I think some cautious skepticism about the football team is still warranted. It’s hard with so many pieces starting to look like they are coming into place.

The defense looks strong overall — even if there are some areas with thin depth. The defensive line appears to finally be a point of strength. The linebackers have a hard-nosed, aggressive guy in the middle with more depth than at any point in years. Safety, while not deep, has talent.

On offense there is a stud running back. The receiving corps while not flashy is deep and talented. The QB situation looks a bit better. Even the offensive line has some hope with players coming back from injury, a center that looks like a great find from JUCO ranks and a blue-chip freshman who should be able to grab a starting job immediately.

The coaching staff was overhauled, and seems to be on the same page.

Add in the strong finish from last year that raises the optimism. As further proof of how close Pitt might be, I have seen many cite that Pitt lost 4 of its games by 7 or fewer points. That just a couple bounces, a couple less injuries (or better officiating *cough* Rutgers *cough*) and Pitt would have been at least 6-6 or even, possibly 8-4. Suggesting how close Pitt might be.

On the flip side, though, Pitt also won 3 games by 7 or fewer points. Meaning that a 3-4 record in tight games suggests Pitt was very close to where they should have been, record-wise.

I was thinking about that as I kept coming back to this look at the Big East and team’s schedules.

Two things struck me right away. First, how unsure people are about the Big East after the assumption that WVU will be good and Syracuse will suck. Second, upon reflection I can’t disagree.

The eyeballing of schedules where you pick out almost certain losses or wins for the Big East teams yields a lot more toss-ups than usual. In large part because the teams in the Big East have improved and there is more parity.

UConn had a great season last year, and they didn’t lose much. USF and Rutgers have shown stability and are establishing themselves as consistent top-25 or right around there teams. Cinci is on their way there with Kelly as coach and especially if Mauk gets that 6th year at QB. Louisville is just a big question mark — they could implode with all the JUCOs brought in or could gel like a K-State team.

Then there’s Pitt.

This might be the strongest Panther team yet under Dave Wannstedt, but the schedule could make it a challenging year. There’s a chance for a big start with a home win over Iowa in mid-September, but the Big East slate starts out with two road games against Syracuse and South Florida. Going to Navy and Notre Dame will make it four road dates in a five-game span, and then there’s the finishing kick. After getting a mid-November week off, the Panthers have to play at Cincinnati, West Virginia, and at Connecticut. That could be just tough enough to ruin Big East title hopes.

They don’t give Pitt any “Likely losses” but after the two MAC warm-ups there are also no other “near certain wins” either. And I can’t argue too hard against that. Even the Syracuse game being in Syracuse does make that closer to a toss-up than a lock right now.

The Tom Herrion media appreciation continues. Jeff Goodman at Fox Sports lists his top-20 assistants at “high-major” programs. Herrion comes in at #11.

Herrion jumped on Jamie Dixon’s staff prior to last season and was recently promoted to associate head coach. He was previously the head coach at the College of Charleston for four years and averaged 20 wins per season in his tenure. The 40-year-old also worked for Pete Gillen for eight years at Virginia and Providence.

Goodman moved Pitt to #11 in his updated early pre-season top-25 after the declarations of early entry.

The Panthers lose senior guards Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin. While both are replaceable, Jamie Dixon will need to find someone who can shoot the ball from the perimeter. Pittsburgh has point guard Levance Fields back and healthy and Sam Young and DeJuan Blair are a force up front, while guys like Gilbert Brown and Tyrell Biggs showed flashes.

From the Big East, UConn #3, Louisville #5, ND #7, G-town #13, ‘Nova #17, Marquette #18, WVU #21.

The meme that — the Big East is a loaded beast of a conference this year — has already started will only get stronger after the summer and the draft returnees. That of course will create the backlash and contrarian arguments for the ACC or Pac-10.

Rivals.com, has Pitt way up in their really early poll (#2). One of their writers has Pitt as his #1 pre-season team.

Here is what Pittsburgh has returning: one of the nation’s best point guards, one of the nation’s best forwards and one of the nation’s best centers, not to mention one of the nation’s best coaches. And that’s just for starters. The Panthers also hope to have back a fourth starter, swingman Mike Cook, who suffered a torn ACL in the 11th game last season. Cook was a senior, but he has applied for a medical redshirt.

…

When Connecticut beat Pittsburgh 60-53 last season in the teams’ only meeting, in Hartford mind you, neither Fields, who was out with a broken foot, nor Cook was available. When Fields returned after a 12-game absence and regained his stamina, the Panthers ripped through the Big East tournament to claim the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. They beat Louisville, Marquette and Georgetown on consecutive days.

That’s the Pitt team I expect to see this season. From November into April.

Here’s hoping the players don’t start buying into the hype and their own press-clippings.

I regularly try to praise the NBE Basketball Report for a good reason. It is one of my daily reads and has gone beyond being the best link round-up on Big East Basketball. The site also features regular and original recruiting news of Big East targets provided from the fine writers at Pittsburgh Sports Report, CAA Insider, Northstar Basketball and others. So if you want to follow the Pitt and other Big East recruiting make sure you read it daily.

Here’s a sampling of some key stuff from the past few days.

I never got around to linking to a Q&A done with Dante Taylor from Pittsburgh Jam Fest.

Chris Dokish provides a look at Pitt recruiting 2008 through 2010.

There is also a look at 2009 big man target, Aaric Murray.

A couple other big man targets include Zeke Marshall and Mouphtaou Tarou. Brian Crownover of CAA Insider has a look at how they, Dan Jennings and other BE targets did in the King James AAU Tournament.

One of the AAU teams, DC Blue Devils provided a specific report on how some of their players did. Not to mention that another member Talib Zanna — a 6-9 BF/C — is getting interest from Pitt.

Meanwhile, looking at the 2008 NBA Draft, Chad Ford lists players who are in, who aren’t really in and who should have. Sam Young makes his list of players who should have declared this year.

Young is 23 years old and coming off a breakout season. He should’ve struck while the iron was hot.

Louisvlle’s Earl Clark also falls in that category.

The Big East as Andy Katz at ESPN.com writes will be an especially brutal conference.

The Big East had only three players declare early — West Virginia junior Joe Alexander, Marquette junior Jerel McNeal and Syracuse freshman Donte Greene.

So far none have signed with an agent, meaning they all retain their amateur eligibility. Alexander and Greene are projected to go in the first round, with the chance that they could still slide to the second round. That means they may ride it out until the June 16 deadline to withdraw from the draft. McNeal is likely going to return to Marquette.

Connecticut’s Hasheem Thabeet stayed in school, a decision that Villanova coach Jay Wright said amazed him. So, too, did Louisville’s Earl Clark. Pitt’s Sam Young decided against leaving. Marquette’s Dominic James and Syracuse’s Jonny Flynn opted to remain as well. Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody, the Big East’s Player of the Year, didn’t give leaving much of a thought.

“We could have easily lost two or three more guys,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “We’re not losing guys. It’s going to be a superstrong league again.”

Of the 15 underclassmen on the first two All-Big East teams last season, 12 are coming back. Seniors accounted for only four of the conference’s top 25 scorers and three of its top 20 rebounders. And there were no seniors among the top nine leaders in assists.

The projected favorites of the league — Connecticut, Louisville, Notre Dame and Pitt — are all potential Final Four teams.

This is why Marquette has to have extra anxiety with the loss of Crean and hiring an assistant. The way the conference is stacked right now, it is really easy to get buried in the conference. Really easy.

Given the depth and number of returning players and teams nearly intact –UConn, ND, Marquette, Villanova and Pitt all only lose a couple players who seem replaceable –  it is going to be real easy to have a good season and finish 5th or 6th.

Just look at this Rivals.com top-25 projection. Pitt is 2nd. UConn 1st, ND 4th and Louisville 8th. 4 of their top 8 from the BE. Along with G-town Marquette and Villanova in the top-20. WVU is left out for now (probably pending Joe Alexander’s decision).
As you look at that depth and the fact that this season the 3-point line moves to 20-9 — a foot further out — and you do at least get why Coach Jamie Dixon decided he needed to bring in a new JUCO for the shooting guard position rather than risk relying on a freshman to be ready.

While the women’s BE schedule was announced, the men’s won’t be until after June 16 — when the conference will know about which players are staying in the draft. The TV contracts and slightly unbalanced schedule demand waiting. I do expect Pitt to have one of the toughest conference schedules this year.

This was on the front page of ESPN.com’s basketball page today.

Seems the ridiculous to the extreme “bracketology” puts Pitt as a #1 seed for the 2009 NCAA Tournament. That’s really useless. On the positive side, Coach Dixon continues to say the right things about the goals.

“People are always going to expect more. We deal with it every year,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I look at it as a good thing. It’s part of our program — both in the visibility of it and the success of it.”

…

“We’re going to continue to do things that have put us in a position to be successful in the tournament,” he said. “Obviously, the health of our players is very important.”

The key phrasing, in the second part was “in a position to be successful.” There is still the issue of what Pitt does once in that position.
Apparently the Oklahoma AD made contact with Coach Jamie Dixon, but that was about it (ESPN Insider).

Oklahoma State’s call to Pitt’s Jamie Dixon wasn’t even long enough to warrant a serious discussion. Dixon wasn’t going to Oklahoma State.

The popular rumor is that Dixon — along with plenty of other coaches — is not going anywhere for at least a year.

He would be great, as he has been at Pitt. But there’s no reason for Dixon to walk away from a preseason top 10 team, particularly when he’d probably be the leading candidate at Arizona if Lute Olson was to really retire after next season.

I’m not going to stress on the Arizona thing. I think Olson has already shown he will be pulling a Paterno, so he’s going to hang around for some time.

I do expect that Pitt will announce a new extension for Dixon anytime in the next couple of weeks. On a somewhat related note, I recommend this article about Kansas and their AD dealing with the “costs” of winning. It’s something Pitt, in its history has struggled to handle.

The team banquet was on Sunday night (and yet another year passes without an invite coming my way). 12 players managed to take home awards including Mike Cook. It is easier to list the players who came away with nothing — Austin Wallace, Cassin Diggs and Tim Frye.

Lamar Patterson is Pitt’s first verbal for the class of 2009. It looks increasingly likely that Pitt snagged him early and before he really started showing what he can do.

Pittsburgh quietly landed Lamar Patterson during the high school season and the commitment probably didn’t generate the kind of buzz that it deserved. Patterson is the real deal. He has been the most consistent player for Team Final this weekend and showed off all the facets of his game. His passing ability was on showcase on Saturday.

Amusing complaint from some minor Philly paper about Pitt recruiting talented players from Philly these days.

But it bothers me that Pitt was able to land Nasir Robinson from Chester and Lamar Patterson from the Lancaster area. Add them to current Panthers Bradley Wanamaker and Mike Cook and you have a veritable Philadelphia pipeline heading to the other side of the state. There’s nothing that Pitt has that Villanova doesn’t, and the Cats should take it personally that schools like Pittsburgh and Virginia have multiple Philadelphia players on their roster.

Ah, provincialism. It’s everywhere.

I don’t take these projections seriously. Really, they can’t even be anything more than pure guesswork until the end of June. After players have stayed in or pulled out of the NBA draft. Even then, there’s a plenty of guesswork, but there is some time and spacing. Predicting right now has the element of looking too closely at how the team played at the end of the season (WVU) and not giving enough respect to the teams that were strong all season but stumbled in the post-season (ND).

I was collecting the various links, but NBE Basketball Report did a great job of collecting all the links in a couple of posts here and here.

Only one list completely excluded Pitt — a guy for the San Jose Mercury News. The highest ranking Pitt received was #2 (likes the coach and returning talent). The lowest, #16 (questions about perimeter shooters).

Really, the issue of who will be the primary SG (read, perimeter threat) seems to be the biggest question about Pitt.

There’s still no word on whether Mike Cook will get a 6th year. According to a blog by a Pitt News Assistant Sports Editor, he is hearing it is 90-10 that Sam Young comes back to Pitt for next season.

I chatted with a Pitt spokesman close to Pitt basketball earlier today. He told me that Pitt’s junior forward Sam Young, the winner of the Big East’s Most Improved Player award for this past season, is “90-percent sure” that he’ll stay at Pitt for his senior season.

I still expect Young to go through the draft camps. That just makes sense as a junior. He loses nothing by finding out what scouts think when they see him up close amidst similar competition.

A big Pitt/Wannstedt puff piece from Yahoo!/Rivals.com to start off the day.

The upset of West Virginia may not have been a fluke, but Wannstedt – ever the cautious coach – warns that it won’t matter when the Panthers open the 2008 season against Bowling Green on August 30.

“That will be the focal point, but it won’t have a darn thing to do with us beating Bowling Green,” he said. “Beating West Virginia reinforced that we could be good and reaffirmed to the kids we were recruiting that you could win at Pitt.”

There are a lot of reasons to anticipate a successful season for Pitt this fall. Seven starters return from a defense that ranked fifth in the nation last season. The return of Stull and Kinder should boost the passing game, which will benefit McCoy.

…

You also need a reliable quarterback. Stull, who has thrown only 30 college passes, doesn’t figure to challenge for All-American honors, but he should be an upgrade at quarterback. His presence is another reason many Pitt fans can’t wait for the season to start.

But Wannstedt can. “I can wait,” he said. “We need to work. The season will get here soon enough.”

When it arrives, Wannstedt will have a team with eight offensive starters returning. He’ll have a dynamic tailback, an All-American linebacker, a junior quarterback and an all-conference receiver returning from injury. He’ll have a team with one of the best defensive lines in America. He’ll have emerging stars, like strong safety Elijah Fields or defensive end Greg Romeus.

He has a team that lost three games by a touchdown or less last season and is seeking redemption. He has a team coming off that win over West Virginia. There are a lot reasons to like Wannstedt’s team in 2008. And he does, although not for the reasons listed above.

Looks like Pitt is set to be the trendy media favorite “darkhorse” team to “suddenly” jump from losing record to top-25 team at least. This always begs that deep philosophical question of whether a team can truly be considered a sleeper or darkhorse when everyone is picking them to be that team?

Paul Zeise has had a week to watch practices and the P-G beat writer has had daily Q&As. The first one, to the shock of no one was all questions on the O-line. The now annual concerns for the O-line.

Dickerson has looked great at TE by all reports, and that was another major topic for a Q&A. It was also the topic of this story.

“It feels good catching the ball again,” Dickerson said. “I worked real hard in the offseason. I knew this is what I wanted to do, and me and Bill went in there and started throwing every day.”

What has caught Wannstedt’s attention is Dickerson’s willingness and effort to take on defenders with blocks, even though Dickerson likened the difficulty of blocking linebackers to hitting a moving target.

“I was impressed with how he made an attempt to block. That’s usually the biggest transition for these kids,” Wannstedt said. “Catching the ball and running is an easy thing. Everybody wants to do that. Very few guys want to get in there and get their nose bloodied up. Dorin showed that he’s not afraid to do that. If he can keep that attitude, I think he’ll be an asset for us at tight end.”

At least he is willing and working on the blocking. If he can, then he has huge potential to be a key player in the offense.

The latest Q&A addresses Bostick’s wind-up motion –like everyone and their mother, Zeise believes Bostick will be redshirted — and then questions about the linebackers. Especially the young ones: Brandon Lindsey, Tristan Roberts and Greg Williams. And what do you know? A story on the linebacker corps to tie-in to this.

Now, the coaches seem to have found linebackers capable of delivering that speed. That group includes four redshirt freshmen in Max Gruder (middle), Greg Williams, Tristan Roberts and Brandon Lindsey, as well as redshirt sophomore Nate Nix.

Williams, who is 6 feet 3, 220 pounds and runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds, is the most intriguing prospect, mostly because he is physically gifted. He is a converted running back who seems to have picked up his new position well and continues to make plays in every practice.

“The competition we have at linebacker, I really like our young linebackers,” head coach Dave Wannstedt said. “I am really impressed with the progress all of them have made in two weeks. It looks like that will be a good competition and they’ll only continue to improve.”

Of the group, Gruder is the one who likely won’t see the field much this fall, because he is behind McKillop at middle linebacker and also is battling Steve Dell for the backup spot. But Gruder has been a surprise and looks like he might be a fixture at the position when McKillop graduates.

At this point, Shane Murray and Adam Gunn look to remain the starters at the WIL and SAM spots. The rotation, though, should be a little more frequent which means a lot more speed and energy regardless of who is out there.
Finally, there was recap article from Zeise at the start of the week on key obsrvations from spring practices so far. Most of them have already been mentioned in this and previous posts — Dickerson at TE, Stull will be the QB, WR is deep, Defense is strong, O-line [sigh] — but this stood out to me.

Buddy Morris is worth whatever they pay him — Morris was brought in last year as the strength and conditioning coach and he has transformed the program. His grueling schedule has instilled a mental toughness the team seemed to lack in recent years, and more importantly, they are stronger and in better shape this spring then they have been. The Panthers seemed to get stronger as the season wore on last year and played some of their best football down the stretch. That has carried over into the spring, and it is clear his contributions are making a difference.

This is a radical shift from his view on the whole matter in February 2007.

My point? Strength and conditioning is an easy target when things go bad, but I’d be willing to bet most strength and conditioning coaches are roughly the same and their success or failure is almost always commensurate with the talent they have to work with.

I agreed with his viewpoint back then, and I think there is something to be said for the change in players. The majority of the players now, are recruits Wannstedt has brought in. If we agree that the players are better physical, athletic talents, then it stands to reason that they will respond to most strength and conditioning better and probably faster.

Still, that he would change positions like this suggests that what Morris is doing has had a significant and noticeable impact on the players.

Some unconnected links.

A little late, but Rivals.com spring practice preview.

Pittsburgh missed playing in a bowl for the third consecutive season under Dave Wannstedt, but all signs point to 2008 being a turnaround year with recent recruiting classes coming to fruition. With other teams in the Big East in transition, Pitt could make a run at the league title. The Panthers need to settle on a new offensive line and find new starters at defensive line and in the secondary this spring.

A ranking of BE Coaches. Wannstedt comes in 6th. I understand Wanny being in the lower half based on what he’s done, but seeing Kragthorpe 4th and Leavitt 5th is ridiculous.  Kragthorpe may have a solid body of work prior to Louisville, but he can’t compare to what Leavitt has been doing. I can at least see the argument for nos. 1-3 (even if I don’t agree with the order — Edsall, Schiano, Kelly), but if body of work counts for Kragthorpe, Leavitt blows him out with how he’s built USF.

Joe Starkey writes that Pitt is embracing expectations on this team from national speculation.

“I’m kind of surprised,” says Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt, whose team began spring workouts Tuesday. “You know, coming off a five-win season.”

That said, Wannstedt welcomes the pressure. The Sporting News’ Matt Hayes and SI.com’s Stewart Mandel have Pitt pegged at No. 25; ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach and CBS Sportsline’s Dennis Dodd at No. 22.

“We don’t dodge the issue,” Wannstedt said. “You meet it head on - but, really, it doesn’t have any bearing on anything. One of the early lessons you learn playing this game is that you have to prove yourself every week.”

There’s also some talk of the possible LeSean McCoy and the Heisman talk. Let’s make sure there’s an O-line first.

Finally, I mentioned that Rod Rutherford is in af2. In his debut, he threw for 4 TDs and ran for 2 more. Of course, in what had to take him back to his Pitt days the O-line let him get sacked 7 times and there was little defense as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Pioneers lost 48-41. Ah, memories.

I seem to be having some trouble with embedding it on the site, but here is a link to the video of the player introductions for Pitt from the 2008 Big East Tournament Championship. Good times.

Now the biggest issue for Pitt basketball for the 3d time in 4 years, is whether a vital junior player will go into the NBA Draft. I’ve already said I think he should at least go through the draft process. Several sites have him going late in the 1st round. Plenty don’t include him. If you want to go crazy, here’s a link to a collection of mocks (quality of evaluations vary). One of the great variables that is always unclear until late April into May is the Euro players. Until the overseas scouting reports start coming in, the 1st round remains quite fluid.

As noted, there hasn’t really been a clear indication by Young as to what he is thinking.

Young won’t have to make a decision to even enter the NBA draft until April 27. The date to withdraw is June 16.

So take a deep breath. Relax and until Young actually says something, don’t drive yourself insane.

Of course, if he comes back…

Young would join Fields and DeJuan Blair, the Panthers’ top three scorers, as returning starters. Gilbert Brown, who was forced into a bigger role with the injury to Cook and was a major part of coach Jamie Dixon’s rotation, also returns and could move into the starting lineup at the three spot to replace Keith Benjamin.

A Young return could equal a top 15 or better preseason ranking for the Panthers, who garnered top-10 predictions the year Aaron Gray returned after testing the NBA.

The top incoming freshmen are expected to be Nasir Robinson, a four-star recruit who also could compete for the starting wing position, and shooting guard Ashton Gibbs, who may fill Ronald Ramon’s role. Other newcomers will likely be guard Travon Woodall and forward Dwight Miller. Point guard Jermaine Dixon has committed to Pitt and is expected to sign in the next month, but it’s unclear if there will be a scholarship available.

In Ray Fittipaldo’s final Q&A he speculates at the possibility of moving McGhee into a more prominent role. One that would have Blair at PF and Young at SF. That does, however, squeeze Gilbert Brown unless his shooting gets a lot better over the summer. Still, it is reasonable to assume that’s a goal at some point. McGhee’s development will be vital. Obviously it would allow Pitt to go bigger with him at center. The other advantage is that the rest of the players would be able to shift back when the team needs to go smaller.

Worth noting that Nasir Robinson was named to the all-PA AAAA 1st team for the second straight year. Also making the AAAA 1st team was Deandre Kane from Schenley.

I think I would prefer more doubters like Grant Wahl at SI.com.

Bracket buster: Oral Roberts. Scott Sutton’s 13th-seeded Golden Eagles are playing in their third-consecutive NCAA tournament, and they’re blessed with more size than any other low- to mid-major, going 6-8, 6-9 and 6-10 on their starting front line. They will be taller up front than first-round foe Pittsburgh, which is riding high after its Big East tourney title, but for this game in Denver I’m predicting a repeat of what happened the last time Pitt went out west for the NCAAs and got knocked off in the first round (by Pacific in Boise in 2005).

Instead, it’s mostly positive stuff about Pitt.

SI.com: Who has the hardest road?

SD: Memphis, no doubt about it. Pittsburgh won four games in four days at the Big East tournament … clearly, with Levance Fields back, that’s a different team. Memphis will have to get past Pitt, then past Texas in Houston, where Texas has a home-court advantage — it will be burnt orange wall-to-wall.

Seth Davis also thought Pitt should have been a 3 seed.

What Pitt did in the Big East Tournament seems to have inflated lots of expectations. Bobby Knight isn’t the only one willing to predict Pitt in the Final Four.

Instead, I’m going with No. 4 seed Pittsburgh, which just battled through the Big East tournament to win the title at Madison Square Garden. The Panthers will bump free throw phobic Memphis and then Texas, if things play out according to my bracket plan, to join the three remaining top seeds in San Antonio. North Carolina, the top overall seed, takes UCLA in a classic title game.

While not predicting Pitt to win the South, Pitt is the “darkhorse” to come out of the bracket.

So how about Pittsburgh? A fourth seed isn’t that big of a dark horse, granted, but nobody from seeds 5-16 has a chance in this region.

Pitt is the hot “darkhorse” or “sleeper” team right now.

The Panthers are seeded No. 4, which is startling considering that they entered the Big East tournament last week as a No. 7 seed. But it would be hard to find a hotter team in the country than the Panthers, who became the second team in Big East tournament history to win four games in four nights. (A note of caution: the last team to do it, Syracuse in 2006, lost in the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament.)

But the reason to be high on these Panthers is that they are finally healthy after the starting point guard Levance Fields came back from a broken foot. Sam Young has emerged as one of the country’s best players, and the freshman big man DaJuan Blair is no longer playing like a freshman.

I hate being the sexy pick. I’m not saying I want Pitt to be the team everyone is predicting to flame out in the first round, but it is a little too much. I worry about the players reading too many press clippings.
This breakdown of the 1st round game, is pretty good. And not just because they go with Pitt.

Pittsburgh game plan: The Panthers will look to wear down the Golden Eagles with their efficient offense. Though not an especially high-scoring team, Pitt can push the ball to negate ORU’s defensive style, create mismatches in transition and ultimately tire out the Golden Eagles. Also, forwards Sam Young and DeJuan Blair must establish themselves on the glass.

Oral Roberts game plan: ORU wins with defense - it held opponents to 39.7 percent field-goal shooting this season. It has a pair of shot blockers in Shawn King and Yemi Ogunoye and quick-footed guards who make teams work for every point. By slowing things down, ORU might keep the game close enough at the end for guard Robert Jarvis to take over.

Jarvis generally comes off the bench, but is their leading scorer.

This story from the Tulsa paper has the Golden Eagles poor mouthing their chances.

“They’re athletic, they play hard and they play great as a team. There’s no one man. You can’t just stop one man and expect to win,” said ORU senior guard Yemi Ogunoye. “They’re playing great toward the end of the season. They’ve got all the confidence in the world right now. It’s gonna be tough for us to come out and win. Everything has to be be on that night for us,” Ogunoye said.

But it was hard to dampen the Eagles’ enthusiasm after receiving their highest seed in their three consecutive years of qualifying in the tournament.

“We’re making progress,” said senior guard Moses Ehambe. “Two years ago, a 16 seed. Last year, 14, and now a 13. So we’re taking steps up. Pittsburgh is a physical team, but I believe if we go out there and play hard and play our signature (defense), we’ll be all right.”

Worth noting that ORU is a bad free throw shooting team. Only 67%. Granted I would kill for that after what Pitt did in the last couple games of the BET, but I’m hoping the team is over those yips.

Here’s another capsule collection of the teams.

Finally a couple of the Colorado papers look at the teams coming to Denver here and here. Nothing too important.

The game is at 1pm on CBS. It’s also a pretty good match-up.

Game worth watching on TV: The battle of teams down key players is Saturday in Hartford. It’s Pittsburgh minus Mike Cook and Levance Fields because of injuries vs. Connecticut minus Jerome Dyson because of a failed drug test that has earned him a 30-day suspension. So yeah, the game would be better if those guys were involved. But it’s still a great Big East matchup scheduled for CBS, and why wouldn’t you want to watch CBS?

Technically Jim Calhoun says he hasn’t decided whether Doug Wiggins will play. Right. He’s playing.

ESPN.com includes the non-ESPN game as a big weekend game.

Connecticut has one of the most explosive groups of athletes — led by guard A.J. Price and forward Stanley Robinson. Craig Austrie stepped up in the absence of Dyson and Wiggins and scored 15 points against Indiana. Center Hasheem Thabeet has steadily improved his offense to go along with his shot-blocking ability and overall defensive presence in the lane. Jeff Adrien is a dependable power forward who competes and provides consistent production in the lane as a scorer and rebounder. Despite losing to Rutgers at home this past Saturday, the Panthers beat Villanova on Wednesday. Pitt is short-handed with Levance Fields still out with a foot injury, but coach Jamie Dixon has shown he can rally the troops. The Iron Five of Gilbert Brown, Sam Young, DeJuan Blair, Keith Benjamin and Ronald Ramon should not be taken lightly, even on the road against a confident Connecticut team.

Good news, Seth Davis at SI.com picks UConn by 3.

So the question becomes, which team is better equipped to win a physical conference game with a thin bench? Well, Pitt out-rebounded Villanova by eight in its win on Wednesday night, but I doubt that will happen against UConn. My sense is the Huskies have turned the corner in terms of understanding how tough they need to be and how smart they need to play. That, plus the two days of additional rest and preparation they had this week after beating Louisville on Monday, should be the difference.

The extra days off for UConn seems to be a big advantage. The only thing I can sort of point out is that the Huskies played Indiana and Louisville on Saturday then Monday. Davis points out the team seems to have turned a corner. Contra that, they are still a young team and got a couple extra days to relax. They were rolling a bit, and now had a chance to rest.
Pitt, of course, is tired as they are finishing a 4-game in 10-day grind.

There are those times late in games when, admittedly, Biggs’ legs feel a bit like Jell-O, when his breathing becomes labored and his body is telling him to shut it down while his head wins a tussle as it screams to “keep on going, push through.”

Biggs harkens back to those semi-torturous offseason conditioning sessions when a moment like that arises.

“Just grinding it out in the summer and all that running we did on the track and all that stuff we did on the court, it definitely pays off right now,” Biggs said. “You can find yourself at the end of games with your wind going down and your legs feeling it some. But you just have to tell yourself to keep fighting, you don’t have any choice but to fight through it.”

I don’t have a strong sense on this game. I do expect some very ragged second half play from both teams.