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.

With 12 minutes left, Florida State at home is beating Florida 53-40. Yes, a 13 point lead.

Top 5 teams on the road are not guaranteed wins. I’m just saying.

Sorry, had a lot of off-line things to do. Just got back. Fire away.

Halftime: Pitt leads 44-39. Pitt shooting really well, but Aurburn hanging tough.

I never got to post this link yesterday, but Auburn basketbal has been struggling mightily with getting anyone to show up for the games.

The average announced attendance at Auburn’s previous home games is 3,160. However, the realistic number is much closer to just 2,000 per game.

“It hasn’t been great,” Lebo notes. “We’re used to it. It’s been hard for our guys.”

…

In an effort to help the needy during the holiday season as well as increase attendance for the game against the Panthers, there will be free admission with an unwrapped toy as part of a Toys for Tots drive. Tickets for the general public are just $10 and student tickets are free to the first 500 and only $2 after that.

“They said when I got here that you’ve got to bring in better non-conference people in here to play, and I don’t know if we can get any better than this one,” Lebo notes.

It’s not like the football team had a game yesterdy.

Final: Here’s the box score. Despite free tickets, they only got around 6500 for this game, officially. Fields had a horrible game — probably his worst as a Panther, Kendall didn’t do any scoring but led in assists with 5 and grabbed 9 rebounds, Gray with a workmanlike double-double (16 points, 12 rebounds) and 6-7 on free throws. Antonio Graves provided the 1st half spark with 12 of his 14 points for the game and 5-5 shooting in the half.

The Pitt Basketball Media Guide 2006-07 is finally up on the Pitt site. It’s broken up into 9 PDF sections for downloading or viewing.

It also seems that the Pitt-Auburn game can be watched locally in Pittsburgh.

The University of Pittsburgh athletic department announced that Sunday’s Pitt-Auburn men’s basketball game will be broadcast on the Comcast Network. Comcast Network digital subscribers in the Pittsburgh area may access the game on Channel 188. Comcast subscribers living in other areas must contact their local cable provider for broadcast information.

Tipoff for the game at Auburn’s Memorial Coliseum is at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT.

I’ll be over in the corner kicking my cable box with service from Time Warner for another week.

This story suggests that Freshman Gilbert Brown will not be getting redshirted.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon is juggling a nine-player rotation, which is about the limit for most college basketball coaches. All nine of those players are averaging more than five points and 12 minutes per game.

There does not appear to be room for another player in the mix, but yesterday Dixon made it seem as if he was preparing to put freshman Gilbert Brown in the rotation.

Brown, a 6-foot-6 small forward from Harrisburg, has been practicing with the team for only about three weeks. He had a bout with mononucleosis in October that set him back and ligaments in his right ankle were torn.

Brown missed practice for a month and is behind in his development, but Dixon seems convinced that he is close to being ready to contribute to the team on a consistent basis.

Many projected Brown to be the only freshman in the class with the skills that could allow him to crash the line-up this season. Brown also did a year of prep school, so he is more eager and a bit more polished then a regular freshman.

I think a side story in the article is that Keith Benjamin sounds much wiser and more like a leader than ever before.

“I talk to him [Brown] all the time,” Benjamin said. “Things are not always meant to be. Sometimes in recruiting you’re sold dreams. He is finally starting to realize that there are eight or nine guys who are good already. He’s doing a better job of fitting in. I hope he’s out there soon. He’s looking good. His shooting has improved tremendously since he got here. He’s a complete-package guard. Everyone knows about him now. It just takes some time.”

Benjamin, early last year, seemed too eager to only look for his shot and push his way into the lineup without regard to the team. This is a very good development.

Of course, the other reason for Gilbert Brown playing this year may mean that the Sam Young at small forward plan may be scaled back this season.

To his credit, Young is switching to small forward after playing mainly power forward last year. While he is averaging only 5.7 points and 2.6 rebounds per game, Young is impressing Dixon with his seamless transition from interior defense to the perimeter.

“He’s doing a great job on the defensive end,” Dixon said. “He’s a very good player and has really worked hard and is making a great adjustment in that regard. Better than almost all who have tried to do that.”

On offense, however, Young has at times looked uncomfortable in the new spot. He has 12 turnovers, or two more than point guard Levance Fields.

…

But the adjustment from power forward to small forward means Young is defended by quicker players. Suddenly, his 35-inch vertical leap and rebounding prowess aren’t as important as his decision making, ball-handling and passing skills.

“He’s still getting the feel for it,” senior guard Antonio Graves said. “Last year he played the four (power forward) most of the time, and he had a bigger guy guarding him. Now, he has guards on him. He’s just got to adjust. He’ll be OK.”

Dixon said Young is improving every day at practice.

“He’s done a great job, and it’s because he’s worked so hard,” Dixon said. “That’s why he’s such a much better player than he was in high school and after his freshman year.”

Young is too good, valuable and important a part of the team to not play more and be able to provide more impact. He’ll likely still play a bit at the small forward to keep learning it, but more inside at power forward would be my guess.

This will mean a numbers crunch at power forward, and Biggs and perhaps Kendall playing some more at Center behind Gray. Doyle Hudson seems likely to have his numbers fall further.

Their football and now basketball refuse to play Pitt — since victory isn’t assured — so that only leaves sports where they are relatively confident of a win. Well, one more can be crossed off that list. The women’s basketball team beat Penn State 60-51 last night.

Pitt led from the opening tip and never trailed. The score was never tied.

Congrats to the ladies who are now off to an 8-0 start.

A Q&A with Aaron Gray on SportingNews.com. It’s rather fluffy, but he admits he can’t wait to face Roy Hibbert and G-town.

Seth Davis at SI.com lists 10 Sophomores ready to make the leap in impact this season.

LEVANCE FIELDS
5-10, G, Pittsburgh
2005-06: 21.7 minutes, 6.8 pts, 2.2 assists, 1.97 assist to turnover ratio
2006-07: 25.3 minutes, 5.8 pts, 6.3 assists, 4.22 assist to turnover ratio

Skinny: I could have gone with either of Fields’ classmates, forwards Sam Young and Tyrell Biggs, but I went with Fields because he has picked up the lead guard mantle left behind by Carl Krauser‘s graduation. Though he is actually scoring less than he did last season (largely because his shooting percentages have declined), Fields’ role on the team has been dramatically enhanced because he is the only true point guard on the roster. He is also the closest thing Pitt has to a vocal leader.

The points will go up, maybe not quite to 10 or so. There are just so many scoring options. But that assist and A/TO ratio is excellent so far.

Remember when Pitt made a run for Luis Colon out of Miami? Instead his AAU coach steered him to his good buddy Bob Huggins. Guess, we know why. He fit the system there a little better.

Kansas State freshman basketball player Luis Colon received an automatic one-game suspension for throwing a punch Wednesday in a game against California in Berkeley, Calif.

The suspension is Big12-mandated. So Colon, who is 6-10, won’t play Saturday when the Wildcats play against Colorado State in Fort Collins, Colo. Colon was ejected with 6 minutes, 39 seconds left in K-State’s 78-48 loss. He threw the punch at Golden Bears’ 6-10 freshman Taylor Harrison.

“Luis actions last night are inexcusable and will not be tolerated,” K-State coach Bob Huggins said in a prepared statement. “This is a tough game, and you have to be mature and maintain your emotions. Luis understands that he made a mistake and there are consequences for his actions. This cannot happen again.”

If it does happen again, the Big 12 has him done for the season.

Huggy-bear made Colon go the Cal lockerroom after the game and apologize directly. K-State lost the game 74-48

Let’s thank Paul Zeise in his latest Q&A for resolving a story I and many others had fallen for regarding the script Pitt logo.

Q: Who owns the trademark to the Pitt script and thus gets the royalties from sales of merchandise bearing it — the University or the athletic department?

ZEISE: Well, it took me less time to read the Old Testament than this question, which I believed I paraphrased to what the fundamental issue is — to settle a long running debate between two factions of Pitt fans regarding why Pitt does not go back to the script. I forwarded this question to the marketing guru of Pitt, Chris Ferris, because I have no idea why this issue is causing such a stir. Anyway, the response I got was very thorough but also complex (which I would expect because Chris has forgotten more about the marketing industry than most people will ever know), but again doing my best to paraphrase it: (1) the Athletic Department gets the royalties from all sales of Pitt script stuff and in fact already sells the stuff online and in the university stores, so it currently is reaping the benefits from sales of it. (2) Because of that, it is an incorrect theory/ assumption that the reason Pitt won’t go back to it is because the university owns the trademark and thus the athletic department wouldn’t be able to benefit from the merchandising of it. That’s just not true. (3) (And this is the marketing guy spin, not mine, so e-mail them to argue, not me) Pitt is now ranked 37th out of 118 schools in the Collegiate Licensing Company Consortium — a few years back (presumably when script was it) Pitt was not even ranked. Apparently that’s all due to the logo changes and not because Pitt from 2000-05 had a top 15 basketball team and a very successful football program, whereas the Panthers pretty much stunk the joint up in both sports during the 1990’s.

But there you have it, hopefully this answer has settled the dispute in a peaceful manner and didn’t cause any states to secede from the union.

Fans for Script should rejoice.

He has a Q&A today and a chat yesterday.

Just an idle thought. I figure Fittipaldo assumes he is one of the most hated college sports beat writers. He is hated by plenty of Penn State fans who assume he is biased against/hates their football team as the P-G beat reporter who also covers Pitt b-ball; and by plenty of Pitt fans who assume he is biased against/hates the b-ball team as the P-G beat reporter who also covers PSU football.

From the chat there was someone with unbelievably out of whack expectations for 3-point shooting:

MPM: Thanks for taking this question in advance. Going into last night’s game the Panthers 3PT shooting seemed adequate. Last night was horrible. Was it just a bad night or could this be a problem area for the team?

Ray Fittipaldo: Pitt was shooting 47 percent from 3-point range before last night. After going 2 for 17 from behind the arc, the Panthers are now shooting 41.2 percent. That is still good enough to lead the Big East. One of the reasons Pitt’s guards kept shooting last night was because of the supreme confidence Jamie Dixon has in them. Ron Ramon is shooting 57 percent from 3-point range. Antonio Graves is shooting 45 percent. Ramon is one of the top 3-point shooters in the country. I would view last night’s game as an aberration, but it also goes to show how opposing teams will defense Pitt. Most teams are going to try and stop Gray and force the guards to win the game. It will be interesting to see how Pitt fares in a Big East game when the shooting is off. They were able to get it done against Robert Morris. But will they be able to find ways to win against ranked foes?

“Adequate?” Jeez, I know everyone is hoping for big things, but keep in mind that shooting 40% from beyond the arc is like shooting 60% from inside. Pitt has an excellent chance of averaging over 40% this year with the way teams have to defend inside, but keep it realistic.

The Q&A has a question about Pitt recruiting DC versus NYC:

Q: I was excited about the signings in November. But I was surprised that none were from New York City. I hope the pipeline has not dried up. I find that it is very important to have those guys when playing conference games against east coast teams. Can you provide insight here?

FITTIPALDO: Pitt has not forgotten about New York City. It just happened to be one of those years when New York did not produce many high-caliber players. I did some research on this and wrote a story about it when Dixon hired David Cox as his director of basketball operations back in the summer. One of the reasons Dixon hired Cox was because of his connections as a former AAU coach in Washington, D.C. The Washington-Baltimore area, for the moment, has surpassed New York City as the recruiting hotbed on the east coast. New York City did not produce a top 70 recruit in the 2007 recruiting class. The Washington-Baltimore area had five players among the top 25. I think Dixon would like to make more inroads in the area. He signed Sam Young two years ago. I would expect to see more in the future.

It’s also part of why the football team is looking to tap the area as well. There’s just a boom in athletic talent in the area right now.

There were some questions about Sam Young struggling. As the Fittipaldo story pointed out earlier, part of it is Young playing a different position this year. It’s what Dixon has done plenty of before. Think about the way he has shifted the guards the last couple of years. Having them play both point and shooting. It’s about creating more depth and allowing Pitt to play the best players at once. Young at small forward may not last, but given that Young is 6’6″, not 6’8″ or bigger Young should want to embrace the position. It would enhance his pro prospects more than as an undersized power forward.

AOL has launched its College Basketball Fanhouse. The format has changed a bit. Rather than have individual bloggers coming individual teams, there are just a couple bloggers for each conference. A bit more wide ranging responsibilities.

Once more, I have been asked to be a lead blogger for the Big East. I’ll be sharing duties with the Mighty MJD — who concedes to something of a WVU bias to make this an interesting dynamic. MJD  has also been doing the NFL Fanhouse this year. His Monday Night Football Liveblogs have been about the only thing to make many of the games tolerable.

This should actually have less of an impact on my Pitt Blather blogging then the college football. The AOL blog will have me focused more on the whole conference not just Pitt.

You can find appropriate AOL links in the sidebar under the various categories.