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.