Congrats to Coach Jamie Dixon.

University of Pittsburgh men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon has been named one of five 2007 inductees into the TCU Athletic Hall of Fame. Dixon will be formally honored on Thursday, Sept. 20 prior to TCU’s Homecoming football game against SMU. A four-year basketball letterman at TCU from 1984-87, Dixon is best remembered for his half-court shot at the buzzer to defeat Texas, 55-54, in a February 1986 game. In addition, he helped the Horned Frogs post back-to-back league championships (1986, 1987) and reach the second round of the 1987 NCAA Tournament. As a senior, Dixon led the Southwest Conference in assists per game (5.4 apg.) and earned both All-SWC and academic all-conference honors. He was drafted by the Washington Bullets and played professionally in the Continental Basketball Association.

Coach Dixon was previously awarded a Frog O’Fame Award from TCU back in 2005.

Everyone likes Power Rankings, yet never before have we seen them completely dedicated to our Pittsburgh Panthers. Every week or so we’ll take a look at the biggest news makers related to Pitt sports — all in Power Ranking form.

5. Kevan Smith, QB
The guy barely gets any publicity but got a story last week in the Post-Gazette. That’s one more newspaper article than guys like Pat Bostick, Bill Stull, LaRod Stevens-Howling, and most of the other guys on the team.

4. Pitt Marching Band
According to people who used to sit near the tunnel where the Panthers come out for homes games, they are being asked to move across the stadium. Why? The Pitt band is moving from behind the closed endzone to near that tunnel. The bad news is that they’re being moved away from the students; the good news is that they won’t be playing towards the open end where the sound can escape. It always seems that the away team’s bands are louder even when I sit closer to Pitt’s band — this could be the solution to that.

3. Clemson University
Our series with Clemson in 2010-2011 is off and then we pulled in one of their verbal commits. Yes, I wish we were keeping the series on with them but it seemed like a mutual thing. Taking one of their verbals…well hah!

2. Joe DelSardo Fan Club, Double-wide headband, writers, Panther Rants
They “took over” Dokish’s site and have turned it into what they call “The Onion of Pitt Sports”. They have had some posts that are simply hilarious including the press release of kickoff times for the 2008 season.

Also released was the start time for the matchup with Syracuse University on Saturday, November 3rd. “Dr. Gross [Syracuse Atheltic Director] and I agreed to start the game at 4:20. We chose this time because we figured you’d have to be high to go to this game. At that point in the season, both teams will be well out of the Conference race and any bowl possibilities. Therefore, we’re hoping a lot of potheads get confused and think it’s a Phish concert. There’s really no way to market this mess.”

1. Dinocat 2.0, new Pitt secondary logo
Two straight weeks of having a not-so-good subject in the #1 spot is a simple showing of which way most people think things are going. To top it all off, they throw out some “sleek” new logo that doesn’t even look like a panther. Panthers have noses like this, dogs like so. BYU, Florida International, and Houston got it right. Us? Not so much. At least we got something to talk about for a few days this offseason.

The Kane Foundation, which helps people in assisted living, is having a fairly unusual auction: neckties of notable and well-known people.

Your bid benefits the Kane Foundation, helping the residents at our four county-run assisted living facilities. The staff and residents appreciate your generosity.

One of the people who have signed a necktie for the auction is football coach Dave Wannstedt, who’s tie is currently being bid for at $14. The winning bid also gets a caricature of the person who the tie is from. The full effect looks something like this:

I know you want that.

(Link via Mondesi’s House)