Gilbert Brown was the subject of a couple stories. He is battling to stay healthy.

Brown is playing with a partially torn right labrum in his right shoulder sustained in the final exhibition game against Indiana (Pa.). Brown said he will play through the injury; Carl Krauser once played for a season with partially torn labrums in both shoulders.”My shoulder is fine,” Brown said. “I have no discomfort at all.”

Yeah. Of course. He also has to improve areas in his game to keep getting minutes. Things like rebounding, shooting and attacking the basket.

Dixon would like to see Brown drive to the basket more. His shooting percentage — 30.7 percent on 4-for-13 shooting — is down because nine of those attempts have come from behind the 3-point arc.”We talk to him about [driving to the basket] more because about 70 percent of his shots are 3s,” Dixon said. “You never want to have that. That’s not a good percentage, especially for a kid who is as athletic as he is. He needs to be getting offensive rebounds and putbacks and drives to the basket.”

USA Today had a Q&A with Coach Jamie Dixon.

On Sunday, you had eight guys play more than 15 minutes against Saint Louis. Is that something you’re planning for all season or were you just feeling the rotations out?We’ve always played about 10 guys and probably those other guys will play some more minutes. We’ve got a lot of good players and our depth has been a reason for our success and it will continue to be.

…

I came across a stat today that shows you are atop the list of winningest coaches (by winning percentage) in Big East history, ahead of guys named John Thompson, Jim Calhoun and Jim Boeheim. What’s it like to be mentioned with names like that?

It means that you had good players and you better keep getting good players. It’s pretty simple. I don’t try to make it any more complicated than it is. Those guys have good players and we’ve had good players and, you know, I’m fortunate to be at a great university and also fortunate to be coaching good players. We don’t want to change that formula.

…

When you’re talking to a recruit, what’s your main selling point?

You know, you’re talking about one of the best universities in the country and the No. 1 most-livable city in the country as it was voted again. So starting with that, we’ve got a pretty good sell. We’ve had a good basketball program here and we’ve been as good as anyone in the country. So we really put those out there first.

We’ve also had a history of guys developing and improving and that seems to be something that helps and keeps consistency in our program and is something that is talked about often. So I think that’s another good thing.

And then the other thing is we have a very high graduation rate. All our kids have been graduating at a very high level, as far as percentage-wise. It’s about getting guys to improve and getting guys to graduate. That’s really our two goals.

Interesting point from Ray Fittipaldo in a Q&A about playing in the middle undersized. Apparently Ontario Lett was 6’6″. Maybe memory makes him seem bigger. Or perhaps I am thinking of his overall bulk. He sure never seemed to be that undersized.

Dick Weiss of the NY Daily News and one of the better college basketball writers likes what he saw of Pitt so far.

…I’m already starting to wonder whether I have the Panthers ranked too low at 20 in our preseason poll.Pitt blistered Houston Baptist, 103-63, in the second half of a Hispanic Classic doubleheader at Fitzgerald Field House and DeJuan Blair, the energetic 6-7, 275-pound freshman who grew up just 200 yards away from campus and attended fabled Schenley High, had the Oakland Zoo — one of the best student sections in college basketball — rockin’, going off for 20 points and 14 rebounds. Blair shot 9 for 11 and reminded me an awful lot of Sam Clancy, the one-time Fifth Avenue star who was the last great true low post player to play at Pitt in the late 70’s.

Before the end of the season, we predict Blair and junior power forward Sam Young, who had 22 points, will have better numbers than Aaron Gray and Levon Kendall did on last year’s Sweet 16 team. They are perfect fits for Jamie Dixon’s up-tempo offense. Pitt did not shoot it that well from the outside, but if New York City guards Ronald Ramon and a slimmed-down Levance Fields heat up, this team can play with anyone in this league.

He corrected the Fitzgerald Fieldhouse mention in a later post.

Of course, lest we forget, there is an actual game tonight against Mississippi Valley State.

Stanford Speech, an all-conference senior guard, will lead Mississippi Valley State against the No. 19 Panthers at 7:30 p.m. at Petersen Events Center in the final game of the Hispanic College Fund Challenge.Speech is the top scorer for the Delta Devils (0-1) and a preseason first-team all-Southwestern Athletic Conference selection. The 6-foot-3, 215-pounder also earned first-team honors last season for the SWAC’s regular-season champion.

…

Speech is Mississippi Valley’s main option. He took 120 more shots than anyone on the team last season. He is a 28.9 percent shooter from 3-point range, but he scored 23 points against Wright State – Pitt’s first-round NCAA opponent – and 28 against Grambling State.

Mississippi Valley State, a 3,100-student school best known for producing NFL Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice, opened the season with a 97-63 loss to Ole Miss, third-year coach James Green’s alma mater. Speech scored eight points, shooting 4 for 12 from the field.

Ole Miss, picked to finish last in the SEC West, shot 60 percent from the field and went 13 of 26 from 3-point range.

Pitt will have a big size advantage underneath, as Mississippi Valley’s 6-10 senior center Larry Cox (foot) remains sidelined. The Delta Devils’ tallest starter is Eric Petty, a 6-6, 220-pound junior.

The game is an internet video feed via Pitt’s All-Access.

If Pitt is playing Rutgers, it must be time for the mentor-pupil stories.

Greg Schiano was a still-green, barely 30-year-old when Dave Wannstedt took a shot on him.

Wannstedt put a whole NFL position group under his charge a year later, and today, if the perpetually time-crunched Schiano happens upon some bonus chat time to call a buddy, “Dave,” the Rutgers coach said, “is one of them.”

Not that any of that means Schiano is going to tell Wannstedt who his starting quarterback will be Saturday.

“Nope,” Schiano affirmed with a wry smile and a promise that friendship won’t trump gamesmanship. Not this week.

Isn’t it interesting that Coach Wannstedt can also recognize young, ambitious coaching talent? Pitt position Coaches that are meeting with general approval include Brian Angelichio (TE) and Aubrey Hill (WR). Think maybe he should consider that approach a little more with the present staff?

As for the starting QB. It is expected that both Mike Teel and Jabu Lovelace will be playing. Teel will likely start, but expect plenty of Lovelace.

While Scarlet Knights starter Mike Teel is a pocket passer who ranks second in the Big East, backup Jabu Lovelace is a rushing threat who has gained more yards this season than any Pitt running back not named LeSean McCoy.

Teel has started every game this season, but pulled himself after the second series against Army last Friday because of a thumb injury. Rutgers coach Greg Schiano was non-committal as to which quarterback will start when Pitt (4-5, 2-2) visits Rutgers (6-4, 2-3) at noon Saturday.

…

Lovelace, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound junior, could pose a more dangerous threat between the two. Consider: The only player to rush for 100 or more yards against the Panthers this season is Navy quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada, who had 122 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries.

When Lovelace is playing, Pitt has to fight through blocks to close the extra gap. But, without Teel, Rutgers loses a dimension of its offense in passes to game-breaking receivers Tiquan Underwood and Kenny Britt.

“When a quarterback is carrying the ball in that position, there’s not enough bodies,” Rhoads said. “You can’t put enough people in there, so somebody’s got to get off a block. You’ve got to disrupt something to make a play. When he’s in there, that’s what you’re concerned with. When Teel’s in there, you’re concerned with everything.”

Not enough bodies? When did Pitt start spotting the other team an extra player? That may explain some things.

Schiano, like Wannstedt is a big proponent of speed on defense. Unlike Wannstedt, however, Schiano likes aggressive blitzing schemes. Facing a freshman QB, expect plenty.

The Scarlet Knights under Greg Schiano play a defense that thrives on blitzing and a lot of movement by the linemen. So Bostick will be under fire.

But, in a sense, so will the Panthers as a whole. Pitt (4-5, 2-2) finds itself in a must-win situation if the Panthers want to go to a bowl game.

The Scarlet Knights rank No. 1 in NCAA Division I-A in pass defense (153.2 yards per game) and 13th in pass-efficiency defense (103.9 passer rating against) and average 2.5 sacks per game.

How well Bostick and the offensive line handles the Scarlet Knights’ pressure likely will determine the outcome. Pitt failed that test the past two years with Rutgers amassing 10 sacks and forcing four turnovers against Pitt in those games.

Pitt is of course planning to run the ball a lot. Shocking. Not exactly revealing a secret wrinkle in the offense.

“They are an attacking defense,” Bostick said. “And they do it out of a lot of different looks. It really jumps out how aggressive they are and their willingness to play that aggressively and to do certain things that many other teams aren’t very comfortable with doing.

“Some of the things they do are identifiable, but they give so many different looks and they will blitz from many different looks. We have to be able to get them blocked and then beat their man coverage. That’s not an easy thing to do.”

Bostick said the thing that has impressed him the most about the Scarlet Knights is they seem to play defense without fear and trust their blitz packages.

Rutgers is willing to risk the big play. They are also willing to gamble with blitzes versus runs. Counting on the speed up front to recover in such cases.

Don’t worry, the blog hasn’t abandoned football. We are still aware that there are a few games left in the season. You’ll excuse me if I don’t fantasize that Pitt will get to a bowl or even reach bowl eligibility. Rutgers, of course, is bowl eligible but wants to get beyond that point.

How successful this season ends will essentially revolve around Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh, and to a lesser extent the results of remaining Big East games. With the conference guaranteed five bowl bids, Rutgers remains in good shape to be playing in a warm climate in December.

A win over Pitt should put a lock on a happy ending. A loss would put all the pressure on the final game at Louisville, where the home team could also be playing for a bowl bid.

It’s unlikely the Big East will be sending anyone to the Gator Bowl this season.

If you thought one-win Notre Dame would have no effect on the bowl selections this year, think again. The lure of a recovering Fighting Irish team in 2008 or 2009 might convince the Gator Bowl to take 7-5 Texas Tech this season. Here’s how the Gator Bowl’s trick box works:

The Gator Bowl is in the second year of a four-year contract with the Big East and the Big 12. The Gator will take a team from the Big East in two seasons and a team from the Big 12 in two seasons (an ACC team will be on the other side of the bowl). Keep in mind that when Notre Dame does not make the BCS, it participates in the Big East’s bowls.

…

The Gator could return to the Big East, where the second pick could be Cincinnati or UConn, both of which are 8-2 and must play Syracuse and No. 6 West Virginia in the next two weeks. But if the Gator takes, say, a 9-3 Cincinnati, the bowl is committing itself to the Big 12 for the next two seasons and precluding itself from access to Notre Dame and the Big East.

If you think Notre Dame is in too deep a hole to get back to eight or nine wins in the next two years, then you take the Bearcats this season. If you want to keep your options open, you take the Red Raiders. Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett said he would consult with CBS, which televises the game, and make his decision.

WVU went last year, so the scenario makes sense. It is also better for Pitt. Even if Pitt were to run the table and go 7-5, there’s no way Pitt would be headed to the Gator this season.
Pitt doesn’t even know for sure which QB they will be facing from the Scarlet Knights.

Anyone who saw Mike Teel zipping the ball around at practice yesterday at Rutgers Stadium would have had a hard time knowing the Scarlet Knights’ starting quarterback was still bothered by a thumb injury to his throwing hand.

The tipoff, though, was obvious: Backup Jabu Lovelace took the majority of the repetitions, with Teel limited in his work.

But after pulling himself from last Friday’s game at Army after seven snaps because he couldn’t feel his thumb, Teel got off to an encouraging start for a week that leads into Saturday’s home finale against Pittsburgh.

Asked to put a percentage on his chances of starting against the Panthers, Teel listed it as “99.9.”

“I’d say it felt pretty good — the best it has felt in a while throwing-wise,” he said. “I was able to really throw the ball like I wanted to for the first time in a while.

“It’s just a matter of being smart with it and giving it rest when you can.”

Head coach Greg Schiano wasn’t ready to declare Teel healthy and ready to go just yet, however.

“He can’t do too much. It gets sore quickly,” he said. “He did a little bit. We’ll just play it by ear.”

So, it is likely that Pitt will get plenty of Jabu — a very mobile QB. The Rhoadsian kryptonite. The other kryptonite for Pitt’s defense — Ray Rice.

Rice eclipsed the century mark in the second half alone against Pitt last season, gaining 85 yards in one backbreaking drive while rushing for a career-high 225 yards in a 20-10 victory at Heinz Field.

And he’s only gotten better.

…

“He just torched us in the fourth quarter last year,” Pitt fifth-year senior defensive end Chris McKillop said. “He was just running people over. He’s tough to bring down. He runs the ball really hard. He comes at you just as hard in the fourth quarter as he does in the first quarter. He was running like someone stole something from his mother.”This season, Rice is running that way early. He is averaging 53.6 yards and 5.6 yards per carry in the first quarter, proving he can start just as strong as he can finish.

In the past two games between Rutgers and Pitt, Rice has 339 rushing yards (Insider subs.).

Of course, Pitt has had a bye week to prepare for Rutgers. To get healthy. Something that has, um, not been great for Pitt.

And extra time off hasn’t translated into better results in recent years. The Panthers are 2-4 in games when they have had more than a week to prepare for a game under Wannstedt. They had 10 days to prepare for Navy’s triple-option offense and ended up with a 48-45 double-overtime loss.

Last year, the Panthers had one true off week — after the Rutgers game — and came out and played one of their most lackluster games of the season in a 22-12 loss at South Florida. Wannstedt is obviously hoping that is not the case this week.

“I think you need to do enough full-speed work during the course of the week to stay sharp,” Wannstedt said about using the extra time wisely. “If you are working just against the scout team where the pace isn’t what it will be on Saturday, you might have a tendency to come out and start slow. We have it structured so that we have enough first-team vs. first-team [offense vs. defense] full-speed work to try and keep our edge that way.

“I do know we can’t afford to come out and start slow, we can’t afford to be flat and our players need to understand that. Coaches, players, everybody needs to understand the urgency of this game and come out and play as good as we can play.”

And for good measure, Coach Wannstedt feels that he will be ready to return to the sideline for this game.