Paul Zeise’s chat yesterday featured a question focused on tomorrow’s game against the Town of George.

slr: What does Pitt need to do to shut down Georgetown?

Paul Zeise: Well I think Georgetown does a pretty good job of shutting itself down. I mean the real question to me is what do the Hoyas have to do to shut down Pitt? I watched Georgetown the other night score 52 points in a loss to Villanova. They are not a very good offensive team and frankly i think they take one of their best players, Roy Hibbert, completely out of the equation with the offense they run. That Princeton style is great when you have a lot of players of similar skills — but when you have a talented 7-footer like Hibbert, you need to come up with ways to get him the ball more in a position he can score. They don’t do a good job of it and I think it is a reason they’ve struggled. There is just something missing with that team on offense and I think it is that the system doesn’t fit the talent.

I just figured we’d be able to get some Rollabannas behind the basket they’re shooting at. That would definitely distract them and shut them down. Just remember folks, let your Rollabanna whip itself back into scroll form when the Panthers are shooting.

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.”

Pitt will be one of only two teams to be part of College Basketball Gameday twice in the season. This Saturday and then in regular season Big East finale at Marquette on March 3. The other school showing up twice — UNC.

“They thought Pitt was, obviously, our best team and, given the incredible crowd at the Pete since it was built, with the Zoo, they thought it was a great atmosphere,” said Dan Gavitt, Big East associate commissioner for men’s basketball. “It’s a home run for ESPN.”

…

“I guess the national coverage you get all day, somebody told me it’s like a 12-hour infomercial on your school,” Dixon said. “It puts your school in a great light.

“It’s an accomplishment to be included in it, and for us to be on twice is a reflection of our program and our consistency over the years.”

ESPN intends to capture the atmosphere of Pitt and its campus, from the Cathedral of Learning to a look inside the Panthers’ locker rooms. Included will be a live interview with Dixon, a feature on senior center Aaron Gray, an on-court demonstration and a preview of the day’s top games accompanied by predictions and commentary by the “GameDay” crew — anchor Rece Davis and analysts Digger Phelps, Jay Bilas, Hubert Davis and Andy Katz.

And the day wouldn’t be complete without Dick Vitale, ESPN’s high-energy color commentator known for his signature calls. Vitale will join the show for 20 minutes prior to the Pitt-Georgetown game.

Of course, it still matters if you win the game and the others in this homestand.

Gray admitted there will be many distractions throughout the day. He said the team just needs to realize the opportunity that is in front of them. The Panthers can take a giant step toward a Big East regular-season championship by beating Georgetown, Connecticut and Marquette in the next 10 days.

“Not only are they three home games, but they’re against three of the top teams in the Big East,” Gray said. “It’s definitely a little bit of an advantage having them at home.

“We have a great crowd, great support from the city. We’re real confident and comfortable at home. Every team that comes in here is kind of worried because we’ve been voted the toughest place to play for two or three straight years.”

College basketball — especially in a year where there doesn’t seem to be too many teams that are absolutely far above the  rest — is  a situation where home court means so much. So you have to win the home games. Pitt can’t let the whole atmosphere of the infomercial and distractions work against them.

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.

Coming off of a 59-49 road victory over DePaul last night, the one thing that hits you just from looking at the final score was the defense. The Post-Gazette mantions how the defense really stepped it up as soon as we crossed the threshold into Big East games.

It was almost as if Pitt was programmed for Big East play. As soon as conference play began last week, the Panthers began playing the type of defense that has been associated with the program the past several years.

Levon Kendall says it might have taken a bit longer than usual to get everyone to play together. As with any man-to-man defense, playing as one complete unit is greatly important.

“It took awhile for us all to get on the same page,” senior forward Levon Kendall said.

“We’ve been working on the defense for a while, getting ready for the Big East. That’s usually when we try to step it up.”

Even if they aren’t on the same defensive level as teams of years past, they’ve still done something that those teams did not: hold the opponent under 50 points in consecutive games. Obviously, some of that is going to be help from the other team (missing shots, not being a very good offensive team) but there is still a good deal of credit due to the defense as well.

One player who caught the eye of viewers on the defensive side of the ball is Antonio Graves. In the three Big East games we’ve played now, he’s been assigned to cover the opposing team’s top scorer and in all three games he’s been able to keep his man to under their season average.

As always, Coach Dixon makes sure to say the right thing and gives credit to the entire unit, not just one player.

“Antonio and Keith started on him, but it’s a number of guys switching onto him throughout the game,” Dixon said. “It’s a team thing. You’re not going to guard him with one guy because he’s that good off the dribble. It comes down to a lot of guys doing things. The shots he hit at the end were tough shots. We wanted him to take all tough shots, and I can’t remember him getting an easy one.”

As previously and briefly mentioned, ESPN College Basketball Gameday will be at the Petersen Events Center for their weekly show on Saturday. It’s going to be a hell of a day down at the Pete and the athletic department website came out with a little more information today.

The University of Pittsburgh will host the popular ESPN College Basketball GameDay television show at the Petersen Events Center this Saturday, Jan. 13 prior to the Pitt-Georgetown men’s basketball game.

ESPN College Basketball GameDay activities begin at 11 a.m. with the live TV show originating from the Petersen Events Center floor. Admission is free and open to the public.

Sounds like a few Pitt related things will be shown as per ESPN’s focus; make them think they care about your team when, in reality, they don’t.

Segments of the show will include a live interview with Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon, a feature on Pitt senior center Aaron Gray, a live on-court demonstration by Bilas and a preview of the day’s top college basketball games along with predictions from Davis, Bilas and Phelps.

Jay Bilas? Live on court demo? Sweeeeeeet.

Following the broadcast will be the fifth annual “Pack the Pete” for the women’s game. Starting at 9:00 later that night, the men’s team tips off against Georgetown.

Last time I went to an ESPN show at Pitt, the football team ended up getting smacked around by Notre Dame. Not sure if I should risk a hoops victory for my own enjoyment.

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 ESPN Insider looks at the conference favorites and such as conference play gets under way from Fran Fraschilla:

Built in the mold of recent Panthers teams in the Howland/Dixon era, this team has no McDonald’s All-Americans but it does have a lot of depth, toughness and balance. Is there a style of play in the country that is a better fit for a city like Pittsburgh?

Doug Gottlieb:

What we know: The Big East will be a much-hyped conference, but this is clearly a transition year for the league. Gone is just about every star from last season. No more G-Mac, Quincy Douby, WVU’s Kevin Pittsnogle and Mike Gansey, Steve Novak, Taquan Dean, UConn’s five draft picks and Brandon Bowman. We are left with Aaron Gray, Roy Hibbert and Dominic James as the exceptions, so a drop-off was to be expected.

Pitt is the favorite because of its depth, but the Panthers do not have real star power, unlike some of the younger teams in the conference.

What we think: Georgetown, Notre Dame and Marquette seem like the best bets after Pitt to be consistent winners in the Big East, with Georgetown’s guards the biggest key in its ability to win the conference.

What we wonder: Is UConn any good? Is Doug Wiggins a better point guard for the Huskies than A.J. Price? Over the last eight games, Price is averaging 12 points per game in 27 minutes per while Wiggins is scoring 13 points in just 23 minutes. Yes, Price is averaging more assists but also more than twice as many turnovers as Wiggins. With Jerome Dyson and Marques Johnson as UConn’s go-to guys on the perimeter, maybe Wiggins is a better fit because of the lack of scoring punch that Hasheem Thabeet gives the Huskies?

He also wonders about Louisville and DePaul.

I have to admit that at this point, the Big East definitely seems down this year. That can change by Tourney time, but right now the Big East looks a little down.

Of course you can also say that about the Big 11, Big 12 (especially the Big 12) and the ACC as well. The drop-off after the top few teams seems steep. Right now the SEC and the PAC 10 are looking like the deepest conferences this year. This doesn’t make them the best or where the national championship is coming from. It’s just where the competition seems especially strong and deep.

You know where a team ranks on the sports landscape at times when you take a look at the byline of the articles. To be fair most of Florida is preoccupied with the Florida Gators and the BCS game tonight (*ahem* blatant plug AOL Fanhouse will be liveblogging it, I’ll be helping with peanut gallery snark on the side). The beat writers for USF apparently were pulled in and shipped off to Arizona. (At least when the Steelers were heading to the Superbowl last year the beat writers for Pitt stayed with the b-ball.) So, the articles from the Tampa and St. Pete’s papers were from Pittsburgh sportswriters.

Colin Dunlop who usually covers high school and recruiting for the P-G moonlit for the St. Petersburg Times. Meanwhile the Tampa Tribune hired the Trib-Review‘s beat writer, John Grupp to do the story (labeling him as a “Tribune Correspondent”), meaning Grupp got to do two for one. Just one of those things that amuses me.

Mike Cook wonders if the Pitt team just lacks morning people or something.

“I think it’s the early game,” forward Mike Cook said. “We struggled with that last year, too. We weren’t shooting well. We weren’t passing well. We weren’t doing anything well. We relied on our defense.”

Despite shooting 34 percent in the first half, Pitt led, 32-22, at the break after limiting the Bulls to as many field goals (9) as turnovers in the opening 20 minutes. USF managed only three field goals in the final 7:16 of the first half.

“I think we’re improving defensively,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “I don’t think that we’ll ever turn the corner. But we’re getting better. And we should improve. We are working a lot on it.”

That’s about as close as Coach Dixon will come to publicly calling out the defensive effort from his team, and it just got tossed in there as an aside comment. It was a good defensive effort, though, and nice to see Pitt clamp down when the shots weren’t going.

“When arguably your best player can have an off night and you can win convincingly you have to feel good about your team,” McCullum said. “Their perimeter shooting is one of the areas they have improved greatly. Offensively, it gives them so much more balance. It sort of makes you pick your poison. You can drop off and help on Gray and make him kick it out. They do a great job of knocking down jumpers. They have good chemistry.”

Fields was 3 for 4 from 3-point range and Ronald Ramon was 3 for 5. Levon Kendall, Keith Benjamin, Antonio Graves and Tyrell Biggs made one apiece.

I have to be honest seeing Biggs make a three bothered me. Mainly because he will probably take more 3s when he should almost never do that.

Ron Cook wonders what is going on with Aaron Gray? Well most of us are at least a little concerned at this point. I’m more concerned about the poor shooting than the lack of touches.

Pitt’s competition is about to improve dramatically. Maybe it won’t happen so much when it plays at DePaul Wednesday night, but it certainly will when it plays Georgetown, Connecticut and Marquette in a three-game homestand that begins Saturday night. Those teams are capable of lining up and playing Gray man-to-man and covering Pitt’s perimeter players. It’s fair to believe the Panthers will need Gray’s offense to win.

“Absolutely,” Gray said, nodding. “The big thing is we’re winning, but I know I have to be more consistent. I have to do my part. I think I bring a lot to the table for this team. I just have to show it.”

Wednesday night at DePaul would be a nice time to start.

The DePaul game scares the hell out of me. DePaul is unbeaten at home. They have knocked off Kansas and Cal there, and blew Wake Forest completely out of the water. The Blue Demons are a Jekyll and Hyde team, and at home they are Hyde.

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.

Some random observations from the FOX pregame including Dave Wannstedt. IF you are interested in the Orange Bowl, I had to do a preview for the Orange Bowl, along with reasons why Louisville will win and why Wake will win.

— Coach Wannstedt offered Jimmy Johnson a position on his staff since there is an opening. I’d settle for Johnson as a consultant.

— Good observation that in college you have to do a better job of evaluating kids because of the scholarship limits, and projecting where they go. Nothing said about doing a good job in getting them to live up to that potential by the coaches.

— Talking about the Boise St.-Oklahoma game, Wannstedt tipped his cap to BSU for calling the plays. He did complain about how poorly Oklahoma’s defense reacted to the plays from BSU — especially the 2 point conversion. Promoting the read-and-react type defense. Uh, yeah.

— On Brian Brohm. Accuracy and decision making are his best traits according to Wannstedt. Johnson has a cut away to show film of Brohm evading Pitt’s, um, rush in the final game of the season. Johnson then pushed him about blitzing him and getting pressure on him to make bad throws or decisions. Wannstedt was visibly flustered by that — essentially conceding the lack of a Pitt pass rush. Bad scene, man.

Arnold Palmer plugging Wake Forest. Rick Pitino plugging Louisville. Advantage Nickalus.

— Wannstedt talks about what Louisville has to avoid screwing up special teams and protect Brohm from the pass rush (referencing the Rutgers game). Maybe some day we’ll have a pass rush.

Halftime:

— Wannstedt on L-ville, it’s the lack of big plays from the Cardinals. Actually, no disagreement. Not totally shocked by what Wake is doing to the Cardinals. This is the way the WF defense plays. They may be the only team I’ve seen this year actually pull off the “bend-but-don’t-break” defense. hmm. Maybe Wanny should consider the WF DC for a similar position at Pitt?
— On the second half, WF needs to get Skinner running and as a threat. Eh.

Saban has a press conference to announce his decision between the Dolphins and Alabama. I would have paid money if FOX had gone to a wide shot to see the expressions on Johnson and Wannstedt’s face rather then the close one on Rose.

I don’t have the energy tonight, I’m just going to pass this along with little more than a blog-esque raised eyebrow and eye-roll.

University of Pittsburgh head football coach Dave Wannstedt will provide guest analysis for FOX Sports’ television coverage of the FedEx Orange Bowl on Jan. 2, 2007, in Miami, Fla.

Wannstedt will join hosts Chris Rose and Jimmy Johnson for pregame, halftime and postgame coverage of the 2007 Orange Bowl matchup featuring ACC champion Wake Forest and Big East champion Louisville.

Well, um, maybe that will be something else to help with recruiting?

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.