I know. His power rankings in the season always seem to suggest a slightly dour view to Pitt. Maybe there’s bias. Maybe Pitt is a team he simply won’t give as much credit towards until it has a bigger March impact. It’s also possible.

That said, he’s also been there with praise after the Big East Tournament. His pre-pre-power rankings for the upcoming year starts Pitt at #6. I happen to like Winn, since he is one of the few basketball sports writers willing to look deeper at numbers and statistical information.

So, yes, I saw his story talking about potential effects of moving the 3-point line back 1 foot for the upcoming season. In his final section it looked like Pitt got singled out as being at risk.

But the most interesting case study will be at Pittsburgh, which was seventh-worst on that list. Last season, defenses were kept honest by the shooting of junior Sam Young (38.3 percent, 44 threes) and seniors Ronald Ramon (37.2 percent, 67 threes) and Keith Benjamin (37.0 percent, 51 threes). The Panthers’ overall percentage was dragged down by the abysmal aim of point guard Levance Fields (27.7 percent, 28 threes) and Gilbert Brown (24.4 percent, 19 threes) — both of whom will likely be in the starting lineup now that Ramon and Benjamin are gone.

If defenses sag down against Fields’ penetration, and use help to double super-sophomore DeJuan Blair in the post, can Pitt make them pay? The Panthers are finding their way into plenty of preseason top 10s, but they won’t be a contender without being able to pose some semblance of a threat from beyond 20-9.

The point, though, was he was looking at numbers from NCAA Tournament teams. In that final section — those  Tourney teams that had the lowest shooting % on 3s — Pitt was not just the only preseason top-10 team for this coming season, but the only consensus pre-season top-25 team. That makes Pitt the team with that question mark. On a national level, who cares if UNLV or Georgia is going to struggle with the transition if it isn’t even a sure thing if they’ll even be in the rankings? I take it as a bit of respect and a note on the expectations that Pitt merited the discussion.

Really, even in if the line wasn’t moving back a foot, it would still be the big question mark on  the team going into the season — and a concern for Pitt fans. A literal change of guards. With Ramon and Benjamin gone. Especially Ramon. For all his struggles through injuries last season, Ramon was still the guy expected to take and be consistent on 3s. This is why there is some thought as to Ashton Gibbs coming in right away to help Pitt with that, and why the signing of Jermaine Dixon seems a little curious considering he isn’t exactly a 3-point marksman.

Brief aside, sorry for the silence this weekend. My daughter’s 6th birthday. Which meant family visiting and a day full of hyper, sugar-hopped kids. To say nothing of trying to open out of the packaging and then assemble lots of toys. Still, the fact that there were no tears — by the kids or me — was a good thing. Added bonus, the realization of knowing I’m raising my daughter correctly. Sunday she got dressed and put on her Pitt t-shirt before coming out to greet her grandparents — both Penn State grads — that morning. And I had nothing to do with it. Honest.

Camps are the big theme right now. Pitt’s present star players got to go to various top camps.

Seniors Levance Fields and Sam Young and sophomore DeJuan Blair were picked to attend prestigious Nike Skills Academy invitational-only camps at four sites around the nation.

“I’m hyped,” said Fields, who along with many of his teammates, worked Pitt’s team camp for high school-aged players that concluded Sunday at Petersen Events Center. “With the exposure, it’s a great opportunity.”

Fields will be at Steve Nash’s point guard camp in Newark, N.J., and Young will attend Vince Carter’s small forward camp in Orlando, both starting Wednesday.

Blair is scheduled to return today from Amare Stoudemire’s three-day big-men camp in Phoenix.

The camps include between 10 to 14 of the top college players at their respective positions, along with one of the NBA’s best, to work on defined skills. The college players also work as instructors at the skill academy, which includes two dozen of the top prep players at each position.

“It’s reflective of how well-thought of our program is,” said Pitt coach Jamie Dixon, whose Panthers are a consensus top-10 pick in the preseason polls.

…

The news about Fields, Young and Blair is all part of a busy week for Pitt basketball. Senior forward Tyrell Biggs and sophomore swingman Gilbert Brown are working at LeBron James’ camp for youngsters in Akron, Ohio. Brown twisted his ankle Saturday, but it was overshadowed by a pick-up game with the NBA great later that night.

“He seems all right,” Dixon said. “He said it was fun.”

Incoming freshmen Travon Woodall, Nasir Robinson and Dwight Miller arrived on campus over the weekend and played in open gym Saturday night. Guard Ashton Gibbs was due in Sunday or today.

As the story pointed out, Pitt players being invited to a Nike camp is extra-impressive since Pitt is an Adidas school.

I’m not sure how much that actually helps with recruiting top high school talent, with interaction with present players. It sure can’t hurt.

Of course there are the camps that are about the high school players and kids Pitt would like to recruit. The NBA Player’s Association Top-100 camp from this past week included Pitt commit Lamar Patterson and several other Pitt targets including Aaric Murray. Though, it seems Murray doesn’t have Pitt on his cut down list.

New Big East Basketball Blog has a report from the camp and how specific players looked. Including Omari Lawrence, Durand Scott and Dante Taylor — all with offers from Pitt. The bit on Scott is definitely worth an excerpt.

Pittsburgh is on this combo guard hard (with the love being reciprocated) and it shows – he’s tough, runs a team, and is vocal. Time and time again, Scott, hailing from New York, NY found open teammates, including several nice dimes in half court traffic during evening play. Of course ACC schools are drooling as well.

To recap on Scott, he’s a 4-star in both Rivals and Scout. Rivals has him #83 overall and the 20th best SG. Scout puts him as the #10 SG. ESPN/Scouts, Inc. has him as the #14 SG and 56th overall in the class (Insiders subs.).