The outcome may never be in doubt, but the game could be tougher than expected against the Robert Morris Colonials.

Coach Mark Schmidt’s Colonials are 4-0 and return an experienced team for the game against Pitt.

“I’m glad that Robert Morris is so good this year,” Dixon said. “They’re 4-0, and we’re familiar with their guys, and it’s great to see Mark doing so well and to see them playing so well this early in the season.

“They have two road wins, and I don’t think anybody in the country has two road wins at this point in the year, so to do that is very impressive. And when you look at their guys, it’s amazing how much they’ve improved.”

Pitt has beaten RMU all 25 previous times. The players are more familiar with one another than ever thanks to playing in the Pittsburgh summer league this past season.

The Colonials are led by Senior Forward A.J. Jackson, who has been the NEC player of the week for the second straight week. The two road wins came at Marshall and Maine.

The game is going to be shown locally on FSN-Pittsburgh, ESPN Regional and FullCourt subscription tomorrow at 7:30. Game Notes (PDF).

Okay, for those who like to predict the next comment from national naysayers about Pitt after the game of dominance over Florida State, it will most likely be something like, “yeah, but they haven’t really gone on the road yet. That Western Michigan neutral court game doesn’t really count.” The other option is to reverse field and say that FSU wasn’t really that good. Who knows, maybe there’s something to the latter.

Wow, an 88-66 win and the score wasn’t even that close. Pitt got the FSU All-American forward candidate Al Thornton in early foul trouble and blew the rest of the Seminoles out of the water. This despite little from Gray and Kendall. Giving pause, at least, to those who presume that a team that doesn’t have that one big player is not going to go far.

Graves and Ramon led the way from the outside, but Mike Cook again threw in 15. He’s already a reliable steady force. The depth on the team is exciting. Gilbert Brown played, so I’m reasonably sure that means his redshirt is done. He must have made a good recovery and showed the coaches something in practice. Cool. More depth and potential headaches, but not a bad kind to have.

BC went down to the Providence Friars. Nice to see another slow start for the Eagles, but I really am not wild about seeing BE teams play BC. Especially in B-ball where the Eagles are desperate to find games that they don’t have to travel far or pay a fortune to host.

Butler wants to show they aren’t one year wonders and took another step to that by knocking off Gonzaga. Still bitter about last year, but it isn’t just Pitt.

Wisconsin lost as well. Lots of early stumbles for top-ten teams.

Pitt gets back into action with Florida State (Game notes, PDF). It should be a good match-up tonight.

Game worth driving to see in person: Third-ranked Pittsburgh should get its first test against a talented and dangerous group of Florida State Seminoles Friday night (No, I’m not counting Pitt’s sluggish win over Oakland as a test). For the Panthers, this is the only obvious challenge until they visit No. 7 Wisconsin on Dec. 16. As for FSU, this is the start of a brutal stretch, one that features three consecutive games against top 10 opponents. The Seminoles, led by Al Thornton and Toney Douglas, also get Wisconsin on Tuesday and Florida on Dec. 3, proof that Leonard Hamilton is still trying to play an NBA schedule.

Pitt last played FSU in 2003, at the Pete. Pitt won 63-56. (FSU Gamenotes, PDF).
So which storyline to try first. Oh, let’s start with the issue of match-ups.

There will be nearly two dozen NBA scouts at Petersen Events Center tonight, but not all of them are coming to see Aaron Gray.

Florida State senior Al Thornton, one of the top players in the Atlantic Coast Conference and a projected first-round draft pick, will display his talents when the undefeated Seminoles (4-0) visit Pitt (5-0) for the Colonial Classic final.

Thornton, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound power forward, is considered one of the most physically gifted players in the nation…

…Thornton is averaging a team-high 16.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game for Florida State (4-0). He earned first-team All-ACC preseason honors and is ranked the No. 3 NBA prospect in the conference.

Because he’s improved his perimeter game, and he has outstanding athleticism, Thornton is among the toughest matchups that Pitt will face all season.

“He can go inside and outside,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “He’s so athletic and he can run. He plays hard. He’s skilled. He’s a senior, and he’s gotten better each year.”

Thornton will draw either Levon Kendall or Tyrell Biggs. Both of them will get help, including Gray, the 7-foot pre-season All-American senior center and projected first-round draft pick.

“There won’t be one guy guarding him,” Dixon said. “It will be a team defensive thing.”

The article points out that the power forward of any team Pitt has faced has gotten points this year. Lots of challenges in this game. FSU also has a talented backcourt to make Ramon, Fields, Graves and Benjamin have to really work on defense. They also play aggressive on both ends — plenty of steals and turnovers. They obviously like to play at a faster pace, and it is especially reflected in a defense that tries to fly at the guy with the ball and force mistakes.

“They’re very deliberate,” FSU senior forward Al Thornton said of the Panthers. “They’re not going to make mistakes; they execute their offense well. The thing that we feel like we can take advantage of is they like to run set plays. We feel like with our team defense and quickness, we can disrupt some of those plays.”

Of course, FSU has its own concerns in stopping a likely 1st rounder who came back for his senior year.

“He’s a load,” said 6-8 power forward Al Thornton, who expects to take a turn defending Gray when the Seminoles go with a small lineup. “We’re going to have to play helping team defense and execute our principles to slow him down.”

FSU coach Leonard Hamilton described Gray as a “point center” because the Panthers run so much of their offense through him to utilize his passing skills. A conventional approach of double-teaming the big man could be problematic.

“It’s a double-edged sword with him,” Hamilton said. “He’s finding cutters and he’s finding spot-up guys for shots.”

Both teams seem to see the need to go with help defenses with the opponent’s best player for this game. Not straight double-teaming but another guy collapsing on him or getting in front.

For FSU they are beginning a brutal stretch of games against top-10 teams.

But never, in all his years as a coach, has he encountered a stretch of games like he will be starting today. Florida State visits No. 3 Pitt tonight in the final game of the Colonial Athletic Association Classic at the Petersen Events Center. After that, the Seminoles travel to No. 7 Wisconsin Tuesday and then play at No. 1 Florida next Sunday.

Something about how the schedule worked out. FSU was victimized by a very soft non-con schedule and a down year in the ACC. It cost them a NCAA Tournament bid last year. They upgraded. Just as Pitt upgraded to improve its seeding and make sure a veteran, talented team wouldn’t take things for granted and know what would be expected all season.

Just can’t believe there is no TV coverage for this. Not even FSN-Pittsburgh or a Florida sports station. Radio only.

Pitt is 3d in the AP Poll and 3A (4th) in the Coaches poll. It’s nice but don’t take it seriously. Most of the polls are still about pre-season expectations and name recognition this early in the season.
5-0 is a solid start, and it is impressing people.

No. 5 Pittsburgh (5-0)
The Good: The Panthers proved they are for real. Pitt routed Massachusetts (one of the Atlantic 10’s top teams) 85-68 at home. Better yet, the Panthers proved they can play without 7-foot center Aaron Gray. With Gray’s minutes limited because of foul trouble and a cut on his lip that required seven stitches, the Panthers relied on their balance. Five players scored in double figures, but nobody had more than 14 points. Nine players have finished in double figures already.
The Bad: The balance is certainly impressive, but a go-to guy has yet to emerge – a role that trigger-happy Carl Krauser played for the last two seasons.
The Ugly: None.

Rex made a good point about Pitt not going to blow any team out of the water by 50 points.  Pitt is a very efficient team on offense, but they are not a run and gun team. The Pitt approach is to take their time to find the shot on offense and make the other team work hard on both ends of the ball. It’s a very controlled tempo. A team like UNC or Memphis will seek to run like crazy so they will have 50 point wins over Gardner-Webb. Pitt won’t. Don’t expect it or you will make yourself crazy complaining about wins.
Just remember, at least Pitt didn’t go down in flames to Stony Brook and are looking to a game with 0-3 Bucknell as a statement game. That’s building up the old confidence.

Losing a game won’t be the end of the world. Georgetown lost to Old Dominion today. Kansas lost to Oral Roberts earlier this week. UNC had to come back from an 8 point deficit at halftime to beat Winthrop. Washington struggled for a bit against Sacremento St. Only a fool writes those teams off at this point — at least based on those games. Teams will make mistakes. They will look ahead. They will start reading their own clippings. They will just have the proverbial “bad game.”
Pitt had a bit of a struggle, down four at halftime to Oakland. It looked like they might have been heading for a surprising loss. Down by 10 with 8 minutes left in the first half. They closed to within 4 at halftime. By about 5 minutes into the second half they took the lead for good. Pitt ended up winning 66-55. They may have had some struggles with fatigue for the 3d game in 3 nights, but the same applied to Oakland. This was, however, the point of the tournament. Get the team prepped and primed for a game a day.
Aaron Gray played 34 minutes and had another double-double with 23 points (10-14) and 13 rebounds.

The guard play struggled in this game. Ramon was only 1-4 (5 points) and had 2 assists and 3 TOs. Fields had his first struggle of the season with 2-7 (5 points) shooting and 6 assists to 4 turnovers. The most TOs he’s had all season. Graves was 1-5 (3 points) but had 4 assists and only 1 TO.
Pitt had more turnovers (17) to assists (15) in this game. It may have been the first game this season where Pitt shot under 50% (23-47).

Still, another win. The defense was solid. Toughening up to hold Oakland to 6-25 shooting in the second half. That’s what they needed to do when the offense gets off to a bad start.

Finally, ESPN decided the time for the Louisville-Pitt game. It will be a 3:30 pm ESPN telecast. That means plenty of time to tailgate and prepare for the final football game of the season.

It is still senior day. The last home game for Tyler Palko, H.B. Blades and others. Not to mention, likely the final game Darrelle Revis will play at Pitt.

So, um, does anyone mind if I just talk about some basketball for a little. The whole second half from last night’s Backyard Brawl really is not something I’m prepared to discuss quite yet.

There is a tournament that started a couple hours ago. UMass and Northeastern are playing right now and Pitt takes on Oakland at 5 pm tonight. There are two expected easy games for Pitt and two reasonable challenges.

“This was a great opportunity for us,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “When they came at us with UMass and Florida State … Who else is getting two games like that? The quality of teams in this tournament compared to other tournaments is pretty good.”

Dixon likes to play host to tournaments because they are exempt and have the advantage of keeping players in school and on campus.

As much as anything else, this is a very early rev-up for playing games on successive days.

“Three games in three days,” senior center Aaron Gray said. “This should be a pretty good test for us.”

The event will help prepare the Panthers for the rigors of the Big East Tournament, where it takes three-games-in-three days — at least — to win it all.

“Everything we’re doing,” Gray said, “is to get prepared for March.”

The UMass game tomorrow also adds the intrigue of Dante Milligan, a one-time Pitt player who transferred when he realized how much talent was ahead of him and his chances of getting playing time early weren’t there.

There is a patsy basketball game tonight to take some of the frustration away. The season opener against the Delaware State University Hornets. Coach Dixon’s 100th game as Pitt head coach.
You can even watch online, provided you have Internet Explorer 6.

One of the Hornets’ best player, Darrin Shine has been hobbled by a nasty ankle sprain for a while, but says he’s all better now.

Not that Pitt is taking DSU lightly. You can’t take the pre-season favorite to repeat as MEAC champ lightly. Seriously, they actually have some talent.

Senior Jahsha Bluntt, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard, is picked to win MEAC player of the year honors for the second consecutive season. He considered a shot at the NBA before changing his mind. And he might not even be the best player on his own team.

That honor could go to small forward Roy Bright, a 6-6 transfer from Big East rival Cincinnati. Bright played in all 33 games with the Bearcats as a freshman before being dismissed by then-coach Bob Huggins for having a concealed weapon.

Bright, one of the top recruits in the nation his senior year at Mount Zion (N.C.) Academy, shined at Garden City (Kan.) Community College last season. He turned down multiple major Division I offers to sign with Delaware State, based on a connection with a former high school assistant he knew.

Pitt expects, though, to do well tonight. Have to expect a juiced house.

Leftover from the Pitt-WMU game, a local NY paper gives some love to a couple of the local kids on Pitt’s roster, Tyrell Biggs and Keith Benjamin. It seems Biggs, much like Aaron Gray didn’t gain the freshman 15 so much as carry it from high school — so his svelte new figure was noticeable. Benjamin seems to be in a good place about coming off the bench. Or is at least saying the right things.

The 6-2 Benjamin must continue to play well to keep his spot in Pitt’s crowded backcourt mix. Six players saw action at guard against Western Michigan, although the competition is open following the graduation of starting point guard Carl Krauser.

“I definitely feel comfortable with my role coming off the bench,” said Benjamin, who averaged 15 minutes a game as a sophomore. “My goal every day is to work hard and bust into that starting lineup. If it never happens, I’ll just be satisfied with coming off the bench and bringing a spark to the team every time I come in.”

If there was one player I feared might not be happy with his minutes situation this season, it was Benjamin. He stands to have the hardest time to keep consistent minutes. I’m glad to read the postive attitude right now.

Noon game on ESPNU. Here are the Game Notes (PDF).
Domestic issues keep me from sneaking to a bar and somehow convincing a Cleveland area bar to give me one screen while the rest blare the Browns-Falcons game. That would be a tough sell around here, and the best argument to muster is the Ohio State women play at 3:30. It’s the trade-off to getting 12 hours or so of uninterrupted college football watching on Saturday. I have to do lots of other stuff on Sunday.

The Broncos are expected to be middle-of-the pack in the MAC. They don’t have a starter over 6′ 7″. The one thing that might make them a bit of a challenge or confusing is that they junked their old offense and are in a new style that Pitt hasn’t scouted or reviewed from old tapes.

Hawkins has, implementing an attack that, in a nutshell, leaves Reitz alone inside and four players on the perimeter — with an emphasis on pushing the ball up the floor and having a fluid inside-out game once the offense enters its halfcourt sets.

Through a month of practice and two exhibition games, the players have been vocal supporters of the change.

“Part of the reason we’re shooting better is we’re getting open shots instead of checked shots,” sophomore forward Derek Drews said after WMU’s second exhibition, during which the Broncos shot better than 48 percent for the second time. “If we don’t get an open shot in transition, we feel we can work our way to the middle and, once we’re in the middle, kick out for more open shots.”

Hawkins said last year’s team would struggle to score if it failed on the fastbreak. That, coupled with limited offensive talent, led to less than 41 percent shooting for the season.

Another player the spread-out attack benefits is Reitz, who averaged 15.5 points as a sophomore despite almost always having four to six hands in his face.

Apparently it got to the point in the MAC last year that teams were calling out exactly what the Broncos were doing as they were setting it up. Joe Reitz is their 6′ 7″ Center/Forward. It should present an early challenge to the perimeter defense and see if the Pitt players can keep the guys outside and from penetrating with the ball.

For Pitt, it’s about the expectations. The team and fans are ready to get this season going (especially after yesterday’s football game). THe team isn’t shying away from expecting big things this season. All the way through the NCAA Tournament.

“I’ve always had unrealistic expectations here,” Dixon said. “When I came here, they told me I had unrealistic expectations. Ben (Howland) told me I had unrealistic expectations. What people think are new expectations, I’ve already been through those and had those.”

Joe Starkey wants to remind everyone to enjoy the ride with all the expectations.

Realize how lucky you are.

Do you know how many teams in the brutal Big East have a better conference winning percentage than Pitt’s during that span? Only Connecticut, at 77.5 percent. Pitt has won 73.8 percent of its Big East games.

Do you know how many teams in the country have a better overall winning percentage? Precisely three. Here are the top five:

• Gonzaga – 84.5

• Duke – 84.3

• Illinois – 81.4

• Pitt – 80.1

• UConn – 79.5

Pitt has reached the championship game of the Big East Tournament four times in the past five years and has an NCAA Tournament record of 7-5, which means you’ve seen more exciting games, more victories, than just about any group of college basketball fans in the country.

Counterpoint, is that all of those other teams made it past the Sweet Sixteen at least once.

But do yourself a favor. Avoid putting too much thought into March. You might miss a lot of memorable nights along the way.

Fair enough. I’m hoping to enjoy this season immensely.

Well, since this is still the old BE TV contract, it’s nice that Pitt gets to take advantage of the rules.

The Big East national TV schedule for this season is listed and meaningless comparisons.

I’m working from the assumption that the most desirable spots are on CBS, ESPN and ESPN2.
Pitt is the winner with 2 CBS games, 12 on ESPN and ESPN2, 1 on ESPN Regional, (thankfully only) 1 on ESPNU and 0 on ESPN360.com.

Villanova came closest to Pitt on the key three with 2 CBS, 11 on ESPN and ESPN2. What’s interesting is the love (or hatred depending on where you are and your system) ‘Nova got from the rest of the ESPN family: 2 ESPN Regional, 3 ESPNU and 1 ESPN360.

Georgetown did well with 2 CBS games, 10 ESPN/2, 2 ESPN Regional and 2 on ESPN360.

Louisville essentially matched with 2 on CBS, 10 ESPN/2, 2 ESPN Regional and 1 ESPNU.

UConn has a very interesting showing. They dominate on CBS with 4, but only have 6 on ESPN/2. In addition they have 2 ESPN Regional and 1 ESPNU.

Syracuse avoided the Regional, and the other ESPN junk. They have only 1 CBS game and 8 on ESPN/2.

Marquette was respectable with 1 CBS game and 6 ESPN/2 showings. They have a bunch on the hidden channels: 2 ESPNU and 3 ESPN360.

West Virginia gets some residual love, despite much lower expectations. 1 CBS game, 6 ESPN/2 showings and 1 ESPN Regional.

The Pitt basketball non-con has gotten plenty of love for finally being tougher.

All those easily beatable teams Pitt played in November and December often caught up to the Panthers in March. Their NCAA tournament seeding didn’t always seem comparable to the record they achieved.

Last season, the Panthers won their first 15 games and played in the Big East tournament championship game for the fifth time in six years, yet were only fifth-seeded in their region. Some players suggested they might have had the same seeding even if they hadn’t won three Big East tournament games in three days.

If the Panthers are seeded lower than expected in the 2007 tournament, and they certainly expect to appear in it, their schedule probably won’t be the culprit.

I’ve been an advocate of a tougher non-con schedule for years. My reasons were concerned with the NCAA seeding but had as much to do with this:

• More TV exposure early in the year, which only happens when you play good teams (or you are Duke) since this allows those of us not living in Pittsburgh to actually see the games plus it helps for recruiting to point to the number of TV games.
• It gets so tiresome after a while to hear the talking heads on ESPN screaming about how Pitt hasn’t played anyone yet (admittedly not a great reason, but anything to shut up Gottlieb is a good thing).
• I follow the RPI way too closely, and seeing triple digit non-con SOS just depresses the hell out of me.

So now, Pitt has a solid non-con. It isn’t an insane gauntlet. It’s got the “gimmee” with games against Western Michigan, Delaware St., Northeastern, Duquesne, Robert Morris, Florida A&M, Buffalo and Oakland. Respectable to challenging games with Florida State (which could be seen as an even tougher game by the end of the season), at Auburn, UMass and Dayton. Then it has the good to excellent match-ups at Wisconsin, Washington, and at Oklahoma St.

So Mike DeCourcy (who I consider one of the best national b-ball writers and like to read) at The Sporting News gives a bit of the contrarian view.

The Panthers have significantly increased the difficulty of their pre-conference schedule — it’s gone from Putt-Putt to Pebble Beach in just one year — and so comes the inevitable reaction. Which is? It’ll help the Panthers come March.

Oh, yes, we’ve heard that one before.

When Michigan State took on Duke, UCLA, Kentucky and Kansas in 2003-04, it was going to make the Spartans tougher in March. How’d that work out? The Spartans were beaten frequently, earned only a No. 7 seed and were upset by Nevada in the tournament’s first round.

Under John Chaney, Temple played absurdly difficult schedules annually, averaging six non-league road games the past three years. The Owls haven’t even seen March since 2001.

The team that won last year’s NCAA championship, Florida, played St. Peter’s, Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M, among others. The Gators’ non-league schedule was rated No. 253 by the RPI duplication published at Collegerpi.com. That team still earned a No. 3 seed and played pretty fair ball in March.

It’s a lost aspect to Florida winning the National Championship last year, but for those advocating teams play tougher non-con schedules, Florida just took away the “it toughens them up for the NCAA” and/or helps with seeding arguments.

DeCourcy, though, is fair in the piece. He does offer a good reason for Pitt to do this. Especially this year.

What a challenging non-league schedule does for a team — a veteran team like these Panthers — is prevent the players from getting bored. Not that this outfit is so complete that boredom is the only obstacle. Coach Jamie Dixon still is figuring out who’ll be his starting small forward, how to best use versatile forward Sam Young and whether there’ll be sufficient outside shooting threats. He’s got two experienced point guards, but Ronald Ramon and Levance Fields will have slightly different roles than a year ago.

Figuring out roles for everyone and the rotation will be the big challenge early in the season. I’d rather have that problem, though.

I’m mildly surprised Pitt didn’t make either poll. Not a big deal, but with the total domination on a game that everyone saw — no competition is the bright side to the Friday night game — with all the upsets. It was more surprising that Georgia and Iowa stayed in the polls with 2nd straight losses to teams that don’t exactly have football heavyweight reputations. Just more incentive for the team to take care of business against Rutgers on Saturday.

It is confirmed, that the game will be played at 5:45 and shown on ESPN2. Rutgers is ranked, so this will be big. Imagine that, a homecoming with big implications. Those class reunion dinners will be cancelled or changed to brunch.

Pitt swept the Big East weekly honors this week. LaRod Stephens-Howling named Offensive Player of the Week. Chris McKillop took Defensive POW.

In light of the season ending injury to redshirt sophomore, safety Eric Thatcher, Coach Wannstedt’s messge was to remind many players in practice that they could be expected to step in and perform as a starter. Obviously that message was one Chris McKillop heeded a while ago.

“I went out there every day and, even though I wasn’t a starter, I played like I was,” McKillop said. “I practiced hard and let the chips fall where they may. It was unfortunate we lost Doug, because he’s a great player, but it gave me an opportunity. I can’t let the window of opportunity close. I seized the opportunity.”

McKillop’s inspired play has been paramount to the Panthers’ improvement on the defensive line. After getting manhandled in his first season at defensive end, the 6-foot-3, 250-pound converted middle linebacker spent the offseason adding 15 pounds of muscle to his frame.

McKillop lost the starting job at left end to Joe Clermond in training camp, but he was ready when called upon after Fulmer was injured against The Citadel.

“That was a tough situation,” Pitt defensive line coach Greg Gattuso said. “That’s a hard thing to do, lose a starting job and to keep working as hard as he worked. It should send a message to not only our defensive line but, hopefully, all our team that you never know when your number is going to get called again and it’s important to be ready.”

Assuming that Pitt beats UCF on Friday and Rutgers beats Navy on Saturday (netither, especially the latter, is a given), the Homecoming game (Oct. 21) with Rutgers should be a very big game in the Big East and for the top-25 rankings. If so, it will likely end up on ESPN2 and move the gametime to 5:45 pm from noon. Apparently ESPN2 is going to show a BE game in that slot. The other choice would be Louisville-Syracuse.

It’s all about making the most of the chances being given.

It’s been a hectic fall. One thing I was meaning to post, especially for those of you who don’t live in the Pittsburgh area, was the collage of this year’s Pitt season tickets.

They’ve had better collages. This one really struggles especially when you realize how disjointed the WVU ticket will look when separated.

In case you had any doubts about how much Pitt is the presumed “Big Dog” in the Big East this season, the game at ‘Nova will not be played in their cozy, on-campus court. Instead it will be at the Wachovia Center.

Villanova announced yesterday that its men’s basketball team will host Pittsburgh on Jan. 29 at the Wachovia Center.

The Wildcats will play five regular-season games at the arena, including games against Texas on Jan. 20, Louisville on Feb. 3, Georgetown on Feb. 17, and Syracuse on March 3.

That’s the Big Monday, 7pm  game on ESPN.