It’s a big one. If you check the Scout.com list of players visiting this weekend, it’s very surprising to see a few 4-star players this late in the game for Coach Todd Graham. Especially when you consider there isn’t even a basketball game at the Pete involved in the visit.

Lafayette Pitts, despite his verbal to Rutgers, is still coming for a visit it seems. Not sure if it makes a difference or not. Considering Pitt’s need at cornerback, it can’t hurt to keep trying up until Tuesday.

On top of all of that, there is a decision Friday looming that could have an impact.

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The players and Coach Dixon admitted to not playing well and that it wasn’t a satisfactory performance.

“We weren’t good enough offensively,” Dixon said, “and we weren’t good enough defensively.”

Monday was Pitt’s only regular-season meeting with Notre Dame. The two programs could meet again in March at the Big East Tournament in a rematch of last season’s 50-45 Irish victory.

“It will hurt our guys, but we will bounce back,” Dixon said. “We’ll learn from it and be better because of it. We have to be.”

Brad Wanamaker called it another game the team can learn from. And aside from putting it behind them, that’s all they can do.

Pitt played well enough in the first half. Not fantastic, as the offense wasn’t that sharp, but certainly better than in the second half — especially on defense. That slipping in the second half definitely seems like something that irritated Coach Dixon.

“We need to go back to what we do,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said, “and do a little better at sustaining it.”

When you think about the lapses that have taken place in the second half, hopefully this will be the best reminder of what happens more than just having closer than expected moments in the second half.

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It’s a staple of the media with the coaching carousel. Once the ride stops, snap evaluations are offered for the hires. We all do it. Randy Edsall to Maryland — meh. Will Muschamp to Florida — boom.

I’m sure many remember plenty of raves about Dave Wannstedt when he was hired. How his positive, rah-rah attitude would be perfect in college. How much like Pete Carroll his approach would be (back when everyone was looking to failed NFL coaches to be the next Pete Carroll). How his quick scoring with recruits after being hired showed that he was going to have Pitt humming along. Anyways…

Well, if you think the way Wannstedt was let go, the botching of the first search and fire, and everything else has affected the way Pitt fans are watching the program and athletic department, then you should at least understand how it has colored the perception of hiring Graham.

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Okay, time to get all the stories out there linked and listed.

Pitt is atop the Big East with a 6-0 record. As if a top-5 ranking, preseason pick to win the conference, and being in the top-5 of the conference for Coach Dixon’s tenure didn’t put enough of a target on this team’s back. Not that I’m actually complaining.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Pitt has upperclassmen. UConn thinks that’s crazy because cool programs have nothing but kids turning pro early and a coach that runs off anyone else.

Pitt set a new attendance record of 12,925. Breaking the old record by 5. Incrementally pushing until the fire marshal gets pissed.

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I’d love to give you a big overarching message about this game. Some heavily symbolic storyline or theme. Really, though, it can be whatever you want. Make it macro, micro.

I don’t think there really is. It was a wild game. It was an absolute rarity in that so much was happening that Dick Vitale was actually forced to stay on point for most of the game. I’d love to be able to go big picture, but you can’t make those declarations at this point in the season. Doubly so in the Big East.

In fact, this piece by Luke Winn may be the best piece on the game.

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In-laws staying with us. Kids off from school. And basically, just trying to get all the crap I’m expected to do so I can start watching basketball around 3:30 with UConn-Nova. Liveblog for the Cuse-Pitt game at 7:30 tonight, as you would expect.

Just going to plow through the links and stories. And if you are a student going to the game, shouldn’t you be in line?

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As is usual these days with a new coach, it isn’t enough for him to be good coach and recruiter. We have to like him. We have to know his story, the losses and what made him who he is.

Sorry if this sounds too cynical. It’s just that while this is the common thing, it still comes down to wins and losses. It won’t matter how sympathetic his story is, or carefully packaged information that might offer insights into what makes Todd Graham tick. It is simply about winning.

That’s not to say there weren’t interesting nuggets in the profile pieces today. The influence of a high school coach that helped change his life. The mother that worked multiple jobs and sacrificed for her kids.

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Time to get through some browser tabs and media reactions and stories relating to Head Coach Todd Graham, the hire by Pitt and anything else that I decide fits in this post.

As I said when the hire happened, the hiring process may seem like the easy part compared to all that has to follow. I’m sure Graham is going to make a public appearance at Pitt’s basketball game soon. I’m hoping it will not be until Monday. Bigger impact on a nationally televised game, and a much bigger crowd since there won’t be the conflict/overlap of Saturday night with the Ravens-Steelers at 4:30. (For those wondering why Pitt can’t/won’t change it. The time is locked in with Fox Sports Pittsburgh to televise, and the Big East since the women’s team is playing ND at 2 pm at the Pete.)

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Well, here’s to hoping that other than recruiting news, the Pitt football side of things are going to settle down for a little bit. I’ve hated giving the short shrift to the basketball team.

They’ve been doing exactly what we want in winning and getting better, yet it seems hard to focus on them until gameday. Well, guess what? It’s gameday. Big spotlight game. ESPN at 7pm. Liveblog tonight.

Let’s run down some belated media love — and there has been plenty of that — before moving to the Georgetown game tonight.

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Judging by the Tweets and comments, new Pitt Head Coach Todd Graham made a lot of people feel more than really good about the hire. Excited, thrilled, juiced. His energy was palpable. Apparently it also extended to some of the players as there are reports that Cameron Saddler and Ray Graham both phoned into The Fan to express their own excitement over Todd Graham.

There is no way to avoid the comparisons to the Mike Haywood presser last month. Where Haywood was really brief — the whole press conference clocked in at 25 minutes with AD Steve Pederson speaking for more than five minutes, this one went a bit over 35 minutes with a very short intro by Pederson.

Where Haywood was stoic (stone-faced?) and spoke only of discipline and molding young men; Graham was animated and spoke openly of wanting to win championships.

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Sorry. After the last several days of keeping near/glued to a computer “just in case…” I have been in and out trying to catch up on things in the outside world.

The introductory press conference is scheduled for 3:30 pm. You can watch it for free via Pitt’s All-Access streaming video, here.

I really want to pile on the Hoopies for their sloppy, unfocused, turnover-filled non-effort against NC State. Except for the fact that it wasn’t like I was rooting for them. Big East solidarity has its limits.

Heck, the outcome shouldn’t be too surprising since they lost their starting center for academic issues, and starting CB to injury. To say nothing of the coaching mess they have created for themselves over the next year.

So, part of the pile-on is over back-up running back Shawne Alston having the temerity to post to Facebook at the half. Some sort of oversimplified evidence of how little the players were into the game. Hoopies were down 10-7 at the half and it wasn’t like he posted about the cheerleaders, giving a shout-out to someone or going out after the game.

“2nd half is da best half!!! Let’s go!!”

Apparently that sort of thing is only acceptable to put on Facebook or Twitter before the game. Halftime is sacred. When the coaches spend the entire time talking to the players and the players listen attentively without any thought of distractions or wanting to post the things they are supposed to be thinking should happen.

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Plenty to run through as UConn-Pitt was the marquee game in college basketball last night. The overarching theme is that  UConn had the best player on the court, but Pitt was so clearly the better team. Not to mention the argument in favor of experience over a young team.

Pitt, the Big East preseason favorite, never trailed and led by as many as 17 points in the second half to improve to 48-1 in its past 49 home games.

“I think we showed what a veteran team we are,” Gibbs said. “I think it was more of us being an experienced team rather than them being a young team.”

The past 11 meetings between the two Big East rivals have been decided by 10 points or fewer, but the over-capacity crowd of 12,725 saw Pitt’s most lopsided regular-season victory over Connecticut in 23 years.

A point that even Jim Calhoun had to acknowledge.

I thought they just locked us up defensively. … We thought the bailout would be a fall away three pointer or some tough shots. The only thing we did was rebound. … I thought we didn’t react well to being manhandled defensively. I think a lot of players, young players in particular, predicate their whole game [making jump shots]. They weren’t allowing us to get good shots. We took some ill-advised ones.

When you look at the box score — whether the basic or advanced — UConn’s shot numbers jump out. Pitt held the Huskies overall to 19 of 60 (31.7%). It gets more absurd when you see that Kemba Walker shot 10-27 (37%) and the rest of the UConn squad shot 9-33 (27.3%).

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Trying to get back to focusing on basketball a bit more. You know, because they are actually playing games. Plenty of random things as well.

Pitt had little trouble with Maryland Eastern Shore on Saturday night. This surprised no one. Seeing Gilbert Brown go off, though, was something of a sight. It earned him Big East player of the week honors. Coach Dixon knows what is coming, though, in media questions when Brown plays well for a game.

“Every time he doesn’t follow up one (game) with another one, a lot of people jump on him or focus on being negative,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “It’s hard to have big numbers every single game … but I like where he’s coming from, and I like where he’s going.”

Er, maybe because we haven’t seen consecutive good games from Brown since…? It’s not big numbers each game. It’s good shooting percentages. It’s just playing well.

I’d say, offensively with Brown, the most disappointing thing — and I saw it even in this past game — is that he no longer attacks the basket. He is way too eager to take a jumper. He has shown little inclination to drive to the hoop, and he has seemed timid when he actually gets there with any traffic around him. So, I think that has led to even more of his inconsistency with scoring. He will have nights like Saturday, where he was so on with his shot; but then it will streak (or clang) the other way.

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During the press conference, twitter among Big East and Pitt fans had a nice surge and it was interesting to follow reactions there and of course in the comments on the blog. In terms of initial impact this was not Will Muschamp at Florida firing things up. Nor is it the emotional moment of Charlie Strong being introduced at Louisville. The general reaction, though, seemed positive.

I thought, though, that it was a solid performance. Nothing earth-shaking or even particularly revealing. He’s not a publicly firey guy. If you expected or wanted that, then you were disappointed. And man does he have an icy-stare when talking to the media.

I think that stare was part of why the Q&A with the media was so brief. He sort of intimidated them. He struck me as having a bit of Saban-esque contempt in his eyes when dealing with the media.

He’s definitely not Wannstedt in that respect.  Not going to be easily warm and cuddly with the media. Going to be an adjustment.

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