Between Thanksgiving and despondence over the football team, I didn’t look too closely at some of the Pitt materials of the Backyard Brawl. So I didn’t know that Pitt (and/or maybe the Big East or WVU) spent money on a logo.

Not sure it captures the hate or really evokes much other than raindrops? Tears?

The big deal for Pitt, as we all know, is no Ashton Gibbs. The bigger question mark is whether Dante Taylor will be playing.

If Taylor is out too, the Panthers will be without two of their top seven scorers as well as their third leading rebounder.

“I didn’t think Dante was ready to go,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said after the game. “I would guess [Taylor will be a game-time decision]. … He was pretty sore [Saturday] and didn’t feel good at all, there was no decision to be made.”

Dixon used J.J. Richardson and Talib Zanna to play most of the minutes usually reserved for Taylor. That likely would be the plan again, Dixon said..

“I thought we got great performances out of J.J. Richardson, J.J. Moore and Talib Zanna,” Dixon said after Saturday night’s game. “That was great to see; we need more of that from them.”

J.J. Richardson had disappeared from the rotation in Big East play. The Cinci game showed why. Despite Cinci being without their best interior player — Yancy Gates — Richardson was not very good out there. Only 7 minutes of action, no rebounds, no points, but 4 fouls.

If Taylor isn’t available, it’s going to be tough inside for Pitt.The Hoopies may not be able score points, but they do play defense and rebound.

That’s not a new problem. WVU is No. 9 in the 16-team conference in scoring offense and No. 10 in field-goal percentage. It’s a major concern entering tonight’s ESPN home game against No. 4 Pitt at 7 p.m. from inside the Coliseum. Pitt’s leading scorer, Ashton Gibbs, is out with a knee injury.

Saturday’s loss in the rebounding battle was the first in 10 games and just the third in Big East play. The previous four opponents managed to shoot a combined 33.3 percent. The guarding and the rebounding that propelled the Mountaineers to the Final Four last season are not as strong, but remain strengths.

The scoring, which was just enough to make the approach work last season, is missing this season.

“At some point, we have to put the ball in the basket,” WVU senior point guard Joe Mazzulla said. “We did a much better job of that last year toward the end of the season. We have to do that soon, but at the same time we can’t lose focus of our defense.”

They are shooting really badly. In their last six games, their field goal percentage was under 40%. They only shot above 40% in two of the games.

Considering the lack of depth on WVU this year — no freshmen playing because of injuries and quitting; Jennings quitting the team mid-game; Mitchell back from his second suspension — the questions around the poor shooting are whether it’s because the lack of depth is wearing down the team. Huggins says no.

True, but the reality is that in playing a limited number of players most of the year, the effects would logically show up later in the season. If that’s the case, this is when West Virginia would start to wear down, with eight games remaining in the regular season.

To compound matters, now comes the quickest turnaround of the season. The Mountaineers play again Monday at home against No. 4 Pitt, the first of two straight Big Monday games. West Virginia has time off after the Pitt game (four days), but then repeats the task next weekend, playing host to DePaul on Saturday and then going to Syracuse on Monday.

Dick Weiss doesn’t like what he sees from WVU this year. The Hoopie players just want to move to the next game.

“We can’t let one loss get in our heads,” said junior forward Kevin Jones. “We have to get this out of our heads and get back to work on Pitt.”

In other words, there’s no time to dwell, which is perhaps a good thing.

With Gibbs out, it has become official. Woodall will start.

Panthers coach Jamie Dixon told Sporting News: “Travon will play more minutes, but it doesn’t change what he has to do.” Woodall, a 5-11 native of Brooklyn, has averaged 6.7 points and 3.6 assists in 20 minutes per game. He frequently has played point guard in tandem with Gibbs, who also serves the Panthers as a top 3-point shooting threat and scorer.

Dixon said senior Brad Wanamaker will play some of his minutes at point guard in relief of Woodall. Although he plays on the wing, Wanamaker leads the team in assists at 5.2 per game and is the Panthers’ best threat to break down defenses off the dribble.

Dixon said there also will be more playing time for redshirt freshman Lamar Patterson and freshman J.J. Moore. Although Moore is considered to be one of Pitt’s most talented players, the abundance of more experienced wings has kept him from getting serious playing time. “It won’t be just one guy,” Dixon said.

Brad Wanamaker and Gil Brown want to play a lot better than they did last year in Morgantown.

“It wasn’t,” Wanamaker said, “a very good day for us.”

The rivals meet for the 181st time at 7 p.m. today, when No. 4 Pitt (21-2, 9-1 Big East) travels to play No. 25 West Virginia (15-7, 6-4) in basketball’s version of the Backyard Brawl.

It is the first of two meetings this season — the teams play again Feb. 24 at Petersen Events Center.

Unruly fan behavior and technical fouls marred last season’s game in Morgantown, a loss Pitt avenged 12 days later with a 98-95 triple-overtime classic at the Pete. But the Panthers still have bitter recollections of head coach Jamie Dixon’s most lopsided regular-season Big East loss.

“We owe them,” Brown said. “They just really outplayed us in every facet of the game.”

That behavior has the student paper editorializing that the fans need to, well, go against their normal nature and not be dicks.

Liveblog tonight at 7pm.