If you feel like talking or commenting on the NCAA Tournament games, go right ahead.

There’s also the Real Sports story on Coach Dixon. I haven’t seen it because, well, I don’t have HBO. It was movie channels or a sportspack. Obviously, I went with sports. Hopefully it will be posted to that site in due time.

Gary McGhee gets a lot of abuse from the fans for not developing as much as hoped/expected in his sophomore year. Some actively rooting for him to transfer. Still, even McGhee gets love back home. He says all the right things (and yes, I know the story writer took some liberties with, well, reality).

“I’m having a great time,” McGhee said on a borrowed cell phone as he passed through security. “We have a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. It’s a great experience.”

The 6-foot-10, 250-pound sophomore and Highland grad is averaging 1.3 points and 1.7 rebounds in seven minutes per game. He’s valuable for his defense, rebounding and ability to spell All-American DeJuan Blair off the bench.

McGhee said practicing against Blair each day has helped improve his game.

“He makes me better every day,” McGhee said.

Steady improvement has been the hallmark of McGhee’s career. He grew from a somewhat pudgy 6-foot-7, 255-pound freshman at Highland into the man mountain he is today.

He averaged 20.6 points, 11.6 rebounds and 4.2 blocks during his senior season with the Scots. That was enough to earn him 2007 Herald Bulletin Player of the Year honors.

His playing time has been sparse thus far at Pitt, but he could see time Friday.

“I hope I get out there,” he said. “I’m just going to work as hard as I can and help out my teammates.”

He’s got the cliches, down pat.

Levance Fields gets a full backstory piece from SI.com. It’s a little surprising. We get the full bits on Sam Young and DeJuan Blair, but Fields has never gotten the full puff piece for anything other than his game.

The neighborhood still tugged at Fields, though. One night, Xaverian president Sal Ferrera drove Fields home, but when he reached the student’s block, Fields would not get out. Drug dealers were standing on the corner. They wanted the hoops star to sell for them. “He had options,” said Ferrara, who arranged for Fields to live with a teammate’s family for two weeks. “He made the right choice.”

On the court, Fields also struggled. When Alesi sat his star player for three games, the coach said publicly Fields had caught the flu after a middling stretch, but, in reality, it was a cover. “He was suffering from the disease of ‘me’,” Alesi said.

Adds Fields: “I was being kind of a cancer to my teammates.”

The message clearly resonated with Fields. The Clippers, who were 12-11 before Fields sat, won all three games without him and parlayed Alesi’s gamble into city and state titles with Fields directing the team. “Great players have his selfishness,” Alesi said. “He had to gain composure.”

There were things Fields needed to learn when he went to Pitt. At the Panthers’ first weight-lifting session, Biggs, Fields’ roommate, noticed the stocky guard struggling through bench presses. Asking if he was OK, Fields reassured him, but then disappeared. Searching for him, Biggs saw vomit on a backroom door and then happened upon Fields throwing up into a bathroom toilet. “He’s hit the iron hard ever since,” said Biggs, a chiseled forward.

Fields was also back practicing with the team before they left for Dayton.

“I practiced today the whole time and I’m feeling pretty good right now,” Fields said right before he boarded the Panthers bus to go to the airport.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said the development is excellent news for the Panthers because they’ll need a healthy Fields to make a run to the Final Four and perhaps win the national championship.

“He’s a tough player,” Dixon said. “He was out there today and looked pretty good, it is a very good sign because he seemed to be moving well and he didn’t seem be bothered much at all. We’ve had almost a week to rest it but I think the key now will be later today how it feels and how he feels once we get on the plane and later at the hotel. But it is a good sign if he’s saying he feels good now.”

The full week off may not have been intentional, but we we will go with the presumption that it will work out better with the big dance.

Their trip cut short in New York, where they routinely rule the Big East Tournament, the Panthers refreshed and rejuvenated for the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

“It (helps) more mentally than physically,” Panthers guard Jermaine Dixon said. “I mean, when we were in AAU, we’d play five or six games a day. So, it’s not that we’re tired physically.”

The mental exhaustion of a 31-game season — where 18 of those games came in the grinder of a Big East Conference that produced five of the top 12 seeds in the NCAA tournament — cannot be overrated. But for only the second time in seven seasons, the Panthers didn’t have a quicker turnaround to the NCAAs after reaching the finals of the Big East Tournament.

And of course, the usual: Blair needs to stay out of foul trouble (really? again?).

Blair has been cleaning up with being named an All-American by just about every media outlet.

Blair was named a first-team All-American yesterday by the United States Basketball Writers Association. He was joined on the first-team All-American team by Stephen Curry of Davidson, Blake Griffin of Oklahoma, Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina and James Harden of Arizona State.

It marked the first time since 1974 that a Pitt player was named a first-team All-American by the USBWA. Former Pitt great Billy Knight earned the honor that season.

He was also named 1st team All-American by Sports Illustrated, as well. Sam Young was put on the 2nd team. Levance Fields placed on 3d team — which I’m really happy to finally see something for Fields.