It can be really easy to take a team like Rutgers lightly. The game is at the Pete, Rutgers stinks, they have no depth, and, well, they are Rutgers. Luckily, Ruters had a big upset over Villanova this week.

That should hold the team’s attention.

“Of course we’re going to get a little rowdy up in here and make it a tough place to play, but I’m sure they’re going to come in here with a little chip on their shoulder,” Pitt junior forward Sam Young said. “It’s a conference game, so we’ll be ready to play.

“A team like (Rutgers), their back’s against the wall. They have nothing to lose. They’re only goal is to put you down. You’re playing against a team like that, and they’re going to go all out and come smack at you.”

Rutgers promises to test Pitt’s perimeter defense, as it uses four players on the outside. Junior forward JR Inman is the leading scorer at 14.2 points a game, but guard Anthony Farmer and Mike Coburn are coming off career highs with 23 points apiece against Villanova.

Of course Rutgers isn’t going to be too confident about going to the Pete.

Pittsburgh is 75-8 in that building over the last four-and-a-half seasons and 11-0 this winter. Rutgers junior J.R. Inman never has played there, but he heard all about it from Pitt forward Tyrell Biggs, who is a good friend.

“I was speaking with him last night … he told me no one comes into the Zoo and wins,” Inman said on Thursday. “I’ve never been there, but I’ve seen it on TV and I’ve seen how loud it gets so we’re going to have to bring the same intensity, if not more, that we brought for Villanova. They’re a very physical and talented team, and they’re playing at home, so that’s pretty dangerous if you don’t bring your A-game.”

That sums up the task for Rutgers, which will look to carry the momentum from the 80-68 pasting of No. 18 Villanova. To a man, the Scarlet Knights have said getting that first Big East win after six straight losses was a weight removed from their shoulders.

The Scarlet Knights have shot a lot better the last couple games. Shooting nearly 60% against ‘Nova and over 60% against DePaul. Their problem — and you may have figured it out by the mention of their perimeter players testing Pitt’s defense — they have very little inside presence. Hamady N’Diaye is large inside at 6’11”, but as raw as they come. Even as a sophomore.

DeJuan Blair and Sam Young should be looking for and getting the ball a lot in this game. Young, especially since he has had such a breakout year.

“I want to silence all critics about my game,” Young said. “I work very hard. People don’t see what I do behind closed doors. It’s hard to say how a player is going to be in the future when you don’t know how his work ethic is.”

Young keeps his frustrating 2006-07 season close to him. He wrote an inspirational passage before the first game of the season that he keeps at his home. A copy is posted in his locker. He also has been known to post newspaper articles in his locker that were unflattering.

Such stories were published last season, when Young was having a hard time playing small forward. By late December, Pitt coach Jamie Dixon decided to play Young at power forward exclusively.

This season, Young began the season as Pitt’s starting power forward, but a season-ending injury to starting small forward Mike Cook forced lineup adjustments. Young is the starter at power forward, but he is beginning to see more and more time at small forward.

Hmm. I wonder if any of my posts from last year made it in there.

Not that anyone should be expecting him to go pro after this season.