Sorry about the quiet again. Just be happy I’m not posting the ultrasound images.

I’m sure you read the local stories on Pitt’s win over Auburn. Interesting that Coach Dixon is now stating that Sam Young’s knee is giving him trouble. As I recall he hurt it over the summer. Is it an excuse? Is it real? Considering that Dixon and Pitt haven’t hidden injuries before — though they have downplayed occasionally (Remember Julius Page’s ankle all of the ’03-’04 season?) — I don’t think it’s an excuse. I think that Pitt was hoping that it would be getting better by now. It hasn’t and it is obvious that there is something wrong.

Now for the Southern takes. Auburn feels like it missed a big chance.

“It was frustrating we didn’t win the game,” Lebo said. “We were gutty. We battled hard and did some good things out there.

“We’ve gotten better. The kids were ready to play. That’s all I can ask of them.”

Auburn was planning for this game and to go inside and use quickness.

A lot of that was because of Korvotney Barber and Josh Dollard, a pair of 6-7 inside players for the Tigers. Barber finished with 19 points, four rebounds and three blocks, while Dollard had had 14 points and 12 boards.

“Coach told us all week that (Gray) is a big body, but he’s slow,” Dollard said. “We tried to use our quickness to get around him and outwork him. That’s what we tried to do.”

It didn’t help that Auburn shot 3s a lot like how Pitt shot 3s against Robert Morris last week.

Coach Dixon was impressed by the improvement from Auburn from last year to this year.

“I’ve seen this team improve from last year to this year,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I think about us eight years ago when we came to Pitt and had to play a lot of young guys and got better each year. Coach (Jeff) Lebo has this thing going. They’re going in that direction.”

The loss left Auburn players feeling frustrated after coming so close to a signature victory.

“It’s frustrating knowing we could have beaten the No. 2 team in the country,” Auburn forward Korvotney Barber said. “We made mistakes here and there and just couldn’t beat them.”

The question with any SEC school that seems to take athletic success as a birthright regardless of the situation is if they will give Jeff Lebo will be given enough time. This is his 3d year of a rebuilding job. Things seem to be improving, but patience is another issue. Especially with Alabama a top-10 team.

SI On Campus has a feature called “Monday Awards.” A look back at the past week in college games. One of the new features is a basketball “power poll.” For top-10 teams they give the partisan blogger for that school a chance to comment about the past week. Despite not quite getting the my name right, I got to summarize Pitt who was slotted at #2.

A Q&A with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodall that has a couple snippets of some amusement.

DN: Did you play at Washington and Jefferson?

RG: I didn’t. I hurt my knee late in the spring and I would tell you, if there is ever a regret in my life, it’s not playing college football.

DN: But Jackie Sherrill was interested in you coming to Pitt?

RG: That is true. So I was recruited, I got some interest, and there were a number of schools.

DN: When was the last time you tailgated at a game?

RG: The last time at an NFL game, I don’t know. I went to my college homecoming this year and tailgated. That was fun. I actually am probably going to be doing that in a couple of weeks at an NFL game. I’m taking my family out to a game.

DN: One of my sources told me you were a bartender in college.

RG: I’ve often said it was one of the more valuable jobs I’ve had. You learn how to deal with people in unusual circumstances or difficult circumstances. It wasn’t a steel town, but it was very much a working-class town, Washington, Pa. During the day, you had people who had been working in a mill of some type. They were in there all day. At night, it would turn into a little bit more of a younger, single hipper crowd. I had to work the transition. It was tough sometimes.

DN: Did you know how to mix all the drinks? Or did you need a book?

RG: I had a book and I still have it at home. The best part was practicing. It wasn’t a high-class bar in the sense that I had to make a lot of difficult drinks.

DN: Have you been back to the bar?

RG: I went back there for homecoming this year. They made me go behind the bar for a minute.

I’m still trying to figure out what the real differences are with the “younger, single hipper crowd” and others in Washington, PA.