It’s been 11 years since I last went to South Bend, Indiana. No kids. Not yet married. Able to engage in general abuse of my body and mind with less consequences later.

Guess it is time for a return trip to that dismal state. Taking a trip with Pauly P who was foolish nice enough to invite me to join him on the drive.

I’ll be tweeting during the day (probably).

Game time is 3:30 Eastern. It airs on NBC.

Luke has volunteered to test his sanity by running a liveblog today.

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Well, let’s give this a try.

It’s an 8pm Thursday night game on ESPN. I am going with the Stone 16th Anniversary for tonight. Please. Please. Please let the association with this game be a positive one.

It it even comes close to this kind of happy memory of the last game Pitt played at Nippert, I’ll be thrilled.

It’s a new liveblog system. A new trial. Hopefully this works. It seems fairly straight forward.

Time to go over the rules.

It’s a moderated chat. Not every comment gets through. The abusive, the stupid and the repetitive tend not to be posted — unless I just feel like using it to mock you. Given the time from the last liveblog, and a new system it will take a bit of time before I start unmoderating trusted people. Bare with me.

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It really is strange as a fan to feel like it is just playing out the string at this point. Not the team. I am sure most of them haven’t checked out on the season yet. They want to keep playing. Trying to prove that it was more about nagging injuries and bad luck that made this such a frustrating and disappointing season.

Yet, as a fan, it’s different. We know the NCAA Tournament is out. The NIT is weak consolation — and even that is guaranteed at the moment. Maybe there’s some excitement for the Big East Tournament. After all, it has been a while since Pitt even won a game at it. But these final three games. Who knows? At this point I want to see Nas and Gibbs finish with some good. I want to see more of Moore and Gilbert for the future. Maybe even a little more time for John Johnson.

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Well, USF doesn’t play well away from Florida. Pitt just isn’t playing well. Something has to give.

I’m probably going to be DVR delayed. Traveling back from visiting family. So, SilverPanther in NYC will be taking the reigns tonight.

Odd time,at 7pm  but when Pitt gets to the ACC, there are those Sunday night games.

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I’ll spare everyone the preamble on the last Backyard Brawl for the immediate future. Maybe there is a surprising deal reached to keep playing the basketball side, uninterrupted, but I doubt it. At the very least Pitt is annoyed with the Hoopies over Luck’s comments back in October, and how screwed up Pitt’s football schedule is by the Big 12’s need to have them leave for 2012. So, I expect at least a year break on the b-ball side.

I may  be a touch late starting the liveblog. I’ll be rushing home from work, so if the liveblog isn’t underway immediately just use the comments to do an open thread and keep an eye out for the liveblog.

Simple thing for this game. Just beat the Hoopies. Should be a very emotionally charged game. I expect no matter what from this game to the NCAA Tournament WVU fans will assume the officials will be out to get them for officially leaving the Big East. True or not, that will be their belief. It hasn’t exactly been a good season for WVU and officiating before that point.

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Noon on a Sunday. The taste of the toothpaste has barely faded after lazing around on a Sunday morning. A nice breakfast. Extra coffee. Then right to beer. At least there’s an upside to the early game.

Seton Hall got off to a strong start in Big East play, but reality and a lack of depth have been catching up with the Pirates. They had a six game losing streak before beating Rutgers this past week. Jordan Theodore has changed his game this year. Taking more shots, attacking the basket from the point a lot more, and getting to the free throw line. His assists are also up, though, so he isn’t doing it in a selfish way. He’s just stepped up because of the limits on this team’s offense. He’s out on the floor as much as Ashton Gibbs or Tray Woodall are.

Herb Pope is still a rebounding machine, averaging a double-double. The other guy they count on for scoring is Fuquan Edwin. A good, 6-6 wing player.

Pitt, as we know, had a hideous night against South Florida. The offense never got going and the defense fell apart in the second half. Woodall took the blame for the team’s bad night, but there was plenty of blame for that one. The big concern is turnovers. Pitt got taken out of their offense by USF constantly slapping and clawing at the ball. Whether there was fouling on it or not, is irrelevant. If the officials let it go USF were right to keep doing it and Pitt had to adjust.

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Well this is another road game. This time in the Bulls temp home. USF has been better this year, and actually better than decent in whatever facility they decide to use as home court this season. Heck, they’ve actually won their games against Rutgers and DePaul. The Bulls have size up front, so that should be interesting to say the least for Pitt.

While Zanna has been in something of a funk lately, only 9 points and 11 rebounds over the last two games. At  the same time Dante Taylor has stepped up a bit. He’s had a good couple of games, but it is hard not to be a little cynical about Taylor at this point. He looked like he was starting to respond during the non-con after Khem Birch went into the starting line-up, but then disappeared once more. So who is absolutely certain what he will do from game to game.

Tray Woodall has been reaping the attention this week. He got national player of the week honors to go with conference honors. The theme of this being Woodall’s team and the leader that I pointed out last week is now getting more play.

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If I’m correct (if?), this is the first Super Bowl Sunday game for Pitt in six years. Let’s hope the end is a little better than that one.

This a 2pm game on ESPN. Villanova is tied with the same conference record as Pitt with a 3-7 mark. The difference is they were also below average in the non-con side. Expect some TV commentary about both coaches having a down year at the same time.

Both teams feature frontcourts that tend to get exploited and is a little undersized at the power forward spot. The key, as always with a Jay Wright team, will be how the Wildcat guards are playing. Lots of high-level talent that came out of high school, but not nearly the success or consistency that would be expected by now.

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Sorry about the lateness of getting this out. Guests coming this evening so a frenzied day of cleaning. I’m already catching plenty of grief for taking 2+ hours out to watch the game at 4pm on ESPN. But, really, the wife should be used to it.

Georgetown has been a bit of surprise team this year. Not too much was expected from the Hoyas except middle of the pack, bubble team. Lots of youth and John Thompson III has not had his young players do too much in the past. This year, is different. Lots of early contributions and the Hoyas are in the upper quadrant of the Big East.

Tray Woodall being back has the offense looking a lot sharper. The defense still leaves a lot to be desired. Probably going to have to live with that, this late in the season.

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There’s not much to write at this point that I haven’t written before in the introductions for these games. Pitt is still in desperate need of a win. Not simply playing better. Not having a good effort. A win. Any way. Any how. Just find a way to win. I don’t care if the refs are bribed.

Hopefully Woodall is feeling better and got some more rust off his shot. Hopefully someone stood behind J.J. Moore during practice and tased him if he pulled up for a shot rather than attacking the basket. Maybe someone will lie to Talib Zanna and tell him that he slept through the first half so he’ll play more like he has been playing in the second half of games.

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Thanks to Volvo and the Biggest Fan in the Big East contest, I’m at the Louisville-Pitt game (hint, go vote for me). Went to the morning GameDay telecast. If you are going to the game, be sure to stop by Hemingway’s to say hi beforehand. I’ve got some Volvo/Big East schwag to give away.

There will be a liveblog for tonight. Silver Panther in NYC has offered to run and moderate things. I really don’t think he knows what he has decided to do to himself. Not that I don’t appreciate it, running liveblogs this season has not exactly been rainbows and unicorns. Help is much appreciated.

You will see comments from me from Twitter during the game, but I won’t be able to respond. I may try to check in on things during halftime.

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UPDATE: Tip-off pushed to 7:40

There might be room for optimism after playing better than Pitt has in this losing streak against Marquette. Yet it was still another loss. Now Pitt is facing the #1 team in the country. A team yet to lose a game. This is likely going to be an ugly game.

Yet it is hard not to have at least a touch of hope as one other factor is in play. For whatever reason, Pitt has owned Syracuse in the last few years. Even when they looked better and were ranked higher, Pitt has found ways to win. Whether at home or the Carrier Dome. No I don’t know that it will continue, but at the very least it has to be in the back of the players and Cuse fans minds tonight. Right? Right?

It is still Big Monday. A 7:30 pm prime time game on ESPN.

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Hey, did you hear? The schedule for Pitt gets rough starting today. Yeah, that keeps getting mentioned after every painful lost since the end of December. And sharing the basement of the Big East with other teams that have been on top is not much of a comfort.

Coach Dixon appears willing to do anything to get Ashton Gibbs some space to shoot and getgoing. This includes more minutes for Isiah Epps and more of playing John Johnson at the point. Oh, and Marquette is 5th in the Big East in steals.

Everyone has their pet theories about what Pitt needs to do to get going. I wish I had an easy answer. The idea of Marcus Gilbert getting more minutes for his shot-blocking potential is nice, but he is so raw on the footwork that he can be easily moved around by a penetrating player or an easy up-and-under move. Plus his offense is even more limited.

Coach Dixon wants to see Johnson attempt to penetrate more as he is the only guard Dixon feels comfortable about doing that. I would say that is probably accurate. The one trade-off to that was in the Rutgers game where Johnson got himself hung up in-between. He would pass-up an open shot from outside trying to shot-fake and drive. Only to find it cut-off. I would love to see much more penetration from J.J. Moore. He has the strength and ability to attack the basket and absorb contact, but continues to either take 3s or pull up for a contested jumper.

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Extra reason to tune in: Steven Adams will be at the Pete tonight.

Went over it earlier that while not technically a must-win game for Pitt, it is close. This early in the season, and Pitt really cannot afford another home loss.

Tray Woodall is out for the game tonight.

So, any hope of Ashton Gibbs getting something close to moderate rest is probably out the window.

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Hello, all. Sorry. I have been exceptionally tied-up in the offline world for the last few days. I’m even late to get this out there.

Lots of concerns. Lots of issues. And Pitt starts the Big East play on the road against a team that has seemingly had their number the last few years. Happy fun time.

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