As per Andy Katz at ESPN.com (Insider sub., hat tip to Matt O.), Pitt appears to be one of the participants in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic supporting Coaches versus Cancer.

Matchups for the Coaches vs. Cancer and CBE tournaments will be determined soon. But one juicy rematch could occur in Madison Square Garden next November.

If the four hosts advance to New York for the CVC, the likely semifinals could be Duke vs. Pitt and UCLA vs. Michigan. Duke is scheduled to play Michigan a week later, so that would detract from a Duke-Michigan semifinal and set up a likely Duke-Pitt rematch of a dandy game last December at MSG. Assuming UCLA wins, then you’d either have a classic UCLA-Duke final of the event with two of the best name programs in the game, or a UCLA-Pitt game, which pits two top 10 teams and two best friends in Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon of UCLA and Pitt, respectively.

The CVC is run by the Gazelle Group. They don’t list this year’s participants yet, but the “Regional Rounds” (read: campus locations of the 4 favorites) are scheduled for November 10-14. Everyone will be in fear of being “Gardner-Webbed” this go round.
The Semifinals are at MSG on November 20, with the Championship on November 21. The site has a sign-up page for e-mail updates and to enter to win free tickets.

– The game against Notre Dame is the only kickoff time known right now because NBC has exclusive rights to ND games.

– December in Connecticut will be cold.

– The Backyard Brawl is set for Friday, November 28, the day after Thanksgiving. I wouldn’t mind this game to be played on this day normally, except it could end up being a noon or afternoon game. It’s on ABC, which previously had Texas/Texas A&M in the afternoons for the past few years, but they’re moving that game to Thanksgiving night on ESPN. I’m not really too high on the idea of an afternoon Brawl. Also, it’s always odd not finishing the regular season with WVU.

– The WPIAL championship games will likely be played on Saturday the 29th of November, the day after the Pitt game. Therefore the Friday night game won’t take away from any high school games, plus Pitt would be playing before the field gets torn up by the HS games.

– The game against South Florida comes just five days after playing up in Syracuse. Between traveling across the country and a short practice week, it should be interesting to see how the team responds.

– Following the USF game, Pitt has a a bye week before Navy. That’s an 18 day(!) break. So we have five days off before one game then 18 before the next…something seems weird.

– On both August 30 (Bowling Green) and September 20 (Iowa), the Pirates play a 7:05 pm home game. Expect a noon start (ugh). Remember: a good Pitt team will be forced to play at a bad time because of a baseball team that has had 14 losing seasons and will be out of contention by mid-May. Oh, and I’m still a Buccos fan.

Updates: WPIAL finals will be played the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Pitt-WVU is a noon kickoff on ABC.

Yes, this is probably just the “exception.” That there are no WPIAL games (probably) or such. Whatever. It didn’t take long for ESPN and the Big East to force Pitt back into a Friday night home game.

Pitt’s annual Backyard Brawl rivalry game against West Virginia will be played on Friday, Nov. 28, at Heinz Field and will be televised by ABC.

Unlike last season, when Pitt upset West Virginia 13-9 on Dec. 1 to put the Mountaineers out of the national title game, the game will not end each team’s regular season. On Dec. 6, Pitt finishes at Connecticut, while West Virginia plays South Florida at home.

Pitt and West Virginia also played on the Friday following Thanksgiving in 1997, 1998 and 2000, with the 1998 and 2000 games at Three Rivers Stadium. Pitt staged a 41-38, three-overtime upset at West Virginia in 1997.

The conference schedule was announced by the Big East.

Date Opponent Time

Aug. 30 Bowling Green TBA

Sept. 6 Buffalo TBA

Sept. 20 Iowa TBA

Sept. 27 at Syracuse* TBA

Oct. 2 (Thurs.) at USF* (ESPN) TBA

Oct. 18 at Navy TBA

Oct. 25 Rutgers* TBA

Nov. 1 at Notre Dame (NBC) 2:30 p.m.

Nov. 8 Louisville* TBA

Nov. 22 at Cincinnati* TBA

Nov. 28 (Fri.) West Virginia* (ABC) TBA

Dec. 6 at Connecticut* (ESPN/ESPN2) TBA

Don’t expect a lot of late starts. ESPN Regional will likely pick up a bunch of the games.

Recruiting never ends. What about 2009?

“Compared to last year, it’s going to be off,” Metro Index scouting director Joe Butler said. “You’re not going to have the number of national recruits, but more Mid-American Conference-type recruits, which is still really good football. Last year, we had an unbelievable number of high-end talents. There’s not as much high-end talent, but there are a couple kids that are exceptional.”

That’s no surprise to WPIAL coaches, who realize that ‘08 wasn’t your typical recruiting class. Of the 31 Division I-A recruits, 22 signed with BCS programs. Pryor, named national player of the year by PARADE, was one of four WPIAL stars to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. Three others also played in national all-star games.

“I don’t know if there will ever be another group like this past group: You’re looking at five kids nationally ranked in the top 100 by some service or another, then having the No. 1 kid,” Gateway coach Terry Smith said. “I think there’s a chance for two or three kids to be in the top 100 this year. It may be as strong a group from A to Z, but not top end.”

It’s only fitting that recruiting analysts believe the top three prospects in the WPIAL are players who were overshadowed this past season by star senior teammates: Gateway linebacker Dorian Bell and receiver Corey Brown and Montour all-purpose back E.J. Banks.

Dorian Bell is a top-20 recruit nationally. Bell and Brown already have offers from Pitt. Looks like Pitt is going to have look harder at the rest of the state and outside Pennsylvania to pull in a recruiting class comparable to this past one. Winning a lot more games would definitely help that process.

I had been unaware that new Linebackers Coach Joe Tumpkin was actually hired by Central Florida in January. Barely a month on the job before he got a better offer and a chance to work with his old boss.

Well, it’s not like Pitt could avoid playing 1-AA teams for too long. New Hampshire will be coming in 2010 for a $300,00 pay out.

Mark Schlabach at ESPN.com has a revised, way-too-early top-25. Pitt clocks in at 22.

After beating West Virginia 13-9 in one of the biggest upsets of 2007, the Panthers finally seemed poised to turn the corner under coach Dave Wannstedt. QB Pat Bostick and tailback LeSean McCoy both played remarkably well as freshmen, and the defense showed some bite at season’s end. If the Panthers can learn to win close games — they lost four games by seven or fewer points last season — they might be one of the country’s biggest surprises.

How about just blowing some teams out, so it becomes a moot point?

I just haven’t had time to post about Pitt’s announced non-conference schedule for this season.

Aug. 30: Bowling Green

Sept. 6: Buffalo

Sept. 20: Iowa

Oct. 18: at Navy

Nov. 1: at Notre Dame

As a home schedule, it’s pretty good since there will be conference home games with Louisville, WVU and Rutgers.  No 1-AA teams this year, so that’s nice. I will be curious to see how the Big East schedule is integrated into this, with Pitt having 2 open weeks in September. It will be odd to have at least one off-week in September. Then another one in October or November — I’m assuming the WVU game will be on November 29.

The one thing that bothers me is that Pitt has agreed to a 4-year home-and-home with Buffalo. This was apparently set up by former AD Jeff Long, and that just blows my mind. A 2-for-1, fine. A 3-for-2 I could have stomached. That’s horrible. Unless this includes maybe 2 or 3 more home-only MAC games, I’m just stunned.

Still, it could be worse. It looks like nearly 1/3 of the ACC will have two 1-AA games on their schedule this year — FSU, GT, Clemson and probably VT. Yeah, I don’t think any schedule bashing should ever come from the ACC again.

I’ve had this in my bookmarks since back in late December and I’m finally getting around to it now. What is this map with seemingly random markers on it? It’s the locations of Pitt football’s away football games since 1998. MapGameDay.com posted maps for all of the FBS teams and made them sortable by teams and conferences. The Wizard of Odds then compiled all of the data and made fancy graphs from that.

According to this, the farthest we’ve traveled in each compass direction.

North: @ Syracuse (’98, ‘00, ‘02, ‘04, ‘06) in Syracuse, NY
South: @ Miami (’98, ‘00, ‘02) in Miami, FL
East: @ Boston College (’99, ‘01, ‘03) in Chestnut Hill, MA
West: @ Nebraska (’05) in Lincoln, NE

Our amount of travel compared to other Big East teams?

And as a whole, the Big East travels less than every other conference except the ACC and SEC. Of course, the fact we only have 8 teams in our conference might lead to that.

6:40: Family (huge Duke fans) from North Carolina are here for Christmas and I’ll be watching the game with them tonight. I am prepared to win or lose excessive amounts of money tonight depending on the outcome.

6:50: On PTI today, Tony Korheiser gave Pitt a 4% chance of winning and Michael Wilbon gave us at 25% chance. Jay Bilas says on SportsCenter that Duke is also built more for the postseason. It’s still December…

7:02: The team looked fired up in the pregame.

We have tip-off. Go Pitt.

7:05: The clocks at MSG are performing about as well as the Knicks have this year. Still waiting…

7:08: Finally we’re actually going to play. DeJuan Blair gets an early 2 on a nice move. Already we’re seeing the Duke screen plays at the top of the key lead to a wide open lane. Can’t expect Blair to switch on a pick to cover a quick guard. Duke is picking up the defense at about 3/4 court, much earlier than we’ve seen from any other team this year.

7:11: Maybe Blair should have dished it to Fields for the break, maybe he shouldn’t. Oh well. Four offensive turnovers already — ouch.

7:16: Sam Young with a horrible missed dunk.

I feel like on at least two occasions, Ronald Ramon was maybe going to shoot a 3 but was confused by the NBA three-point line.

Stuart makes a good point in the comments: “Duke seems to have a good plan with making Ramon bring it up - its taking Fields out of the game and causing Ramon to turn it over way too much.”

7:28: Gil Brown has knocked down a jumper and blocked a shot which lead to Blair basically getting tackled. Both teams look sloppy — Pitt more than Duke, though. Duke is up 3 with 9:20 left in the half.

7:35: Even more turnovers. Traveling, stepping out of bounds, offensive fouls, bad ball handling…

Dixon takes his first timeout of the game after Paulus nails a three.

7:41: Duke is just a team of tall white dudes who know how to flop. The refs are starting to lean towards Coach K and we haven’t scored in about 5 minutes. The double teams on Blair are starting to work and he’s getting trapped in the lost post without a place to pass it to. On defense it looks like Pitt has never seen a team use a screen and Duke has all kinds of open shots and drives. The Duke family members have taken over my basement.

13 turnovers and counting.

7:55: So that was a pretty ugly half of basketball. We have no leader on the floor and the entire team needs to collectively calm down. Not at all impressed with Ramon, which makes me realize how much better I felt with Antonio Graves last year. If Ramon isn’t even going to hit his three pointers (0-3) then why does he even play? Sam Young and Mike Cook need to both settle for less jump shots and drive more. Too much of the offense is happening very far from the basket, which is a combination of Duke’s good defense plus Pitt’s offense which is playing like crap. The “help defense” being played on Blair has been working very well for Duke and ‘m sure we’ll see plenty more in the 2nd half. Oh, and hitting some free throws would be nice too.

Halftime: Duke 34 — Pitt 22
(more…)

Trends are funny things. Oklahoma State hasn’t won a true road game since February 11, 2006. A span of 13 games. At the same time, they have beaten Pitt 3 straight times. Oklahoma State Game notes (PDF).

Pitt is at home and has only lost one home non-con game at the Pete since it opened. Winning 26 straight home non-cons and 54-1 overall at the Pete in non-conference games. Pitt Game notes (PDF).

Interesting how Pitt got the game at home in exchange for playing in Oklahoma City rather than Stillwater last year. Seems a bit of good negotiating, leverage and ESPN helped make it happen.

In previous years, All-College games played in Oklahoma City have been returned in similar venues, like last year’s game against Tennessee in Nashville.

“I think Pittsburgh bargained last year that the All-College needed a quality team and they leveraged ‘Hey, we’ll come play, but we want the game on our court coming back,’” OSU coach Sean Sutton said. “I said, ‘We’ll do that if you start a series with a quality opponent that starts in Gallagher.’”

ESPN, therefore, owes OSU that game next season, Sutton said.

Not Pitt’s problem, though. Really, what could Pitt have offered that would have been equivalent? The closest would have been a tournament with Duquesne at the Civic Arena or something with Penn State up in Erie. Just not seeing it.

There seems to be some confidence that Pitt will win this game over at ESPN.com. This week’s Power 16 has Pitt at #9.

Like Texas, the Panthers are a “Ewing Theory” candidate, as the replacement of Aaron Gray with DeJuan Blair has made this a much more athletic and flexible team. We’ll find out a lot more about the Panthers (and Duke) next Thursday at MSG.

Already skipping ahead to Duke.

Andy Katz in his chat was asked a couple things regarding Pitt (Insider subs.).

Brian (Pittsburgh): Andy, Any thoughts on this weekends Oklahoma State/Pitt matchup?

Andy Katz: Pitt handily.

…

Fosheezy, Pittsburgh: Andy: I love your work. You are the best college basketball mind on ESPN. Does Pitt and Duke go into their matchup next week both undefeated? Pitt has a tough one against Oklahoma State this Saturday. Who do you like in the Pitt-Duke game?

Andy Katz: I didn’t know I had relatives in Pittsburgh. I do think Pitt and Duke will be undefeated going into the game. I’ll stay away from a prediction at this point but I will say that I’m looking forward to seeing how the Blue Devils guad Sam Young and how Pitt defends the Duke 3-point shooters.

There was also the weekly chat with P-G beat writer Ray Fittipaldo. It seems everyone already wants to look ahead to the Duke game. Hopefully the players aren’t. Oklahoma State still offers enough of a challenge.

Hilarious quote from Ryan Appleby after finding out the shot came too late.

“From where I was sitting, if I was the ref, I would have called it good,'’ said UW guard Ryan Appleby.

Replay and evidence be damned. To be fair, I think he was referring to the initial call. Not actually that the refs should have called it for the Huskies on replay.

No Huskies strongly disagreed. No one said they were robbed. But that didn’t stop the sting.

“It’s like somebody stepping on your chest,” Dentmon said. “You figure that you’ve done something good, and you’re happy. The moment they take it away it’s like everything went bad - everything.”

The Huskies did make progress from where they had been, even as they fell short and are in deep s**t with regards to making the NCAA. There was the claim that UW made defensive progress. Afterall, Pitt didn’t finish with 50%+ shooting. Reality was something different. Pitt started out with poor, poor shooting — 7-25 — but then hit 7-8 to finish the half. Plus Pitt shot nearly 61% in the second half (14-23).

Obviously that replay was the dominating theme of stories on the game.

If you think I’m going to bitch about Pitt managing to get a 1 point win on a trip to the Pacific Northwest against a team with potential and just doesn’t lose at home — especially in non-con games — then you are crazy. Washington may not be a great team, or even a ranked team. They are, however, a good team and got back their sharp-shooting 3-point threat in Ryan Appleby who helps stretch any defense to free up Brockman and their front court.

There was a bit of deja vu in watching Washington when they would play their game. Especially watching Brockman kick it out on a double team to an open shooter on the perimeter. Thankfully Pitt was able to take them out of that game in the second half by getting them to play too fast.

The first half was painful. It simply looked like Blair, Young and Biggs were just tossing the ball up around the basket. Not actually taking shots. Way too many wild shots, by getting trapped too far under the hoop and looking for calls to bail them out. I’m not complaining about the officials. I think they had it right not to call those. Slightly more personal fouls may have been called on Pitt (16-13), but Pitt still got to the line more (20 to 10 on attempts).

Late in the first and through most of the second half, Pitt played and shot a lot better. Their selection improved and they really worked the ball better to the open man — even as they increased the tempo. The pace/tempo by Pitt to this point has been great to watch. Not because they speed it up, but because so far they have shown an ability to play at any pace — when they can’t impose their own on the opposition.

As bad as Fields played in the Duquesne game, he was excellent in this one. He shot well and made a lot of good decisions. Ramon is definitely missing the old style and having Aaron Gray to free him up for spot-up threes. He’s still struggling with that change.