Basketball season is getting much closer. One exhibition down. One more on Sunday. The season starts next Friday.

From playing in Greece to Cyprus to Israel to Canton? Interesting travelog for Tyrell Biggs, the 15th overall selection in the NBA D-League draft by the Canton Charge.

Biggs wore thick, black-rimmed glasses Thursday, looking like an imposing Steve Urkel. But there is nothing Urkel about his game.

The broad-shouldered Biggs can play the 3 or 4 position and is not shy about contact. He’s got range out to 20 feet, a back-to-the-basket repertoire, long arms and a good feel for the overall game.

Jensen loves the fact that Biggs played at Pitt for head coach Jamie Dixon and went through Big East battles.

“I always talk about my mindset being the same as the Cavaliers,” [Charge Head Coach Alex] Jensen said, referring to the organization’s emphasis on defense. “Tyrell is the same way, playing for Coach Dixon, one of the most successful college coaches in the last decade.

“So when he comes in, he already has that mindset and understands it.”

Best of luck to Biggs, and when the NBA returns I hope he can find  a spot.

So, let’s run through some preseason rankings. Starting with the highest one. Ken Pomeroy has his preseason Pomeroy ratings with Pitt at Number 7.

Luke Winn debuts his preseason power rankings, with Pitt at No. 8. He takes the space to remind Ashton Gibbs, that what he does best is shoot.

Gibbs has talked about wanting to play some pure point this season, but he had the lowest assist-to-field-goal-attempt ratio (0.24) of any guard on that grid. Brad Wanamaker (0.59 A/FGA ratio) and Woodall (0.64) were the Panthers’ playmakers last season, and Gibbs was incredibly efficient working off the ball. He wants to showcase an expanded set of guard skills for the NBA, after declaring and then pulling out of the 2011 Draft, but a realist would have to classify Gibbs as the country’s best shooter who occasionally records an assist. It may not be the title he wants, but it’s not such a bad thing to be.

Ray Meargh at NBE Basketball makes a similar point when talking about Pitt (and Gibbs) this year (read the whole thing, it is well worth it). That is a bit of a concern going into the season. That Gibbs will worry about showing he can be a ball handler. Not getting into the flow where he can make shots; or since he is trying to initiate the offense, not getting a chance to get a screen set for him to get his shot. I trust Coach Dixon and Gibbs, though, to do what is best to help the team win (subject to revision later if I’m wrong).

Ashton Gibbs looks incredible so far. He’s the best returning shooter in the country and has done it at the highest level in college. He’ll show other aspects of his game, but contrary to the popular opinion out there, the thing that will make him a pro is his ability to catch and hit open shots. I keep reading how he needs to show the ability to play off the dribble and find people and get in the lane and blah blah blah blah blah.

Anybody ever hear of a guy named Steve Kerr?

John Paxson?

Craig Hodges?

I’m not saying Gibbs isn’t capable of doing other things but I am saying he does one thing better than almost anyone else. And that, and that alone, will make him either a really good salary for as long as he wants to live the life in Europe or an enormous salary in the NBA. All that other crap won’t matter. Put him in a camp in front of a Pop or a Doc or a Spo and if he hits shots the way he’s capable of he’ll stick. If he doesn’t he’ll make a lot of cash in Europe and replace Doug Gottlieb on ESPN in ten years. Either way, Pitt has him this year.

And with the young kids and returners around him, Pitt has a chance to be very dangerous.

Any chance he can replace Gottlieb on ESPN after this year? Please?

Preseason AP Poll has Pitt at Number 10. The ESPN.com rankings say 11.

Pitt will be a work in progress this season, but there’s no reason to doubt this program’s ability to be a contender. This team will defend well — we know that much. Ashton Gibbs will be as productive a lead guard as any other in the country. That’s a given. And once healthy, Nasir Robinson can be a finisher inside. The freshman class is, perhaps, Jamie Dixon’s best with Isaiah Epps, Khem Birch and Malcolm Gilbert all capable of major contributions. At this point, Pitt simply doesn’t have down seasons. Expect that trend to continue.

When it comes to where Pitt is ranked in the conference, it seems that UConn and Syracuse are constantly 1 and 2. The questions start at spots 3 and down. Pitt or Louisville seem to be interchangeable at 3 and 4. CBSsports.com’s Jeff Goodman pegs Pitt at 3, and SI.com’s Seth Davis agrees.

3. Pittsburgh

Is this the season the Panthers finally break through and make their first Final Four? Could be, thanks mostly to Gibbs’ decision to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft. Dante Taylor, a 6-9 junior forward, has been a bit of a disappointment thus far, but he could be headed for a breakout season. The presence of 6-9 freshman Khem Birch, who is arguably the best player Jamie Dixon has ever recruited, will help immensely.

Gibbs is giving the leadership role a try. Well, the vocal leader role. He’s always been one to lead by example.

Gibbs agrees. He’s been around the program long enough to know what’s expected from team leaders. Just in case he needed extra motivation, former Connecticut star Kemba Walker provided the blueprint of how far a team can go if it’s led the right way.

“I’m not saying I’m Kemba, he’s a great player,” Gibbs said. “But you see us in similar situations. He was on a young team and this is a young team. I know we’ve got talented guys and I know we can be great.”

It will be up to Gibbs to provide the spark. Though there’s little doubt he’ll be the player Dixon turns to when things get tight late, he’ll also attempt to become more of a facilitator for his teammates.

“For Ashton, from his junior to senior year, I think he’s going to take another step forward,” Dixon said. “He’s been a good defender, but we think he can play even better. We’ve asked a lot of him, and he can’t do it all. But he does a lot.”

Should be an interesting ride this season.

Basketball related stuff to expansiopocolypse. One issue with the move of Pitt and Syracuse (among others) is the effect on the tournaments that take place during the non-con. There’s already been some shuffling.

…Duke and Pitt were supposed to be in the 2015 2K Sports Classic benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project. But the Gazelle Group, the organizer of the event, moved Pitt to the 2016 event. Syracuse and North Carolina were in the Battle 4 Atlantis in 2014 but Syracuse has moved to the 2015 event so as not to play its new ACC competitor. The Orange then moved to the 2K Sports Classic in 2014. If Pitt is in the ACC in 2012 than it could be playing league member Virginia in the NIT Season Tip-Off since both are in the event. If West Virginia gets in the Big 12 for 2012 then it could have a problem being in the Old Spice Classic with league member Oklahoma. The easy solution is to simply put the league teams on opposite sides of the bracket.

2. The expanded conferences will put even more of a premium on getting into the more exclusive fields. If Duke and North Carolina choose to pursue playing in the Maui Invitational on a four-year rotation then the remaining 12 schools would all be jockeying for only two spots in a four-year cycle. If the ACC were to go to 16 at some point then the odds get even slimmer. Lower level Big East schools have had this problem of wedging out the powers for the elite tournaments. The NCAA doesn’t allow teams from the same league to be in these tournaments unless they are grandfathered in from a previous conference. But the schools don’t want to be in the same event in the oft-chance they would play each other possibly three times in a season if they play twice in conference.

The 2012 stuff doesn’t look like much of an issue now, but this will be an ongoing source of frustration. As we can see from the number of years out the bigger tournaments project teams, it is apparent why it took a few extra years for Pitt to start getting into the bigger non-con tournaments. Pitt was part of the Big East underclass for the 90s.

The NCAA approved some new recruiting changes. Coach Jamie Dixon spoke to CBS Sports about some of the changes, which also include unlimited texting to recruits.

…the NCAA Board of Directors adopted a new recruiting modelfor men’s basketball, changing or adjusting six major rules. More importantly, the rules will go into effect within the next several months, meaning we won’t have to wait two or three years for the changes – like most of the NCAA’s changes.

The two biggest changes, according to most people, are the deregulation of contact between coaches and recruits, and the fact official visits can now begin January 1 of a prospect’s junior year. Other major adjustments included opening up April for two weekends to coaches, while trimming July into three four-day periods. On-campus evaluations during official visits and contact at a recruit’s high school during their junior year are also permitted under the new model.

Not surprisingly, he is mostly happy with them if for no other reason that it removes some gray areas.

Official visits can begin January 1 of a recruit’s junior year, with travel expenses for the recruit and his family being paid for by the school

Dixon: “The influence of third-party people was magnified by unofficial visits. From the end of the high school season to visits were a six-month period where it was all the paying for scouting services, paying for exhibition games, paying for campers – all based around trying to get kids to their campus. Now you can bring both parents. We were empowering the middleman. I had hoped the official visits would start in April. We wouldn’t want one of our players to visit NBA teams during our season.”

…

On-campus evaluations during official visits will be permitted

Dixon: “It takes out another rule that was very hard to monitor. It’s almost ridiculous. My office overlooks the floor, so we had three different types of shades put in. There was a push to have actual tryouts, and I was really against it. I thought that would be bad press.”

…

Some contact at a recruit’s high school will be permitted beginning during a prospect’s junior year

Dixon: “It’s a sign of things, of where they are now. Kids are committing during their junior years often times, and so now you’re going to be starting with contact their junior year. The monitoring of it was a gray area. What one school considered a casual greeting, another considered a 20-minute sit-down.”

The early official visits should be very beneficial for Pitt. Nothing like getting recruits to the Pete during conference play. The atmosphere is a big selling point.

Finally back to Ashton Gibbs one last time. He has been named one of the 30 candidates in the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award.

The Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award honors the one senior college basketball player who displays numerous accomplishments across four specific areas: classroom, community, character and competition.

From the list of 30 candidates, 10 finalists will be selected midway through the regular season by a national media committee. At that time, the finalists will be placed onto the official ballot which will be distributed through a nationwide voting system. Fan balloting and media selections will determine the recipient of the award.

Pitt’s Sam Young (2009) and Aaron Gray (2007) were both named finalists during their respective senior seasons.

Vote early and often.