of the appeal of Milford, which finished last season with a record of 9-2.

“Chris will end up at a very high-profile school,” Siegel said. “If he plays to his full potential, he could very well go to one of the top 20 schools.”

Another player heading Milford — at last check, he does have a little history of changing his mind — LeSean McCoy. McCoy, for those who forget was one of the top RB recruits in the country last year out of the Harrisburg area. He eventually verballed to PSU then changed his mind and said he will be heading to Miami. Who knows where he might decide to attend after Milford.

The ‘effin FCC has lost its frickin’ mind ever since Janet Jackson exposed a nipple.

In its continuing crackdown on on-air profanity, the FCC has requested numerous tapes from broadcasters that might include vulgar remarks from unruly spectators, coaches and athletes at live sporting events, industry sources said.

Tapes requested by the commission include live broadcasts of football games and NASCAR races where the participants or the crowds let loose with an expletive. While commission officials refused to talk about its requests, one broadcast company executive said the commission had asked for 30 tapes of live sports and news programs.

“It looks like they want to end live broadcast TV,” said one executive, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. “We already know that they aren’t afraid to go after news.”

While live programming always has been problematic for broadcasters, it has become even more difficult under tougher commission rules approved in 2004. The new rules found that virtually any use of certain expletives will be considered profane and indecent, even if it is a slip of the tongue. In a March decision, the FCC found that the CBS news program “The Early Show” violated its indecency rules because of a profane slip-up but did not issue a fine because the incident occurred before the new rules were instituted.

Live sports — amateur, college and professional — have long been a broadcast programming staple. Broadcasters have spent enormous amounts of money and energy to come up with ways to give audiences a better feel for the action. As broadcasters vie for viewers, technical advances that include such things as on-field microphones and in-car cameras have become as important as the announcers.

You see where this is going? Nevermind the Palko expletive after the ND win — which would now fetch him and NBC a $325,000 fine — just imagine what happens at a home stadium or arena when a ref blows the call against the home team. There’s that little chant that fans release. Rhymes with ‘tool kit.’ I know I’ve often heard it make its way over the audio of live games. How do you filter that without keeping crowd noise permanently muted? Helping to ruin the effect of the game.

Andy Katz has a little more on Pitt’s schedule and the game at Army (Insider Subs).

As such, Dixon set up the Maggie Dixon Classic. Details are still being finalized but the unique doubleheader will include Army’s women’s team against Ohio State and Dixon’s Pitt men’s team against Western Michigan at the Academy on Sunday, Nov. 12. ESPNU tentatively is scheduled to air the doubleheader. Aeropostale is a sponsor, as well.

A pre-existing scheduling conflict prevented DePaul, where Dixon worked prior to going to Army, from playing on that date. Ohio State coach Jim Foster also knew Maggie. Army’s men’s team also is in another event, which is why Western Michigan was added. WMU coach Steve Hawkins is a friend of Dixon’s and was willing to go to West Point. The two teams were already slated to play.

Meanwhile, the Panthers upgraded their schedule even more with a home-and-home series against Washington, the first of which will be on Feb. 17, likely at noon or 2:30 p.m. on ESPN. The contest should be a big man’s dream with Pitt’s Aaron Gray against UW’s Spencer Hawes. The Panthers already are playing Florida State and UMass at home, Wisconsin and Auburn on the road, and South Carolina at Madison Square Garden for their other high-profile affairs.

The Panthers have been criticized in the past for their nonconference schedule, but Dixon has a top-five team returning. Pittsburgh also rates well nationally, so get used to seeing the Panthers on TV quite often.

Something to consider, when we discuss Dixon’s coaching and teaching. Unlike almost all of the other teams being put in the top 5-6: Florida, UNC, Kansas, Ohio St., UCLA; Pitt’s roster is devoid of any McDonalds All-Americans. That needs to change (hopefully soon), but it points out how well the coaches have found talent and actually done a good job with it.

While talking about recruits, Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News points out some prospects that seem to be falling in the opinion of scouting services.

Herb Pope, PF, Aliquippa, Pa. Pope was hot after a dazzling performance at the 2005 ABCD Camp. But his inconsistency on and off the court — in the past 11 months, he talked about changing high schools and withdrew a commitment to Pitt — dropped him out of the Scout.com top 10. He will be great only if he decides he wants to be. Possible colleges: Kansas State, Pitt, Louisville, Connecticut.
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Julian Vaughn, PF, Reston, Va. Vaughn looks so much like a player that scouts got excited, perhaps prematurely. Vaughn is effective, but he does not impose his will upon a game. Considered a top 35 type, he probably belongs in the second half of the top 100. Possible colleges: North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Florida State, Kentucky, Virginia, Virginia Tech.

Considering that most of the Pitt basketball players have been in Pittsburgh taking classes, working out and playing ball all summer, plus the very early hype the team is already receiving; you would think there would be more articles about individual players sooner. Well, finally the first of what will probably be many more through August is written. It focuses on Antonio Graves.

Yet, it took much of the season for Antonio Graves to realize how valuable his role was with the team.

“I struggled with it, no question,” Graves said Friday, as he took a break from summer workouts to fly to Atlanta for his sister’s wedding. “I struggled with it, mentally. I didn’t know what to think.

“Finally, it hit me, and I began to believe in myself and understand that it wasn’t about me. It was about the team.”

…

“I’m working a lot this summer on getting stronger,” he said. “I watched how the players got to the basket in the NBA playoffs, and I talked a lot to Carl (Krauser, Pitt’s leading scorer as a senior last season).

“The key is getting to the free-throw line. Even if you don’t make the shot, you want to have the opportunity to get those points somehow.”

Graves enters his final college season with a chance to make a big impact on a Pitt team that’s expected to be highly ranked in the preseason.

He understands all of it.

“I’m excited. I expect my senior year to be a good one,” Graves said. “I know I’m one of the leaders of this team now, and I can tell you that, since my freshman year, I’ve been through it all.”

Graves is not a starter, but he is a good bench player. He has improved and is willing to go inside, but is still inconsistent. He needs to improve or abandon his 3-point shooting which was atrocious last year (23-82) after looking very comfortable out there the previous year (36-78).

“We only lost one person (Krauser) who gave a major contribution,” Graves said, who was quick to point out he meant no disrespect to Krauser’s fellow senior, John DeGroat, who started nearly every Pitt game last season but averaged only 10.7 minutes per game.

“We have a good core coming back,” Graves added. “I think we gained a lot of experience in big games, and we proved, in Big East games, that we could get it done, even when Carl was in foul trouble.”

The pitch in Graves’ voice began to elevate with excitement as he continued to look ahead to the coming season.

“It’s going to make us a lot better, knowing we can play the way we did last year in certain situations,” he said. “We’re all going to be working hard, because we’re playing for a position. We’re all going to be pushing one another.”

It is always scary as a Pitt fan, to have these big expectations. Not to mention, there’s still an unfamiliarity with them.

This store has some great helmets available. It also affords a little comparison of the helmets and their colors.

This helmet is a replica of the Pitt helmet from 73-80.

Now you can compare it to the 1996 model.

Something even the helmet project missed.The colors got noticeably darker shortly before Pitt went to the navy and gold tones of today. The thing is, I don’t think the road jerseys at that time were that dark a shade of blue. At least the one I have from circa 1995-96 isn’t. I knew the yellow had gotten darker, but not the blue.

There’s also a great throwback.

This is a 1963 replica with Paul Martha’s number. Martha, for those who need a history refresher, was a 1st team All-American RB for Pitt in 1963 and the #1 pick by the Steelers in ’64.

As a little additional digression, Martha is still practicing law in San Diego and consults for another former Pitt player turned lawyer/uber-agent Ralph Cindrich. Okay, the digression is really just an excuse to link to Mr. Cindich’s daughter’s website. She just happens to be a model and aspiring actress, and has a bunch of tasteful photos. And really, that’s all I’m going to say since I suspect Mr. Cindrich could beat the crap out of me and even if he eschews direct violence has the means to either have someone else do it for him or completely ruin my life with a few well-connected phone calls.

The Canadian media is doing a piss-poor job following the Canadian national team. It may have something to do with the team getting off to a less than stellar 0-3 start. They lost to Italy, Greece and then Serbia and Montenegro.

The Greece loss was particularly bad with a final score of 89-59 (so bad, that no one even bothered with a game recap). No one is even hiding how bad the Canucks are.

German coach Dirk Bauermann plans to use this weekend’s FIBA World Championship warm-up games against Canada to integrate Dirk Nowitzki into the team.

The Canada games on Friday and Sunday are Germany’s first tests in the build-up to next month’s event in Japan.

Bauermann’s team then play at the Supercup in Berlin the following weekend, with Italy, France and Turkey also involved, before finishing their preparations with three games in a tournament in China.

“It’s very important that we improve our game in each match,” Bauermann told the Neues Deutschland newspaper.

The German team arrived in Hamburg on Wednesday without Nowitzki, who stayed at home for an extra 24 hours following the death of his grandmother.

“The Canadians are certainly the weakest opponent, and that gives us the chance to integrate Dirk Nowitzki into the team without any pressure,” the coach added.

Maybe their Coach can use that as bulletin board material.

Kendall did well in the opening game against Italy. He led the team with 16 points and 7 rebounds. There’s nothing about his numbers in the third game, though he is credited with being the only other player doing well in the game aside from Carl English.

That game against Germany could be a massacre.

UPDATE (11:25 pm): Holy spit, Canada won.
Dirk Nowitzki was far from his NBA superstar form as Germany lost to Canada in a friendly on Friday night.

Carl English from VidiVici Bologna scored 18 points and Jermaine Bucknor added 12 as the North American side, who went on a decisive 16-2 run in the fourth quarter to take control, won 73-68.
…
Canada and Germany started the game cold, but the hosts used a 6-0 run to open a 13-8 lead after seven minutes. Canada took advantage of Germany’s inexperienced bench as English, Bucknor and Levon Kendall – the star of Canada’s team at the FIBA U21 World Championship in Argentina last year – all hit three-pointers in an 11-4 Canada run to lead 19-17 after one quarter.

Kendall scored 7 points on 3-7 shooting in 18 minutes (PDF). Germany plays Canada again on Sunday.

You know, I don’t like to post too much when something goes wrong for another school. No, really. I worry about that Earl Hickey/Karma thing. Still, it has to be noted the academic problems for some WVU players.

Mr. Football appears to be Mr. History.

Brandon Barrett, a two-time Kennedy Award winner as West Virginia’s finest scholastic football player, has been removed from the Mountaineers’ depth chart, where coaches were counting upon him to be one of the team’s top four receivers this season after a long run of off-field problems.

“I’m not optimistic at all that Brandon Barrett will be in a Mountaineers uniform,” coach Rich Rodriguez said yesterday of a receiver who was the MVP of the spring game, with five catches for 105 yards, and a starter in the Sugar Bowl. “Brandon, he started out summer school well. He’s really fallen off. You can’t go run a guy in summer for missing class [because rules prohibit coaching intervention]. He’s a walk-on, so you can’t [threaten] to take a scholarship away. It’s been unfortunate.”

Barrett was academically ineligible as a freshman in 2004.

Then in February 2005, he was arrested in his hometown for driving under the influence and marijuana possession, later pleading no contest to the DUI and getting sentenced to 24 hours in jail plus a $100 fine.

He worked his way back to resume playing with the team in the eighth game last season.

…

Rodriguez said the academic eligibility of “three to four” undisclosed players remains up in the air, along with some incoming freshmen who have yet to be cleared by the NCAA, though he expects few surprises or problems.

So there was some amusement when I saw this headline from a West Virginia paper on the same day.

The R-Rod theorem: Why pass when you don’t need to?

Okay, so the article is about the fact that WVU runs the ball a lot, but you have to love the timing.

On the other hand, I do feel bad for Adam Bednarik. The kid got injured and lost his QB job, and now it would seem his whole career is at risk.

Another player with his Mountaineers’ future in question is former starting quarterback Adam Bednarik, who had offseason arm surgery that prohibits him from throwing a football until November, but might prove to be career ending.

“We’re hoping he can come back,” Rodriguez said of Bednarik, who compiled a 6-1 record as a starter last season before his shoulder was injured against Louisville and he gave way to Pat White. “But it’s still iffy whether he can come back.”

That just sucks.

Pat Bostick is at the EA Sports Elite 11 QB camp, this week. Not much heard about what he is doing. Even though he has given his verbal to Pitt, there will always be concern until he actually signs in February. The good news about the camp is that it hopefully will give him time to bond with one of the counselors (Insider subs.).

The young quarterbacks, along with the camp counselors made of elite college QBs Drew Stanton, Troy Smith, Tyler Palko, Trent Edwards, Jordan Palmer, Mark Sanchez and JaMarcus Russell, were throwing in groups of threes spread out across a lush green field that sits perfectly in the center of the canyons of Orange County at posh SOKA University. Along the sidelines were a handful of parents (including former NFL star Jessie Tuggle whose son, a promising young QB, was assisting as a ballboy) as well as dozens of baby-faced receivers and DBs from local high schools who were there to catch passes, run routes and take part in 7-on-7 drills.

It was really quite a scene.

Hopefully there will be something more.

Chris Dokish had it yesterday that Pitt will play Washington in a home-and-home this year. Apparently Washington had a lot of people questioning their non-con slate as well.

Last season, the non-conference schedule for the Washington men’s basketball team was panned as way too easy.

This time, at least when the Feb. 17 game is considered, people might be asking, “What were they thinking?”

The Huskies will play at Pittsburgh, a Big East power once again worthy of national top-10 consideration, with the teams presumably meeting in a televised game. No network coverage has been firmed up.

The teams will play a home-and-away series, with the Panthers facing the UW in Seattle during the 2007-08 season.

It looks like Pitt has a couple more added to the slate.

Pitt and Washington have a preliminary agreement for a two-game series, but the contract has not yet been signed. This season’s game will be played in February at the Petersen Events Center with Pitt playing at Washington next season.

Pitt also is expected to play an opponent, possibly Western Michigan, in an early season game at Army, part of a men’s and women’s doubleheader that will honor Maggie Dixon, Jamie Dixon’s late sister and the former coach at Army.

Other non-conference teams Pitt is expected to play include: Massachusetts, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Auburn, Florida State and Dayton. Massachusetts and Florida State are expected to be part of tournament at Pitt. Massachusetts officially has announced Pitt as an opponent. Florida State has not.

The article also lists Army as an opponent but I guess they would be coming to Pitt. This article goes with Pitt playing Western Michigan (sort of).

Anderson confirmed that the Army women’s team will play Ohio State at noon. Pitt, which finished 25-8 last year and reached the second round of the NCAA men’s tournament, will follow at 2:30 p.m. Pitt officials expect to play Western Michigan, but Anderson said the Panthers’ opponent is subject to change.

Contracts for the doubleheader have yet to be signed, but that seems like a mere formality. Both games are expected to be televised on one of the ESPN networks.

Throw in the Duquesne game and probably Robert Morris and the non-con is already up to 11 games. Pitt will probably add a couple more games against some patsy teams, but that’s fine at this point.

That’s a quality schedule. It isn’t some impossibly difficult schedule, but it is a challenging non-con that will have 5 games with BCS conference opponents plus 3 A-10 teams.

This year, when Coach Dixon says this will be Pitt’s most challenging and exciting non-con since he’s been at Pitt, it won’t just be spin.

Aaron Gray is still back home. He will be taking part in an NCAA-certified basketball tournament in his area.

All-Big East Conference center Aaron Gray, former Colonial Athletic Association all-rookie guard Ray Barbosa and 2005-06 Morning Call boys basketball Player of the Year Terrence Roderick from Allen will play in the sixth annual Adult Mid-Summer Basketball Classic, which runs Friday through Sunday at Roosevelt Park.

The three players give the tournament headline attractions.
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The tournament is NCAA-certified for the first time and is now coordinated through the Wall 2 Wall Urban Youth Organizers, a nonprofit organization comprising former Lehigh Valley standout athletes and current youth directors.

Wall 2 Wall’s main focus is on building athletic talent as well as the character of inner city youths by establishing leagues, tournaments, mentor programs and other activities. The organization currently runs a youth basketball league on Saturdays and Sundays at Roosevelt.
…
The games don’t change. They figured to be intense and competitive again. Teams from Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Prince George’s County, Md., have already paid their $250 entry fee, and many of the local Lehigh Valley teams are loading up with talent.

Just don’t get injured.

A couple more way too early prognostications on Pitt.

Dick Vitale ranks Pitt at #6 in his pre-season top-40. His top-5 are North Carolina, Florida, Kansas, Ohio St. and UCLA. Other Big East teams are Georgetown (8), Marquette (12), UConn (15), Villanova (16), and Louisville (20). Noticeably absent is Syracuse.

A syndicated writer from the Sports Network puts out his pre-season top-5:

5. Pittsburgh — Aaron Gray returns in the middle with Sam Young complementing the big man and forming a solid frontline. The loss of point guard Carl Krauser hurts, so expect head coach Jamie Dixon to use a trio of off-guards (Levance Fields, Ronald Ramon, Antonio Graves) in a rotation at the point.

The 4 above are Florids, North Carolina, Kansas and Ohio St.

Finally Pitt has the 2006-07 pre-season prospectus (PDF) posted. No schedule info in there. Not even the games that are confirmed. Usual stuff. Coaches and player bios. Stats and the collected box scores from the past season.

I just learned, but haven’t had time to start looking through it. The 2006 Pitt Football Media Guide is on the web. The cover features H.B. Blades, Tyler Palko and Darrelle Revis.

As usual the Media Guide is broken up into sections and are all in PDF format for downloading and saving or printing. Or of course, you can order a regular copy for $15 (full disclosure, the Pitt Athletic Department is sending me a free copy).

Banging on Duquesne isn’t really fair. It’s not difficult, and it isn’t that much fun to keep kicking someone when they are down. Still, this new logo forces my hand.

What are they? The Duquesne Stage Magicians?

The new design, created by Rickabaugh Graphics of Columbus, Ohio, replaces the script “D” and “Duquesne” used since 1998.

I wanted to make a note of the company that was responsible, so that other schools know who to cross off the list when they want to update their logo.

So what does the new b-ball coach think?

“I really like the new look,” said first-year men’s basketball coach Ron Everhart. “That Duke really looks like he means business. I think the image is something fans of Duquesne will rally around.”

If by business you mean sawing a lady in half or pulling a rabbit out of that hat, then yes he does. As for rallying around? Um, perhaps if they need to burn it.

Can’t wait to see what their live mascot looks like.