He has a Q&A today and a chat yesterday.

Just an idle thought. I figure Fittipaldo assumes he is one of the most hated college sports beat writers. He is hated by plenty of Penn State fans who assume he is biased against/hates their football team as the P-G beat reporter who also covers Pitt b-ball; and by plenty of Pitt fans who assume he is biased against/hates the b-ball team as the P-G beat reporter who also covers PSU football.

From the chat there was someone with unbelievably out of whack expectations for 3-point shooting:

MPM: Thanks for taking this question in advance. Going into last night’s game the Panthers 3PT shooting seemed adequate. Last night was horrible. Was it just a bad night or could this be a problem area for the team?

Ray Fittipaldo: Pitt was shooting 47 percent from 3-point range before last night. After going 2 for 17 from behind the arc, the Panthers are now shooting 41.2 percent. That is still good enough to lead the Big East. One of the reasons Pitt’s guards kept shooting last night was because of the supreme confidence Jamie Dixon has in them. Ron Ramon is shooting 57 percent from 3-point range. Antonio Graves is shooting 45 percent. Ramon is one of the top 3-point shooters in the country. I would view last night’s game as an aberration, but it also goes to show how opposing teams will defense Pitt. Most teams are going to try and stop Gray and force the guards to win the game. It will be interesting to see how Pitt fares in a Big East game when the shooting is off. They were able to get it done against Robert Morris. But will they be able to find ways to win against ranked foes?

“Adequate?” Jeez, I know everyone is hoping for big things, but keep in mind that shooting 40% from beyond the arc is like shooting 60% from inside. Pitt has an excellent chance of averaging over 40% this year with the way teams have to defend inside, but keep it realistic.

The Q&A has a question about Pitt recruiting DC versus NYC:

Q: I was excited about the signings in November. But I was surprised that none were from New York City. I hope the pipeline has not dried up. I find that it is very important to have those guys when playing conference games against east coast teams. Can you provide insight here?

FITTIPALDO: Pitt has not forgotten about New York City. It just happened to be one of those years when New York did not produce many high-caliber players. I did some research on this and wrote a story about it when Dixon hired David Cox as his director of basketball operations back in the summer. One of the reasons Dixon hired Cox was because of his connections as a former AAU coach in Washington, D.C. The Washington-Baltimore area, for the moment, has surpassed New York City as the recruiting hotbed on the east coast. New York City did not produce a top 70 recruit in the 2007 recruiting class. The Washington-Baltimore area had five players among the top 25. I think Dixon would like to make more inroads in the area. He signed Sam Young two years ago. I would expect to see more in the future.

It’s also part of why the football team is looking to tap the area as well. There’s just a boom in athletic talent in the area right now.

There were some questions about Sam Young struggling. As the Fittipaldo story pointed out earlier, part of it is Young playing a different position this year. It’s what Dixon has done plenty of before. Think about the way he has shifted the guards the last couple of years. Having them play both point and shooting. It’s about creating more depth and allowing Pitt to play the best players at once. Young at small forward may not last, but given that Young is 6’6″, not 6’8″ or bigger Young should want to embrace the position. It would enhance his pro prospects more than as an undersized power forward.