Today was Pitt’s Basketball Media Day. If you want to see the Jamie Dixon opening presser, here it is.

College basketball officially gets underway at midnight Friday/Saturday. No midnight madness events for Pitt. As the practices loom, it is time for more preseason rankings and previews. Time to hit the links.

NBC’s Mike Miller puts Pitt at #10 in his preseason rankings. So do Jeff Goodman and Gary Parrish at CBSSports.com. The CBS rankings have 4 Big East teams in the top-10. All four happen to be football schools. Go figure.

Former ND player and their current color guy, Jordan Cornette, does an interview to preview the Big East. Not a lot regarding Pitt, until it comes to the issue of toughest place to play.

Going into the Oakland Zoo at Pittsburgh, their fans are nuts. You’re warming up before a game, and they know your little sister’s name, they know your ex-girlfriend from eight years ago, they know your mother’s maiden name. Those Pittsburgh fans are brutal, but they make it a fun environment. And Pittsburgh plays so much better at home then other teams in the country.

And thanks to Jeff Eisenberg for the link for Twitter.

Who will be first off the bench at the guard spot?

Word out of Pittsburgh is that red shirt wing Cameron Wright has separated himself as the third guard in the Panthers rotation behind Travon Woodall and Ashton Gibbs. Despite a penchant for always having a tight rotation, Pitt coach Jamie Dixon may have the option to explore stretching his rotation to nine or ten this season.

Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News poses a question that some Pitt fans ask.

8. Will Pitt be a young team … or will it be Pitt? The Panthers became Big East powers by staying forever old. They always have seniors, veterans, guys who’ve been around. Even the biggest-name recruits, such as center Dante Taylor, have had to learn the system to crack the lineup.

There are three starting jobs vacant, though, and such talents as freshman power forward Khem Birch — a top-10 prospect — to fight for jobs. Interestingly, Birch, listed at 6-9 and 220 pounds, is neither experienced nor especially physical. How many minutes will he win away from undersized Nasir Robinson?

There will be opportunities for the youth. As always, be ready to play defense.

Gee, I wonder what other question others will be asking about Pitt in the preseason? Didn’t see this coming.

2. Will Pittsburgh finally make a Final Four?

For a program that has achieved the most success in the nation’s toughest conference the past few seasons, Pittsburgh still can’t seem to parlay those great regular seasons into a long-overdue Final Four appearance. The Panthers have exited the NCAA tournament with three straight losses by three points or fewer, none more painful than last year’s loss to Butler in the Round of 32 after Nasir Robinson fouled Matt Howard in a tie game with less than a second to go.

It’s difficult to have faith that Pittsburgh will play in a Final Four until it happens, but the Panthers once again have the talent to contend in the Big East and earn another high seed in March. Despite the departures of starters Brad Wanamaker, Gilbert Brown and Gary McGhee, Pittsburgh returns sweet-shooting All-American candidate Ashton Gibbs and a nice collection of role players who have gained valuable experience the past two years.

In the backcourt, efficient junior Tray Woodall should be at point guard and either J.J. Moore or Lamar Patterson will start at wing, with Moore the most likely candidate since he’s the superior scorer of the two. And in the frontcourt, the undersized but scrappy Robinson is a returning starter at power forward and former McDonald’s All-American Dante Taylor hopes to follow in the footsteps of McGhee and Aaron Gray as quality Pittsburgh big men who didn’t blossom until their junior years.

And here.

3. Has Pittsburgh recovered from its latest snakebite?

I’m not sure the average college basketball fan — or even the die-hard fan — is totally aware of the record Jamie Dixon has assembled. Over the last decade he has coached Pitt to eight straight NCAA tournaments, earned two number one seeds, won three Big East titles and accrued the highest win percentage (.708) in league games of any coach in Big East history.

Yet, as Dixon is no doubt tired of hearing, this program has still never made it to the Final Four, and it is finding ever more creative ways to keep from getting there. In 2009, the Panthers reached the Elite Eight for the first time, only to lose on a last-second mad dash by Villanova guard Scotty Reynolds. When last year’s tournament ended in the second round with that bizarre foul fest against Butler, it marked the third consecutive season that Pitt lost a game in the tournament by three points or fewer. You’ve heard of Team Heartbreak? This is Team Snakebite.

Is this the year Pitt finally is the biter instead of the bite-ee? Well … why not? They’re a much more likely candidate to win an NCAA title than UConn appeared to be entering last season. We usually think of the Panthers as a bunch of underrecruited overachievers, but this season the team will be anchored inside by two former McDonald’s All Americans in 6-9 junior Dante Taylor and 6-9 freshman Khem Birch, who is arguably the best player Dixon has ever recruited. Throw in a veteran backcourt led by Ashton Gibbs and Travon Woodall and Pitt looks like a Final Four team — again. All they need is a little more snake oil.

It will happen. I just don’t know when.

Luke Winn continues his rankings and puts Ashton Gibbs at the top of the list for “Best Shooters.”

They fixed it on the front page of the SI.com basketball section, but this was how it looked earlier this morning.