For those of you sick of hearing about other things regarding Levon Kendall, this will depress you. The new meme may be that he had a role in the seminal animal playing sport movie, “Air Bud”:

How come no one’s talking about his acting skills, though? IMDB — and I don’t think this has been reported previously — lists “Levon Kendall” as an “Additional Basketball Player” in the epic 1997 film Air Bud (star Kevin Zegers is pictured at right). Pitt’s Kendall would have been 13 then, and the movie had a Canadian casting director, so it makes sense.

Let’s see how long until someone in the local media asks him about it. Actually, the question is, where was the film shot. If it was shot in Vancouver, then yes, it could very well be him. How many Levon Kendalls are there in the world? Luke Winn also dropped Pitt to #12 in his power rankings.

The ESPN Power Rankings puts Pitt at #8 which is actually better then where I and the rest of the AOL Fanhouse bloggers ended up putting Pitt (#9).

If you really want to find out more about Dixon — and maybe a little insight into why he won’t publicly rip into his players. Something many seem to crave. Maybe the FSN “In My Own Words” episode that runs on FSN-Pittsburgh next on Monday at 12:30pm will help people to understand (doubt it).

Recent addition to Pitt Blather, Dennis, inserted himself into P-G Pitt b-ball beat writer Ray Fittipaldo’s online chat today with a couple of questions.

PittHoopsatPittBlather: Those of us who have been following Pitt basketball for at least the past five years generally see this team as the best of the Howland/Dixon era in terms of being able to go deep into the tournament. But what do you think is the greatest reason? My vote goes to three-point shooting.

Ray Fittipaldo: I’m not sure I agree that this is the best team of the Howland-Dixon era. That team in 2002 and the one in 2003 were pretty good. Both lost in Sweet 16 games. This team is good for a number of reasons. The 3-point shooting is certainly one of them. The Panthers lead the Big East in 3-point shooting percentage and Ronald Ramon might be one of the top five 3-point shooters in the country. But there are other reasons to like this team. It has balance and it has depth. When Sam Young plays the way he did last night against Cincinnati, it adds another dimension to the team. They’ll need performances like that from him and other reserves in the tournament.

Jeff: I was curious about several of the last few Pitt losses; Marquette, Big East finals Syracuse and last regular season game with WVU … There is one constant in all three games — Tim Higgins was on the crew that did the game. This is one rather large coincidence. What are you thoughts?

Ray Fittipaldo: You mention those three games, but my understanding is that Pitt has a very good record when Higgins referees the game. One Pitt fan I saw at the Cincinnati game keep-s track. He said Pitt is in trouble when Jim Burr and Curtis Shaw are calling the game. I know Shaw was an official in all three of Pitt’s losses this season. And everyone at Pitt remembers Shaw throwing students out of the game a couple of years ago. If I was a Pitt fan, I’d be happy to see Higgins but maybe not when I see Burr and Shaw.

PittHoopsatPittBlather: Just when it appeared that Sam Young was steadily falling out of the rotation he stepped up with a solid performance last night. Do you see him being a factor come tournament time or do you think yesterday’s game was an aberration?

Ray Fittipaldo: If you noticed Young was into the game at the first media timeout last night, which is something new. I think Dixon wanted to give him more playing time to see if he could get more production out of him. Young has to do more than score once every five games, though, if Pitt is going to be successful in March. We all know the problems at power forward. If Young plays the way he did last night, their problems are masked a little better.

Nice.