Offseason means lists. They are easy, they fill column space quickly, but without much actual content. So let’s just see what there is.

How about a list of the top-25 expected stars of college football 2005:

17. Tyler Palko, QB & Greg Lee WR Pittsburgh
The fiery Panther star quarterback will bomb away with sure-thing Biletnikoff finalist Lee for one of the Big East’s most dangerous tandems.

I said it before, there will be pressure on Wannstedt and new offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh, not to screw this part up.

An almost interesting list, gauging the difficulty of football players qualifying academically at Division I-A schools. The devil is in the details, or in this case, the methodology:

Here is our gauge on how the 119 Division I-A universities rate — on a four-level scale — at getting football players into school. Ratings were determined through interviews with about two dozen coaches, conference officials, recruiting coordinators and academic coordinators. Important to note: Schools are measured only against schools in their conference. In other words, don’t compare a Big Ten school with a Pac-10 school.
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Big East — 8 schools

Buckle down: None

Semi-tough: Syracuse

Semi-easy: Connecticut, Pittsburgh, USF

All in: Cincinnati, Louisville, Rutgers, West Virginia

The disclaimer should read, highly inaccurate and speculative, but kind of fun if you don’t take it seriously.

Then a ratings list on the coaching hirings around college football. Pitt falls in the middle of the pack, as does Stanford.

13. Dave Wannstedt, Pittsburgh

This hire impresses who? Wannstedt is almost at the retread stage having made his bones long ago as a University of Miami and Dallas defensive assistant. The one good thing, supposedly, is that Wanny is a Pittsburgh grad and knows the landscape.

Came from: The unemployment line after resigning following a 1-8 start with the Dolphins in 2004.

Best-case scenario: Pittsburgh takes control of the Big East, something Walt Harris was never able to do.

Worst-case scenario: The closest the Panthers get to Steelers excellence is the practice facility the two teams share.

14. Walt Harris, Stanford

Sorry, but Harris never struck anyone as the patient, academic type who welcomes the administration building telling him who he can recruit.

Came from: Pittsburgh.

Best-case scenario: Harris restores his, and Stanford’s, quarterback legacy.

Worst-case scenario: Stanford keeps losing fans and games at a rapid pace. The Buddy Teevens hire was a mistake. AD Ted Leland can’t afford to whiff again.

I expect more lists in the coming weeks.

Sorry, just a long day.

Here are the articles from the Pittsburgh papers.

Is it time for the Pitt men’s basketball team to hit the panic button? Stay tuned, because it just might be.

The Panthers lost for the third time in five games Tuesday night, as Daryll Hill led St. John’s to a 65-62 upset victory at Madison Square Garden.

How bad was this one?

Consider this: The 21st-ranked Panthers (12-3, 2-2 Big East) not only lost to a team that was picked to finish dead last in the conference, but they lost at a place they call their “second home.”
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And, even if a Panthers player wanted to argue, nobody would have known after the game. The Panthers were rushed to the team bus and kept from meeting with the media, the first time that has happened in recent memory.

Coach Jamie Dixon was the lone representative for Pitt, which has lost all three of its games in the final minute. His team clearly lost its New York swagger last night.

“We need to get better in a number of areas,” said Dixon, who was forced to use a new starting lineup because of the suspension of guard Yuri Demetris, who was charged Sunday with two counts of burglary and one count of simple assault on his ex-girlfriend. “We are obviously not where we want to be.”

I think the fact that Dixon had the team duck the media is absolutely stunning and unnerving. It makes me wonder what he was afraid they would say? Finger pointing at each other? More false bravado? What? It just isn’t good.

The play-by-play of the game reveals a typical scenario for Pitt. Play okay in the first half, but not great defense. Then have a big lull in the second half where the opposing team either builds its lead or makes a huge comeback. Then Pitt finally regroups to either pull it out or fall short.

Since I didn’t see the game, I can only go by what I’m reading from others, the play-by-play and the box score. The box score shows an almost even match of the teams overall numbers. My sense from everything, overall, though, is that Pitt just didn’t want the game as much as St. John’s. That is something you hate to even think about your team. That the effort, the desire is not there.

Krauser may have shot well, but he turned the ball over a whopping 8 times. Either his game is regressing, or he is having even more problems with that shoulder than he cares to admit.

Ramon, played more minutes off the bench than all of the starters except Krauser. I actually see Ramon as the closest thing to a bright spot in this game. He may have only been 2-5, but he had 5 steals and 3 assists. The downside is that he was a hideous 1-4 on FTs. That final 3-point shot he took on the pass from Krauser, rimmed out of the basket. It was a good shot.

As for the NY media. A lot of it was about St. John’s. How the team is acting and playing with class — an attitude brought by new head coach Norm Roberts. About how the program is taking steps back to where it wants to be. This was the first win of the season in the Big East for St. John’s. Still there had to be some smack:

The Pittsburgh Panthers, loaded with players from The Bronx to Brooklyn, came to the Garden last night looking for some home cooking.

They head back to the Steel City eating crow.

This is not their town. The Garden is not their home court. And most of all, the Panthers no longer are a beast of the Big East.

St. John’s saw to that.

“Ever since Ron Artest and those guys left St. John’s, we’ve played in Big East title games and won regular-season games there,” said Pittsburgh’s Carl Krauser of The Bronx. “We own the Garden.”

Don’t tell that to the Red Storm.

“We own the Garden,” said guard Daryll Hill of Queens, who played a complete game with 26 points, five boards, three assists, two steals and one blocked shot. “It’s our house.”

No one at Pitt is in any position to argue with any of that right now. Pitt has another shot at St. John’s at home on February 8.

I think I’ve lost the will to go on about this for a little while.