Pitt freshman guard Gilbert Brown is questionable for tomorrow's opener against Houston Baptist because of a shoulder injury.

Brown injured his right (shooting) shoulder in Sunday's exhibition game against IUP but played through the pain. He has not practiced since.

Brown, a redshirt freshman who was plagued by illness and injuries last season, did some shooting drills yesterday. Coach Jamie Dixon was holding out hope that he would be able to practice today.

"Someone came down on his shoulder as he was lifting it up," Dixon said yesterday. "There's going to be some pain. I'm a little concerned that it could be around for a little bit. It could be around for a while. He's played very well. I'm really happy with his progress, so this is a step back for him being out for a couple of days. We'll see how he responds [today]. Since he shot today and did some running, I think he'll be able to go live."

Dixon declined to say specifically what type of injury Brown has, but he is holding out hope that it is not serious because of Brown's progress the past few days.

"He doesn't feel like there's a loss of strength, so that's a good thing," Dixon said. "It doesn't feel like there's a lot of pain. The next morning it hurt less. [Yesterday] it hurt less. It's heading in the right direction anyway."

Freshman guard Bradley Wanamaker, who sprained an ankle in Sunday's exhibition game, is fine and will play against Houston Baptist.

Big East

After a few years of complaining by the coaches, the presidents of the Big East schools relented and all 16 teams in the conference will be invited to the men's and women's conference tournaments beginning in 2009.

The top 12 teams have advanced to the tournament since the league expanded to 16 teams in 2005.

The new format will have the teams seeded 9 through 16 meet on the first day. The matchups will be 9 vs. 16, 10 vs. 15, 11 vs. 14 and 12 vs. 13. The winners of those four games will play seeds 5 through 8 on the second day of the tournament.

Those four winners will advance to play the top four seeds in the quarterfinal round. In the current format, the top four teams don't play until the quarterfinal round.

"I was surprised," Dixon said. "This is what the coaches asked for four years ago. Initially, the Big East office was against it. When you really sat down and looked at it, it wasn't going to be a detriment to a lot of teams. It was going to help a lot of programs in a lot of ways. Everyone knowing that they'll always be at the event is a good thing. I think it's the right thing."

Carnegie Mellon

The Carnegie Mellon men's basketball team, which returns three starters from a 12-13 team, was picked to finish fifth in the University Athletic Association in a preseason poll of the league's coaches.

In addition to returnees 6-foot-5 Ryan Einwag (15.4 ppg, 5.8 rpg), 6-foot Geoff Kozak (11.6 ppg) and 6-3 Jack Anderson (7.6 ppg), coach Tony Wingen's Tartans will be looking for contributions from 6-8 Greg Gonzalez, a redshirt last season who averaged 5.5 points and 4.2 rebounds and had a team-high 29 blocks in 2005-06 and 6-6 freshman Shane Rife.

Defending champion Washington University of St. Louis, which returns four starters from a 25-5 team that reached the Division III Final Four, was picked to finish first, followed by Brandeis, Rochester, Chicago, Carnegie Mellon, New York University, Case Western Reserve and Emory.