Pitt doesn’t have time to wallow in a tough road loss. Tonight at 8, the Dayton Flyers come to the Pete for another A-10-Big East match (PDF Game Notes). The Flyers are 10-1 this season with wins over Louisville and Creighton, and on an eight game winning streak.

The Flyers are doing it with a tough defense that has allowed only 50.7 points/game. Of course, a weak schedule helps too. It’s the first time both teams have ever met.
Pitt’s defense may be struggling against the elite teams, but the offense has been doing okay. Looks like Sam Young is going back to the power forward. Especially with the way he played in the last game.

Dayton fans are feeling confident about their chances.

Sorry about the quick run through. I’m on monitor duty for the AOL Fanhouse today and there are lots of games to cover.

So, the hook for both papers is that Coach Dixon played and was the MVP of the All-College Classic in Oklahoma City in 1986 with TCU.

Twenty years ago, a sharp-shooting senior guard from Texas Christian University stole the show at the All-College Classic by beating Oklahoma State and Oklahoma in succession.

For scoring 40 points in two games, Jamie Dixon received the Henry Iba Award as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. His father still has the trophy — at least what remains of it.

“The one thing I do remember,” Dixon said, “is that the team manager was carrying it, and it broke on the plane ride.”

The Pitt Athletic Department helped with the storyline by passing out a copy of the box scores.

Pitt is the only other ranked team playing back-to-back ranked teams on the road in their non-con. That of course, has as much to do with luck — how other teams are actually playing and if they are ranked at the time — as anything else. I guess I should be relieved no one is going with the 2004 NCAA Tournament theme at least.
Coach Dixon of course, thinks Pitt will do well against the Cowboys.

Oklahoma State is led by senior forward Mario Boggan (20.5 ppg, 7.0 rpg) and junior guard JamesOn Curry (17.3 ppg, 2.3 rpg).

Boggan is a transfer from Florida and Curry a transfer from North Carolina.

“They were big-time players coming out of high school and they’re big-time players now,” Dixon said. “We’ll do a good job on them, I think. We’ll continue to rely on our team defense to do that. Our defense has been good. It wasn’t good the other day, but [Wisconsin] had a lot to do with that. We’ve shown some improvements. Our guys have realized all year long that we need to continue to improve. We’re looking to improve in a lot of areas.”

Oklahoma State has no plans to tone down their running style even down a guard. Like Pitt, they play man-to-man defense. They do want to reduce the number of turnovers, however.

In a 79-77 loss to Tennessee on Monday, their first loss of the season, the Cowboys faced a short-handed teams’ worst nightmare: a tough full-court press.

The Cowboys turned the ball over 23 times and watched a seven-point lead disappear in the last eight minutes.

Pitt doesn’t press and they don’t force turnovers. OSU, though, was already the most turnover prone team in the Big 12 before the Tennessee game. It’s just part of their style of play.

Oklahoma State is only favored by 1.5 to 2.

The bad news, OK State is also looking to rebound from a tough loss and their first of the year. They are also without freshman guard Obi Muonelo. The kid had been giving them 20+ minutes a night and 11 points/game. He broke his leg in practice over the weekend. This reduces their depth a little, but unless their guards get in foul trouble every game (they did against Tennessee) it won’t be that great of a loss. It’s not like losing a junior and senior who knows the system and provides leadership. He was a freshman, admittedly, a sparkplug type player with a lot of energy, but I’m not going to put that as a major loss for the Cowboys — especially going against Pitt. Yes, they’ve had 7 players foul out in 12 games, but they still can go 7 or 8 deep. It’s not like they are down to 6 bodies.
Both teams have their press releases and game notes — Pitt & OSU (PDF). Obviously, this is the first time the teams have met since the 2004 Sweet 16 meeting that Pitt lost 63-51. I must be a bit out of it, but it just hit me that Pitt will have played Wisconsin and OSU in consecutive games just like in the 2004 NCAA. I mean, I knew that they were two teams that Pitt had faced that year, but it somehow was lost on me until now that it was in the same order.

Vital statistics for Pitt from Pomeroy, Mid-Majority, and traditional.

Vital statistics for OSU from Pomeroy, Mid-Majority, and traditional.

Here’s some of what I get from all the numbers: Oklahoma State likes to play at a faster pace than Pitt, and plays a more aggressive defense. As such, they cause but also have a lot of turnovers. 234 turnovers by opponents, but 210 by OK State. Pitt of course is the opposite. Not a lot of turnovers by the team nor forced by the opponent — 133 coming and going.
They are a decent rebounding team (34.6), but they only outrebound their opponents by an average of 1.8/game. In fact, they tend to be outrebounded on the offensive glass. Pitt rebounding differential against opponents is +7.4.

A lot of that is because they are not particularly tall inside — they leap, are aggressive and get up there; but are not tall — Boggan is 6’7″ playing Forward-Center, Forwards Monds and Dove are 6’8″ and 6’9″. Back-up Center Kenny Cooper is 6’10” but only plays about 13 minutes. Boggan is their leading rebounder with 7/game. Their guards, though, are good at grabbing a lot of rebounds as well, in part because the defense has helped hold opposing teams to only 30% shooting from the 3-point line — lots of long rebounds.

The big danger for Pitt is that this is a team that can go inside and out. Both the forwards and the guards are willing to do that. They like to drive to the basket, and Pitt has struggled so far this year against teams that like to penetrate. They are also an excellent free throw shooting team at 73.4%.

I have to be honest. The comments from the previous post summed things up. Looking at the overall box score, what jumps out at me with the Pitt stats are the lack of assists. Under 50% of the baskets came with an assist. Pitt usually has around 70% A/FG. Part of that had to do with Pitt not being able to play Fields as much because of early foul issues, but in general Pitt was struggling with making some of the extra passes.

If someone can find Kendall’s confidence on offense, please return it to the Peterson Event Center post-haste. He had it and some offensive game 2 years ago, but now he just is missing it. It’s a good thing he does all of those other little things. It’s the only thing keeping him in the line-up (well that and Young’s knee).
Tyrell Biggs making that first jumper turned out to be a big negative. Instead of trying to take it inside, he kept pulling up the rest of the game.

I have no doubt now, that this is Aaron Gray’s team and as he goes, they go. He was sick but trying to play through it, and a step slow. So was the entire team.

Brian Butch, just came out of nowhere for this game.

Enter senior forward Alando Tucker – the Badgers’ truth machine – to set the record straight.

“I’m going to give you the real answer, not the modest one,” Tucker said while seated next to Butch at the postgame news conference. “It is.

“For us to see him doing some of the things he was doing in the first half, that’s big for him because. … a couple practices ago, he had been struggling on confidence and I kept telling him, ‘Brian, play your game.’ Me and him kept talking about it and he came out (today) and this is big for his confidence. But it was definitely one of the biggest games (I’ve ever seen) Brian play.”

Damn.

Oddsmakers aren’t stupid. They haven’t released the line on the Pitt-Wisconsin game with Gray’s availability even slightly in question. We all know this should be a close game, the teams are evenly matched. It’s also the college basketball game of the weekend.

Game worth flying to see in person: Nothing like an early Saturday game between a pair of top 10 teams to get the weekend started, and that’s exactly what we’ve got when No. 2 Pittsburgh visits No. 7 Wisconsin for a contest scheduled to tip at noon ET. The matchup will feature two of the best coaches in the business (Jamie Dixon and Bo Ryan) and two of the best seniors in the nation (Aaron Gray, who might not play, and Alando Tucker). Hard to say which way it’ll go, but it’s worth noting Wisconsin has won 11 straight games at the Kohl Center and is 80-5 at home under Ryan. Just take that for what it’s worth.

That homecourt edge is what makes a difference for Seth Davis as well.

If this is a toss-up, I have to say the coin comes up Wisconsin primarily because the game is being played in Madison, where the Badgers have lost just five times under Bo Ryan and are 42-3 against non-conference opponents.

I can’t say this has me too worked up. For a big game like this on the road, I’d rather be the underdog. What does annoy me is superficial intros to breaking down the match-ups like this.

But there is one glaring difference. Only one has proven worthy of its high ranking.

The Badgers beat in-state rival and No. 17-ranked Marquette 70-66 last week.

The Panthers haven’t played a ranked team yet. They had to come from behind to escape with a 70-67 win over a 6-4 Buffalo team in their last game.

See, I thought this was the game to prove which team was “worthy” of its ranking. It’s 10-11 games into the year. It’s not like Pitt won’t be playing Marquette later this year. Both teams have beaten Delaware St., FSU, and Auburn as well. That said, read the article for some of the match-up discussion.

Mike DeCourcy is also looking forward to it.

Must-see hoop TV: Pitt at Wisconsin, noon Saturday, ESPN. Panthers star center Aaron Gray missed practice Thursday because he was ill, and the team isn’t certain he’ll play against the Badgers. His absence would remove some of this game’s impact, because it’s hard enough to win at Wisconsin even with all of your best.

Whether or not Gray plays, it’ll be interesting to see how Pitt defends small forward Alando Tucker, who shredded Marquette in a big Badgers victory last weekend. Levon Kendall might be the best man-to-man defender in college hoops, but can a 6-10 guy keep up?

This will be my first TiVO test. I have to do something that will likely run into the early afternoon tomorrow (moving a lot of crap I was supposed to do last week, but the rental truck fell through and it absolutely has to be done at this point). So, I’ll be on a little time lag, before I can sit down and watch it.

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.

Someone take some zinc, and maybe som echinacea or something over to Aaron Gray. At the very least some green tea to get him healthy for Saturday. He’s been battling some bug since the Duquesne game, and now with the Wisconsin game looming, his status is in doubt (that, or Jamie Dixon is going Bill Belicheck this year).

Looks like Paul Zeise will be filling in a bit on the Pitt basketball beat for the P-G. Ray Fittipaldo probably has to get back to the PSU beat for a couple weeks for their bowl game. So Zeise has the b-ball coverage including today’s online chat.

iambringingsexyback: Paul, after 10 games , what is the biggest weakness on this team? A legitimate scorer, someone who can take over a game? Lack of frontcourt depth?

Paul Zeise: That’s a great question. I think Mike Cook can be that go-to guy but he obviously has to become more assertive on offense and develop that scorers mentality. It is tough given the system the Panthers play for anyone to really step out like that but I think it really helps come tourney time when you have that one guy you can go to and get a basket when you need it. I think the outside shooting probably is still a question even though they’ve been shooting fairly well from the outside in most of their games. The only other question is this- – if a game is called tight, like most NCAA games are, especially in the NCAA, can this team adjust? They haven’t in the past, but this seems to be a little more skilled and athletic team than we’ve seen.

Everyone will have to step up on Saturday. Even with Gray Wisconsin matched up well with Pitt.

Pitt’s non-con schedule is starting to hit that “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” phase.

The John Chaney Award for reckless scheduling. Amazingly, Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon has done a complete 180 on pre-conference scheduling, going from one of the easiest slates in each of his first three seasons to what will probably be the most difficult any major team plays this year. It almost cost the Panthers when they scheduled a low-reward game at Buffalo, but they rallied to a 70-67 victory. They’ve still got games at Wisconsin (Saturday) and vs. Oklahoma State in Oklahoma City (Dec. 21).

That’s why the MAC and other mid-major conferences rarely get these kind of games. If you win, you’re supposed to. If you get upset, it exposes you. Even as all the pundits say with the other breath that these teams aren’t that bad and teams should play these games. There’s no real payoff.

Wisconsin has a game against UW-Milwaukee today (also the Panthers), but there is no way that the media isn’t peeking ahead.

This game will be the highlight game of the Badgers’ nonconference season. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon and UW coach Bo Ryan have similar philosophies: Win with fundamentals and by playing smart. They also don’t mind traveling to places other top programs would never go to become tougher. Pitt was tested Saturday when it traveled to mid-major Buffalo and eked out a 70-67 win – just the second time this season that its winning margin wasn’t double-digits. That was a 74-66 win at Auburn. The Tigers lost to Wisconsin 77-63 at the South Padre Island Invitational in late November. Florida State is also a common opponent. Pitt beat the Seminoles 88-66 at home while Wisconsin beat the Seminoles 81-66 at the Kohl Center.

Pitt and Wisconsin have other similarities, too. Both have a serious All-America candidate as well as a strong and deep supporting cast. The Panthers are led by Aaron Gray, a talented 7-foot, 270-pound senior center who averages 16.8 points, 10.8 rebounds and is shooting 64 percent overall. Mike Cook, a 6-4 junior swingman, averages 11.6 points and is shooting 56.6 percent overall and 35.7 percent from 3-point range. Antonio Graves, a 6-3 senior guard, averages 10.1 points and is shooting 49.4 percent overall and 48.1 percent from 3. The Panthers have nine players who average more than 12 minutes a game.

Pitt beat Wisconsin on New Year’s Eve last season as then-senior point guard Carl Krauser scored 22 points for the host Panthers, who shot 55.1 percent. Alando Tucker had 25 points for Wisconsin, which shot 42.1 percent.

It’s Saturday, noon on ESPN. Now the bad news. Dick Vitale will be doing the screaming.

Coach Dixon seems a little envious that Wisconsin gets a warm-up after a break with Milwaukee.

In years past under Dixon, Pitt would traditionally play a major-conference team between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The Panthers preferred to play smaller conference foes the weekend after final exams.

That is not the case this season with a trip to No. 7 Wisconsin Saturday. Wisconsin gave Pitt two dates for the game and this is the one that worked best for Pitt.

“It’s not ideal,” Dixon said. “But that’s what you have to do to get two of the best teams in the country to play. As you can see, there are not a lot of teams out there playing games like these.”

Wisconsin actually has size to match up with Pitt. Two strong 6′ 11″ players in Forward-Center Brian Butch and Center Greg Stiemsma, who like Gray, is also is willing and adept at passing out if the shot isn’t there.

I think this win is very good for Pitt if the team is fully aware that they are going to get every team’s best shot. This is the year, everyone knows who they are and wants to be the one to take them down. This is the year, they have a chance to move into UConn/Syracuse territory. The marquee Big East team everyone else is circling on the schedule to see and measure against. They got that today. If they don’t learn that lesson, then it was just a win, but not much else.
Buffalo is a good team. They did lose badly to Evansville, but also took out Temple and Miami (FL) (who has beaten GT). The Bulls have gotten into the NIT and actually won there. The Buffalo players expected to win and were disappointed with falling short.

“It’s bitter,” Idbihi said. “We had a chance to beat the No. 2 team in the country. We have a feeling that we just gave it away.”

Pitt led in the game for maybe 5 minutes. Of course, all that matters is leading at 00:00.

One thing that helped Pitt really comeback, was the fact that Buffalo took and missed so many  3s in the second half. They were only 1-11. That allowed Pitt to keep playing the deliberate style that keeps the tempo down the way they like.

Some of why Buffalo rushed shots had to do with fatigue. Their 5 starters logged 181 out of the possible 200 minutes. Pitt had the starters go only 153 minutes and 8 players had double-digit playing time.

Nice.

The days of scrambling around Western Pennsylvania looking for a place to watch Pitt men’s basketball games are over. Starting with Duquesne on Wednesday, 22 of the Panthers’ 23 regular-season games are televised, either on CBS, Fox Sports Pittsburgh or ESPN. Only a couple of Pitt’s first eight games were on local TV. The only non-televised game the rest of the season is Florida A&M on Dec. 30.

According to the Pitt schedule, even that game is on FSN/ESPN regional.

Sorry, had a lot of off-line things to do. Just got back. Fire away.

Halftime: Pitt leads 44-39. Pitt shooting really well, but Aurburn hanging tough.

I never got to post this link yesterday, but Auburn basketbal has been struggling mightily with getting anyone to show up for the games.

The average announced attendance at Auburn’s previous home games is 3,160. However, the realistic number is much closer to just 2,000 per game.

“It hasn’t been great,” Lebo notes. “We’re used to it. It’s been hard for our guys.”

…

In an effort to help the needy during the holiday season as well as increase attendance for the game against the Panthers, there will be free admission with an unwrapped toy as part of a Toys for Tots drive. Tickets for the general public are just $10 and student tickets are free to the first 500 and only $2 after that.

“They said when I got here that you’ve got to bring in better non-conference people in here to play, and I don’t know if we can get any better than this one,” Lebo notes.

It’s not like the football team had a game yesterdy.

Final: Here’s the box score. Despite free tickets, they only got around 6500 for this game, officially. Fields had a horrible game — probably his worst as a Panther, Kendall didn’t do any scoring but led in assists with 5 and grabbed 9 rebounds, Gray with a workmanlike double-double (16 points, 12 rebounds) and 6-7 on free throws. Antonio Graves provided the 1st half spark with 12 of his 14 points for the game and 5-5 shooting in the half.

Will Pitt be able to get away with hideous 3-point shooting against better teams even when the inside game is going, the defense is fine and the team is still passing the ball? Not likely. Can they get away with it against average teams in the Big East? Well, they have before but you don’t want to make it a habit. Can they get away with it against RMU? Obviously.

Just can’t get too wound about the first bad night of 3-point shooting. Consider that Pitt was 40-85 from the 3 before this game. That just wasn’t going to continue.

At one point, the Panthers missed 12 consecutive 3-pointers spanning nearly 24 minutes. Most of the misses were wide-open looks by Pitt, which entered the game shooting a Big East-leading 47.1 percent from behind the arc this season. It was the worst effort since going 2 for 20 at Connecticut last year.

Antonio Graves, Levance Fields and Keith Benjamin combined to go 0 for 9 from 3-point range. Ramon, who entered the game No. 3 in the Big East in 3-point shooting at 66.7 percent, was 2 for 7.

“We just weren’t shooting the ball well,” Ramon said, “the whole game.”

Pitt was much better from inside the arc, hitting 25 of 36 shots.

While a little more drastic than most would like, consider the RMU game something like a market correction. Coach Dixon still found the good.

“We built this program on defense and rebounding,” Dixon said. “Shooting isn’t there every night. … We took very good shots throughout the game. To win by 15 when you shoot the way we did, that says a lot about the other areas of our game.”

Pitt was sharp in other areas. The Panthers played strong defensively and won the rebounding battle. Forwards Levon Kendall and Tyrell Biggs held A.J. Jackson, Robert Morris’ leading scorer, to six points, 18 below his season average. Robert Morris was held to 22 points below its season average.

The Colonials played a tough game. Maybe they really are better than in years past. It seems likely they will turn out to have been a bigger challenge than the Duquesne Dukes will.

If you want more positives, consider that Aaron Gray really asserted himself when the team was sagging.

With Pitt shooting cold from the floor, Aaron Gray led the final charge as the Panthers took over the game with a 25-11 run in the final 13 minutes. Gray scored seven points, pulled down seven rebounds, and blocked one shot in that span.

“Coach Dixon pulled us back together and we got back to playing Pittsburgh basketball. That’s when we took over the game,” Gray said. “We stayed patient. Coach told us to slow things down and take our time and save the good shot for an even-better shot.”

Gray led all scorers with 21 points and rebounders with 15.

“This was a very good Robert Morris team who played real hard and came out flying with all their ammo and we just kept answering,” Gray said. “We came into the huddle and I told everybody I’m not mad you’re missing the shots. When you keep getting open shots and don’t take them, that’s when I’ll get mad.”

Gray did it on 10-13 shooting, and so far this season is near .700 on shooting. That’s very, very promising — not to mention very good for his NBA draft positioning.

Pitt also purposefully got the ball inside with good passes for the scores. 11 of Pitt’s 13 second half baskets were accompanied by an assist.

Sorry about the lack of an open thread. Too many real world things kept me away from the computer this evening.

Looks like Pitt had a horrible night shooting 3s — 2-17. Better to have it in a game like this. Yet, Pitt still won 67-53.

Gray had a fine game with 21 points and 15 boards.

Despite poor outside shooting, the team had 18 assists on 27 baskets.

At least, not right now. They got smoked by Wisconsin last night 81-66.

UMass is 6-1 but considering the most impressive win came against Northeastern, they aren’t exactly making the case they were a real challenge.

It’s good to find little things to help keep perspective.

Last year as Pitt was getting ready to face Robert Morris, the minor talk centered around the Colonials possibly not being interested in an annual beating by Pitt much longer. No such talk this year with RMU off to a 4-0 start and the favorite to win the NEC. Now it’s about each side trying to pump the other to keep expectations reasonable.

Pitt is trying to play up the experience and great start by the Colonials.

“No question, it’s the best team they’ve had from what I’ve seen,” Dixon said. “They had the one team that [lost to Central Connecticut State in the Northeast Conference tournament title game] with [Gene] Nabors, the transfer from LSU. I think this is the best all-around team. That team really revolved around [Nabors].

“This team is more balanced and experienced. They have some [junior-college] guys and transfers. And they have played minutes while they were building up, so that’s a big part of it. It’s by far the best team they’ve had and I’m glad to see it.”

The Colonials have beaten Florida International, Marshall, New Hampshire and Maine. The Marshall and Maine games were on the road.

Meanwhile RMU Coach Mark Schmitt is trying to keep things realistic.

Robert Morris coach Mark Schmidt isn’t holding his breath for road win No. 3.

“I’m comfortable with our team,” Schmidt said. “I’m just not comfortable playing the second-best team in the country.”

…

“We are playing with some confidence,” Schmidt said. “But we’re stepping up a little bit (tonight). We’re excited. It’s an opportunity these guys will remember the rest of their lives. We have nothing to lose.”

Only once in 25 meetings has Pitt not won the game by double digits. Pitt has won 14 games by 20 or more points, including 6 of the last 7 meetings.