Yes, we all know that the class rankings after you get out of the top 15 or so become very nebulous and subject to wild swings based on whatever formula a recruiting site uses. Scout.com — for example — places a higher emphasis on quantity than most sites. Something that hurt Pitt in their rankings last year, but gives Pitt a huge boost this year. That said we, like to know where Pitt is considered to be compared. Especially within the conference.

I have to say that it was and is taking some getting used to seeing Pitt listed as an ACC team. I understand it since Pitt will be playing there in the fall. It’s just having Pitt still playing and competing in the Big East in basketball. Not to mention that the official joining doesn’t take place until July (and a reminder to Pitt: don’t do any stupid videos about joining like Texas A&M did for the SEC).

So how did the four major recruiting sites view the Pitt class as a whole? And how did it compare to others in the ACC?

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Basketball season is getting much closer. One exhibition down. One more on Sunday. The season starts next Friday.

From playing in Greece to Cyprus to Israel to Canton? Interesting travelog for Tyrell Biggs, the 15th overall selection in the NBA D-League draft by the Canton Charge.

Biggs wore thick, black-rimmed glasses Thursday, looking like an imposing Steve Urkel. But there is nothing Urkel about his game.

The broad-shouldered Biggs can play the 3 or 4 position and is not shy about contact. He’s got range out to 20 feet, a back-to-the-basket repertoire, long arms and a good feel for the overall game.

Jensen loves the fact that Biggs played at Pitt for head coach Jamie Dixon and went through Big East battles.

“I always talk about my mindset being the same as the Cavaliers,” [Charge Head Coach Alex] Jensen said, referring to the organization’s emphasis on defense. “Tyrell is the same way, playing for Coach Dixon, one of the most successful college coaches in the last decade.

“So when he comes in, he already has that mindset and understands it.”

Best of luck to Biggs, and when the NBA returns I hope he can find  a spot.

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I’m not saying the Sports Illustrated writer is picking Pitt to win it all — or even the Big East. Just a pleasant surprise to see that he ranked Pitt’s frontcourt (#15) and backcourt (#10) in his top-16 squads. These days, Pitt get’s ranked but the players tend to be overlooked. Nice for the kids to get a little respect.

Big East Basketball Media Day in a week. Just a memo to the Occupy Wall Street folk, it is Coach Jamie Dixon, not JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dixon. Let him be.

In related news, I will be attending Big East Media Day, in NYC. More details coming, but suffice to say that I cannot wait.

After yesterday’s list post, Rivals.com released their top-150 final rankings for 2011 class. Khem Birch cracked their top-10 by being ranked number 9 overall. Durand Johnson was ranked at #120 and Malcolm Gilbert was #133. Scout.com had Birch 14th, Gilbert 83d and Johnson 88th. So the real differences were in how they viewed Gilbert and D. Johnson. Gilbert, especially, was viewed very differently.

Some insight with the disparity on Gilbert can actually be explained from a piece from one of Scout.com’s basketball guys.

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Kevin Willard returns to the place where he went to school, met his wife, played Pitt basketball for his father — and as a result probably caught more sh*t than he deserved. The first year Seton Hall coach, though, is not going to be caught saying anything negative.

Kevin Willard figures to reflect, if only for a moment, when he looks over at the Pitt basketball players Saturday.

There were years when he was one of them.

The first-year coach at Seton Hall played at Pitt for his father, Ralph, from 1995-97 and this weekend returns to campus as a head coach for the first time.

“I’m really proud how well they’ve done,” Willard said. “You have to have a sense of pride.”

Coach Dixon, possibly thinking ahead to a couple years when TCU is in the conference offered his own thoughts.

“It’s a unique situation,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I was thinking about here’s a guy coming back home, a place where he graduated and played at.”

Yes, and?

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Just want to get some of these out, before I try to catch up on the training camp football material that I’ve fallen behind on, yet again.

Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News (now with a new and even slower loading format) has a piece on Pitt’s now deep frontcourt.

“I think he’s going to play minutes. I think he’s going to be good,” Dixon said.  “I think [Talib] Zanna is going to give us a different look with his length and his size at the 4. It gives us another option.”

Undersized Nasir Robinson started at power forward last season alongside 6-10 center Gary McGhee, and Robinson figures to remain in that position this season.

But Dixon is pleased that Zanna’s emergence and the continued development of 6-7 Texan J.J. Richardson brings a greater degree of size and physicality to the frontcourt and should give the Panthers five players to rotate at the two power positions.

McGhee and 6-10 sophomore Dante Taylor are the team’s centers. Richardson showed last season he can play there, as well.

“I think we’ll end up playing bigger,” Dixon said. “Our big guys played well in Ireland. We saw that happen in practice, too.”

Zanna shot .636 (21-of-33) from the field for the Panthers in the five games overseas and averaged 8 points and 7 rebounds.

Assuming for a moment that Pitt does indeed go big more often, I think the guy that sees his minutes squeezed more than anyone else will be Travon Woodall. He was already going to find minutes a little tougher with Isiah Epps and J.J. Moore pushing for time in the backcourt and to play wing.  Nothing I’ve read regarding the summer league shows that he has gained more consistency with his shooting touch.

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They take less and less meaning as the start of the season gets closer, but here are some more preseason rankings, power polls and other rating-esque things.

First up, the NY Times backed Pre-Snap Read ranks Pitt at #29.

Why No. 29 and not, say, around No. 15, where Pittsburgh ended last season? I understand your puzzlement. Bear with me as I attempt to explain this point: Pittsburgh can still win the Big East. Getting West Virginia at home is key, with that game again going far towards determining the conference champion. In fact, it hard not to view the Panthers as the Big East favorite, what with this team’s high level of returning talent on both sides of the ball. … Still, the lack of a proven quarterback is a concern. So is the interior of the offensive line; the interior of the defensive line will also break in new starters, but that’s far less of a worry. The Panthers must find two new starters at cornerback: it will be enormous for this defense if Imoru can step up immediately. All told, while I wouldn’t be surprised in the least to see the Panthers take the Big East, the handful of new starters and a difficult non-conference schedule will make it difficult for this team to match last season’s win total.

The question marks and the non-con are the issue. That is also why Phil Steele has Pitt at #27 even as he picked Pitt to win the Big East.

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Lists. An essential part of getting through an offseason — for readers and writers. Especially if you can spread it out over a few weeks.

ESPN.com’s Big East writer, Brian Bennett put together his top-25 Big East players for 2010. He has been revealing them for the past several weeks counting down to #1, Dion Lewis. The debate is over whether it should have been Lewis or WVU’s Noel Devine. Cardiac Hill has his take on it which is very solid. Devine has the higher yards per carry but Lewis has more total yards and TDs.

For me, beyond the simple homerism, the reason I go with Lewis over Devine is consistency. Devine is a potential homerun threat with the ball, but also it means there are a lot of strikeouts. In 8 of 13 games, he accumulated at least 30% off his total yardage for the game from one run. Lewis did that in only 3 games. You know Lewis is going to move the ball forward.

Pitt, really, to noone’s surprise placed the most players on the list with 6. Jonathan Baldwin, #3; Greg Romeus, #4;  Jason Pinkston, #14; Jabaal Sheard, #19; and Tino Sunseri, #24. Sunseri seems like the biggest guess on the list since no one really knows what he will do.

The folks at Football Outsiders are putting together a historical list of the 100 greatest college football teams. They aren’t even half-way there yet, but Pitt has a few entries. At #81 is the 1936 team.

There’s a lot of love for the Pitt teams of Jock Sutherland so far. Placing the 1933 squad at #75 and the 1937 team at #67. Football Outsiders refers to Sutherland as being at the top of the “list of underrated and somewhat forgotten coaches from the first half of the twentieth century.” This seams accurate.  Interesting little addition regarding the eventual end of the Sutherland era, for those of you unfamiliar with it.

Almost as interesting as Pittsburgh’s performance was what was happening to the university behind the scenes. Pittsburgh chancellor John Gabbert Bowman was bound and determined to improve academic perceptions of his university at all costs. He initiated the construction of Pitt’s famous Cathedral of Learning and worked to deemphasize the role athletics played at the school. He dissolved the school’s Alumni Athletic Council and placed the athletic department under faculty control. He instituted the strictest recruiting standards in the country. This had a rather predictable effect — Sutherland resigned after the 1938 season (he ended up coaching two pro teams, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers), the university’s academic reputation grew, and the football program fell apart, winning no more than six games (rarely more than four) from 1940 to 1955.

It does seem to be a pattern at Pitt where the school administration seems to swing manically at times between embracing and rejecting college athletics.

The basketball program also struggled mightily as those controls came into place. Under Doc Carlson, the Pitt basketball team had some of its best years in the late 20s and 30s. Between 1927 and 1937 there was only one sub.-500 season. Seasons that included 21-0, 23-2, 20-4, 17-5. Eastern Intercollegiate Championships and two mythical Helms Foundation National Championships.

Bowman came to Pitt in 1921 and right away started planning the Cathedral. He was there for years of the football program’s success, and dismantling. I can’t be the only one thinking of Wesley Posvar’s time at Pitt.

Right now Pitt seems to have finally comprehended that both can be embraced and compliment the other. Kind of sad it took this long to get the hang of it.

Not a lot of stuff out there today. Little things to pass along.

Yes, you know it is a dead period when ESPN.com’s football people are talking about ties. Pitt had a few “notable” ties on this list.

Sporting News football writers, Hayes and Curtis, list their top “game-changing receivers.” Jonathon Baldwin is in the top-5 for both writers.

A casual, early look at the best opening game for college football in the Big East: Pitt-Utah.

The Utes should be strong again in 2010, though they have some work to do in replacing several linebackers and safeties. Leading rusher Eddie Wide returns, along with oft-injured Matt Asiata. Three of the team’s top four receivers are gone, including 1,000-yard man David Reed. Quarterback Jordan Wynn made his college debut eight games into the season and went on to become the Poinsettia Bowl MVP.

Utah also brings back four starters on the offensive line and boasts depth on the defensive front. Whittingham’s team figures to make a lot of preseason Top 25 ballots.

Finally, if you need another list of recruits. Chris Dokish has his list of top-25 Pennsylvania recruits for 2011. Yes, it’s a down year.

7 of the 25 of the players have verballed, with Pitt receiving 3 of them.

Expansion speculation round-up a little later. Lots of talk building up to what is expected to be a wild day tomorrow. In the mean time…

There is no doubt that markets and athletics drives conference expansion. Academics matter, but that is more of a tie-breaker. It is something that helps bolster the appearance that conference expansion is also about improving academics in the conference and finding the right fit.

Pitt can obviously sell a lot on the academic side. To wit:

The University of Pittsburgh has been ranked in the very top cluster of the nation’s public research universities in the recently released 2009 edition of The Top American Research Universities. This is the fourth consecutive year that Pitt has earned the highest ranking. Only six other universities were placed in the very top group of public research universities this year—the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Illinois, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Wisconsin.

The report clusters universities based on their comparative strength in research, private support, faculty, doctorates, postdoctoral appointees, and undergraduate quality, as assessed across nine objective measures. Reflecting a core belief that “universities of the highest quality tend to do most things very well,” the institutions placed in the top cluster must rank among the top 25 public universities on all nine measures.

(A big hat-tip to SteveG for pointing this out in the comments last week.)

You can find the full 232 page report here (PDF).  The list Pitt cites is on page 16. The next Big East school to show up on that list is Cinci at #26 and then Rutgers at #28.

Keep in mind that that particular list was limited to just public universities. The overall top-25 nationally (page 8) seems to include some different criteria, but Pitt still ranks #25 (the 6th grouping)  in a list that also includes private universities. Still the only Big East school in that list.

That primary list is also a big indicator of just how hard the Pac-10 schools are willing to swallow to get Texas, by taking Oklahoma, OK State and Texas Tech. The Pac-10 has sixschools in the top-50 (Stanford, Cal, UCLA, Washington, USC, and Arizona), and all but Arizona are in the top-15.

Looking over that list if you want to break it down by BCS conferences:

Pac-10: 6

Big 12: 2 (Texas, Texas A&M)

SEC: 2 (Vandy, Florida)

ACC: 4 (Duke, UNC, Virginia, Maryland)

Big 10: 8 (Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, OSU, Northwestern, PSU, Illinois, Purdue plus CIC member Chicago)

Big East: 1

Independents: 1 (ND)

The MWC has no schools on the list. C-USA actually has one: Rice.

In a less rigorous list, there was this article from the Daily Beast that listed Pitt as the 18th most powerful tech college.

Good news of sorts. The Big Something expansion chatter has died down a bit. At least insofar as media coverage.

TNIAAM is cautiously concerned that the Big Something might still take two from the Big East and destroy the conference. At this point, I am a touch more optimistic that the conference can survive  because it really seems that only one team might be plucked — not thrive, but survive. The money is the problem, not the BCS bid for those left behind even if only one goes.

My comments on the new ACC TV deal has gotten some attention Brian Cook of Sporting(News)Blog and MGoBlog picks up on it. (Additional disclosure, Brian and I both wrote for FanHouse for a few year.)

That’s another pebble added to the pile of rocks hovering over one of the Big East’s most storied programs. The Panthers are widely regarded to be on the outside looking in despite making more sense academically, geographically, historically, and athletically than any team not named Notre Dame, the Panthers’ recent renaissance in both basketball and football may be a BCS farewell tour. If so, that would be thanks to the Big Ten Network already being on in Pittsburgh, a grinding irony that will not cheer up anyone grimly hanging on to the university of Tony Dorsett and Dan Marino as they prepare to meet new conference rivals East Carolina and Central Florida.

Even though it makes no sense from any other perspective, the Big Ten Network is the ruthless driver of expansion logic. That’s working to the detriment of Pitt and, frankly, everyone else. As always, this is Notre Dame’s fault.

This is not some hater on Pitt. He dislikes intensely the idea of Rutgers in the conference. Brian has been one of the bigger proponents of adding Pitt to the Big Something. He sees Pitt as a better fit to the conference in the broader sense, especially within the geography. The fact is, with the money continuing to spiral, the lack of football TV money in the Big East puts Pitt closer and closer to Mountain West and C-USA territory in the long-term.

Continuing that theme, in case you weren’t aware, Pitt has had one of the bigger declining populations in US markets this decade.

Moving to filler material. An annual offseason chestnut is the call for certain rivalry games to be played once more. Whether nationally — here and here — or in the Big East, Pitt-Penn State is always a popular one.

Brian Bennett at ESPN.com’s Big East blog breaks down the best units in RB and WR. Pitt is unsurprisingly #1 in RB.

1. Pittsburgh: The Panthers have the Big East’s offensive player of the year returning in Dion Lewis, who rushed for 1,799 yards and 17 scores a year ago. Backup Ray Graham, who averaged 5.7 yards per carry, could start for most teams. Henry Hynoski should be the best fullback in the league this year. That’s enough to merit the No. 1 spot here.

Edged out for #1 by Cinci for WRs.

2. Pittsburgh: It just doesn’t get any better than Jonathan Baldwin. Mike Shanahan came on late in the season a year ago and should provide a strong No. 2 target. Guys like Devin Street, Cam Saddler and Greg Cross could make this a corps that can give Cincinnati a run for its elite status.

So that’s two parts of the offense that looks hard to beat in the Big East. So, that puts some pressure on the QB. How does Tino Sunseri feel about that?

That’s a daunting responsibility, but he appears unfazed. “I’ve always had the motto: ‘Don’t feel pressure, apply pressure,’ ” he said.

Especially to an open cut. You have to keep the pressure firmly. Oh, sorry, wrong pressure.

“I don’t know if so much depends on me,” Tino said. “It’s about our team as a whole. The offensive line is a huge part. They have to open lanes for Dion and provide protection for me so Jonathan and our other receivers can run downfield. If it happens that we lose containment, I need to make plays on my feet to extend the play and make a throw downfield. We just have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best on every play.”

Obviously, complete success isn’t going to depend on one player, not even the quarterback. But erratic quarterback play was the primary reason Pittsburgh didn’t meet expectations in 2007 and ’08.

The Panthers didn’t challenge for the Big East title until Stull elevated his play. In ’08, he threw more interceptions (10) than touchdown passes (nine). But last season, he threw 21 touchdowns and eight interceptions while improving his passing percentage and passing yardage.

Pitt can’t afford to take a step back at quarterback. If Sunseri is successful, the Panthers could be among the best teams in the country. If he isn’t, another Meineke Car Care Bowl appearance may be in store.

So, yeah. Pressure.

The passing of the draft withdrawal deadline gave college basketball writers a chance to rehash their top-25s that were way too soon with slightly less ridiculous ones.

Before getting to those, just worth confirming that Bradin Knight is not going to Rutgers to be an assistant for Mike Rice. Eventually Knight will leave for another assistant position. Simply because his career aspirations will demand it. Just glad it isn’t today.

Coach Dixon also was one of several to recommend that Robert Morris promote Andrew Toole after Mike Rice left for Rutgers.

Seven seems to be the number for Pitt. Yesterday I noted a preseason ranking that put Pitt at #7,  Andy Katz at ESPN.com concurs.

7. Pittsburgh: The Panthers aren’t going to wow you with their overall talent. But what they have is a solid core of players who grew into their roles and became winners again under Jamie Dixon last season, which has become expected with this program. Pitt loses Jermaine Dixon, but it had to play without him at times last season. Ashton Gibbs has become a big-shot maker and a quality lead guard, Gilbert Brown has grown into his leadership role and Brad Wanamaker will continue to shine. Nasir Robinson emerged as a better post option than McDonald’s All-American Dante Taylor, but that could shift as Taylor matures. Pitt might not have the most talent in the Big East, but the experience should lead the Panthers to the conference title.

Luke Winn at SI.com also says lucky #7.

The Panther I’m most curious about this season is power forward Dante Taylor, the former McDonald’s All-American who came in and averaged 4.1 points and 3.7 rebounds in 13.9 minutes per game as a freshman — hardly overwhelming numbers. Taylor’s per-possession statistics, however, are intriguing. If he could keep up his offensive rebounding percentage of 16.1 over a larger chunk of playing time, he’d be considered one of the country’s best offensive rebounders and be immensely valuable to Jamie Dixon. Of all the big men that DraftExpress projects to go in the first round in June, only one — Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins — had an OR% higher than 16. Pitt’s team offensive rebounding dropped off by nearly six percent after losing DeJuan Blair, and a breakthrough year by Taylor could help the Panthers get back among the elites in that category.

Offensive rebounding was expected to and did suffer after losing Blair. Considering how it seemed that Taylor was struggling with position and getting after boards at times, Winn suggests that a more consistent effort — and more minutes — will be a big difference.

The other side of that, though, is finishing. Whether it is going up strong with putbacks or knowing to kick it out for someone else.

Mike Miller at NBC Sports, is far more bullish than anyone else to this point. Picking Pitt for #4.

There’s a drop from 3 to 4, but not as much as some might think. Considering the Panthers return seven of their top eight players from a 25-9 squad, including two star-caliber players in Gibbs and Brown and Jamie Dixon’s squad is a fair bet to make that Final Four breakthrough. There won’t be any embarrassing losses in 2010-11.

Love that optimism.

Weather turning nice, a 3-year old that shows little interest in being babysat by the TV, and trying to get to the various projects I have put off since September. Whine, whine, whine.

Okay, the NBE blog ran a series of quadrant rankings of the Big East for the offseason. They had the bottom 4 teams (no shocks unless you were high on Cinci). Third tier — surprised to see Louisville this low. Second tier doesn’t seem too stunning except maybe Marquette while losing Hayward and Acker, but seem to be given a boost in perceptions from being much better than expected last season.

Pitt was obviously picked for the First Tier, but also the #1 spot ahead of Villanova, Syracuse and Georgetown (hat tip to wbb). There has not been a question that the expectations would be high and there would be no surprising teams this year.

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So as usual on a Sunday after marathon college sports watching on Saturday, I spend Sunday with the kids. Easing back into things.

Going into the weekend, Pitt was rising in the eyes of most media.

ESPN.com’s power rankings put Pitt at #10.

Luke Winn at SI.com was really high on Pitt, shooting them up to #6.

Here’s the reason why I’m way more bullish on Pitt than AP poll voters have been:

Quality road wins* by AP top 25 teams not named Pitt: Eight

Quality road wins by Pitt: Three

(* I’m defining a quality road win as one against a top-60 team in the Pomeroy Ratings, in that team’s home gym.)

The value of road wins, like the ones the Panthers have pulled off in January against Syracuse, Cincinnati and UConn, cannot be understated. The other 24 teams in the AP poll have just eight between them, which means Pitt has 10 times the road clout of your average ranked team. Jamie Dixon‘s team needs to be considered a real contender for the Big East title.

Of course that was before the Louisville game (and UConn has decided to unravel completely). Garry Parrish at CBSSports ranks Pitt #8 after the weekend and Jeff Goodman at FoxSports.com says Pitt is #7.

UConn is unsurprisingly unranked after being unable to handle Michigan. UNC is barely there.

Rankings and power polls are as much about how teams are viewed as they are on how they are playing. Kansas struggled at home against (a good) Cornell, then lossed to an undermanned Tennessee team. They fell to #3. Not because they played like the #3 team, but because up this past week they had played like a #1 team, all teams no matter how good hit a rough/complacent patch and the pure NBA level talent along with excellent college players on the squad.

Pitt had to overcome the perception that it has lost too much talent to be very good this year, and the “confirmation” of that perception with the loss to Indiana at MSG.

In the latest polls, Pitt is #16 in the AP and #20 in the Coaches.

ESPN.com placed them at #20 in the power rankings. Fran Fraschilla and Doug Gottlieb both had Pitt at #11 at the high end while Pat Forde inexplicably left Pitt off his ballot. Vitale had Pitt down at #24.\

Luke Winn’s power rankings at SI.com puts Pitt at #13.

Back in November (and even early December) this seemed like a season in which Panthers fans would have to tolerate a mediocre present and reminisce about the past — to last year’s Elite Eight run, or even all the way back to Jerome Lane‘s days, when the team had better jerseys and Bill Raftery was in his prime. Then Jamie Dixon‘s boys went and beat Syracuse and Cincinnati in back-to-back away games, giving them more quality true road wins than most of the teams in the Power Rankings, and making it clear that they need to be taken seriously. With a healthy backcourt of Jermaine Dixon, breakout star Ashton Gibbs and Gilbert Brown, the Panthers’ offense is no longer atrocious, and they look like a team headed for an above-.500 finish in the Big East.

FoxSports.com has Pitt debuting at #14. Garry Parrish continues his mea culpa by putting Pitt #12.

And now a word about the mid-way point favorite for Mosti Improved Big East Player, from Jay Bilas.

My vote for the most improved player in the Big East, and maybe the nation, is Pittsburgh’s Ashton Gibbs. The sophomore guard is averaging 17 points per game and scored 19 points at Cincinnati on just six shot attempts. That came against a defense which was geared to stop him. Pitt is still methodically running its half-court sets, but the emphasis of the sets has changed dramatically. Instead of looking for post duck-ins and pounding you in the lane, Pitt is looking for Gibbs coming off screens and setting up drives for Brad Wanamaker. Having Jermaine Dixon and Gilbert Brown back to help space the floor and provide options clearly has helped, but Gibbs makes the whole thing work. He makes great reads, and when chased off the 3-point line, he curls hard and really creates a lot of problems for defenses. Gibbs is very good, but he is also very smart and sees the game very well. No guard in the Big East has improved more.

Still, keeping perspective, Seth Davis at SI.com updates his teams as stock to include Pitt, and puts them at a “Hold.”

The Panthers have shot their way onto the national radar with road wins at Syracuse and Cincinnati. So now what? Well, it’s hard to say, considering they have only been at full strength for four games. Senior guard Jermaine Dixon (21 points vs. Syracuse) missed the first eight games because of a broken bone in his right foot, and junior forward Gilbert Brown (17 points off the bench against Cincy) missed the first 11 while serving a suspension for academics. I’d love to tell you the Panthers are on their way to great things, but check out what they have coming up: at UConn, home versus Louisville, at Georgetown, at Seton Hall, home versus St. John’s, then road dates at South Florida and West Virginia. Will Pitt’s lack of inside scoring be exposed in the next few weeks? Or will they continue to shoot lights out and take a ton of foul shots? Time will tell, but while I grant that this team is better than I thought, given all they lost from last season I have a hard time envisioning them moving into the top 15 and staying there.

Staying there? That will be tough. Getting there? Win the next 2, and it might be top-ten.