Well a 3d straight night game was probably out of the question.

It will be a noon start which sucks for tailgating. That said, no excuses for the place not to be packed. To decide whether Pitt goes BCS bowling or not.

The good news for those who can’t attend, is that it will be a true national game. ABC and apparently no split map crap.

Nothing like a strong national win, to change Bruce Feldman’s opinion (Insider subs).

I was skeptical about Pittsburgh. Not anymore. I do think it’s one of the country’s best teams. Dave Wannstedt has built a very solid team in all areas, and the Panthers showed that Saturday night against Notre Dame. They have a much-improved QB in Bill Stull, a great RB in Dion Lewis and two playmaking receivers in Jonathan Baldwin and Dorin Dickerson. Plus they have four excellent D-linemen and a capable secondary. That was a very good offense that they bottled up for much of the evening.

As for the Irish, what more can you say at this point about Charlie Weis? His O-line looked overmatched again, and his defense was shaky.

Baldwin got a haircut before the ND game which provided a hook for a couple stories.

Pitt wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin showed up for Saturday’s win against Notre Dame sporting a Mohawk haircut. It was a new look for the sophomore off the field, but on the field it was the same old Baldwin, making acrobatic catches for touchdowns and helping to keep drives alive.

“I was sitting in the barber’s chair at Damions in Ambridge paging through the haircut book and I liked the Mohawk cut so I went with it,” Baldwin said. “I just wanted to go out in this game and have a good time in helping us win.”

With the talent on ND, and many of them juniors and seniors it’s no surprise that plenty of scouts were there as well as media. So, you know that Baldwin just rocketed up some boards for 2011.

The new ‘do made Baldwin stand out, but it was the epic performance he delivered in a 27-22 victory over Notre Dame on Saturday night that turned heads all over the country.

NFL scouts in the press box must have been drooling when they watched the 6-foot-5, 225-pound Baldwin make two catches that any great receiver this town has seen — Larry Fitzgerald, Lynn Swann, whoever — would have been proud to call his own.

Notre Dame’s star receiver, Golden Tate, was getting all the publicity heading into the game, which led a reporter to wonder if Baldwin was trying to “make a statement.”

“I don’t get much into that stuff,” he said. “I just go out there and make the plays that are there to be made.”

Pitt made the big plays throughout the game. On the ground and air. Something that ND’s defense has allowed to happen all season.

Didn’t we just see this last week?

The Irish defense, one of the worst in the country giving up plays of 20 yards or more, was true to form. The Panther offense had six plays of at least 20 yards.

Weis calls them “explosives.” Saturday they detonated a desperate bid. Later, they may add to the implosion of a regime.

Pitt generated 429 yards of total offense. Stull wasn’t sacked, and the Panthers didn’t have a turnover.

The puzzling over ND’s struggles keeps falling on the coaching since they have the talent.

Recruiting evaluations over the last five years don’t add up to explain the present situations facing the Notre Dame and Pittsburgh programs.

Both have head coaches that took over in 2005. Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis and Dave Wannstedt at Pittsburgh had to do some scrambling to put that first class together.

Since then, the Irish have had talent success that hasn’t necessarily translated onto the field.

That first year was the only year that Rivals.com rated the Panthers (38th in the country) ahead of the Irish (40).

Notre Dame has had its classes ranked in the top 10 three times – 2006 (eighth), 2007 (eighth) and 2008 (second). Those years, Pitt was 21st, 26th and 28th, respectively. Last year, Rivals rated Notre Dame 21st and Pittsburgh 47th.

In those five years, the Irish have signed seven five-star recruits while Pitt has landed just one.

But there is always that decided schematic advantage.

Even as Pitt is on the edge of discussions for the BCS bowls, the team is sticking with the “one-game-at-a-time” position.  It makes them a collectively boring quote.

Q: I see a really positive trend in the maturity of this team Paul. I have noticed in this six game win streak, the team has had less penalties. Aside from the absurd 4 or 5 pass interference calls against them in the Syracuse game has this team matured through this year?

ZEISE: Yes, the maturity factor is key to the success. And while there are a lot of signs of it on the field — the lack of penalties, the composure, the lack of panic, the lack of making key mistakes and turnovers — where it really shows up is during the week. This team is all business. A lot of us media types often say this team is one of the most fun Pitt teams to watch in recent history – but one of the most boring to cover. And by boring, I mean, they are focused, they are serious and they don’t say much of anything during the week. It is just all business with this group. They practice hard, they are focused and a couple of the guys who are seniors have set the tone by making it clear that anything less than a Big East championship will be a failure.

Pitt QBs have endeared themselves to fans when they show toughness. Rutherford won over many when he ran over defenders — particularly in a VT game. Palko for knocking over a BC guy. Not only tough plays, but moments that swung the momentum and energy completely to the Pit side of things. Stull didn’t do it like that against ND with the ball and plowing a guy over. Instead, he threw a key block that was big.

Stull’s numbers — 15 of 27 for 236 yards and a touchdown — were rather ordinary. Yet, Stull’s extraordinary lead block helped pave the way for tailback Ray Graham’s dazzling 52-yard run in the third quarter.

Graham scored from the 2-yard line on the next play to give Pitt a 20-3 lead. The margin was too wide for the Irish and their star quarterback Jimmy Clausen to erase.

While Graham’s touchdown and a 152-yard effort by tailback Dion Lewis enabled the Panthers to stretch their record to 9-1, it was Stull’s block that fueled a Pitt engine that seemingly ran on empty much of the first half.

“That was a highlight reel in one run,” Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said. “I’ll have to wait and see (who missed tackles).”

It wasn’t the missed tackles. Rather, it was Stull’s block of Notre Dame strong safety Sergio Brown — a telling blow that energized his teammates and the Pitt fans.

And luckily he didn’t get concussed doing it.

It seems a little early — what with two games left — to declare the promise fulfilled, but it fits with the whole full circle of the ND game now and in 2005.

That was in 2005, Dave Wannstedt’s first game as Pitt’s head coach, a 42-21 loss to the Irish. After the game he said the Panthers would not be able to compete until he rebuilt their lines. He then preached patience because he said rebuilding lines — as well as changing the mentality of a team — took time.

With that in mind he took to the recruiting trail hard in search of offensive and defensive linemen and made several changes in the next two years that he believed would give the Panthers’ lines a chance to develop into dominant units.

Those included moving Greg Gattuso from tight ends coach to defensive line coach after the 2005 season and hiring Tony Wise as the offensive line coach and Buddy Morris as the strength and conditioning coach after the 2007 season.

Fast forward to Saturday night when those same Irish came to Heinz Field to play the Panthers. By the time that game was halfway over this much was clear — Wannstedt has delivered on his promise of rebuilding the Panthers’ offensive and defensive lines into physical and dominant units.

West Virginia next week will be the continuation of another full circle moment regarding the need to “get faster.”

The House Rock Built are violating all sorts of Domer stereotypes of entitled, too-full-of-themselves, humorless, bandwagon fans that feel everyone is against ND and it is all because of jealousy. They are actually taking their imploding season with, you know, humor.

I will not hold that against them, since they are producing fine muppetry.

Binghamton acting head coach Mike Macon is just trying to make sure his team’s psyche isn’t further damaged after the game.

“You kind of try to see their psyche going into a game like this,” Macon said. “A lot of guys never played a team like Pitt in their careers. We had three guys returning who played Duke last year, but they didn’t get a high measure of minutes. It was a quantum leap (from the opener against Bloomsburg).

“This is where we want to be. How do we get there? Accept the challenge. Go out and be tough. Go out and let people know you’re here.”

Little side note, the story above from the Binghamton paper was written by the P-G Pitt beat writer, Ray Fittipaldo. Outstanding to pump out two different stories for the same game. That’s working smarter.

His P-G story focused on the backcourt performance of Gibbs and Woodall. Mainly Gibbs since he was drilling the 3s.

“I knew it was going to come sooner or later, so I wanted to be patient with it,” Gibbs said. “I wanted to be unselfish and take the open shot. I have confidence in myself. If I have an open one, I’m going to be confident enough to make it and keep shooting.”

That is exactly what he did in the first half when he almost single-handedly beat the Bearcats on the scoreboard. Gibbs had as many points at halftime as Binghamton (17). He made five of his six 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes, including three in a span of 1:45 midway through the half. All five 3-pointers came in a little more than nine minutes.

Woodall, though, very quietly notched a double-double with 10 points and 13 assists. The assists totals were helped by the fact that Pitt made 50% of the shots. Not as many loose balls and plays that weren’t set.

Plus when you pass to Gibbs and he drills 3s, it really helps pad the stats.

Gibbs made six 3-pointers on the way to a career-high 22 points, highlighted by a searing first-half run in which he made five 3-pointers in a 9-minute, 6-second span.

“I knew it was going to come sooner or later,” he said. “I just wanted to be patient with it.”

It was the most 3-pointers by a Pitt player since Levance Fields made six at Cincinnati on Jan. 24, 2007. No Pitt player has ever made more 3s in a game at the Pete.

Woodall, though, is playing humble and giving credit to watching Fields.

Woodall’s assist total — which ties the seventh-best ever by a Pitt player — came in his second career start. By contrast, Fields, the player Woodall is trying to replace, didn’t get his first double-digit assist game until his 66th start (as a senior against Miami, Ohio), and surpassed Woodall’s 13 assists only once in 100 career starts at Pitt.

Woodall said watching Fields last season while taking a redshirt is the reason for his progress.

“That’s him helping me,” Woodall said. “It’s almost like me cheating to get 13 assists, because he helped me out a lot.”

Pitt outrebounded Binghamton by only 6. It wasn’t because of the frontcourt. Robinson grabbed 10 and McGhee and Taylor combined for 10 boards. Coach Dixon was bothered by the guards not getting after the long ones.

“We’re concerned for obvious reasons,” Dixon said. “We have to get our guards to rebound more, especially on the long 3s. The guards have to get those.”

Coach Dixon was also named 2009 USA Basketball Coach of the Year thanks to coaching the U-19 team to a gold medal.

“Jamie Dixon has established himself as one of the finest collegiate coaches there is in the game today and this past summer he proved himself on the international court too,” said USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo. “In leading the USA Men’s U19 Team to the World Championship, he not only accomplished something that the U.S. had not done since 1991, but to do so he had to quickly form a team from 12 individual players and earn their respect and confidence. He obviously did so and his team responded by winning it’s nine games in an impressive team manner.”

Butler’s Shelvin Mack was the quote from a player lauding Dixon.

“(Coach Dixon) helped my game out a lot,” Mack said in a news release from USA Basketball. “He stressed that I should be more of a leader and more vocal. Since I was a point guard, I was more in control in making sure everyone got the ball in the right position, and he helped me accept that role. He made it clear that my job was to get everyone involved, stay positive and not worry about individual goals.

“His practices were very intense,” Mack continued. “Everything was full speed, so you had to pick up things quickly. But he emphasized the right things, the things you need to do to be successful.”

Maybe it is because my old law school roommate was a SUNY Binghamton grad so it makes the win even better from that perspective. Even if it was some 12 years ago.

It was a fairly easy 71-46 win for Pitt. The game was never truly in doubt. Not with a Binghamton team that lost almost all of their key players. What it was, was an opportunity for those of us outside of Pittsburgh to see the team early. I for one, was especially juiced to finally watch.

With the Pitt team this year, the beginning of the season, and the competition faced this is not a game that you judge in terms how they will compete in the Big East or make the NCAA. It’s one in which you watch individual players, look to see how chemistry is working, and generally strengths and weaknesses. Or that could just be how I am looking at it.

I wasn’t surprised to see how empty the Pete looked, but a solid student turnout.

I was happy with the play calling crew of John Saunders and Bob Valvano. No, they aren’t one of the regular b-ball playcalling crews. In fact, they rarely do any game calls at this point for the Mouse Monopoly. That’s what made it pretty good. No personal affections for the coaches and players. Not being bogged down by crap. Inside jokes, personal crap. Mainly focusing on the game itself. It was refreshing from pros who can call a game.

Bob Valvano made a great point late in the game about how Pitt had communicated all game long on defense. Observing that it was something they watched the coaches emphasize in practice and shoot-arounds.

So, from my notes on the game.

From a strictly physical standpoint, Gary McGhee looks so much better. Credit the Pitt basketball nutrition and conditioning folk. He’s come a long way from his freshman year with his physique. He runs more and can definitely come out further to defend. That said, his defense is clearly limited and the coaches are doing what they can to help.

It was very noticeable early that when Binghamton got the ball inside against McGhee, the nearest guard would collapse in from the perimeter and help. The risk, obviously was creating an open perimeter shot. Against Binghamton that was not too much of a risk. As Pitt opened up more of a lead, they let McGhee go one-on-one a lot more — primarily in the second half — and then Binghamton found more shots inside.

The guard play is definitely an uneven thing. Early in the game, they looked very unsure. Swinging the ball around a lot and hesitant to take shots. As Pitt started getting some putbacks and rebounds inside, Binghamton was unable to keep the perimeter pressure creating lots of open looks especially for Ashton Gibbs.

Gibbs was getting and making open looks and spot-up shots from the perimeter. That blew the game open and made it easy for the rest of Pitt’s offense.

Chase Adams is a dynamo on defense. He harasses and bothers whoever he is on. That said, whether he is deferring as the new guy or it is his size, he is very tentative on offense. He only took (and missed) 3 shots, all from the 3-point arc. He looked very frustrated that he couldn’t get clean looks very easily.

Brad Wanamaker is one of the few upper-classmen playing right now. He’s also a very clear leader. It was very noticeable when he was out there that other players were looking to him to instruct and guide them to where they should be. If Woodall wants to be the point guard running things this year, he needs to know what the whole team should be doing and show some assertiveness.

You have to love the energy and effort from Nasir Robinson. He is visibly working on every possession he is out there. He’s giving great effort and gritty solid defense. That said, he is so awkward on offense. At times, I swear it is like he is trying to score points  with an unseen style judge. Not finishing his drives cleanly and strongly. Trying instead to finesse and abruptly avoid contact.

If you are a fan who can’t understand poor free throw shooting. Rants against it, and just plain doesn’t like it. Well, you are in for a long season. I do not exaggerate to say that there will be at least two losses this season where someone can (and likely will) point to the free throw shooting and say, “if they had shot at least 65% or better Pitt would have won.” Just warning you now.

Dante Taylor knows how to step in and take charges. If he played for Duke, I would hate his guts.

Dwight Miller, Talib Zanna and J.J. Richardson all played just a few minutes each. Richardson had energy and lots of athleticism. But very, very raw. Zanna didn’t have the energy, but the potential is only matched by how raw he is. Miller is most likely the one who has a chance to crack the rotation this year. Very active and was putting the effort on the defensive end first. That will go a long way to getting minutes.

The coaches on the bench amused the hell out of me. Of course, Dixon never sat, but Herrion and Knight quite literally would take turns standing and screaming as well. Knight would be there exhorting the guards and  getting after them. Then you would see Herrion tap him, Knight would sit and Herrion immediately would pop-up to go after the forwards. It would alternate.

Definitely going to be a journey with this team.