Way to go, Robert Morris.

Back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1992. Well earned.

Big congrats to Mike Rice after his coaching apprenticehip that included St. Joe’s and Pitt.

Also, thanks for providing another bump for Pitt’s RPI and now making it three non-conference opponents Pitt faced,  that will be in the NCAA Tournament (Siena and FSU).

Here’s the 2009 Pitt football schedule.

Date	Opponent / Event	Location	Time / Result
09/05/09	vs. Youngstown State	Heinz Field	TBA
09/12/09	at Buffalo	Buffalo, NY	TBA
09/19/09	vs. Navy	Heinz Field	TBA
09/26/09	at North Carolina State	Raleigh, NC	TBA
10/02/09	at Louisville	Louisville, KY	8:00 p.m. ET
10/10/09	vs. Connecticut	Heinz Field	TBA
10/16/09	at Rutgers	Piscataway, NJ	8:00 p.m. ET
10/24/09	vs. USF	Heinz Field	TBA
11/07/09	vs. Syracuse	Heinz Field	TBA
11/14/09	vs. Notre Dame	Heinz Field	TBA
11/27/09	at West Virginia	Morgantown, WV	TBA
12/05/09	vs. Cincinnati	Heinz Field	TBA

I’m sure some more games will be added to TV. The NC State seems like a good possibility.

There are two Friday night games on the road this year — Louisville and Rutgers.

It’s going to be interesting from a standpoint of getting people to the games. While 2 of 3 games to start the season are at home, the first is a 1-AA warm-up. The Buffalo trip seems a more than a little scary. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would do to interest and attendance if the Panthers blow that one.

So, um, at the risk of looking too far ahead I figure this needs to be pointed out.

The Brut Sun Bowl airs at 2pm on CBS on December 31

In basketball, Pitt plays Rutgers on December 31 at 2pm on FSN Pittsburgh, ESPN Regional and Full Court.

I would love to talk about these past two games. How Pitt won the series. They won it with strong offense. They won it mainly with shut-down defense. Of course I was out of town and I don’t have HDNet anyways.

It started with taking Texas Tech 80-67. A slow start, but strong finish on offense. The defense, though, was there throughout.

Pitt turned to its defense, harassing the Red Raiders into 8 for 25 from 3-point range and – three days after being outrebounded by Belmont – dominated under the boards with 49 rebounds (to 31 for Texas Tech).

Along the way, Pitt started playing better defense against the Red Raiders, whose quick play led to many easy first-half baskets.

“Our transition defense was terrible,” Young said. “It seemed like we could score on them anytime we wanted. They really didn’t play good defense. At the same time, we would score, and they would come right back down and get an open 3. We were just being lazy on defense. Once we found out the problem as a team, we came out much better in the second half.”

Pitt set the tone for the game late in the first half, going on its 13-0 run

“I thought we did what we wanted to do,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “We did some good things.”

Levance Fields cut an interesting figure to many who observed him at the the games. Though, at least some understood why.

Dixon was concerned because Fields isn’t genetically blessed with a LeBron James body. With three months on the mend just prior to the start of a season with high expectations, Dixon worried his leader and point guard might balloon and wouldn’t exactly return in tip-top shape.

That’s exactly what happened.

Fields is listed at 190 pounds in the team’s media guide, but he’s probably realistically playing at around 215 pounds.

“I can’t tell you,” Fields said of his current weight. “Undisclosed.”

Then came the finale with Washington State. This was going to be a defensive battle no matter what. And it was, but Pitt still prevailed 57-43.

“They definitely toughened up on us, especially in the second half,” Washington State coach Tony Bennett said. “We had some looks, but we missed our shots. I also think we were pretty dog-tired by the end of the game. I think we learned a lot about toughness. They didn’t allow us anything down the stretch. … They just defend everything at the rim and protected the paint.

“They’re men. It was like boys against men.”

Pitt did start slow.

The Panthers trailed for most of the first half, largely because of a 4-of-18 performance from the field. But Washington State could not break down Pitt’s stout defense enough to take advantage of it. For the first 15 minutes, the Cougars never led by more than 2.

That was Young’s cue to take over, devastating ball fake — “It’s going to work forever,” he said — and all.

The Pitt defense killed Washington St.’s guards. Naturally, Coach Dixon sees room for improvement.

Pitt Coach Jamie Dixon said he is encouraged with the Panthers’ early-season progress.

“I think we can become a really good defensive team that plays a lot of guys,” Dixon said. “Those teams are hard to beat.”

Good news, it will be on either ESPN or ESPN2. The unknown is when. The WWLS won’t be making their decision until Monday, Dec. 1. It will either be a noon start or 8pm.

The November 8, Louisville game at Heinz Field is slated for a noon start. As Gorman notes, that puts four of the six Pitt home games this season at noon starting times.

I guess we can give AD Pederson credit. He said that if Pitt wouldn’t be televised, no noon start time.

Yay. The Rutgers-Pitt homecoming game has been set for 3:30 pm.

That means I don’t have to be out the door at 6am driving to the ‘Burgh.

It isn’t actually listed for television yet. But I have to believe ESPN Regional/GamePlan will pick it up. At least, as long as Pitt wins this weekend and stays ranked.

I can’t say this surprised me one bit. I expected a noon start for this game. The mouse monopoly hasn’t decided at this point whether it will be on ESPN or ESPN2.

That depends in part on what/how Iowa looks in their in-state rivalry game with Iowa State this weekend. If they lose to the worst of the Big 12 North, expect this one on ESPN2.

Looks like another game of heading to Pittsburgh before sunrise.

Interesting bit in Ivan Maisel’s college football rundown stuff on scheduling and off weeks for teams. He talks to the Big East’s guy, associate commissioner Nick Carparelli about it. Pitt is the example.

2. Every school is responsible for their own nonconference schedule. In an ideal world, since we have five nonconference games, the schools will schedule them in the first five or six weeks. That leaves us a blank slate to concoct a balanced, fair, competitive schedule.

3. Pittsburgh plays Notre Dame on Nov. 1 (so much for early-season nonconference games). In an eight-team league, I’m forced to give someone else a bye then (that would be Rutgers).

4. We avoid three straight road games. If we have to do it, we include a bye. Pittsburgh plays at Syracuse (Sept. 27), at Cincinnati (Oct. 2) and at Navy (Oct. 18). Part of the problem with them [Pitt] is that this is the year they [nonconference] scheduled three home games in the first four weeks and two road games late in the season. They handcuffed us.

5. We avoid one school having a “short week” playing an opponent that has a full week or more. (Pitt and USF both have five days to prepare for their game on Thurs., Oct. 2, as do USF and Cincinnati for their game on Thurs., Oct. 30).

6. If you shortchange a school (a team without an off week playing a team that had an off week), you try to limit it once in a season. West Virginia is at Pitt on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Pitt plays at UConn on championship Saturday (Dec. 6). UConn doesn’t play on Thanksgiving weekend. We felt better because Pitt is getting an extra day to prepare. We couldn’t avoid it.

Now we know.

On the heels of the Big East releasing the conference slate, Pitt releases its full sched.

Legends Classic (Newark, N.J.)

Obviously FoxSports Pittsburgh hasn’t decided how many of the games it wants to pick up. I’m guessing they are struggling with the decision on many that don’t exactly look like big ratings.

Have to say, Pitt doesn’t exactly have a challenging non-con. They are going to have to be darn near undefeated to keep the RPI up with this slate. Can’t afford too many losses. Of course, with the Big East looking absolutely loaded, it’s a reasonable hedge to pad the win total.

Pitt hasn’t announced its full schedule, but the Big East has released the full conference schedule with dates and major TV for 2008-09.

Non-con Pitt games being televised:

Wednesday, Dec. 17 — Siena at Pittsburgh, 9:30 p.m., ESPN/ESPN2

Sunday, Dec. 21 — Pittsburgh at Florida State, 5:30 p.m., FSN

Big East Pitt schedule

Wednesday, Dec. 31 — Pitt @ Rutgers

Saturday, Jan. 3 — Pittsburgh at Georgetown, ESPN

Sunday, Jan. 11 — St. John’s at Pittsburgh

Wednesday, Jan. 14 — USF @ Pitt

Saturday, Jan. 17 — Pittsburgh at Louisville, 6 p.m., ESPN

Monday, Jan. 19 –Syracuse at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m., ESPN

Sunday, Jan. 25 — Pittsburgh at West Virginia

Wednesday, Jan. 28 — Pittsburgh at Villanova

Saturday, Jan. 31 — Notre Dame at Pittsburgh, Noon, ESPN

Saturday, Feb. 7 — Pitt @ DePaul

Monday, Feb. 9 — West Virginia at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m., ESPN

Saturday, Feb. 14 — Cincinnati at Pittsburgh, 4 p.m., ESPN

Monday, Feb. 16 — Pittsburgh at Connecticut, 7 p.m., ESPN

Saturday, Feb. 21 — DePaul @ Pitt

Tuesday, Feb. 24 — Pittsburgh at Providence

Saturday, Feb. 28 — Pitt @ Seton Hall

Wednesday, March 4 — Marquette at Pittsburgh, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2

Saturday, March 7 — Connecticut at Pittsburgh, Noon, CBS Sports

Half of Pitt’s Big East schedule gets nationally televised, with the potential for more to be picked up. I’m a little annoyed that Pitt only got one game on CBS.

A couple things just to note.

Oooh. Season opener 2009 is on September 5 vs. Youngstown State? Unless they are bringing back the old unis for this game again, ugh. File this tidbit away. Since the Penguins began playing 1-A teams for money — 3 games so far — they haven’t scored a TD yet.

While Pitt wants to promote their season tickets as a great deal for fans, having StubHub issue a press release putting Pitt at the top of the list in terms of best value is a mixed blessing.

While the ticket resale value on StubHub can sometimes run into the hundreds of dollars for some of the nation’s top programs, there are dozens of marquee teams that carry very attractive resale prices. Many of them are ranked in the preseason Top 25 polls, while others offer substantial values with a very attractive schedule of home games. All prices listed in StubHub’s Best College Football Values poll are the current average selling prices for tickets sold through StubHub as of Aug. 27 using a minimum benchmark of 900 tickets sold for each team to validate any trend.

Leading the way as the best value in college football for 2008 is the University of Pittsburgh whose average selling price on StubHub to date is a very economical $39 per ticket. The Panthers not only carry an extremely affordable ticket price, but they’re expected to challenge for a conference title and also feature a stellar home schedule. Big East powers West Virginia, Louisville and Rutgers visit Heinz Field this season along with the Iowa Hawkeyes from the Big Ten. Despite these marquee games, a #25 preseason ranking by AP and a Heisman trophy candidate in RB LeSean McCoy, Pitt tickets at StubHub have remained the most affordable of any team in this year’s preseason poll. Tickets for the home opener this Saturday against Bowling Green are currently listed for as little as $3.

In other words, the interest or fan support is not nearly has high as supply. Even if the games are sell outs plenty of people are putting their tickets on the secondary market to keep prices down.

Rutgers was the only other team in their top-25. The Pac-10 led with 6 teams. The ACC had 5 teams. The Big 11 and Big 12 each had 4. The SEC had 3 and East Carolina made the list.

Now? You ask. Yes. Today the Big East schedule is supposed to be released. Once those dates are out — and the likely TV dates — it will be a matter of days maybe a week before Pitt’s full schedule will be released.

Though, the ACC released its schedule today as well, so we already know that the game at FSU will be December 21.

It’s especially worth noting, that Pitt just hired a new video coordinator, Rasheen Davis.

Davis arrives at Pitt with a diverse coaching background both at the collegiate and high school levels. He served the 2007-08 season as a program assistant for the men’s basketball team at the University of Louisville. Among his many duties under Head Coach Rick Pitino, Davis assisted in opponent scouting and film breakdown, monitored on-campus recruiting efforts and facilitated the program’s daily schedules.

Prior to his stint at Louisville, Davis served as the assistant boys varsity basketball coach at national power Rice High School in New York City for two seasons (2005-07) under coach Maurice Hicks. During his two seasons at Rice, the program captured back-to-back New York State Archdiocesan championships and one city title in 2005-06, totaled a combined 57-9 overall record and finished both seasons ranked among the nation’s top-25 teams. Additionally, he worked extensively with the New York Gauchos AAU Basketball program, assisting Coach Dwayne Mitchell with the Under-17 boy’s team for three years. His chief duties with the Gauchos included player development and game preparation. Combining his high school coaching tenure, Davis has coached one McDonald’s All-American, three Jordan Brand National All-Americans and six Jordan Brand Regional All-Americans.

Hmm. Has credentials so there is nothing shady about it. Of course one does wonder, who could be on the Gauchos present squad that also attends Rice? Oh, yes, Durand Scott.

Durand Scott has narrowed his list and is planning his visits.

Rice head coach Mo Hicks said Scott will visit Pitt, Miami, UCLA and Louisville officially and Seton Hall and St. John’s unofficially.

“We have to set his schedule of visits,” Hicks said.

“He’s going to visit Pitt, UCLA, Miami and Louisville and he’s going to do the unofficials to St. John’s and Seton Hall.”

UConn, Xavier and Memphis are also on the list for the 6-foot-4, 180-pound Scott, the No. 12 shooting guard in the Class of 2009 according to Rivals.

Actually, Scott is now the listed as #9 by Rivals.com and is ranked #41 overall. Scout.com and Rivals.com puts him as a 4-star recruit. ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. puts him at #43 overall (Insider subs.).

And remember James Padgett will be visiting Pitt this weekend.

Perhaps Georgia Tech AD Dan Radackovich misremembered?

Or perhaps it was AD Steve Pederson and Assistant Athletic Director/Football Operations Chris LaSala?

You may recall Post-Gazette beat writer Paul Zeise wrote this.

There are rumors flying around the Internet that Pitt and Georgia Tech are nearing a deal to play a home and home in football. As it turns out, they seem to be just that — rumors, and not very credible ones.

How do I know?

I asked Steve Pederson — who in turn asked Chris LaSala — and both laughed as they said they have never spoken with Georgia Tech.

Since I was likely the source thanks to a loyal reader and an Atlanta resident, I couldn’t back up the “rumor” at the time. The station only put the first half of the interview on their site.

Thankfully there are all these technological things like e-mail and mp3s. So, I e-mailed the producer of Mayhem in the A.M. at Sports Radio 790 The Zone in Atlanta, Scott Klug. He was nice enough to send me the MP3 of the second part of their interview with Georgia Tech AD Dan Radakovich.

Here’s the final 1:47 of the interview where they do get into the non-con football schedule.

GT AD Dan Radakovich Interview

Is this conclusive that it will happen? No. Does it suggest that Pitt and GT have done more than a little talking? I’d say so.

So, at least now that “rumor” has a source.

Hmm.

The Pitt Athletic Department did full denial of any GT-Pitt pairing being anywhere near happening.

I asked Steve Pederson — who in turn asked Chris LaSala — and both laughed as they said they have never spoken with Georgia Tech.

Steve Pederson then sent a text to one of the assistant basketball coaches to find out if maybe it was a deal to play in basketball – the response “no, though we did talk to them about playing a single neutral site game …”

In other words, this Pitt-Georgia Tech stuff is another example of how someone thought they heard something, put it on the Internet and it became the gospel …

Well, while this probably popped up on message boards as well, I did post about it.

The podcast with GT AD Dan Radakovich went up on Wednesday, but does not mention anything about future scheduling. It seems that the interview continued after a break, but the podcast did not. That doesn’t prove anything. So at the moment, there is apparently nothing contradictory in any available media to contradict the denial.

So, that’s where any GT game stands. Not happening.