Tonight is the Blue-Gold scrimmage for the basketball team.

Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon uses the scrimmage to simulate a typical game day schedule. The 14-player team will be split into two squads. Pitt will play two 16-minute halves with normal media timeouts and a five-minute halftime break.

Assistant AD Greg Hotchkiss has tweated the Gold team:

Gold Team: Ashton Gibbs, Nick Rivers, Brad Wanamaker, Nasir Robinson, Dante Taylor, J.J. Richardson

And the Blue:

Blue Team: Travon Woodall, Chase Adams, Lamar Patterson, Talib Zanna, Gary McGhee (big men will rotate)

There will be lots of curiosity about the freshmen, especially the much heralded Dante Taylor — who was picked by the Big East media as preseason rookie of the year. The guy I will be most curious about how he looks will be senior transfer Chase Adams. The man who would be starting point guard.

NBE: What can you add to the mix that this team might not have had without you?

CA: I feel like I bring a lot of energy and passion for defense, not saying their defense has been bad in the past, but I really care a lot about getting stops and battling and fighting for loose balls. I think this group has a ton of toughness already and I think I add to that with my toughness and I bring a veteran presence to a team with a lot of young guys on it along with Jermaine, Brad and Nas.

Look forward to reports on the team.

It’s how you know we have gone past the mid-point in college football. No, not the BCS standings. The myriad of awards keep putting out their mid-season or semi-finalist lists. Anything to remind people that there are other college football awards besides the Heisman.

Bill Stull has made the list of 15 semi-finalists for the Davey O’Brien Award for best quarterback. It’s nice recognition for a season that has been stunningly efficient. The odds of Stull making the cut to 3 finalists is rather slim. In terms of name recognition and statistitcs, he is an unlikely candidate. While Stull is one of the most efficient QBs nationally, Kellen Moore at Boise State has comparable numbers but more TD passes. Then there’s the name brands of Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy. Plus the numbers put up by ND’s Clausen. Still, there is fan voting (allegedly) at this site (though I couldn’t get it to load this morning).

Coach Wannstedt also made one of the many “Coach of the Year” lists. This one is the Bear Bryant CFB Coach of the Year remaining 20 semi-finalists. With the exceptions of Akey (Idaho) and Golden (Temple) the list looks like it was cribbed from this week’s top-20 teams.

In a more immediate and somewhat surprising honor. Dom DeCicco was named the Big East Defensive Player of the Week.

DeCicco, who had significant run support responsibilities against the Bulls, compiled a team-high 10 tackles (nine solo) to lead an impressive Pitt defensive effort.

USF managed only 212 yards of total offense. The Bulls entered the game averaging 407.3 yards and 33.7 points per game.

DeCicco is playing at an all-star level for the nationally ranked Panthers. The 6-foot-3, 230-pound defensive back leads Pitt in tackles (62) and interceptions (tied with two). Among all Big East defenders, he ranks seventh with 7.8 tackles per game.

DeCicco took a lot of abuse early in the season for missed tackles and assignments. So this is a nice bit of recognition. The only negative to me, is that it just doesn’t seem like a particularly good thing that Pitt’s strong safety is the team’s leading tackler when this is a defensive unit that doesn’t blitz or bring the safeties up that much. It just points to the struggles to date with the linebackers this year.

A nice interview with Pitt asssitant coach Brandin Knight (still feels weird to type and read that even though he finished playing at Pitt some six years ago) about recruiting Pitt players.

“I think where we do a good job in recruiting is we recruit guys who we like and not necessarily guys that someone else told us to like,” says Knight. “What I’ve found now is even guys that might not be as highly touted is that when we start recruiting them, a lot of other big schools start recruiting them because they’ve probably seen what we’ve done with guys like Sam and DeJuan and Chevy and how they became impact players here.” Knight’s points are spot on, particularly with Blair and other schools jumping on kids that Pitt shows interest in.

The article notes a couple of Pitt recruits that have gotten a lot of interest after Pitt jumped on them. Cameron Wright in 2010 and John Johnson for 2011.

John Johnson, by the way, shined at the Eddie Griffin Challenge and was named a co-MVP of the tournament.

One of the best players in the event, regardless of class, Johnson was outstanding at getting to the basket and had multiple impressive finishes. He used his quickness and athleticism to get past his defender and finish at the rim or pass it off to a teammate for an easy basket. His speed with the ball going to the lane was eye-opening, and he was certainly not outplayed by the more well-known Kabongo. In the future, he adds a big-time dose of speed to the Pittsburgh attack.

And this report on his performance.

Johnson is the latest in the line of great point guards from Philadelphia. He plays the game and the point guard position with terrific poise and maturity beyond his years. Although he has a wiry frame, Johnson is very strong and rarely has the ball taken from him on offense nor does he get pushed off the ball or beaten on defense. There is no question that he has the toughness to play in the Big East. He is continuing to develop the skills and is making better decisions on offense that should help him contribute to Jamie Dixon’s team at the University of Pittsburgh.

It is looking like Pitt got another good one early.

And Pitt may be adding another Johnson for 2011. Durand Johnson out of Maryland has Pitt high on his list even if he doesn’t know that much about the school.

“Pitt, UConn, Florida State and Virginia Tech. That’s it right there,” Johnson said. “I really like those four the most right now. I really can see myself being a big-time player at any of those programs.”

Johnson, who wants to make his decision in the spring, plans on taking an unofficial visit to Pittsburgh on Oct. 23.

“I really don’t know a lot about them,” Johnson said. “I’ve seen them play a couple of times. I know Jermaine Dixon, he’s from Baltimore and he plays at Pitt. They’ve turned him into a pretty good player. And [former Pittsburgh standout] Sam Young played for Cecil for about two or three years.”

Of course, that was before the 6-7 wing/shooting guard visited.  Apparently he really enjoyed the visit.

…it looks as though his visit to Pittsburgh has certainly elevated the Panthers into the driver’s seat in his recruitment.

“My biggest impression was the team, the coaches and the fans”, said Johnson. “They showed me alot of love and really wanted me to be a part of the Pitt family.”

He’s now close to making a decision according to the story. Lots of teams interested.