Regarding Lee’s question over Pitt’s dispute with Nike.

Either Lee didn’t read the last paragraph of the article, or he didn’t catch the significance.

The apparel rights to the football team are arguably more valuable than when the original contract was proposed thanks to its wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who was runner-up for the Heisman Trophy award, and the team’s record of 17-9 over the past two seasons.

Rough translation: Pitt didn’t think it was getting a big enough cut of the sales of the #1 jersey which became a big seller.

The lawsuit is a device to force a renegotiation. Of course with Fitzgerald gone, and things not looking good in the near term, well…

Since the game is on Sunday, there is plenty of time to look around the net for news, notes and info on UConn. Not that there is much discussion of the game yet. Like in Pittsburgh, there is still the licking of wounds from a bad loss — like Denham Brown’s slump.

Pittsburgh awaits Sunday, and first place in the Big East will be at stake. It will be a game that requires absolute faith and resolute determination from UConn.

“When they start hitting us and knocking us down, what are we going to do?” coach Jim Calhoun said Monday. “I’ll cancel the game if they like. Obviously we’re not going to cancel the game. We think we can beat Pittsburgh. I saw this team gut it out with Pittsburgh and out-physical Pittsburgh.”

Brown was one of the players who helped do that Jan. 19, when the Huskies won 68-65, but in recent weeks he has not been that player.

So here’s where the information can be found on UConn.

UConn’s Athletic Site, Men’s B-ball

Hartford Courant, UConn section

HuskyBlog — Rather dry. Not opinion, just news and links.

Courtside Seats — More fun. Written by a UConn student who broadcasts the games for the campus radio.

The Boneyard — Rivals operated site for UConn. Always good to see what’s on the message boards of the other side. You can access it via Pitt’s. Strangely enough, they lack an Insider site.

I’m just hoping they show the game in Cleveland, but I fear I’ll be stuck with Cinci. instead.

Pitt has until Sunday before they play again. This means there needs to be some filler articles. The Trib goes back to the 1995 Pitt recruiting class. Mark Blount lives. Blount came out after his sophomore season in ’97. He was drafted #55 by the Sonics but was cut in training camp. He has bounced around in the NBA benches and USBL. He is now starting at center for the Celtics.

Interesting to look at the box at the bottom of the article to see what the other members of that recruiting class are doing today.

Over at the P-G, it’s a long article about former coach Ben Howland’s first year at UCLA. I still can’t forgive him for the way he bolted last year. Not that he bolted, but how he did it.

The day after Pitt lost to Marquette in the third round of the NCAA tournament, Howland had a friend contact Guerrero [UCLA’s Athletic Director].

“I knew right away what I wanted to do, which was to pursue this opportunity,” the coach said.

That isn’t merely “listening,” that is blatant pursuit. The body wasn’t even cold yet. And going back, this Sunday to talk to his former players hardly makes it right. Goddammit, at least be nice enough to lie and say that you listened to the offer, talked to your family and decided that it was the best decision for everyone. Don’t stick it to your former team by saying, in effect, “I couldn’t wait to lose in the NCAA tourney so I could jump to a better job.”

That said, I do not get this kind of pettiness and erasing

Consider a giant framed picture in the Pitt basketball office, showing players, coaches and team personnel celebrating last year’s Big East tournament championship in New York. The picture was edited to cut Howland, the architect, out of the photo.

That omission is reflective of some of the bitter feelings that still exist at Pitt, where some university officials were angered over Howland’s hasty and secretive departure to UCLA.

That’s crap. Though, according to the article, Pitt had spent a number of years pretending Paul Evans didn’t really exist — and Pitt fired him.

Could somebody who is more familiar with what’s going on explain this article to me?

PITTSBURGH — The University of Pittsburgh wants to drop Nike as the supplier of its football uniforms and equipment.

The university filed a lawsuit Tuesday, asking an Allegheny County judge to determine whether a three-year arrangement proposed two years ago by the Beaverton-based company is a valid contract. Pitt argues it never signed a deal with Nike to provide 100 free uniforms and other gear, even though Nike officials provided the university with the products specified under the contract. Nike officials say that because the school accepted its products, the contract was essentially validated despite the fact that it was not signed.

I guess what I want to know is why did Pitt want to get away from Nike? Dammit, I spent $65 for a Nike “official team” windbreaker this past fall. Maybe Nike was trying to redesign our uniforms to look more like Oregon’s?

On a second note, ESPN.com published an excellent commentary by Ivan Maisel today on how Maurice Clarett’s legal victory over the NFL will affect college football.

If anyone says to you that they know what the effect of the Maurice Clarett decision will be on college football, don’t fall for the play-action. No one knows, and no one will know for years. It took nearly a decade of drafting high school players for the NBA to find one who could step onto the floor without stumbling, and LeBron James still has half a season to go. Yet, no one will question that college basketball has been altered by the opening of the NBA doors to anyone regardless of age. The talent level has dropped. Senior starters are as rare as Kerry Republicans.

However, Maisel kind of winds up coming down on the side of the argument that college football will NOT be affected by early departures to the extent that college basketball has been.

…there is no “hard science” to show that an 18-year-old tailback would be endangered by a 25-year-old defensive end. But there’s an encyclopedia of common sense.

“I see kids who leave high school as good players and they’re 6-foot-3, 230 pounds,” Cash said, “and four years later they are 6-3, 270 pounds of solid muscle and their necks are an inch or two thicker. It would make me nervous if my son were getting hit by a 270-pound lineman who runs a 4.6 40. Basketball is a contact sport. Football is a collision sport.”

So there’s plenty of evidence that college football will suffer no more than a bruise from this latest ruling. It may even help some schools.

“I’m totally against this. It’s unfortunate. But maybe it helps a school like Iowa because we don’t get many of the superstar guys. It might hurt our competition.” –Iowa Head Coach Kirk Ferentz

As a Pitt fan, that would have picked up my spirits a little… that is, if Pitt actually belonged to a stable conference that could attract even mediocre recruits.

I haven’t posted much on Clarett since the decision… mostly because it’s just too painful. Could anybody argue that the Buckeyes would have beaten both Wisconsin and Michigan with him in the lineup? Still, it’s hard to argue that college football players shouldn’t have the freedom to quit school early and get a job like the rest of us have…

I’m still bummed out over that recruiting class. Can anybody tell?

Hail to baseball season taking my mind off of this crap. This year, the Pirates really are going to win it all.

Not much to say about the double OT loss to Seton Hall, 68-67. Not shown in Cleveland, all I could do was constantly refresh game updates on the computer. 24 turnovers by Pitt, and Julius Page going 1-6, 4 points. Whether Page is just having a bad season or that ankle has just hobbled him, it hurt Pitt not to be able to count on him as the game got down to the end.

Big game on Sunday against UConn.

It became official yesterday. Larry Fitzgerald held a press conference at Pitt’s South Side facility, in which he announced his intention to enter the 2004 NFL.

Local columnists line up to sing praises of his class one more time. It’s not that it isn’t true that he’s humble and classy, but lets face it, the issue is that he is an amazing talent. Here’s the transcript of the press conference.

Is there something that you have done here at the University of Pittsburgh that you are especially proud of or that sticks out in your mind?
I could honestly say that I have not had any bad experiences in this town. On the field, off the field, these last three years have been great. Every experience that I have had with the city, the coaching staff, and the community has been outstanding. I love this city and the university and I am really going to miss it.
…
Did you pick the University of Pittsburgh due in large part to the head coach, Walt Harris?
I picked this university because of Coach Harris and the success he has had before me with the receivers and the offensive units. I knew that if I came here and did what he told me to do, I would have success. He has coached numerous draft picks and receivers before. When I came here I tried to humble myself and take my lumps because it is a pretty difficult offense to understand, but I knew as I got older and more mature that I would be able to handle more responsibilities. He put more on me every week which really prepared me for this.

Something that will become a good bar topic for a while, should Pitt retire his number. If so, when? Discuss.

Both teams played and won “big” games on Saturday. Pitt on ESPN2 against Notre Dame; Seton Hall had its in-state rivalry game against Rutgers. As such, there hasn’t been much media attention from the papers. Nothing more in New Jersey.

Pitt has it’s press release and game notes (PDF) for the game out.

The Trib story focuses on Seton Hall Point Guard, senior Andre Barrett. Barrett is from the Bronx and has some familiarity with Krauser.

The P-G looks at Julius Page, who finally admits that his ankle has been bothering him all season.

Ron Cook decides that the recruiting collapse cannot be blamed on Walt Harris. This is in contrast to the blame assigned by Joe Starkey last week. Actually, neither is too far apart. Starkey puts the overall condition of the program on Harris, including the loss of recruits who had actually committed to Pitt then changed their mind. Cook seems to want to absolve Harris of that.

Cook tries to make his point by only focusing on the local recruits, Johnson and Morelli. Losing Bryant (to Miami), he blames on the weakened Big East, and Peyton (to USF) he completely ignores because that doesn’t help his point.

Now, I don’t know what sports talk in Pittsburgh is saying right now. I’m sure there are a lot of pissed off mouth breathers making all sorts of complaints. Here at PSB, we’re not Harris’ biggest fans, but we still are not ready to fire Harris. I’d say the recruiting collapse has been more about redredging all the same complaints about Walt that have been there before. Only now the volume seems louder because the Steelers aren’t playing.

That said, guess what? Harris has to take some of the blame for losing recruits that made a verbal. As has often been said, they are teenagers. There has to be a lot of hand holding and even coddling to get them from their August/September verbals to signing in February. It seems clear, that by December, as Pitt’s season came crashing down; Harris and his staff failed to take a more active role in reassuring recruits. Damage control. This helped open the door to whispers and reconsideration.

Cook completely dismisses the issue of perception in recruiting, as fevered paranoia of Pitt fans regarding Penn State. Writing that the demon of losing guys from your own backyard had been slain from other recent success. Wrong. It never goes away. It is only as true as the last signing day. Right now, it is back and looming large.

I wasn’t planning to post any more on the Morelli Mess. Just let it go. And I don’t have anything to add. I will point anyone who still cares to a long but really good article on the whole saga. With plenty of weird and interesting little tidbits

They don’t know, Greg says, that he took custody of his young son. That he worked two jobs to make ends meet. That he invested countless hours into Anthony’s development. That they are so close, they have matching barbed-wire tattoos on their left biceps.

I am always heartened to hear when a dad takes his teenage son to the tattoo parlor to get the same tattoos. Especially the cliche and trite barbed wire tattoo.

Sources also told the Trib that Morelli was overwhelmed by the complexities of Harris’ offensive scheme after sitting in on quarterback meetings prior to the Continental Tire Bowl in December.

“He’d be pretty wowed by that – anybody would, not just Anthony,” said Bob Johnson, director of the EA Sports Elite 11 Quarterback Camp. “When you jump into a college meeting, you’re listening to a foreign language because of the terminology. They’re not trying to stop and teach it to him. They’re trying to win a bowl game.”

After the meeting, Morelli realized his chances of playing early – an important factor in his decision – were slimmer than expected when he committed.

“Palko and (Luke) Getsy have been down there two years and know the offense like the back of their hands,” Morelli said. “I felt like I was behind”

Most importantly, he didn’t want to sit.

“From talking to Anthony and Greg the past couple years, early playing time was always a huge deal,” said Greg Biggins, Student Sports Inc. recruiting director. “Any school that was able to come along and sell an open depth chart was going to be appealing to them.”

Not a concern at Penn State, huh?

“You leave a bona fide quarterback coach in Walt Harris,” Lemming said, “to go to a school that isn’t known for developing quarterbacks.”

Jay Paterno, however, is expected to be replaced as quarterbacks coach. His successor will be pivotal the development of Morelli, who possesses NFL tools but needs to improve his mental approach to the game.

I wonder if Jay knows that?

Morelli will have plenty of competition. Penn State signed five other high school quarterbacks, though it promised him four of them would play other positions. Greg Morelli also claims that Lions coaches indicated that Robinson would move to defense.

I think Penn State fans should be very unnerved by this. Morelli seems to be operating under a lot of assumptions of getting into the starting line-up real soon, and without much competition. I wonder what the over/under is in terms of months after the season starts before the Morellis start making noise about promises broken and not getting an opportunity?

With the game tomorrow, there isn’t a lot of time to do much coverage. Pitt’s site has nothing yet. Seton Hall, though, has it’s press release for the game on their site, with a link to their game notes (PDF). Pitt has beaten Seton Hall 4 out of the last 5 times, but lost in NJ last year. Pitt leads the all-time series 25-17. Here is a Seton Hall blog, nothing on the Pitt game, at this posting.

Looks like Pitt didn’t get a new offensive coordinator yet. Frank Scelfo decided to stay at Tulane.

“This was a great experience for me. Pittsburgh is a great place with a great facility, and (Coach) Walt Harris is a first-class guy, but I had to follow my heart,” Scelfo said. “Tulane University and the city of New Orleans are pretty special for me. I saw a lot of passion in a lot that happened last spring, and I couldn’t see myself leaving. It’s hard to walk away from all the things this city has done for me and my family. That’s what it boiled down to.”

Scelfo has been with Tulane for eight seasons and has served as the Green Wave’s recruiting coordinator and assistant head coach, directing the team’s wide receivers, tight ends and quarterbacks. He’s the only coach on the staff that was an assistant on the 1998 undefeated team.

Scelfo, whose brother Chris is the Wave’s head coach, said he understood that taking the Pittsburgh job would have given him more visibility as an offensive coordinator and could have moved him closer to his goal of being a head coach.

Despite some concerns over potential trouble down the road, I think Harris missed again. HE got turned down by a guy who chose to stay at a school that nearly eliminated their football program all together last year. Ouch.

Here are the beat reporters stories on Pitt’s 66-58 win over ND. My write-up is here. The Chicago Tribune felt the game ended 5 minutes into the second half.

With 14:43 left in the game, Jaron Brown’s three-pointer from the right baseline merely extended a four-point Pittsburgh lead to seven.

Logic dictated there was plenty of time left for Notre Dame to reclaim the momentum. Instinct, though, was screaming that it was over.

In merchandising news, Pitt gear is selling at an all-time clip because of the success of the basketball program. Dick’s Sporting Good’s says Pitt gear is its #2 collegiate seller right now. Behind (yes, Lee,) Ohio St. Of course, I still can’t find a single stinkin’ piece of Pitt gear in the Cleveland area. I mean, the damn hat stores have Penn St. and WVU, but not Pitt, WTF? No mention in the article about how the players responsible for the success will never see a dime.

Finally, this piece by Andy Katz at ESPN.com on assistant coaches taking over a program when the head coach moves on to another job. Obviously Jamie Dixon gets a lot of attention.

Next up, a trip to the present home of the New Jersey Nets, the Continental Airlines Arena, to face Seton Hall on Monday Night. Seton Hall blew out Rutgers last night, and are looking forward to the Pitt game.

“I’d rather be in this position going into (the) Pittsburgh (game) than the other way around,” Pirates coach Louis Orr said after the Hall’s 85-58 victory.

His players are understandably looking forward to the challenge of meeting one of the top teams in the nation. Last season, the Pirates split a pair of games with the Panthers. Pitt was ranked seventh when Seton Hall beat it, 73-61, at Continental Airlines Arena last Feb. 15. Junior John Allen said a victory over the Panthers, whose only loss this season came to No. 5 UConn, could go a long way toward helping the Pirates get back into the NCAA Tournament.

“We’ve got to make this game carry over into Monday night,” Allen said. “If we do that, we won’t have a problem. If we come out and play hard, we won’t have a problem. We’re going to have a chance to maybe make (an NCAA Tournament bid) happen after this big game. But we can really make some noise against Pitt.”

I’m sorry, it’s still a thrill to read things about how other teams are looking to make a statement by upsetting Pitt.

A few things to pass along.

Kicker David Abdul, who had to be extremely grateful for the end of 2003 — with the drunken death of his roommate and best friend Billy Gaines, his apartment going up in flames, a horrible year kicking. Hardly gets 2004 off to a good start. He fell asleep behind the wheel of his sister’s car, crossed the median and collided with another vehicle. He suffered 3 breaks in his kicking leg.

Abdul broke the tibia and femur in two places on his right leg and had lacerations on his right hand and right knee, his father said. He also will require skin grafts later this week to replace “a chunk of meat” between the calf and ankle on his right leg, his father said.

His father believes Abdul will be ready to kick at the start of the 2004 season.

Recruiting analyst, Tom Lemming speaks about signing day. Pitt headlined “surprises” and “losers.”

The biggest Signing Day surprise for me did not involve one specific school or player. It was all the decommitments. In fact, more prospects made last-minute changes this year than in any other in the 24 years I’ve been covering recruiting.

Just look at Pittsburgh for an example. The Panthers lost QB Anthony Morelli to Penn State and RB Andrew Johnson to Miami on Wednesday. There had been rumors about Morelli, but the surprising thing about his switch was that he waited right until Signing Day before letting anyone know.
…
Pittsburgh lost four top players on Wednesday and suffered through a devastating Signing Day. The Panthers were on their way to a top 20 year before things fell apart. In addition to losing QB Anthony Morelli (Penn State) and RB Anthony Johnson (Miami), Pitt lost receiver Johnny Peyton (South Florida) and cornerback Alphonso Smith (Wake Forest).

The Big East Conference was another loser. In losing Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College to the ACC, the conference also lost the prestige those schools bring. This fact ultimately hurt recruiting for Syracuse, West Virginia and Rutgers. Not one of these teams will finish in the top 30 recruiting classes for 2004.

I’m starting to really believe that Smizik is skimming our site for his columns. Last week it was the recruiting arguments we were having.

Now in today’s column on Harris.

It has been as bad a 10-month period — beginning in May with the news Big East was in big trouble — as might be possible for Pitt football, and Harris has been at the middle of it. In August, he excited the masses by proclaiming the national championship as a goal. By December, that dream was a sick joke.

The expected progress for the overall program, just like the aspirations for last season, hasn’t been there. There’s a widely held belief that Harris is not the man to take Pitt to the next level. He did a remarkable job in upgrading the program, but once it reached the point of a flirtation with national ranking it stalled.

Here’s what I wrote.

2003-2004 has to be one of Harris’ worst years. Pitt had high expectations that crashed. His in game coaching was exposed all season — again. His supposed real strength — recruiting — took a major blow. And I think it is safe to say that most of the local media has just about had it with him and his constant position of “Not my fault.”

A lot of the themes we have been talking about with Harris and the Pitt football team are in this column. SO, either Smizik is skimming for material, or it is so blatantly obvious that he is seeing it too.

In a game that seemed, at times, extremely similar to the game these two teams played a month ago, Pitt again prevailed 66-58.

The play calling crew is familiar for Big East tournament time, Sean McDonough and Len Elmore. I like them.

The game got off to a slow start. It took a minute and a half before there was a score. Chris Thomas, who had been struggling, hit a 3-pointer. He sank another one a couple minutes later, and ND was up 8-2. You quickly realize that ND is a real perimeter team. Torin Francis is their only inside presence. If Thomas struggles then you understand why they have lost so many games. They need Thomas and Quinn to be on, or they are in trouble.

The Irish are on a fast start. They go up 15-2, more than 5 minutes into the first half. Pitt is struggling with their shots. Taft is getting exposed for his youth on the offensive boards. If he gets the ball, he fails to look at passing the ball out to reset the offense. Instead, he seems determined to make a shot regardless of how far out of position or how bad a shot it is.

After going down by 13, Pitt starts to assert itself. ND got off to a hot start. Thomas went 3-3 for 9 points, but stopped taking many shots. He’s been in a slump and he seemed afraid to demand the ball. This worked against ND, because the previously hot Chris Quinn, couldn’t buy a basket. Quinn’s only points in the game, came from the charity stripe. He was 0-8 in total. ND can only win if Thomas and Quinn are scoring. With Quinn completely frozen, and Thomas afraid to push Pitt was allowed back in the game.

So despite going 6-13 from 3-point land in the first half, ND only led 32-26. Pitt was clearly outrebounded in the first half. A bright spot for Pitt, was that Julius Page, who has been slumping all season long, had 9 points on 4-7 shooting.

During the first half, Len Elmore listed his “All Big East Team.” Not really a surprise that Pitt didn’t have a player listed. It was:

Barrett — Seton Hall
Matthew — Va. Tech
Okafor — UConn
Warrick — Syracuse
Gomes — Providence

The first half was frustrating to watch as a Pitt fan. Pitt was too willing to play the perimeter game. Exchange 3-point shots. Pitt has to take the ball inside and bang the ND players. Physically wear them down. That is, literally, Pitt’s strength. They are not finesse or an outside shooting team. Pitt pushes, claws and scrapes inside for baskets. Inflicting punishment off the boards.

The second half starts with things immediately going Pitt’s way. ND’s center, Torin Francis is done with “back problems.” That completely removes most of ND’s interior offense.

The other big difference about the second half, is that the refs have decided to call a much tighter game. There were only 2 Free Throws in the first half (both missed by Troutman). The second half had 30 attempts in total.

At 17:11 Pitt takes its first lead of the night, 35-34. The Irish are starting to look frustrated at the defense and the missed shots. The losses in 3 of their last 4 are taking their toll. A sense of desperation can be seen on the players. 7 minutes into the second half and Pitt has gone on a 17-4 run to put the lead at 43-36. Notre Dame is noticeably extending its defense to keep Pitt from taking the outside or mid-range shots.

McDonough notes that ND is starting to wear down. That most of their starters are still in the game. Unlike Pitt, apparently, ND is not used to most of its starters logging minutes much over 30.

With the refs calling the second half, very tightly, Jaron Brown actually reaches 4 fouls and goes to the bench at the 9:56 mark. Pitt is up 47-39. The game has gotten, to use hockey vernacular, “chippy.” Both coaches are giving the refs an earful, and McDonough seems annoyed with the refs getting so involved in the game.

Comments that stood out from McDonough after the halfway point:

“… the refs are just looking for things to call… [they] are determined to inject themselves into the game.”

Amusingly enough, after a time out and a chance to look at the replay where Jordan Cornette committed a foul by trying to grab/tackle Krauser by the ankle, they he was forced to admit they called that one correctly.

At 7:45, Pitt leads 51-41

For Notre Dame, Chris Thomas is a great player, offensively. It’s his defense that kills the team. He is very much the ole style of defender.

Notre Dame tries to make a run near the end, but it falls far short. Pitt makes enough free throws, and ND can’t score enough.

Pitt just plain wore out the Irish.

Looking over the box score.

Page had a much needed good game. He had 17 points and shot better than 50%. Krauser had 19, Brown with 11, Troutman with 9 and Taft with 6. Once again, no dominating Pitt player, just that team effort that keeps the opposition from trying to shut down just one guy.

It’s a beautiful thing.

Pitt has hired a new running backs coach. Wayne Moses, a Pac-10 guy.

Moses spent the past two seasons in the same capacity at Stanford and has also coached at other Pacific-10 schools UCLA, California, Washington and Southern Cal.

I don’t know anything about him. The article reveals nothing. It would be nice to know whether he developed any pro RBs (was he at UCLA coaching DeShaun Foster, for example). There is nothing at the Pitt Athletics site, at this time.

A more interesting note. When Brookhart — the WR and partial offensive coordinator — left for the Akron head coaching gig, Harris indicated he would just hire a WR coach and take the offense himself. Of course, I didn’t like this decision.

So this report is interesting.

Tulane offensive coordinator Frank Scelfo could become the third Green Wave assistant in five weeks to pack his bags for greener pastures.

Scelfo, brother of Wave head coach Chris Scelfo, has been offered the offensive coordinator’s position at Pittsburgh, according to reports in the Pittsburgh media. Frank Scelfo, who was in Pittsburgh on Thursday visiting with Panthers coach Walt Harris, could not be reached for comment.
…
According to reports out of Pittsburgh, Scelfo also would coach the receivers if he accepts the offer. At Tulane, Scelfo doubled as the quarterbacks coach.
…
With Scelfo as offensive coordinator, the Wave enjoyed three of the four best offensive years in school history. During the past three seasons, quarterbacks Patrick Ramsey and J.P. Losman had nine 300-yard passing games, and the Wave had four 500-yard total offense games.

Very interesting. A guy who has actually developed pro QBs as opposed to just being an “offensive genius.” I would almost call this promising. If the reports are true, you would have to believe that Harris had to promise him some actual play calling duties to be lured away.

Dare I say a promising coaching move?