I wish I had noticed this article last week. It talks about various top-25 teams as whether you should buy or sell their rank based on what they had accomplished in the non-conference portion of their schedule.

PITTSBURGH — SELL: Of all the soft non-conference schedules that have been played this season, this is the one that disappoints me most. Pitt doesn’t have the luxury of being an established commodity like Syracuse, and a couple of big-time games on national TV would do wonders for elevating the program. Not only have the Panthers not played a single ranked team, they have also played exactly one road game. They’re a good team, but not nearly as good as their 14-0 record and No. 15 ranking would indicate. And that schedule will really hurt their NCAA seeding.

This makes a really good point. Pitt isn’t a household name in college basketball. 3 straight years playing in the Big East Championship game (winning it last year) and 2 straight Sweet 16 appearances does not erase the decade or so of anonymity that was Pitt basketball.

I want to thank Pat for the valuable summary of the game from the stands. Pat points out that his favorite cheerleader was out of action for another game. Unfortunately, there is no Pitt Dance/Cheerleading site. This makes no sense, given the number of Google searches for the Pitt dance and cheerleading team that have come to this blog in its 5 month history. This is the only page Pitt provides for the Pitt spirit squads. Please note, that it is also out of date. It hasn’t been updated for 2003-04. Sad. Once again, PSB must call on the people running Pitt’s dance and cheer squads to make some effort to set up a separate site. Surely there are many computer geeks at Pitt who would be happy to assist in this worthy endeavor.

Pat also reminded me of some thing I noticed about the Pitt dance team — which, by the way, was looking a little more toned than they did through the first half of the football season — the Pitt dance team has to be the most modestly dressed dance team in the BCS. Come on, girls. You are indoors now. There is no excuse for pants, and top with a body stocking cover to the neck and arms. No mid rifs. No shorts. Hell, not even an elbow exposed.

You can do better.

Now, before Pat and the others jump on me to point out that the cheerleaders look hotter than the dance team this year — let me just say that I agree with that assessment. I am merely commenting on the dance team’s outfit since they received more time on the ESPN cameras than the cheerleaders.

It’s just a good thing my wife doesn’t even bother to read this site.

I hit The Pete last night for the game (Steve swapped his two nosebleed seats for two 100 level seats behind the ND bench – nice). To my great pleasure, not too many ND fans were in attendance, even though Jerome Bettis was sitting one section over – he was badly out numbered.

First, I must mention that my favorite cheerleader (whose name I don’t know, so we’ll call her “Bambii”) was not in the squad for the third straight game (that I attended). She is the taller blonde one, who has becomed quite toned this year.

Anyway, I spotted Bambii in the Student Section in street clothes during the Georgia game (looking quite hot in a pink sweater and low-rider jeans). The cameraman, probably one of the same guys that covers all the games, zoomed for a close up that was put on the big screen – she appeared to know the cameraman based on her reaction. At first I wrote it off as a christmas break breather – let the underclass girls get some quality time during non-conference games, etc.

Then, to my dismay, Bambii was not in the cast for the ND game – arguably one of the biggest home games of the year, with a national tv audience. What’s up with that, I asked?
Is she off the squad for the semester? Academically ineligible? Has she used up all of her eligiblitiy, perhaps having joined the squad in the spring of her freshman year? Is she injured? If so, is she suffering from a deep thigh bruise – requiring lots of massage therapy and time in the whirlpool/hot-tub? My mind was racing….

Back to the game. Pitt looked good. The crowd was great, and the students were crazy – all made for a great atmosphere.
I was worried we would be out-rebounded for the second straight game, but we turned it on in the paint in the second half. ND just couldn’t miss from beyond the arc late in the game – that was real annoying. But Pitt held on, and good teams find a way to win even when their opponents have two hot shooters.

Other observations:
Page seems a little off. Not just his shooting, but Thomas had him running and jumping all over the court. AND he was missing foul shots! Hopefully he will get out of this funk that he is in now.
Taft is the man. It’s just that simple. We’ll be lucky to get two years out of this kid before he turns pro.
Dixon can coach – once Jones got his fourth foul, Pitt went after him. Brown had at least four layups when he got the ball down low, backed his way into the paint, and Jones just let him do it. Jones just refused to play tough D when he was in foul trouble, and Pitt exploited that fact.
Krauser has an ugly three point shot. He seems to force it, but often they go in anyway. I just hope he keeps it up.
Troutman is not the player he was last year. He’s good, but he isn’t shooting as well.
McCarroll has stepped up A LOT. He had been a bust the past two seasons, in spite of being a highly touted recruit. His emergence has really helped Pitt.

Hey, we’re 17-0. How many teams can claim that? We are favored at home against Rutgers this weekend, but then we go away to UConn and Syracuse within 5 days. If we can win one (or both) of those away games, then I will be convinced this team is for real. I am almost convinced right now.

Where to start. Pitt won 74-71. Pitt did not play a particularly inspiring game, but they weren’t lucky to win or such. The box score actually tells most of the story. Still, I took notes

This was the 7pm game on ESPN’s “Big Monday,” but it wasn’t the big game. Apparently the hype was going to the Syracuse/Missouri game. ESPN-HD was showing that one (for all 5 people that actually have it), and more importantly, that meant that would be where Dick Vitale would be calling the game. I really wish I could recall where I read it recently, but someone was writing about watching a college game from the mid-80s on ESPN Classic where the color guy was smart, insightful and didn’t overpower the game. Then realized it was Dick Vitale before he became a caricature of himself.

For the ND-Pitt match-up, it would be a 3-man crew of Sean McDonough, Bill Raftery and Jay Bilas. None of these guys really annoy me, and I found no reason to consider plunging an ice pick into my ears.

Pitt had a lot of trouble staying patient on offense. There were noticeable spells where Pitt was just hoisting shots and giving up the easy board. At the 11:40 mark in the first half, Pitt took a time out and when play resumed you could tell that Coach Dixon must have said something. The team really took some time setting up the half-court offense and looking for the open man. This would be something that happened throughout the game, even the commentating crew noticed a couple times. I think it was Bilas (with around 2:15 left in the first half) who said that Pitt’s lack of patience on the offense was “bailing Notre Dame out.” By halftime it was Notre Dame by one, 31-30.

Chris Thomas was smoking in the first half, and it continued for him in the second half. He finished the night with 29 points on 11-22 shooting (7-13 from 3-point) and 9 assists.

Pitt was outrebounded in the first half. Chris Taft was doing great work underneath, blocking shots and disrupting drives to the basket, but Chevy Troutman was not playing inside. He was often out beyond the free throw line guarding someone. ND was much more active in the first half to get after the loose board.

The first 5 minutes of the second half was very sloppy from both sides. The teams struggled to score, and shot poorly. Notre Dame, which does not have much depth, started committing more fouls. Of course, this is Pitt’s weakness. Pitt could not seem to make free throws for a while. By the 6:07 mark in the second half, they flashed a stat showing Pitt going 4-11 from the line.

Notre Dame held on to their lead for almost the first 11 minutes of the second half, but Pitt started to dominate physically after a while. Pitt started to slowly take a lead and extend it. With 3 minutes to go, Pitt had a 63-54 lead.

At that point, the Irish began raining down the 3 pointers. They made 4 straight 3-pointers, went 5-6 from the 3-point line in the last 2.5 minutes. Pitt made some easy buckets and then had to earn their points from the free throw line.

Julius Page, usually one of the better FT shooters for Pitt, went 2-5 in the final minutes; but was bailed out because Taft and Troutman made their two FTs each. Jaron Brown — who has an ugly FT shot — added 1-2.

Pitt held on. ND went 12-26 from the 3-point line, which was what kept them in the game. Pitt went only 5-16.

Free throw shooting made this game closer than it should have. Pitt went 11-22 from the line. That is pathetic. At home. No screaming fans trying to distract. The team shot nearly that same percentage with contested shots — 29-60. Jay Bilas talked to Dixon after the game and asked him about the lousy free throw shooting. Dixon, taking a page from his mentor, Ben Howland, dismissed the concerns. He pointed out that Pitt made the free throws when they needed them. Of course, if they made some of them earlier, they wouldn’t have had to worry about making them later. Free throws will cost Pitt at least one victory this season.

Good balance in the scoring again. Jaron Brown led with 19 points, then Julius Page with 18, Krauser had 15 and Troutman and Taft each had 10. Chris Taft also had 9 rebounds and 4 blocks. He is playing amazingly well as a freshman. Yuri Demitrius will keep playing fewer minutes for a reason. He can’t contribute. He only played 6 minutes, missed the front end of a one-and-one, and didn’t provide any defense.

Pitt needs to remember to be patient on offense. Krauser still gets a little too excited at times, and tries to score without looking to see if someone might have a better shot. There are times when Krauser and Page just don’t seem to be in the same sync that Page had with Knight. Otherwise, Pitt looked good.