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.