Early in the season, Talib Zanna looked like a lock for Big East Most Improved Player. After the Georgetown blowout, the feeling was that Pitt needed to feed him more. That 9 shots a game was not enough for a player starting to look so dominate — even in the prior two losses, he was strong inside.

Now. Not so much. After 17-26 shooting in the first three Big East games, he is 12-43 in the past five games. It’s been overlooked to some degree because Pitt had won four straight before Monday night’s disappointment.

The biggest problem — at least from my perspective — appears to be that Zanna has stopped going forward on his shots. Instead he is focused on trying to make the short jumpers or take shots that have him fading from the basket. Yes, he has shown that they are part of his offensive moves, but he is relying too much on them. And they aren’t going. Not only does he make it harder on himself to score. He is taking himself away from the basket and any opportunity to follow for a chance at an offensive rebound.

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Late, but this is what happens when you don’t watch the game until 3 am and then have to try and function the rest of the day as if you still got a normal day of sleep. You just try to get through and try not to think too much.

There’s a lot that could be argued was a positive from the game. The team fought back hard on the road. They were so close to breaking Louisville’s spirit in the final couple minutes. Pitt got a better handle on the press. Adams and Taylor were strong offensively on rebounds and finishing.

But, no one really cares about that. The thing that makes this loss so tough is the volume of “ifs.” From the overarching theme to the individual moments. This game was loaded with the “what if” and “if only” scenarios where Pitt ends up on the winning end.

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Well, it will be a year after this (barring a meeting in the Big East Tourney) before Pitt plays Louisville once more. Louisville will spend one more year in the Big East with Notre Dame.

The big news going into the game was supposed to be about both teams needing to prove something.

Pittsburgh has won four in a row, but the Panthers don’t have a ton of great wins — the two best are probably Georgetown and Connecticut. A road win over the Cardinals would be impressive. Speaking of Louisville, it has lost three in a row to tumble from the No. 1 ranking. Pace will be a factor in this one, as will the ability of Tray Woodall and James Robinson to take care of the ball. On the other side, the Pittsburgh guards need to stop dribble-penetration and hope the Cardinals aren’t hot from 3-point range.

As a general rule, I find most teams have to hope the other side doesn’t heat up from outside the arc.

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First off, a big, big thanks to Curt and Voodoo Brewery for an excellent Sunday. That was a great time and plenty of Pitt guys showed up — especially from Grove City — to take a tour, sample some amazing barrel-aged beers and just have some good conversation — about beer and Pitt. I can’t say enough about the barrel samples that Curt provided. Those were some of the most complex, delicious beers I’ve had.

The HTP IPA was an excellent beer. Citrusy on the nose, that excellent hop bite, but still easy to drink. Glad I took home a couple growlers of that.

If you like good beer, you owe yourself a trip out to Meadville to tip a couple back at Voodoo. And ask to speak with Curt. As he freely admits, he is always there.

Okay, on to Saturday’s devastation.

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Not sure why, but every year the night of the father-daughter night sponsored by my daughter’s school coincides with Pitt playing a late Saturday afternoon/Saturday evening game. This is no exception. I can probably catch the first half, but the second half will be complete overlap.

Last year, even more than the Rutgers debacle, losing and the way they lost to DePaul was a summary of how bad things were. The only upside is not only does this keep it from letting Pitt look ahead to Louisville on Big Monday. The way they blew it last year should serve as a reminder about how Pitt has lost and struggled at the end of games to finish strong.

DePaul had lost 53 of its previous 55 Big East games before upsetting Pitt, 84-81, last year at All-State Arena outside Chicago. The Panthers blew a 10-point second-half lead and a four-point lead with 17 seconds remaining.

The loss was shocking for the Panthers, who were the defending Big East regular-season champions. It was the first time in Jamie Dixon’s tenure as head coach that he had lost four consecutive games, and the fact that it came against the Blue Demons was the first sign that last season was going to be a long one.

If not for that loss against the Blue Demons, the game today could have been a “trap game” for Pitt with two games against top five opponents coming up next week. The Panthers will travel Monday to No. 5 Louisville and play host to No. 3 Syracuse next Saturday. With the memory of the loss against DePaul last season lingering, though, it’s unlikely the Panthers will underestimate the Blue Demons.

No, I imagine the coaches and players who were involved in the game — Moore, Taylor, Zanna, Patterson and Wright — haven’t forgotten the stinging humiliation of losing in a half-empty Rosemont Arena.

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Kind of busy in the offline world today. Time to just run the links.

Mike Young is looking really good at St. Benedict’s.

“He’s playing great. He’s playing fantastic,” St. Benedict assistant coach Bob Farrell said. “His game has gotten a lot better this year, and I think it’s because of his perimeter skills. He worked real hard in the offseason developing his outside shot.

“Now, the bigs have trouble covering him on the perimeter. He has become a solid, solid all-around player. Jamie Dixon is getting a heck of a player.”

Young is a McKeesport native who played at Shady Side Academy as a freshman before deciding to attend St. Benedict’s as a sophomore. He then played at Hudson Catholic in New Jersey as a junior before returning to St. Benedict’s. Both Rivals.com and scout.com rate him a four-star player. Rivals ranks him the No. 97 player in the country and scout No. 95.

Young had a nice performance Sunday when he had 16 points and seven rebounds in a 63-51 victory against Montrose Christian (Md.) at the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass.

Young has been playing the small forward and power forward positions for St. Benedict’s, a perennial power in New Jersey. Among Young’s teammates are senior guard Tyler Ennis, a Syracuse recruit, and sophomore guard Isaiah Briscoe, who already has scholarship offers from Pitt, Syracuse, Baylor and Florida, among others.

That he happens to be a local kid is seeming more and more like a nice extra rather than a particular feature. Zanna and Moore will be seniors next year. Minutes may be tough for him to get as a freshman, but he will be positioned to be the starting power forward as a sophomore.

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Hey, who wants to get a beer on Sunday?

A couple weeks ago I posted about meeting at Voodoo Brewery in Meadville this coming Sunday to sample some HTP IPA brewed up by one of our own. A tour and likely chance for some sampling are involve.

I know that there will be a small group coming in from Grove City. It’s looking good for me to make it out there. I may be a little late — was hoping to be there right around noon — but I should be there. I’ll be the guy walking in with a couple empty growlers. Really starting to wish I wasted money on this transport system.

Hope people can make it.

Hey another verbal.

Zach Poker out of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. He’s listed as a tight end, but by all accounts he will be converting to a linebacker.

ESPN.com, Rivals.com and 247 have him unranked. Scout.com says 2-stars. And in the most shocking rarity, all 4 sites agree on his size and weight. He’s listed at 6-4. 220 pounds.

Poker had offers from Syracuse, Army and Air Force. Wisconsin showed some late interest, but only so far as offering to let him walk-on (Insider subs).

“I heard from [Wisconsin] this morning,” Poker said, “but I committed to Pitt.”

Poker officially visited Pittsburgh this weekend and added an offer while on the visit. He also held FBS offers from Air Force and Syracuse.

“The visit went well,” Poker said Wednesday night. “I got to see the city of Pittsburgh and meet the coaching staff and current players. It seemed like it was a cool city to be in.”

The Panthers coaches want Poker as a strongside linebacker, but they have not ruled out playing offense.

Part of the appeal of Pitt — aside from being the best scholarship offer received — is that Poker plans to major in engineering.

Another Wisconsin native, Jester Weah, plans to decide on Pitt, BGSU, Colorado State or Wyoming this weekend. After he completes finals (Insider subs).

In a way it shouldn’t be a surprise that the final score of the Pitt-Providence game was so close. In the prior four games Pitt lost once when ranked #1 to the Friars and in two others needed a just past half-court 3 to win and blew another lead before Woodall hit a go-ahead 3 with under 45 seconds left in a game. So, when you look at the recent games between Pitt and Providence, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the game finished with more drama than we wanted.

Then there’s the nature of this team. They just aren’t putting teams away at this point. On the bright side, it is better than the way Big East play started. When they didn’t just fail to put teams away but blew the lead and couldn’t get it back. Cinci, Marquette, Michigan. There’s improvement but isn’t always easy to watch. Coach Jamie Dixon will just take the win and accept the nature of this team (for now).

“Teams are going to make runs,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “We‘re on the road. We didn‘t give up the lead. We kept the lead, and we made free throws. If you watch games in our conference, there‘s always going to be runs, always going to be teams make it a challenge.”

It was the third consecutive conference win for the Panthers (16-4, 4-3), who had lost close games to Cincinnati, Rutgers and Marquette, and one where they relied more on 51 percent shooting (26 of 51) than their trademarks of defense and rebounding, as both teams had 30.

“We had a nice lead, played well early,” Dixon said. “I thought our offense really carried us the whole game. We don‘t want to rely on our offense to win games for us, on the road especially, but that‘s what it was. They made shots, and they rebounded evenly with us.”

Okay, on to the thoughts from the game.

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I just don’t see a future series with Providence in the future. Not much of a rivalry history. Not like Pitt won’t be able to go recruiting in the general area with the trips to Boston once in the ACC. Plus Providence fans are sick of seeing this clip. Or this.

I have to go on media blackout and DVR-delay this. The winter storm in Ohio canceled school for the kids and stuck me at home with them. Rejiggering work allows me to go later, but it means not watching the game.

Pitt-Providence airs at 7pm on ESPN2. And after a couple games off, Tim Welsh returns to do stalking Pitt with color commentary. I’m sure it remains not awkward at all for the ex-Providence coach to go back to the Dunk.

Hope everyone had a nice MLK/Inauguration Day. I spent mine looking at cars and dealing with various used car salesmen. In my mind I’m pretending that this ordeal is me being recruited by colleges and the car is the scholarship offer. Kind of makes it a little more fun, even if there were points where I kind of forgot that the game was only in my head. There was even a salesman that reminded me of FraudGraham, turning him down cold was pleasant. I don’t think, however, he quite understood when I blurted out that he was going to crash-and-burn at ASU.

Anyways, have you seen the Big East standings?

Quite the jumble at the 1/3 mark of conference play.

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It seemed like it could have slipped away in the second half. Adams was in foul trouble and didn’t play the final 6+ minutes. And while the box score might suggest that Taylor wasn’t much of a drop-off (fewer rebounds and blocks but more points and less turnovers), Adams’ defensive impact was huge. His blocks had the effect of keeping UConn wary of going inside as much as they wanted — yes, even as Ryan Boatright appeared to spend the second half continually driving to the lane. Adams had their frontcourt wary of going all the way to the rim. They didn’t want to challenge him.

Taylor was not that intimidating presence. And after a Napier 3 next three offensive opportunities for UConn had them going right into the paint after Adams departed. That said, Taylor came up huge in a way that Adams cannot. He drilled both of his freethrows with under 3 minutes left and Pitt clinging to a 2-point lead.

Pitt’s overall freethrow shooting still looks weak (17-23), but when you look at who took FTs and their general numbers it is hard to say that Pitt left much more than 2 points on the table (Zanna 1-3, Patterson 4-6). But in a way that reminds me of Dixon excusing the poor FT shooting of the Page/Brown teams of his first couple years, Pitt “made them when they had to.” Pitt all six FTs in the final 3 minutes to keep UConn from being able to snatch the game.

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So, this Manti Te’o crap is overshadowing everything at this point. With no resolution in sight. No clarification or understanding appearing to get closer, it leaves everyone still trying to figure this out.

Te’o and his representatives seem to be doing nothing to make this clearer. The bizarre sitdown with Jeremy Schaap of ESPN — where there was no filming and limited audio — has me convinced that it was conducted that way to purposefully confuse things further. A confused and weary of the story public finally says, “F**k it” and gives up trying to figure it out or care.

Think about it. Late Friday night interview. No video and limited audio — ostensibly to make Te’o more comfortable. Jeremy Schaap gets trotted out on camera — clearly exhausted — tries to give some picture of what Te’o was saying in the 2.5 hour interview. It raises even more questions:

Schaap asked why Te’o didn’t go to see Kekua in the hospital.

“It never really crossed my mind. I don’t know. I was in school,” he said.

Somehow all this crap has managed overshadow thoughts about the game at noon against UConn. One more reason to hate Notre Dame.

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And it already feels like Pitt has had its share of the latter.

Pitt got the job done. The front court continues to scuffle. James Robinson is finding out just how much tougher it is to go night-in-and-night-out in the Big East as opposed to getting up for a game or two in the non-con. Lamar Patterson had a bad night.

Thankfully Villanova was even worse. Some bad shooting by both teams made the defenses look even better. The thing is, as much as it was a defensive battle and both sides really did a good job of getting after it on that end. Coach Jamie Dixon felt compelled to play the offensive players.

Cam Wright saw a minute of action in the first half, and nothing more. Durand Johnson and Trey Zeigler were each out there for 13 minutes in the second half. Woodall played 17 minutes in the second half. James Robinson only played 10 second half minutes. At one point in the second half it was Woodall, Zeigler, Johnson, Moore and Adams on the court together. That’s a line-up I don’t think Coach Dixon ever envisioned using.

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Really how does this happen? Right behind your own bench?

Be proud Wildcats. You have people who pay big money for those seats selling them to Pitt fans. It makes the tantrum they threw a couple years ago about Pitt alum in Philly trying to meet before a game, that much more ridiculous. Protect that house. Or not. Just sell it.

[UPDATE: Fixed. Sorry, threw it up and went to bed. Didn’t check to make sure it loaded right.]