Well, I guess it beats dissecting Pitt’s loss this afternoon in basketball. Sort of.

This has apparently reached “buzz worthy” status. That Pitt is heading to the Big Numerically Challenged Conference in the Midwest. It sure seems to have jumped beyond mere message board discussion. Lots of rumors. To the point where newspapers, while not directly reporting it in print, are into discussing the possible ramifications, and blogging it.

Speculation is heating up all over the Internet that Pitt has accepted an offer to join the Big Ten Conference.

Here is what popped up on Bleacherreport.com, normally a pretty reliable outlet, just a few hours ago:

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“According to several reports, including personal statements by student athletes on Twitter, Pittsburgh athletic department officials held closed door meetings with all of the University’s student athletes last week about the potential move.

Pitt message boards lit up with the news and the validity of the rumor, and though not verified by the University or the Big East or Big Ten, the rumor was somewhat reinforced when those Pitt athletes who posted about the meeting on their Twitter accounts were forced to remove the posts.”

Ahhhhhh. At the risk of sounding elitist… Oh, what the hell, Bleacherreport.com? That’s the source available?

I don’t know, that, well. Yeesh.

Eleven Warriors (tOSU blog) has doubts, and The Rivalry neatly encapsulates my thoughts on Big 11’s moves to progress.

Well first, there’s the extreme unlikelihood that the Big Ten Council of Presidents would act so quickly, little more than a month into an evaluation process tabbed to take a year to a year and a half.  Still, it is possible that COP had Pittsburgh — and its complimentary academic pedigree — in mind from the start.  With its top tier national rank (56th) and Association of American Universities affiliation, Pitt is a fair congener on paper.  Additionally, some commentators have suggested that a quick-strike could be designed to meet scheduling deadlines to get a Big Ten Championship Game in place by 2012.

Still, for a conference that has only added three members in the past century, an impulse buy is more than out of character.  Plus, it’s not clear how the addition of Pitt by itself furthers conference exposure.  (Penn State already brings Pittsburgh — the 23rd largest television audience in the United States — to the table).

The nail in the coffin of this rumor for me, is that the Big East appears totally in the dark.  The Big Ten made it more than clear when it announced plans to explore expansion that it would contact a prospective target’s conference before approaching an individual school.  Evan if the Big East is playing it cool, it seems far fetched that the Big Ten would have had the time to work through what OSU President Gordon Gee calls a “quiet kabuki dance” with a number of suitors at the gate.

A friend of mine totally gung-ho over the possibility disagrees and posits this:

I’ve always thought that the 12-18 month timeframe for a study was just a smoke screen to begin with, to give the impression that this was not as desperate of a grab as what the ACC did. My thinking is that the Big Ten likely had preliminary discussions already begun with the target school before they went public with expansion. Anything else would have been risking national humiliation.

I’m skeptical of this since the Big 11 made a show of how they would do things above the board and did not want to be perceived as staging a stealth raid like the ACC. Maybe that’s silly, but the Big 11 loves being seen as a blue-blood-like conference. Dignified and steeped in tradition.

I won’t prentend I haven’t heard some rumors, and gotten e-mails asking what I know.

Frankly, I really don’t know anything. I don’t claim sources, and I doubt the people I do know would know — or tell me.

The alleged announce date is supposed to be Friday — after NLI day for college football. I guess we’ll all learn something or nothing then.

Sorry to be absent. I’d love to say I’ve been busy working sources for Big 11 rumors… but I, uh, don’t really have sources. Just offline stuff that had me busy.

As the Rutgers win over ND, and even DePaul scaring the crap out of Syracuse should remind everyone there are no gimmees on the road.

USF has some weapons and can fully pull the upset.

1pm start. The game is on  the Big East Network which includes: ESPN FullCourt, MSG, MASN, FoxSports Pittsburgh and BrightHouse Sports for today.

Liveblog below. If you want to break it out, Click Here.

Let’s get the optimism out of the way first.

Pitt won. Always good. If you want to keep it simple. That’s the simplest part of a 63-53 final score and the best. Pitt got a win, and after a couple losses you don’t quibble with how it happens just that the Panthers came out with a win.

Other goods:

The Red Storm has lost games to Villanova and UConn. Against UConn they only trailed by 3 on the road and led ‘Nova by 1 at home at the hal. So Pitt trailing by 4 at the half was almost par for the course with St. John’s. They hang in the first half. Look like they might pull the upset. Then after the other side adjusts they stay the course and go down in double-digit defeat.

You are going to have to drag Wanamaker-haters out of the gutter after this one. He goes 2-3s on 3s (rest of the team 0-9), shoots 50% overall (60% eFG), 4-4 on FTs, 16 points, 4 rebounds,6 assists, 2 steals and only 1 turnover.

Despite (however ineffective it was) St. John’s attempt to pressure Pitt did not result in Pitt turning over the ball. Pitt only had 9 turnovers for the game.

Free throw shooting rules. 21-24 at the line.

Responding to Jermaine Dixon going out of the game. It was almost like a collective moment for the team. They got it together and did it themselves. The ball movement picked up. Defensive effort improved. Right around the 12 minute mark of the second half, it seemed that the whole tenor of the game shifted. The energy overall changed. It seemed that Pitt just got it together.

Content neutral: Shots falling was less than consistent. Some good shots in the first half, just didn’t fall. They fell in the second half when Pitt stuck with going inside. That Pitt didn’t give up on that was good. That it seemed no predicting whether it was going to go or not was less fun.

Bad: Hope Jermaine Dixon is okay.

Can someone ^$*%#@! hit a 3-pointer?

Gametime is 7pm on ESPNU. Plan accordingly. As the Mouse Monopoly wants carriers to pick up the channel, games on ESPNU do not end up on their ESPN360.com service.

This is a sort of must win game for Pitt. Not a make-or-break type, but it would be a really bad loss. No pressure, though.

Supposed to be very cold tonight — but no snow — in Pittsburgh so attendance at the Pete will bear noting.

I’m on DVR delay, and assuming the game doesn’t drive me to drink to excess, I’ll post some thoughts later.

Okay. Bad news, no liveblog tonight. Daughter’s activity schedule shifted, which freed up Wednesday night, so naturally Pitt plays on a Thursday night this week. Open thread will be up closer to gametime.

Much like Seton Hall, St. John’s is looking for the big win. Oh, goody. As forPitt playing the roll of reeling power that is ripe for the upset?

Could this be the moment for St. John’s to post a win that the rest of the conference takes notice of? The Johnnies (12-7, 2-5) played extremely well in the first half against No. 3 Villanova on Saturday, leading by as much as 11 before letting it slip away in another second-half drought.

“A week ago we were overconfident. Now we don’t have confidence? I don’t believe it works that way,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “That’s good for a story . . . but I don’t think it changes like that.”

We. Must. Have. Storylines. Don’t you dare dispute that.

As St. John’s has Pittsburgh native and DeJuan Blair’s HS teammate and friend, D.J. Kennedy, there is the obligatory local story. Plus the annual, how did Pitt miss on the guy question? Simply put, he wanted to go elsewhere. I don’t begrudge any college age kid choosing to go somewhere else. There were legit personal/family reasons for him to want out of Pittsburgh.

A two-game losing streak and time to question things. It might be time to use the bench more and keep guys fresher.

One of the issues is scoring more. The offense has been sluggish, to be kind.

It might help if Pitt was able to hit some shots from the perimeter. Right now teams aren’t giving the space and when they are, Pitt is missing. Shots going outside, would also go a long way to opening up the inside.

While McGhee has been a pleasant surprise in his improvements, the center spot has struggled just to get chances to score.

“We set a lot perimeter screens trying to free up our guards like Ashton, Jermaine and Brad [Wanamaker] to get shots,” Brown said. “We still run the same offensive sets. I actually think we need to get more touches down low. We need to get it down there so we can work out of it. There hasn’t been any real change to the offense because we’re more perimeter-based. The guards are just more assertive now.”

McGhee scored in double figures in four consecutive games against Wichita State, Texas, Youngstown State and Duquesne in the non-conference portion of the schedule, but he is not scoring much in recent games. He concurred with Brown that the team might benefit from the centers getting more touches on the interior.

“It’s just how the games have been going,” McGhee said. “Some teams have zoned us. We’re playing more outside. I think that’s the reason my touches have gone down. If we got it inside it could open up easier shots for our guards if they drop in and double the post player.”

Not surprising to see in the notes that Lamar Patterson’s ankle just isn’t healing enough for him to play. Wow, didn’t see that coming. Heading for a redshirt along with Talib Zanna. The bright side is that the staff is confident about his future that they want to preserve his eligibility.

Here’s one to catch you offguard.

The guy with this report is from  WSCR 670 in Chicago (and a ‘Cuse guy). As you can imagine, Bears fans responded with expected optimism at the idea of a guy who is associated with Dave Wannstedt coming to help the Bears offense.

The other report is that Strength and Conditioning Coach Buddy Morris may  go to the Washington Redskins.

Two thoughts:

1) Last time a Pitt coach headed to work for Mike Shanahan — Larry Coyers —  he was fired after only a few years.

2) It would allow Buddy Morris a chance to come back to Pitt a 4th time if he does go.

Otherwise, neither has me too concerned right now. Neither seems to be generating much buzz outside of Pitt-centric interest.

It would be a huge blow to lose Cignetti, obviously, but I don’t see that realistically happening.

Time to talk St. John’s with Pico Dulce of The East Coast Bias. You can find my answers to his questions here. This is what I had to ask him.

1. It seems once again that St. John’s lacks the offensive production and efficiency to stay in games. The ‘Nova game saw them with their highest scoring outputs in the Big East but shoot less than 40% (and an eFG% of 44.3) and lost. For the season, their eFG% is around 47%. Is that the biggest issue with St.John’s this year? Why? If not, what is the biggest problem?

Yes, and no.  The team’s effective field goal percentage – or their ability to shoot in general – has been very weak with this coaching staff.  But the problems of the season are long-running problems; and while the team thought that perhaps they had turned a corner in the out of conference games.  But even with Dwight Hardy, the offensive attack is inefficient.  And it’s not that it’s always inefficient; it’s that the team finds itself in scoring lulls.  The offense – or the players – are not good enough to score at a high level all game against elite opponents; it would help if they could finish tip-ins and layup attempts.  But with the offense that they have, the team would need to be incredible in field goal defense or force a lot of turnovers. Or draw a lot of fouls.  But the field goal shooting has been poor for years.

2. St. John’s plays a lot of players. It looks like 11 players are seeing 10 minutes or more. Exactly what is the rotation plan with St. John’s? Is there one? I realize Mason has only recently returned from injury, but it seems that St. John’s hasn’t figured it out.

P-lan?  What is this plan you speak of?  The staff would like to be able to run players on and off the floor to keep them fresh for pressure defense.  But the team doesn’t trap well, and the pressure is token pressure.  The lineups often reflect their opponent’s plans, not what St. John’s likes to do; many will ask why Dwight Hardy doesn’t start or get more minutes, since he’s the team’s most electrifying shot-taker.  But there’s not much of a plan.

The starting five doesn’t score much; then Hardy and Brownlee come in, Brownlee takes a bad three point attempt and Hardy scores a bunch. Then he’s taken out.  Malik Stith comes in, shows a little improvement, and is benched for the other Malik.  DJ Kennedy enjoys a long chat with fans, Justin Burrell comes in, makes some nice moves (but doesn’t rebound) and sits back down.

More seriously – the idea is to bring waves of players off of the bench to keep them fresh.  Now that Omari Lawrence is looking a little more like a player, expect to see everyone besides Rob Thomas log minutes.  No one knows quite where Mason will fit in – I assumed he’d take Paris Horne’s starting job – but the rotation is, again, dependent on the opponent.

3. Is this it for Norm Roberts? I mean, his demise has been predicted for a couple years now. The injuries. The rebuilding. The young team. All those excuses seem to be out, but the Red Storm still seem to be much the same as previous seasons.

You can’t predict a demise if the powers in control won’t play.  While other schools may decide to have a quick trigger, St. John’s has given Roberts a number of chances, because he’s gone about building a program the “right way” – scandal-free, decent players but not beholden to one AAU team.  He’s gotten a bye for a few years because folks like to consider that the program was in a terrible place when Jarvis left, and thought Norm should have a couple of years to repair relationships and then coach up some solid young kids who aren’t worldbeaters. (If you’re interested, some more on that from my blog here http://wp.me/p9vUp-hL and to a lesser extent here http://wp.me/p9vUp-jw.) But he’s not the kind of coach who can squeeze wins out of lesser talent.

The players are juniors.  I mean, all of them except for 4. Other teams aren’t as “crippled” by injuries as St. John’s has – there has to be talent to allow one or two players to go down.  The player development of big men in particular is damning; and the point guard position’s recruiting is damning as well.  But is this it?  We don’t know what metrics they’re using to evaluate the coach.

I can see how the president (rumor has it he’s the decider) can say “well, his guys are so young.”  But this is the full complement of players, and they’re still -.07 possessions below conference opponents.  If they’re not close to playing opponents even, they won’t be next year, and they will be very bad in 2011 with 9 newcomers.

And then, will St. John’s be able and willing to pay the right money for a good coach?  Or evaluate a coach well?

4. Johnny the Thunderbird? I can’t believe you retired Thunder. And really, what was wrong with that thunderbolt with abs and pecs?

I don’t wanna talk about it!  Ok, I will.  The thunderbolt was a lame costume but in retrospect, I like the realization of part of a “storm”.  No, that’s pretty lame.  I think the horse Thunder was also pretty lame.  But the team is named after a non-existent weather phenomena – St. John’s should have a bizarre mascot!

Thanks to PD for sharing.

Well, Cameron Wright was elevated into the ESPNU Top-100 recruits.

Also joining the rankings are: No. 77 Allen Crabbe of Price (Los Angeles); No. 85 Stargell Love of Quality Education (Winston-Salem, N.C.); No. 86 Maurice Jones of Arthur Hill (Saginaw, Mich.); No. 90 Geron Johnson of Dunbar (Dayton, Ohio); No. 91 Cameron Wright of Benedictine (Cleveland); and No. 99 Joe Young of Yates (Houston).

Interestingly, one of the players that fell out of their top-100 was Jordan Sibert, an Ohio PG that Ohio State pursued and got — then lost interest in Wright. Sibert got hurt last spring and is still healing. He’s playing and the two actually ended up facing off in Columbus this past weekend.

In turn, Wright committed to Pittsburgh and gave Thad a glimpse of what he may be missing as his team defeated Sibert’s by a score of 55-48.

Sibert’s outside shooting was off Saturday as he shot just 2-7 from 3-point range, but the senior did score 19 points. Although it looked like he is not 100% recovered from a knee injury suffered last spring, Sibert did look strong and Buckeye fans should be excited to have him as part of this class. He did not have as good of a supporting cast as Wright did and despite not playing as well as he liked, he never quit and kept his team in the game.

Wright, on the other hand, must have felt good with his 19 point performance at the venue he once though he would be playing at for the next four years. Unlike Sibert, who likes to make it rain from the outside, Wright is kind of a high-glider who plays really well above the rim and can attack the basket with ease. He is going to be a really good player for Jamie Dixon…

Coach Dixon received a midterm grade of “A” from DeCourcy at the Sporting News.

Useless information that I never knew about college basketballs.

You may not have thought much about this, but there is not a standard ball in NCAA basketball. Each school can decide to use its own brand of basketball (as long as it conforms to specifications), and leagues like the Big East can use up to five or six different basketballs, depending upon the manufacturers each school has deals with. One game, you may be playing with a Nike ball, then a Wilson, then The Rock, then an Adidas ball, then a Molten ball.

Last week, Notre Dame played at Cincinnati and the Fighting Irish players felt that the ball used was smaller than they were used to. Notre Dame, like most teams, has several of every different brand of ball used by teams on its schedule so that the Irish can practice with the same ball they will be playing with next. Basketball is still very much a game of feel, and it is a game of attention to detail.

Weird. I have to believe that the NCAA has an official (read: heavily paid for the rights) basketball for the NCAA Tournament.

Someone tries to get Gary Parrish at CBSSportsline to go negative on Pitt for luck. Parrish won’t bite.

(more…)

A real tough break for one of the top-ranked recruits in Pitt’s soon to be signed class.

Senior forward Anthony Gonzalez will undergo surgery next Wednesday to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee and will likely miss the remainder of the basketball season.

This is not the same knee that was operated on last September during football season.

It’s not major, but it is frustrating.

The injury is not expected to impede his football career.

Pittsburgh head coach Dave Wannstedt and assisant Brian Angelichio, who recruited Gonzalez, were in Bethlehem on Wednesday night to see him and are satifisfied that the injury will not jeopardize anything.

“He’s going to be fine; they were not concerned at all,” said Jim Tkach, a Liberty football assistant who is close to the Pitt coaches because his son, Tyler, is a member of the Panthers’ program. “He should be able to recover in time to play in the Big 33 game in June. Anthony’s a great kid. This is a tough thing for him, I’m sure, but he’ll bounce back.”

The cynical side says that this injury at least will keep him from risking any other injuries in basketball. The downside, is that between the injury during football season and now this, that is going to make hit harder to get back into shape. Not that I really expected him to play as a true freshman, but it won’t be any easier having to get into Buddy Morriss’ conditioning regimen after a couple extended layoffs.

While Pitt’s overall recruiting class has not been star-studded, it has been considered very solid and part of a building effort.

The Panthers have the chance to be as successful in the recruiting battles as they were on the gridiron. They were just an eyelash away from a Big East football championship in 2009 and are putting together an excellent class with 24 total commits and 18 are either four- or three-star quality. The Pitt program’s consistency the last few seasons has helped them compete for some of the best Big East talent and they are once again showing some success in-state against the Nittany Lions.

Top prospect: A national top 20 in the athlete category, Anthony Gonzales (Bethlehem, Pa./ Liberty), spearheads the 2010 class. Even though Gonzales missed some action this fall with an injury, he has made his mark as a multi-talented football player. He could end up at quarterback for the Panthers, but he has the toughness and overall skill level to line up at several different positions until his collegiate niche is found.

Don’t be surprised if: The Panthers continue their success on the field due to their recruiting the last couple of years. The 2009 class was solid, but this year’s class is even more impressive. Dave Wannstedt and his staff do a very good job of meeting their position-specific needs.

This blog post from Bob Smizik about the former B-94 now going sports talk.

As word about the new sports-talk station in town — SportsRadio 93.7 The Fan — continues to dribble out, one thing is clear: These guys mean business.

From all indications, the CBS Radio Group has made a serious long-term commitment to the station, which will use the call letters to KDKA-FM.

Most notable about that commitment is The Fan will carry at least 16 hours of locally originated programming. That’s twice as many hours as 1250 ESPN produces.

One way to fill some of those hours will be with broadcast of games. That is where Pitt could benefit.

Another area where I expect the new station to be a major player is in bidding for the broadcasting rights of the local franchises — Steelers, Penguins, Pirates, Pitt football and basketball and Duquesne basketball. All of those rights, except Duquesne’s, are currently held by Clear Channel, which operates five stations in the Pittsburgh market and has the Steelers on one, the Penguins on another and Pitt on a third.

The Penguins recently extended their deal with Clear Channel and will be heard on WXDX (105.9) for the foreseeable future. It’s hard to imagine the Steelers leaving Clear Channel, when their contact expires. Because they are the No. 1 franchise in town, the Steelers are heard on WDVE (102.5), the crown jewel of the Clear Channel stations and No. 1 in the market.

But KDKA-AM has made strong bids for the Steelers rights in the past so there’s reason to believe the new station will come just as hard or harder.

Pitt is where The Fan has the best chance to win broadcasting rights. Pitt’s contract with Clear Channel is due to expire in the near future (not sure of the exact date) and I would expect The Fan to be a player in the bidding. Pitt has no reason to be unhappy at Clear Channel, where it’s heard on WWSW (94.5), and it gets plenty of the cross-promotion on the five stations that Clear Channel does so well. But it’s still No. 4 on Clear Channel. It could be No. 1 at The Fan.

Obviously another bidder is helpful. If the new station is really serious about doing local programming that heavy, it would be nice to see some kind of attempt to focusing on Pitt and/or regional college teams as part of the programming. I’m sure there will be no skimping on further over-saturating the region with the Steelers and Penguins coverage, plus rants on how bad the Pirates are doing.

I’d like to think they would consider trying to take some shot at doing a college show. It seems an area that remains relatively untouched. Especially if they do score rights to Pitt football and/or basketball.

Just a side note since Pitt tumbled to #17 in the rankings for what ever it was worth. It wasn’t that much of a slide as it could have been after losing 2 straight. A 6 and 8 spot drop really didn’t seem that bad. It probably didn’t hurt that there weren’t that many teams behind them that made a case to move higher. Not to mention Pitt’s loss to Seton Hall came while overlapping the NFL Championship playoffs — further minimizing who was actually paying attention.

Lots of different theories that bounce around after 2-straight losses. Many factors that come into play. Not claiming all are valid, just trying to consider all factors.

— Seton Hall not having Jeremy Hazell for most of the game actually benefited the Pirates. Foul problems for the high-volume shot-taker meant  more ball movement, as Hazell wasn’t just jacking up shots and dribbling with the ball until ready to shoot. Additionally, not having Hazell tossed out most of Pitt’s game plan which was presumably built around containing Hazell. A case could be made that Pitt struggled to readjust on defense especially in the first half.

— Intangibles all favored Seton Hall. The Pirates haven’t made the NCAA Tournament under Gonzalez and they need to have big wins in the Big East to do it. They haven’t beaten Pitt under Gonzalez — no matter how tough they played Pitt — so it had to happen sometime. They also had not beaten a top-ten team under Gonzalez. The last time they did it — versus Pitt in 2006. The Seton Hall AD losing power struggle with Gonzalez, providing more of a boost to the coach and players.

After such a lousy non-con and close losses to start the conference — OT to WVU, tough, tight losses to UConn and Syracuse — they were due.

After coming up short against top-ranked teams earlier in the season, the Pirates (12-6, 3-4 Big East) finally had their breakthrough victory — and a send-off to three consecutive road games (South Florida, Villanova, Pittsburgh).

“The Syracuse and West Virginia games helped us win this game,” said Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez. “It was huge for us. It shows we’re becoming a good team and a team that can win several ways.”

— Herb Pope playing his most complete game in a game he really wanted.

— The backcourt struggled horribly against Seton Hall’s more aggressive guard defense. Not a press, but lots of hands in the face and slapping at the ball. Things not seen since their struggle against Indiana. Just not handling the pressure well. Turning the ball over and rushing things.

The Pirates forced the Panthers (15-4, 5-2) into 20 turnovers, into a 35 percent shooting performance and, ultimately, into a state of disbelief.

“We had 20 turnovers, 14 in the first half,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “That usually will lead to a loss. Most amazingly, [the turnovers] all came in the half-court, which is hard to comprehend. We’re making bad decisions and not executing well enough offensively and defensively.”

— Pitt is just in a funk at the moment. Whether it is because they are having some of the typical struggles of a young team and it just looks worse because they have been looking so good and winning. It’s losing focus and gaps in concentration. Even when they know what to do, not doing it.

Pope’s baseline dunk typified the Panthers’ defensive letdowns. Moments earlier, during a timeout, assistant coach Brandin Knight alerted his players on how to defend the inbounds play.

“Coach Knight told us they were going to run that play, and that’s exactly what they did,” Jermaine Dixon said. “A handoff to a ball screen right there, and he (Pope) was going to slip. That’s what they were looking for. We were supposed to be there. … That’s happened a lot, a lot of defensive lapses. It happened in the Georgetown game. It happened today.”

— As Ashton Gibbs goes, so goes the Panthers. Teams are locking down on Gibbs. Making him the focal point of their defense. That means when Pitt tries to run a play for Gibbs, the teams are not letting him get free. This has led to a lot more contested shots, having to pass on the attempt and keep looking for another scorer, and a frustrated Gibbs rushing shots. Against Seton Hall, the aggressive defense sent Gibbs to the freethrow line tons, but Gibbs couldn’t get shots to go from anywhere else.

— The pride in defense has been merely lip-service without actively doing it. The defensive intensity has dropped.

[Jermaine] Dixon said the Panthers have to get back to playing well on defense in order to turn things around.

“Ever since we got ranked higher our defense has been worse,” he said. “We just have to pick it up on defense. I’m going to make sure I’m going to let everyone know what we’re doing wrong. It’s one thing to hear it from a coach. If you hear it from a player then people take things different. I’m going to start being more vocal. I’m going to say a lot more when we’re on the court practicing.”

With poor defensive play comes giving opposing teams the time to set their own defenses against Pitt. While Pitt is not a transition team trying to get out and run, any team tends to execute an offense better when they can keep the other team on their heels defensively. Especially for Pitt to get the ball inside.

— The guard play has been a struggle. The guard rotation is now rather limited. It is Wanamaker, Gibbs and Dixon. All three are struggling at the same time. Unfortunately there is no one behind them to help.  The confidence in Travon Woodall and Chase Adams has gotten lower. Woodall and Adams have no confidence shooting the ball. Woodall compounds things by not taking care of the ball and bad passing.

— The frontcourt has gone passive. In the past two games the front court simply hasn’t had many opportunities on offense. Some of that is a function of turnovers and the guards not working the ball inside real well. In the Seton Hall game, McGhee, Robinson and Taylor only had 6 shot attempts and only 2 trips to the foul line. Yes, they had 6 turnovers, but they had limited attempts. The other part is they aren’t presenting themselves to get the ball. They have to work harder to get open.

The more troubling aspect is the lack of rebounding from the 5 spot. Taylor and McGhee combined for only 5 rebounds against Seton Hall, 7 vs. Georgetown and 8 against Louisville. Taylor, especially, has disappeared on the glass. Wanamaker has been the leading rebounder the past two games — even if you would combine Taylor and McGhee’s lines. That means they are getting beaten for defensive boards and missing opportunities for put-backs on offense.

2pm start. The game is on FoxSports Pittsburgh, MASN, MSG+ and the ESPN FullCourt package. For those on a computer and the right provider, it is on ESPN360.com.

Another road game, and Pitt puts its perfect conference road record at stake. Nice bit on Wanamaker adjusting his game as needed in the Big East.

The 6-foot-4 junior has gone from Pitt’s second-leading scorer to its leader in rebounds (6.6) and assists (4.1) since the return of senior Jermaine Dixon and junior Gilbert Brown to the lineup.

“It’s a sign of improvement for him,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I’m really happy with what he’s doing offensively. He’s getting other guys shots, and he creates a problem for some teams to match up with him because of his ability to go off the dribble as the third guard for us.”

Part of the reason Wanamaker’s scoring average has slipped is a result of his field-goal percentage dropping from 48 percent to 33 percent — he was 4 of 12 from the field against the Hoyas — but he also has more assists (39) and less turnovers (19) in the past seven games than he did through the first 11, when he had 34 assists and 30 turnovers.

“He’s a great penetrator and a great passer,” Dixon said. “Just getting him to have a little more patience offensively has helped him increase his assists and cut down his turnovers.”

Facing a Hall team with a ‘Quip boy (sort of) who other than major foul problems is thriving in Gonzo ball. To the point where he’s running his mouth just a bit.

“I get to show everybody in the City of Pittsburgh what they missed out on,” Aliquippa, Pa. native Herb Pope said. The Seton Hall redshirt sophomore forward verbally committed to Pitt as a high school sophomore, but eventually re-opened his recruitment.

Pope eventually went to New Mexico State for one year before transferring to Seton Hall. He thought about Pittsburgh that time, too. Although the Panthers might not have wanted to deal with all the drama that has followed Pope the previous 3-4 years.

“It was an option for me,” Pope said after Seton Hall’s 80-77 victory against Louisville Thursday night. “I just never wanted to sit down and meet with Coach (Jamie) Dixon and put a game plan together.”

Now, Pope said he couldn’t see himself playing Pitt’s more deliberate style.

“I can’t hold the ball for 32 seconds,” he said with a smile.

Some of that much talked about new-found maturity it seems. Coach Dixon, to no surprise, sticks to the high road. The Seton Hall frontcourt has size, but no one seems to be seeing the girth.

Despite receiving his formal charges for his wrong-way on the highway incident, Keon Lawrence is expected to play.

LiveBlog around 2 pm. If you need to break it out, Click Here.

Pitt off until Sunday’s trip to New Jersey.

Technically the schedule gets lighter, but I don’t really feel that way. You could make a case that Pitt has been playing to the level of its competition this year — a common issue especially for young teams. Pitt was playing its best against the teams believed to be among the best in the conference. What happens when they face the perceived middle- and light-weights?

If you want to look for the bright side of Pitt’s loss to Georgetown, it is that the team had a very tangible bit of evidence that they need to get back to the defensive intensity.

It was the fourth consecutive game that a Pitt opponent shot 46 percent or more from the field. The Panthers were able to beat Connecticut and Cincinnati because they shot well against both and decisively outrebounded the Huskies. Pitt was able to beat Louisville, in part, because the Cardinals collapsed late by missing free throws.

Coach Jamie Dixon’s goal is to hold every opponent to 40 percent or less from the field. The Panthers have not done that since the conference opener against DePaul.

“I think we feel good about the wins, but [the Georgetown game] really took a toll,” junior forward Gilbert Brown said. “And it can take a toll on us. But I think we’ll bounce back well in practice. The biggest thing about this stretch, the good things, was that our team has been able to come together with me and Jermaine being back on the court and being able to play as a unit.

“But [the Georgetown game] still shows that we need to improve in other areas. We had a lot of letdowns the past couple games on defense in just getting the hustle plays, the loose balls and boxing out. So, we really have to get back to what we do. Right now, we’re struggling in those things, but I feel as though we’re going to be picking it up later on this season.”

Happily most Pitt fans were rather sanguine after the loss. Even the expected freak-out to the beat writer after a loss was hardly that.

I do worry about the games with Seton Hall and St. John’s. Both teams have some talent and have been unexpected thorns in recent years. Seton Hall, both for being the next game and the style they play, has me very concerned. If a guy like Hazell has a good night, then insanity reigns.

Ashton Gibbs’ rough night gets a little dissection. Concern, again, seems limited.

Gibbs isn’t getting open as often thanks to increased pressure, but even when he did Wednesday he wasn’t very accurate. He missed a pair of open threes in the same possession late in the game as Pitt tried again to rally.

“He normally knocks down those shots,” said Jermaine Dixon. “He just didn’t make them.”

Gibbs shouldn’t be criticized roundly — he still averages 16.9 points — but his quick and questionable shot selection at times Wednesday showed a frustration not seen this season. Coach Dixon said he believed Gibbs played well, but did point out the open misses, a rare point of public criticism from Dixon.

Still, losing faith in their top scorer will take Gibbs’ teammates more than one or two less-than-spectacular performances.

“Ashton will bounce back on Sunday (at Seton Hall),” Jermaine Dixon said. “He’s our scorer, and he will try to find ways to get open.”

I don’t think anyone is too worried. The only concern I have for Sunday is that it is a “homecoming” game for Gibbs and Travon Woodall to play in New Jersey. For the Philly boys of Brad Wanamaker and Nasir Robinson, Philadelphia is only 90 minutes or so away from Newark. Could be a lot of friends and family show up, so that is always a mild concern for distractions.

The advantage of a team having multiple threats was on display last night. Austin Freeman has been hot as the shooting guard and for a good chunk of his time on the court was covered by Jermaine Dixon.

With good reason, Pitt was concerned with stopping Greg Monroe. Pitt’s frontcourt is undersized and Monroe has begun to grasp how much of a force he can be inside. That meant bringing help to slow him down and force him to pass out of the double team. Unfortunately, one of Monroe’s strengths is that he is an excellent passer. He passed right out of the double teams — when they weren’t late — and Georgetown moved the ball very well to take advantage of that.

Specifically Chris Wright found himself uncovered and able to show more of his game than you would expect in a Princeton offense.

“I’m a different type of guard for this system, so it’s a matter of me staying aggressive,” said Wright, a 6-1, 201-pound product of St. John’s Catholic in Washington. “Whenever I see an advantage, I try to take my man. There are different spots where you can take drives in our offense. You just try to read the defense, see where things develop — and attack.”

There’s never been a point guard as physically gifted as Wright running the Princeton offense at the college level. That’s partly true because so many of the point guards who ran the Princeton offense actually played for Princeton, but John Thompson’s been using it since he got to Georgetown in 2004, and Northwestern, Colorado and Richmond all use it, or variations.

Wright got off to a fast start when he got free on an eerily familiar well-executed inbounds play. Jermaine Dixon was actually covering him, but was bumped off on a hedge. Wright went right to the corner and drilled an open 3. Clark hit a 3 and then Wright drilled another one on an open look… and that set the tone for his game.

In toppling its first top-10 team of the season, Georgetown made a statement about the essence of its strength this season. It’s not Monroe. Nor is it Wright. Nor is it Austin Freeman — each of whom has notched a career high in the past month. It is the fact that the Hoyas’ offense spark can break out among any one of several players and, as a result, shutting down Georgetown on a night like Wednesday can be a daunting task.

It was a thrilling game, with the score knotted at 31 at halftime, 11 lead changes and an electrified capacity crowd of 12,677 at Petersen Events Center — most clad in gold T-shirts — that spent most of the time on its feet, hopping up and down, jeering Georgetown players and urging on their own.

It set up an easy storyline of a tale of two guards, proving an irresistible hook with the fact that Gibbs was also being recruited by G-town until Wright committed. Contrasting Wright with Ashton Gibbs.

Gibbs countered by going 3 of 16 from the field, including 2 of 8 from 3-point range, to tie his season-low with eight points. The smooth-shooting Gibbs picked a poor time for his worst-shooting performance of the season.

“Ashton had some open 3s that he normally knocks down, and he didn’t make (them),” Pitt senior Jermaine Dixon said. “He’s our scorer. We’re going to try to find ways to get him open and he’s going to knock them down for us.”

That Wright made them and Gibbs didn’t was a big difference.

Theirs was a game within the game.

Gibbs had a very poor game as I touched on last night. He has struggled in the past couple games against the really good defensive teams that have made stopping him a focal point. He knows he is supposed to score for Pitt, and last night he got frustrated.

Early he tried to wait for his opportunity. He didn’t take a shot until the 14:19 mark of the game — and even that was ill-advised. It was blocked.

Gibbs started forcing things before the end of the first half. In the final 2:44 of the half he took (and missed) 4 shots. He had taken 5 shots up until that point. The frustration was amplified by his missing 3 open 3-point shots in the course of the game. One is a seeming rarity. Three missed open looks seemed like an impossibility up until this game.

While Gibbs was a horrid 3-16 and 2-8 on 3s, the entire Pitt team struggled with their perimeter shooting. Going a combined 4-18.

Unsurprisingly, Coach Dixon wasn’t going to blame the offense for the loss.

“You have to win games with defense, and I don’t think we have with our last couple. We definitely lost this game with our defense.”

It’s admittedly hard to blame the offense when the team shot almost 46% even with Gibbs shooting 18.75%.

So the issue after the game was how Pitt’s defense wasn’t up to snuff.

The culprit, then, was the Panthers’ defense, or modest effort of it at times.

Georgetown (14-3, 5-2), armed with a thorough mix of strong interior players, athletic wings and quick guards, bounced from strategy to strategy as the Panthers (15-3, 5-1) scurried to cover all the Hoyas’ bases. They were 7 of 10 from 3-point range (Chris Wright made all three of his en route to a game-high 27 points) and shot 46.4 percent overall.

“We just (weren’t) there defensively as a group,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “We hadn’t played defense as well as we needed to the last couple of games, and it caught up to us tonight.”

I can’t help but think that part of the issue on defense was that Pitt was so focused on stopping the frontcourt for this game. Monroe, Vaughn and the others finished shooting only 9-27. Pitt was doing everything it could to keep the ball out of the post. It helped open things up for guards to drive and get better looks on the 3-point shots

Austin Freeman was checked mainly by his own foul troubles that limited him to only 27 minutes — but still shot 4-6 — as the Hoya guards ended up going 17-29 and 6-8 on 3s.

Jermaine Dixon was trying to stay philosophical after the loss.

“We still got a long way to go,” Jermaine Dixon said. “We’ve got a lot of games left. We were looking forward to going undefeated, but you don’t have a night off. One loss doesn’t mean anything.”

Given that Pitt had won 8 straight, started 5-0 in the Big East, and the level of competition faced in the conference; I agree that it is kind of hard to get too worked up over this loss.

It only becomes an issue if the team doesn’t bounce back.

Pitt won its past two despite, not because of, its defensive effort. So said Pitt coach Jamie Dixon. And Wednesday’s game needs to serve as a reminder that just because these Panthers aren’t expected to be 5-0 doesn’t mean they’ll be treated by opponents like they’re 0-5.

On the other hand, because of such a wonderful and completely unexpected start to the Big East season, the Panthers deserved a mulligan. In the grand scheme, one loss in the Big East, particularly to Georgetown, won’t hurt those NCAA Tournament chances. Besides, no Pitt team in the past eight seasons before this had made it to 6-0 in the Big East. Every one of those teams went to the Tournament, and a few won conference titles.

So was this an inevitable winter pothole on the Pittsburgh road, or will it beget the latest doomsday theory?

The Panthers must treat it as both. Now that they have successfully convinced most of the country that they are a good team, they need to convince themselves and show they can bounce back with a win over Herb Pope and Seton Hall on the road Sunday. This game is history.

But they also must take notes from Wednesday’s effort as to not be doomed by repeating it.

Yep. Next up a road trip to Seton Hall. They may have lost a lot of close games, but they are definitely the kind of team that can torch Pitt. Pressing defense, an unpredictable perimeter threat in Hazell. Size and versatility in the front court. They desperately need a signature win to get to those preseason expectations (and Gonzalez’s job security) of making the NCAA Tournament.

Lost in the, well, loss, was some of the good things Pitt did on offense. For much of the game, Pitt had excellent ball movement. When Pitt remembered to work the ball inside, Gary McGhee showed much better hands. He handled passes without fumbling or having to gather as much. Nasir Robinson continued to play with confidence that carried from the last game. But for foul trouble he would have been out there more.

Gilbert Brown had his stroke. 8-9 shooting, and not being selfish (though, in the second half he probably could have stood to be).

Wanamaker struggled to score, but was his scrappy self. He led the team with 13 rebounds and 7 assists. It was Wanamaker — not Gibbs or Dixon — who more often than not could get the ball inside and make passes.

Well this was bound to happen. I will say that I was unconvinced of the outcome until Chris [several expletives deleted] Wright scored with under a minute to go for his 27th points. That did it. 1 second left on the shot clock, Pitt’s best defender, Jermaine Dixon, on him. He just makes a little feint away and Dixon bites. Wright goes straight to the hoop for an easy lay-up on the inbound.

In a way this game was like being on the receiving end of the Pitt-Syracuse game. Remember that game? Pitt was killing on 3s. Syracuse was 1-13 out there. That played a role.

About halfway through the first half, I made a note that Georgetown’s jumpers were falling while Pitt’s just were not.

This was the game where Ashton Gibbs wasn’t just shut down, he had a bad night shooting — 3-16 overall, 2-8 on 3s). Yes, Georgetown was blanketing him most of the game. Heck, they kept him from getting good shots and blocked 2 shots of his. So that had a major impact. It’s also a game where we saw Gibbs miss 3 open 3s. He had the time. He had the space. They just were off. It happens. It doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

I thought Jermaine Dixon had one of his toughest games on defense. He just was not as crisp. He was late helping on switches. Got bumped off a lot of plays. He had the tough night. Austin Freeman he could handle, but Wright was having a hell of a game and Dixon could not contain him. Heck on offense, he may have had 14 points but he was 4-11 doing it. I don’t know what kind of spin he is putting on his shots but it was really a problem They rolled all over the rim but out.

It’s a shame Nasir Robinson couldn’t stay out of foul trouble. He looked sharp and confident on offense. But with only 16 minutes not a lot of time to act upon it.

Gilbert Brown’s career high 20 points went for naught. Wanamaker grabbed 13 rebounds and had 7 assists.

Gary McGhee looked good and bad at time. I mean, he was not a good match-up with Monroe, but still had to got at him with Robinson in foul trouble. That made it easy for Vaughn. The good was on offense, where on 3 slams he handled the passes cleanly and went straight up. No putting the ball on the floor. No bending over to gather. He just finished clean on all 3. Just from where he started in the beginning of the season this is significant progress.

More after I have consume more adult beverages — and then get sober.