Family duties kept me from the computer most of the weekend, so there was no way I could preview the big match-up (and it is big, despite the stupid slant taken in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the game isn’t quite so big because Notre Dame had some early losses) that starts in about a half-hour between Pitt and Notre Dame on ESPN.

So I never got to post on the big double OT road win for Pitt over Miami on Saturday (but what about the other guys? don’t know, ask them?). I don’t know why this game being close and tight was surprising. Miami has a very good coach, one big star (Darius Rice), and a better than average team. Add in the possibility that Pitt might have been looking past them, and it was Pitt’s first road game in almost 2 months — and it hardly seems that far-fetched. I mean, I saw the potential last week.

Pitt’s 15-0 start also has a Post-Gazette columnist planting a big slurpy one on head coach Jamie Dixon’s rear as he jumps on the bandwagon. I’m not ready to go that far yet. Things can change quickly, and there are still plenty of questions. Still, even I will admit to some surprise that Pitt didn’t lose focus and give a game away early in the season.

Get their free throws over 75% and I’m in all the way.

Pitt won its Big East opener against perennial bottom dweller Virginia Tech 78-59. VT played well for the first 18 minutes or so. They were shooting lights out from the 3-point line and forced 10 turnovers with some solid defense the game was tied at 28 with a little more than 5 minutes left in the first half. Then Pitt went on a run and it was 39-33 in favor of Pitt. The second half was all Pitt. Pitt Guard, Jaron Brown had a career game with 21 points, 4 steals, 4 rebounds and 3 assists (though his free throw percentage dropped even lower with a 1-4 shooting) while getting to 1,000 points. Still, I implore Jaron to stop shooting 3-pointers. He is a terrifying 4-30 at that range.

Freshman sensation, Chris Taft, got his third start in place of Senior Torree Morris. Taft also had a great game and doesn’t look to be going out of the line-up anytime soon. Morris played only 6 minutes in the game committing 2 fouls and scoring 4 points.

Next up, at Miami on Saturday.

Here’s a quick look back at the just-concluded college football season from my perspective.
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Over this past season, I picked 60 games against the spread on this website. Despite my obsessing over college football to a greater extent than almost anybody I know, my final season record was only 29-30-1. I see this as proof of how good Las Vegas really is at setting spreads. I’m always impressed when anybody can bet over .500 for a long period of time.

Incidentally, I went 3-3 on my bowl picks. I correctly predicted that Miami of Ohio, USC, and Virginia would cover against Louisville, Michigan, and Pitt respectively. However, the Gator Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl were all surprises to me. How West Virginia could look that pitiful against Maryland is beyond my reasoning: the Mountaineers’s disciplinary problems cannot explain it all. And I’m not sure that anybody saw Oklahoma’s collapse coming against LSU.

Of course, I’d like to personally thank my graduate alma mater for sticking it to me in its bowl game three freakin’ years in a row. The sad part is that I KNOW Kansas State is always one of the most overrated programs in college football. I should have remembered this when I picked the Wildcats to cover against my beloved Buckeyes. It’s just that KSU looked so good in destroying previously invincible Oklahoma.
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Does everybody out there remember how hard Chas pushed us all to play ESPN’s Bowl Mania (presented by Sonic)? Well, I kicked his ass at it. I went 19-9 at picking bowl games without spreads (see how easy it is?) — earning 282 total points (out of a possible 402) and ranking in the 93.5th percentile nationally. Chas, meanwhile, went 18-10 — earning 253 total points and ranking in the 79.3rd percentile nationally. My biggest losses were in the Holiday Bowl (seriously, Texas… you suck), the Sugar Bowl, and the Fiesta Bowl (damn Buckeyes).

However, I only came in second in our little Pitt Sports Blather group. R. DEMICHIEI came in first: going 20-8, earning 298 total points, and ranking in the 97.5th percentile nationally. So congratulations to R. DEMICHIEI. Also, congratulations are due to our regular contributor Pat, who went 0-28 and came in dead last. In Pat’s defense, filling out the submission form properly was much more complicated than Chas made it out to be.
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For me, the highlight of this season was Pitt’s upsetting Virginia Tech (then ranked #5) 31-28 on November 8, 2003. However, this particular incident may well have been our comic highlight. My favorite post of the ones I wrote was this crack back on Penn State for blaming their falling ticket sales on terrorism.
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There were so many disappointments this season that picking an actual lowlight of the year is hard. Maybe I should go with that 52-31 complete asskicking that I witnessed in person in Morgantown on November 15. Our once proud-to-be-tough Panthers were completely out-physicalled. We knew exactly what the Mountaineers were going to do on virtually every play in the second half. We were simply too weak, too undisciplined, and too poorly coached (especially on defense) to stop them.

Maybe I should go with that loss to Miami that knocked us out of what would have been our first BCS bowl berth. Maybe I should go with that first stumbling block at Toledo or that domination by Notre Dame. But I think that I’ll instead go with Pitt’s blowing its best chance ever (1) to be Big East Football Champions, and (2) to finally surpass Penn State as the automatic, go-to-school for top Pennsylvanian recruits. Given PSU’s terrible season, we had a unique opportunity to take the driver’s seat in Commonwealth recruiting. But already, that opportunity seems to be slipping away.
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Well, we might as well make it official. The 2003 Oregon Award for the worst uniforms in college football goes to, who else?

The University of Oregon (seen here losing to Minnesota in the Sun Bowl). Seriously, somebody in Eugene should have sued Nike. Looking different hardly means that you look good. Incidentally, the University of Wyoming earns the runner-up spot with this ode to what’s floating in my toilet.

The Syracuse/Illinois all-orange uniforms get honorable mentions.
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So now it’s on to college football’s second season: recruiting. As I’ve mentioned before, our current recruiting class is ranked 18th in the country and first in the new Big East. Unfortunately, Penn State is currently ranked 8th in the country.
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Hail to a 2004 that is brighter than 2003 was.

First a little self-congratulations for being dead-on:

Pitt is going to be a team, barring an upset to one of its cupcake opponents that will be in the top-15 by conference play, but no one will know whether this team is really that good.

I wrote that back in mid-November after Pitt’s first game. Conference play begins today and Pitt is #15 in both the AP and the ESPN/USA Today polls. Pitt has moved up about 7-8 notches so far.

The counter argument for Pitt’s soft non-con schedule is the fact that they may have the toughest conference schedule in the Big East, because of the new system in place.

In an effort to get more television exposure and ease tensions within the league by some member schools that didn’t like the idea of divisional play, commissioner Mike Tranghese decided to have the top four teams in the league play each other twice and every other team once.

That means Pitt, the defending champs, must play home-and-home games against the other top three teams — current No. 1 Connecticut, defending national champion Syracuse and Notre Dame.

“I think the biggest concern was everyone wanted to play everyone else,” said Rob Carolla, director of communications for the Big East Conference. “There were certain years where Syracuse didn’t play Connecticut, and TV wants to see those games.”

The so-called second-tier teams are Providence, Seton Hall, Boston College and Villanova. They play home-and-home games against one another, but only have to play Pitt, Connecticut, Syracuse and Notre Dame once apiece. The system, which has been widely panned by the first-tier teams, presents an unbalanced schedule that could skew the won-loss records for the Big East season, and as a by-product, affect seeding for the NCAA tournament.
…
The tradeoff for Pitt is more national television games, which means more exposure for the program. (The Panthers play seven times on ABC, CBS, ESPN or ESPN2 between now and the end of the regular season). The downside, of course, is the potential for incurring more losses.

As a Pitt alum outside of the local area, more national games is nothing but a positive. The last few years, until the Big East Tournament in March, it would be happy time if Pitt was on ESPN or ESPN2 once or twice.

Now with VT coming into Pittsburgh tonight, the obligatory article on local connections. This is an easy one, since their head coach, Seth Greenberg, used to be an assistant coach at Pitt.

Well, Pitt assistant coach and ace recruiter Barry Rohrssen is a Greenberg protege, so every time Rohrssen lands a player such as blue-chip forward Chris Taft, a small piece of credit should go to Greenberg.
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Rohrssen, while playing at St. Francis (N.Y.), was a counselor at the prestigious Five Star Basketball Camp in 1980 when he met Greenberg, a 24-year-old assistant coach under Dr. Roy Chipman at Pitt.

Greenberg was instrumental in signing players such as Clyde Vaughan, who is Pitt’s second all-time leading scorer.

Part of Greenberg’s sales pitch was talking about the possibility of a new arena on Pitt’s campus.

The one arrived two decades later.

The gregarious Greenberg laughed Monday when recounting the story. He got his first look at Petersen Events Center when his team took the court for a late-afternoon workout.

“This is the building we told recruits they’d play in,” Greenberg said. “It’s just a few years late. Once a facility (the Bryce Jordan Center) was built at Penn State, Pitt’s wasn’t far behind. I really think that helped facilitate the process.”

Still haven’t got around to doing a year-in-review thing for the past football season. Maybe this weekend. Two articles of note. A longish but well done piece on the outlook for the Pitt team in terms of turnover of players, position battles and the program as a whole.

The other article is one focusing on the program, and cautions Pitt fans against unrealistic expectations. Translation — there is still a long way for Pitt to go before it can consider itself a national power, let alone a perennial top-25 team.

Pitt’s Big East Conference schedule opens tomorrow against Virginia Tech. This is followed by a game against Miami on Saturday. Miami will be the first game away from the Pete for Pitt since the opening game at Madison Square Garden. The first true Big East test will be on Monday, January 12, a national game on ESPN’s “Big Monday” at home against Notre Dame. The schedule shows 2 more games after that on ESPN and ESPN2 for Pitt (at UConn, at Syracuse) in January.

Pitt is 14-0 so far, and has moved up the polls and has improved as the season progressed. Not that Pitt isn’t taking shots for the schedule they played — and it isn’t undeserved.

Pittsburgh (RPI 32, SOS 183): The Panthers are off to their best start in school history, going 14-0 into Big East play. Pitt also has never played 20 home games, at least that’s according to the current staff.

Jamie Dixon took the schedule that Ben Howland gave him and actually added two of its best early tests — Florida State at home and Alabama in New York. Both were good additions considering the Tide is No. 10 and the Seminoles are No. 44 in the latest RPI. Beating Murray State (No. 45) and Georgia (No. 60) also are quality wins at home.

But the rest of the schedule had only one team below 200, as Penn State checked in at No. 117. This schedule shouldn’t hurt the Panthers if they can wind up with 25-plus wins and compete for a top spot in the Big East. But if they fall a bit in the league, the soft schedule will come back into play. Still, the Panthers enter conference play with loads of confidence, which is what Dixon needed a team on the younger side to have after beating a few higher-rated teams during their unblemished run.

The VT game doesn’t worry me too much. The Miami game is more worrisome. Not because it’s the first roadie in 6 weeks, but because it is 2 days before a national game against a quality team.

First off, am I the only person out there who has always disliked the Walt Disney Corporation? My wife and I just got back from a two week vacation in Orlando, Florida where a significant portion of her family lives. Her sister is a successful gift shop manager in one of Walt Disney World’s four Orlando parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and MGM), and she got us into Epcot for free. Not surprisingly, I found Disney to be as preachy, arrogant, and vaguely threatening as ever. For instance, before they would let us see their cheap little aquarium in “The Living Seas” exhibit, they made us sit through a seven minute movie narrated by Kathleen Turner that explained to me how the seas were formed, how wondrous they are, and how it is my personal responsibility to make sure that they survive even though I live about 1,900 ft. above sea level on a Central Pennsylvanian mountainside (and of course, there was a “Finding Nemo” sculpture at the end). Goddammit, all I ever wanted to see was one freakin’ Manatee. And you should have seen their absolute sermon of a fireworks display. Message after message about world unity, brotherhood, economic progress, and taking care of the poor.

I mean, I’m a good liberal and all. And these were mostly all good messages from my personal political perspective. I guess I just resented having them jammed down my throat while I was just trying to enjoy a few overrated amusement park rides. I mean, I damn near walked out into the parking lot and re-registered Republican. It was all a little too Big Brotherish for me, I guess. But I’ve always found Disney’s movies to be a little preachy, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Incidentally, just in case anybody at Disney ever actually reads this (as if anybody other than Chas EVER reads this blog), my sister-in-law is a completely loyal employee… er, “cast member”… who was honestly appalled that I didn’t think Epcot was the greatest place on Earth. She would absolutely condemn this post if she could actually operate a computer.

OK, I’m done venting. Thanks for hearing me out. Now on to actual Pitt sports.

I actually posted to tell everyone that ESPN.com’s Bill Hodge released his latest ranking of the 2004 college football recruiting classes (as they currently stand) on the Official College Sports Network today. Because Pitt didn’t pull in as many recruits as some other schools did lately, we fell from #14 two weeks ago to #18 here. Elsewhere, Ohio State moved up a spot to #6, Penn State stuck at #8, and USC and Michigan stormed past LSU and Texas to claim the top two spots. Here’s the whole list.

No. 1 Southern California (Top JCs)
No. 2 Michigan
No. 3 LSU
No. 4 Oklahoma
No. 5 Texas
No. 6 Ohio State
No. 7 Miami-Florida
No. 8 Penn State
No. 9 Georgia
No. 10 Maryland
No. 11 Alabama
No. 12 Texas A&M
No. 13 Missouri
No. 14 Florida
No. 15 Tennessee
No. 16 UCLA (Top JCs)
No. 17 Florida State
No. 18 Pittsburgh
No. 19 Washington
No. 20 Texas Tech (Top JCs)
No. 21 Kansas State (Top JCs)
No. 22 Michigan State
No. 23 Boston College
No. 24 Nebraska
No. 25 Iowa
Tie No. 25 Oregon
Tie No. 25 Purdue

Is it just me, or has the once threateningly cool Snoop Doggy Dogg sold out both faster and to a greater extent than any rapper in history? Damn, Dogg, get off my TV. And no amount of schnizzle’s and izzle’s will ever make AOL popular in Long Beach, Watts, or Compton.

Hail to amusement parks just being amusement parks and not trying to save the world.

I’ve had a week to let the fiasco that was the Continental Tire Bowl work its way out of my system. I’m no longer thinking that wholesale changes need to be made to the Pitt coaching staff — there’s a lot I agree with in this Mike Pirusta column, but I disagree with his conclusion — though Harris and the Pitt coaches need to take a hard look at their in-game coaching and adjustments.

Walt Harris has been at Pitt since the 1997 season. I’d say after this year, it’s a safe bet that Walt won’t be lured away within the next couple of years. That’s fine, because he should have about 2 more years to make some more corrections and see how much further he can take Pitt football.*

As is oft repeated, he came here when it was seriously debated about dropping the program to Division II. Harris with AD Pedersen, the new facilities and much support from the administration helped to bring the program back. 1998 to 2000 saw the true rebuilding as the team started working its way out of the Rutgers and Temple district. The program took a step backwards when Harris tried to implement the spread offense on a team that was built for the pro set; and seemingly not aware that it usually takes a full year before a team actually functions effectively in the spread (see, West Virginia in 2001 versus 2002). Harris learned, though, and has not tried to reimplement the spread. 2002 saw the team make real progress and led to real expectations for Pitt.

This year, clearly, the team took a step backwards. This was a down year in the Big East (as evidenced by the bowl performances), and Pitt had the position talent to compete. (Actually, and excuse the digression, this was a down year in college football. I mean, this was parity hell. Is it any wonder the MAC looked so good this year? There proved to be no truly unbeatable teams. This has been a rather bland year for college football.) What no one realized was that the offensive line was so weak, and the defense was no where near what it had been. This exposed a real weakness for Harris — failing to recruit and develop linemen. No one noticed until this year, because Pitt had so many other areas to develop, and the expectations weren’t there. This year it bit them on the ass. Pitt didn’t come close to matching anybody’s expectations. But for Virginia Tech, Pitt would have been the most disappointing team in the Big East.

Harris prizes his reputation as an “offensive genius.” Sadly, for him, you can’t be much of a genius if the line doesn’t give you a chance to execute the plays; if your quarterback is running for his life and has no chance to look downfield; if the line can’t give any penetration or open a hole for the running game.

Harris now knows he can’t scheme and work around weak line play. He needs to make improvements there. He needs to make it a vital recruiting area and have very strong coaching and teaching for the position.

The plain fact is that Pitt can’t make another change right now. In 2003, the school lost its AD and basketball coach. Not to mention the whole ACC raid on the Big East crap. The AD and b-ball coaching searches were completely botched and embarrassing to watch. There has been enough turmoil that some relative calm would be recommended. Besides, new AD Jeff Long, probably doesn’t have the juice or the stones to fire Harris right now — especially with what appears to be a very, very good recruiting class coming.

* I reserve the right to change my mind on this come the 2004 season if I see no changes in the team’s approach to line play, tackling, and game adjustments.

Okay, even I’m getting a little tired of being so negative. It’s not that there isn’t a reason to be so negative with Pitt sports at times; and to be honest, it comes more naturally and is almost more fun, to be acerbic, sarcastic, sardonic and bitter. But that’s really my problem, not yours. So, while a look back on the 2003 Pitt football season should be in the works — and I hope the others will offer their own versions — it’s time to give a little more notice to something that is going well. Pitt basketball.

Pitt is now 13-0 after beating down Georgia last night. The team was sparked by Mark McCarroll coming off the bench and being locked in. McCarroll hit his first 10 shots and finished going 11-for-12 with 26 points. Pitt dominated Georgia despite starting point guard Karl Krauser being out with a groin injury.

Now, I know I’ve complained a little about the weak non-conference schedule; and Pitt’s shooting inconsistency, but I think I am getting close to believing this could be a very good team. I still maintain my stance that there is a lot of unknowns heading into the Big East schedule since Georgia and FSU were about the best teams they faced so far — and that isn’t much.

Krauser went down, something I feared and thought would be devastating, but Page played well at the point and back-up point guard, freshman Antonio Graves, has been developing quickly. And that is the real story. The surprising depth of the Panthers.

Freshman Guard, Chris Taft has been seeing more playing time. Chevon Troutman and Julius Page have missed time with injuries, but the team keeps moving. Seniors Yuri Demetrius and Toree Morris are seeing their minutes drop as they are being quickly passed by the younger talent — so much so, that Demetrius appeared to be on the verge of quitting the team.

Pitt could very well be battling UConn for the top of the Big East.