Holiday shopping hell today. So it’s late to do a post mortem.

What was rumor, now morphs into likelihood and now…

It’s official:

Stanford spokesman Gary Migdol said Harris accepted the job Sunday, and the school planned an official announcement for Monday.

“He’s accepted and will be here tomorrow,” Migdol said. “He’s in Pittsburgh today.”

Harris, 58, reportedly was meeting with his team Sunday and is expected to coach the 19th-ranked Panthers in the Fiesta Bowl against Utah on Jan. 1 before assuming his new job.

Obviously, I was (once again) wrong on predicting Harris returning with an extension. I wonder if the Pitt Athletic Department will Howland him after he is gone. Probably. Petty and vindictiveness seems to be a part of Pitt’s hierarchy at times.

You know, back in November I called the Pitt-Syracuse game the “lame duck bowl,” and while I was accurate in predicting the winner would live for another year, the Fiesta Bowl truly deserves the title if Harris and Meyer actually coach their respective teams.

Joe Bendel has a stellar recap article of how it came to this. It really lays things out pros/cons on Harris. The way I come down on Harris after looking at his season-by-season record. No, he his not a great coach. He is not one of the the top-20 coaches in the country. But, I think you could put him in the 25-35 range.

[My non-scientific, completely biased, off the top of my head, without explanation, in no order (and with misspellings) the 26 best college coaches: Saban, Stoops, Fulmer, Carr, Tressel, Richt, Bowden, Spurrier, Ferentz, Carroll, Brown, Tedford, Beamer, Tuberville, Franchionne, Willingham, Meyer, Alverez, Coker, Petrino, Hawkins, Coker, Belotti, Nutt, Hill and Groh.]

Considering Pitt seems spooked by the fact that it could lose really good coaches to higher profile jobs you would almost think they would want to keep a solid coach who has (overall) kept the program rising, and wanted to stay. But no.

The Trib’s recruiting guy notes an interesting connection of Harris and the son of a trustee — I guess he’ll be going to Pitt now, and not Stanford. Well, at least not Stanford.

At the Sacremento Bee (and also from ESPN.com) Ray Ratto thinks Harris is in for a rough time because of the power that is Tedford and Cal.

Then there is Ron Cook, who led the Sunday charge at the P-G to boot Harris now that Smizik has been held on his shots until after Harris is actually gone.

Apparently, the “Keep Walt Harris” loyalists think so.

I’ll stop here to address the Fiesta Bowl. That noise you hear are screams from Harris supporters. What more do you want from the guy? He has taken Pitt football to the next level.

I will argue Pitt is going to the Fiesta Bowl but is not a Bowl Championship Series program under Harris. No one respects the heart and guts of Tyler Palko, Vince Crochunis and their Pitt teammates more than I do, but the Panthers were able to finish atop a four-way tie in the watered-down Big East only because of some fortuitous breaks. If Virginia Tech and Miami hadn’t bolted to the Atlantic Coast Conference after last season, Pitt almost certainly would have finished no better than third again, its highest finish under Harris before this season. And if the No. 19 Panthers lose to Utah on Jan. 1 — they are 16 1/2 -point underdogs — they will end up 8-4 and out of the top 20 for the seventh time in Harris’ eight seasons.

That’s not a BCS program.

That’s underachieving.

No. When most people predicted this team anywhere from 3-5 in the conference. Ron Cook, himself, put things around 8-3 back in September. So apparently the, “get Walt out” crowd has decided that the bar they set is no longer sufficient. Apparently style points count for more than actual wins.

I wonder if the latest recruit will still be verbaled tomorrow?

I need to crash, so I won’t get back to this until sometime tomorrow. Looks like Coach Walt Harris will be going back to Cali.

Stanford has offered its head-coaching job to Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris, a source said Saturday.

Stanford athletic director Ted Leland reached his decision Saturday afternoon after meeting with university President John Hennessey and provost John Etchemendy to weigh the choice between two finalists, Harris and USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow.

Harris was then offered the position, which he may formally accept today. Harris could be introduced as early as Monday.

Pitt thinks it will get its way in avoiding a buyout and some PR spin, but I’m not so sure. They let it drag out and made it clear to all who were paying attention that if Harris didn’t jump he would be pushed, despite getting Pitt into the BCS.

You want to know my fear? The late 80s when Pitt had a Chancellor who had achieved much acclaim and respect in the 70s, along with a crony, helped take down the entire athletic department with arrogance and heavy handedness.

I’ll say it now. If Paul Rhodes is hired as head coach, I’m not renewing my season tickets.

I just got back to Altoona after seeing Pitt defeat a determined Penn State team 84-71, going to Champs Sports Bar with Shawn and Patrick afterwards, and then visiting my parents (who live in State College) for awhile. Keeping in mind that I don’t understand the mechanics of basketball as well as Chas does, these are my brief impressions of the game.

First off, the Bryce Jordan Center may be the easiest sports venue to get to that I’ve ever seen — remarkable, given that the hardest sports venue to get to that I’ve ever seen is directly across the street. Even though there seemed to be around 10,000 fans in attendance, the only traffic backup coming in was due to a regularly-functioning stoplight at the corner of Park Avenue and Porter Road. The parking was surprisingly free and ample in the massive commuter parking lot that used to be called Lot 50 (between Beaver Stadium and Bryce Jordan). Overall, we made it from my parents house to the BJC in about the same amount of time that it would have taken us to do so on a normal day in July.

The Bryce Jordan Center is an attractive and functional enough building, although I personally feel that the Petersen Center is architecturally more impressive (especially on the exterior and in the lobby). However, where the BJC really fails is in the massive size of its floor — apparently built more for monster truck rallies than basketball games (the floor cannot be refrigerated for hockey, so we can’t blame that). People in the first row of permanent seating behind the basket on either end are easily 50-70 feet away from the action. Fortunately, our seats were at mid-court.

Probably a fifth to a sixth of those in attendance were fellow Panther fans — enough that our “LET’S GO PITT” chants were loud and clear across the arena. In the second deck where we were (Section 206), probably 80% of us were Panthers. At times, the Penn State student body did an impressive impression of the Cameron Crazies. But most of the time, only five or six of them were jumping up and down while we had the ball.

The clear comic highlight of the game occurred when a bunch of Panther fans a few sections over started chanting “BCS! BCS!” It quickly grew into a deafening chorus. In any case, I was surprised how offensive that seemed to be to the Nittany Lion faithful. Immediately, a chorus of boos and “OVERRATED” chants came flying back at us. After the Nittany Lion on the other side of my wife threw that particular line at me, I yelled back that at least we beat Boston College and that teams who have only had one winning season in the past five shouldn’t be throwing stones. Then my wife told me to shut the hell up. Most of you already know that I have a notoriously short fuse around Penn State fans.

But it was interesting to see how much in contempt they still hold Pitt football. To be fair, the feeling is mutual.

As for the game itself, Penn State seemed to be on fire from the perimeter and especially from behind the 3 point line (Mike Walker). This was partially due to some poor perimeter defense on our part: we regularly overpursued moves to the inside (can you tell that I’m more of a football fan?). Well, I guess it’s better to discover that we may have problems on the perimeter now than when we’re in Syracuse facing McNamara.

Of course, we got a sh!tload of fouls called on us. I expected that in a Big Ten arena, and I suspect that Dixon did too. I can live with that. Hey, it’s part of a Big East pedigree.

Really, I was flat-out impressed with Penn State’s heart in this game. Whereas they were clearly intimidated in the Petersen Center last December, they never really gave up this time. I’ve always liked their head coach, Ed DeChellis. His aggressive style may finally be taking hold up in State College. But in the end, Carl Krauser stopped Penn State’s biggest run and saved us again. Jeez, do I like that kid.

I’ll leave it up to Shawn and Pat to describe Penn State’s absolutely hideous dance team: all ballet and Broadway moves and none of the strip club fare that we Panther fans have come to expect. And of course, all white.

Hail a win over Penn State. For us old-school Panther fans, it’s always a good thing… even if its in synchronized swimming.

Gives you an idea of how bad Pitt hoops has been over the years as Penn State actually holds a 75-68 series lead. Granted, Pitt has blown out PSU the last 3 times, and should look to keep it going. Pitt has a decided advantage in talent.

For backup center Aaron Gray, he grew up a little more than an hour from State College. He’s looking forward to the game.

When Aaron Gray signed his letter of intent to play basketball at Pitt two years ago, he learned that finding Panthers apparel around his Eastern Pennsylvania hometown wasn’t an easy task.

“It’s all about Penn State there,” said the 7-footer from Emmaus, between Allentown and Philadelphia. “You can’t find articles of clothing on Pittsburgh. When I signed, I did it in front of a camera and it took me like a week and a half to go out and find a Pitt hat just so I could wear it.”

But Gray expects to see a Pittsburgh posse in the crowd when Pitt plays at Penn State’s Jordan Center in University Park at 2 p.m. today.

Sadly, I have the same problem whenever I visit my family. I can never find any Pitt gear.

A little more than 2 hours before the game.

Who knows. According a report from the San Jose Mercury News Harris will get the Stanford job:

Pittsburgh’s Walt Harris interviewed for the Stanford coaching position Friday and could be offered the job by the end of the weekend, a source close to Harris said. Stanford officials would only confirm that Harris interviewed.

Harris and USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow are the finalists. Chow interviewed on campus Wednesday.

Stanford Athletic Director Ted Leland will spend the weekend evaluating Harris and Chow with school officials and putting together a compensation package for the preferred candidate. The Cardinal would like to have a coach in place by early next week, if possible.

The only things that appears certain are that the choice will either be Chow or Harris. And that Stanford will make it’s decision this weekend.

This has been a joke in my view regarding Pitt’s handling of this whole thing. It seems to be about the school trying to get Harris to buy out the remaining years on his contract or just quit rather than pay him off. The report for the last week are that Harris has wanted to stay. This is all on Pitt. Sorry. I know it’s a lot of coin, but in the loopy world of college athletics, boosters and money, it is not that much.

It also doesn’t make me feel good about who they will hire when they finally push or get Harris to jump. If the school is trying to cut corners with buying out Harris — and doing so helps make the recruiting going on right now that much harder — what assurances will there be that Pitt won’t look to go cheap on the next coach and the coaching staff. Because they have to avoid looking stupid? Too late.

Is this part of the “extraordinary leadership” of Chancellor Nordenberg that got him his latest pay boost — to $415,000 — that places him at the top of all administrators at a public university in pay and in the top-8 overall?

Pitt did get a commit from a local offensive lineman. Who chose the instability of Pitt over the chaos of Indiana.

Bachman said he is committed to Pitt, regardless of coach Walt Harris’s future at the school.

“I don’t think Walt Harris is going to be there,” Bachman said. “But whether he’s there or not, I am committed more to a football program and I am going to Pitt no matter what happens. If coach Harris is there — and I don’t think he will be — then great. If not, Pitt is the kind of university that they can get a great coach. Either way, in my eyes, it’s a winning situation.”

At least with Pitt, he can feel more confident about getting to a bowl.

Speaking of bowls. Pitt still isn’t selling out its supply of tickets for the Fiesta. The coaching issue can’t be helping, but that is no excuse.

At least that’s how it is spun. Pitt is playing a team from another power conference. Oh, wait, it is only Penn State. According to the Pitt press release, Pitt “has outscored Penn State 235-150 in each of the last three matchups, an average of 28.3 points per victory.” Game notes are here (PDF).

Both papers talk about Pitt’s increased ability to shoot 3-pointers.

The game is on Fox Sports-Pittsburgh and ESPN Full Court. Hmmm. My dad (a Penn St. grad) is in town this weekend to visit his granddaughter. Wonder if I should spring for the $15 to just happen to have the game on TV. Probably not. We’ll probably be out of the house, and he won’t care.

Not much of great interest in the weekly Q&A with the P-G Pitt basketball beat reporter.

Bob Smizik defends the weak-ass non-con of Pitt with essentially, “hey it works.”

Sorry about no free ice cream today. Had to spend the day finishing off my CLE credits for the bar reporting period.

So, what has changed? Nothing it seems, expcept some are now saying Norm Chow is the leading candidate for the Stanford job.

Harris will interview at Stanford on Saturday or Sunday. This morning he met with Pitt AD Jeff Long. There is no change.

Mike Prisuta seems perfectly willing to show Walt the door. He is firmly of the opinion that not only can Pitt get Dave Wannstedt, he should get Wanny. I wasn’t sold on Wannstedt when it seemed like a lock Harris would be fired. I’m surely not, now.

Pitt has engaged in a sick game of chicken with Harris. It seems clear that the administration, for whatever reason doesn’t want him, but wants him to jump rather than be pushed. Maybe it’s for money, maybe it’s for future PR spin. All I know is that it is hurting the program. Paul Zeise, the Pitt football beat reporter for the P-G summed it all up perfectly, in his intro to his weekly Q&A:

Let’s all wait and see. The ball is in the court of the administration on this one. Walt could be headed to Stanford by the time next week rolls around, if things stay as they are at Pitt – and I have to be honest, there isn’t a lot of reason to be optimistic if you are in favor of Harris returning next year.

I’d expect he’ll continue to coach Pitt at least through the bowl game, especially since he is the offensive coordinator and the one who calls the plays, but that will likely be the end unless some things change dramatically in the hearts of minds of certain individuals who hold all the cards.

I assure you, it is a frustrating time for the staff, who are all out recruiting their hearts out while trying to figure out what the future holds. It should be a slam dunk — they should have kids signing up by the boatload given their status as a BCS team and the optimism for the future.

Instead they are fighting off questions about Harris, about whether he’ll return and who is going to coach next year. It is amazing but somehow Pitt has managed to trump any momentum or boost it got from winning the Big East, simply by not addressing this situation. With two big recruiting weekends in a row coming up, that doesn’t make much sense. Stay tuned.

And one other thing — it is easy to talk about firing a coach, but remember it is not just a coach it is a whole staff of guys who are just trying to make a living and support their families. It is fashionable to call for guys to lose their jobs but sometimes the human side of it gets lost. I understand there are more considerations than what occurs on the field and sometimes a divorce is necessary even if it is amicable. But, this one is puzzling in a lot of ways.

As for a replacement for Harris should he go — can we at least wait until he goes before we start throwing out the names and manufacturing candidates. I know “Alcorn State’s running backs coach grew up in East Liberty and used to sneak into Pitt games when he was five” (obviously I am joking with this one, I have no idea who Alcorn State’s running backs coach is, but this is the kind of stuff I have an inbox full of) but not every coach who has been to Pittsburgh, is from Pittsburgh, grew up a Steelers fan, has a cousin who lives in McKees Rocks, etc., and is going to be a candidate.

Never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity. That would be Pitt. It’s just depressing.

That’s the question for the Pitt basketball team. Memphis was supposed to be Pitt’s first test. One of the few on the non-con (no, I’m not going to get started on that again). Instead, Pitt blew them out of the game so quickly, that you can’t be sure. Especially considering how badly Memphis fared against Syracuse and Maryland. Pitt played sloppy in the second half, but at it’s hard not to excuse it as easing off after building a 24 point lead after halftime. So the next test is?

Of those five opponents, South Carolina looks to be the best of the bunch, but the Gamecocks (4-1) must play at the Petersen Events Center, where Pitt is 40-1 since the facility opened in 2002-03.

Pitt might have to wait another six weeks to play a ranked team. So circle this one: Jan. 22 at Connecticut.

Pitt could be 15-0 entering that game, given that the first four opponents in the Big East Conference schedule are Georgetown, at Rutgers, Seton Hall and at St. John’s, hardly a murderer’s row. Last year, the Panthers were 18-0 entering the Connecticut game and lost a heartbreaker in Hartford.

Back to the original point: Pitt’s performance against Memphis. It was not a masterpiece. If the Panthers are going to get through the next month and a half unscathed, they’ll have to play better than they did in the second half against the Tigers.

When Carl Krauser wasn’t on the floor, the Panthers looked lost. On several occasions they couldn’t manage to get the ball past half court without turning it over. Pitt had 19 turnovers, 14 in the second half when the game became a bit ragged and disjointed for both teams. Freshman Ronald Ramon and sophomore Antonio Graves struggled handling the ball against Memphis’ press.

Free-throw shooting was a problem, too. The Panthers made just 29 of their 42 attempts (59.5 percent). They are shooting 65.3 percent from the free-throw line for the season.

The Richmond game on December 23 (on ESPN2) should be something of a challenge. The Spiders are one of the consistently upper-mid-majors. The point, being the same one I made last year before the start of the season, is that no one will know for sure about this team until the conference schedule gets underway in January. That’s a shame.

The very improved play of Antonio Graves has been an early season surprise. But there seems to be some revisionism about how Pitt got interested and recruited him:

Antonio Graves sparked the interest of Pitt coach Jamie Dixon a couple years back during an AAU basketball game.

The Panthers sophomore guard wasn’t hitting long-range 3-pointers or throwing down poster-style dunks in Dixon’s presence. He was at the end of the bench — cheering.

That’s right, Graves caught Dixon’s fancy simply by cheering.

“You could see he was a team guy, and that’s the type of player we want in our program,” Dixon said.

But what about those recruiting gurus who didn’t rank Graves very highly? Wasn’t that a concern?

Not in the least for Dixon.

“We felt like Antonio was going to fit in,” said Dixon, whose team is 6-0 and ranked No. 11 by The Associated Press.

Graves was a late signing after another recruit asked out of his scholarship. Pitt had the extra scholarship and needed a point guard to help back-up Krauser. Graves was signed in late August:

They have signed, Antonio Graves of Mansfield High School in Mansfield, Ohio. Graves was first-team all-Ohio last year. He’s 6-3. He was a late qualifier. Not a blue-chip recruit — his main offers were from Rutgers, Charlotte and Bowling Green (though Ohio St. and Cincinnati started showing some late interest). Still, he fills a big need for Pitt.

There was growing interest once he became academically qualified. It wasn’t so much his talent as whether he would have to go to prep school for a year.

I’m very happy about Graves. He has clearly bought into the defensive philosophy. Of course he will struggle at times playing the point when Krauser is out. Just as Krauser struggled at times when he spelled Brandin Knight.

USC Offensive Coordinator, Norm Chow had a 6+ hour meeting/interview/tour of Stanford yesterday. As near as I can tell, it is now presumed that Coach Walt Harris is Stanford’s top choice because Chow wasn’t offered the job that day.

Harris had some informal talks early in the week with Stanford officials, and is expected to interview at the campus this weekend. It almost appears as if it is a game of chicken between Pitt and Harris as to what will happen in some reports.

Today, though, Harris meets with Pitt AD Jeff Long.

Harris wants to have some answers today so he can begin to plan for his next step, said a source familiar with the situation. But contrary to some reports that he wants to leave, Harris’ preference is to remain with Pitt with a contract extension and a raise so he can complete the rebuilding job he started eight years ago.

The question is, does Pitt want him back. Pitt has to know it can’t just stay with the present contract. Look up in Syracuse at what has been happening with their recruiting as Pasqualoni has just been playing out the length of his contract the last couple of years.

This little note at the end of the article makes me nervous — it says that Defensive Coordinator Paul Rhoads removed himself from contention for the Utah State head coaching job. This is pure speculation, but Rhoads has somehow been spared much criticism the last couple of years for the porous nature of the defense — and the lack of fundamentals — in the media. He is, by all accounts a great guy to talk to, and appears on better terms with the administration than Harris. You don’t suppose…

For what it’s worth, former Pitt RB Curtis Martin, thinks Harris should be kept by the school.

“My philosophy is that you don’t have to fix things that aren’t broken,” Martin said. “Maybe I can’t see it from the outside, but I really believe that he has the potential to take Pitt to higher and higher levels, and he has been doing that. I think when he inherited the team, it was just in a bad situation. He is turning them around, in my opinion. Let him keep his job.”

Hopefully, this will be resolved soon.

Well Utah has a new head coach. Kyle Whittingham, the defensive coordinator, opted to take over at Utah rather than jump to his alma mater, BYU. The entire Utah coaching staff, right now, is completely disjointed.

Pitt ranks poorly on the latest “official” graduation numbers, but that isn’t surprising:

Pitt spokesman E.J. Borghetti said the time frame of the study works against Pitt. Pitt’s first three classes used in the study were recruited by former coach Johnny Majors, the fourth by current coach Walt Harris.

The incoming class of 1996-97, which is included in the study, previously came under scrutiny because 14 of the 19 players transferred after the coaching change, contributing to Pitt’s rate of 16 percent for that class.

“The study focuses on a time period when, frankly, our football program was very poor on and off the field,” Borghetti said. “We are now performing very well in both arenas.”

Borghetti said of the players who were seniors on the 2003 team, 15 of 19 graduated and eight of the 11 black players earned a degree. He also pointed out that the Panthers’ starting defensive tackles for the Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl against Utah are three-time Academic All-American Vince Crochunis and two-time Academic All-American Dan Stephens.

Sadly these reports can’t be taken seriously because the data is stale and until recent changes were made never took into account transfers in or out of the school.

Piece on how DT, Vince Crochunis, is the only player left from Pitt’s 1999 recruiting class and how far the entire program has come from his first recruiting trips to Pitt.

College All-American teams are being produced. Sports Illustrated has its All-American team. Rob Petitti was listed under “honorable mention.” He made the second team on the Sporting News’ All-American squad.

Cornerback, Darrelle Revis was named to the Sporting News’ Freshman All-American First Team.

Joe Bendel at ESPN.com names his All-Big East team. Tyler Palko, Greg Lee and Rob Petitti on the offensive side. Nobody on defense. Josh Cummings and Adam Graessle on special teams.

And just because I have a bit of a venal streak, Ivan Maisel names Boston College Flop of the Year.

Slight correction from my comments last night. I said that no Pitt player broke the 30 minute barrier. I was wrong. Krauser played 36 minutes in the game. I must have misread the box score.

Here’s the press release from Pitt, along with the box score/play by play (PDF version).

It was supposed to be tougher. That seems to be the reaction in Pittsburgh to the way Pitt absolutely dominated Memphis. Memphis just couldn’t handle Pitt inside.

Free throws, though, were not good. Graves was 1-5, Taft was 3-6, McCarroll, Ramon and Gray were all bad. Krauser was great at 15-18. Troutman was a respectable 4-6. Compared to where he was last year, it is marked improvement.

Despite poor shooting — Taft missing 2 straight dunks(???) — Pitt still had 5 players in double figures (Krauser, Taft, Troutman, Graves and McCarroll).

In the sightings department lots of past Pitt stars: Charles Smith, Demetrius Gore, Bobby Martin, Jerry McCullough, Toree Morris and Curtis Aiken all in attendance. Forgot to mention last night. There were two shots of Isiah Thomas during the game. What were the odds? Camera. MSG. Isiah Thomas. The camera just loves him. Actually, Thomas was downright reclusive leering out of a sky box as opposed to standing by the players locker room entrance as he usually does during a Knick game.

In Memphis, they see a team that is in complete shambles.

The Jimmy V Classic? How about The Jimmy V Disaster?

That’s actually a more fitting description of what Tuesday night turned into for the Tigers, who dropped a 70-51 decision to 11th-ranked Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden.
…
Though the game lacked any real intensity, the postgame scene did not, thanks to the Tigers holding a players-only meeting in the locker room.

Calipari spoke with media. The players were still talking.

Calipari fulfilled his radio obligations. The players were still talking.

For about 30 minutes, this went on. Then, after about three minutes of shouting that could be heard through the wall, the staff entered and shuffled some players out.

Anthony Rice, the senior captain, confirmed what has long been speculated about this team:

There are chemistry issues.

“There’s a lot of jealousy around here, and some people finally just said what they had to say and got it all out,” Rice explained. “I think it’s good, but if it doesn’t carry over, then it doesn’t mean anything. You can have all the meetings in the world. But if people don’t change, it’s still going to be the same old …”

Not a good day to be a Memphis fan.

You know, it’s kind of reassuring to know that it can be NYC, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, or Coshocton, Ohio. The one thing you can count on in reading a paper, is that if there is a local connection it will be mentioned/played up. All the NYC papers did not fail to mention where in the NYC area Pitt players were from in their coverage. All were impressed with Pitt’s win. The Post called it a ‘Punishment.’ Newsday saw a Pitt defense that looks even tougher than last year. The Daily News focused on Krauser’s leadership.

Assuming Pitt wins on Saturday, against Penn State, Pitt probably won’t move anywhere in the polls this week. It looks like the only team ahead of them to lose was/will be Syracuse, and I don’t see the Orange dropping behind Pitt for losing to a really, really good looking Ok. St. team.

I guess this was inevitable, with USC firing Henry Bibby as basketball coach:

Among the coaches believed to be interested in the position are former Utah coach Rick Majerus, who is currently a commentator for ESPN and lives in Milwaukee.
…
Others interested include Manhattan coach Bobby Gonzalez, Pepperdine coach and former USC player Paul Westphal, and former Clippers coach Alvin Gentry. Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon, who is from North Hollywood, is also expected to be a candidate.

I’m not too worried yet. Nothing will happen until the end of the season. Andy Katz at ESPN.com writes that his name will come up because of his success and where he is from, but also says, “Dixon did get a long-term deal at Pittsburgh, and it would take a hefty sum to pry him away from the Panthers.” I’m not naive enough to think that Dixon wouldn’t entertain an offer, but I don’t think he will actively pursue the job. It’s not that USC doesn’t have or won’t spend the money, but USC has neglected its facilities for some time. Those will also need a big upgrade.

Well, now for the Coach Walt Harris and Pitt part of the rumors and reports. Apparently Harris has met with people from Stanford.

Walt Harris met with Stanford officials earlier this week, and his future at Pitt is becoming cloudier by the day.

He and Southern Cal offensive coordinator Norm Chow are considered the top candidates for the Cardinal job, but Harris might have an inside track now that both parties have shown interest. Chow is scheduled to meet with Stanford officials today.

Stanford athletic director Ted Leland, who hired Harris for the head coaching job at Pacific in 1989, has been “out of the office,” the past five days, according to a member of the Stanford athletic department, and he was believed to be meeting with Harris, possibly on Monday.

Pitt has not formally given Stanford permission to talk with Harris, who is under contract through the 2006 season, but Panthers officials did not attempt to quash Stanford’s efforts, despite knowing that Harris and Leland were expected to meet.

Unbelievable. It seems as if Pitt won’t even bother to pretend it wants Harris to stay. You almost have to believe that there is some personal animosity between Harris and someone important in the Pitt administration to have it go down like this.

Pitt better be damn sure about who it wants to hire and that it can get him. With ND and Washington both struggling to find their next new coach, there is lots of added competition.

Notre Dame received permission from the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday to speak to offensive coordinator Tom Clements about the Irish’s head-coaching vacancy, according to a source close to the situation.
…
Clements has a solid Notre Dame pedigree–he quarterbacked the 1973 Irish to the national title, was an All-American in 1974 and graduated magna cum laude from the Notre Dame school of law in 1986.

Although he has no head-coaching experience, he played professionally for 12 years in Canada, spent four seasons as Lou Holtz’s quarterbacks coach at Notre Dame and is in his eighth year coaching in the NFL.
…
The Irish, however, may not be his only suitors. Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris is expected to interview later this week at Stanford. Harris also is believed to be on Washington’s list of candidates for its head-coaching vacancy.

Pitt representatives, according to a source, already have indicated Clements would be among their top candidates if Harris goes.

There would be something funny about a ND guy, choosing to be head coach at Pitt rather than go back to his alma mater. Clements was the Steelers QB coach from 2001-03. I suppose the Rooney family might be amused to see Pitt poach someone from the Bills at this point.

I’m really stunned by what is happening at Washington, though. It would seem that Ty Willingham would be a slam dunk pick to be head coach. Yet they seem to be looking all around and willing to get crazy.

As for who is left, former Notre Dame coach Tyrone Willingham and Boston College’s Tom O’Brien remain the two coaches known that Washington has approached who are apparently still available.

Turner tried to hire Willingham as coach at Vanderbilt in 2001. Mississippi chancellor Robert Khayat was quoted by The Associated Press as saying that Willingham was no longer a candidate at Ole Miss because he is “interested in another job” — apparently UW.

O’Brien has also apparently emerged as a serious candidate — he and Turner got to know each other when each was employed at Virginia in the 1980s. O’Brien had been thought to also be a candidate at Notre Dame, but a source told the Boston Globe yesterday that the Irish are likely not interested in O’Brien, which would leave UW as his primary suitor.

Mike Leach of Texas Tech also remains in the mix, with several reports indicating that he is interested in the job.

There also continue to be rumors about LSU’s Nick Saban, who seems unlikely on the surface. But Saban was hired at LSU by Mark Emmert, who has since become president at UW, and has called Emmert the best boss he has ever had.

Walt Harris of Pittsburgh also remains in the running, though he is thought to be more interested in Stanford.

Among coaches who have been on the rumor mill but who sources said yesterday had not yet been contacted include Fresno State’s Pat Hill, Minnesota’s Glen Mason and former Nebraska coach Frank Solich.

I don’t think it is me, but Tom O’Brien has not impressed me with his work at BC. Not just because of the gak against Syracuse. He has been consistently outcoached when I’ve seen BC play.

I don’t know what to think anymore.

Well, that was unexpected. I think everyone expected more of a challenge from Memphis than that. I mean,when the last time you can point to where the team was only trailing by single digits was at about the 16:30 mark of the first half.

I didn’t see any postgame interviews with the coaches, but when you figure the best spin John Calipari could put on the game would be something to the effect of, I give our guys a lot of credit. They could have packed it in, in the first half but they were back out there in the second half fighting. Unfortunately we dug ourselves too big a hole in the first half… Or words to that effect.

Well, let’s face it Dick Vitale may have actually nailed it with his truism to start the game concerning Pitt with, “We don’t know how good this team is, yet.”

The game was over early. Pitt didn’t shoot well, but were continually getting a first step on Memphis to force them to foul or give up inside baskets. For the most part, Memphis chose to foul. Pitt went to the free throw line 42 times. They may have only hit 25 (less than 60%), but when you get that many opportunities in a game you can overcome it.

Pitt won this game the same way it did last year — defense first. People forget that last year, Pitt could score on teams (prior to the last 6 weeks), but they still played a defense first game. That was part of their problem. They had a much shorter bench because Coach Dixon and the coaching staff would really limit the bench to those who were willing to put defense first on the court. Ultimately this gassed the starters.

This year, though, it is a much different story. Graves, Gray, and even McCarroll are making a real effort to stop the other side before looking for their shots. The new kids, Ramon and DeGroat are already responding to this approach. Ultimately, what this means is a better distribution of minutes — once again, no Pitt player broke the 30 minute barrier in PT. Let me put it this way, last year in the first 7 games, 3 players per night played 30 minutes or more (pp 23-24, PDF). And the foes weren’t any better. Pitt averaged 71 points per game against the first 3 teams last year. This year, through 6 games they are averaging closer to 80 points/game, but the appraoch isn’t really any different. Just more players willing to play the game the way the Pitt coaching staff demands.

Vitale didn’t bother me as much as he usually does. Probably because his voice seemed strained. He could talk — and he did, continually — but he couldn’t screech. This made it easier to tune him out.

I would have produced better game notes, I swear, but I ended up talking with Lee for about a half-hour early in the second-half and then a call from my sister in the last 5 minutes ruined any chance to track the second half.

Obviously, Memphis was not at full strength, but this has been the best test Pitt has faced so far and it aced it. Another positive and a key difference from last year. It put Memphis away early. Last year, Pitt would forget to put defense first early in the game and try and run as up-tempo as the oppoosition. This would cause problems until Coach Dixon could finally, and after burning a bunch of timeouts, made it clear to the players to play defense and be patient looking for the open shot. This would have Pitt falling behind or playing far closer a game than it should be. Not a problem tonight.

Pitt’s next game is also it’s first official “road game” of the year. A trip to State College to play Penn State on Saturday. Lee, Shawn and Pat are planning to be in attendance. I’m expecting to read some first hand perspective.

Pitt still maintains that Stanford has not contacted them regarding interviewing Coach Walt Harris for their vacant head coaching job. That hasn’t changed any reports, though, that he will be talking to Stanford this week.

Now that Jeff Tedford is staying at California, Washington is looking around some more. Ty Willingham is still mentioned, but now Harris is even being mentioned for that job. (check out the end of the article to see the pay for all PAC-10 coaches). Actually Washington must be getting nervous. If you can believe it (and I’m not sure I can) Tom O’Brien at Boston College is starting to be rumored as a candidate. If that becomes the case, I think that would fully qualify as failing upward. Can you imagine tanking game to win the Big East title and getting a better paying, higher profile job?

Strange coaching year.

When Ben Howland left Pitt to take the UCLA job, Pitt was somehow caught flat-footed by the move. Part of that was because the Athletic Director had left in December and the school had never gotten around to naming a new AD. There was still an interim tag on the former assistant AD (who shortly after the hiring of a new head basketball coach got sick of waiting to see if he’d get the job without the interim tag and left), which meant the coach search wasn’t really under his control. It really was under the control of the school’s Chancellor.

John Calipari’s name came up early since he was a native to the Pittsburgh area, he was an assistant at Pitt in the 80s, and there was some strong support from well-heeled boosters. Calipari did nothing to dispel the notion. Then, Pitt totally zeroed in on just one guy virtually to the exclusion of all other candidates – Skip Prosser at Wake Forest. John Calipari was never even contacted by the Pitt administration about the opening. This forced him to come out and profess his loyalty to Memphis, even though he never even sniffed the job. Of course, Prosser decided to stay, and Pitt was forced to scramble.

By default they had to give the job to Jamie Dixon – not that, it hasn’t worked out well, but the search was so pathetic and bad it was more by luck than design. Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News had a great comparison on how badly Pitt screwed up on the search when compared to Dayton (and Goslin feel optimism in having Chancellor Nordenberg replace the football coach?).

Well, now that I recapped what happened then, it’s time to see the revisionism.

When University of Pittsburgh chancellor Mark Nordenberg set out to find a replacement for Ben Howland in the spring of 2003, he first tried to hire Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser. When Prosser, a Pittsburgh native, turned him down, he turned to assistant coach Jamie Dixon.

Nordenberg never did place a call to another of Pittsburgh’s famous coaching sons. Memphis coach John Calipari, who grew up in Moon and spent three seasons as an assistant at Pitt in the 1980s before leading Massachusetts to a Final Four in 1996, didn’t even receive a courtesy interview.

Three of the university’s top five athletic donors called Nordenberg to make a pitch for Calipari, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. Apparently, there were concerns about Calipari’s reputation for not graduating enough players and his recruitment of some players with checkered pasts.

The NCAA wiped Massachusetts’ Final Four appearance from its record book because Marcus Camby played in the NCAA tournament that season after accepting improper gifts from an agent, but Calipari was never sanctioned by the NCAA and has been cleared of any wrongdoing.

“The people at Pitt that I care about, they all called me,” Calipari said. “Everything plays out a certain way for a reason. I’m thrown out there for every job that comes open. It puts me in a bad position.

“The administration at Pitt did the right thing. It’s obviously working. This isn’t my first rodeo. I’m doing fine down here in every sense. It’s worked out for everybody.”

There was no denying of interest or at least wanting to be pursued for the job. From a positive regarding boosters at Pitt, nice to see that they don’t have as much control as they seem to at other schools The Boosters apparently went to both Nordenberg and Calipari, but Nordenberg wouldn’t bite. That much is a definite plus for Nordenberg. Calipari for his part has said all the right things about Pitt, and considering how many friends and family he still has in the region he has to.

Lest anyone forget (including me). The game tonight is to help raise money going to research and fight cancer.

In Memphis, they see a hot Pitt team that has a hot young coach.

A national puff piece on Memphis Forward and reputed “troubled player” Sean Banks. Banks nearly tried to go pro last year, despite not being nearly as good as he thought he was. He returned at the last minute. He’s a talent, but there are “issues.”

Now for the various scouting reports and player news. Memphis Guard, Jeremy Hunt is out for the game with a broken scaphoid in his left wrist. Hunt averaged 24 minutes a game so far. Memphis was already down a guard,

Freshman Darius Washington and senior Anthony Rice will start in the backcourt. Freshman Tank Beavers is the only other guard.

Pitt looks like it will go with the 3 guard line-up to start (Krauser, Graves and Demetrius). The Memphis scouting report looks at a key match-up and appears to give the edge to Pitt.

Dorsey has had trouble staying out of foul trouble against virtually everybody this season. So good luck tonight, when he has to deal with Taft, one of the best big men in the nation. At 6-10, Taft is a rugged rebounder and athletic shot blocker. In other words, he’s a better version of Dorsey, who will have to figure out a way to, (1) Stay out of foul trouble, and (2) Not let Taft go for 20 and 10. If Dorsey can’t at least somewhat control his counterpart, then the Tigers will have a hard time winning on the boards and winning the game.

Final little things, the NYC papers have a story about Pitt’s latest recruiting win over St. John’s. There is also a little piece on Chris Taft.