So, um, does anyone mind if I just talk about some basketball for a little. The whole second half from last night’s Backyard Brawl really is not something I’m prepared to discuss quite yet.

There is a tournament that started a couple hours ago. UMass and Northeastern are playing right now and Pitt takes on Oakland at 5 pm tonight. There are two expected easy games for Pitt and two reasonable challenges.

“This was a great opportunity for us,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “When they came at us with UMass and Florida State … Who else is getting two games like that? The quality of teams in this tournament compared to other tournaments is pretty good.”

Dixon likes to play host to tournaments because they are exempt and have the advantage of keeping players in school and on campus.

As much as anything else, this is a very early rev-up for playing games on successive days.

“Three games in three days,” senior center Aaron Gray said. “This should be a pretty good test for us.”

The event will help prepare the Panthers for the rigors of the Big East Tournament, where it takes three-games-in-three days — at least — to win it all.

“Everything we’re doing,” Gray said, “is to get prepared for March.”

The UMass game tomorrow also adds the intrigue of Dante Milligan, a one-time Pitt player who transferred when he realized how much talent was ahead of him and his chances of getting playing time early weren’t there.