Dion Lewis may have been the most productive Pitt player last year, but he is a small back with a draft status that at times has been questioned as to when* and if he will be more than a second or third round pick.

DE Greg Romeus and WR Jonathan Baldwin, however, have already been projected in various insanely early mock drafts as possible 1st rounders. That’s nice

I have to be honest. I could care less about mock drafts a week after the actual draft. It has even less value than a way too soon preseason top-25 in football or basketball. At least the early preseason top-25s come somewhat close to matching the bias-inducing, essentially useless preseason top-25s.

Heck, mock drafts that happen right after college football ends are rarely close aside from some order for the top 3-5 picks. Remember the projections for LeSean McCoy?

Really, for Pitt fans, mock drafts in football (and especially basketball) have been far more rosy than reality — aside from Revis and Fitzgerald.

That’s not to say that both Romeus and Baldwin aren’t worthy of hype and the possibility of being 1st rounders come next April. They are.

Both keep working harder at improving their game.

When Greg Romeus watches film of himself from last season, he says he sees all kinds of mistakes. Poor technique, bad footwork, not finishing off plays — those things all jump out at him.

And remember, he is the reigning Big East co-defensive player of year.

Still, Romeus believes he has plenty of room for improvement that will make him a better player and a richer man soon. That’s why the defensive end decided to return to the Pittsburgh Panthers for his senior year instead of entering the NFL Draft this winter.

“Next year, I’ll be more prepared,” he said. “The more experience I have, the better chance I have [of being a high draft pick].”

At being better at their position.

But he vowed to become a more complete receiver as a sophomore and worked at getting better on all the routes.

The result was a 1,111-yard season with eight touchdowns. Only two receivers in the country last year topped 1,000 yards while averaging more than Baldwin’s 19.5 yards per catch. So what’s next for Baldwin?

“My goal this year is to get better at my yards after catch,” he said. “I want to run my routes crisper. And destroy defenders when I block them.”

Other teams will certainly game plan around him, but if they roll coverage to him, that opens up things for other receivers like Shanahan. That’s what happened in the Meineke Car Care Bowl, when Baldwin was held to just three catches for 31 yards, but Shanahan grabbed five passes for 83 yards.

“Pick your poison,” Baldwin said. “Do you want to get beat my Mike or do you want to get beat by me?”

Trying to cover Baldwin with just a cornerback is asking for trouble, especially in the Big East where most corners are going to surrender at least five or six inches to him. And he’s so big that it’s hard to jam him at the line.

“On film, it doesn’t look like I’m as fast as I am because my legs are so long,” he says. “If you try to do that stuff, I’ll beat the press and run right by you.”

In 2010, the Pitt SID will be working hard with plenty of individual players to promote for the various positional awards up through the tough call of promoting Lewis or Baldwin for Heisman.

You know what will help their candidacies, probably as much as their own hard work, effort and production? Winning the games.

* Yes, I know that it is now clear that he could come out after this year, but think about how long and confused most were before that was understood clearly.

In football, no question. But in basketball, I’m not so sure.

There’s a growing concern that Pitt is going to lack a center after Gary McGhee is done. (Yes, even after last year it is still mildly strange to type that.)

After all, the present roster has no true center. Dante Taylor wants to play and his future is at the 4. Plus, at 6-8 to 6-9, there is concern about whether he is big enough (or perhaps, better phrased as whether he plays big enough). J.J. Richardson is definitely undersized to play the spot at 6-7, but did show energy and enthusiasm. Talib Zanna at 6-9, will be a redshirt freshman and is certainly a candidate to play the spot more — especially if he has bulked up a bit. But no one seems enthused by that idea.

Now, I imagine most want the center to be someone who is 6-10 or bigger. A guy in the tradition of Aaron Gray, Toree Morris or McGhee. A big guy inside to defend the paint, get rebounds and some easy putbacks. The fact is, finding a true big man is not easy.

There’s a reason why Pitt stuck it out with Gary McGhee and he actually had some decent offers despite how raw he was. There was a reason Pitt tried for quite a while to figure a way to make it happen with Maurice Walker despite the lack of scholarship — and other teams came so hard  for him late — even though, everyone acknowledges he is a project.

There’s a reason the top two or three center prospects are one-and-dones almost without fail.

There aren’t that many truly big men, and more often than not, it takes a couple of years to find out if you have a good one.

According to Scout.com, these are the Center prospects Pitt is looking at for the 2011 class: Mikael Hopkins, Desmond Hubert, and Joey De La Rosa.

Want to know what jumps out at me about them?

It isn’t that Hopkins is the highest ranked prospect of them, a consensus 4-star listed as center or power forward (Insider subs.). Or that Hubert is another consensus 4-star center with lots of promise (Insider subs.). Nor is it that De La Rosa is a very raw 2-star to unranked at this time, but againwith lots of potential (Insider subs).

No, what stands out to me is that Hopkins and Hubert are both listed at 6-8 on all recruiting sites. De La Rosa is listed at 6-8 on ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc., while Rivals.com says 6-11 and Scout.com says 6-10.

In other words, the two best center prospects (and perhaps three) Pitt may be pursuing are similar in size to Zanna and Taylor. The (presumably) tallest prospect they are pursuing will be a project.

DeJuan Blair thrived at the 5 spot despite being 6-6 to 6-7 because of a freakish wingspan and a body that could bang inside, but just as importantly: desire. He outworked and outplayed bigger men. He thrived on the contact and beating them.

I’m not hung up on where the player Pitt gets with the 3d scholarship plays. There’s a pretty good balance between frontcourt and backcourt players right now.

I think Pitt and Coach Dixon will stick with getting the best player they can. Whether it is an undersized center, another wing guard or perhaps even a shooting guard that is deadly from the perimeter.

Several things for this post, but let’s start with a press release from the Big East announcing the bowl line-up. Take it away Commissioner Marinatto:

“By all accounts the BIG EAST bowl lineup is stronger than it’s ever been.” said Marinatto.  “We have aligned ourselves with great bowl games in first-class destinations.”

So let’s go to:

BCS Bowl – BIG EAST Champion
Champs Sports Bowl – BIG EAST vs. ACC
Meineke Car Care Bowl – BIG EAST vs. ACC
New Era Pinstripe Bowl – BIG EAST vs. Big 12
Papajohns.com Bowl/AutoZone Liberty Bowl – BIG EAST vs. SEC or C-USA
Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl – BIG EAST vs. C-USA

Yes, instead of going to Birmingham, Alabama to play someone from the lower-half of the SEC. A Big East team could find itself in Memphis to play something from C-USA (or possibly a different lower-half SEC team).

This might well be the best bowl line-up for the Big East in terms of pay-outs and compared to the last deal. But it hardly serves as a reason why any Big East team would say to a Big 11 offer, “no thanks, we’re good.”

The Indy Star spoke to ex-Purdue president and 1954 Pitt grad, Dr. Steven Beering about Big 10 expansion:

When Penn State joined, Beering was optimistic a 12th school would come along.

“There were a number of us that were hopeful of adding the University of Pittsburgh as well,” said the 77-year old Beering, a 1954 graduate of Pittsburgh. “We had, at that time, a number of new presidents who were not secure in what they knew about the situation to cast a vote. They abstained and we never got a unanimous vote to add a 12th member.”

Beering said the same schools being discussed today – Notre Dame, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Rutgers — were the ones talked about nearly two decades ago.

You know, given the way Pitt was being run at that time, I’m not totally convinced the Pitt administration wouldn’t have still botched it.

Ray Graham is happy at Pitt.

Now, though, Graham has had a full offseason to digest the playbook and work on his technique. He’s also bulked up considerably, going from 170 pounds when he reported to campus to a sturdy 194 this spring.

“I’m not second-guessing myself now,” he said. “When I hear the call on a play, I’m like, ‘OK, I know that. I know my reads.’ And now, I can run through people to get where I’m going.”

Where Lewis excels in bouncing off tackles, Graham is more of a home-run threat with a great stutter step who thrives in open space. Picture them both in the backfield at the same time. Then picture a nervous defense.

“Teams can’t just focus on one type of running back because we’re both different kinds of runners,” Lewis said. “That’s going to help us out a lot.”

There’s no question who the No. 1 tailback is, but Graham is staying patient for his turn in that role. It could happen as soon as next year, since Lewis will be eligible to enter the 2011 draft because he attended prep school. Wannstedt has told him to have faith, because his time will come.

The Panthers don’t have to worry, though, about Graham going somewhere else.

“I’m here to stay,” he said. “Pitt is like my family.”

Unless the middle of the O-line gels a lot more than I expect, Lewis’ style is going to accomplish more. Lewis has an easier time bouncing through and outside to where Pitt’s O-line is stronger.

Graham is a strong back, but getting to the open space may be more difficult, unless Pitt follows through on the spring practice talk of using Graham out in space to catch passes.

Well, writers seem to think Pitt “looks” like a football team.

Finally, the ACC commish Swofford offers BC and WF to the Big 11.

The little brother of Ashton Gibbs, Sterling, committed to Maryland last night. I can’t say I’m particularly disappointed over this.

A year ago I would have, but both sides have not seemed overly interested in the other. Especially since Pitt has a PG in the 2010 class and a verbal from John Johnson — another PG in 2011.

Sterling has seemed interested in finding his own place, not simply being Ashton’s little brother.

Interestingly, like Ashton, he seems to have fallen in recruiting rankings after his junior year.

Gibbs is rated as a three-star recruit and the No. 22 point guard in his class by Scout.com. Rivals.com also lists Gibbs as a three-star recruit and the No. 135 overall prospect in the Class of 2011.

This after Sterling being considered a top PG prospect as early as his freshman and even in his sophomore year. His stock seems oddly down. Of course, just look at who was after him: Pitt, Indiana, Wake Forest and others. That suggests a little better than a 3-star kid. Not to mention he was a top player on the USA U-16 team last summer.

He did have Ashton’s support.

Despite Ashton’s ties to the Panthers, Sterling said that his older brother helped him out throughout the entire recruitment.

“He was on the phone with coach [Chuck] Driesell and coach Williams trying to set everything up,” Gibbs said. “He felt like it was the right decision.”

If he had gone to Indiana, then I might have been annoyed. Maryland, though, doesn’t bother me so much.

Meanwhile a little more on Jaylen Bond. He’s nursing a groin injury that is limiting his AAU playing time. While he plays power forward on his HS team — because he’s the biggest player on the squad — he plays more small forward when it comes time for AAU ball.

Bond is projected to play more of a swingman role at Pitt and not power forward, a role he plays for Plymouth Whitemarsh. It will be an interesting transition for Bond, who plays exceptional defense, but will be working on extending the range of his jump shot and ballhandling over this summer.

It’s almost going to be a different world for Bond, who does play small forward for his AAU teams.

“I am used to playing away from the basket, and it’s something I obviously feel I can do, and it’s something Pitt’s coaching staff feels I can do, too,” Bond said. “I’ll be lifting on the off-season, I want to try to play at around 230, 235 next year.”

Coach Dixon was directly involved in his recruitment and it impacted on Bond.

“I knew I wanted to go there the week before, but I wanted to talk it over with my family a lot and think about it a lot,” he said.

“When I went up there, there was no other reason to wait. I knew where I wanted to go.”

Bond had made an unofficial trip to the campus last weekend, also swinging by to check out West Virginia.

“We liked the coaching staff, the surroundings,” he said of Pitt. “They made it clear I was their No. 1 choice for that position.”

…

Dixon had to like what he saw of Bond when he was in attendance for the Colonials’ 71-47 state semifinal victory over North Allegheny on March 24. As the runner-up in the District One Class AAAA tournament, PW (30-2) was in the western half of the bracket, the semifinal game taking place at Chambersburg High. Dixon, whose Pitt team had just been knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by Xavier, witnessed Bond’s 26-point, 15-rebound performance against the Tigers.

“He said he saw me a couple times,” Bond said of Dixon, “but I remember him being at that game.”

Sort of the silver lining of not making the Sweet 16. I guess.

Here’s the press release from the Pitt athletic department detailing who was drafted where (hint: Byham in the 6th to San Fran and Dickerson in the 7th to Houston). Also listed were undrafted free agent signings:

• Aaron Berry — Detroit Lions
• John Malecki — Tennessee Titans
• Mick Williams — NY Jets
• Bill Stull — KC Chiefs

Adam Gunn was invited to Green Bay’s spring mini camp but has not signed any deal.

Eye of a Panther has a solid recap with some links to the NFL team comments on the draft picks.

Script Pitt notes that Stull signing with KC puts him in competition with Tyler Palko to be the scout team QB. I have no comment.

So, I was without internet starting late Friday morning. We didn’t get it back until later on Saturday. By then I had gotten rid of the shakes and other symptoms of withdrawal and focused on getting things done in the offline world. Now it is a rainy Monday, definitely time to just look online.

Last month, Coach Jamie Dixon was taking in Jaylen Bond and his high school team on their way to the PIAA AAAA runner-up.

The weekend started with his verbal to Pitt. A week after an unofficial visit to both Pitt and WVU while in Pittsburgh for the AAU Jam Fest.

“Once he saw [Pitt], that pretty much solidified it,” said Steve Bond, Jaylen’s uncle. “That’s when we knew he was serious. He wasn’t even interested in taking any other visits.”

He’s a strong kid at 6-7, and between 205 and 220 pounds. And plays both forward positions.

“He’s a big body who can run the floor, he’s very powerful in transition and very powerful around the basket,” said Plymouth Whitemarsh head coach Jim Donofrio. “And he’s a young kid. He doesn’t turn 17 until May. His strength is already pretty impressive for a high school kid. He is a power player. A lot of people have said that he looks and plays like a Pitt kid.”

While the ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. evaluations are over a year old on Bond, one of the things that it notes about him is that he has a solid basketball IQ and a hard worker [Insider subs.].

Pitt actually envisions him playing at the small forward position in the future as he does have a developing game on the perimeter.

“They want me to play the ‘three’ there and the things I can work on is my perimeter defense and overall perimeter skills,” said Bond of his future role at Pitt.

With the verbals of Bond and John Johnson, Pitt has filled 2 of the 3 scholarship opening s for 2011 (Brad Wanamaker, Gilbert Brown and Gary McGhee). According to ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc., Pitt has 2 of the top-4 Pennsylvania recruits. Rakeem Christmas (PF, undecided) is the top PA recruit, Bond is listed at #2, Juan’ya Green (SG, udecided) #3 and Johnson is 4th.

One day at my daughter’s karate class, I noticed another parent wearing a Pitt golf visor. Pleasantly surprised I asked him about it, only to find out that he was simply the golf coach at Euclid High (nicknamed the Panthers) and that some of his players bought him the visor because of the panther head logo on it.

I’ve never been wild of the Pitt Panther logo that AD Pederson had made and brought right back upon his return. So, I guess I’m a little stunned that any high school nicknamed the Panthers copied it.

The panther head logo emblazoned on the field at Whitmer High School’s football stadium is said to be Ohio’s largest high school field logo.

The only problem is the growling panther image — stretching 20 yards across the center of the $600,000 field — belongs to the University of Pittsburgh, according to Pitt officials.

The university contacted Washington Local Schools in Toledo earlier this month and ordered the high school to stop using it.

Superintendent Patrick Hickey said a Whitmer student has since created a new panther logo and the district plans to trademark it. But to remove the existing logo from the three-year-old football field, its basketball hard court, and from the back stadium wall would mean “enormous dollars.”

That’s because the brilliant yellow panther head isn’t just dyed or painted onto the football field. It’s “sewn” into the state-of-the-art turf, Mr. Hickey said. And, he added, painting over the logo or otherwise covering it might void the warranty.

Yeah, Whitmer High did not  exactly engage in a subtle difference.

Whitmer High Panthers

As the article points out, there has been a long history of high schools virtually mimicking college and even pro logos for their own mascots. (How many schools nicknamed the “Cardinals” are virtually indistinguishable from the Louisville or Arizona logo?)

The aforementioned Euclid Panthers used to have a very similar color scheme to Pitt’s old colors with Royal Blue and Yellow.

Like so many others, they now use a darker blue and gold. And their present logo might evoke some other Panther.

Carolina Euclid Panthers

Subtle, huh?

Hopefully, Pitt won’t be too aggressive on this high school. As the story noted, lots of schools and professional teams have gotten more dickish in enforcing their copyright and trademark powers. Money is always the issue, but is it really worth it with most high schools?

Thought Pitt was done recruiting this class? Thought Pitt was one over on scholarship limits already? Well, they are. They have, though, the room for a walk-on that has earned a full academic scholarship to Pitt.

Dreams of becoming a doctor overshadowed thoughts of playing college basketball, even though the 6-foot-7, 195-pound [Aron] Nwankwo possessed a Division I-caliber game. Last weekend, however, Nwankwo found out that he wouldn’t have to sacrifice one for the other.

In November, Nwankwo earned a full academic scholarship to Pittsburgh, where he’ll pursue his pre-med studies. Then last weekend, he received an unexpected bonus from the Panthers basketball coaches, who offered him a walk-on spot on the team.

“Other colleges were recruiting me [for basketball], but I didn’t really like them too much,” Nwankwo said. “Academics came first, so once I got a scholarship and knew I’d be going there, I decided to try to contact the basketball office. I knew they probably didn’t have a scholarship, so I was checking to see if there was any chance of walking on to the team. If there was a chance of that, then it would make [me going there] 100 percent.”

He met with Coach Dixon after being in Pittsburgh for the AAU Jam Fest this past weekend. Coach Dixon laid it out for him and offered him the open walk-on spot.

“Basically, it’s my dream in athletics,” Nwankwo said. “To make it to the tournament would be a crazy experience. I’ve got the best of both worlds at Pitt. It’s one of the top pre-med programs in the country and one of the top basketball programs. It doesn’t get much better than that. It’s kind of a dream come true.”

Welcome, Mr. Nwankwo. It almost gives me hope that there is still a place for the student part of college sports.

It’s 68 teams not a 96-team expansion.

The NCAA today announced a new 14-year television, internet and wireless rights agreement with CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., to present the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship beginning in 2011 through 2024 for more than $10.8 billion. As part of the agreement, all games will be shown live across four national networks beginning in 2011 – a first for the 73-year old championship.

Additionally, CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting have been licensed and will collaborate on the NCAA’s corporate marketing program.

Late Wednesday, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee unanimously passed a recommendation to the Division I Board of Directors to increase tournament field size to 68 teams beginning with the 2011 Championship. The recommendation will be reviewed by the Division I Board of Directors at its April 29 meeting.

I can’t begin to say how happy I am over this. 4 play-in games is fine. That keeps things relatively stable as there will now by 37 at-large teams.

If as it says, all games will be on TV, that means saving a $65-70 every year on the Mega March Madness package I’ve been getting. That’s a plus.

The day suddenly seems a little brighter.

It never ends well with pasty white people, tailgating, dancing and a video camera. The good folks at Black Heart, Gold Pants have the Nit fans, um, unironically rocking out to what I think is Miley Cyrus or some other bubblegum pop. The true embarrassment: the flags in the background. A confederate flag? Really?

Our friends at Marquette are celebrating being named the top Catholic party school by Playboy. Suck on that Notre Dame, Boston College and even Duquesne.

And closer to us, the Big East is taking action with unpaid consultant Paul Tagliabue? What?

The official party line is that Tagliabue will help assess the league’s strengths and weaknesses and help in negotiating future TV and other media rights deals.

TNIAMM has a list of possible ideas Tags may float. To which I’ll add the idea of moving WVU to Maryland for a larger TV market.

In a way he is perfect for working with the Big East. A Georgetown grad from the NFL trying to help in a college football issue. How can this not fail?

But there could be some other action. There has been speculation that the Big East is going after Maryland, and there has even been talk that it could send out an olive branch to see if Boston College would come back. Throw in Central Florida as a partner in that state with South Florida, add that to a core Northeast group centered around Rutgers, Pitt, Syracuse, Connecticut, and West Virginia, and you might have something.

Any inclusion of Atlantic Coast Conference schools probably would happen only if a league such as the Southeastern Conference dipped in. If the ACC lost schools such as Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, or Miami, Maryland and BC might be more inclined to look for safe haven in the Northeast.

Yesterday, SEC commissioner Mike Slive said his league would be proactive.

Critics suggest that the Big East is too big as a basketball league at 16 teams. What about 20?

“Who is to say we couldn’t go to 20 teams in basketball, but not have one 20-team league, but a league with pods of four or five teams?’’ said Marinatto. “You have to think strategic alliances — what strategic alliances could we create?

…

“We need a new way of thinking. Strategic thinking. We need to be proactive rather than reactive, and develop our assets. Paul’s theory is, ‘Think long-term, think over the horizon.’ ‘Out-of-the-box thinking,’ Jim is always saying to me, ‘You have to think differently.’

“So hopefully Paul is going to help us think differently.’’

Right. Because after the Big East and ACC would theoretically get raided, teams from the ACC would line-up for an unstable hybrid conference that has gotten less money in TV contracts. The Big East football teams would have no interest in going to the ACC.

/weeps into keyboard.

Not that Pitt players expect to hear their names called tonight. The new format starts tonight. First round begins around 7:30 pm. Friday night has rounds 2 and 3. Then on Saturday morning, the blow through of rounds 4-7.

Dorin Dickerson is expected to be picked sometime on Friday.

• Upside: Is extraordinarily versatile. Played wide receiver, running back, quarterback, defensive back and returned kicks to be heavily recruited out of high school. With 4.4 speed in the 40 and 43 1/2-inch vertical leap, will be a nightmare for linebackers to cover and powerful build makes him hard to bring down.

• Downside: It will be disconcerting to some that he underachieved for much of his college career and was a player seemingly without a position for so long. Blocking, route-running and ball security are all areas in need of improvement.

• Projected round: Third.

Dickerson has seen his stock rise since the season ended. He started out as being a pick that went as late as the 5th round, and now he has been projected as high as the 2nd round. He’s not seen as a traditional tight end, since he lacks the traditional size. Instead, they talk of him as an H-back type player. Someone that becomes a weapon when he gets into space.

The more traditional TE is Nate Byham.

Now, Byham’s pass-blocking skills are the primary reason he’s likely to be taken anywhere from the third to sixth round of the three-day NFL Draft, which begins Thursday night.

“The coaches put Dorin in position where he could really help the team,” Byham said, “and that ultimately made me become a better blocker because I focused on run-blocking more.”

So far, at least 26 teams have expressed interest in Byham, according to agent Chase Callahan.

“Nate is the kind of guy who can step in and play right away because of his blocking abilities. I think a team like Baltimore needs Nate to block the Lamar Woodleys and James Harrisons and help their run and passing game.

“The Jets want to run the ball 30 times a game, so Nate can come in and contribute right away,” Callahan said. “Several teams have a third-round grade, and others have Nate as a fourth- to sixth-round grade.”

That seems to be the rumor. That teams might have to grab Byham earlier than they originally thought.

Finally, the stock of Pittsburgh TE Nate Byham has quietly gone way up in recent weeks. Most scouts I’ve spoken with think he’s a guy who can play in the league 10 years as a No. 2 tight end. However, the teams that thought he was a safe late-round pick at the start of the postseason process now think they might need to take him a little higher than originally thought – in the middle rounds — in order to secure him on draft day.

About the only other Pitt player with the potential to be drafted is cornerback Aaron Berry. He never made Pitt fans forget Darrelle Revis, but I can’t help but think he also suffered because the defensive scheme Pitt ran called for the corners to play off more to prevent big plays, rather than tighter coverage.

Most of the other seniors from Pitt with NFL dreams will go the free agent route.

“Take a Mick Williams or Gus Mustakas for instance — any team that is running that Tampa defense, the 4-3, either of those two guys would fit as undersized, quick defensive linemen who’ve already been coached to play in that system.”

…

The same can be said about John Malecki, undersized to play guard but a better fit at center, Adam Gunn, a linebacker with special-teams ability) and wide receiver Oderick Turner.

One other name to listen for is quarterback Bill Stull, who said a number of teams already have contacted him about becoming a free agent if he is not drafted.

“I really hoped Billy would get in a couple of those all-star games because I know what he can do,” Wannstedt said.

One other name that will probably go the free agent way is center Robb Houser.

The Butte County native who helped Durham High reach the Division IV section football playoffs three straight seasons and Butte College lay the foundation for its famed 2008 JCGridiron.com national championship glory has apparently been concerned about other areas in his life lately.

“He has been text messaging me about this ghost inside his house in Pittsburgh, honestly,” said Allen Henman, one of Houser’s former prep teammates and Durham Elementary School classmates. “He and his roommate think they keep seeing something. They talk about it like it’s a pet.”

Er, okay. So he’s a bit distracted. Scott McKilloop thinks he has a chance.

“We ran a pro-style offense and defense at Pitt that translates into the NFL system,” said former Pittsburgh linebacker Scott McKillop, now a member of the San Francisco 49ers and a Panthers alumnus anxious to see if Houser will end up with an NFL opportunity.

“In Robb’s case, he knows what he can do (well) and can’t do,” McKillop said. “That’s a mark of a great player, working around their limitations and also working to improve at the same time.”

McKillop often competed against Houser up close in practice since their positions match up on the field. Recovering fast from a serious ankle injury during his first season at Pittsburgh was another impression Houser left on McKillop.

“He’s a tough player, he came back real quick,” McKillop said. “It shows how he can be depended on to come back in a pinch. That’s important (in the NFL).”

In one final bit of NFL-Pitt related news. I was sent a press release that Darrelle Revis has joined the Ocho Cinco News Network for draft coverage. No I am not making this up. Here’s the press release.

Darrelle Revis as a draft correspondent.

Motorola is the sponsor of OCNN. So Revis is at least having fun.

After a frenzied, rumor-filled weekend that the Big 11 was going to speed up its expansion plans, the brakes have been tapped.

Day one of the Bowl Championship Series meetings concluded Tuesday with no formal discussion about expansion.

“Informally,” Beebe said with a chuckle, “there has been plenty.”

Delany has informed colleagues that, contrary to a Tribune report, the timetable for Big Ten expansion has not been accelerated from the period of 12-to-18 months that was announced in December.

“You know, Jim wouldn’t be one of the top commissioners and one of the top sports people in the country if he didn’t take things into very careful consideration,” Beebe said.

Delany said through a spokesman that he would address the media Wednesday. His comments will be scrutinized and analyzed by commissioners such as Beebe and John Marinatto of the Big East.

This could be yet another smokescreen. Take some of the attention that is suddenly all over expansion away for a while so Delany can do more work with a little less glare.

Or it could be that while meeting with the Big 11 presidents over the weekend, Delany found insufficient consensus over the candidates at this point. All sorts of speculation can be found at this point.

Now the speculation for why the Big 11 might want to accelerate discussions centered on — of course — TV money.

The Big Ten wants to give other conferences time to respond. But more to the point, it could take a while to integrate schools such as Rutgers, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Connecticut.

The Big East “loyalty clause,” created after the ACC raid, calls for departing schools to pay $5 million and, more significantly, give a 27-month notice.

So barring a renegotiation, the parties would have to move quickly to get the jumbo Big Ten in place for the 2012-13 academic/athletic season.

For the record, the Big 12 has similar penalties and notice requirements.

The Big 11’s TV deal with ESPN/ABC comes up for renewal around that time, so the theory was that the Big 11 would want the teams in place to negotiate a new contract. The reason this is kind of silly, is that it has little to do with the TV contract. If it is already known that the expansion will happen and who will come, the contract negotiations won’t be effected by whether the teams are already there or coming in 2014 or even 15.

Meanwhile, programs like Louisville just sweat and hope to make themselves look attractive to someone in the near future.

Good piece on whether the SEC should act now with expansion plans rather than wait to see what the Big 11 does.

And here is the really delicate part: Obviously if the SEC wanted to expand, the first phone call would be to Texas. Texas brings that kind of value and more.  But if Texas says no, what are the SEC’s real options?

Do they go to the ACC and take teams from a conference that just expanded? The ACC is currently in negotiations for its new television deals and the proposed numbers from the TV boys are not great. To be perfectly candid, the ACC as a football conference is a little vulnerable right now.

The ACC got hammered in the court of public opinion when it took three teams from the Big East a few years ago. Does the SEC want that kind of PR headache? Of course not. But it may have no choice. Hurting another conference would be bad. Doing nothing could be worse.

Oh, the possible irony.

Last week it was taxes, son’s birthday, assorted other offline stuff and taking a full day in Pittsburgh. This week it has been all Big Ten expansion stuff. As such, there are plenty of links and stories that have accumulated in the tabs.

I hit 40 last year. You do notice the changes. They are subtle and sometimes slow differences, but then at some point you realize you can’t pull off staying up until 1:30 on a Sunday night watching the Blazers-Suns playoff game and get up at 6 am without being absolutely miserable. The body just needs more time for everything — recovery from drinking too much, more sleep to recharge, eat less and exercise more to keep from getting paunchier and paunchier.

Needless to say, I envy Rod Rutherford’s youth. Especially after reading this.

On those two nights a week Erie Storm quarterback Rod Rutherford practices in Edinboro, that alarm clock rings a little louder the following morning.

Rutherford usually completes a four-hour round trip around 1 a.m. in Pittsburgh, and then must be at Pitt at 6 a.m. to work as an assistant for its football team.

“The hardest part is getting up in the morning,” he said grinning. “But once I’m up, I’m good.”

Hard to believe Rutherford is only 29. Seems so long ago that he was a quarterbacking Pitt back in 2003. Now he is a Pitt assistant and moonlighting as a QB in the AIFA. Enjoy it while you can, Rod.

It’s never too early for watchlists for college awards (apparently). Greg Romeus is on the Lott Trophy watchlist.

A week ago the offense was looking sharp and the guys on that side of the ball were feeling confident.

Pitt had swagger on offense, and it has carried over to spring camp 2010.

“It’s real high right now,” redshirt sophomore receiver Cameron Saddler said after practice on Tuesday.

The seeds of Pitt’s offensive swagger and confidence were planted last season, when first-year coordinator Frank Cignetti – with ample assistance from running back Dion Lewis, receiver Jon Baldwin, and tight end Dorin Dickerson – engineered an attack that ranked second in the Big East and 21st nationally in points per game while averaging nearly 400 yards of offense.

“He’s a very confident guy, and he always feels like we can take advantage of the defense,” Saddler said of Cignetti. “All the coaches we’re surrounded with – Coach Turner, Coach Angelichio, and Coach Walker – they’re confident guys, too. So as a unit we’re just confident and the swagger’s really there right now. It really is.”

Then the Blue-Gold scrimmage happened.

The 6,532 fans who braved the elements to attend Pitt’s Blue-Gold spring game on a damp and brisk Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field most likely came away thinking one of two things — either the Panthers’ defense is going to dominate opponents or the Panthers’ offense is not very good.

The good news is there is a lot of time between now and when the season begins for the offense to improve. More important, the lack of explosiveness on offense — it scored only one touchdown — and imagination was by design.

At least that was the storyline from the key players after the 62-24 beat down the Blue team (defense) handed the Gold team (offense, though the offense actually wore white uniforms).

The post-game spin was that the offense was not showing much because it was televised on the NFL Network. The coaching staff wanted to give Utah little to work with in advance of the season opener in September. While it was true that the offense attempted no deep passes, it was very clear that the middle of the O-line needs work.

“The offensive line, particularly the center and two guards, is going to be an ongoing process,” Wannstedt said. “Throughout training camp, throughout the season, I think those guys up front will be playing their best football in December. It is just going to be one of those positions that is going to take some time to bring those guys along.”

Along with the offensive line, tight end is still in flux, but not because there aren’t any candidates. There are plenty of options and each player can do certain things, but only one, redshirt sophomore Mike Cruz, seems able to do it all. So the position will be manned by committee.

Cruz seemed rather solid out there on Saturday. I don’t have nearly the same level of concern for the TE spot as I do, the O-line.

Maybe there is something to the spin that the offense was playing for the basics.

The goals of Pitt’s offense changed in each of the team’s three scrimmages this spring. In the first scrimmage two weeks ago, the offense focused on sustaining drives. Last weekend, the focus was on hitting explosive plays and getting yardage in big chunks.

On Saturday, the Panthers went to work at Heinz Field for the annual Blue-Gold Game, and the offense’s goals appeared to be centered on conservative, low-risk/low-reward play-calling.

It certainly was that.

Let’s face it. This topic is going to dominate college sports for a while.

I have been predicting the Big East’s demise for years. It has lasted longer than I expected (and far exceeded my dire predictions of irrelevance), but it is coming.

Jake Crouthamel, Syracuse’s former athletic director, articulated in a telephone interview Sunday night a dire future for the Big East. Crouthamel, who helped form the Big East as Syracuse’s athletic director from 1978 to 2005, said he did not see the conference’s surviving.

He predicted that Syracuse would be in a different conference within five years and that there would be “utter turmoil” in college sports.

“I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while,” Crouthamel said. “I don’t see a whole lot of alternatives for anyone. You only control what your conference has. You don’t control what the Big Ten or the Pac-10 or the SEC does. What do you do? I don’t know what you do.”

The best chance for the Big East to survive, he said, would be if the Big Ten, with 11 teams, adds only Notre Dame.

That just isn’t going to happen. No matter what your feelings are on ND. No matter if you feel they are being delusional, arrogant, insane. Whatever. It isn’t happening. The students, alum and all forces outside the school are so firmly against it.

The school president, athletic director and even their board could very well know that it has to happen, but that is a long-term issue. If they even tried to make the move it is more likely that they would face such opposition that they would lose their jobs and positions.

Realistically, the problems would hit ND years later. After the present people in power are dead, retired or moved on to another place. So, they have  little incentive to commit career suicide at ND for a future they won’t be a part of.

Maybe the Big East survives with football for a while. Maybe it becomes a slightly better C-USA. But if the Big East was considered the weakest of the BCS conferences before the expansion talk, this isn’t going to be an upgrade.

Now I agree with Sean at TNIAMM to the point that the Big East has done nothing to plan for what everyone knew would eventually happen — that the Big East would be raided once more. To some degree I get what he writes and somewhat agree that BE Commish Marinatto as part of that Providence mafia has been protecting the Friars and other b-ball only schools.

What I will say, is that there was no choice once the Big East stuck with the hideously unwieldly hybrid conference. That created two distinct classes of schools with very different goals and visions. At that point the die was cast and the Big East’s end was already in motion. It has merely been a little slower and different than envisioned.

It is one thing for a conference to exist with “haves” and “have-nots” in football — say a Duke and a Clemson from the ACC. But, they all share in the revenue from football and benefit. Duke may not really care about football, but they support it in the ACC. They see the benefits and actually receive them. It is why they actually had an incentive to try to improve. The same goes for Vandy in the SEC, Baylor in the Big 12, Indiana in the Big 10, and so on.

In the Big East, though, Seton Hall, Georgetown and others get nothing from Rutgers, Syracuse or Pitt improving football and getting bowl and TV money. What do they get from it?

In fact, it works against those school’s individual, competitive interests. The additional and substantial revenue stream gives the football school more money to put into all facilities and the overall athletic department budget.

Both sides (and especially the fans) have increasingly viewed the Big East conference offices as favoring the other side to the detriment of their interests. That perception only fuels the distrust.

So, the fact that the Big East now seems paralyzed, unable and unwilling to do things to move forward is a result of its present 50-50 composition and the decisions made in 2003.

So, no. The Big East can’t and won’t kick out Providence, DePaul, Seton Hall, St. John’s, et al. It can’t make Villanova make the leap to 1-A. It won’t bring back Temple and add UCF, Memphis and ECU in a proactive manner. (As opposed to the predictable reactive manner after the Big 10 comes.)

Nothing to report on the new assistant front.

The end of the season basketball banquet took place. Here’s the list of award recipients:

TEAM AWARDS

Most Valuable Player: Brad Wanamaker, Ashton Gibbs
Most Improved Player: Travon Woodall
Best Defensive Player: Jermaine Dixon, Gary McGhee
Captains Award: Jermaine Dixon, Brad Wanamaker
Team Rebounding Leader: Gary McGhee (6.8 rpg)
Free Throw Shooting Leader: Ashton Gibbs (88.4%)
Most Inspirational Player: Nasir Robinson
Coaches Award: Gilbert Brown, Chase Adams
Academic Excellence Award: Dante Taylor
Jaron Brown Pursuit of Excellence Award: J.J. Richardson

Everyone is still waiting to find out if J.J. Moore will qualify academically for the fall, or if someone (*cough* Dwight Miller *cough*) transfers. Moore, though, was impressive at the Jordan Brand Classic and Adam Zagoria has a story.

“Those guys definitely shined through,” said Mike Kelly, the Suburban Team coach who also coaches at Jersey City (N.J.) St. Peter’s Prep. “Fu does so many things. Fu really played hard and J.J. Moore is an incredible talent. He is an incredible talent. And I’m a Pitt alum so I’m going to be happy with him up at Pittsburgh.”

…

“The biggest development from when he was at Brentwood to this year at South Kent is his ability to score from outside of defenses. He can hit the 3 off the catch consistently. In the past that wasn’t something he could do. He was always athletic. He was always a great transition scorer, he could always get to the basket,” said Tom Konchalski, who has covered New York high school basketball for four decades.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon called Moore “his next Sam Young,” the former Big East star now with the Memphis Grizzlies.

“Wow, that’s pretty incredible,” Kelly said. “He’s got the strength and power that Sam Young has. I think he shoots the ball deeper than Young did. He’s got the body and he’s a great kid.”

Asked how it felt to be compared to an NBA player, Moore said: “It makes me feel confident that I can definitely be able to be in the NBA and play at the next level.”

In other news, Louisville sold the naming rights to their new arena: the KFC Yum! Center. As you can imagine, the Double Down cracks are already in full swing. Nothing like having a randomly inserted, meaningless bit of punctuation tossed in the name.

In what passes for good news/bad news, it looks like CBS will retain the rights to the NCAA Tournament — no matter how bloated it gets.

ESPN has told the NCAA that it will not increase its bid to obtain the NCAA men’s basketball tournament rights, clearing the way for CBS and Turner to share the rights starting next year, according to sources with direct knowledge of the talks.

CBS and Turner have a 14-year deal on the table that is worth more than the $710 million annual fee that CBS would have to pay over the last three years of the existing deal, source said. No deal has been formalized, though, and the NCAA still hopes to reengage ESPN in some way.

The good news is that it means no Dick Vitale calling the games. Always a good thing. Not to mention the continuing presence of Gus Johnson on the NCAA Tournament. It also means that CBS will still give something of a passing care to college basketball once the NFL season is finished.

The bad news is that it means the extra incentive for ESPN to upgrade their ESPNU broadcast center located in North Carolina to HD is lost. To say nothing of the hideous bloat of a 96-team tournament.