Superficially, there is little that has changed with Pitt basketball over the past 10 years. Jamie Dixon is still the head coach. Pitt is expected to finish in the upper half of a very good conference, even if no on is sure quite how. The Pete has sold out once more. Defense will be played. The blue-collar, physical stereotype remains in place.  Seniors are looked to, to lead this team and be the face of it.

Yet, this is a season with a significant shift. Beyond the move to the ACC. Beyond the way games are expected to be called throughout college basketball. Beyond alleged style of play changes. This is as much a foundation year. Not a rebuilding year, because that would imply a significantly down season. More like one that when you look at a team in a year or two, you point to this year as where it all began.

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Left in the season or after every snap on offense.

Four games left in the regular season. Pitt needs to scrounge two more wins to get to bowl eligibility and the promised land of Shreveport.

And while Pitt is trying to find some of that early season offensive magic, it really comes down to not having the time to take the deep shots.

“Me and [Devin] Street, we love to go deep and make plays but we didn’t have enough time to go deep all the time,” [Tyler] Boyd said. “We just had to take what we did short. Once we caught the ball, we just tried to get what we could.”

Pass protection was an issue for the Panthers again. It wasn’t quite as dismal as the back-to-back games against Virginia and Virginia Tech, in which Pitt gave up a combined 15 sacks, but the Yellow Jackets got to Savage five times for losses totaling 32 yards.

“Wasn’t quite as dismal.” Now, there’s progress.

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ESPN could wait until noon today to announce. And by god they did. Actually they went 15 minutes past it. Holding ND and Pitt writers and fans hostage with the delay.

Faced with the reality that they have no great options they opted for the ratings bet with ND at night. With VT flopping — Pitt faced Logan Thomas 2 weeks too early it seems — and Miami being crushed by FSU, the VT-Miami showdown lost any real luster of meaning in the ACC Coastal Wheel of Destiny. That sends them to a noon 7pm start.

As I said earlier, there was no value putting ND-Pitt on at 3:30 with two Big 10 games already in that slot. That puts ND-Pitt at night. Not just night. It’s the 8 pm ABC national broadcast. ESPN opted for the guarantee of ratings with ND involved. Even if the game itself will be, um, hard to sell as compelling.

Three home night games this year. Really can’t complain about nooners this year.

[EDITOR NOTE: Sorry about the site going down around halftime. The volume was overwhelming the hosting company’s shared server and took me offline until I could tweak some things. Hopefully it won’t happen again.]

Take your pick. O-line that is getting crushed. Quarterback that is terrified of getting hit many more times. Running backs not producing. Defense only showing up for one half of football (Aaron Donald, excepted). A huge breakdown on special teams. Backbreaking defensive surrender in a key 4th quarter moment.

This one had all the classics of the season in one game.

It’s not that anyone can say Pitt deserved to win. Yet, Georgia Tech has to be breathing a sigh of relief that they got away with so many missed chances, gave Pitt oppotunities, and still won. The Yellowjackets shot themselves in the foot repeatedly when they had chances to bury Pitt in the first half.

Pitt had chances with Georgia Tech leaving the door open. Pitt tripped going up the steps, smashed their face into the door frame, stumbled about and fell into the rose bush.

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Can’t wait for the Illini based Penn State OT victory t-shirt. Can you? But at least they can claim a win. Let’s see what Pitt can do.

When Paul Johnson talks about his view of football that led to his triple option, he reminds me of Dave Wannstedt taken to his logical end.

Pass? Georgia Tech largely ignores the custom of the day in college football in favor of a running attack that leads the ACC and is fourth in the nation (an average of 315.6 yards per game). Meanwhile, Georgia Tech’s 120 pass attempts and 45 percent completion rate in eight games are by far the lowest in the conference.

“It’s just the system that we choose to run,” Johnson said. “I just always had the belief that if you can run and stop the run, you’re going to have a chance to win.”

Johnson points to the national championship game after the 2009 season when Alabama beat Texas, 37-21, and threw only 12 passes.

The crazy ones don’t bother me. At least they are committed.

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Only major program to lose an exhibition game this year? UNLV, last night. Remember being annoyed with UNLV because Khem Birch transferred there? Or how Pitt lost out to UNLV for the services of Savon Goodman — now quitting the team after 1 year suspension following felony burglary charges. Yeah, sometimes it all works out with what you “lose.”

Exhibition recap now. Media run through for football later. Pitt-GT tonight. It’s going to be a busy day, so I’ll keep this kind of short since I have to head out to get my growler filled so I can get through the day.

It wasn’t even close this time. Pitt worked over Slippery Rock. Never gave them even a chance to think there was a chance. Slippery Rock is a decent D-II team. People who know say they are better than University of San Diego. Unfortunately for the Rock, they played Pitt in the second exhibition game. After Pitt got a bit more serious.

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Tonight is the final exhibition game. This one against Slippery Rock. Coach Jamie Dixon is suggesting that the first exhibition playtime  is over.

That’s why tonight, when the Panthers play their second exhibition game against Slippery Rock at Petersen Events Center, he expects them to put forth a much better performance, especially the three returning starters — James Robinson, Lamar Patterson and Talib Zanna — and starting shooting guard Cameron Wright.

“I didn’t think any of those four played their best games and all know they need to play much better for us to be successful,” Dixon said. “Those are four good, smart, versatile players, and we expect a lot more out of them than what we got the other night, but they know it.

“I think the other thing is, they all four did a lot of good things, too. And we saw some things in that first game from UC San Diego that we really didn’t work on or prepare for because it was just an exhibition.”

Dixon said he is treating the game tonight against Slippery Rock as more of a regular-season game and has prepared for it, watched film and game-planned for the Rockets since the season begins next week.

Back-up center Derrick Randall is healthy, so Mike Young will get more work at power forward in this game.

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Back when the news was finally reported about Tyrone Ezell facing assault charges, I said I just didn’t know about it. I didn’t know if he should have been suspended. I didn’t know if the accusations were accurate.

Well, the hearing finally took place and charges were all withdrawn. Ezell is now facing a summary harassment count.

Homestead police in August charged Tyrone Ezell, 23, of Munhall, with simple assault, disorderly conduct and harassment after a 21-year-old woman accused him of punching her in the mouth July 30 during a fight also involving his relatives.

Homestead Cpl. Jeffrey Luptak said today the court told him he could file a summary offense against Mr. Ezell, his father, Albert, and their two accusers.

The elder Mr. Ezell, whose similar charges also were withdrawn Wednesday, now too faces the same harassment charge. Cpl. Luptak said he didn’t cite the accusers today, though, because he doesn’t have a complainant or victim.

Basically, we will not know. The family dispute appears to be settled. The police are portraying it as not having anyone willing to testify, not an issue of lack of evidence — such as medical records. But, once more, we don’t know. The only reality right now is that Ezell is mostly without worry of any significant criminal charges.

Ezell is also disputing this summary harassment as well, for what that is worth.