If perchance any of our readers are Pitt students or live in Pittsburgh and happened to attend the fan fest, please post or e-mail us what you thought of the whole thing and how the team looked in scrimmage.

My views on Pitt holding a fan fest in place of midnight madness are here. Both papers have reports, and the big story seems to be the play and appearance of Aaron Gray. Gray, a 7′ big man from Emmaus, PA (Philly area) dropped 33 pounds and really worked on his conditioning. Not to mention that he played over the summer against legit talent.

He went up against former Temple centers Kevin Lyde and Ron Rollerson and NBA players Mark Jackson, Malik Rose, Eddie Jones and Allen Iverson.

“You come in expecting them to tear your head off,” Gray said. “They’ll kill you. Then they’ll show you how they killed you. It’s a good learning process, learning from older guys.”

He also gave credit to Taft and Pitt’s older players who encouraged him to get into better shape.

Obviously, Gray will be taking the back-up roll Torree Morris filled the last year. Gray may get more minutes, especially if he is more consistent than Morris. You never knew what you would get with Morris when he came off the bench — other than about 2 quick fouls.

The thing I really like about this team, is that there seems to be some real depth. The team had no depth during Howland’s time and very little last year. Something that I feel hurt the team by the time the NCAA tournament came around. The starters had logged so many minutes, that the efficiency on offense kept dropping every game they played in March (Big East and NCAA Tournaments).

This will also be a big question about Coach Jamie Dixon’s coaching. How does he handle an actual bench. How does he keep the starters — especially Krauser and Taft who love to play and want to stay in — happy? He has to keep them fresher this season, and work in some of this new talent we have been hearing about for almost a year.

It’s a happy problem to have, but one that will bear watching.