Normally, when it's January and Pitt and Louisville are playing each other, you know you're going to see a battle between a pair of ranked teams. So it sounded like a great option for ESPN's College GameDay.

Needless to say, nothing about this season is normal. For either squad.

You guys already know about Pitt's massive disappointing season, but if you haven't been paying attention, it's getting just as bad over in Louisville. The Cardinals, a preseason top ten team, started the season 12-0 before losing five of their next seven. Would you ever think at this point that Rutgers and South Florida have more Big East wins than Pitt or Louisville?

Louisville, though, has had to deal with multiple injury problems. The latest was to junior forward Rakeem Buckles, who is out for not just the rest of this season, but all of next season as well after tearing an ACL. The Cardinals have had a total of 8 different players at some point this season miss games due to injuries. For their game against the Panthers on Saturday, Louisville may be without Buckles, Mike Marra, Kyle Kuric, Stephan Van Treese, and stud freshman Wayne Blackshear. It's ugly over at the Palace of Fried Chicken.

With the Cardinals literally limping into the game Saturday, can Pitt knock them off and finally win a Big East game?

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There are lots of theories on why Pitt has been so bad and it's definitely not something that can be boiled down to a single thing.

My theory? In a nutshell, Pitt's a really young team who lost two key cogs to the team. I know other programs can play well with young freshmen, but having a Kentucky team with several All-Americans is slightly different than Pitt squad that now has none. The gist is that all freshman aren't created equal, shall we say.

But Pitt's problem isn't merely that the team is young. They also lost one of their already small number of upperclassmen, Tray Woodall, to injury. This wasn't the same as playing without starters Lamar Patterson and Dante Taylor as Pitt did in brief stints earlier this season. Woodall ran the offense and it can be argued that he was Pitt's best player early this season when he went down to injury.

Now, though, Woodall thinks he might be back ... maybe even in time for the Gameday contest this weekend against Louisville.

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Pitt's having a season that is commonly being referred to as "down." The question, though, is 'why'?

Some common opinions for the struggles have been inexperience, youth, a lack of chemistry, and no real scoring threat. While those all are good reasons, in my opinion, the answer comes down to one phase of college athletics sometimes overlooked by the casual fan: recruiting. While Jamie Dixon has been praised for turning frogs into princes for the past decade, getting big recruits is something that has got to happen in order for this program to continue its rise to prominence.

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During football season, we like to do top ten rundowns of the Dave Wannstedt, Michael Haywood, Todd Graham, Keith Patterson whoever happens to be the head coach at the time. But with the Khem Birch stuff fading into oblivion, I wanted to get my thoughts out there and put together a top five. As Greg mentioned earlier this week, Birch had a pretty publicized interview with Pitt's flagship (well, at least when Steelers season isn't in) radio station. If you listened to it, you know that while he was definitely courteous, his answers were short at best. And if you haven't heard it yet, take five minutes and do so here.

Because this was from a radio show, I'm paraphrasing some of this, so the quotes may not be exact. A few of these are direct quotes from the Post-Gazette recap. But the general gist of his responses is below. With that, I present the top five quotes from the interview.

5. In talking about his relationship with Jamie Dixon, he said it was okay, but they didn't really connect. He also said he wouldn't call him to tell him how he felt.

If it's simply a matter of a relationship there and not meshing well, that happens. I'd like to think he would get a good feel for Dixon's personality beforehand during the recruiting process, but seeing a coach in that setting isn't the same as seeing him in practice. Still, though, a relationship takes two parts. And the fact that he wouldn't call Dixon before to tell him how he felt is at least a bit on Birch.

4. (From Post-Gazette (PG)): "When I was there, they said, 'We don't slow the ball down. We're the third-leading scoring team in the Big East. We don't slow the ball down,' " he said. "They said with all the athletes that were coming in that we were going to be more of an up-tempo team."

Look, recruits get sold a false bill of sale all the time. I won't deny that a faster pace wasn't hinted at. But the thing is, at some point, recruits have to wade through the piles and eventually come to their own conclusions. The other thing to remember is that Birch left only ten games into the season. Pitt has been recruiting more athletic skill players, but it's going to take time for those guys to develop. The fact is that Pitt has never played that style before, so to expect, in the words of Todd Graham, 'Speed, speed, speed', is a bit unrealistic. Dixon probably did have hopes of playing a bit more up-tempo at some point, but right away? Come on.

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Most of us figured the Panthers wouldn't be able to pull this one out and that's what happened. Sure, Pitt had its obscene track record of dominance against our favorite orange-colored team to the north and ACC partner in crime, but past history usually means little compared to actual talent.

I wrote earlier that Pitt really needed some more contributions from a few guys and they got that. Cameron Wright (yes, that Cameron Wright) played a surprisingly good game and had ten points. J.J. Moore didn't shoot all that well (2-7), but still had seven points in only 11 minutes. John Johnson added nine and the Panthers got 30 points from their bench.

Pitt also rebounded well, killing Syracuse on the glass 38-24, so that was fine.

The problems? Free throw shooting and ... shooting in general.

Pitt and Syracuse both took the same number of shots from the charity stripe, 23. Syracuse, though, made 20 of theirs compared to only 12 for Pitt - so there's eight points. Watching the free throws simply mind-numbing. Pitt shooting about 50% from there isn't a huge surprise, but when the other team gets that many free throws and converts them, that's where the misses really add up.

Then there was the shooting from the field. Again.

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Pitt takes on Syracuse on ESPN tonight and at first glance, Pitt doesn't appear to have much of a shot. As Greg pointed out in the preview, though, the Panthers have been extremely success against the Orange, so never say never, I suppose. But the difference is that none of those Pitt teams have been this young or have played as badly as this year's squad.

If Pitt's going to win, they're going to have to have a lot of things break their way. Isaiah Epps playing the point relieves pressure off of Gibbs, but Pitt needs to get something from him ... anything. Talib Zanna also needs to bounce back after scoring only two points in about 30 minutes of action against Marquette.

And while Gibbs had a great game against Marquette, he clearly can't be expected to go for 29 every single night. Pitt needs others to step up to win this season and that's especially true against the game tonight.

Stop by and comment during the game. I may not be around tonight, but drop in and leave your pre-game predictions and thoughts during the contest.

After Saturday's loss at Marquette, the Panthers are losers of six straight. And now they get to travel to No. 1 and undefeated Syracuse. The Orange have been the most dominant team in the country so far, so that means Pitt has no shot - right?

Well, in a word, no. There's always a chance, albeit a small one, that Pitt pulls the upset. It probably won't happen, but it's important to keep in mind that Pitt has owned Syracuse as of late. The Panthers have beaten Syracuse eight out of the last nine times, including five straight wins at the Carrier Dome. The only loss in that span came in the finals of the 2006 Big East Tournament. And even more ironically, in the past two years, Syracuse has been undefeated heading into their game against Pitt. Both times, the Panthers came out with a victory. Jamie Dixon has been a master at carving up Syracuse's patented 2-3 zone defense. So, there's history on Pitt's side. But that's about where the positives end at this point.

With the way the Panthers played in demoralizing losses to Wagner, DePaul, and Rutgers, despite the loss on Saturday, they played much better the last time out. The game against Marquette was only a moral victory, but this team really needed it. Playing reasonably well against the Golden Eagles on the road had to be a boost to their confidence

So, how can Pitt do the unthinkable and knock off the Orange?

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Pitt recruit Steven Adams is off and running here in the States. With two games in the national spotlight, he's had a busy weekend already.

First, Adams' Notre Dame Prep took on Tilton Academy on Saturday. The BABC folks, the group putting on the event, were excited to see Adams in person:

"I have yet to see Steven Adams play live but, based on all accounts and video I’ve seen, this is a can’t-miss matchup between him and Nerlens," said BABC’s Director of Operations, Jay Demings. "Many of us are familiar with Nerlens’ skill set, but fans will get to see how Adam’s size, strength and skills translate to the American game. Experts believe that both players are certain future NBA lottery picks."

Safe to say, Adams responded well.

His team took the loss, 90-86, but what Pitt fans will be excited about is the fact that he had 23 points, ten rebounds, and two assists. Adams, however was not. When asked about his performance afterwards, his response was 'Not good' since the team lost.

Gotta love that, obviously.

Adams then took the court in the Hoophall Classic on Sunday. So, how'd he do there?

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