First important note, Aaron Gray will be doing an ESPN Nation Chat on Tuesday at noon. You can start putting in your questions now. I’ll try to remind everyone again on Monday or Tuesday morning.

So onto this week in the ESPN.com chats. Rece Davis had a couple Pitt questions to field.

Josh (Da ‘Burgh): Where does Pitt’s Aaron Gray rank among the most improved players in the nation?

Rece Davis: Considering the distance he covered…I can’t think of anyone MORE improved.
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Jack (Atlanta): More LOVE for Tennessee!! I know Pitt isnt a sexy program and that they might not be an elite team (top 5), but why dont these kids and especially the coach get more love? This was a rebuilding year and they have only lost 3 games by a total of 12 points. Florida and Tennessee are getting too much love being out of the SEC!!

Rece Davis: Everybody wants love. Love, love, love….maybe it’s the Valentine’s thing. I think Jamie is doing a great job. Taking Krauser off the ball occasionally…the improvement of Gray. Fields, Young making contributions. Very good team…tough-minded and a big threat in the tournament.

Keiran Darcy has some Marquette and Pitt comments.

Conor (Chicago): With that big win, how is Marquette looking?

Kieran Darcy: Marquette is looking very good, I think. Their remaining Big East schedule is relatively easy (by Big East standards) — they’ve got Providence at home, and Notre Dame and Louisville on the road, in addition to their home game tomorrow against Pittsburgh. Tom Crean has done an excellent job, and they should go Dancing — a pretty great accomplishment since they were pegged in the preseason to finish 12th in the conference.
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JB Pittsburgh: Com’on Kieran, whats up with Pitt. Can we get some props here or what?

Kieran Darcy: Pitt’s been very impressive. They’ve got a guard-post combo in Krauser and Gray that can get them to the Sweet Sixteen, maybe even beyond. Let’s see what happens.

And we can end it with some snark predictions from Joe Lunardi.

Greg Milwaukee, WI: Joe, What do you think about Marquette and their chances against Pitt Saturday night?

Joe Lunardi: I like Pitt’s chances to join the growing list of Big East teams to lose on their first trip to Milwaukee.

A lot of pressure on Marquette as well to avoid the emotional letdown.

Ray Fittipaldo has his weekly Q&A.

Q: The way Carl Krauser has handled the younger players on the team this year (consoling and mentoring), do you see any possibility that he will be added to Dixon’s coaching staff after he leaves? I really don’t see him making it at the next level, but he seems to have a good head on his shoulders, and I think he would be an asset to the staff; especially with the group of players that will be left behind after he graduates.

Fittipaldo: Krauser is good enough to play professional basketball and make a lot of money. It might not be in the NBA, at least not right away, but he can go make a nice buck overseas. Most players try to exhaust their playing potential before entering coaching. I suspect Krauser will see what’s out there for him professionally. If you’re looking for a former Pitt player who might be a future coach, look to Brandin Knight. If he is not able to come back from his leg injury and play again, he told me he wants to pursue coaching opportunities.

Other questions concern whether Hudson is a complete or partial bust, not starting DeGroat (a weekly question), Gray and dunking and Herb Pope.

Tomorrow morning a new Q&A with the Marquette bloggers. I’m still catching up with actually doing stuff not on a computer. Bad craziness.

The game is on at 9pm. Game notes for Pitt and Marquette (PDF). Marquette, not only coming off a big, clutch win over Georgetown will be retiring the jersey of Maurice Lucas at halftime. He’s one of their all-time greats. I’m not familiar with him either, but I doubt many Marquette fans really recall Billy Knight or Sam Clancy at Pitt.

Greg Doyel at Sportsline.com once more can’t bring himself to pick Pitt, and apparently is aware of his history.

No. 9 Pittsburgh at Marquette: It has come to our attention that Pittsburgh gets picked against almost every time the Panthers make it into the vaunted and highly respected Top 10 Games. Cognizant of that, we vowed to pick Pittsburgh this week, regardless of the opponent or location. But we’re nervous because, while Pittsburgh is an almost-great team, the Panthers become beatable on the road. Marquette, meanwhile, is a very good team that becomes unbeatable at home. And this one’s at Marquette. But we promised a friend we’d pick Pitt. Pick: Screw it … Marquette.

Thanks for reading, Greg. No, I’m not the friend, but I know he is aware of this blog and how much I’ve harped on Pitt’s disconnect on the road. So I’ll take some credit for causing him to go against Pitt on the road.

Remember what I said earlier in the day about how people trying to rank and seed teams couldn’t abide having too many teams from the same conference ahead of power conferences? Seth Davis helps prove my point with his “seed report.” He gives a #1 seed to both Villanova and UConn, but puts Pitt at a #3. Tennessee and Iowa (Huh??) get a #2. He also has George Washington as a #3 seed — and a guy who loves to pound teams repeatedly for weak non-cons puts GW with their #321 non-con SOS at #3 — how?

At some point, you have to stop looking at the RPI spreadsheets and start heeding records, rankings and gut instincts. If you look at George Washington’s nitty gritty (1-1 vs. the RPI’s top 50, nonconference strength of schedule ranked 322nd), you couldn’t make the Colonials higher than a five seed. I’ve made them a three. They’ve lost one game all year long and are ranked seventh in the AP poll. You simply cannot leave them out of your top 16.

And at some point you have to admit your own inconsistencies and hypocricsies.

In an unrelated note, Luke Winn at SI.com raises Pitt to #10 in his power rankings — behind Tennessee, Florida and GW.

Demoting Pitt to No. 16 last week was the move that drew the most hate mail, and the Panthers responded with three straight victories (West Virginia, Cincinnati and at Providence) to climb back into the Top 10. Oakland surprise story Aaron Gray is only getting better by the week — he delivered an inspired performance against the Mountaineers, scoring 16 points and holding Kevin Pittsnogle to zero points (he averages 19.1) on 0-of-12 shooting. “Every shot he took was contested,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said of Pittsnogle.

Pitt fans have been among the loudest in the last few years at letting some of the b-ball writers know what they think.

Posting will be a little light today as I have business that actually takes me more than 50 feet from an internet connection. Hopefully the republic will survive.

Marquette pulled off the big win last night, and are still catching their breath before they can even turnaround to face Pitt. Marquette has done two things Pitt hasn’t this year. They’ve beaten UConn and Georgetown. Yeah, they did it on their home court, and Pitt lost in away games, but Pitt is heading to that court so it is a very tough game tomorrow night.

The team knows it needs to keep winning as it can’t help but peek to March.

“We came into this year thinking we were going to win 20 games. A lot of people didn’t,” said sophomore guard Keith Benjamin, who has scored 31 points off the bench in the Panthers’ past two games. “It’s really not that important to us right now. We know we’re in the (NCAA) tournament now, but we’re still going to come out and play hard. We want more wins, as many as we can get this season from this team.”

Benjamin hesitated, then bit his lower lip and cocked his head just slightly while fixing his eyes in reflection on the floor ahead of him.

“Right now,” he said, finally, nodding his head in confirmation, “we’ve totally come together, and it’s going to be something special for the rest of the year.”
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A clean sweep of the team’s remaining four regular-season games would give the Panthers a 24-3 mark and place them in prime position for a first-round bye in the Big East tournament in March.

“I think we’re supposed to win the rest of the games we play in,” Benjamin said. “We’re going to come out and play hard and try and get a win at Marquette.”

It’s debatable whether the Panthers will sweep their remaining games. The road ahead is tough, beginning with the rematch against Marquette, which owns a victory over No. 1 Connecticut.

Later, there are rematches with Providence at home and at No. 11 West Virginia, as well as the home finale against Seton Hall, which, like Pitt, has defeated WVU this season.

Pitt is looking to snare itself a possible 2 seed in the NCAA.

The Panthers (20-3, 9-3) are in contention for a No. 2 seed at the moment and have an outside shot at a No. 1 seed if they win their final four regular-season games and the Big East tournament. Even if they split their final four regular-season games, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which Pitt would drop any lower than a No. 4 or 5 seed.

When Pitt advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2002, ’03 and ’04, the Panthers were a No. 2 or No. 3 seed. Last season, Pitt was a No. 9 seed and lost to Pacific in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

“I definitely think playing for a higher seed is very important,” Benjamin said. “If you open up the tournament playing somebody from a very small conference … getting that first one is the most important thing in that tournament. We’re trying to get that first win so we can get that second win, so we can get back in the Sweet 16 and break the curse.”

I’m guessing Benjamin was made available for interviews yesterday.

I have to be honest, I doubt Pitt will get a 2 seed unless it ends up in the Big East Championship game. Even though Pitt is #6 in the RPI. Pitt will be looking at a #3 or #4 seed. Pitt will take abuse for its non-con SOS as usual unless teams like Auburn and Penn State get hot in their tournaments to push their RPIs under 100.

I don’t care if ESPN.com’s power rankings have Pitt in the 2 seed group. Look at how far over the board the ESPN.com “experts” have Pitt. Andy Katz — who has been very positive to Pitt, so let’s not have any bias claims — has somehow moved Pitt to 16 behind BC and NC State. That’s just mindboggling.

I have finally come up with a theory why Florida kept staying above Pitt in the polls and even most of the power rankings despite Pitt having as good a record and a better SOS. The people doing the rankings have a hard time putting 3 teams (not from the ACC) ahead of all teams from any one power/BCS conference. Sure the SEC is down, but to put 3 BE teams (or Big 12 or 11 for argument’s sake) ahead of the best team in the SEC just “feels” wrong. Florida can now fall below Pitt, though, because Tennessee can be subbed in their place.