…What about recruiting?

Another recruiting weekend came and went. They took in a basketball game.

Pitt football coach Paul Chryst took in the game along with 13 recruits and got a standing ovation from the crowd when he was shown on the video board.

Here’s a list of about half of the attending recruits. Ooohhhh. Some offensive linemen. Need. Depth. Need. Talent.

Coach Chryst also spoke with the announcing crew during the game. Reaching tens of people not fans of Pitt on ESPN3.com. The interview was fine, notable for managing to go entirely without a single mention of Wisconsin.

Among those attending, Clairton WR Tyler Boyd — who just happened to cancel his official visit to West Virginia on the same weekend. Several in attendance like Scott Orndoff have already committed.

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In the best case scenario, Pitt was looking at a perfect 10-0 record to start basketball season. Worst case, 8-2. At 9-1, Pitt’s record is about what was reasonably expected. The way it ended up that way, naturally wasn’t quite as assumed.

Pitt pounded North Florida on Saturday night. Again, that was expected. There were some struggles in the first half with regards to rebounding and defense, but Pitt was just too big and too good for the Ospreys to hang for very long. Even when they were drilling 3s. Offensively, Pitt had one of its best nights. Good shot selection. Aggressive in the paint. Completely blowing North Florida off the court in the second half for the 89-47 win.

It’s been a weak schedule, and it will not be any stronger in the final three non-cons after the kids finish finals week. Surprisingly, Pitt’s RPI isn’t as bad as I assumed. It’s hanging at 59, though strength of schedule is a bad 223d. It will get worse.Oakland and Howard are both sub-200 RPI teams and Bethune-Cookman and Kennesaw State are down in the 300s.

Coach Jamie Dixon has usually been a much savvier scheduler than this. At least to play the numbers. And we all know about the lost game with an SEC team. That still doesn’t explain such horrid scheduling overall. He’s generally done well at avoiding any teams that have RPIs in the 300s — much less the 200s. There’s going to be a lot of pressure on Pitt in the Big East schedule. Even if Pitt finishes in the top-5 of the Big East, this non-con slate will drag them down a notch or too for NCAA Tournament seeding.

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