Question for those of you with a DVR. Do you find yourself looking down at your car stereo every now and again to stab at the rewind button for something you heard on the news or a particular song, when you miss it? Thinking you can do that just like when watching something on TV. Or is that just me?

Late start today because I promised the wife family time. That led to DVR delayed watching of the Browns-Steelers game. Nothing like watching the wife’s hopes raised and dashed at an accelerated pace.

Anyhow, it’s likely my watching of the Billikens-Panther game tonight may be similarly delayed. Still, here are the articles for today.

A couple recap articles from last night where Sam Young had another good night.

If Pitt junior Sam Young had a trading card, the picture on the front would be of one of his high-flying, acrobatic dunks. After all, Young is best known for his athletic ability and off-the-charts vertical leap.

In an 88-61 victory against North Carolina A&T yesterday at Petersen Events Center, Young, a junior forward, showed off another part of his game, stunning the Aggies with his outside shooting. He paced the No. 22 Panthers (2-0) with a career-high 24 points and added 11 rebounds for his third career double-double.

Young was 10 for 14 from the field and 4 for 6 from 3-point range. The most 3-pointers Young made in a game before yesterday was two. He made 13 3-pointers all of last season.

“They were leaving me open in transition,” Young said. “They seemed to lose track. The big man would go down to the block instead of meeting me up top. I took advantage of it basically.”

And this.

Not to disappoint, he obliged the crowd of 9,034 with a soaring, breakaway dunk to cap a 16-0 Pitt run that turned a close game into a rout, 34-17, with 4:23 to play in the first half.

“That run kind of broke the game loose,” North Carolina A&T coach Jerry Eaves said.

Pitt freshman center DeJuan Blair played only 15 minutes while in foul trouble, finishing with 10 points and seven rebounds. Mike Cook had 13 points and five assists, and Levance Fields added seven points and five assists without a turnover.

Of course the A&T coach was a little strange in one of his post-game comments.

“If he continues to hit his perimeter shot, he will be a tough matchup,” Eaves said. “But the Big East is competitive. Teams like Louisville, they have quite a few guys his size and his athletic ability that will be able to guard him out on the floor when he puts it on the floor. I don’t think he’s a huge matchup problem with the better teams in the Big East.”

Eaves, the starting point guard on Louisville’s 1980 national champion, said Fields is the key to Pitt’s success.

“Fields is not a great shooter. But he gets in the gut, and he creates things for them,” Eaves said. “If you have someone who can guard him and stay in front of him without a lot of help, to where people can stay closer to their shooters, I don’t think they are the greatest pure shooters in the country. Just being honest with you.”

You know it sounds like sour grapes, but there is a bit of truth in that. Pitt is very much a point guard oriented team so, yeah, he is a key. And it’s hard to argue that Fields is a great shooter. He’s effective and productive, but I wouldn’t call him a great shooter. That’s not stopped a lot of teams. Ramon is the closest Pitt has to a pure shooter. Really, I’m struggling to think of the last championship team off the top of my head that had a “pure shooter” who was much more than a component as opposed to a central part of the team.

I don’t really have a problem with Pitt being somewhere in the 20s of the preseason top-25. Neither does Ray Fittipaldo. By the way, Dick Weiss of the NY Daily News puts Pitt at #20 in his rankings.

No Big East team has been as consistent as the Panthers, who are counting on 6-7, 265-pound freshman DeJuan Blair to become the next Sam Clancy and replace Aaron Gray in the post. Jamie Dixon is solid everywhere else with veteran guards Levance Fields and Ronald Ramon and underrated wing scorer Mike Cook, who should help make up for a lack of overall size with their scoring and pressure defense.

Now for the St. Louis game, here are the game notes (PDF). Jamie Dixon was strongly influenced by Rick Majerus.

Dixon has known Majerus for 15 years. Many of his coaching philosophies came from Majerus’ Utah teams, while Dixon and Ben Howland were at Northern Arizona.

“He’s been a good friend and a mentor,” said Dixon, who worked Majerus’ basketball camps at Utah and the same NBA camps the past two falls. “His stamp on our program for what we do, is probably the most significant of anybody. No question. With that said, we’ve got to beat him.”

Rick Majerus was all about puffing Pitt.

“(Sunday) is going to be a very difficult game,” said Majerus, who regularly worked Big East games for ESPN last season. “They’re very good. People talk about Georgetown, but they don’t have (Pitt’s) depth. I’ll take their roster over Georgetown’s for sure. They’re big, they’re athletic, … they’re experienced.”

Uh-huh.