It’s a nice goal to have. You don’t exactly want the players not believing they will lose games. Much rather have them believing they can and even will win every game. Still, after watching the Georgetown-UConn game, I can say with great confidence that a perfect season is just not going to happen for Pitt.

“We’ve talked about being undefeated,” Young said. “This is the best team we’ve been a part of. Coach [Jamie] Dixon said it’s the best team he’s ever had. We’re talking about the possibility that we can be undefeated and continue this winning streak. If we keep growing as a team anything is possible. The sky is the limit for us. I’m really trying to stay humble, but it’s hard not to look to the future with the team we have.”

…

But his remarks speak to this team’s expectations. After a disappointing loss in the second round of the NCAA tournament in March, Young and the Panthers have their sights set on making the Final Four for the first time in 67 years.

It may very well be the best team of Dixon’s tenure, but he’s not thinking undefeated in the Big East.

The consensus is that getting through this league unblemished isn’t possible. As well as Connecticut and Pittsburgh are playing, no one in either camp, as well as the rest of the league, truly believes either team could run the table.

“I’ve said all along that we’re going to lose a No. 1 or 2 seed because we’re all going to lose games,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “This conference is too good and we play 18 games. We’ve got too many good teams and we’re going to have losses. It’s a given.”

No one is safe from getting beat, at home or on the road, according to Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim.

Oh, yeah. No house is safe this year. Not the Pete. Not the Bradley Center. Not the Joyce Center. It will be tough in the Big East on every game.

That’s not to say that the team shouldn’t be shooting for winning the conference as well. If you want to flash back to the last game, from over a week ago, the reassuring thing was that they still won even as I am sure their minds were elsewhere.

“I can’t cancel Christmas,” he said. “We’re going to go ahead and let them get with their families. I don’t want to be the Grinch.”

Many of the Pitt players started their break after the team’s first road game of the season, leaving from Tallahassee to spend the holiday at their homes.

The good news for Pitt, is that even if the offense isn’t there on a particular night, they still do the other things.

The Panthers’ recipe for success — defense and rebounding — remains the same as they stay undefeated in a season holding as many high expectations as any in the program’s history.

“That’s what we do,” said Pitt center DeJuan Blair, second in the nation with 13.0 rebounds per game. “If the shots go down, they are going to follow. If they don’t, we have a good rebounding team. If we keep doing that, we are going to win a lot of games.”

Still rather avoid many of those nights.

Now, after years of complaints that Pitt lacks a dominant player. One player who definitely can and will take over the game when needed, rather than always trying to have purely balanced scoring. Well… you knew it was coming.

…so why in the world does 70% of the offense go through Sam Young? It seems that Dixon does not give any of his players except Young an opportuntity [sp] to find there shooting groove which I think will come to haunt them late in the season. Dixon leans on Young too much and he will be beat up tournament time…

You just have to laugh. Really, that’s all you can do.

Time to review some player puffery and respecting achievements from stories of the past couple weeks.

Jabaal Sheard has done a great job starting at defensive end after Doug Fulmer went down in training camp.

Pitt defensive line coach Greg Gattuso said he never had any question about Sheard’s ability — he just didn’t think that Sheard, given what he’d be ask to do, would be able to play consistently at a high level.

“We like to rotate our guys, so that was the first thing — he, and Greg [Romeus] for that matter, played way too many snaps,” Gattuso said. “I think we have some other guys who are younger and will be more ready next year, but, this year, we just didn’t have a lot of depth. So to ask those two to play that many snaps and then expect them to be as effective in the fourth quarter as they were in the first — that’s tough.

“But the great thing about Jabaal is that he not only got stronger as the game went on, he also got better every week. He made a lot of mistakes early but he learned from them and he’d even learn within games — he might get fooled once, he wouldn’t get fooled again, that’s just the kind of kid he is.”

Sheard added, “yeah, at the beginning I was getting by on my ability and trying to figure out what I was doing. But I feel like I became a much better football player by the end of the season, I understood things better, I understood the position better.”

Gattuso still seems plenty of room for growth in Sheard’s game, and expects him to be worked over by Strength and Conditioning Coach Buddy Morris this offseason.

Scott McKillop gets the full-on puff piece from Starkey.

The senior middle linebacker is so destructive that he has torn through five facemasks and two helmets this season. As a last resort, late in the year, McKillop began wearing a titanium facemask (“If I ever bent a titanium facemask,” he said, “something’s wrong.”).

What’s next, a medieval suit of armor?

Actually, it wouldn’t be a stretch to picture McKillop riding a horse and wielding a battle-axe as he bore down on an unsuspecting tailback.

McKillop has earned the praise, but it still gets a little uncomfortable to read. The piece also has praise coming from a Pitt walk-on McKillop helped get through early drills. Scott Shrake plays on the scout team while pursuing his Ph.D in engineering.

The valedictorian of his class at Ingleside (Ill.) Grant Community High — he graduated with a 4.78 grade-point average — Shrake was a three-sport athlete who burned out on football and eschewed small-college interest.

He soon realized how much he missed the game, but the demands of completing his course work in the four years of tuition covered by being a finalist for the Chancellor Scholarship prevented him from playing. In one three-semester sequence, for example, he took 23, 19 and 22 credits.

After being accepted to Pitt’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation Program on a Pittsburgh IGERT Sustainable Engineering Fellowship — focusing on designing communities to become green and the conservation of energy and water — Shrake decided to give football a go. His persistence paid off when he was the only candidate to survive a tryout in January.

“People told me, ‘You’re going to be a tackling dummy. You’re just going to get hit.’ If I wouldn’t have done it, I would have regretted it,” Shrake said. “At least I bring up the team GPA.”

Shrake will have his Masters by next year and a doctorate in 3.

Pitt also has a finalist for the “Rudy Award” in Dan Cafaro.

Cafaro is a past recipient of Pitt’s Demale Stanley Award, which goes to the team’s most inspirational player. He earned the admiration of his teammates last year while making the Pitt’s squad as a walk-on and persevering through the various season’s regimens while simultaneously undergoing treatment for cancer.

As a Rudy Award finalist, Cafaro will be honored at a breakfast to be held in conjunction with the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Convention on January 12, 2009, at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn. Rudy Ruettiger will personally present each finalist with an award and a collegiate scholarship. An overall winner will be announced during the event and presented with the top scholarship and first-place sculpture trophy.

The other two Rudy Award finalists for 2008 are Texas Christian University senior kickoff specialist Drew Combs and University of Oklahoma senior safety and linebacker Nic Harris.

Cafaro overcame Hodgkins lymphoma. Cafaro transferred to Pitt from Virginia Tech after the campus shootings that killed 33, only to have the cancer hit him. This season he’s seen action in 10 games on special teams.

A little love sent Derek Kinder’s way in El Paso as they recount his ACL injury.

Kinder finished the 2008 regular season leading the Panthers with 410 yards and three touchdowns on 35 catches.

“There have been a lot of ups and downs personally as well as with the team,” Kinder said after Pitt’s practice on Saturday. “We started off on a bad note (with a loss to Bowling Green), then we turned it around and we were able to finally get to a bowl game, the first one we’ve had in like four years. So it’s good to be here.”

Kinder enters Wednesday’s Sun Bowl with a chance to move into the top five on Pitt’s all-time receptions list. He is at No. 7 with 130 catches, while Dwight Collins and Gordon Jones are tied at No. 5 with 133.

Pitt head coach Dave Wannstedt said Kinder has filled an important role as one of the team’s most solid senior leaders.

“Most skill guys, it takes them two years to get back (from a torn ACL). And Derek’s really had a great year, in my opinion,” Wannstedt said. “He hasn’t missed a game. He hasn’t missed a snap He’s done everything in practice.”

Raise your hand if you knew for certain that Kinder was the leading receiver this year.

The Oregon media got a chance to look at LeSean McCoy’s scar.

LeSean McCoy obligingly pushed down his sock to show several reporters the scar that doctors left when they put his right ankle back together.

The scar is long and ugly, but there wasn’t a pretty way to fix that injury.

McCoy’s suffered a compound fracture in the fourth game of his senior season at Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg, Pa. When the pile untangled, he could see bone sticking through his skin.

The metal plate and screws the doctors inserted are still there. But as gruesome as the injury was at the time and as devastating as it was for his national recruiting profile, it’s turned out to be a lucky break.

“Everything changes when you get hurt,” McCoy said. “I decided I wanted to stay close to home, because when I was hurt my family always was there for me. I think I made the best choice, going to Pittsburgh.”

Definitely the best choice for Pitt.

In a recap of 2008, Pitt made the list of top surprises for 2008.

5. It’s not a sprint, it’s the New York marathon. Recovering from an injury-riddled season in which forward Mike Cook was lost for the season with a torn ACL and point guard Levance Fields missed six weeks with a broken foot, Pitt had to win four games in four days to conquer the Big East Tournament. And the Panthers did. When Cook celebrated that unlikely championship with his teammates, it was a great reminder that not all the important basketball is played in the NCAAs.

It was arguably one of the most important victories in Coach Dixon’s tenure. Here’s hoping for bigger ones this March.

Meanwhile, Big East conference play kicks off tonight with UConn-Georgetown. That’s the way to kick off conference action.

UConn is the favorite in the Big East at this point. But the gap isn’t that far.

Favorite: In a slight nod, it goes to Connecticut over Pitt. The Huskies have the most intimidating force in Hasheem Thabeet (when he wants to be assertive). And they still have a healing all-conference guard in A.J. Price and plenty of depth at every position. Connecticut also proved its toughness and March capability with one of the most impressive wins of the season by beating Gonzaga in Seattle. Its win over Buffalo, on the road, also was gritty, even if it was against a middle MAC team. But don’t for a second think that Pitt can’t win this conference. The Panthers are equally tough, as they survived a poor-shooting game to win at Florida State and have as many veteran players as — if not more than — the Huskies. Circle March 7, because that’s when the Huskies and the Panthers could be deciding the regular-season title in Pittsburgh.

Sam Young got the nod as the best player in the conference at this point.

Then there’s next year. A great story on commit Lamar Patterson and his decision to leave McCaskey and the Lancaster-Lebanon League to get better at St. Benedict’s.

It was a very laid-back workout for us,” St. Benedict’s coach Dan Hurley said. “He only got halfway through it.”

Patterson started cramping, and had to sit down, sweating and gasping and embarrassed.

“These guys were doing it like it was nothing,” Patterson said.

Hurley wasn’t surprised by that. He was surprised, and impressed, by what happened next.

“I imagine he was embarrassed, but I talked to him, and he said that he knew this was exactly what he needed,” Hurley said.

“We’ve had kids do that before, and I never hear from them again. I wasn’t disappointed. I was more pleased with his reaction.”

Patterson verbally committed to take a scholarship from the University of Pittsburgh early in his junior year. But by the end of that year Patterson, a 6-foot-5 swingman, was struggling with his shot, his game, and seemingly to stay out of his own way.

McCaskey won a fourth straight L-L League title, but lost in the first round of the District Three playoffs.

“Lamar’s mind-set in coming here was to embrace the things he needed to do to prepare for a place like Pittsburgh,” Hurley said.

Patterson has excellent talent. Just as important — especially at Pitt — he has the desire and work ethic. He may not be able to crack the rotation as a freshman, but you know he will be pushing the starters.

In case you hadn’t heard, this time a trip to El Paso is a little more limited with the warnings about not crossing the border to visit Juarez, Mexico.

The Sun Bowl ended a longstanding tradition of taking parties from participating teams across the border, citing safety concerns from the alarming homicide rate in Ciudad Juarez. That means the Pitt Panthers, who play Oregon State in the 75th Sun Bowl on Wednesday, and many fans are staying stateside while on their first Pitt bowl trip in four years.

Ciudad Juarez has devolved into a war zone between rival cartels battling to control drug trafficking along border towns. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reportedly seized more than 84 tons of marijuana, 774 pounds of cocaine and $2.8 million in cash in the most recent fiscal year.

The number of homicides for 2008 is approaching 1,600 and, in October, the Department of State issued an alert for citizens traveling and living in Mexico, noting “the situation in Ciudad Juarez is of special concern.”

That means no nights at the bar where the margarita was born, and a bit less of what has historically made the Sun Bowl a much more attractive bowl than would otherwise be expected.

Meanwhile, the speculation over what the Big East plans to do with it’s bowl tie-ins means there is speculation that Pitt could be the last Big East team in El Paso for a while.

“After [this agreement ends], we don’t know what is going to happen,” [Sun Bowl Executive Director Bernie] Olivas said. “The Big East is a good conference for us, they are on the East Coast and turn on a lot of television sets. They’ve been great to work with, but at this point we have no idea where we are and what we are going to work with.

“I read an article where they said they don’t want to have the flip-flopping arrangement [with the Gator Bowl and Big 12], so we have to sit with them and see what they have in mind.”

Olivas said the arrangement has worked well for the bowl because it offers a variety of teams to choose from every year. He said the Big 12 brings a lot of regional teams, the Pac-10 brings in the West Coast and the Big East brings the east coast, so the bowl would have some “tough choices” to make if it came down to having to choose two of the three conferences.

It is a good deal for the Sun and Gator. They have more options. That’s the problem for the Big East. The fans of programs in the Big East are stuck waiting on their travel plans later than most. Not sure where they are going. Additionally, there is the whole pick-up game, “you take the girl, we’ll *sigh* take the Big East” feel to it when the Big East team is finally selected.

As this is Pitt’s third trip to the Sun Bowl, they and WVU have played there more than any other Big East team (Cinci — twice, USF, Georgetown and L-ville once). Something that isn’t a particular shock though the fact that Syracuse has never played the Sun Bowl is a little surprising.

While the Beavers and Panthers gathered for a joint activity, you think Punter Dave Brytus was trying to psyche out Oregon State.

Pitt punter Dave Brytus stole the show at a joint-team activity Friday night when he put on a martial arts display by breaking a dozen boards with a variety of kicks and chops. For his finale, he broke three cinderblocks.

…

“My hands are still a little bit swollen from it and I have a couple cuts, but aside from a few bumps and bruises, I’m fine,” Brytus said. “My nose took a little bit of a beating, though. I did a head break, and it’s supposed to just be your forehead, but I was so hyped up because there were so many people there that I hit it with my face. I thought I broke my nose at first.”

Lovely.