Later than I wanted, but time has been limited during daylight.

Pitt planned for a sleepwalk of a game after traveling back from Okinawa, and they delivered. The Pumas of St. Joe’s College (somehow, apparel and shoe company Puma does not sponsor them) were the big patsy on Tuesday. A subpar D-II team that came for a beating and delivered on their end.

The first half was extremely sloppy and you could see the lack of energy from Pitt. They missed a lot of shots from outside. Struggled at times with defense. Yet still led by 14 at the half.

The big moment came with the debut of freshman point guard Damon Wilson with nearly 6 minutes left in the first half.

** Damon Wilson made his debut tonight and played XX minutes and scored XX points . Wilson had been sidelined with a hamstring injury but he is healthy again. Wilson played the point mostly when he was in the game and that’s likely where he will settle in – as the point guard behind James Robinson (and heir apparent). I like Wilson, I think he is one of the best freshmen Pitt has had in a long time. He has length, size, athleticism and a pretty high basketball IQ.

** The thing about Wilson developing is it enables the Panthers to put a very athletic and long lineup on the court with Wilson at the point and Chris Jones, Sterling Smith or Cam Johnson at shooting guard. This gives them a lot of flexibility in matching up and also forcing matchups and also, if Dixon decides to press someone they have the players to make it very effective. The depth is easy to see of this team but also, as Dixon has said, the interchangeable parts and versatility mean they will be tough to match up with.

It was 11 minutes and 7 points, if you were wondering for Wilson.

Sheldon Jeter had his first double-double as for Pitt. Michael Young also had a double-double.

If you want to worry about something. And, afterall, you are Pitt fans. The center spot is a bit worrisome in terms of fouling. Alonzo Nelson-Ododa and Rafael Maia only played for a combined 20 minutes against a very undersized team and racked up 8 fouls (5 for Nelson-Ododa and 3 for Maia).

Pitt has a lot of depth and is playing with the line-ups a heck of a lot, but they both need to do a bit better at being in position defensively. Maia can get a bit of a pass for now since he is clearly trying to play himself back into shape after the injuries over the summer.

The good news is the non-con schedule does give them time to work those kinks out.

After that, I’m not taking too much from the game. The players conceded that they were still making the adjustment from the trip.

Some of the players looked to be still feeling the effects from the trip.

“I still feel it,” said Jeter, who played 22 minutes. “My legs felt tired and sluggish.”

Defensively, the Panthers were fine. Saint Joseph’s missed its first eight shots from the field and shot 20.8 percent overall (11 for 53).

“We’re not going to rely on shooting,” Dixon said. “Its going to be defend, and you will play.”

Dixon substituted freely. Junior Jamel Artis played 24 minutes, most on the team. Eleven of the 14 Panthers who saw action played at least 11 minutes.

Artis barely played in the single half of action against Gonzaga as he racked up 2 quick fouls and had to sit.

Moving on. The early signings for the 2016 class took place last week, in the form of Justice Kithcart, Crisshawn Clark and Corey Manigault.

Kithcart plays defense. That seems to be the emphasis with him, he is a  guard that plays defense hard.

Running with the Team Loaded Virginia crew these past few years, Kithcart has prided himself on his defense, toughness, and competitive juices that seemed to come to light any time he set foot onto the floor. To say that Kithcart is a winner is a giant understatement. He has won at the high school level with Virginia Episcopal playing alongside Sacha Killeya-Jones, a Kentucky commit, he has won on the grassroots circuit where he was the floor general in consecutive Adidas Gauntlet Championships in Vegas the last two summers, and he should be able to win at Pitt because of his willingness to get better and play the role for his squad that many other fail to want to do.

A native of Durham, North Carolina, Kithcart had a solid run on the travel circuit this summer playing alongside a plethora of high-major targets and recruits. However, at the end of any given contest, the ball was placed into the senior’s hands. Shooting concerns have always been evident with Kithcart but he has continued to work on his jumper in solidifying the accuracy on it but where the VES guard feels at his best is on the attack to the basket. Averaging close to 11 points, three boards, and three assists on the Adidas circuit this past summer, Kithcart was able to get to the line nearly six times per game, displaying his true strengths on the hardwood.

Shooting isn’t as much an issue with Clark, who is a JUCO, but he will have three years of eligibility next year as he recovers from a knee injury and sits out this season at Cañada College in San Mateo, CA).

So what are recruiters seeing when coming to a Colts game or practice?

First off, a member of the 2015 All State Tournament Team and someone coming off a frosh season consisting of 31 games, 31 starts, 15.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists per outing while shooting 47%, 36% and 61% respectively.

Clark is from Huber Heights, Ohio. He can score, but also play defense.

“Crisshawn chose Pitt because he really felt at home with Coach [Jamie] Dixon, the staff and players,” his coach, Mike Reynoso, told SNY.tv. “He felt he would have a great opportunity to be successful at Pitt, and play in the best basketball conference in America — the ACC.”

He averaged 15 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists last season, while shooting 35.6 percent from beyond the arc.

“Crisshawn will bring a lot to the Pitt program, he is a stat stuffer,” Reynoso said. “He scores it from everywhere on the floor, has great vision, defends and rebounds well. He is truly an elite guard who is well-rounded.”

Finally, power forward C0rey Manigault who committed to Pitt last spring. He’s got a good scoring touch and loves to rebound.

It isn’t a flashy group, but this is very much the type of recruiting class that Jamie Dixon has had a lot of success in building with in past years.

Pitt pursued some high major kids and missed. Unlike last year, Pitt did not let themselves get strung to the last minute when there were no alternatives. I will not be at all surprised if Pitt also adds another grad transfer next spring.

Okay, a couple ACC-related things to close this out.

The ACC can’t agree to go to 9 conference games in football, but there is actual talk of taking basketball to a 20-conference game schedule.

Specifically, Swofford said the league needs to consider expanding the conference schedule from 18 to 20 games. The only Division I leagues that played 20 last season were the 11-team Sun Belt and Metro Atlantic, affording both a double round-robin.

Led by senior associate commissioner for basketball Paul Brazeau, who held a similar position with the Big East, the ACC has run analytics to project how adding conference games might affect teams’ Rating Percentage Index rankings and NCAA credentials. The findings are inconclusive.

“Would that enhance players’ experiences while they are in the Atlantic Coast Conference?” Swofford said. “It seems clear that there is increased fan support for conference games, and from a fan’s perspective we probably haven’t reached that max. It would create a more balanced schedule, but on the other hand, how would it affect the number of teams selected from our league to NCAA tournament play? Would it help us or would it hinder us?”

With a 16-team basketball conference, this should happen. Right now, Teams play each other only once. Have a permanent “rival” (Syracuse for Pitt) played twice and then only two other home-and-homes rotated. Going to 20 games expands the home-and-homes.

The other side of this is reducing the number of non-con games by two. Definitely in favor this. The result would be — hopefully — to improve the overall SOS of ACC teams to better the chances of making the NCAA Tournament. Not to mention improving the product of ACC games for a TV overlord that holds the keys to a ACC Network

Speaking of which, things are likely slowed a bit on that.

The launch of an ACC network run in partnership with ESPN, which has been expected for 2017, will likely take longer than expected.

The cable giant has asked for the delay, according to Georgia Tech president G.P. “Bud” Peterson, who made the statement at last week’s Georgia Tech Athletic Association quarterly board meeting. Conversations between the league and network are ongoing. The conference and network have discussed partnering on a dedicated ACC channel at least five years.

“(ESPN) had come back and said that in some of the other instances where (conference) networks have started, they lost considerable amounts of money in the first couple of years,” Peterson said. “What they’d like to do is delay the start for a couple years and do the necessary preparation.”

In exchange for a later start date, ESPN could make additional payments on top of the rights fees already paid to the conference, Peterson said.

…

Evidently, the request to delay from 2017 is a result of ESPN’s desire to properly time the launch of an ACC channel, wanting to ensure broad distribution with cable operators.

The Big Ten Network faced distribution challenges early on, as it was carried by a limited number of cable providers for the first year of its existence. Likewise, the Pac-12 Networks have had distribution issues of their own.

The SEC Network, with its conference’s rabid following, didn’t have the same troubles, as demands by fans to cable and satellite companies to add the network led to broad distribution from the network’s inception.

The darker view is that ESPN has seen subscriber growth shrink in the last year or so. The mouse monopoly recently announced significant layoffs to cut costs. It isn’t a stretch to see those cost cost cutting desires and shrink in subscriptions playing a significant role in wanting to push back the launch of another network (and the costs associated) for a bit longer.