Holy crap, today is Pitt’s local media day. Tomorrow night is the midnight madness event. The season is looming, and for some, possibly taking on greater importance with the continuing struggles of the football team (and for those who are total Pittsburgh sports loyalists, the NHL lockout, the Pirates, and maybe even the Steelers). Guess it’s time for some links.

Big East schedules — for one final season — evaluated. Pitt, unsurprisingly, gets a low score from ESPN. That’s okay. Pitt fans also gave it a low score.

Toughest: NIT Season Tip-Off (Nov. 12-23)
Next-toughest: Detroit (Dec. 1)
The rest: Mount St. Mary’s (Nov. 9), Fordham (Nov. 12), Oakland (Nov. 17), Howard (Nov. 27), vs. Duquesne (Dec. 5 at Consol Energy Center), North Florida (Dec. 8), Bethune Cookman (Dec. 15), Delaware State (Dec. 19), Kennesaw State (Dec. 23)
Toughness scale: 3 — Yikes. This is a whole lotta meh for the Panthers. The NIT will help. Assuming they beat Fordham and/or Robert Morris or Lehigh (the latter of which won’t be easy), a trip to MSG will likely produce a matchup with Michigan and either Virginia or Kansas State. The rest is pretty grim, but then again so was Pitt last season. It might be not be a bad way to go about the season.

The Lehigh game will be the obstacle. Then it is Michigan under John Beilein. The idea of facing a Beilein team always terrifies me. Simply because you never know if their 3-point shooting will be hot or not. You know they will bomb away. You just don’t know what kind of shooting night it will be.

There was a great wide-ranging story on Steven Adams and his recruitment. Not to mention a girlfriend in Wyoming who will hopefully end up in Pittsburgh soon — any possible reason to stay an extra year, right? The story also discloses that, once again, Jamie Dixon nearly died because of New Zealand basketball.

Dixon took five more trips to Wellington to recruit Adams before he verbally committed to Pitt. One of the trips was in the spring of 2010 after the Final Four. After a 16-hour flight, Dixon suffered a pulmonary embolism, the result of sitting for too long on the flight, and spent a few days in the hospital.

The morning after returning to Pittsburgh, Dixon was having difficulty breathing. Once he arrived at the hospital and told doctors of his itinerary, they made a quick diagnosis and averted a potentially dangerous situation. About 10 percent of pulmonary embolism cases are fatal.

“I kind of kept that quiet,” Dixon said. “Luckily, it was only in my lungs. The really dangerous ones are when they go to the brain.”

Dixon nearly died in New Zealand when playing there after college. Then a health scare because of the flight. I know Dixon likes the place. I know he still has lots of good friends there. But, maybe the universe is trying to tell Coach Dixon something about going back to the island.

A piece on Trey Zeigler being a key part of Pitt for this season. Zeigler for his part, is looking forward to not being a one-man show, and actually having a chance to get some open looks at the basket. While still being able to display some versatility.

“Guys like Brad Wanamaker played the two (guard) and were not only able to score but make plays for other guys, and that’s something I think I can do,” Zeigler said. “Hopefully, that’s the kind of dimension I bring to the team.”

Zeigler attended the North Allegheny school district as a fourth- and fifth-grader when his father was part of Ben Howland’s staff in 2001-03. The former top-30 recruit won’t attract as much attention as he did at the MAC school.

“I’m going to be a lot more open here,” he said. “I have to make sure I’m ready to knock down open shots.”

Zeigler also has length, giving Pitt some more size for perimeter defense. Something that was lacking last year.

Finally, expectations. If you check the previews, you can see the hesitation in that department. Last year was the first time Pitt failed to meet or exceed regular season predictions. This has the previews a little cautious on Pitt. Keeping them out of most preseason top-25s. Putting them anywhere from 5th to 8th in the Big East. This, despite the influx of talent that should provide an immediate impact. And despite the injuries and loss of talent by transfer during the season.

Over at RealGM, there is a lot more optimism for Pitt.

Imagine a veteran coach who has finished in the Top-2 in a BCS conference in four of the last six years. His team is constantly in the Top-25, but struggled last season thanks to a key injury. This year, his team brings in a consensus Top-10 recruit nationally, one of the nation’s top transfers, and as a whole the team has seven former RSCI Top 100 recruits on the roster. Is this a top-25 team?

The team in question is the Pitt Panthers. And after last season’s disappointing 5-13 Big East record, I will understand if you are skeptical. But the numbers suggest that last year was a fluke, and not the beginning of a decline for Pittsburgh.

Very interesting piece with some statistical models on the players. A little more bullish on Dante Taylor then, well, just about anyone. Still he correctly notes that the offense is not the issue. It has been the defense that has been the issue for Pitt. Especially last year.

I haven’t charted Pittsburgh’s defense excessively, but Pittsburgh did have difficulty defending quicker perimeter players last year. As much as Ashton Gibbs brought to the table, his four-year steal rate was exceptionally low. And when Travon Woodall was out, Pitt’s defense was worse. That tells me Pittsburgh lacked a defender to lock down on opposing point guards. With a healthy Woodall and the versatile Zeigler joining the team, Pitt should at least have players with the quickness to keep opposing point guards in front of them. (Getting them to become lock-down defenders is still up to Dixon.)

But the real problem with these perimeter breakdowns was that Pitt didn’t have an intimidating option in the paint to bail the team out. The 6’5” Nasir Robinson was asked to defend opposing forwards in most games, and this year’s team will benefit from the increased size Steven Adams (and a developing Malcolm Gilbert) bring to the team.

In Nas’ first two years starting, he had Brad Wanamaker and Gil Brown, and Jermain Dixon on the perimeter to help a lot more. Guys with size, smarts and just enough quickness and/or athleticism to make things difficult on the perimeter and mask Gibbs’ defensive liabilities. They also were effective at keeping too many slashes to the basket. Something you need when your power forward is undersized and the center doesn’t play good defense.

That was completely missing last year. The guards and perimeter defenders were either undersized (Woodall), not particularly good on defense (Gibbs), not quick enough to consistently keep his man in front of him (Patterson), not particularly smart on defense (Wright), inconsistent effort (Moore), or some combination (Johnnson). Between the additions of new players like Zeigler and Robinson, and another offseason to improve physically and mentally; there should be an expectation that the perimeter defense will be significantly better.