Pitt kicks the start of college basketball season off tonight. I’m excited. Unfortunately, I can’t watch the game until late tonight on DVR delay. So I’ll be on a self-enforced media blackout from 7pm on. No Twitter, no checking websites, ignoring texts, just isolation. But that  is my problem.

Time to run through the media.

One of the reasons college basketball struggles with the attention to start the season is that there aren’t many good games to start the season.

The Rams, who play in the Atlantic 10 Conference, won 26 games last season and advanced to the semifinal round of the NIT. Coach Jim Baron returns three starters from that team, which defeated five teams — Providence, Boston College, Oklahoma State, Northwestern and Virginia Tech — from the six power conferences.

“It’s a different opener than most teams in the country have,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “It’s a different game. Go look at the first week of the schedule. I would venture to say there are not two teams this good playing against each other in the first week of the season.

“No one of our caliber is playing a team of their caliber, and no one of their caliber is playing a team of our caliber. We wanted to play the best teams we could play. That’s what we asked for. We know it’s a really tough game. It’s a team that won 26 games last year and beat some really good people. We have to be ready.”

The other teams involved in the 2K Coaches vs. Cancer Challenge face UC-Irvine (Illinois), Navy (Texas) and Seattle (Maryland).

However, while Rhode Island is something of a dangerous team that has scored upsets. This is a little beyond what they have done in recent years.

What do you think is a more daunting challenge: This year’s Rhody team accomplishing something that has not been done by any URI squad in more than 11 years? Or for the Rams to register an upset that has been pulled off only once by any team in the country?

It does not matter what your answer is, at least not in Rhode Island’s season opener. When they visit Pittsburgh in the nation’s first Division I game Monday night at the Petersen Events Center, the Rams will be asked to accomplish both goals at once.

URI has lost 16 straight games to nationally ranked teams, going back to a victory over Utah in 1999. The Rams have not won away from home against a ranked club since the upset over then No. 1 seed Kansas in the 1998 NCAA Tournament.

And Pitt’s only non-con loss at the Pete was to Bucknell.

Rhode Island does get their center Will Martell back for the game as well as his freshman back-up, Levan Shengelia. Meaning there will be bodies in the front court, and URI will be up to about 10 players for the game.

Ashton Gibbs got a big piece in the P-G yesterday. He is looking to be stronger and better.

After last season ended, Dixon encouraged Gibbs to become a better athlete. Dixon wanted his starting point guard to become a better defender and a better penetrator on offense. Gibbs took the challenge head-on, and one of the byproducts of the offseason work is an improved vertical leap. He could not dunk during his first two seasons, but he can now and said he might try to throw one down in a game if the opportunity presents itself.

“I’m a lot quicker now than I was last season,” Gibbs said.

Dixon said one of the reasons he wanted Gibbs to improve his athleticism is because opponents will be looking to shut him down. He was an unknown commodity before last season and might have caught coaches by surprise. That won’t happen this season, and Dixon wanted him to be prepared for the extra attention.

“We wanted to work with him getting by people,” Dixon said. “People are going to be looking for him. It’s not always going to be to score. It’s going to be to get other guys shots. He has to get in the lane and find the open man.”

There was a long stretch in the Big East portion of the season last year where Gibbs was being swarmed. I think with some consistency from Brown, and more offense from the frontcourt it will be even harder to do that this season.

Something Pitt fans have been happily aware of for some time. Pitt continues to build to something bigger. Getting higher profile recruits and getting more national attention.

“I don’t think there’s any question,” Parrish said. “Jamie has been really good at winning with guys that weren’t perceived as top prospects out of high school. … He has been able to build the program to where it’s a national brand. What he’s done in the Big East is off the charts, it’s insane.”

Birch’s commitment — the highest rated player since Brian Shorter in 1987 — came two years after Dante Taylor became the first McDonald’s All-American to sign with Pitt since that legendary ’87 class.

The Panthers, which will open its 2010-11 season against visiting Rhode Island on Monday, are No. 5 in the Associated Press preseason top 25. It marked the fourth time in the past nine years that Pitt entered the season as a top-5 team.

“Every year we get better and better,” said senior guard Brad Wanamaker, a top-100 player in the Class of 2007. “The next couple of years I believe we have some top recruits coming in. The future for coach Dixon and the Pittsburgh program is bright.”

Yes. Yes, it is. In no small part because the players themselves want to carry on what has been happening and build on it each time.

The blip of 2004-05 notwithstanding, the Panthers have been amazingly consistent during Dixon’s tenure. They’ve won between 25 and 31 games every season with at least 10 each season in the Big East, and are one of only seven schools with nine straight NCAA appearances (first two under Ben Howland).

This comes despite the usual turnover in college programs. When holes are left, though, Pitt seamlessly fills each one. Even when the early exit of DeJuan Blair, along with the expected departures of Levance Fields and Sam Young, gave Dixon a probable rebuilding project last season, players like Brown, McGhee and Brad Wanamaker simply stepped in and won 25 games.

“It’s all hard work and consistency,” Brown said. “Each player is held accountable that he’s able to produce. From Sam Young and Aaron Gray to myself and Brad and Ashton (Gibbs), we improved everyday. The players respond.”

A kind of generic preview.

And, he brings back a roster with four seniors and preseason first-team All-Big East junior guard Ashton Gibbs, who scored 16 points per game last year in helping the Panthers finish 25-9 and 13-5 in conference.  While Pittsburgh has been a model of consistency in the Big East, its individual players are often underappreciated.

“I know when we recruited them, Brad Wanamaker was the guy we wanted and there was no doubt in my mind,” Dixon said.  “And Gilbert Brown too and Gary [McGhee] and Ashton.  I don’t know who decides who’s supposed to be good, but I like the guys we got.”

Dixon went on to elaborate on his compliment for Wanamaker, a senior guard out of Philadelphia who has worked closely with former Panthers guard Levance Fields this offseason.

Ray Mearngh has a piece on Wanamaker to follow that up.

Wanamakers former assistant coach and recruiter Mike Rice, now the head coach at Rutgers, simply says this about him: “If there was a PITT style player in the dictionary his picture would be in it. He is strength and toughness combined with an unselfishness and dedication towards his teammates.” And tonight, when Pitt opens up with Rhode Island, it will mark the start of Brad Wanamakers final season as an active Pitt Panther.

I don’t think I’ve made any secret that I am a fan of Wanamaker. He appears to be out of control at times, but that seems more like his style than actual reality. It sometimes works against him on calls — traveling and whether he was fouled — but it has also been very effective.

I also don’t think there is a player since Carl Krauser that has fans so divided on a Pitt player. There is something about the way he is when he has the ball that just gets under the skin of some.

But here’s the final thing. He gets it.

“I can’t believe it,” says Wanamaker, “but I’m going to treasure my time here at Pitt for the rest of my life and enjoy every minute of this final season.” I ask Wanamaker how he wants to go out and he doesn’t hesitate.

“If we concentrate on getting better every day and sacrificing for our teammates,” says Wanamaker, “I truly feel we have a chance to win the National Title.”

Let’s start this season.