Well, the WWLS decided it’s properties take precedence over live games. The WVU-Pitt game was supposed to be on ESPN2. It’s been bumped to ESPNU. Why? So that ESPN2 can air an hour-long  Arena Football preview. Nice. Since the Mouse Monopoly has an ownership interest and airs the games now, time to pump it up after ignoring the thing all the years prior.

So, if you don’t have a dish, get yourself to a sports bar that does.
So, will Pitt be “demoralized” or “angry” when they come out tonight against the Mountaineers — or judging from so many of the comments will that just be the fans?

It’s Senior Night. Time to say good-bye to seeing Aaron Gray, Antonio Graves, Levon Kendall and even Doyle Hudson at the Pete as anything other than as a spectator.

“It sneaks up on you,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “Obviously, what they’ve done has been tremendous. What they’ve done over the four years is unbelievable.”

The seniors have a combined record of 100-27, ranking seventh in overall victories among Pitt players — 108 is the record. They are the only senior class in the Big East with 20 overall wins and 10 conference wins in each of their four seasons.

The Hoopies will be coming to Pitt with a week off and plenty of time to stew over their loss last week. A 3-point loss at Providence where they shot an amazingly bad 9-41 — on 3-point shots. When Pitt beat WVU in Morgantown a few weeks ago, Pitt had come off of a week-long lay-off. Of course, Pitt had a win before the break so there was no stewing.

So WVU will be looking to payback Pitt. They also will be desperate for a win. They are a bubble team that  has not a single good road win and a weak non-con. The team knows that it really needs this game.

“Last week we had what I call a mini-camp Thursday and Friday, where we got a lot of work in on basics. Sunday we practiced a couple hours and it was a lot about us and Pitt.”

Frank Young, who leads the Big East in three-point goals, said upsetting Pitt would be a big boost to WVU’s hopes for postseason consideration.

“I think it would put us in the driver’s seat as far as (impressing) the NCAA committee,” the 6-foot-5 senior reasoned. We may have to win a game or two in the conference tournament if we lose this game.”

Young, who’s averaging 14.2 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, believes the long layoff between games will be beneficial.

Besides getting some rest, the team had time to correct some mistakes and make adjustments for this rematch. “It gave us a chance to get our legs back,” Young said.

“It’s a rivalry game with a lot of emotions. That’s also a tough place to win. But we’ve just got to go in there and play hard.”

Pitt has it’s own issues. Specifically, the fact that the team has been shooting poorly. It’s been a lot of things, it seems. You have the poor 3-point shooting from the guards, the forwards haven’t exactly been hitting jump shots or much else consistently. Even Gray, before he got hurt, seemed to be struggling to finish.

It’s got everyone a bit frustrated. On the guards, it seems a mix of a slump — given the number of missed open looks — along with defenses playing a lot tighter on them because there is little fear of them penetrating or driving. The forwards — all of them (Kendall, Young, Cook and Biggs) –  haven’t showed consistency all season with a jumpshot and now that the guards aren’t getting free as much, that is getting exposed and not providing any spacing for the guards or for Gray to not face a swarming double-team.

For those of you looking for Coach Dixon to be anything but positive sounding, forget it.

“We were leading the conference in 3-point shooting,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “We had a high bar set there. If you don’t hit them it sticks out. It’s been obvious that we haven’t shot the ball well. The numbers don’t lie. But I think we’ve taken good shots. There have been some rare instances where shot selection has been a concern. But if you lead the conference in 3-point shooting you have to continue to take them. That’s important.

“You’ll find a [tough] stretch with any team. Even the best shooting teams in history, you’ll find four games where they didn’t shoot it as well. That’s easy to do. You just have to continue to take good shots. We’ve been doing that.”

If you find it frustrating that he never says anything really negative  about the team or the players, well that’s unlikely to change. That is the way Coach Dixon is with the media and his team. He won’t rip them publicly. He will be positive to the point where people will believe he is delusional. That’s just the way he does it. Other coaches that do it that way include Gary Williams of Maryland and Lorenzo Romar at Washington.

I admit it bothered me after the 2nd year of the Dixon reign, especially after the Pacific loss. The thing that I’ve learned is that it is simply his way of doing things. I doubt he believes it, everytime but Dixon is the type of coach that believes that stuff stays in the locker room. He won’t call out individual players. He will always be relentlessly optimistic publicly. I think it works against him at time and creates more anger to him, as people will say he’s in denial or is oblivious to the problems.

It’s quite weird. Pitt football and basketball has two coaches that are relentlessly positive about their team and players no matter what, that I think it creates almost a backlash of frustration. Where you feel like screaming at the TV or computer, “Liar!” when you see or read their comments. Unfortunately, not everyone can be as caustic and great copy like Jim Calhoun.