Sorry to go dead yesterday and to date. Had to drive to Pittsburgh to pick up a new futon couch at IKEA. I might get it assembled this weekend. The wife decided it was what she wanted, and I know better than to argue with a pregnant woman. That essentially wasted most of the day. Things just seemed to conspire to keep me away from the computer that evening. Let me clear a few things off the browser as I spend the entire day immersed in basketball (and beer).

The Seth Davis piece on talking to scouts was interesting.

On Aaron Gray, Pittsburgh senior center: “I know a lot of people don’t like him, but I do. People don’t give him credit for his skills. He’s not athletic, but he’s really big. He’s a legitimate five.”

On the Pittsburgh players outside of Gray: “I don’t see any definite pros there. Maybe Sam Young in a couple of years, maybe Tyrell Biggs. Maybe [Levance] Fields, though he has to address his body. I talked to a coach who played them, and he said they’re really good but they just don’t have that one perimeter guy that puts the fear of God into you.”

I see Gray a lot like Chris Kaman of the Clippers when he gets to the NBA. It’s true, though, there is no one guy.

Luke Winn moved Pitt to #8 in his power rankings. I don’t take Winn’s rankings personally. At least he’s trying to look at the rankings with at least an eye on statistics and not just traditional teams.

An article on Barry Rohrssen in his first season at Manhattan. I admit to not following the Jaspers too closely after they dropped some early games. Turns out they are challenging for the MAAC title in what was supposed to be a transition/rebuilding year. Lots of credit in the story to being from the Howland/Dixon/Pitt coaching tree.

The University of Pittsburgh has some more Big East titles to win and maybe some Final Fours to get to before it feels truly comfortable in the most elite class of college basketball. But, clearly, the 17-2 Panthers are getting there.

Along the way, they’ve made a name for a coach or two. Or perhaps, it’s time to say three.

…

Rohrssen worked under both of them. And while he’s at a different level, with different talent – the Jaspers obviously won’t soon be in the Top 10 with Howland’s Bruins (No. 3) and Dixon’s Panthers (No. 6) – the similarities are striking.

“If you look at the practices at UCLA, at Pitt and here, from Day One all the way to the last day of the season, everything is the same,” Rohrssen said. “The letter is the same, you just have to change the letterhead.”

Dixon isn’t surprised.

“He had such a firm grasp of what we were doing and we figured he’d stick to the things he knew best,” Dixon said of Rohrssen. “We talk, but there’s no advice being handed out. He knows the system, feels comfortable in it, and he’s turned it around there.”

Moon Township Guard Brian Walsh saw his stock soar at the basketball shoe camps this past summer.

St. Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli, West Virginia’s John Beilein and Pitt’s Jamie Dixon are just a few of the dozen or so coaches who have ventured to Moon High School with hopes of luring the three-star prospect. Brian has 15 scholarship offers, highlighted by full rides to Maryland, Pitt, St. Joseph’s, West Virginia, Xavier and Memphis.

So you can expect Mike Rice, Jr. to be at a lot more of his games as he has hit the ground running in recruiting for Pitt.

“My first year is going well because of the assistants and head coach, the previous 7 to 10 years, have been successful,” Rice said. “It’s easy to sell the University of Pittsburgh nowadays.”

Rice combines with assistant coach Orlando Antigua to give the Panthers another formidable recruiting tandem. They replaced Rohrssen and Joe Lombardi, who took head coaching jobs at Manhattan and Indiana (Pa.), respectively.

“We’ve always had good assistants,” Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon said. “They’ve both done a very good job.”

National scouting services are taking notice. The first recruiting effort, the Class of 2007, is ranked among the top 20 in the nation. The early commitments for ’08 put Pitt tied for No. 5 among all recruiting classes.

On Thursday, Rice did something that no other coach — head or assistant — has accomplished in three decades at Pitt. He convinced a player from St. Anthony in Jersey City, N.J., to play for the Panthers. The 6-foot, 185-pound Woodall, considered one of the top junior point guards in the East, will be the first from the national prep power to commit to Pitt.

Let’s hope Pitt can end a very good homestand on and off the court with that final win on Sunday.

Hey, not only will Pitt be on Gameday, the newest promotional gimmick will be on display. Oh, not thundersticks, or something loud and annoying things like that. They are a different kind of annoying. The “Rollabana.”

Basically, it is a handheld, roll-up banner. You grab each end, pull and then wave the banner with both hands. Release and it conveniently rolls back.

Judging by the Rollabana website, I’m guessing it has been in Europe for a while and just started hitting the US in ’06. Starting with some baseball teams. The US distributor of the product doesn’t have much of a site, but they do have a message.

Be sure to be “crazed.”

Luke Winn at SI.com finally puts Pitt back in his weekly power poll at #16.

Welcome back to the rankings, Pitt. For the record, it wasn’t all of your fans’ hate mail that got you reinstated — it was the road wins at Syracuse and DePaul, and the 3-0 start in the Big East. None of that is anything to get too excited about, but let’s face it: You didn’t really beat anyone before January. The resume matters here. The good thing is that kenpom.com’s new feature — “Game Plan” — has diagnosed your problem: You’re struggling in the games in which you get killed on the offensive glass. The three times you let an opponent grab at least 40 percent of the available offensive boards, you either lost (to Oklahoma State and Wisconsin) or nearly lost (to Buffalo). So beware the Big East’s two best offensive rebounding teams, UConn and Providence, OK?

Meanwhile, Clemson is ranked #8 and Air Force #9. That doesn’t bother me as much as the not beating anyone comment. Mainly because he credits both Wisconsin and UNC for beating FSU. Something Pitt also did by a similar margin. I realize those two teams beat more good teams (like Wisconsin beating Pitt), but the absolutist tone annoys. Thanks for the tip on the offensive rebounds — we were already aware of it.

ESPN.com puts Pitt in the #2 seed group (#7) in its power poll.

Panthers are quietly playing solid ball while the rest of the Big East continues to stub its collective toe. Interesting to note how similar Pitt’s dossier is to the team ranked No. 9 this week, which very few are talking about …

That team is Texas A&M.

Need a way to waste a few minutes of your day? Here’s a little roundup of some of the good YouTube videos featuring your Pittsburgh Panthers:

Gilbert Brown dunk: Gilbert Brown pulls off a great dunk in pregame warmups.

Sam Young does the same thing: Alley-oops it to himself at the 30 second mark.

Jerome Lane breaks backboard: “Send it in Jerome”

Revis Punt Return: ESPN’s #1 play of the year in college football. (Edit: Link fixed.)

Pat White meow: Not a Pitt highlight but still Pitt related (in a bad way) nonetheless.

Larry Fitzgerald catch: Larry goes parallel to the ground in the 2002 Insight Bowl.

Palko 1 – BC defender 0: If you were there, you got fired up.

I may have passed a really good one over somewhere. If you see one, go ahead and leave the link to it. Enjoy.

SIonCampus is back with the Monday Awards, Pitt popped back into the top-10 at #8, and I offered some of my thoughts.

The ESPN.com Weekly Watch includes Levance Fields in the list of “Five you should know”

So much was made about who would replace Carl Krauser, but Fields has the ability to make it moot. Fields scored 24 points and was impressive in a road win at Syracuse.

And of course the Georgetown-Pitt game was on the list of games to be. No kidding. Considering ESPN’s college basketball show will be at the Pete.

While still on the subject of ESPN, d**k move by the WWLS to schedule “Big Monday” to start as counter-program against the BCS. Well, at least for the Big East teams it’s G-town and ‘Nova. Might as well go with the b-ball only schools.

A couple Pitt things on SI.com today. Grant Wahl’s mailbag continues to discuss innovation by coaches and Pitt.

Speaking of Beilein, we got a lot of responses to our recent items on innovators in the game. Here are a couple (and thanks for the kind words, guys):

As a coach whose teams often have to compete with smoke and mirrors I really like the concept of discussing the game’s greatest innovators. I especially agree with including Beilein. Another I would add to the list is Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon. No team is better at attacking zone. Check out some tapes of their games with Syracuse if you want proof. I show a clip tape of the Panthers playing against zone to my team each year. They have been so effective that Boeheim almost immediately abandoned the 2-3 in the Big East final last year. Thanks for your dedication to the intricacies of the game.
— Zico Coronel, New Plymouth, New Zealand

Mr. Coronel is an assistant coach with the Waikato Pistons (PDF), who finished just out of last place in the NBL.

Interesting point, though I wouldn’t go so far as to label Dixon’s dealing with the 2-3 zone an innovation. Dixon does very well at attacking it, and it ties in nicely to what I wrote earlier today about Pitt and Syracuse in recent years.

Then there’s Seth Davis giving his BUY and SELL lists heading into the conference slates. Pitt earns a buy with a bit of a backhand smack.

I liked Pittsburgh a lot at the start of the year, but this rating is more a reflection on the relative weakness of the Big East than on what the Panthers have shown thus far. They lost their only two tough road tests, including getting embarrassed at Wisconsin, and despite their reputation for playing suffocating defense they are only creating 5.1 steals per game. Still, Aaron Gray‘s size and poise will serve this team well in a conference where toughness in the paint is a must. I also like the offensive dimension East Carolina transfer Mike Cook has added to this team.

No surprise, then that Syracuse and UConn got sells.

That steals stat is a joke, in that it is not the way Pitt plays defense even when it is at high intensity. They don’t force turnovers and steals. They count on making teams work hard to get shots — limiting possessions and — and when they do shoot, not good shots. That said, I don’t necessarily disagree with the comment about the defense, just the stat he cites.

I’ve written it before, but it bears repeating. I’m a big fan of the newspaper Q&A and chats with beat writers. Not that they are that informative, so much as they are more honest about the biases and POV of the writers. What styles of play they like, players they  prefer and so on.  I haven’t posted on the chats and Q&A in a couple weeks.

Paul Zeise is doing some chats regarding Pitt basketball lately.

Frank_Fizzle: Paul – You have Pitt ranked No. 12 in the preseason — what do you think of the Panthers so far?

Paul Zeise: I think what I thought at the start of the year — the Panthers are a good team, they are a top 20 team, perhaps even a top 15 team but they aren’t a top 10 team. They don’t have a go-to guy on offense — and when I say go-to guy I’m talking about a wing player or a guard who can take over a game at any time – I think that they will be hurt by any team who can match their size with legitimately athletic big men because their frontcourt, especially when Young is not in the game, is not very athletic.

Coach_with_a_SAG_card: Paul, since it’s inconceivable for a team to win a championship without a go-to guy, is there any reason for Pitt to play the rest of its games since the Panthers don’t have a go-to guy? Seems like they might as well just hang it up now, right?

Paul Zeise: Um, no. I think there are plenty of reasons to play. But if you are being sarcastic, tell me all the teams who have made the Final Four in the past decade or so, other than George Mason, which was a fluke, that didn’t have at least two legitimate NBA-caliber players. Pitt is a good team, an excellent team. From what I’ve seen it is not yet an elite team. Who are the NBA prospects on this team?

I have very mixed feelings about this sort of thing. It’s the same sort of thing where no teams win in the NCAA without at least one McDonalds All-American High Schooler. It’s a trend, and a reliable one. BUt, I think that trend has been on the wane as players are more often leaving sooner for the NBA. I mean, to turn it around, how many teams with at least 2 McDonalds All-Americans have failed to even make the Final Four? How many times has the “go-to” guy failed to deliver for a team, and the rest of the team can’t pick up the slack?

Part of it is that, especially in the NCAA Tourney, is often when the “go-to” guy emerges. Or, it is a course of the season thing. For Pitt, there is still plenty of time for another “go-to” guy to emerge. And there are choices: Levance Fields, Sam Young and Mike Cook all show that potential.

I guess, my biggest problem is that it is just too simplistic a justification. “Sure they are a good team, but they don’t have a single player who can take the ball and dominate.” Last year, Florida arguably had multiple players emerge as the go-to or big game player at the right time. They had tremendous talent that gelled last year, but which player was absolutely indespenisble for them to win any given game?

Ray Fittipaldo, since he has to cover Pitt basketball full-time, treads a little softer with absolute statements.

Q: Coach Dixon better pray that Sam Young stays healthy; he is the key to their success. If he can’t rebound, this team is done. When Gray misses a layup, no one is there to rebound. Kendall can’t shoot, play defense or rebound. He looks lost on the court. Has a team ever dropped from No. 2 to out of the top 25 in a month? The inability for this team to guard athletic players will be fatal. They look out of sync. I counted at least half a dozen instances where they should have gotten a pass into Gray. Instead, they continued passing the ball and ended up with a poor shot and no chance for a rebound. Where is the leadership? The mix is not working. Two meaningful games, two opportunities to impress, two poor performances. Right now, Pitt is a No. 7 or No. 8 seed at best and is on its way to an underachieving season. A healthy Young is their only way to success. I hope they prove me wrong.

Fittipaldo: Young and Fields are going to determine how far this team goes. We all know Gray will be there on most nights. In my opinion, Young and Fields are Pitt’s next most talented players. Fields has started to take on more of a scoring role at the behest of the coaches. If he continues to progress defensively and can keep his turnovers down, he’ll be tough come March. Young can be the difference maker, though. He is such a force athletically that teams cannot account for him at the power forward position. Pitt needs him to be healthy to have a shot at a deep tournament run. If you think Pitt is a No. 8 seed that means you think this team will lose seven games in the Big East. I cannot see that. They won’t roll through the league like many expected, but I still think they are the best team in what might turn out to be a down year for the Big East. I see Pitt losing no more than five games in the league and at worst at No. 4 or 5 seed. We shall see.

The Q&A also displays a lot more negativity in the questions from the fans which, by their nature I would say forced Fittipaldo to defend the team more. It’s fascinating, and I saw and read the same sort of freaking out around here after Ohio State got smacked silly by Florida.

I can’t help but wonder if there is something of a carry over in the football mentality. The limited number of games, and any mistakes means the big dreams are over. That a bad game or any kind of loss is absolutely killer for the team, the season, the hopes and prospects.
Basktball is completely different in that way. You can have, even a few bad games and a few more losses in the season  without it meaning the team is bad or a reflection of their worst performances.

An amusing mailbag thread has been going through SI.com’s Grant Wahl column. He wrote a piece lauding Ben Howland for bringing East Coast toughness to the West Coast and UCLA. Someone countered that Howland is from Cali and got his fundamentals at UC-Santa Barbara. Wahl, conceded the point and then went further to point out that in the early ’90s the great defense came out of the West with UNLV and Jerry Tarkanian. This led to yet another point.

I find it interesting that in your answer about Ben Howland and “East Coast” basketball that you mention as the best defensive team of the last two decades Jerry Tarkanian’s UNLV running the “amoeba” defense in the early ’90s. To close the loop the whole way, the assistant coach that brought the amoeba to UNLV was Tim Grgurich. Grgurich learned the amoeba defense while a young assistant (he was also later the head coach) at, you guessed it, Pitt in the early 70s. The head coach at Pitt then was a classy gentleman by the name of Buzz Ridl. I don’t know if the amoeba defense was Ridl’s invention, but his teams used it extensively.
— Joe Smith, North Huntingdon, Pa.

Great stuff, Joe, and thanks for the amplification. The man known affectionately as Timgurg is another highly regarded hoops mind among the cognoscenti who deserves more widespread attention. Strange thing: when you do a Google search of “amoeba defense grgurich ridl” you get one result, which happens to be in … Italian. We aren’t the greatest Italian reader, but there’s some useful stuff in here if you’re curious, including an origin citation to a 1971-72 Pitt game that will serve as our Hoops Lingo item of the week.

I keep hoping that Pitt will make a better effort to reach Grgurich, to come back and talk to the basketball team. Maybe even give some advice and some tips. Grgurich is a great basketball mind and one of the best career assistants — he was never one for the rubber chicken circuit and gladhanding portion.
Luke Winn was looking at the Pomeroy stats and sees concern for Pitt because of the defense.

Pitt is both highest-ranked team on the list and the most surprising inclusion. Just a year ago the Panthers finished 12th in the nation in defensive efficiency with a rating of 89.8 — and despite losing only one major player, Carl Krauser, have slipped to 115th. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon is a disciple of UCLA’s Ben Howland (their teams were Nos. 1 and 2 in the country earlier this month) but the Panthers have turned very un-Howland-like in 2006-07, riskily relying on an elite offense to make up for an average D. It’s easy to blame the lapse on Krauser’s absence, but Pitt is also giving up more offensive boards: The Panthers ranked sixth in the nation in 2005-06 in percentage of offensive rebounds allowed (26.3), while in ’06-07 they’re 69th (30.7 percent).

I honestly think the defense and rebounding will be tightening up soon. It’s not going to reach last year’s numbers, but it will improve.

Jay Bilas’ ESPN.com chat (Insider subs.) gets asked about the Pitt-Wisky game.

Ryan (Oshkosh, WI): Hey Jay, who do you think comes out victorious at the Kohl Center this Saturday?

Jay Bilas: Ryan: I like Wisconsin at home. The Badgers had better take care of the ball better, though. They had 22 turnovers against Marquette, which is what you would expect in two games from a Bo Ryan coached team. I think Wisconsin is very good, but I would not be surprised to see Pitt win if they shoot it well.

Way to be decisive.

Over at SI.com, Grant Wahl looks at the remaining unbeatens and lumps Pitt in the group of “jury still out”

Kudos to Jamie Dixon for taking on a tougher schedule this season, including his willingness to play Buffalo (in a squeaker) on the road. The game of the week is clearly going to be in Madison on Saturday, but we’re also curious to see how the Panthers perform against Oklahoma State in a virtual road game on Dec. 21. If Pitt can win at least one of those games, we’ll fess up and admit that we undervalued them to start the season. (We’ll already cave on the so-far-exemplary performance of Levance Fields at the point-guard spot.)

The Cowboys, by the way, he placed among the teams that could back up being undefeated.

Back to the Buffalo game, Jamie Dixon will defend that game and is working the media to join him (Insider subs.).

“If it’s so easy to win these games, then why aren’t people playing them?” said Dixon, whose Panthers are in a stretch of playing four of five games away from Pitt including games at Auburn (win), Buffalo, Saturday at No. 7 Wisconsin, and then next Thursday against Oklahoma State in Oklahoma City (an hour from the Cowboys’ campus).

“No one understands how hard it is to win these games,” Dixon said. “They were [No.] 55 in the RPI when we played them and so it’s a win on the road, a hard win on the road. And that’s why a lot of people don’t do them. When we go to Dayton next year, that could be another good road win if we can get it.”

The win over the Bulls hardly was a no-win situation for Pitt. It was the first real late-game test for the Panthers (Auburn played Pitt to an eight-point game). They had to bunker down, score late, and hold on defensively during a final Buffalo possession that could have tied the game (a 3-pointer missed).

Lord, help us all, Doug Gottleib is backing Pitt.

I agree with Jamie Dixon’s comment in the Daily Word — it is tough to win at Buffalo, and if the Panthers beat Wisconsin and Oklahoma State, they will be my No. 1 team, hands down. Even if Pitt splits those two games they should not drop out of the top five.

Stop the world, I want to get off. I’m forced to agree with Gottleib.

The Pitt Basketball Media Guide 2006-07 is finally up on the Pitt site. It’s broken up into 9 PDF sections for downloading or viewing.

It also seems that the Pitt-Auburn game can be watched locally in Pittsburgh.

The University of Pittsburgh athletic department announced that Sunday’s Pitt-Auburn men’s basketball game will be broadcast on the Comcast Network. Comcast Network digital subscribers in the Pittsburgh area may access the game on Channel 188. Comcast subscribers living in other areas must contact their local cable provider for broadcast information.

Tipoff for the game at Auburn’s Memorial Coliseum is at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT.

I’ll be over in the corner kicking my cable box with service from Time Warner for another week.

He has a Q&A today and a chat yesterday.

Just an idle thought. I figure Fittipaldo assumes he is one of the most hated college sports beat writers. He is hated by plenty of Penn State fans who assume he is biased against/hates their football team as the P-G beat reporter who also covers Pitt b-ball; and by plenty of Pitt fans who assume he is biased against/hates the b-ball team as the P-G beat reporter who also covers PSU football.

From the chat there was someone with unbelievably out of whack expectations for 3-point shooting:

MPM: Thanks for taking this question in advance. Going into last night’s game the Panthers 3PT shooting seemed adequate. Last night was horrible. Was it just a bad night or could this be a problem area for the team?

Ray Fittipaldo: Pitt was shooting 47 percent from 3-point range before last night. After going 2 for 17 from behind the arc, the Panthers are now shooting 41.2 percent. That is still good enough to lead the Big East. One of the reasons Pitt’s guards kept shooting last night was because of the supreme confidence Jamie Dixon has in them. Ron Ramon is shooting 57 percent from 3-point range. Antonio Graves is shooting 45 percent. Ramon is one of the top 3-point shooters in the country. I would view last night’s game as an aberration, but it also goes to show how opposing teams will defense Pitt. Most teams are going to try and stop Gray and force the guards to win the game. It will be interesting to see how Pitt fares in a Big East game when the shooting is off. They were able to get it done against Robert Morris. But will they be able to find ways to win against ranked foes?

“Adequate?” Jeez, I know everyone is hoping for big things, but keep in mind that shooting 40% from beyond the arc is like shooting 60% from inside. Pitt has an excellent chance of averaging over 40% this year with the way teams have to defend inside, but keep it realistic.

The Q&A has a question about Pitt recruiting DC versus NYC:

Q: I was excited about the signings in November. But I was surprised that none were from New York City. I hope the pipeline has not dried up. I find that it is very important to have those guys when playing conference games against east coast teams. Can you provide insight here?

FITTIPALDO: Pitt has not forgotten about New York City. It just happened to be one of those years when New York did not produce many high-caliber players. I did some research on this and wrote a story about it when Dixon hired David Cox as his director of basketball operations back in the summer. One of the reasons Dixon hired Cox was because of his connections as a former AAU coach in Washington, D.C. The Washington-Baltimore area, for the moment, has surpassed New York City as the recruiting hotbed on the east coast. New York City did not produce a top 70 recruit in the 2007 recruiting class. The Washington-Baltimore area had five players among the top 25. I think Dixon would like to make more inroads in the area. He signed Sam Young two years ago. I would expect to see more in the future.

It’s also part of why the football team is looking to tap the area as well. There’s just a boom in athletic talent in the area right now.

There were some questions about Sam Young struggling. As the Fittipaldo story pointed out earlier, part of it is Young playing a different position this year. It’s what Dixon has done plenty of before. Think about the way he has shifted the guards the last couple of years. Having them play both point and shooting. It’s about creating more depth and allowing Pitt to play the best players at once. Young at small forward may not last, but given that Young is 6’6″, not 6’8″ or bigger Young should want to embrace the position. It would enhance his pro prospects more than as an undersized power forward.

So give CBS Sportsline’s Gary Parrish credit. After calling this game a challenge for Pitt, he didn’t mind coming back and addressing what Pitt did to FSU.

Worst game of the weekend: Florida State was supposed to give Pittsburgh its first test. If that’s true, then Jamie Dixon’s team had a cheat sheet, because the Panthers thoroughly dominated the Seminoles, and that much of the damage came from the perimeter is an indication that Pitt is balanced enough to win games in multiple ways. The final was 88-66, but that score is misleading. This beating was much worse than that.

Andy Katz seems a little bothered by Ohio State getting to #1 in the Coaches (hat tip to Steve).

It’s not worth getting too worked up about the polls, since they don’t matter in college hoops like they do in football. But since they exist, they should at least make sense. Putting Ohio State No. 1 this week doesn’t.

Jay Bilas is a bit annoyed at the polls on Pitt’s behalf (Insider subs.).

2. Pitt Should be No. 1
Because college basketball has a tournament, the debate over which team is No. 1 is largely irrelevant. All the No. 1 ranking gives you is bragging rights and a nice reward with top billing on SportsCenter highlights and news coverage. Otherwise, it means bupkes.

Notwithstanding the overall lack of true meaning, I think that Pitt should be No. 1, even though I don’t think the Panthers are the best team in the nation. Pitt and UCLA have not yet lost games and should have risen in the polls over Florida, North Carolina and Kansas because of it. The polls are a snapshot only, and the current photo shows the top contenders with bloody noses while Pitt and UCLA are still clean and unmarked.

Remember, Pitt has been in this position before and lost to St. John’s, then lost in the NCAA Tournament to Bradley. The Panthers, however, look like a team that will be a tougher out this season. The reason? Pitt scores the ball much more easily than in prior years. While Pitt advanced to the Sweet 16 when still grinding it out on the offensive end, it is much easier to play when you can score some easy baskets. So far this season, Pitt is doing that.

A little more love and support for Pitt than in the past. Takes some getting used to.

Specifically,talking about sports information coming from the basketball section. I’ve let it go for a while, but it is a glaring omission that the Pitt 2006-07 basketball media guide is still not on the site. We are now some 2 weeks into the season. The basketball prospectus, the 05-06 guide are still there. No sign of the 06-07 media guide. Something that should have been there for at least 2 weeks before the season started. You can order it, but there is no PDF of it.
Then there was the Tournament Pitt hosted that had way too much confusion about even letting season ticket holders know about it.

I mean, it’s not like there aren’t huge expectations for the basketball team. Lots of buzz, national attention and excitement for Pitt basketball. Not like the fans don’t want to get as much information as possible and have even more reason to be jacked for every game. Not like the disappointment of the football team doesn’t put the fan attention more to the basketball side in hopes of having something good to cheer.
Apparently they don’t want the good vibes to go to anyone’s head or something. Just a poor job right now and I don’t know why. No reason for this.

I have no clue what the actual numbers are for Pitt’s All-Access subscriptions are. The prices still seem a bit high. It also doesn’t help that it doesn’t work in Mozilla or Mac or even Internet Explorer 7 at this point (only IE 6). They are almost making it attractive to give it a try for November.

Pitt Athletics is proud to announce that Pitt’s upcoming men’s basketball games against Northeastern and Oakland on Nov. 17 & 19 will be available via live web cast on Panthers All-Access website for exclusive live streaming of these non-televised games.

This special offer includes complete game coverage of Pitt’s basketball game against Northeastern on Friday, Nov. 17 and the Oakland contest on Sunday, Nov. 19. Both games have a 5 p.m. tipoff and live coverage begins at 4:30 on the web cast.

It’s $7.95 for a month. Plus, act now and get a free”Panthers All-Access” keychain. Okay then.

I swear, there are days when I think stories like this are planted just to give me hope.

The future prospects of Dan McCarney remaining the football coach at Iowa State beyond Thanksgiving grow more bleak by the week. For some folks the die is already cast, although for others Mac still has their support because of his past exploits…

…

Pollard has repeatedly passed on opportunities to give Mac, who we shouldn’t forget was just named the Big 12 Coach of the Year three seasons ago, a vote of confidence as of late. Conventional wisdom amongst the media and fans is that Pollard has already made his decision, and I count myself in that camp. It’s gotten to the point that folks are even speculating on prospective names for replacements. Two names I’ve heard bandied about already are Paul Rhoads, the defensive coordinator at Pittsburgh, and Jim Harbaugh, the head coach at Division I-AA San Diego.

Rhoads is a former ISU assistant under McCarney and Ankeny native, this year’s Sporting News College Football Preview named him the best defensive coordinator in the Big East.

Go for the gusto Paul. An opportunity in Ames, Iowa doesn’t come around very often.