Between the birthday party for my daughter yesterday and doing the family thing for Father’s day today, I was happily away from the computer and not obsessing about the Gray decision. In fact, I just didn’t get online until late this afternoon. Other than some involuntary twitching at times from not typing at a keyboard for such a length, it was a good break.

Gray’s decision to come back is unquestionably a good one for Pitt. It means the team loses only one starter and one other player who was a relatively minor bench player by the end of the season. From a financial and profile perspective it is unquestionably big for Pitt. It means Pitt will be a pre-season favorite to win the Big East Conference, which in the last year of the present BE TV contract means plenty of TV appearances to be expected on ESPN and CBS. It means selling out the home slate shouldn’t be a problem — even if the school pursues a hard patsy non-con schedule.

It also means a more difficult conference schedule with the three home-and-homes likely with WVU (almost a given if there is any seriousness to the idea of rivalries) and then Marquette, Georgetown, Syracuse, UConn and/or Louisville for the other two. It also means a possibility that Pitt could go a second year of the new Big East without facing USF. Other teams expected to be near the bottom Pitt could miss would include Providence, Seton Hall, Notre Dame and Rutgers.

Another season of big expectations for Pitt. Like the football team in recent years, the basketball team has been up and down with respect to expectations and what they do. Hopefully 2006-07 will see something of a correlation to expectations and performance.