Well, in the past Pitt has survived spells of not having Levance Fields. Now Pitt will try to manage with Woodall. The reports are that Travon Woodall suffered an abdominal tear and will miss the next month.

There’s no sugarcoating that this is a big loss. He was playing 32 minutes a game. Shooting real well from the perimeter. The leading assist man on the team — a better than 2-1 A/TO ratio — and clearly the floor leader.

I can see Lamar Patterson getting some of the time running things as a point-forward type player like Brad Wanamaker. Patterson has good court vision and has 20 assists to only 8 turnovers. This could create times where both Patterson and J.J. Moore are on the floor at the same time. I would be somewhat intrigued to see that. Like it or not (and I don’t), Ashton Gibbs will get some more chances to play point.

Most of the minutes, though, should end up going to John Johnson, Cam Wright and Isiah Epps. The latter has not gotten much playing time after redshirting last year and still struggling to get on the court. He’s an actual point guard, but most stories are that his defense is lacking to be kind.

Going to be a hell of a first test with a road game on ESPN.

I would love to simply call it the “Battle for Beef” but there are some other potential permutations that could send the winner of tomorrow’s Syracuse-Pitt game somewhere other than the Beef O’Brady Bowl in St. Petersburg. Either way, the winner of this game at least gets to a bowl. Salvage a little pride from the season of disappointment.

Let me get this out of the way. Screw the talk of deserving or not deserving a bowl bid. Screw the debate over whether 15 extra practices really mean anything or not. Screw the issue of whether fans will travel to the game and how it looks. Those are all meaningless discussions.

There’s an overabundance of bowls, yet we can’t get enough of them on TV. The ratings for the crappiest, poorly attended bowl games are still solid enough that ESPN and others line-up to help prop them up. Will I watch the Motor City Bowl, the Potato Bowl (or whatever it is in Idaho), the Las Vegas Bowl and nearly every other minor bowl? You bet. So, why wouldn’t I want to have one of these superfluous bowls to include my school?

The coaches stress the extra practices as a way of getting a head start on the future — even as the seniors who won’t be there — are still there. The value is probably more for the coaches to know they are staying on top of the kids.

But even that is getting ahead of things.

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