Okay, there’s a bunch of stuff I haven’t linked to from yesterday and today. Still waiting for something else. It’s been a strange few days in the offline world.

Villanova wants to increase the energy at the Pavilion by retiring Randy Foye’s jersey on Saturday morning during the Gameday telecast. There’s an Allan Ray eyeball joke rolling around, but I’m not going near it.

Coach Dixon received his Dapper Dan Sportsman of the Year award earlier in the week. He genuflected nonsensically towards the popular pro teams.

A Pirates fan since he was a child, Dixon credited the Steelers and Penguins with helping inspire him as a coach.

“I thank the Rooneys, I thank [Penguins president] David Morehouse and the Penguins for giving us a great example for what to be like as we try to build our program to be champions like the Steelers and the Penguins,” Dixon said.

Uh, sure.

Speaking of Dixon, come the offseason, there is no doubt any BCS level opening that comes up will have a Jamie Dixon rumor. In particular, NC State. Gary Parrish at CBSSports.com explains why it is not happening there.

Would have gotten to this yesterday, but the stupidity of Villanova alumni wasted my day.  The grouping of articles all about Pitt playing their game even when minor injuries happen. From Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News:

Dixon’s point, though, is that Pitt’s remaining players simply needed to function as they normally do in order for the Panthers to succeed—some would just need to do so for longer periods of time.

“We just had to play the way we play, do the things we do and execute,” Dixon told reporters after the game. “No one really had to do anything different or shoot more 3s or become a different player overnight. They just had to do what we do and play like we play when he is not in the game or in practice.”

That’s why Pitt’s win at West Virginia was such a work of art. Gibbs is the team’s only real 3-point shooter, but no one tried to replace that. Only six of the team’s 59 shots came from long range. Instead, the team worked on back-cutting the Mountaineers, making the extra pass and getting the ball to the rim so the Panthers at least would have a chance at offensive rebounds.

Also the subject of similar stories from the Trib and the P-G — which included the Cinci game where Pitt was without Taylor and Patterson.

The last time Pitt went to the Pavilion, it was a painful 64-63 loss when Pitt was without Levance Fields. The hindsight is interesting to me, because looking back it was amazing Pitt nearly had the game despite no Fields and no Mike Cook on the road. Yet, at the time, it was a sense of great frustration.

The Pavilion is one of those places, because of its size, does not host a lot of Big East games. That’s part of why it has been quite a while since Pitt won there.

No. 4 Pitt has dropped six in a row at Villanova’s tiny on-campus Pavilion dating back to a 77-76 victory March 2, 1993.

Pitt (22-2, 10-1 Big East) will get another chance for an elusive win at one of the few remaining small gyms in the Big East when it plays at No. 9 Villanova (19-5, 7-4) at 9 p.m. Saturday.

“(The fans) are right on top of you,” said Dixon, who is 0-2 at the Pavilion. “It’s smaller than pretty much everybody else in the conference. But it’s between the lines, and that’s what we focus on.”

Because the 25-year-old Pavilion seats only 6,500, or about half the size of Petersen Events Center, Villanova plays the majority of its Big East games at Wells Fargo Center, the home of the NBA’s 76ers. But with the matchup a nationally-televised ESPN College GameDay telecast, the school is using the Pavilion to build the atmosphere of its all-day student presence.

“It’s going to be pretty intense,” said sophomore point guard Travon Woodall, who will make his second consecutive start in place of injured Ashton Gibbs (knee). “We thrive on that.”

Villanova has won 46 consecutive games at the Pavilion and is 9-0 this season with Big East wins over Rutgers, Cincinnati and Marquette. Among the venues used by the 16-team Big East, only St. Johns’ Carnesecca Arena (5,602 capacity) is smaller.

It’s a great advantage, and if not for the unrealized revenue, something I’m guessing Villanova would like to use more frequently. They have to be able to pay for Jay Wright’s suits, afterall.

Aside from Gibbs being extremely unlikely to play (there are rumors that he might be ready), one of the concerns to me in this game is how the Philly kids will play back at home. It can be distracting with all the friends and family. Wanting to give a good show. Will Nasir Robinson, Brad Wanamaker and even Lamar Patterson and Gil Brown (the latter two, grew up 90-120 minutes from Philly and played on AAU teams tied to Philly) stay in control and not try to do too much?

Wanamaker has no problem making it known how much he wants this game.

“Oh, man, do I enjoy it,” said Wanamaker, who’s averaging 12.3 points, second-best on the team, to go with five assists and five rebounds in 29 minutes per. “It’s going to be an unbelievable atmosphere. You want to be part of something like that. And my whole family gets to come watch me. Villanova’s the team I rooted for growing up. It’s the team my family still roots for, except when they’re playing us. It’s always fun to go against the hometown team. It’ll be loud. We’ll try to quiet them down.

“My freshman year, that was the first time I’d played there. Even though we didn’t come out with the win, it was a great experience for a kid from Philly. For me to go back as a senior, for the last time, I really want to make it special. I’ve got 15 people coming, but the list may grow. I’m trying to see if any of my teammates have tickets they’re not using.”

Wanamaker has put a lot on himself. And if he doesn’t play well, a lot of Pitt fans are going to see these comments as evidence that he let himself get distracted. That he was selfish. Just generally in a negative light.

“A lot of people wanted me to stay local,” Wanamaker recalled. “They wanted to cheer for me for another 4 years. But I think coming to Pitt was the best decision for me. It helped me grow up, not only as a player but as a person. I’ve been through a lot, played with a lot of good people. I learned so much.

“So I wouldn’t change anything.”

Actually, just read the whole article. Wanamaker is a player that totally responds to the way Coach Dixon teaches and coaches (“…And the harder you work every day, the less you’re going to hear it from him.”).

Wanamaker also gets a story on his close ties to his old HS teammate, and Nova guard Maalik Wayns.

“I will always look up to him, no matter what our career paths are,” Wayns said. “He did so many great things for me in high school. I learned so much.”

Such as how to be unselfish, and how to put team goals ahead of personal ones. Wanamaker did it all at Roman, and for two years, Wayns watched, and learned. If Roman needed the 6-foot-4 Wanamaker, a natural guard, to play center, he did. If it needed him to guard a center, he did. If it needed him to score, he did.

Villanova coach Jay Wright described Wanamaker as “a classic Philly guard.” Unafraid. Strong. A good ball handler. And tough to keep away from the rim.

“Bradley is a throwback guy, since he’s completely blue-collar,” McNesby said. “He’ll do whatever it takes to win.”

As I said earlier this week, the win at WVU without Gibbs seems to have opened the eyes of pundits a little more on Pitt as a possible team looking at a deep March run.

“When you’re the best team in the Big East, you’ve put yourself in a position to play for a national championship,” Dixon says. “All 15 guys want that.”

Pitt has won three Big East regular-season championships and two league tournament titles since 2001. The Panthers have an overall winning percentage of .799 the last 10 seasons. Only three Division I schools have better percentages: 2008 national champion Kansas, 2010 champ Duke and 2008 national finalist Memphis.

From 2001-10, Pitt reached the Sweet 16 five times and the Elite Eight once, two years ago. Duke, Kansas, Texas, Connecticut and Michigan State also have at least five Sweet 16 appearances in that time. And each has reached the Final Four at least once.

That’s the breakthrough Pitt wants. The school hasn’t been to the Final Four since 1941, when it lost a national semifinal in an eight-team field.

Actually Pitt and Coach Dixon are aiming a little higher than merely a Final Four (Insider Subs).

So, yes, that is quite the Final Four drought, one that Jamie Dixon seems to be tired of hearing about. “Look at the list of schools that have been to the Final Four,” Dixon said this week. “That’s usually not a program-changer. A national championship puts you in a different light.”

That may sound a little defensive, but I happen to think the coach is right. No one is especially awestruck by Butler or West Virginia just because those teams reached the Final Four 10 short months ago. We’d do well to remember that streaks like the one Pitt’s laboring under capture our imagination precisely because they’re so unusual. After all, if Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds had missed that last-second layup against the Panthers in the 2009 Elite Eight, there could well be no streak to talk about right now. Getting to the Final Four is hard, but in any given year the best team in the Big East would figure to have a pretty good shot at reaching that particular destination.

Gasaway does a nice job pointing out that Pitt’s offense is not the problem this year, despite pundits still questioning it. And hitting on Pitt winning without Gibbs, and how good Gary McGhee is on the offensive glass.

Luke Winn in his power rankings also points out how good McGhee has become at getting offensive rebounds.

McGhee is the best offensive-rebounding starter on the country’s best offensive rebounding team because he actively hunts those boards. He’s not just thinking about grabbing them once the shot is coming off the rim; he’s anticipating the mere act of shooting and getting in early position, often while his own defender is still looking away from the basket. From the ESPN telecast of Monday’s game, take a look at where McGhee (circled) was in advance of four of his offensive boards:…

Winn’s Power Rankings are one of the best college basketball weekly features. Not because of his rankings, but the information he supplies on each team.