Associate head coach Tom Herrion gets a nice story in the Trib.

Dixon and athletic director Steve Pederson recognized how valuable he had become when Herrion’s name surfaced last spring for vacancies at Marist and James Madison. Pitt quickly promoted him to associate head coach. Herrion, who lives in the North suburbs with wife Leslie and son, Robert, 3, said he will be patient for another head-coaching position.

“It’s not the end all, be all, to be a head coach again,” he said. “We love it here. … I’ve gained perspective, having gone through some different things in my career.

“I feel like if I do my job to the best of my ability, good things are going to happen. When I was younger, it was ‘How fast can I be a head coach?’ Now you appreciate things differently. I’m comfortable and happy being an assistant.”

But it might not last. Herrion is likely to follow in the footsteps of past Dixon assistants who became head coaches, including Barry Rohrssen, Joe Lombardi and Rice. As a relatively young assistant — he turned 41 in November — with head-coaching success at a mid-major, Herrion’s name will likely surface again.

“I think he’d like to be a head coach again,” said Gillen, who works as a TV analyst. “But it would have to be the right opportunity.”

The question is what is the right opportunity? His time at the College of Charleston had a bit to do with not being the right fit. Maybe I’m rationalizing because it would be great for Pitt to keep him as long as possible, but he might be better served by waiting for a shot at a major opening rather than somewhere in the mid-major ranks. He’s a recruiter of talent. That’s how he made his name, and where he excelled. At CofC, one of the issues was that to get the talent, he took a chance on character and academics and it blew-up on him. At a major conference program — even one that isn’t too good — it is still easier to recruit good talent that does not carry as much baggage.

I’m not a big fan of Bill Plaschke. The LA Times columnist tends to grate on me, and not just for his shrill, self-righteous “Shame on you ____” schtick on Around the Horn. Of course, here’s a lengthy feature he did on Coach Jamie Dixon and still missing his youngest sister.

It is the story of a North Hollywood kid who, having spent his life searching the world for basketball fulfillment, is finally reaching it with strength from home.

Meet Jamie Dixon, family guy.

Home is where parents Jim and Marge — whom he still phones every day — gave him the work ethic to lead Pitt to the top after a career spent bouncing around the bottom, playing professionally in four minor leagues in four countries, serving as an assistant coach for five teams.

Not counting the time he taught basketball to 10-year-old girls in New Zealand.

“You know how you always think of your children as kids?” said father Jim, a screenwriter. “Not my son. He’s a real man.”

And mercifully, nothing about moving West, despite playing up the whole LA connection.

My friend Pat sent me this message from his Blackberry late at the game this afternoon:

Are they showing any of the football recruiting the Zoo is doing? The recruits are calling them over to sign off on a white board. Pretty cool – 5 so far.

Well, we know of two new verbals in Kolby Gray, the QB out of Texas, and Jason Hendricks, a CB from NJ.

Gray, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound dual-threat quarterback from Houston’s Cypress Falls High, chose the Panthers over scholarship offers from Boise State, Rice and Utah.

Hendricks, a 6-1, 167-pound defensive back from Jersey City (N.J.) Hudson Catholic, had offers from Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Syracuse and Temple.

Gray is a 3-star recruit and Hendricks is a 2-star recruit. Little sidenote with Hendricks. There’s a question on his actual height. Rivals.com puts him at 6-1. Scout.com says 5-10.

As for anyone else putting their name and/or a check on the whiteboard, I doubt that it was Dan Mason — though that would be nice. He’s down to Pitt and WVU, but in no particular rush.

Mason said he was still considering Penn State and Boston College, but said no coaches from those schools have called him in months. He is on a visit to Pitt this weekend and plans to go to West Virginia Jan. 23.

“I never felt any pressure to make an early decision,” Mason said. “I don’t want to put myself into a situation where I make a decision, and a couple months later I don’t want to be at that school. I’ve always wanted to take my time with this.”

Here’s the list of official visitors today. It might well be that a few of the people checking-off may have already given a verbal.

UPDATE (9:06): See, this is why I should have looked about a little longer. DPJ at Cat Basket gives the details on the checklisting.  According to him, there were 3 check-offs. And it #3 is Bernardo Nunez.  A DE from New Jersey listed as a 3-star recruit and also holding offers from WVU, Michigan St., Maryland and Virginia. I guess we’ll find out soon whether it was being caught up in the moment or meant.

Even before Pitt won today, the news got out that Isiah Epps gave Pitt a verbal.

The 6-foot-2, 170-pound Epps picked the Panthers over Maryland. Epps, who is the first Pitt commitment for the Class of 2010, is ranked as the No. 8 point guard and the No. 40 overall player by rivals.com.

Here’s the Rivals.com link, which tabs him as a 4-star. Scout.com has him as a 4-star and the #10 PG. Epps is from Plainfield (HS), NJ. He’s also a ESPN/Scouts, Inc. Top-100 player (Insider subs.).

Epps, a lefty, drains his fluid jump shot with regularity. He has very good rotation, which naturally points to proper follow-through on the shot. He catches defenders off-guard in transition by opting to pull up on the break, and he hits 3’s in the defender’s face often.

Here’s some comments from Mr. Epps on his decision.

“I decided to go to Pitt because I was cool with Brandin Knight and he played with the Playaz before,” Epps said Sunday by phone. “He had that relationship and I felt at home when I was at Pitt. I felt real comfortable.”

Epps cannot a sign a National Letter of Intent until April. He will visit Pitt next Sunday and will stay for Monday’s Syracuse game.

…

“I made my decision last week but I talked to the coaches [Jamie Dixon and Knight] on Friday,” he said.

Epps follows in the footsteps of New Jersey guards Ashton Gibbs (Seton Hall Prep) and Travon Woodall (St. Anthony) who also chose Pitt out of the Garden State. Both will be juniors when Epps arrives on campus.

“They told me I was going to go in there and start from the jump,” Epps said of his role. “They might move Ashton Gibbs to the two and put me at the one.”

Epps will be heading to prep school for his last year. Not because of grades, but because of his age.

Epps will not play for Plainfield next year because he will be too old as per New Jersey state regulations, and will have to prep somewhere. It remains unclear where he will spend the year.

“The school that I committed to I’m letting them decide on that right now,” Epps said.

Said Vasil: “I think it’s going to be a luxury for him to go to a prep school because he’ll be able to focus even more on his academics, so that qualifying isn’t really an issue.”

The biggest players Pitt beat out for him were Maryland and the Jersey schools of the Big East. Texas and ‘Nova were also nosing about, but had not yet offered.

Speaking of future Pitt players and prep school, Lamar Patterson has been elevated to a starter at St. Benedict’s.

Patterson, who transferred to St. Benedict’s after three varsity seasons at McCaskey, is getting with it. Saturday’s game was his third consecutive start. He played well overall and scored 14, two less than his season high.

“I’ve gotten in better shape and I’ve been playing better in practice,” Patterson explained. “I never really thought I’d have trouble playing here once I got in shape.”

“We wanted him to earn it,” Hurley said of the starting job. “He’s been playing starter’s minutes all along. Right now, his body is in Big East shape for the first time.”

Big East shape is an issue, of course, because Patterson verbally committed, early in his junior year, to Pittsburgh.

“We expect our seniors to play hard, be unselfish and defend, because that’s what they’ll have to do in college,” Hurley said. “If you’re not ready to guard as a [college] freshman, you get buried on the bench, and then they recruit over you.”

By the end of his junior year, at McCaskey, Patterson was struggling, and realizing that unless he did something, he wasn’t ready for Pittsburgh.

Which is why he submitted himself to Hurley’s brand of discipline.

“I don’t think he’s the devil,” Patterson said of his coach. “He’s there to push me. [Pitt coach] Jamie Dixon is going to be 10 times worse than him.”

I don’t think Patterson’s work ethic will be a problem.

Spent the time before the game shoveling out. No liveblog. Just an open thread. Observations at the half.

HALFTIME: Pitt leads 41-36.

Do the Red Storm have your attention now? Let’s give those Johnnies credit. They came out fired up and ready to take down Pitt. They want to show that they can compete with anyone — and they are.

First things, first. Jermaine Dixon came out with a shaved head. I approve. Might have done it to try and get a jump or a change. It actually seemed to help. 8 points and 3 steals in the first half. Just getting to the basket and starting to finish some shots. Still can’t hit a 3.

Sam Young just was pressing — 2-11 shooting. After dropping that opening 3, it was nothing. The worst was a sequence where Pitt got the ball on a steal, and Young ran right into traffic in the paint and put it up short. Rather than passing to anyone on the wings waiting. He started to get back into the team game, when he made the alley-oop for Gilbert Brown to slam home. I was terrified he would try and take his man to get the score himself. He got the authoritative slam before the half which might be the spark

Early in the game, Pitt just was getting looks from everywhere, but nothing falling. You could see the frustration growing. The defense was solid. Lots of turnovers forced, but St. John’s when they did shoot was being patient. Not much forcing shots or desperation as the clock wound down.

Free throw shooting. Ugh. Pitt shooting way below average — 7-15. Meanwhile St. John’s was shooting 9-11 (82%) — significantly above their average.

Another Saturday of sitting on my ass watching college sports. I love the FanHouse gig.

The downside is that I have not done much today with the basketball game tomorrow.

No surprise that both beat writers ran stories on D.J. Kennedy coming home and facing off against his best friend in front of friends and family.

Kennedy hopes to bring about 50 family and friends to the game, which will be his first real action on the Pitt campus since playing AAU ball as a high schooler. But high demand to see Pitt has only increased since the team achieved its first-ever No. 1 ranking.

Said Kennedy: “It’s real tough to get tickets.”

Yeah. It would be.

Levance Fields does not think the team will take anything or anyone for granted — among other things.

“We’re not that kind of team,” Fields said. “We never look past opponents.”

That’s due to the Panthers toughness – especially with Fields, Sam Young and DeJuan Blair. In fact, I’ve always wondered which of the trio is actually the toughest on the team.

“Myself,” Fields said. “But I think both Sam and DeJuan would say themselves.”

Between St. John’s upset of ND last week and the D.J. Kennedy motivating factor for Blair, the only  thing I worry about is that they will come out tight, trying too hard.

Fields got a nice piece at the beginning of the week as he gets closer to 500 assists to go with the 1000+ points scored.

Even with the extra time off, there was no change to Pitt’s practice schedule.

The Johnnies are gearing up for the game and insist that the win over ND taught them something.

There was the euphoria they felt from winning, and the swarm of congratulations they received from family, friends, classmates and even strangers. They enjoyed the fruits of their labors, so they continued working for another taste.

“We learned a lot about playing 40 minutes,” the sophomore forward Sean Evans said. “We have to bring this mind-set to every game.”

Evans spoke about how much more focused he and his teammates were in practice. The sophomore forward Justin Burrell said that the team was working harder in practice than he could remember, and that there was none of the bickering or distracting side conversations that had been too prevalent in the past. And the sophomore swingman D. J. Kennedy confirmed that that had been the way the team had operated since the Providence loss. Even Roberts was willing to acknowledge a rise in intensity, though he attributed it to preparing for a hard-nosed team like Pittsburgh (14-0, 2-0).

“We’ve emphasized being much more physical in practice,” Roberts said.

With Fields, Blair and Young set. Not to mention Tyrell Biggs being reliable inside. That means the only position to still angst over would be at shooting guard/wing guard. So, there are at least some wondering about getting Gilbert Brown more playing time or playing Wanamaker more over Jermaine Dixon.

I love Dixon’s defense, but Ray Fittipaldo did make a good observation regarding Dixon’s playing time.

The Georgetown game could be a peek into the future as to how Jamie Dixon divvies up the minutes among his guards. Against Georgetown, Brad Wanamaker played 22 minutes, fellow reserve Gilbert Brown played 20 and Jermaine Dixon 19.

Dixon isn’t just shooting poorly on 3s, he has had a hard time finishing his drives to the basket recently. One of the attractions of Jermaine Dixon is that he can attack the basket. The problem has been that his shots are coming up short lately. Take away the 7-43 on threes, and he is 32-57 everywhere else. It seems like it should be higher.

The way too early speculation of who can win it all has returned. Well, more precisely, it has rebooted after everyone’s pick, UNC actually lost just as conference play got going. Media punditry appreciates the timing.

SI.com does a roundtable of who they think can possibly take UNC. Everyone takes UConn, with one exception:

Luke Winn: Pitt.

It’s good to be Carolina this year, because the team that really should have the best chance — the one that fits the formula of NBA athletes, size, and a deep, star backcourt — is UConn, and UConn has no experience winning anything in the postseason. The Panthers may have slightly less talent top-to-bottom, but they have more experience (Levance Fields and Sam Young have three NCAA trips under their belts already) and seem to possess more of a killer instinct.

Mike DeCourcy runs through the contenders and leads with Pitt:

Primary strengths: Chemistry, toughness, discipline, leadership.

Areas of concern: Height, perimeter shooting, building depth.

Bottom line: This Pitt team is different from its predecessors because of center DeJuan Blair and forward Sam Young, who have developed into elite college players. If the Panthers again advance to the Sweet 16, this might be the first time in a while they enter that round with better individual talent than their opponent.

The Panthers aren’t likely to become a great shooting team by March, but they can overcome that by not making a huge issue of it. Never forget: UCLA won the 1995 NCAA title by making four 3-pointers in two games at the Final Four. If the Panthers execute as they did in beating Georgetown, they can generate enough points.

It’s not about being a great shooting team. It’s about being efficient with the possessions.