Either I am a steadily growing influence in the Pitt-centric community, or there is a very smart district manager at Borders doing what he can to try and make people aware. Any ways, I’m passing along the announcement I was e-mailed, mainly to feed my ego and the perception of relevance:

Borders hosts Sam Sciullo, author of Pitt: 100 Years of Pitt Basketball, along with special guest Pitt basketball legend Curtis Aiken.

Borders Books in Monroeville on Saturday, February 18, at 2pm
200 Mall Blvd Monroeville, PA 15146 412-374-9772
Pitt: 100 Years of Pitt Basketball is the definitive history of basketball at the University of Pittsburgh. From Charley Hyatt, Doc Carlson’s first All-American, through sure and steady point guard Brandin Knight, some of college basketball’s most influential players have worn blue and gold.

A University of Pittsburgh graduate, Sam Sciullo Jr. served seven years (1990-1997) as a member of Pitt’s sports information office. He was formerly the Sports Information Director at Robert Morris College and the Athletics Publications Director at Texas A&M University.

Curtis Aiken played for the Panthers from 1983-1987. His 1,200 career points ranks 21st on Pitt’s all-time scoring list. He is currently a local Pittsburgh businessman & serves as co-host of the Pitt men’s basketball post-game radio show.

The game at Marquette isn’t until 9pm that night.

An acknowledgment in Big 12 country that the Big East is the best b-ball conference.

Five Big East teams are ranked among the top 15 teams in the most recent Associated Press poll. Eight teams are ranked among the top 33 teams ranked in the most recent RPI released by the NCAA. The conference has been so competitive that Louisville, a Final Four team from last year that was ranked as high as No. 4 nationally in mid-December, will struggle to make the 12-team Big East tournament.

“I think we’ve established ourselves as the best conference in the country,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. “We’ve established ourselves as the deepest group in the country — it’s not even close.”
…
The Big 12 could struggle to place many teams this season and could be in line for one of its worst seasons. Texas is a lock and should challenge for a No. 1 seed. Kansas and Oklahoma both have come on of late. But after that, every other team’s NCAA hopes appear dicey.

“The Big 12 has basically been Texas and the 11 dwarfs,” said Jerry Palm, who projects the tournament field on his Web site, CollegeRPI.com. “Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas will make it, but everybody other than Texas really is only one late slump away from not making the tournament.”

I kind of wondered why the WVU AD was so dismissive of the possibility of Beilein leaving. After-all Beilein is around $700,000/year with modest raises each season. Seemed even sillier with the resignation of Missouri Coach Quin Snyder. Then I found out about the buyout clause.

Seriously, most of the talk seems to be centered on West Virginia’s John Beilein, who has rescued the Mountaineers’ program and turned it into a national contender. The problem for Tigers fans is money. Beilein just signed a seven-year contract extension last year that started with a base salary of $700,000 this year. His buyout clause is reportedly $500,000 per season. That’s about a $3 million buyout.

Yow. That was smart. No school looking for a coach is going to be that willing to shell out $4 million in the first year — buyout plus what you would have to expect the salary offer range. Even worse for Missouri since they still have to pay Snyder something to settle his contract (at least $400,000 in base salary). Really, with that kind of buyout clause, no school will be able to consider Beilein until at a minimum after the 2007-08 season (only $2 million on the buyout).

This Big East Notebook story has a lazy reporter or just parrots the complaints from UConn Coach Jim Calhoun.

It’s not very often that Big East teams go on three-game road trips. UConn’s consecutive jaunts to Seton Hall, Villanova and West Virginia represent just the second time in its history it has played three straight league games on the road.

“This weekend might be like root canal,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said.

Maybe that was true when there weren’t 16 teams, but not any longer. Look at the frickin’ schedules before making that claim. 6 other teams in the Big East had or have 3-game conference road trips this year: Georgetown, Marquette, Pitt, Rutgers, St. John’s and WVU.

Don’t they have fact-checkers and editors to catch this stuff?

Coach Dixon went into this game with the plan to wear down the undermanned Bearcats. He was going to throw waves of fresh legs at them (pause to let the visual pass) and push the ball up the court. This was clear early, and reflected in the box score. Aaron Gray played the most minutes with 30. This wasn’t simply that they didn’t play much in the second half. Even in the first half only he and Krauser reached 15 minutes.

In fact, the only reason, Gray played 30 was so he could get that 10th rebound to complete the double-double. There was one point inside of around 6:25 left, where Gray appeared to bark at Graves for grabbing a rebound he was in the process of corralling. If it wasn’t for the fact that Pitt had the game well in hand, and it was apparent why Gray was still out there, I’d be worried. As soon as he grabbed that 10th rebound (3:24), he came out at the next break (2:43).

There’s an argument to be made that Pitt took a chance getting away from it’s usual style of half-court offense, but I disagree. I like adaptation to the situation. Pitt showed against UConn that it can still play in a more up-tempo style when needed. Against a team like Cinci that likes and needs to play at a slower pace because of the lack of depth, Pitt exploited a weakness. I also don’t think Pitt played too far out of their normal style.

They pushed it up court, yes, but they still took their time to set the play once they got outside of the perimeter. They just forced Cinci to expend a lot of energy in transition to get back on defense. Forcing them out of position and choosing either to foul or let the player go. Too many times, Cinci got trapped.

In the second half Pitt dominated on the boards. Pitt outrebounded Cinci 23-9 in the second half. Pitt also shot incredibly well for the game 32-57, and that includes 0-4 from Small and Bowman. Memo to Small and Bowman: everyone did everything they could to give you guys chances to score points. You have to take advantage. That just hurt. At least they combined to get 3 rebounds.

The team was shooting so well. Ramon, Gray, Fields and Kendall each missed only one shot. Graves, Young and Benjamin only missed 2 apiece. There weren’t a lot of bad shots taken.

Krauser is only a few points away now from having 1500+ points and 500+ rebounds for his career. No Pitt player has ever done that.

Ronald Ramon should get extra notice, not just because of his continuing hot shooting for 14 points. This game he also added 6 assists and 2 steals. He only had 2 turnovers. All in only 25 minutes.

Everyone’s familiar with the drill. Chatter away before, during and after.

HALFTIME UPDATE: Pitt leads 43-33.

Pitt has decided to push the ball as much as possible at times. Take advantage of Cinci’s lack of depth by trying to run them ragged. Mixed results. Still, way too many turnovers (9 ?), to give Cinci more chances, but Krauser got Muhammad on a dumb 3rd foul at the end of the half with some smart play and burying his head in Muhammad’s chest.

Can’t believe Cinci was that slow to put the double team on Gray.

Ramon is still shooting hot.

DeGroat must have been under orders: look to pass — or else. Still committed the dumb turnover early.

FINAL UPDATE: Pitt wins 89-69.

Pitt kept pushing the tempo and the action. Attacking the basket. Kicking out, and just making Cinci continue to expend energy. Cinci did their best to stay with Pitt for the first 5 minutes or so of the second half, but you could just see them wearing down and Pitt ready to pull away. When Benjamin buried another 3 with about 14 minutes left, to give Pitt a 54-42 lead, Cinci was never able to get the lead under 10 points.

Benjamin had a fantastic game shooting. Ramon looked so confident. Gray was aggressive. As was Young. Kendall was setting some beautiful screens to spring the open looks outside. Krauser got it going in the second half. Graves played very well. Fields was running the point. Even DeGroat looked a little looser in the second half.

And then to see Dixon empty the bench in the final couple minutes just made it complete. To see the team and crowd take such enjoyment in getting Bowman, Small and even Hudson out there makes you smile.

I think Pitt needed that. To feel like they were having fun again. Just for a little while.

If you read this story, you might think the Bearcats are coming in with an advantage.

Pitt must contend with a rested Cincinnati, which hasn’t played in six days, when the Bearcats avenged an earlier loss to Louisville with a 74-68 home victory on Feb. 6.

No. 14 Pitt, meanwhile, is coming off a 57-53 victory over No. 9 West Virginia on Thursday. Cincinnati, two days before facing Louisville, dropped a 66-57 decision to the Mountaineers on Feb. 4 at WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, W.Va. Cincinnati leads Pitt in their series, 6-1, but the teams have not played since 1979, when the Bearcats earned a 61-60 victory over the Panthers. Pitt registered its only victory in the series in 1977, 65-64, at Fitzgerald Field House.

Then of course, there is the story from Cinci.

The Bearcats will try to counter Gray’s inside presence with 6-foot-6 senior Eric Hicks, who will be surrendering six inches and about 25 pounds.

Hicks will spend the bulk of the time trying to slow Gray, the leading rebounder in the league. But it would be foolhardy to expect Hicks to stop Gray by himself.

“It makes us have to make some changes and be flexible as to what may work,” Kennedy said. “We’re going to have to try a lot of different things.

“You can’t go to a steady diet of zone because you have no size. The zone is not nearly as imposing with small guys. You can press some but we can’t make a living off pressing because of our numbers. You’re going to get fatigued and you’re going to be more susceptible to fouls.”

To complicate matters for UC, Pitt also plays excellent defense. The Panthers allow 61.1 points per game, third in the league, and rank fourth in field goal percentage defense at 39.8 percent.
…
If Pitt’s size inside, its defensive prowess and the presence of Krauser weren’t enough, the Bearcats will also have to contend with perhaps the best home-court advantage in the league.

Spurred by the Oakland Zoo student section, the Panthers are 14-0 at the 12,508-seat Petersen Events Center this season and are 62-5 since the building opened four years ago.

“It’s something we’re proud of,” Dixon said. “Our fans, our students, the Oakland Zoo, they’ve been a big part of our success. Our students are right on top of you. It’s something we did four years ago when we built the building. It’s a good situation.”

The rest for Cinci was mitigated by the lingering effects of the concussion on Hicks and White’s sprained ankle. Cinci also gives up a lot of size — though they are athletic and guys who play taller — with no player taller than 6’7″ and two starters under 6′.

I expect Gray will be contending with the double team once more. That means Pitt is going to have to hit some jumpers and perimeter shots to help him get free. Hicks is 3d in the BE in rebounding (9.7) despite being only 6’6″. He’s fearless inside.

Cinci is also playing to get in the tournament. They are somewhere on the bubble as the team has been sliding without Kirkland. Right now, no Cinci area teams are looking good for the NCAA.

The stories in Pittsburgh media focus on Cinci and their rough year, as I noted in an earlier post. There’s the whole adjusting to life in the Big East deal.

“It’s your typical Cincinnati team from what I’ve known in the past. They’re very athletic and they’re very experienced,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said.

Cincinnati (16-8, 5-5), with three seniors in the starting lineup and a fourth lost for the season with an injury, is coming off a crucial 74-68 home victory Monday over slumping Louisville, another first-year Big East member.

Both teams previously were members of Conference USA but find themselves scrapping to stay afloat in the Big East standings.

“The Big East has certainly lived up to all the expectations,” Kennedy said. “Night-in and night-out, the league is just so brutal. There’s just no off-nights.”

And of course all the turmoil at the school and the program.

From the day he took over as men’s head coach at Cincinnati in August, Andy Kennedy gave his team a mantra to live by: adapt and overcome.

The Bearcats lost their coach on the eve of the fall semester when Bob Huggins, who had been the head coach at Cincinnati for 16 seasons, was dismissed by school president Nancy Zimpher after multiple missteps involving the successful head coach, an assistant and some players.

Then after winning 13 of its first 15 games to start the season, senior forward Armein Kirkland, one of the best players on the team and a veteran leader, was lost for the season when his left anterior cruciate ligament was torn in a loss at Connecticut Jan. 9.

But through the coaching upheaval, injuries and a short bench — Kennedy has just eight scholarship players at his disposal — Cincinnati enters a game against Pitt today at the Petersen Events Center with a 16-8 overall record (5-5 Big East) and is in position to contend for an NCAA tournament berth in its first season as a member of the Big East Conference.

Here’s what DraftExpress had to say about the game

-CINCINNATI AT PITTSBURGH. Cincinnati got a much needed win against Louisville which helped stop the bleeding somewhat. If they can pull off a win in this game they’lll be very much back in the bracket picture. Pitt is still a very solid team who appears to be headed toward the pod system. They just got a big win against West Virginia and are still hanging around the top of the Big East Standings. Winning is important as far as that goes because they are chasing both Villanova and Connecticut not just for the conference lead, but for a spot in Philadelphia. They are two games out of first and another loss in a game like this might put it out of reach. They’re a very solid tournament team either way though.

Roughly translated: they looked quickly at the standings and schedule each played and went with the standard generic info.