Can you believe that there is no Pitt football this Saturday, but basketball instead? It’s true. The first of a couple exhibition games tip-off this Saturday at 4pm.

The fighting LaRoche Redhawks will make the arduous 12.5 mile trip to the Pete. The defending Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) champs will look to show everyone that just because they are D-III, they are more than exhibition patsies.

Anyone buying it? No. Good. I’ll just shift to some general basketball stuff for Pitt.

In his first season at Pitt there was a vocal minority declaring Dante Taylor a bust. Why? I counted three basic reasons. The first was that he wasn’t DeJuan Blair. An outlying freak who was able to be a big impact player as a freshman. The second, he was a McDonald’s All-American. Pitt hadn’t had one of those in a couple decades. Any McDonald’s All-American is immediately assumed to be a potential NBA star, and headed there early. Third, his recruiting class included two one-and-done big men in DeMarcus Cousins and Derrick Favors. Sure they were the top-top five players nationally and Taylor was somewhere in the teens. When you just ranked big men, they weren’t that far apart.

Luke Winn at SI.com helped debunk some of the hyperbole with some useful data, and an actual comparison of other top-ranked big men of the 2009 class in their freshman year also debunked some of the idiocy. I listed 14 top big men (PFs and Cs). All but four of them (Cousins, Favors, Daniel Orton and Tiny Gallon) are still playing college ball in their junior year.

And almost all of these remaining junior big men are expected to be major parts of their team this season. Dante Taylor is no exception.

After being bothered by tendinitis in his knees during the second half of last season, a new-look Taylor dropped 15 pounds during the summer. The reduced weight has increased his mobility and stamina, while lifting his confidence.

“You’re going to see a more explosive me,” Taylor promised. “I’m in better shape. My knees are good. Last year toward the end of the season, my knees were hurting. It hindered me from doing a lot of stuff on the court.

“I got a lot better with my back to the basket over the summer. You’re going to see a lot of post-up, a lot of face-up stuff. Shoot a mid-range jump shot on the baseline. Coach wants me to start doing that more.”

…

“Getting two years under my belt is good. I definitely can see myself stepping in right away,” said Taylor, who was second on the team in blocks as a freshman despite limited playing time. “There’s things that you were able to do in high school you’re not going to be able to do in college. The guys here are stronger, faster. They watch film so they know how to play defense on you.”

Coach Dixon is expecting it, and fits it to a consistent narrative of Pitt big men emerging in their junior year.

“I think he’s ready to take a step,” Dixon said. “He’ll get an opportunity for more minutes because of Gary’s graduation. He’s improved his mid-range jump shot. It’s a quicker release. His arc is a little bit better. He’ll get his points on offensive rebounds, running the floor. On the offensive end, I think he’s shown some improvement. He just has to stay healthy and continue to improve. I’m excited about what he’s done and where he is right now.”

What Taylor has done really well, and what bodes well for significant improvement, has been offensive rebounding. Even as a back-up and less minutes he has been very good at offensive rebounds. Last year, he had 70 offensive rebounds — second on the team — while averaging only 15 minutes per game. I think there is plenty of reason for optimism with Taylor this season.

This was a really nice story on Travon Woodall helping out amidst the floods that hit his hometown in Paterson, NJ.

Nasir Robinson is progressing well from his knee surgery and will back sooner than expected. Coach Dixon, though, still doesn’t know who the third guard will be.

Or maybe it’s because he’s still waiting for a third guard to emerge from a group that consists of redshirt freshmen Cameron Wright and Isaiah Epps – as well as true freshman John Johnson.

“No one has stepped forward yet,” Dixon said.

Speaking of the guards, here’s a piece on Epps and Wright competing and wanting to be the third guard.

During this year’s media day, Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon said he believed Wright picked up plenty from his redshirt season. There is a definite difference between redshirt freshmen and true freshmen during the first few weeks of practice, he added.

“I think Cameron is ready to go,” Dixon said. “He as healthy, Isaiah had some injuries. I think Cameron is going to be a guy who is going to be able to give us some good minutes and Isaiah is playing well, too, so we’ll see.”

Wright scoured four points and dished out five assists in 25 minutes during this year’s Blue-Gold scrimmage.

“It was different,” Wright said of the scrimmage. “I know I did it last year, but this year it was different for me because I feel like it’s a stepping stool for me and I’m actually able to play this year.”

As for Epps, he said he knows plenty of fans forgot about him because he didn’t see the floor last year. But this season, he said wants to prove that he’s ready to play by putting display what he learned from the graduated seniors as well as current guards Ashton Gibbs and Travon Woodall.

The most important lesson he learned? The importance of defense.

“I didn’t know that defense is so serious in the Big East,” Epps said. “Defense is first before everything with Coach Dixon.”

Yeah, I’m not sure how you can’t know that defense is serious in the Big East either. Unless you only watch Providence and DePaul.

I have no idea how it shakes out with these two. I don’t think the rotation in the front or back court will be settled for a few weeks.

The one spot that remains the big question mark is who actually runs the point.

Here’s a solid preview of Pitt from Ballin’ Is a Habit.

The Panther’s philosophy is simple. There is nothing flashy about this group. They play a tough, physical and disciplined brand of defense. They don’t gamble for steals or force many turnovers, they simply force you to work the shot clock and take a difficult shot, cleaning the defensive glass. Offensively, they execute their sets and attack the glass as hard as any team in the country. It works. Pitt doesn’t have egos on their roster. They simply have a group of hard-working kids that buy into the program that Jamie Dixon is selling. The Big East is once again going to be loaded at the top, but the Panthers should battle with UConn, Syracuse and Louisville for the Big East title.

The talent on the team keeps rising, but the hard-working part remains.