Just to note that Pitt has a countdown clock on the front page to the start of Pitt’s season. Also, the ticket ads featuring H.B. Blades and Tyler Palko are there (Windows Media).

Great story about how Coach Dixon’s basketball camp can be more than simply about more income for the coach.

There is the toothy, beaming smile of Julius Page that was as much his identifying feature as his ability to sail over a would-be shot blocker and flush home a dunk.

There is the slightly pudgy profile of Jaron Brown, whose ferocity, versatility and Kentucky-bred kindness made him a fan favorite on a team that was the foundation for Pitt’s resurgence.

There is the long sinewy body of Chris McNeal, with his sharp elbows, deft body control and a never-quit motor.And the space-eating chassis, soft hands and incessant grin that endeared Ontario Lett to fans.

They all made their marks on a basketball floor in Oakland, and that is where they gathered again yesterday. Those former players were at the Petersen Events Center, working as counselors to the 200 campers at a weeklong basketball camp operated by Panthers coach Jamie Dixon.

“To me, it is important to make sure there is a welcome feeling and a sense of family that runs through not just our current guys, but past players,” Dixon said. “That is why guys like these have an invitation extended to them to work here. Sometimes, I think it is overlooked how vital it is to bridge the gap between past players and the current program, and this is a way to do that. It is also a way to make sure the campers get solid instruction.”

I’m not a fan of living in the past, but I think for college athletics one of the great things is emphasizing the tradition and the links. Whether it was laziness on the athletic department and the school, money things, or something else involving personality conflicts; Pitt from the late-80s to the 90s really did a poor job of connecting the past and present. That was definitely one of the more easily overlooked things that former AD Pedersen did at Pitt — reestablish the ties to past players and coaches.

And the players are aware of it now.

“I know I have a lot of friends here in Pittsburgh,” Lett said. “And everybody is always calling me saying, ‘Come back, come back.’ When I saw that they could use some guys to work camp, I had to come back here. Wherever it is I am in the world, I know I can always come back here to Pitt, and that is important to me.”

McNeal, who played for former Pitt coach Paul Evans and graduated from the university in 1993, has the same feeling. He is an assistant coach at George Wythe High School in Virginia and helps organize the Virginia Storm, an AAU basketball program.

Even though he played three Pitt regimes ago, the guy whose crowning night was a 27-point, 20-rebound performance in a win in March 1992 against Boston College at Fitzgerald Field House knows he has an open invitation to come back because he’s part of the family.

Keeping up those ties and warm feelings to Pitt cynically also helps for the future, when a guy like McNeal can think positively about Pitt and be receptive to Pitt recruiting efforts with his kids.

So, how do some other teams and their local coverage view the goings of BE Media Day?

You would think Rutgers, after beating Pitt, having a winning record for the first time since 1992(?), and its first bowl game since 1978 that Rutgers would be a little annoyed to be picked behind Pitt for 4th place in the Big East. You don’t know the disturbingly relentless optimism that comes from Rutgers — shining through the cynicism, bitterness and toxic fumes associated with the NY/NJ pro sports scene (and I type this as a Yankees fan).

Following up its first bowl game since 1978, Rutgers was selected No. 4 in the Big East preseason poll as voted by the media.

It’s the first time they’ve been included in the upper half of the conference in the preseason.

The Scarlet Knights received 125 points, just two shy of No. 3 Pittsburgh. With a 4-3 conference record, Rutgers finished tied for third last season, the first time it finished in the top four since 1992.

“It’s a huge shot in the arm for the program. Winning begets winning,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said at Big East Football Media Day here yesterday. “It helped in recruiting. The more we can win, the more we can leverage that and continue to build a program.

“All along, that’s been the plan. To have any success we had to build an infrastructure of a program that was missing. It took some time but I really enjoy our football team.”

You know, when I first came to Cleveland in ’94, I likened the residents to beaten puppies still trying to get affection and validation. We’re an up and coming city, we’re coming back! Really! We have the Indians winning, the Browns are close (whoops), we have the Rock Hall, the Flats are awesome, there’s so much here! There’s no burning river! Doncha’ agree?

There’s a bit of Rutgers in that kind of attitude. Even the NY Post can’t seem to help itself when it comes to Rutgers.

Instead there was great celebration on the banks of the old Raritan. Rutgers played in the first legitimate bowl game in history, losing 45-40 to Arizona State in Phoenix’s Insight Bowl. Surely Rutgers has passed the critical stage.

“I never looked at it that way,” said Schiano, who will take part in Big East Media Days today and tomorrow here. “We set out to build a championship program and that’s not about one season. Last season was great for the program and for the university and what it created was a window of opportunity. We have a foundation. Now we have to keep building on it.”

…

The days of walking into a recruit’s house and not being able to satisfy the question why the Scarlet Knights don’t play in late-December or January are over. Rutgers plays in a BCS conference, has state of the art facilities, and now expects to go to a bowl every year.

“We’ll have to play better in every game this year than we did last year,” Schiano said. “I was on the other side and I know there were programs out there that no matter what the score, believed they would beat Rutgers. Those days are over. People know they have to play a complete game, which means we have to be better.”

For UConn, their coach just wants to get them out there playing soon.

“I know I’ve been champing at the bit since the end of last season to go out and play,” Edsall said. “None of us were satisfied with what happened last year. The best way to get past that feeling is to get back on the field and compete.”

I was hoping to find out about the TV deals for the Big East, but they are keeping that underwraps for a bit longer.

“The football deal alone will surprise a lot of people because we weren’t supposed to be able to sell Big East football according to the doom and gloomers,” said associate commissioner Tom Odjakjian, who deals mostly with the conference’s network partners. “The football deal is very good. It will guarantee a lot of exposure for our programs. The basketball deal, however, is off the charts. Any questions about our conference, if there are still any out there, will be put to rest.”

Odjakjian said the new football contract, which begins in 2008, will still have weeknight games. But the ratings for those games have been very good, he said, and they have been national broadcasts. The game of the week package will remain with ESPN Regional but will include more networks because the Big Ten is moving a lot its games to the newly formed Big Ten Network.

Translation: get ready for plenty of weekday games and expect the Big East to be one of the last conferences to get their own channel. So much for being proactive and forward thinking with media delivery to fans and viewers.

I gave the ‘Eers the grudging and brief credit for their win in the Sugar Bowl when it happened. I found myself rooting for them in that game. The Hoopies. I know many of us did. For the simple reason that with them winning it helped the Big East in credibility, which of course helps Pitt. It was a necessity thing (well, for our buddy Harlan stuck in Atlanta, it was also good in the fact that all the UGA fans became very muted). The Big East in its first year in its new version did not, by any stretch, look good. A regular season that didn’t exactly shine, and no bowl wins to that point.

That’s the sort of reason why I will be carrying a grudge against the ACC and those 3 teams for some time. They put me in a position where it became more important for WVU — Pitt’s primary rivalry team — to win, and thus have to root for their success. The team that ran the crap out of Pitt in the Backyard Brawl last season. It starts churning my stomach the more I think about it.

The only thing that helps, just a little, is the hope that Pitt can put the Hoopie fans in the same reaching-for-the-Maalox position — soon.

So, you can imagine how much I simply enjoyed the over-arching theme of Big East Media Day.

And the optimism in Morgantown underscores the general optimism for the league. Louisville will most likely begin the season in or near the top 10. Pittsburgh Coach Dave Wannstedt, in his second season, has successfully recruited in the talent-rich local area. And even Rutgers is coming off the program’s first bowl appearance in nearly 30 years.

But the Mountaineers, with 15 returning starters from an 11-1 team, an easy schedule and dynamic young talent, have the league abuzz. They have the best young offensive duo in the league, and perhaps all of college football, in running back Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, both sophomores.

Slaton rushed for 5.5 yards a carry last season on his way to 112.8 yards a game. He won the Sugar Bowl’s most outstanding player award with 204 yards and 3 touchdowns.

…

The idea of discussing any Big East team competing for the national title began Jan. 2, the night the clouds lifted.

“I think it was critical,” Rutgers Coach Greg Schiano said. “I can tell you this, there were seven other Big East coaches rooting for West Virginia that night.”

It was the focus that showed up in every paper that carries AP stories.

West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez doesn’t agree that his team’s victory in the Sugar Bowl rescued the Big East from oblivion.

But he doesn’t mind people saying it, anyway.

“I’m glad people are talking about that instead of saying, ‘Oh, that loss really hurt,'” Rodriguez said Tuesday at Big East football media day. “I like to think that the league was OK regardless, but it’s a positive thing to have people talk about that win.”

It pervaded the coverage. That the optimism of the BE Media Day was directly related to the Sugar Bowl (not to mention some rapid revisionism).

The Big East commissioner couldn’t have been more relaxed Tuesday than if he was in a lawn chair listening to a Newport Jazz Festival.

“This is the first summer in a long time that we didn’t feel like we were under siege,” he said during the annual Big East football media day. “My sense is that people are more open-minded now. I feel a lot of people had made up their minds about this league, that this was the end.”

…

“You can almost sense this incredible change since the West Virginia game was over,” Tranghese said. “All we ever asked for was time and an opportunity to prove ourselves. There’s only one way to deal with criticism, and that’s to prove it on the field.”

While West Virginia and Louisville finished in the Top 20, newcomer South Florida played No. 3 Penn State and No. 17 Miami close, then shocked the country by blasting Louisville. Connecticut turned around and beat South Florida, and Rutgers ended its 27-year bowl drought and put on a show in the Insight Bowl in a 45-40 loss to Arizona State. And former NFL coach Dave Wannstedt has Pittsburgh moving up fast.

Where? Oh, where are the voices of reason? A West Virginia columnist actually saying, “whoah.”?

Bobby Petrino rooted just as hard as the next guy for West Virginia during the Sugar Bowl in January, knowing full well the impact a win over Georgia might have on the reputation and respect offered the Big East.

As they like to say in the NFL, however, upon further review, WVU’s 38-35 win that night might be less a knockout punch and merely a glancing blow to critics of the league. After all, it was just one game.

“You’d like to think it would quiet the critics,” the Louisville coach said Tuesday. “But the fact is, we have to do it again this year. That’s how it is every year. You go out and prove it on the field and continue to get better.”

…

Will it change things in the long run? Probably not. Petrino was right when he essentially brought up the what-have-you-done-lately point. A couple of non-conference losses here and there or some sloppy league games will bring the heat right back again.

I so look forward to the point where we can gleefully enjoy watching highlights of Mountaineer losses without having to consider the “impact” on the Big East.