Long drive back yesterday from the family in Central Pennsylvania. Now it’s all about catching up on things and unfortunately the real world has to come first — especially if I want to have time to watch the game tonight (and I do).

So, I’m going to do this quick-hitter style.

Three themes are prevalent for this game. Stop me if you’ve heard this one: the battle of the big men.

For Thabeet, though, Gray will present a situation like no other this season. The Pitt center is leading the Panthers (16-2, 4-0 Big East) in scoring on a team with the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the country. Also, for the second straight game, Gray will face another 7-footer after limiting Georgetown’s Roy Hibbert to 11 points in 30 minutes Saturday.

“You can’t go in expecting him to play better than you,” Thabeet said. “The coaches here have challenged me. Now, he’s (Gray) going to be another challenge. But I like challenges.”

The theme is repeated a few times. Tip for the Oakland Zoo about Thabeet’s family. The family already has money and from in Tanzania (though I think the family now lives in Senegal). His father is actually part of the World Bank in Africa. Consider the e-mail scam regarding the secret bank account theme.

Thabeet had been struggling — especially against Marquette last week — but had a great game against St. John’s. Sure, it was St. John’s but, um, when it comes to the Red Storm, Pitt should never look down on them. Heck, UConn actually went zone on them.

Somewhat related, but a little broader is the UConn is now young theme. I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, and tonight, you can expect the same Jim Calhoun interview clip from the Big East Media Day to be shown — again. Though, credit Coach Jim Calhoun for his honesty about the young UConn team and struggling:

“No one feels bad for us,” Calhoun said. “I tell the kids that you are making a lot of people happy by doing this.”

The other big theme — the UConn-Pitt rivalry.

After all, nobody else in the Big East — not Syracuse, not Georgetown, not anybody — has strung together more championships and more victories over the last six years than UConn and Pittsburgh.

The two teams have combined for 10 Big East championships: seven regular-season titles and three Big East Tournament crowns. They also boast nearly the same, sparkling conference records during that run: UConn is 64-20 and Pittsburgh is 63-21.

From Taliek Brown’s 30-foot heave in UConn’s double-overtime victory over Pittsburgh for the 2002 Big East Tournament title, to Chevy Troutman’s bruising performance against the Huskies for a 76-66 victory at Gampel Pavilion in 2005 for ESPN’s launch of College GameDay, there’s never been a lack of drama in this series.

There’s also no longer any pretending this isn’t a big rivalry game from Calhoun as in years past.

“There’s been some great, great games between Pittsburgh and Connecticut,” Calhoun told a roomful of reporters and TV cameras at the Petersen Events Center. “It’s been a terrific, terrific game. I would expect our kids to hold up their end. I know Pittsburgh will.”

The fact that there have been so many tough, great games between the two has made it a rivalry that the folks in Connecticut are now happy to acknowledge how much this matters. Pittsburgh media and Pitt have been on that for a while. Great point, early in this story about how rivalries can change in college basketball much faster.

Rivalries come and go over the years. Games that once defined Big East basketball for a generation are now just other games on the schedule. No one blinks an eye anymore when St. John’s plays Georgetown, for example.

But, in the past six years, no rivalry in the Big East can compare to Pitt-Connecticut.

It’s, of course, been the measuring stick for Pitt in the past and in a way it still is this time.