Providence is actually a fairly good offensive team. The problem is that they are, at best, average on defense. They give up almost as many points as they score, which is why they are 11-10 overall. Pitt is actually about as efficient on offense as Providence, but is much better on defense.

The big problem of Providence is that they are not a 3-point shooting team. In fact their 3-point shooting percentage is actually slightly below Pitt’s. Of course, Pitt has shot 3s far worse on the road. Providence is actually at its best inside the arc. They are at 52.8% on 2-FGs (31st in the country). Their strength, though, goes right against Pitt’s strength: interior defense. Pitt is holding teams to only 42.9% on 2-FGs (19th).

Providence game notes and Pitt (PDF). A win and Pitt has 20 on the season and a winning record in the Big East Conference for a 5th straight year.

Well, maybe not the right type, but it was the song that popped into my head. At least when I read this.

XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR), the nation’s largest satellite radio service with more than six million subscribers, announced today that it has signed a long-term agreement with The BIG EAST Conference. The BIG EAST sponsorship provides XM with the exclusive satellite radio broadcast rights to the BIG EAST Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships Presented by Aéropostale, along with select regular season games during football and basketball seasons.

As “The Official Satellite Radio Service of The BIG EAST Conference,” XM will have marketing rights to all BIG EAST Championship events, and promotional use of the BIG EAST marks, media and other proprietary marketing assets. Nelligan Sports Marketing, Inc., who represents the official BIG EAST Sponsorship Program, brokered this agreement for the Conference.

Additionally, the first XM broadcast will be the Pitt-Providence game tomorrow.

XM Satellite Radio will broadcast BIG EAST Conference games beginning on February 15, 2006 at 7:30 p.m. as the Providence College men’s basketball team hosts No. 14/13 Pittsburgh (19-3, 8-3 BIG EAST). The game can be found on XM Channel 200 and will feature the Friars call of John Rooke and Joe Hassett. Providence (11-10, 4-6 BIG EAST) has won two straight and four of its last six games.

I do not know what impact this will have on Pitt’s deal with Sirius Satellite Radio. I have made an inquiry, though, and will let everyone know. I am aware that several loyal readers have Sirius subscriptions.

At the very least, I think it is safe to assume that any of the Big East Tournament games Pitt plays will be XM only.

UPDATE: Okay, that was a fast response, thanks to Dan Satter for the info. This will not have any impact on Pitt’s deal with Sirius Satellite — and that includes tomorrow night’s game.

Keith Benjamin’s efficiency and being the offensive sparkplug against Cinci gets him a puff piece focusing on his game.

Benjamin was not happy about his performance. On Saturday, after final preparations for the Cincinnati game, senior Carl Krauser and Benjamin had a conversation about staying patient and waiting for opportunities.

Benjamin, a 6-foot-2 sophomore, digested Krauser’s advice and responded with the best performance of his college career. Benjamin scored a career-high 16 points against the Bearcats and was a driving force behind Pitt’s 89-69 victory Sunday.

“Me and Carl sat down [Saturday] and I was a little frustrated,” Benjamin said. “I was like, ‘I can score 20 points in any game we play.’ He said you just have to focus and go out there and play your best and pick your spots. I listened to him and I came out and picked my spots.”

This season has been feast or famine for Benjamin. He has been held without a field goal in four Big East Conference games and has scored in double figures in four others. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said the ups and downs in Benjamin’s game are expected because every reserve has gone through similar things this season. Because of the way the bench players are used, they often take turns in the scoring department.

“We knew when we were going to play three guys at [small forward] that there was going to be a common theme,” Dixon said. “When you sit down and look at it, his game [Sunday] really wasn’t a whole lot different from some of his others this season. His 3-pointers just went in. Sometimes your shots fall, sometimes they don’t. … He’s got the ability to score. He gets open, there’s no doubt about that. And he’s becoming a better shooter. He just has to get more consistent with his form.”

Coach Dixon points out that this was his first full season of being healthy in a couple years to help explain getting more consistent.

To me, Benjamin’s biggest thing is his patience. Late in the non-con, I pointed out how many shots he was taking relative to his minutes — that he seemed overeager to show what he could do — add in is poor shooting percentage and he was heading to even less playing time rather than more. He got over that and started taking his time. In the non-con his FG% was .377 (20-53). In conference play he is shooting .480 (24-50).

Worth noting of course, that the guy he went to for advice and just to talk was Krauser. Krauser likely won’t win any national awards, but his name stays out there.

Pitt senior Carl Krauser is among 30 players named to the mid-season list of candidates for the Naismith Trophy, presented annually by the Atlanta Tipoff Club to the nation’s top college men’s basketball player. Last month, the 6-foot-2 guard was named to a similar list for the Wooden Award, presented by the Los Angeles Athletic Club to the nation’s top player. Krauser’s team-high 18 points Sunday against Cincinnati marked the 18th time the senior guard has scored in double figures this season and the 72nd time during his college career. Krauser leads Pitt in scoring this year with an average of 15.9 points per game and he ranks 13th all-time at the score with 1,497 career points. He needs 16 more to pass Julius Page (1,512) for 12th on the list.

Aaron Gray gets another puff piece, as Ron Cook seems to be trying to catch up on his Pitt coverage.

“It’s amazing what you can do when you have a dominant 7-footer,” guard Carl Krauser said.

The best is yet to come for Gray, everyone predicted, not exactly going far out on a skinny limb.

It’s pretty obvious the NBA is in his future. You just can’t teach a guy to be 7-foot with quick feet and soft hands.

“You’re either on an upswing or a downswing as a player. Aaron’s been on the upswing since he’s been here,” Dixon said. “I don’t see that changing. He’s going to finish better around the basket. He’s going to play better away from the basket. He’s going to handle double teams better. He’s going to shoot his free throws better … “

I think Gray will come back for his Senior year, but I’m not entirely sure. The trade-off, more and more seems to be that the longer you stay in school the more time scouts and draftniks have to pick apart your game. When you come out too early, there is much more talk about rawness, potential and “upside.” That always seems to get NBA types more excited because then there is more to expect.

Let me hedge by saying that if Pitt makes a deep run in the NCAA and Gray shines, he will likely go (see Andrew Bogut from last year). Of course, I think I’d take that trade-off.

Coach Dixon gets another article focusing on him. Mainly about how he’s managed to go with such a deep rotation this season.

“We’ve got great kids,” Dixon said Monday, rejecting a suggestion that he’s the primary reason for the Panthers’ meteoric rise to ninth in the latest national polls.

Yet Dixon is the man who seemingly has molded a team of young players like this to accomplish what it has this year.

“He’s really coming into his own,” junior center Aaron Gray said. “He has such high expectations coming in. He has surpassed everyone’s expectations. It’s his team. He’s making his own coaching decisions, balancing a 9-, 10-man rotation — which not a lot of guys can do — and keep everyone happy and focused on winning.”
…
“He does a great job of getting people to play their best,” Gray said. “One of the reasons we are such a good team is that every day in practice is like a game to us. Everything we do is competitive, and everything we do we want to win, no matter what the drill is. He knows you have to coach everyone differently.”

Dixon said he had a vision before the season that convinced him that his team would do well. He could see the chemistry forming early on, and today that chemistry is a major factor in Pitt’s success.

“It’s unique, I know, to play 10 guys in the rotation,” Dixon said. “But I said from the beginning this would be the best thing for this team, and I think it’s come to fruition.”

The deep rotation has not only worked this year, but it sets the tone for next year. It means the kids know they will have to work hard in practice and over the summer to get starting minutes and more playing time.

Biggs, Young, Benjamin and even Hudson all battling to replace DeGroat as a starter (and give Kendall more competition for playing time next season). At guard, Fields and Ramon will be competing to be the starting point guard and face more competition at the shooting/two guard with transfer Mike Cook becoming eligible. Graves will still be there and Freshman Gilbert Brown will be trying to make some noise.

Sorry, getting a little ahead of things. The focus should be on this year since there is still so much that can be accomplished. Still, it is exciting to realize the potential is there to keep the high level of performance in Pitt basketball continuing. There are now entire classes of students at Pitt who have no idea that this team could suck. There have been some students who have even managed to graduate without even seeing a .500 season in conference. Starting with the 1982-83 inaugural year for Pitt in the Big East (PDF pp. 61-66) through the 2000-01 season, only 5 times did Pitt finish the Big East Conference schedule with a record better than .500. Pitt is preparing to complete a 5th straight season of above .500 in conference. That, to me, is more impressive than winning 20+ games in 5 straight years.

Some Pitt related, some not so much. And even a non-sports story.

It looks like the Pitt-Providence game won’t be on ESPN Full Court. Here’s the Pitt Full Court schedule, and it is not listed. Yes, the game is on FSN-Pittsburgh, and maybe some regional FSN stations might show it, but it’s anyone’s guess. That has me pissed off. Looks like it’s Internet Radio to listen.

The good news for citizens of Spotsylvania County, Virginia. The police there are getting their happy endings so you won’t.

In Spotsylvania County, as part of a campaign by the sheriff’s office to root out prostitution in the massage parlor business, detectives have been receiving sexual services from “masseuses.” During several visits to Moon Spa on Plank Road last month, detectives allowed women to perform sexual acts on them on four occasions and once left a $350 tip, according to court papers.

Spotsylvania Sheriff Howard D. Smith said that the practice is not new and that only unmarried detectives are assigned to such cases. Most prostitutes are careful not to say anything incriminating, so sexual contact is necessary, he said.

“If I thought we could get the conviction without that, we wouldn’t allow it,” Smith said. “If you want to make them, this has to be done.”
…
Smith said most “professionals” know better than to name an explicit act and a price. And with the Asian-run parlors that have periodically sprung up in Spotsylvania, he said, “they don’t speak much English. There’s not a lot of conversation.” Smith and Spotsylvania Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Thomas Shaia likened the situation to investigators buying drugs from a drug dealer — a necessary violation to prove a larger crime.

But police officials and prosecutors in many Northern Virginia jurisdictions said buying drugs, as undercover officers routinely do, is not analogous. Officers purchase drugs for evidence but don’t use them. Likewise, the other jurisdictions do not allow their officers to conduct sexual activities with suspected prostitutes.

No word if this has increased the number of applicants to join the sheriff’s department in Spotsylvania (Shawn?).

Staying with the Washington Post, they have a long piece on basketball factories masquerading as prep schools. The focus is on Lutheran Christian Academy in Philadelphia (via Greg Doyel 2/13 entry).

The school does not have its own building or formal classrooms, and it operates out of a community center in a ragged North Philadelphia neighborhood. It has just one full-time employee: the basketball coach, a former sanitation worker who founded the school. One former student, who attended the school for three months, said it did not use traditional textbooks and that the coach, Darryl Schofield, was the only teacher.
…
Lutheran Christian is licensed as a religious institution by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, which reports on its database that the school opened Sept. 1, 2003. Schofield said the school is currently not directly affiliated with a church.

Schofield said the school has four part-time instructors: two former players with bachelor’s degrees who returned to teach at Lutheran Christian and two women. One of them, Tamara Casey, has listed her residence as one of the houses Schofield said he owns. One current player said Casey taught him in three courses. Property records show that house is owned by Schofield’s parents. When asked for the name of the second instructor, Schofield couldn’t recall it, calling her “Mrs. Robinson.” None of the players he asked could remember Robinson’s first name, either.

Casey and Robinson could not be reached for comment.

Georgetown, UMass, Temple, Mississippi St. and George Washington are among the schools that have former LCA students on their basketball teams. Here’s hoping Pitt doesn’t go near any kid from this “school.” As Doyel puts it:

As for any college coach who has had, does have, or will have a player on his roster from Philly Lutheran … you deserve whatever scrutiny is coming your way.

Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News doesn’t see Coach Jamie Dixon going anywhere, provided the school ponies up as expected.

Pittsburgh isn’t likely to let coach Jamie Dixon get away. Pitt will be proactive in assuring Dixon remains with the Panthers, given his staff’s track record of winning and recruiting Big East-level prospects. Dixon was one of the league’s lowest-paid coaches when he was promoted from assistant in 2003, but his contract was reworked after his team won 31 games in his first season. With the future looking bright, thanks to some promising youngsters, Dixon probably is due another boost to dissuade potential suitors.

Andy Katz give Pitt some props for a good week by including the Panthers among the “rising”teams in his Weekly Watch.

The Panthers nipped their two-game slide quickly with a huge win over West Virginia on Thursday and then rolled Cincinnati on Saturday to move into fifth place in the Big East. The Panthers are still within striking distance of second and a decent seed in the NCAAs.

Pitt’s chances of getting to 2nd in the BE took a hit with Villanova knocking off UConn. That puts Nova and WVU up at the top with only 1 loss apiece and UConn in 3d with 2 losses. The focus right now is just to finish 3rd or 4th in the BE to get a first round bye in the BE Tournament.