Here are some puff pieces and pictures before the liveblog that gets underway at 7pm Eastern.

A good Q&A with Gil Brown as the senior, senior on the team.

Q: At what point during this season did Pittsburgh transition from being a good team to being a great one?

A: “The Tennessee loss [on Dec. 11] is really what set things off for everyone on the team. We let them jump out on us early. They really attacked us. We definitely took that as a learning experience and said that we weren’t going to let that happen again. We have to be ready in the beginning of the game, especially in the Big East and the NCAA tournament. There are a lot of great, competitive teams out there. That’s really what sparked a flame under us. It’s made practice better ever since then.”

Pitt definitely hasn’t let a team jump out on them in the first half since then. Some less than optimal starts, but they’ve kept the opponent from doing much either.

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Not a big surprise that a big recruiting weekend with 12-13 kids visiting would at least yield one or two verbals. Or in this case, three in the fold. Corey Davis on Saturday with Issac Bennett and Darius Patton on Sunday. Two running backs and a wide receiver.

Corey Davis a running back from Texas appears to have been ready to follow coach Graham to the ends of the earth.

The 5-foot-11, 180-pound senior was headed to Tulsa until Graham left to coach the Panthers.

“I was going to Tulsa just because of coach Graham and his coaching crew,” Davis said. “So wherever they were going to go, I was going to go.”

A dozen recruits were at Pitt this weekend for official visits, including several Tulsa recruits. Among them were Isaac Bennett, a running back from Tulsa, Okla., and Keyarris Garrett, a receiver from Daingerfield, Texas.

Bennett said Sunday evening that he planned to call Pitt coaches last night and verbally commit.

“I liked the city,” said Bennett, a 5-11, 190-pound senior who said he chose the Panthers over Tulsa, Arkansas and Louisiana-Monroe. “I was looking for a change of scenery. It’s time to get out of Tulsa, Oklahoma.”

Garrett, a 6-foot-4 receiver, said Sunday he’s still undecided whether to choose Pitt or Tulsa.

As for the rankings on the commits.

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Obviously there will be a liveblog tonight. Big Monday game starting at 7pm. It’s the best crew calling it with Sean McDonough, Bill Raftery and Jay Bilas.

I honestly vacillate with Notre Dame. The Pitt fan in me has fear with this game. Especially after the way Notre Dame beat Pitt twice last year.  The ex-college basketball writer for a now almost-dead site of the past few years feels that Pitt has nothing to worry about and is almost contemptuous of Notre Dame’s chances in a road Big East game.

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Really not a lot to say about the beat down of DePaul. A slow methodical, water torture. A brief glimmer of hope for the Blue Demons in the second half, before Pitt just opened it u. When the headline for Chicago coverage reads, “No. 5 Panthers latest team to rout Demons” it kind of sums things up.

So, there isn’t much to say about the game. Perfunctory stories. Pitt shut down Cleveland Melvin and left the Blue Demons declaring Pitt the most physical team they faced this year.

Ashton Gibbs broke 1000 points in his Pitt career in the game.

Now it is back to the Pete and Big Monday once more. The Irish come calling. Pitt lost twice to them last year, so there is a sense of payback.

You don’t take any game for granted in the Big East. Especially not road games. This team has stunned teams before in the Rosemont Arena. Oliver Purnell employs an uptempo, pressing style that speeds Pitt up, and can get them out of sorts. There’s the risk of a letdown after the emotional Syracuse game. There’s looking ahead to the Big Monday game with ND. There’s oth—

I can’t do it. I’m sure Coach Dixon is all about keeping the team focused. The players know what they have to do. Me, I won’t lie. I’m presuming a win here. Obviously, there is still a liveblog and plenty to watch. I’m just saying, that I really can not conceive a way that Pitt loses this without food poisoning playing a role.

The game starts at 4pm. It airs on ESPN FullCourt, FoxSports Pittsburgh, MASN, MSG, Brighthouse and ESPN3.com.

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Plenty of people e-mailing, tweeting and commenting about Ken Pomeroy deflating some rather lazy analysis from college basketball writers and Pitt’s offense.

Of course, that team was Duke, and we can debate forever whether they were truly the best team in the nation but it’s unreasonable to deny that its offense was one of the most prolific last season.

This season, we appear headed down the same road. To say Pitt’s offense could hinder a tournament run is like saying Kemba Walker’s ability to hit late jump shots will hinder UConn’s chances of success. Sure, eventually Walker will come up empty on a final game-deciding possession, just as someday Pitt’s offense will have a bad game. But that misses the point.

The Panthers’ offense is very similar to Duke’s last season. They make three-point shots, they don’t commit many turnovers, and they get to the free throw line a fair amount. And as the Panthers have done in every season under Jamie Dixon, they also crash the boards relentlessly.

That Pitt’s offense has been so good, even when they have stretches of offensive silence.

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A little bit of tab clearance and related items.

Gary McGhee has slowly earned a lot of respect. Not just from Pitt fans. To some degree, I think Pitt fans can be almost dismissive of the way he developed because it was chalked up to McGhee being 6-10, 6-11 and Coach Jamie Dixon and Pat Sandle having had so much success developing project big men further than any expected.

The day of the Syracuse game, Seth Davis at SI.com made this comment in his notes story.

I’ll say it again: Pitt center Gary McGhee needs more love. He had a team-high 13 points and 10 boards in the Panthers’ win over Seton Hall on Saturday. It’s easy to dismiss McGhee because he seems to do everything in super-slow-motion, but not many teams are that big, strong and experienced at the center position.

Gary Parrish at CBS Sports points out that few “projects” work out, and it has a lot to do with the player as much as the coaching.

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With Signing Day a couple weeks away, lets’ face it. The angst (as such) around Pitt fans is with our own selfish interests. It’s been annoying, frustrating, and yes, understandable at losing a bunch of very good recruits to other programs that have poached the former staff and just re-recruited the kids amidst Pitt’s coaching carousel chaos.

Still, it sucks for a lot of the kids who committed to Dave Wannstedt and Pitt. It has been a complete mess on their end, and what if you aren’t one of the top recruits in the group? Do you stay with Pitt if it is still your best offer as far as conference and name recognition? The scholarship is going to be honored, but are you sure about how you will fit with the new staff, and what they want to do?

This seems to be the dilemma faced by Justin Olack.

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It’s a staple of the media with the coaching carousel. Once the ride stops, snap evaluations are offered for the hires. We all do it. Randy Edsall to Maryland — meh. Will Muschamp to Florida — boom.

I’m sure many remember plenty of raves about Dave Wannstedt when he was hired. How his positive, rah-rah attitude would be perfect in college. How much like Pete Carroll his approach would be (back when everyone was looking to failed NFL coaches to be the next Pete Carroll). How his quick scoring with recruits after being hired showed that he was going to have Pitt humming along. Anyways…

Well, if you think the way Wannstedt was let go, the botching of the first search and fire, and everything else has affected the way Pitt fans are watching the program and athletic department, then you should at least understand how it has colored the perception of hiring Graham.

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Well, now there is only one position coach spot left on Todd Graham’s new staff.

“I make it a priority to hire people who will make me a better coach,” Graham said. “I am extremely pleased with the staff we’ve hired thus far. Not only are they excellent football coaches, they are also tremendous men who are honored to be a part of the University of Pittsburgh.”

Graham still needs to hire one assistant coach and he said it will be a safeties coach.

Mildly surprising that Graham has split safeties from the cornerback. Most of the time you see a position coach listed as “secondary” covering both corners and safeties. Give what safeties have to do these days, though, it does have a logic to it.

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Even before the Cuse-Pitt game ended last night, the usual comments about Pitt were starting. About how Pitt’s regular season play means nothing if they don’t perform in March, or how they don’t perform in March. It was showing up on Twitter and other sites. Typical stuff that happens every year.

If you think this is whining about it, you are mistaken. More of a weary sigh to the repetitiveness. I suppose it is to be expected. Until Pitt actually breaks through to the Final Four, there is going to be this doubt and dismissiveness.

Heck, even when it does happen, the narrative would shift to the fact that Pitt hasn’t won it all (assuming for the sake of argument that when the time comes that Pitt makes the Final Four, they don’t win the whole thing). Think Jim Boeheim and ‘Cuse, Lute Olson at Arizona, Roy Williams during his Kansas tenure. That is just the way these things work.

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Okay, time to get all the stories out there linked and listed.

Pitt is atop the Big East with a 6-0 record. As if a top-5 ranking, preseason pick to win the conference, and being in the top-5 of the conference for Coach Dixon’s tenure didn’t put enough of a target on this team’s back. Not that I’m actually complaining.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Pitt has upperclassmen. UConn thinks that’s crazy because cool programs have nothing but kids turning pro early and a coach that runs off anyone else.

Pitt set a new attendance record of 12,925. Breaking the old record by 5. Incrementally pushing until the fire marshal gets pissed.

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From Stuart Mandel of Sports Illustrated.

And ESPN.com’s Brian Bennett confirms:

The new additions are Todd Dodge as quarterbacks coach, Spencer Leftwich as offensive line coach and Tony Dews as tight ends coach.
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Leftwich has coaches offensive lines for 20 years and worked in that position at Tulsa under Graham. He was also at North Texas from 2007-09.

Dews comes over from Michigan, where he served as Rich Rodriguez’s wide receivers coach. Dews also coached receivers at West Virginia in 2007, and is the fourth member of the staff — including Graham — who had served as a Mountaineers assistant under Graham.

In addition, Graham has installed Shawn Griswold as Pitt’s strength and conditioning coach. Griswold served that role at Tulsa from 2004-10.

That does mean that Buddy Morris is out as Pitt’s Strength & Conditioning Coach. Though, I half expect him to return in another couple years.

UPDATE: Here’s Pitt’s official press release on Graham’s Coaching Staff.

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I’d love to give you a big overarching message about this game. Some heavily symbolic storyline or theme. Really, though, it can be whatever you want. Make it macro, micro.

I don’t think there really is. It was a wild game. It was an absolute rarity in that so much was happening that Dick Vitale was actually forced to stay on point for most of the game. I’d love to be able to go big picture, but you can’t make those declarations at this point in the season. Doubly so in the Big East.

In fact, this piece by Luke Winn may be the best piece on the game.

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I’ll get to the media recap and my thoughts on the game in a post later today. But since I know that will take a little while to compile, just wanted to get this sidebar stuff out.

This was an event. Major media covering it from all sports sites. You had seemingly half the Pittsburgh Steelers show up to watch. Plenty of Pitt football alum like Dorin Dickerson, Nate Byham, Tyler Palko, Bill Stull, CJ Davis and of course Larry Fitzgerald showed up to see this game.

And of course, football HC Todd Graham and a bunch of recruits made an appearance. Presumably they were primarily local recruits. The info is behind the recruiting sites paywalls. I am reasonably sure Desimon Green did go, but the big one is 2012 recruit, Rushel Shell. You have to believe that Graham loved being able to pitch the kids with this game as the atmosphere.

A friend at the game texted me, “Graham took the recruits past the Zoo, then came up in the stands, put on a shirt, and is jumping around w the fans. Most of his coaches just joined in.”

And then someone posted the visual.

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