There was the very reasonable article on Sunday from Cook that I wanted to get to, suggesting what everyone already thought. That LeSean McCoy almost had to turn pro after this year.

McCoy apparently has a different view.

“Everyone keeps trying to push that idea, that this is my last game at Heinz Field. I’m not going anywhere,” McCoy said. “There is a lot of stuff I have to prove and the thing is, I don’t think I’ve done enouhg here at this university and there is a lot of stuff I have to achieve here.

“It is something I want to squash and get it over with and not have to talk about it because I am kind of getting a little fed up with it. When you look at the [NFL] them guys, that’s what they do, that is their job. When you play college football, you just come out to have fun and play ball but to those guys, it is their job.

“I feel I am not ready yet. Right now, I’m in school, I’m enjoying myself, I’m not pushing to go anywhere.”

This is great news. It’s very responsible and makes you proud that he’s at Pitt. To say nothing of what it could mean for Pitt next season.

At the same time, I’m not even holding him to that. There is still plenty of time between now and when he has to decide. He should still do some due diligence.

A major reason, not mentioned often is that the NFL labor peace is nearing an end. It is likely that by 2010 it could be a capless year and a lockout in 2011. There’s a big risk of money to being left on the table, and a more restrictive rookie salary structure. That is one of the reasons that there could be a record number of juniors coming out this year.

Still, that’s a concern for another day.

No, seriously. They nearly knocked off Duke last year in the NCAA Tournament as a #15 seed. They are the class of the Atlantic Sun.

Belmont, which counts country music stars Lee Ann Womack, Brad Paisley and Trisha Yearwood among its graduates, is favored to win its fourth consecutive Atlantic Sun Championship. Last season, the Bruins beat a Big East school (Cincinnati) and an SEC school (Alabama), both on the road, before losing its upset bid against No. 2 seed Duke, 71-70, in Washington, D.C. in the NCAA first round.

Belmont, which went 25-9 last season, led the Blue Devils in the final minute, losing on Gerald Henderson’s coast-to-coast layup with 12 seconds to play. The effort earned the Bruins a standing ovation from the fans at the Verizon Center.

“I know how good they have been over the years,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon. “They are a very good shooting team.”

Belmont ranked fourth in Division I last season in 3-pointers made per game (10.5). The philosophy hasn’t changed this season despite the deeper 3-point line. If anything, the extra foot has helped a squad loaded with sharpshooters. In two games this season the experienced Bruins are shooting 41.1 percent from behind the arc, making 11.5 per game.

In other words, Pitt’s perimeter defense will get a test. And if they get hot from outside, it could be a rough ride.

This is the first of three games home games not to be televised. Depressing. Big props to the Pitt Athletic Department for making the video feed available on their site. Especially the FREE portion.

Pitt’s three-game PantherVision Network broadcast package will include the matchup against 2008 NCAA Tournament participant Belmont (Nov. 25), City Game rivalry against Duquesne (Dec. 3) and contest against Vermont (Dec. 6).

Internet game broadcasts will include live game action, post-game interviews, statistic graphics, score updates, live play-by-play and color commentary. John Sanders along with former Pitt basketball standout Curtis Aiken will handle play-by-play and color analyst duties respectively. Director of PantherVision Production Paul Barto will oversee production.

A link to the broadcast can be found prior to each game on the www.pittsburghpanthers.com home page, Basketball Game Day Central, and Panthers on the Air. The new Panthers All-Access platform runs on Microsoft Silverlight technology making it faster and easier to navigate.

I really have to credit the athletic department for making it free. This would have been an easy way to push the subscription to All-Access, but instead they are making it available to all.

It essentially sums up what kind of coaching tenure at WVU that can be expected when he quotes from ESPN’s halftime gimmick segment.

But talk of revenge? Doesn’t that just get in the way of what really matters in Friday’s 101st edition of the Backyard Brawl?

“There’s not going to be any talk of revenge,” Stewart said Sunday. “The word revenge, I don’t want our players to use that. … I agree with Lou Holtz. You spend all your life worrying about revenge, you’re going to spend your whole life as a pretty unhappy human being. They beat our butt last year in a football game, bottom line. What we have to do is worry about 2008 and play us a good football game.”

I’m just picturing Bill Stewart sitting home on a Thursday night, watching the college football game, and then sitting up with a notebook when the Dr. Lou segment airs. Jotting down notes and the pearls of wisdom that comes from them.

It’s not possible for me to hate Coach Goober at this point, but it easy for me to laugh at him.

Really, they are D-II. Of course Pitt beat the crud out of them. That’s part of why it took until today to even get to mentioning the game from Saturday.

The nice story, of course, was Maurice Polen playing at IUP with his last year of eligibility.

Polen wasn’t just any walk-on at Pitt. He made an impact on everyone in the program, including coach Jamie Dixon, who said awarding Polen a scholarship last year was one of the most rewarding moments of his coaching career.

Polen, who hails from Philadelphia, almost didn’t go to Pitt. Had it not been for a $5,000 donation from a woman at his father’s church he probably wouldn’t have had enough money to go to school across the state.

“Maurice is one of the best human beings I’ve ever been around,” Dixon said. “It’s been a pleasure and honor to coach him. [IUP coach] Joe Lombardi needed a big guy and a great person and great kid. It would be selfish of me if I was the only one who got to coach him. Everyone should get the opportunity to coach Maurice Polen because he is a great individual.”

Polen, a few credits shy from graduating from Pitt in the spring, is finishing up his undergraduate work at IUP this semester. Dixon and associate athletic director Donna Sanft worked it out so Polen will have a degree from Pitt when it’s all said and done.

This year’s walk-on, Sean Brown, got his own piece from his local area paper.

“I’m real good friends with Tyrell Biggs and some of the other guys on the team. I’ve been playing pick-up games with them for years,” said Brown, whose father, Darrell Brown, was part of Maryland’s 1972 NIT championship team alongside Len Elmore. “Everything just sort of fell into place.”

…

As Greg Hotchkiss, Pitt’s director of media relations for men’s basketball, puts it, every one knows Brown because he’s been around the team for years.

That and he shares an apartment off-campus with Biggs, so that probably didn’t hurt. Along with being around the players and the program for a couple years.

With Levance Fields forceful return to the lineup after an offseason of wondering whether he’d be ready for the season, it’s been noticed.

4. Levance Fields, Sr., G, Pitt: Fields’ play has been exceptional at the point. He dished out 12 assists in the win over Akron earlier in the week. He’s showing no signs that he missed most of the preseason with an injured left foot.

Fields also got a great story from Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News.

With his thick torso and short appendages, Fields does not look like many, or any, of the great point guards, but he has added a different element to Pitt’s astounding run of success at the position this decade. Brandin Knight, the school’s career assists leader, was coolly cerebral. Carl Krauser was unpredictably, sometimes wildly creative. Fields provides a contagious brand of leadership derived from sheer force of will.

In a sense, Fields is the personification of the Pitt basketball renaissance. As generally has been the case with the Panthers since coaches Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon began rescuing the program in 1999, Fields is not blessed with the sort of aesthetically pleasing athleticism that appeals to the most prestigious college programs or NBA teams. As the Panthers generally have been, he is committed to team goals and blessed with astonishing competitive drive.

Finally, there is a chance Gilbert Brown might be cleared to play tonight.