The Big East released the full schedule, which means all the Big East team skeds are final. Including Pitt’s.

As this is a rebuilding year for Pitt, the national TV coverage dips a bit. The Panthers are “only” on national TV 11.5 times (I’m not sure if the CBS Sports channel should counts as  national) out of the 31 games. For those of us out of the Pittsburgh market, that’s 19 games that we can hope Fox Sports Pittsburgh picks up so that it will be part of the ESPN Full Court and 360 packages.

O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic Semifinals and Finals (Kansas City, Mo.)

Jimmy V. Classic (New York, N.Y.)

Overall, looking at the full schedule for the Big East (PDF), it is Villanova with the major media love this year. They appear on the ESPN group and CBS a whopping 18 times. Louisville, UConn and WVU do it 15. Syracuse has 14. Georgetown and Pitt have 12 appearances. Cinci is the last to reach double-digits with 10.

The honor of fewest appearances (unsurprisingly) goes to USF with 2. Providence, Rutgers and DePaul each have 3. Then it is St. John’s with 5, Seton Hall and Marquette with 7 and ND with 9.

So the fun is about 2 months away. A season with a lot of questions, but lots of anticipation despite the lower expectations.

A bunch of stories that just need the links, in the wake of Pitt media day and the start of practice beginning today.

Pitt at NC State, 3:30 pm on ESPNU. I will be ticked if the home game next year is at noon.

Aaron Berry is on the Jim Thorpe Award watch list for best defensive back.

The Sporting News preview of Pitt has the Panthers at #28.

Hugh Green missed his ride to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Apparently they are ticked about it and won’t enshrine him now. Green apologized.

Pitt verbal commit, WR/CB Kevin Weatherspoon out of Clairton gets a story. He chose Pitt because of the closeness to home and that Pitt came the hardest after him.

Greg Romeus swears he isn’t even thinking about the NFL as he heads into his junior year. His only focus is on Pitt, this year.  What else do you expect him to say?

It’s expensive and tough trying to schedule 5 non-conference games every year.

Coach Wannstedt’s first recruiting class are seniors. My how time flies.

Still, that class produced nine starters (Byham, Berry, Romeus, Fields, Pinkston, Dickerson, Malecki, cornerback Jovani Chappel and guard/tackle Joe Thomas), and a handful of other players like Nate Nix and Tyler Tkach who have been special-teams starters and/or reserves at their respective positions.

Wannstedt said the fact that this team will not have any big-name superstars is not a negative because it has a lot of good players to complement a few players with superstar potential, like Romeus and Byham.

He said he chose Romeus (a redshirt junior), Byham and Malecki, who was one of the first players to commit to the Panthers that year, to bring to media day because they exemplify the character he believes this team will have.

And to spare Bill Stull repetitive questions about his performance in the Sun Bowl. Not that Stull isn’t aware of it.

“You can’t really help but be aware of it, whether you’re looking at (the Internet) or not,” said Stull, a Poland, Ohio, native who played at Seton-La Salle High School. “I know my hometown, the people in it. I’ve played football here since I moved here in middle school. I’m used to it. I take it. I have no problem with it. It’s not the greatest feeling in the world, but I’m mentally tough enough to put that aside and use it as fuel.

“One minute you’re on top of the world, winning football games left and right. You throw a couple picks, and people are calling for your head. It comes with the territory, the consequences that come with it. You’ve got to put those things aside mentally and worry about what does matter: it comes down to winning football games.”

You know, it wasn’t the picks so much as the arm strength and accuracy.

Not the full schedule, but at least the non-con has been finalized. Good sign for Pitt to actually have the schedule out in early August. It means they weren’t scrambling to find a couple more games like they have the past few years.

2009-10 PITT MEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE

(as of August 6, 2009; schedule subject to change)

Date Opponent (TV) Location Time

O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic Semifinals and Finals (Kansas City, Mo.)

Jimmy V. Classic (New York, N.Y.)

Note the exhibition game for Pitt against D-II Coker College Cobras from Hartsville, SC. The Cobras’ Head Coach Dan Schmotzer was an assistant at TCU when Coach Dixon was a player. so that might explain this exhibition rather than some other more local D-II team.

Fan Fest is October 3. That does not interfere with a football game as Pitt plays at Louisville on Friday night, October 2.

Is a Twitter post that is deleted more credible or means something is likely to happen more than a mention on a sports radio show?

You may recall last summer that the Georgia Tech AD Dan Radackovich said that GT was nearing a deal for a home-and-home with Pitt. Pitt’s AD denied, and nothing has come of it.

This time Block U noted a tweet from Utah’s Assistant Athletics Director of Corporate Sales and Ticket Operations, Zack Lassiter (Who’s picture is a huge disappointment for someone named Zack Lassiter.) saying that Utah was close to having Pitt come to Salt Lake City in 2010.

The tweet has since been deleted, and there is no other word. It might be a case where it got leaked before the parties had finished a contract or were ready to release.

Or it could simply be way too soon and merely teams still talking and not even close to an agreement.

UPDATE (4:40): And just like that I’m smacked upside the head by the Pitt athletic department. Here’s the announcement on Utah.

Pitt and Utah have agreed to a home-and-home football series beginning with the 2010 season, University of Pittsburgh athletic director Steve Pederson announced.

Pitt will play at Utah on Sept. 11, 2010. The Panthers will host the Utes the following season on Oct. 15, 2011.

The 2010 encounter will mark the first-ever regular-season game between the two schools.

Happy to be shown up.

Little things worth noting, that do not have a real common thread.

Michigan needs an opponent to start 2010 in the refurbished Big House.

Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez said Michigan is close to signing a deal with a major-conference opponent to open the 2010 season. “We’re looking at a BCS school,” Rodriguez said. Duke, Virginia and Pitt are among the BCS schools with open dates in Week 1 next year.

I have a hard time believing ole’ Dick Rod would really want to risk scheduling Pitt to open Year 3 of his term at Michigan, with the updated stadium. Still…

Brian Bennett makes his predictions regarding Pitt. He sees Greg Romeus having a big year and going pro, Pitt beating the Irish, and a blindingly obvious prediction.

1. Bill Stull will take the most reps at quarterback: There’s a heated quarterback battle underway on the Panthers, with Pat Bostick and Tino Sunseri nipping at incumbent starter Stull’s heels. Stull didn’t help himself with a poor stretch run last year and an awful Sun Bowl performance. But I think that, in the end, Dave Wannstedt will go with the experienced senior over the other two candidates, though all three will probably see the field at some point. Whether Pitt can win the Big East depends largely on how Stull (or the other two) come through.

Frankly, I think Bennett overstates how much of a competition there really will be. This is already a given to most fans. As Jones at Cat Basket has already noted that Coach Wannstedt has essentially said it is Stull’s job unless Stull blows it.

I don’t think anyone is really shocked. Disappointed? Perhaps. Frustrated? Sure. This is still Coach Wannstedt’s team. There may be a new OC, but the call is ultimately the head coach’s. Wannstedt will go with the QB he feels will make the fewest mistakes — not the one that will give Pitt the best chance to win.  And I don’t know if Bostick or Sunseri or even Kolby Gray are truly better than Stull. I am certain, though, that Wannstedt trusts Stull not to make the big mistakes more than the other QBs.

A good interview/discussion with defensive coordinator Phil Bennett on defending the spread.

Your defense at Pitt is built on undersized but fast guys. Does that help against the spread?

PB: I think obviously it helps on the pass rush against play-pass because you don’t have as long to throw it. In the spread read game, it makes the quarterback have to make a faster decision, whether it’s give, keep, throw the bubble. And I think what it also does — I keep using the word equalizer — but if you blitz this thing it’s dangerous. If you don’t hit the right blitz, there’s a chance — and you’ve seen it over and over again — the dive can go 80 straight up the field, or the pitch, or the quarterback keeper. So you’ve really got to be careful how you pressure. It makes people think twice about pinning their ears back and taking off and getting after people.

That goes back to our philosophy. We’re a speed defense. … I just believe that speed beats size. If you look at it right now, so many people are running a version of the spread that outside linebackers are what I would call a tweener safety/linebackers. You look at our guys, and Austin Ransom was a former wide receiver/safety. Greg Williams we handpicked; he was a running back. I think the days of the 6-foot-3, 235-pound plug linebackers on the edge are gone, for the time being.

I’m a firm believer in that I don’t think you recreate your defense. We had a lot of people come up and visit because they liked the way we played it this year. We’re sort of a nickel defense to begin with.

I haven’t focused much on the preseason mags, because they seem as unsure about the Big East and Pitt as I do. The NY Times clocks Pitt at #42 overall (probably placing Pitt 4th or so in the BE). Really, the only reason to mention this preview is that they wisely mention this blog as a destination.  They also point out that the issue of QB play looms large.

While Pitt is still yet to list the basketball schedule, things trickle from others. Kent State is on the schedule. Coming to the Pete on Saturday, December 12.

It took all weekend, but the reports of Sam Young signing with the Grizzlies have finally been confirmed. The reports surfaced as early as late-Thursday night, but took until the end of the weekend for the Grizz to confirm. No terms announced — of course — but it appears to be a $2 million deal guaranteed over three years along with around $600,000 in incentives — the first two years base pay is around $900,000 per. The Griz hold the option for the third year which suggests that if they don’t exercise the option they pay him about $200 K to leave.

The Grizzlies finished the summer league 5-0. As 3 Shades of Blue simply put it:

Sure, it doesn’t mean much (except that it can surely add fissile-quality fuel  to the debate that rages over draft picks and placement).  But darnit, all eleven of us that count ourselves as what could be termed “Grizzlies fans” are jonesin’ for something to view positively, and view summerleague positively we will.

and Sam Young was part of the good.

Sam Young playing like the experienced player that he is, and showing that he has an idea already how he’ll earn his paycheck in the NBA-knowing how to use his size on the perimeter on both ends and having enough of a nose for the ball inside to grab some rebounds.

Thabeet, to the surprise of no one who watched the Big East, was a disappointment in that fans of the pro game realize he is an even bigger project than expected for the NBA.

Gilbert Brown, is hoping to emulate the progression of Sam Young. Tantalizing, promising athletic talent in his first year of playing. A seeming step back in his second but emerging in his junior year as he gets stronger and more committed to the full game (at least that’s how the storyline is shoehorned).

Brown contends he realized he needed to be bigger long ago (“Just watching this league, not even playing in it, you got to know how physical it is,” he said.), but youth and a spot often outside the starting five may have contributed to the late start. Injuries, too, have collared Brown, who suffered through ankle and shoulder problems and missed his true freshman year with a medical redshirt.

“I feel great now. I feel like I’m in great shape,” Brown said. “My shoulder’s fine; it hasn’t hurt for a while. My ankles, well, they’ll always be my ankles.”

In addition to an increased workout regimen, Brown said he’s been focused on his shooting and ballhandling, building upon a strong second half of last year when he was a key to the Panthers’ first Elite Eight appearance of the modern NCAA Tournament era.

With his new and improved body, Brown may appear to be a Young-type player in the Panthers’ strong forward position. But with newcomers Dante Taylor, Talib Zanna and J.J. Richardson entering a frontcourt with Nasir Robinson, Dwight Miller and Gary McGhee, Brown’s better off remaining in the rotation at the swing spot. There, he’ll likely compete with Brad Wannamaker for the starting spot as Jermaine Dixon slides over to the two guard on offense.

That doesn’t mean Brown can’t play the way Young did in his two seasons as Pitt’s top scorer. Young developed a solid outside shot and drove from the perimeter inside, much like the three would do in the Panthers’ offense.

Brown’s game has seemed to follow Young’s pattern. Now, his body does, too.

Even Gilbert Brown seems unsure what to expect from his ankles (other than a sense of betrayal).

Levance Fields is getting ready to head overseas, but still has his eyes on the NBA.

That ability extends beyond the hardwood. The 22-year-old Fields, who grew up in the rough-and-tumble Brownsville Houses, has long had a penchant for turning struggles into successes. He established himself as a big-game floor general at the University of Pittsburgh, the latest in a string of metro-area guards to stand out at the Big East school.

“He’s shouldered a lot in his life,” says Pitt assistant Brandin Knight. “It’s made him mature beyond his years.”

Ask Fields why he wants to play in the NBA, and he gives a quick response: He says he wants to buy his mother Koreen Thomas a house, one far from Brownsville.

“I go home to see her all the time … she still lives there,” he says. “I go home, and I’m just a homebody, hanging out with her. I hardly go outside.”

Fields speaks quietly when he talks of his old haunt, as if reflecting on each word. Last year, the 73rd Precinct, which encompasses Brownsville and Ocean Hill, reported 31 murders, the most in the city according to the NYPD.

There’s also a nice sidebar piece looking at Travon Woodall as the next possible PG at Pitt.

Woodall, who’s 5-11, lacks Fields’ savvy and court vision, but he brings speed and athleticism. “I’m more athletic than him,” Woodall says. “I can jump. I’ve caught some (alley-)oops.”

He also picked up plenty of wisdom from Fields. While sitting on the bench, he watched Fields run the offense; by the end of the season, he was often pointing out Fields’ mistakes during timeouts.

“It was weird,” Woodall says. “I started feeling like his father, criticizing him.”

Of course the competition to start at PG will be with Ashton Gibbs, who isn’t shying from expectations with Pitt.

“I think people are definitely underestimating us,” Gibbs, a rising sophomore point guard, said last week at the Joe Brown Memorial tournament. “We’re bringing a lot back. We lost four starters but we’re bringing a lot back, a lot of reserves back. We’re the same team that went at the starters in practice last year so we know we can play against some of the best players in the country.”

And this more than a little rose-colored glasses look at Pitt players’ summer league performances.

Throughout the summer league all four true freshmen showed their ability at times and the two redshirt freshman showed signs of improvement. Because practice is such a critical factor in how the rotation comes to form, it is too early to name any certainties as starters, but there are two clear facts about this version of the Panthers: this team is extremely deep, and there are a lot of options with the personnel of the roster.

With the summer league over, one thing that is certain is that there will be some serious battles at every single spot on the floor this year. Despite all the uncertainly, Panther fans should be pleasantly optimistic about this young group.

It’s a little on the overly-gushing side, and yes it’s summer league. Still it is an encouraging read.

Pitt put out a press release updating the football schedule with known times. At this point, there are only 5 times set for games. Two Friday night road games at Louisville and Rutgers, and now the first 3 games of the season.

September 5 —— Youngstown St. — 1 pm

September 12 —– at Buffalo ———- 12 pm

September 19 ———- Navy ———– 6 pm

Not surprised the YSU game is early. Excited to see the Navy game is in the evening. It means, getting to stay the night in the ‘Burgh rather than going right home.

There are potentially 3 other dates that could be noon starts.

Then there is the Big East releasing the Conference schedule match-ups. Not the when. Just who and where.

For Pitt, well given the pure unknown quantity of the team, the schedule seems challenging enough.

Home opponents at the Petersen Events Center will include DePaul, Georgetown, Louisville, Providence, Rutgers, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Villanova and West Virginia.

The Panthers’ 2009-10 road opponents include Cincinnati, Connecticut, Marquette, Notre Dame, St. John’s, Seton Hall, South Florida, Syracuse and West Virginia.

Pitt’s three repeat opponents are St. John’s, Seton Hall and West Virginia.

Notice a theme with the repeat opponents?

Sure WV is there. Rival and all. But St. John’s and Seton Hall? It’s a double-double dose of Western PA kids against Pitt. D.J. Kennedy gets two cracks as does Herb Pope.

I like to believe these storylines aren’t pre-planned when they set the schedule, but that just seems like quite the double coincidence.

Just eyeballing it, I really don’t know what to expect. I see Villanova and WVU as the top teams in the conference. The next tier is probably UConn, Louisville and Georgetown. Then a big wide-open middle that could include Pitt, Cinci, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Syracuse, and maybe Notre Dame.

After that it’s Providence and Marquette with USF, Rutgers and DePaul at the barrell’s bottom.

I could honestly see Pitt as anywhere from 12-6 in the conference to 6-12.

About early starts for home football games this year? Pitt has 7 home games. 4 in the conference. No times for any of them have been confirmed, but it looks like up to 3 conference home games could be noon starts.

The Big East announced the 2009 Big East Game of the Week schedule. These are games that get the noon start. Well, they sort of announced it. ESPN gets first dibs on most of the games, so we won’t actually know for sure until a couple weeks before each game. That said, three of Pitt’s home conference games are potential BE Games of the Week.

Sat., Oct. 10 *    Connecticut at Pittsburgh or West Virginia at Syracuse

Sat., Oct. 24 * Louisville at Cincinnati or Connecticut at West Virginia or USF at Pittsburgh

Sat., Nov. 7 * Connecticut at Cincinnati or Louisville at West Virginia or Syracuse at Pittsburgh

I guess the good news is that Pitt is under consideration for plenty of ESPN network appearances if they do well enough in the non-con.

Of course, it is looking like those of us going to the games may be slaves to the early start to feed the bitch goddess of TV revenue.

A slight exaggeration for the new Big East Commish. After all, he’s only been on the job for a couple days now. That said, could you plan the info dumps a little better?

This is July 2. Half the country is starting their July 4 holiday weekend tomorrow. That means today is a getaway day. People traveling. Trying to pack. Organize. Run errands. Generally, just not working or in a position to sit down and get information.

So, naturally the Big East chooses today to release not just the conference opponent list for men’s basketball, but also more times for the football games.

Here’s the deal with days like this. It’s when you dump the bad news. Not the good and interesting stuff.

As posted a couple weeks ago, Pitt now has the press release confirming playing Indiana at MSG on December 8 in the Jimmy V Classic. The game, of course, will be on ESPN and is the main event at 9pm. The undercard is Georgetown-Butler (which may very well be the game that actually features ranked teams).

No word yet on purchasing tickets through Pitt.

Down in New Zealand, the USA U-19 team had no trouble blowing Iran right out of the place with a 106-55 win. Coach Jamie Dixon made sure everyone played, and all but one player had double digit minutes (PDF).

Ashton Gibbs had a nice game. He played 20 minutes (tied for most on the team). He shot 4-6 (2-2 on 3s) for 10 points. He grabbed 2 rebounds and 2 steals. He had 4 assists (tied for the most) and 1 turnover.

Yes, it was only Iran and the USA should blow them out, but still a good start.

Now here’s a good game for Pitt to be playing at Madison Square Garden for the Jimmy V Classic.

Just confirmed – through a source – that Pittsburgh will play Indiana on Tues., Dec. 8 at Madison Square Garden.

Indiana will be young, but loaded with talent. It should be a tough game for Pitt. Definitely a marquee game. Something, apparently Pitt really wanted for this game.

Pitt was approached about playing Boston College in the Jimmy V Classic in December in New York but the Panthers decided against the matchup. Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson said he wanted more of a national game. But there was another reason for his decision against the opponent. Pederson was concerned that there were stories written in Boston during the East Regional that it was Boston College — a former Big East school now in the ACC — hosting onetime Big East rivals. Pederson said he didn’t want that to be the story again in December.

Burn!

Pederson denies that there is any actual ban by Pitt or the Big East in playing BC — but at the same time it seems clear that Pitt is in no rush to bother with the Eagles.

Pederson said the Panthers and Eagles will likely inevitably play. He said if there were no other opponents he wouldn’t be against playing the Eagles.

That sounds like a real eagerness. On the one hand, it was nice to own the Eagles and to have a chance to remind them of that would be nice. On the other, I’m all for not playing BC and keeping them to have to either pay to bring in the cupcakes or spend more on their travel budget to go further away for games.

Game time is set for 7:05 on Saturday night.

A rematch of earlier in the year.

Mizzou-UConn is the early game at 4:40

Big East is just slightly dominating.

Pitt will be playing in the CBE Classic next year.

The field includes Texas, Wichita State and Iowa. Each team will play a couple games at home, and the four regional hosts (i.e., name teams) are guaranteed to advance to Kansas City. There they will play two more games.

Tickets for the games in KC went on sale today.

The actual match-ups in KC will not be announced for a while.

Excellent for Pitt. A solid looking exempt tournament that gets ESPN coverage. The way it looks is they will try to set it up so Pitt and Texas would meet in the Championship game.

Either that, or make sure you are plugged into (and your work network is not blocking) March Madness on Demand.

Pitt will take on ETSU at approx. 2:55 pm on Friday.

The announcers will be Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery for both rounds. Awesome