I’d be completely frazzled if my dad spent a month living in my place.

Ricardo Ramon, Ronald’s father and a former professional basketball player in the Dominican Republic, Argentina and Brazil, moved in for a month in August. It was a month Ronald and Keith will never forget and one that could have a big impact on Pitt’s season.

“It’s funny,” Ronald Ramon said. “When you leave home, you don’t have anyone in control over you anymore. When he was in the house, he was trying to tell us what to do. He definitely put the rules down.”

He was there to help his son get his conditioning back after having to take 3 months off from shoulder surgery. Seems he basically took it upon himself to coach and practice most of the team during the summer.

So for four weeks it was basketball boot camp. Ricardo Ramon put Ramon, Benjamin and other Panthers through three-a-days. In the mornings, they would go to Schenley Park for a morning run. In the afternoon, it was weight lifting. In the evenings, it was basketball drills and pickup games.

“I took all that time off and I needed to get back in shape,” said Ramon, who is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. “I was going to go home, but we had all the facilities here for us. It helped me a lot. I got back into shape, back where I want to be. It was a big confidence boost for me because I couldn’t play for two or three months.”

Senior center Aaron Gray, who returned to Pitt for his senior season after entertaining thoughts of going to the NBA, said the workouts were some of the hardest he has gone through.

“He was killing us,” Gray said. “But it was real good. It made us better.”

Not surprisingly Coach Dixon and the Panther coaches had no problem with this. NCAA rules prohibit them from doing much team coaching in the off-season, so this can only help.

Still, having your dad there for the month. You know he took some serious grief for that.

Courtesy of Jman:

It’s November. Just a couple weeks until the first real game of the season. Tonight, though, is the first of two exhibition games. Division III CMU ambles down the Forbes Avenue tonight.

A couple years ago, Pitt struggled against CMU badly. It also struggled against IUP for a time last year. So, no panicking if the team doesn’t blow them out of the Pete in 5 minutes or less. Granted, even the Tartans own coach doesn’t like their chances.

Wingen said there is no comparison between this year’s CMU team and the one that hung with Pitt for nearly 30 minutes two years ago.

“That team two years ago, they were very talented and a confident bunch of guys who had a lot of experience,” Wingen said. “They weren’t intimidated by the atmosphere or the opponents. We’re a little different team now. Pitt is a little different, too. They are better.”

The best thing to read, the students are already juiced for the season.

People in the Pitt ticket office compared the demand for student tickets as similar to a typical Big East opponent.

“They said it’s about even with a Connecticut and Syracuse game,” Dixon said. “I find it hard to believe. I asked him to repeat it. I didn’t think I’d heard it right.”

Of course it may just have something to do with making fun of Carnegie Mellon.

Coach Dixon plans to use the exhibition game to also give the freshmen a chance to experience the Pete (without blowing their redshirts).