I had plans once, man. Dreams. I was going to the Military Bowl. An old friend and I were going to drive to the game today, with our kids. Then drive back the same night. Two middle-aged dads, four kids ranging from 7 to 13.  What could go wrong?

Well, both of us getting the requisite time off from work had some fits and starts. By the time we got it worked out, the tickets had been sold out through Pitt a few times over. Looking into aftermarket options to get a block of six tickets proved more than a little cost prohibitive.

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I always thought Michigan owned the monopoly on directional schools, but it seems that North Carolina is a special place. I mean a state with direction already in its name throws in not only East Carolina U, but Western Carolina as well. To say nothing of Coastal Carolina. There is a Central Carolina Technical College, but that is in South Carolina, and that is a whole other can of worms.

Still, ’tis the season for playing Western Carolina as one of their notable alum is author of “The SantaLand Diaries,” David Sedaris. Oh, hey, and Eric Rudolph is an alum. Swell.

7pm start time. This one has some decent distribution on RSNs.

FOX Sports South
FOX Sports Carolinas
FOX Sports Sun
FOX Sports Midwest Plus
FOX Sports Indiana Plus
Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic Plus
MSG Plus
NESN
ROOT Sports Pittsburgh
SportsTime Ohio
FOX Sports Detroit Plus
FOX Sports Southwest Plus
FOX Sports San Diego
FOX Sports Prime Ticket
ROOT Sports Northwest

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Going to be a little tight getting back for the start of this game. The wife has insisted that we have to see The Force Awakens this weekend so she doesn’t have to keep avoiding doing anything on the internet. Not so worked up about spoilers and such, so I would have been fine waiting a few weeks and a not as crowded theater. So, to compromise we are taking the kids to a 9:30 am showing. Double bonus, no Pokemon on the tv this morning and no candy at the movies.

Anyways, the game is at noon on ESPNU.

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4pm ESPN3.

So much that needed to be completed today. Out of the house early. Just got back, so sorry about the lack of timeliness.

Pitt will probably have a very light crowd as the semester comes to its end and the Steelers were playing at 1pm.

7pm ESPN3.

I have to skip the live viewing tonight as there is a rare night out with the wife sans children. Of course I plan to use this sacrifice to my benefit this evening. Just haven’t decided how, as yet.

Eastern Washington is actually Pitt’s first opponent in the Gotham Classic. Which will culminate (sort of) in facing Davidson at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, December 20.

The Panthers (6-1) will have three home games as part of the Gotham Classic, starting tonight when they play host to Eastern Washington (5-4). Pitt also will play Morehead State (Sunday) and Western Carolina (Dec. 23) in home games over the next two weeks as part of the event.

A little odd, but okay.

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Basketball will still be played tonight.

7pm on something called CBS Sports Network. It’s a real channel, I’m told.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Duquesne may have a chance this year.

They pounded on Penn State a week or so ago. They don’t suck as bad as they have. They have even started running a bit of smack for this game.

It enters this City Game with some inherent advantages it didn’t have in the past, particularly if the speedier Dukes can dictate the pace against a Pitt team that’s statistically among the 30 slowest tempo-wise in Division I.

“We’ve got a lot of speed and quickness, more than them,” Colter said. “They’re slower than us. We can push the tempo on them a lot, especially in transition, where we can get open 3s and open shots for everybody else.”

Yes, because there is such a history of teams with higher tempo being able to dictate pace. (more…)

Hope everyone had a good holiday break. It’s been hectic.

Big week for Pitt. Starting with Purdue at home courtesy of the Big 10/ACC Challenge. When the pairings were announced in the offseason, both were projected as middle-of-the pack teams in their conferences.

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4 pm ESPN3.com

So, yeah. Yesterday could have been better. In theory, I should have been spending the day on the couch watching other fanbases suffer. Nope, wife made me do a bunch of errands and things with the family. Just getting home in time for the game.

Or at least pretending to move on to a basketball game.

If it was too short an appearance for you, Pitt is wearing the camo unis they wore for the game that never happened to start the season that never happened.

Hopefully the team isn’t looking past this game to the meeting with Purdue on Tuesday.

Wish I could do more of a preview, instead of this slapdash post, but I have barely been able to sit down since about 8 this morning.

It’s ESPN3.com at 7pm

Students out of town. Night before Thanksgiving. Should be a sparse crowd except for those whose significant other is a saint or just wanted that person out of the way so they could lose their mind in peace preparing for Thursday.

This is part of why there is such an abundance of Thanksgiving-time basketball tournaments. Logically, you would think TV interests would prefer more of the activity to take place a week or two later as college football games really thin out.

But the coaches and schools would rather avoid having to do home games without students and people heavily distracted by family dysfunction. If they are going to play games in front of small crowds, why not do it in some other locale in a tournament that gets media exposure?\

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I’m here. I’m conscious. I’m at least going to fake it. May be in conflict with a large volume of good bourbon.

Shhh. No one mention this to the people in the press box.

Pitt isn’t going to win the Coastal. UNC is seeing to that. Now it is time to just continue winning the games they should. Louisville isn’t great, but they aren’t bad. If Pitt was playing down there, they would be the underdog by a point or two. Instead, Pitt is the slight favorite at home.

The rare non-noon kick-off this year. Louisville is fully capable of knocking off Pitt.

They are also in a position to lose badly. The truth is out there.

8pm on ESPN3.com.

Little odd on the time, but it is a Friday night, so it should make it easier for fans to get to the Pete.

Detroit is from the Horizon League. Under Jamie Dixon, Pitt has never lost to a Horizon League team (10-0). I only note that, because when Dixon was still an assistant, he was a finalist for the Wright State job that went to Paul Biancardi (then, an Ohio State assistant).

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7pm, ESPN3.com

Pitt is 0-0-1 to start the season. Or whatever joke you want to make about the Armed Forces Classic that never happened. There are unsubstantiated reports/rumors that Pitt and Gonzaga are looking to make up the game. As much as people want to start freaking out about RPI and SOS for Pitt after just the first weekend, Gonzaga probably could use the boost as well because of their conference. Not for Tourney making, but for seeding. Might help in making it happen, but I doubt it.

Tonight starts the patsy portion of the non-con. Not that they should be taken lightly, as NC State, Wisconsin, Illinois, UCLA, etc. demonstrated in their season openers at home.

Should it be mentioned that Virginia lost to George Washington last night? GW is not a patsy, but still. Virginia battled a lot of foul issues as the freedom of movement edict to the officials is in effect. Go figure, that Virginia might struggle to start the season to adjust to that.

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The last two years, Pitt and Duke have combined for some wild offensive games. Don’t think that will be what we see today. Duke has been doing more with the defense, and their starting QB may not play.

Pitt’s offense has been a bit up-and-down. Only two games saw the offense hit 30 points or more (vs. 1-A opponents). Two games have seen Pitt with under 20 points. Everything else has been somewhere in the 20s.  Just not seeing Pitt explode for around 50 points.

It’s a nooner on ESPNews.

Both teams are 6-3, but Pitt is ahead of Duke in the Coastal standings with a 4-1 conference record to the Blue Devils’ 3-2.

Oh, happy days. Basketball is back.

Pitt starts the season in Okinawa, Japan in the Armed Forces Classic against the number 9 team in the country, Gonzaga. The game is slated for a 7pm (but pushed to 7:40) start on ESPN. That is assuming no disruptions by an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 in Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan — some 763 kilometers away — didn’t disrupt things. (It didn’t.)

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By the time you read this, I should be getting turnpike espresso around mile marker 195 of the Ohio Turnpike.

As I said last night, get that early start.

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