Fair and balanced came to mind when I took a look at Pitt’s home-away split and the home-and-homes.

Obviously WVU is one of the home-and-homes. In addition Pitt has a home-and-home with Villanova. Not a surprise since Pitt and ‘Nova are the really early picks to win the conference this coming season. The third is USF. Not a cupcake, but not a complete toss-up either. Dominique Jones is gone, so it will be interesting to see what JUCOs Stan Heath can develop this year.

HOME: Cinci, UConn, Syracuse, Seton Hall, Marquette, Notre Dame

AWAY: Rutgers, Louisville, St. John’s, Georgetown, Providence

HOME-AND-HOME: WVU, Villanova, USF

Eyeballing that, the toughest road games will be Louisville and Georgetown. I think St. John’s could be a lot tougher under their new coach. The Johnnies have a lot of veteran talent going for their final chance.

It’s kind of hard to be exactly sure who got the hardest or easiest schedule at this point. If you assume that Pitt, ‘Nova, Syracuse and Georgetown will be the top teams. Plus WVU, Marquette, UConn, ND and Louisville will all be in the mix, it isn’t easy to really give any team a true cupcake schedule.

A lot will depend on which teams beat expectations and which flop. The wildcard teams (teams that could be surprisingly good or disappointing) appear to be Seton Hall, St. John’s, Cinci and USF.

Based on home-and-homes I would guess USF caught the biggest break. While they have Pitt, they also have Providence and DePaul on the home-and-home.

Georgetown could well end up with the easiest schedule depending on the wildcards. Somehow they ended up with St. John’s and Cinci as home-and-homes — along with Syracuse. Plus they get WVU, Louisville, Marquette and Pitt at home. They do have road games at UConn, ND and ‘Nova

I think Marquette and Louisville seem to have the toughest roads. They have home-and-homes with UConn. Louisville does get Providence twice but also WVU. They also have road games at ND, Georgetown and ‘Nova.

Marquette has UConn along with ND and the possibly dangerous Seton Hall in the home-and-home. Their road schedule has G-town, Louisville, Pitt and ‘Nova.

Syracuse also has a good case for tough schedule. Home-and-homes with Seton Hall, G-town and ‘Nova. They also have to go to UConn, Louisville, Marquette and Pitt. Plus St. John’s and USF are on the road.

The value of summer league games always comes up for debate. To some it is little more than a bunch of glorified pick-up games. To others it is deep insights into the players and team.

Will it be as important to the team as the trip to Ireland and the 10 practices as a team under the watchful eyes of the coaches this summer? Not a chance.

From the perspective of continuing to generate fan interest and build team chemistry, I think the summer league is a fantastic thing. Extra bonus this year is the fact that former players like Levance Fields and Aaron Gray are showing up.

More than any other time in Pitt’s basketball history, there is sustained excellence, continuity and a connection between the past players and the present  just not seen before.

I do find it amusing/odd/annoying that there is more easily available (i.e., free) and consumable material on the summer league via the Pitt News, Pitt Script and Pantherlair.com than there was over football spring practice — even with beat writers supposedly covering that.

So, here are the Wednesday reports from Bryan at Pitt Script and Pantherlair.

Things I am taking from the reports to this point.

Zanna appears to be making real progress and may well turn out to have the value recruiting sites put on him despite being a project.

Ashton Gibbs appears to be even more confident in himself. Not in an egotistical way, but knowing he can make shots and score.

There will be inconsistent play, but the best thing to see is which players are consistent with their performance and effort each night.