Between family things, July 4th things, Wimbeldon finals, and house hunting; I have barely had time to even glance longingly at my laptop.

Plenty has happened, and I’ll try to catch-up and then keep up. In the meantime, the USA U-19 team that includes Ashton Gibbs and is coached by Jamie Dixon easily crushed their opponents in the B pool.

Gibbs has played well so far. He had one game against France where his shots weren’t falling, but he has still has scored 38 points in three games. Surprisingly, he’s doing it inside as much as on the perimeter. In the last game, he shot 8-11 for 18 points. Only 2-4 on 3s, but 6-7 inside the line.

France, which should have been the closest thing to competition in the group went down with ease. Iran and Egypt were jokes. Now it gets tougher with teams from Group A in the fold (for what is now Group E).

USA faces Greece this morning.

After New Zealand unexpectedly missed the cut from 16 to 12 teams, the tournament’s schedule was changed so that Team USA’s next three games all start at 7:30 p.m. in Auckland. That is 3:30 a.m. in Indianapolis. The Americans will play Greece on Monday, Puerto Rico on Tuesday and Lithuania on Wednesday. All three U.S. opponents were 2-1 in Group A.

That’s a significant upgrade in opponents. The USA is the top seed in Group E.

With such easy games so far, and giving everyone minutes the only pattern from the coaching staff is that “everyone plays.”

Another report from my American source:

The officiating reminded me of an elementary school rec league where the referee looks the other way for the huge underdog. Either that or Egyptians get 3.5 steps, I’m not sure which. I’ll have to check the FIBA rule book. The players continue to slip in the lane. Can anyone send a can of “stick-em”?

Coach Jamie Dixon’s starting lineup appears random and his assistants (Matt Painter and Chris Lowery) are using a “platoon” substitution system to keep the team fresh. Everyone plays about half of the 10-minute quarter and then sits, depending on foul trouble.The U.S. played 11, with Kansas guard Tyshawn Taylor out suffering from the flu.

So far, no problems.

Then there is the Big East releasing the Conference schedule match-ups. Not the when. Just who and where.

For Pitt, well given the pure unknown quantity of the team, the schedule seems challenging enough.

Home opponents at the Petersen Events Center will include DePaul, Georgetown, Louisville, Providence, Rutgers, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Villanova and West Virginia.

The Panthers’ 2009-10 road opponents include Cincinnati, Connecticut, Marquette, Notre Dame, St. John’s, Seton Hall, South Florida, Syracuse and West Virginia.

Pitt’s three repeat opponents are St. John’s, Seton Hall and West Virginia.

Notice a theme with the repeat opponents?

Sure WV is there. Rival and all. But St. John’s and Seton Hall? It’s a double-double dose of Western PA kids against Pitt. D.J. Kennedy gets two cracks as does Herb Pope.

I like to believe these storylines aren’t pre-planned when they set the schedule, but that just seems like quite the double coincidence.

Just eyeballing it, I really don’t know what to expect. I see Villanova and WVU as the top teams in the conference. The next tier is probably UConn, Louisville and Georgetown. Then a big wide-open middle that could include Pitt, Cinci, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Syracuse, and maybe Notre Dame.

After that it’s Providence and Marquette with USF, Rutgers and DePaul at the barrell’s bottom.

I could honestly see Pitt as anywhere from 12-6 in the conference to 6-12.

About early starts for home football games this year? Pitt has 7 home games. 4 in the conference. No times for any of them have been confirmed, but it looks like up to 3 conference home games could be noon starts.

The Big East announced the 2009 Big East Game of the Week schedule. These are games that get the noon start. Well, they sort of announced it. ESPN gets first dibs on most of the games, so we won’t actually know for sure until a couple weeks before each game. That said, three of Pitt’s home conference games are potential BE Games of the Week.

Sat., Oct. 10 *    Connecticut at Pittsburgh or West Virginia at Syracuse

Sat., Oct. 24 * Louisville at Cincinnati or Connecticut at West Virginia or USF at Pittsburgh

Sat., Nov. 7 * Connecticut at Cincinnati or Louisville at West Virginia or Syracuse at Pittsburgh

I guess the good news is that Pitt is under consideration for plenty of ESPN network appearances if they do well enough in the non-con.

Of course, it is looking like those of us going to the games may be slaves to the early start to feed the bitch goddess of TV revenue.

A slight exaggeration for the new Big East Commish. After all, he’s only been on the job for a couple days now. That said, could you plan the info dumps a little better?

This is July 2. Half the country is starting their July 4 holiday weekend tomorrow. That means today is a getaway day. People traveling. Trying to pack. Organize. Run errands. Generally, just not working or in a position to sit down and get information.

So, naturally the Big East chooses today to release not just the conference opponent list for men’s basketball, but also more times for the football games.

Here’s the deal with days like this. It’s when you dump the bad news. Not the good and interesting stuff.

As posted a couple weeks ago, Pitt now has the press release confirming playing Indiana at MSG on December 8 in the Jimmy V Classic. The game, of course, will be on ESPN and is the main event at 9pm. The undercard is Georgetown-Butler (which may very well be the game that actually features ranked teams).

No word yet on purchasing tickets through Pitt.

Down in New Zealand, the USA U-19 team had no trouble blowing Iran right out of the place with a 106-55 win. Coach Jamie Dixon made sure everyone played, and all but one player had double digit minutes (PDF).

Ashton Gibbs had a nice game. He played 20 minutes (tied for most on the team). He shot 4-6 (2-2 on 3s) for 10 points. He grabbed 2 rebounds and 2 steals. He had 4 assists (tied for the most) and 1 turnover.

Yes, it was only Iran and the USA should blow them out, but still a good start.