This may be a fruitless effort to turn to basketball and hope that somehow the comment thread at least stays on this sport. Don’t worry, there will be plenty more coaching carousel posts. Breathlessly posting every possible rumor or puff of smoke from the AD’s office is best done on Twitter.

For those able to go or watch on their computer, Pitt did what they were supposed to do against Delaware State last night. Just beat the crap out of them and give lots of minutes to everyone. Even Coach Dixon saw little reason to complain in cruising to a 70-42 win.

“This was a good all-around performance against a team we knew would be very patient and rely on penetration from their guards,” Dixon said. “We anticipated they’re going to be the best team in (the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference), and they traditionally have been the best team in their conference. We did a good job rebounding and defending, for the most part. It’s been a good stretch for us the last couple games.”

Ten players had double-digit minutes. The high was 24 minutes for Travon Woodall.

Dante Taylor and J.J. Moore both had very good games. Dixon praised them both, but took special care to mention that Moore is coming along on defense.

“He was around the ball,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “He’s doing a good job of finishing around the basket and making free throws. It’s great to see his development. He knows and feels like he’s playing better and feels more comfortable out there.”
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Taylor wasn’t the only young player to have to play well Wednesday night. Freshman forward Jonathan Moore scored 10 points, the third time he has scored in double figures this season. Moore’s minutes have been limited as he learns to play defense at this level, but Dixon said his commitment to honing his defensive skills is one of his strengths.

“He’s getting better,” Dixon said. “He works hard and plays hard. He really cares. That’s a big step for a guy and his ability to improve. He’s doing a good job in that area. I think he’s doing a good job understanding what we’re trying to do. He brings a good energy and intensity and physicality to it.”

A not-so-subtle reminder to Moore that he will get the minutes when he puts the defensive effort first. Not look to just score. That more than anything has limited his minutes in games. When he would come in and just jack a shot right away. Not going to get minutes that way.

Luke Winn at SI.com has his power rankings. Pitt is holding steady at #3. This week he focuses on how well the entire team is at getting offensive rebounds. As opposed to just one player doing all the work.

Seth Davis at SI.com gets a question about Pitt making the Final Four this year, and their lack of national pub.

This is a timely question, because it has occurred to me lately that even though the Panthers are ranked third in both polls, were picked to win the Big East and have been one of the most successful programs over the past decade, they don’t seem to be generating much buzz. Ask any random fan or expert who they think is going to the Final Four, and my guess is you’ll get disproportionally more people picking No. 1 Duke and No. 2 Ohio State while leaving out Pitt. And as Steven pointed out, even teams ranked below the Panthers — Michigan State, Kentucky, Kansas, Kansas State and UConn come to mind — have produced a lot more “chatter” during the first six weeks of the season.

Why is this the case? Well, in the first place, Pitt has not played the most glamorous nonconference schedule. The Panthers’ best wins came in Madison Square Garden over Maryland and Texas, but they didn’t exactly look like worldbeaters, winning by nine and two points, respectively. Pitt will be on center stage this weekend when it faces No. 11 Tennessee at home (at the off-campus Consol Energy Center), but usually people start locking in on this team after Big East play begins.

Second, let’s face it — this is not the sexiest team to watch. Pitt is usually at the top of the national rankings in offensive efficiency and near the top of the Big East rankings in scoring, but even at their best the Panthers are typically one of the slowest teams in the country. Over the last five years, they have ranked an average of 256th nationally in tempo. They are currently 259th, even while they are scoring nearly 83 points per game.

Third, as indicated by Steven’s allusions to Sullinger and Selby, there are few things that generate buzz more than high-profile freshmen. Pitt doesn’t have any. The only McDonald’s All-American on the roster is sophomore forward Dante Taylor, and he is averaging 15 minutes a game off the bench. This is also a measure of the lack of respect this program gets, because the people who select players for the big all-star games tend to favor the ones who have signed with the big-name schools.

The fourth reason is the most obvious. As good as Pitt has been in the recent past, the Panther have never made the Final Four, much less won a national championship. Until Pitt breaks through at the end of March, fans will not reflexively think about it as being one of the truly elite programs in America, even though it clearly is.

So then, to Steven’s question. Is this the year Pittsburgh finally makes the Final Four? Hard to say for sure, but at the risk of feeling like Charlie Brown getting ready to kick Lucy’s football, here are my (final) four reasons why I like the Panthers’ chances:

1. They’re old. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon laughed when I said this to him on the phone earlier this week. “It’s funny how we went from being the youngest team in America [last year] to now we’re old. There’s no in between with you guys,” he said. He has a point, but that’s how fast things change in college basketball. The Panthers returned seven of their top eight scorers from last year’s 25-9 squad. If you count junior forward Nasir Robinson as a starter — he is coming off the bench because of an injury, but he plays starter’s minutes and is fifth on the team in scoring — then that means Pitt has two juniors and three seniors in its starting lineup.

You know who also had three seniors and two juniors in the starting lineup last season? Duke, that’s who.

2. They’re tough. This has become such a staple of this program that some of Dixon’s softer teams have been called tough purely based on reputation. “I think it comes from being in Pittsburgh. It just fits the stereotype,” he said. It also fits this team, which may be the best rebounding unit Dixon has ever had. Through their first nine games, the Panthers lead the nation in rebound margin (+16.0) and offensive rebound percentage (48.5). Though Dixon said they need to tighten up their defense, they are still a respectable 25th in defensive efficiency.

3. They’re deep. Maybe if Dixon didn’t play so many guys, he wouldn’t feel like his team was so young. This is the deepest team he has had during his eight-year tenure. Pitt has a 11-man rotation, with nine players averaging at least nine minutes and five points per game. Eventually I believe Dixon will have to shorten his bench, but it’s good to have lots of options at his disposal, especially in case of an injury.

4. They’re due. I could prattle on about how highly I think of Pitt’s interchangeable backcourt duo of Ashton Gibbs and Brad Wanamaker (combined stats: 31.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, 8.8 assists), or the fact that they’re one of the few teams in the country that can throw the ball into the post (6-foot-10 senior Gary McGhee and 6-9 freshman Talib Zanna won’t remind anyone of Tim Duncan and David Robinson, but at least they can establish position, catch the ball and force the defense to adjust). But this program has had good players before. In fact, a few of Dixon’s past teams probably had more talent than this one does.

Very few programs, however, have been as good as Pittsburgh this past decade. Only Duke and Kansas have more Sweet 16 appearances during the last eight years than Pitt’s five. Over the last nine years, the Panthers have led the Big East in overall win percentage (.790), league win percentage (.727) and consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. Yet, the 2009 team was the first to reach the Elite Eight since 1974, and only a Scottie Reynolds mad dash prevented them from their long-awaited breakthrough. The fact that Pitt has restocked itself just two years later should tell you all you need to know about the job Dixon is doing in Steeltown.

So I asked the coach point blank: Is this your year? “Every year is our year,” he replied. “You just have to keep knocking at the door and giving yourself a chance.”

Pittsburgh has a very good chance to make the Final Four. But even if it doesn’t happen, the Panthers will be right back in the hunt next year. If you’re a fan like Steven, that’s really all you can ask for.

Have to stick with SI.com a bit longer. Everyone is so eager to want to see the freshmen with any hype and potential play right away. And if they don’t dominate immediately there can be a reflexive urge to declare them a bust or overrated. Saw it last year with Dante Taylor — despite the fact that he was fairly typical for most freshmen frontcourt players rated where he was. People got hung up on the McDonald’s All-American bit, and how DeJuan Blair dominated from the start.

This year Luke Winn is doing a little something called the “Freshman Realism Project.” Trying to quantify the realistic expectations from the start of the season. The other reason to bring this up is that Tennessee has one of those freshmen who has been impressive. Tobias Harris.

Is there any common link between the freshmen that do exceed expectations, though? Not statistically; they come from such varied high school settings that it would be difficult to project anything based on prep numbers. I believe the formula for early success is based on something more nebulous: the concept of fit. Meaning: Did the player, during the recruiting process, choose a school with a system that best fit his style of play — and a personnel situation that allowed him to thrive immediately? And did the college coach correctly identify which recruits would fit the system and fit into the framework of the existing roster?

Which is a pretty good reason why DeJuan Blair was so effective immediately at Pitt. Pitt’s system fit Blair. An emphasis on rebounding, especially offensive rebounding played to Blair’s strengths and made him that much more impressive looking.

Harris happens to fit the Vols system under Bruce Pearl exceptionally well.

The best 2010-11 case study in Freshmen Who Fit is Tobias Harris, the starting power forward for 6-0 Tennessee. He’s averaging 16.7 points and 5.8 rebounds for the Vols while playing a team-high 26.8 minutes per game. He’s 6-foot-8 and 226 pounds, but rather than being relegated only to the block, he’s being used in a versatile point-forward role: as a press-break ballhandler when Tennessee’s guards are being hounded; a perimeter playmaker who’s drawing a team-high 7.2 fouls per 40 minutes against mismatched opposing bigs; an occasional three-point shooter (he’s 6-of-8 on the season); and a low-post operator who has a wide array of offensive moves.
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It’s no fluke that Harris, a former five-star prospect, is working out well for the Vols. Coach Bruce Pearl envisioned Harris filling the point-forward spot that Tyler Smith once had in the team’s Flex Offense; and Harris and his father, Torrel, targeted Tennessee because of what they saw on film of ex-Vols such as Smith and Dane Bradshaw. “One of the main things my dad and I did in the recruiting process,” Tobias said, “was look specifically at what schools let their 4 men create, and let them play in a way that fit my game.”

Really solid read about being smart on the player side about picking a school that fits.

Oh, and it looks like Tennessee will be adding some talented depth just in time for Saturday.

UT sophomore power forward Jeronne Maymon said he’ll be eligible to play in Saturday’s game at No. 3-ranked Pittsburgh (9-0).

“All my grades are in; just need one to get posted on the main (web) site,” the 6-foot-7, 258-pound Maymon said following Wednesday’s practice. “It’s exciting, but I’m also a little nervous about playing in the game.”

Maymon took and says he passed five classes in the fall semester; the final grade he’s waiting to get posted and make his eligibility official is a bowling class that ended in October.

“Maymon brings even more defense and toughness,” UT senior post Brian Williams said. “We’re bringing another dimension into the mix; from a team standpoint, something we needed.”

Maymon had transferred to Tennessee from Marquette. He had been a 4-star recruit and Rivals.com had him as the #7 power forward and 47th best player overall.

Tennessee has one thing in common with Pitt this year. They are not a great free throw shooting team.