Coincidence that Pitt is playing in MSG tonight, and it got a verbal from a recruit in the area? I think it’s safe to say the timing didn’t hurt.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon has landed another recruit from New York. Levance Fields, a 6-foot, 185-pound point guard from Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, made a verbal commitment to the Panthers last night.

Fields chose Pitt over St. John’s. He will sign a binding letter of intent during the spring signing period and will be eligible as a freshman after scoring 840 on the SAT.
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Fields joins three other recruits for the 2004-05 class. Forwards Tyrell Biggs, Sam Young and Doyle Hudson signed during the early signing period a month ago. Biggs is from New York as well.

The signing is viewed as significant in recruiting circles because St. John’s has re-established itself as a player in recruiting. New coach Norm Roberts got Ricky Torres to sign with the Red Storm instead of Pitt a month ago.

Naturally the recruiting was handled by Associate head coach Barry Rohrssen. It also didn’t hurt that he went to the same high school as Chris Taft. His coach put his physical build as similar to former UConn Point Guard Khalid El-Amin — stocky.

Fields put it this way.

“I basically had to decide whether I wanted to go to an established program like Pittsburgh or a rebuilding program like St. John’s,” said Fields, 5-foot-10, 189 pounds. “It was tough, and it’s why I waited awhile. But my mother thought going to Pittsburgh was best for me, and I agreed.”

According to the recruiting sites. Fields is a top 100 player in the country and the anywhere from the 9th to 16th best PG prospect.

I think that Fields will be the last player Pitt signs for the class of 2005.

The rumors of Coach Walt Harris to Stanford continue. By all appearances, it looks like Stanford wants either Harris or USC Offensive Coordinator Norm Chow.

Stanford will talk to Southern California offensive coordinator Norm Chow and Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris this week about the Cardinal’s head coaching vacancy.

Chow told reporters in Los Angeles on Monday that he would go to Stanford on Wednesday, where he will meet with athletic director Ted Leland.

“We’ll see when we find out the specifics,” Chow said when asked if he was interested in the job. “I’m sure they’ll interview a whole bunch of other folk.”

A Stanford source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Leland would also discuss the job with Harris.

It isn’t the fact that Harris might be wooed by another school that surprises people. It’s that Pitt would appear to be willing to let him walk.

Harris is taking Pitt to a bowl game for a fifth consecutive season, the first time that’s happened at the school since coaches Johnny Majors, Jackie Sherrill and Foge Fazio combined for nine consecutive bowls from 1975-83.

Still, despite leading one of Pitt’s youngest teams ever to a major bowl, there is no certainty Harris will return to coach largely the same team again next season.

Harris is signed through the 2006 season, but many major college coaches with his portfolio of success — three consecutive seasons of eight or more victories among them — have much longer deals. Harris’ agent questioned earlier this season why a new deal wasn’t in place, but athletic director Jeff Long said only that Harris’ status would be reviewed after the season ends.

Now, by not moving to offer Harris an extended deal at more money than the estimated $600,000 a season he currently makes, Pitt may have significantly improved Harris’ bargaining position should the two part ways.
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Palko has already lobbied for Harris’ return, calling on Long and chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg to extend his contract. Pitt’s administration now must decide if a promising team that returns nine offensive starters in 2005 can be entrusted to another coach and another system, despite prior criticism of Harris for his game management skills.

Matt Hayes has an amusing piece looking at the unrealistic coaching expectations at East Carolina University. He uses it to point out that the absurdity of ridiculous expectations are not limited to the Notre Dames and Floridas. Perhaps someone else will be paying attention.

Of course, there is a very uninformed snippet from Hayes regarding Palko and Harris:

Pittsburgh QB Tyler Palko is making coach Walt Harris look better each week. Harris was criticized earlier this season for not benching Palko when he was playing badly. Now, Palko has led the Panthers to six wins in seven games. In those games, Palko has thrown for 1,892 yards, 17 touchdowns and two interceptions and has the Panthers in a BCS bowl for the first time.

Say what? Where? Somehow managed to elude my fairly compulsive searching for all things Pitt. Palko wasn’t good at the start of the season to be sure, but considering that back-up Joe Flacco has even less experience benching Palko was never an option. The closest, may have been to have him come out at times for his own safety, when the offensive line was getting him killed.

Joe Bendel has a Big East Notebook wrap-up (regular season) up on ESPN.com (subscription):

They took care of business down the home stretch, winning six of seven games and upsetting BC, Notre Dame and West Virginia along the way. Coach Walt Harris, who’s been on the hot seat all season, looked on as sophomore QB Tyler Palko put the Panthers on his shoulders and rallied them from a 2-2 start. Palko has been particularly dominating in the past five games, throwing for 1,570 yards with 16 TDs and two interceptions.

“We always expected this,” Palko said of the BCS berth. “Now, we have it.” The Panthers feature 16 underclassmen in the starting lineup, 13 of whom (including Palko) are first-year starters. They appeared to be free-falling in the early season with losses to Nebraska and UConn — and near-losses to Division I-AA Furman and Temple — but Harris kept pushing his young team.

“I knew they had what it took,” he said. “It just takes time.” The signature play of the season occurred in Week 5 against Boston College. Palko ducked his shoulder and ran over BC CB Peter Shean, who crashed to the ground with his helmet off his head. Palko established himself as a leader at the point and the Panthers established themselves as the team to beat in the Big East.

MVP: Not only is Palko the MVP of the Panthers, he’s also the MVP of the league. He is 208-of-369 for 2,816 yards with 23 TDs and nine interceptions, yet he can’t be judged by statistics alone. “It’s all the other stuff, the leadership, the ability to make everybody play better,” said sophomore Greg Lee, Pitt’s sophomore 1,000-yard receiver. “He got us here because of all the things he does.”

Biggest disappointment: A double-overtime loss at Syracuse in November. The Panthers had a number of chances to win the game, including a 51-yard field goal attempt in the waning seconds, but could not cash in. Had they beaten the Orange, they would have captured the league title outright and been on the cusp of the top-10. Also, there would be fewer questions about their validity as a BCS bowl team.

Looking ahead: With 15 starters and both specialists returning, the Panthers should be a preseason top-15 team and the favorite to win the Big East next season. The only question is: Will Harris be there to coach them. He could leave on his own volition or be fired after the BCS bowl game.

Well, there still would have been questions, but the record wouldn’t have looked as bad. As for a favorite, it depends on whether Bobby Petrtino will still be the head coach at Louisville next year.

And in a move that doesn’t really surprise me, Syracuse will bring back Coach Paul Pasqualoni for at least one more season. That makes sense. The long time AD Jake Crouthamel, is loyal to Pasqualoni and retires this summer. You can’t have the outgoing AD foist a new coach on an incoming AD. Give the new AD a chance to find his own guy.

From Andy Katz’s Daily Word for December 6,

Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon finally gets to display his team in a marquee game Tuesday — in the Jimmy V Classic in New York. The Panthers will play Memphis, the first team on their schedule this season that was ranked, or even likely will be ranked. Dixon gets defensive about a schedule that has included Howard, Robert Morris, Loyola (Md.), St. Francis (Pa.) and Duquesne, thus far. Dixon is playing three freshmen quite a bit, so building confidence for them isn’t odd. He’s also a bit hamstrung by the fact he has to play a bad Duquesne and a struggling Penn State (on the road Dec. 11), since both schools are in-state. Getting Richmond at home is a good game, as is South Carolina. Dixon wouldn’t mind playing a ranked team, but says he really struggles to get true home-and-home series.

A few points. Yeah, it is actually good and necessary this year to play some of the non-starters, freshmen and sophomores more, to see what they can do. But they don’t need virtually all of the non-con to do so. Of course he gets defensive, he’s lying. Well, maybe not lying so much as spinning. He’s being the good company man about this. From what I understand, Pitt is in a situation where it needs as many home games as possible to help pay down some of the astronomical cost overruns that were incurred in completing the Petersen Event Center. This severely limits the number of away games it can do in the non-con portion of the season. Given Pitt’s relatively recent ascension into regular top-20 rankings, I would expect a lot of schools would do the home-and-home but expect Pitt to come to them first.

This, hopefully, will be the last year they try to schedule such a weak non-con and will go on some more road games. They have to. The novelty for the Pete has worn off. Last year, they were not getting near the crowds for the non-con games because they were so bad. This year, they are struggling with attendance. So much so, that they were offering package deals for the non-con schedule — all 9 games plus the 2 exhibitions — for around $100 (Is that right, Pat?). Sure they may have been in the cheap seats, but the fact that they were resorting to that can’t be encouraging.

Well, Seth Davis and I have been blasting Pitt for it’s hideous non-con for 2 straight years, and they haven’t listened to us.

Sorry, had to vent. This was supposed to be about tomorrow. Well, in a minute. First, a positive. Chevon Troutman was named Big East Co-Player of the Week. He shares the honor with Hakim Warrick of Syracuse (PDF). Pitt moved up 2 spots in both polls. Now #12 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and #11 in the AP Writers. That’s the one problem with railing against the weak non-con — hard to argue with the successful results so far.

The press releases are out for the Pitt-Memphis game in the Jimmy V Classic. As are the game notes (PDF). The good news is it is on ESPN at 7pm. The bad news, Dick Vitale will be involved. Here’s what Vitale has to say about the game.

Jimmy V would also be proud to see some of his coaching buddies hooking up on the court. In the first game, Memphis takes on Pittsburgh. The Panthers are underrated, because people talking about the Big East this season usually mention Syracuse and Connecticut but don’t include coach Jamie Dixon’s squad.

The Panthers have an outstanding inside-outside duo with Carl Krauser at the point and Chris Taft inside. They can create an unbelievable dilemma for most clubs defensively. Chevon Troutman is a force on the boards, and Pitt plays tremendous defense.

Memphis is an athletic team, but early in the season the Tigers have had to search for their identity. They’ve had a difficult time playing five-on-five basketball. But they do an outstanding job in transition and on the offensive boards.

For coach John Calipari’s team to be successful, Sean Banks has to be a star, living up to his billing by playing to the level he’s capable of. Memphis has been a Dow Jones team — up and down, baby! Rodney Carney is happy to be back at the mecca of college basketball, Madison Square Garden. He was so impressive in the Coaches vs. Classic event.

So it’s the athleticism of Memphis against the defensive ability of Pittsburgh.

At least the phrase “diaper dandy” wasn’t used (yet).

Storylines you can expect regarding Pitt during the game (mostly culled from the game notes): The NYC connections for Pitt (Krauser, Taft, Ramon, McCarroll, Milligan, DeGroat and Benjamin); Pitt is 11-3 at MSG since 2002; 20 straight wins against non-con opponents (obviously excluding the NCAA Tournament); defense, defense, defense; John Calipari was an assistant at Pitt under Coach Paul Evans in the 80s.

I’m a bit rusty on game notes for basketball, so the first try may not be the best.

You know it won’t be easy to post today, when your daughter sits bolt upright the minute she hears the door close behind the wife. Kid’s been up from the get go. PBS is mixing pledge drives into sesame Street to disrupt any chance for a real break — the kid is properly bothered by this, especially the one guy with (I swear this is true) a frozen gelled mullet cajoling membership pledges.

Plenty of stories, though. You can order individual tickets or get a travel package.

I have to conclude that the sportswriters in Pittsburgh have a lot personally invested in having Coach Harris leave Pitt.

Pitt’s football turnaround this season has been remarkable, but it only sets up another strange chapter in the tenure of Walt Harris. Insiders still don’t believe the Big East Coach of the Year will be back. The late-season run and BCS bowl berth still hasn’t gotten him a vote of confidence from the university and by most accounts, it doesn’t matter because he doesn’t seem happy to stay anyway.

Had the Panthers finished 5-6, this would be normal. But now, it’s like a married couple that hasn’t been getting along, heading toward divorce, and suddenly they find out they are pregnant. What to do now, what to do?

Again, see Tommy Tuberville and Auburn. The divorce was even further along. Now? Winning tends to cure a lot of the problems. I have no doubt that all could be worked out with sufficient coin.

In fact, with all the extra time before the bowl, there will be plenty of time to speculate, listen to rumors and ruminate.

Despite the fact that Pitt is the Big East co-champion, the Panthers are going to a lucrative bowl and Harris was voted Big East coach of the year by his colleagues in the conference, Harris’ future with the team remains unclear.

He has been pushing for a contract extension and a raise since before the season but has still not been offered one. Earlier this season, Harris’ agent, Bob LaMonte, publicly called out the administration and said the school needs to either extend his contract and offer him a raise or let him go. So far, the school has not addressed the situation and, as a result, speculation that the two sides will soon part ways has reached a fever pitch.

But unlike before the season — when his job was in jeopardy — Harris is negotiating from a position of strength and he has suddenly become a hot candidate for other vacancies around the country.

He is considered the top candidate for the vacant job as Stanford’s head coach and, according to the San Jose Mercury News, is expected to meet with Stanford athletic director Ted Leland this week to discuss it. Leland was formerly the athletic director at Pacific and hired Harris to be the head coach in 1989.

Harris also will likely have opportunities to become an offensive coordinator in the NFL, should he choose, as he has a number of ties to current head coaches and is widely regarded as a brilliant offensive coach.

Harris, who has two years remaining on a contract that pays him about $500,000 per year, denied last week that he has been contacted by Stanford and the school has not yet contacted Pitt for permission to talk to him, which is standard for school’s seeking to interview coaches still under contract. Now that the Panthers’ regular season is over, however, the talks should heat up.
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Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko said Harris, who has been the subject of much criticism and has been under intense scrutiny this year, has proven his mettle and should take a bow for a job well done. He also said the administration should do whatever it takes to retain Harris.

“I’m happy for him, I’m proud of what he’s accomplished and how much he’s been a rock throughout this whole season,” Palko said. “He’s done a tremendous job and the administration would do a grave injustice in having him be anything less than our head football coach. They expect perfection, they want to have their cake and eat it to, but they should recognize he’s done a tremendous job.”

Regardless of what happens with Harris, the Fiesta Bowl berth is affirmation that he has successfully rebuilt the program into one of national prominence. That is a far cry from the ashes he inherited when he was hired after the 1996 season. The Panthers were coming off five consecutive losing seasons.

And that is something to take into account. Yes, there has been plenty of things going on that may have conflict with the administration. Yes, the fans (including me) have been impatient at times and ridden Harris. Yes, there are issues with recruiting and local relationships with WPIAL coaches. The fact is Pitt is going to a BCS Bowl under Coach Harris. He runs a clean program that is graduating players. This is everything we have wanted. We have to admit, that anyone looking in at the program would have to assume the people running Pitt are delusional and idiots.

I can’t help but suspect that the players are being, ahem, “coached up” a bit by Pitt’s information department when pushed on the deservedness of Pitt’s BCS bid:

Pitt, ranked No. 19 by The Associated Press and No. 20 by USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll, is the lowest-ranked team to play in the Fiesta Bowl under the BCS format. The Panthers, however, are already defending their presence.

“That’s the way it goes,” Pitt linebacker H.B. Blades said. “When Purdue went to the Rose Bowl, they weren’t even ranked. Nobody said anything about that.” Actually, two unranked teams played in the Rose Bowl under the BCS format: Stanford, which lost to Wisconsin, 17-9, in 1999; and Purdue, which lost to Washington, 34-24, in 2000.

I’ll leave that to Lee to defend that, as that was part of the special deal carved out for the Rose Bowl.

It doesn’t change things that Pitt is going to the Fiesta Bowl against Utah. Some see this as a match-up of underdogs.

The No. 5 Utes (11-0), the Mountain West Conference champions, became the first non-BCS affiliated school to earn an at-large berth by finishing in the top six in BCS standings and are aiming for a perfect finish.

“At Utah, we don’t just to go to bowl games; we go to win them,” said Utah coach Urban Meyer, who will leave for the University of Florida following the game. “There will be some distractions, but we’ll get this thing organized. The focus on this team is great. They want to go 12-0.”

Where Utah wants a perfect ending, Pitt is treating the Fiesta Bowl as a building block. The Panthers are vowing to use their fifth consecutive bowl berth — their third in Arizona, following two Insight Bowl appearances — as a stepping stone to greater things.

“We want to soak all this in,” Pitt sophomore linebacker H.B. Blades said. “Next year, we’re thinking about a national championship, not just the Big East.”

There is an inherent pressure for both teams to show that they are deserving of this opportunity, not that they are willing to succumb to such talk.

“I don’t think we need to add more pressure than there is on this game,” Pitt coach Walt Harris said. “This is our first experience in a BCS bowl. That experience will help us, because we plan on being back.”

But guess what. Utah fans are not happy.

It’s true that I spent Sunday afternoon walking around the University of Florida campus and am seriously considering becoming a permanent Urbanite, leaving everything behind to follow Urban Meyer’s football teams in the tradition of the Deadheads and other committed fans.

Yet you should know that on my way to Gainesville, I stopped Saturday in Tampa to check out the Pittsburgh Panthers, anticipating Utah’s Fiesta Bowl matchup and proving that Urban and I can devote some of our efforts to the Utes’ preparations this month, besides playing golf and assembling the Florida coaching staff.

Certainly, though, this is not the way anyone pictured the Utes’ historic entry into the Bowl Championship Series.

The BCS pairingswere released Sunday, leading me to fantasize about other matchups.

Games I would pay to watch: Utah-USC, Utah-Oklahoma, Utah-Auburn, Utah-Texas, Utah-Cal.

Game I would not pay to watch: Utah-Pittsburgh.

To be fair, this wasn’t the match-up I and I think a lot of Pitt fans wanted. Pitt-VT would have been my choice. Would have tanked in TV ratings, most likely, but you’d get a sellout and I think a fiercely competitive game.

The Salt Lake Tribune headline writer even busted out with a “Pitt” play on words. Fine, they’ve never faced Pitt, to them it’s original. Will be interesting to see how Pitt is fairing on ticket sales. Utah seems to be doing quite well:

Utah fans who want to make the trip to Tempe, Ariz., will have to get creative to land tickets if they haven’t already requested them. As of Sunday afternoon, Utah was allotted 19,000 tickets, but had already taken 26,000 orders, according to Dave Copier, Utah’s director of athletic ticket sales.

Copier said his office was still taking orders with the hopes that the Fiesta Bowl gives Utah more tickets, or ones Pittsburgh can’t sell.

The difference at this point, though, is that they have pretty much known where they were going for a week. It was still up in the air for Pitt with an outside shot of ending up at the Sugar Bowl.

Utah is installed as like a 15 point favorite. Everyone is expecting a wild offensive game, as the QBs seem to compare well:

Alex Smith versus Tyler Palko.

This year’s Heisman Trophy candidate versus next year’s Heisman Trophy candidate.

When Utah and Pittsburgh collide in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1, Smith and Palko could trigger the biggest offensive explosion of the BCS season.

Utah fans know all about Smith, the junior who has directed an offense that averaged 46 points per game.

But Palko?

“He’s a tough one,” Ute coach Urban Meyer said.

A sophomore, Palko has completed 56 percent of his passes and thrown for 23 touchdowns this season.

His numbers are Smith-like, for good reason.

He is Smith-like.

Well, now we know more about Alex Smith. Utah fans shouldn’t be that confident. You have the head coach trying to be in 2 different parts of the country at once, looking to the future and probably taking a few of his present coaches with him to Florida. The offensive coordinator is going to take the UNLV job. The defensive coordinator could be getting the BYU job. And who knows who will be in charge of Utah after January 1? In some ways, Pitt’s coaching situation seems more stable.

Utah fans are trying to learn more about Pitt and are getting crash courses so far.
Plenty more to come to be sure.

Finally, Pitt will play a real opponent. Not too many of these on Pitt’s pathetic non-con schedule. Have I mentioned how much I hate the non-con?

Part of it is purely selfish. I don’t live in the Pittsburgh media market. I have to rely on national games, and Pitt has scheduled itself any real national attention until the first week in December.

The other part is playing a pathetic non-con (only ND has a worse non-con in the Big East) , is that Pitt will get itself screwed come the NCAA Tourney in seeding. They were punished last year, and publicly called out by the committee, for all intents, to schedule a better non-con. Instead it is just as soft.

Okay, I’m done venting. Looks like the local media and Pitt players are eager for a challenge, as well:

“I feel it’s a disadvantage for them,” Pitt point guard Carl Krauser said. “They’ve already had their pie. We didn’t have any of that pie yet, and we’re real hungry. We want a slice of pie. We want the whole pie, as a matter of fact.”

Somewhere in that food metaphor Krauser is saying the Panthers crave a tough opponent.

Memphis, coached by Pittsburgh native John Calipari, provides that first litmus test of the season for the Panthers. Pitt and Memphis square off in the first game of the Jimmy V Classic at 7 p.m. tomorrow at Madison Square Garden in New York. Syracuse and Oklahoma State play in the second game. Both games will be televised by ESPN.

“We’re all hungry for a good game, a good team,” Pitt sophomore center Chris Taft said. “No disrespect to Duquesne or these other teams we’ve been playing. We want to play against all the real good teams out there, and Memphis is one of them. It’s going to be a real good game.”

Yes, the John Calipari is from the Pittsburgh area (Moon Township) connection will be played up prominently in the Pittsburgh papers. That also means that his questionable moments leading to the NCAA watching him a little closer than some won’t get mentioned by them.

While Memphis is no longer in the top-25, they are a good team and the first one Pitt faces. Of course, while the game is technically a “neutral” site, with Pitt’s NYC pipeline and the Big East Tournament played there, it is a familiar place for Pitt.

Memphis has some good inside players in Banks and Carney, plus a freshman point guard, Darius Finch, who prefers to shoot and play offense then concentrate on defense. From what I saw, he seemed to be showing his speed on the defense against Purdue last week, so it seems he is coming around. Should be interesting to see how he handles Pitt’s defense.

This will also be Pitt’s first foe that can bang a bit inside with them. I expect that will have them offbalance for at least part of the first half. Perhaps even some foul trouble for Taft or Troutman.

Just the press releases for Fiesta Bowl. This is the official site. Jennie Finch will be the Grand Marshal for the Fiesta Parade. No photos. Bummer. Pitt and Utah have never played each other. The “Fiesta Bowl Block Party” will be headlined by Smash Mouth. That may have okay… 5 years ago. What? Hootie and the Blowfish were booked? (That was an uncalled for cheap shot.)

Pitt ticket info here.

Pitt’s press release accepting the invitation. Here’s Utah’s.

More interestingly, the press release from Utah explaining how Coach Urban Meyer, while leaving for the Florida job will stay to coach the Fiesta Bowl. Good. That sort of thing can only help distract the Utes as far as I’m concerned.

Here’s Utah’s Coach and players’ comments about going to the Fiesta Bowl, Coach Meyer leaving, and playing Pitt. Basically, all the players admit that they no next to nothing about Pitt. That they haven’t seen them play yet, but they’ll be seeing plenty of film shortly.

Here’s comments from Coach Walt Harris. The best one:

“I’m proud of what our football team has accomplished. I really emphasis the word we; It’s not me, it’s about us, it’s about the team. It’s about all the people that support us loyalty, constantly, and continuously. It’s about football players, too. What our football players have accomplished this year, has made them a team. A lot of team wouldn’t have gotten down that they have gotten down under the circumstances and adversity that they have faced, and the turmoil they have created, if they didn’t have the right stuff. There are the ones that got it done and they deserve all the credit.”

We’ve given Harris plenty of criticisms in the past for the “Not my fault” stuff, so it is important to recognize when he is giving the credit to the others.

The AP wire story paints it as the Fiesta Bowl having no choice but to take Pitt, but is thrilled to have Utah. I’m not going to rail on this. This will be the theme, no matter what. We’ve covered this before.

I expect that some trolls will make their way here to try and complain and rip on Pitt for being in the BCS. Whatever. We all know the BCS sucks. It isn’t a playoff. The bowl system is about money for the conference “haves” of which the Big East is still one of.

I only caught snippets of the BCS specials on ABC and ESPN. Lee was planning to watch and comment, hopefully his observations will be posted soon.

For the next 12 days or so, I will also be doing some guest blogging (along with many others) over at the College Basketball Blog. Should be a lot of fun and an interesting experiment.

Well, we’re all waiting for the official announcement of where Pitt is going. It looks like the Fiesta Bowl against Utah, but I keep hoping that the Sugar will step in for a Pitt-VT match-up. The Hokies, to be sure would have mixed feelings about that game.

Another late day, so let’s get the highlights of the Pittsburgh dailies coverage of Pitt’s beating administered to USF and the fact that Pitt is BCS bound. It seemed to me that this was one of those games where everyone saw the same thing. The coverage and perspective bears similarity to my comments about the game.

The straight stories covering the game from the beat writers are here and here.

Some notebook stuff and comments regarding the game and records.

Gene Collier has a column about the game. I’m not sure he even knows how he feels about it. Apparently there was a very surreal feel to everything in Tampa, because Joe Starkey also was befuddled by the day.

The final column worth noting is Goose Goslin — definitely in the “Walt must go” camp — basically saying, “In Nordenberg, I trust.” In a creative twist of revisionism he writes like the previous coach search under Nordenberg — replacing Ben Howland as basketball coach — was a planned well thought out strategy. Instead of half-assed, focusing on only one target and missing. Then turning to Dixon out of desperation.

Meanwhile in Tampa…

This wasn’t a good thing. Former Pitt Panther, now a member of the Tampa Bay Bucs (drafted in the 6th round), Torrie Cox, was arrested for a DUI. This happened the night before the game, so he wasn’t out celebrating a Pitt win. Not too smart when you are 6th rounder, who’s played in only 6 games for a total of 9 plays. He does have one INT, though.

As for the game, well it’s new to them, so they break out the “Pitt-iful” play on words to headline the game.

USF has one player leaving the school for undisclosed reasons and another announced he will transfer muttering something about actually getting to play. USF’s top running back is openly talking about skipping his senior season and entering the draft if he would be picked in the first 3 rounds. Sounds like USF is well on its way to being a true Florida football school.

And one columnist notes that USF was 0-3 this year against the teams that will be part of the Big East next year, and that none of them were even close. USF still has progress to be made.

What can you say. Duquesne tried to stay close in the first half. But the second half Pitt just started running them off the court. Pitt outscored Duquesne 50-26 in the second half. The final score was 87-57. None of the Pitt starters played more than 29 minutes. The stories are here, here and here. I listened to most of the game via the Duquesne broadcast, and the announcers were just flailing about in the second half trying to find some positive spin to put on what was happening.

I guess it’s a shame this game doesn’t actually mean more. No sport is ever as good without a deep, long-standing, hated rival. Pitt really lacks that in basketball.

Still, no time to really think about this game. Pitt has its first real test on Tuesday against Memphis in NYC. Saw the second half of the Memphis-Purdue game on Friday night. Memphis plays a strong interior defense. Looked like a lot of man-to-man. Not sure how much time the Pittsburgh dailies will put into the game despite the local ties (John Calipari). The Steelers rule the roost of the sports sections on Monday, plus Pitt football has most of the rest of the attention.

I’m excited though. The game will be on ESPN so it will be the first game I get to see this year.

A great win for Pitt.

I say this, mostly sober. With full knowledge that USF was not a good team. That Pitt got plenty of help from the numerous penalties committed by the Bulls.

I’ve followed this team closely through the Walt Harris era. This was the kind of game Pitt wouldn’t necessarily lose, but it would be one where the outcome would remain in doubt to the very end. Where it would be 50-50 by the end whether Pitt came away with a win or a loss. Not today. Not with this team, not with the way Harris is coaching and this team is playing.

Pitt took control of this game early. And despite special teams that made me want to add bourbon to my coffee, and a defense that I would trust as much as a condom in the wallet of a high schooler; the game was over early in the second quarter.

Not sure what the snafus are right now with that stats online. ESPN’s are blank. Sportsline has huge gaps. Fox Sports look correct. Here’s play-by-play.

The game was an 11 am start, Eastern Standard. Still drinking coffee at that point. Must have been interesting for Pitt fans on the West Coast to essentially roll out of bed and catch kickoff.

Obviously the fans in Tampa are not early risers. The stands look empty. Scattered pockets, but it doesn’t even look close to half-filled. The “official” attendance ends up being declared at 23,417.

Pitt starts with the ball. Murphy in the backfield and they say that Kirkley is out with a rib injury suffered in the WVU game. News to me. I don’t recall reading any mention of that during the week. Pitt methodically marches down the field to score a touchdown on a sweet 18 yard fade pass to Greg Lee. Murphy ran the ball for 7 yards and on a short pass gained 26 more. Lee’s first catch for 14 yards put him on top of the Big East receiver rankings for total receiving yards. How did the guy who leads the BE in receiving yards, and receiving yards/game only make 2nd team BE?

The extra point gets blocked so Pitt is only up 6-0.

USF gets their chance and immediately self-destructs. Two consecutive penalties — a false start and a holding have them back inside their own 10. Then a pass is attempted and hits the receiver right on his hands. Unfortunately for USF, Josh Lay hits the receiver and the ball pops high into the air right to Malcolm Postell who takes it in for a TD. Extra point was good. 13-0 Pitt.

[As ESPN comes out of commercials, we are treated to the sight of USF’s Cheerleading or Dance Team. I noted that their wonderfully skimpy outfits said “Sun Dolls,” though I thought maybe they read “Sun Bulls.” Now in the interest of accuracy, I can confirm it was the dance team, and it did indeed say “Sun Dolls.” You have to love a squad that is coached by someone who uses “princesslisa” as her e-mail name. No, she’s not high maintenance. In this respect, USF will be a welcome addition to the Big East. But I digress.]

USF’s next possession is scary. They seem to be moving at will on Pitt. Johnny Peyton has a couple of nice catches for first downs. Then they turn the ball over again. On a pass, the receiver makes the catch and despite having the first down, tries to stretch for a couple more yards. As he does, the ball is stripped and Pitt recovers the fumble.

Pitt takes over at its own 14, and moves down the field. Pitt is forced to settle for a field goal just at the start of the 2nd quarter. Still, it is 16-0 Pitt. 10 points off of turnovers, and nearly 3 quarters to go.

USF does nothing with the ball, and on the punt commits a dumb personal foul. This USF team is just not good.

Pitt has great field position. Tight End, Eric Gill, makes a 46 yard gain off about a 15 yard pass. He just had tacklers bounce off of him. Pitt stalls inside the 15, and then has the field goal attempt blocked. A blocked extra point and FG. That isn’t a positive trend.

USF continues to have everything go wrong. On 2nd and 6 from their 24, the QB has his pass batted up in the air at the line of scrimmage. Postell again comes down with it. He takes it 17 yards to the 7. Pitt scores on another TD pass to Lee. This time a nice slant inside. USF can take solace in blocking another extra point. What the hell is going on with the special teams? Pitt is up 22-0 with almost 10 minutes left in the half.

USF finally puts a drive together. Funny thing. They didn’t commit any penalties and they march 78 yards down the field for a TD capped off by a halfback pass to the QB that Pitt bit so hard on. Extra point was good 22-7 Pitt, with nearly 5 minutes left in the half.

Pitt flagged for holding on the kickoff, so they start at their own 15. Good, god, but the stadium is quiet. Pathetic attempts to make noise are not working.

Pitt drives. Well really does nothing except for 4 big plays. Lee makes a nice over the shoulder reception for 31 yards and Marcus Furman gets a screen/dump off pass that he takes for 24 yards. Then another deep ball to Lee caught easily for 32 more yards to set up 1st and goal at the 7. Palko throws a simple lob/fade to Lee for the third TD pass (all to Lee). Pitt manages to block correctly and the extra point is good. 29-7 with 1:24 left until halftime.

The kickoff goes out of bounds for the second time. What is going on with the special teams/kicking? Getting a bit worrisome for the bowl game.

USF goes 3 and out. Pitt is content to let the half go.

• Pitt never punted in the 1st half.
• Greg Lee had 6 receptions for 106 yards and 3 TDs. (Once more, how was he only second team All-Big East?)
• Palko was 13-18, 241 yards, 3 TDs
• Tim Murphy had 11 carries for 55 yards, plus 26 yards receiving
• Postell had 2 INT, 1 TD

Pitt does its best to help USF to start the second half. The kickoff drew a flag because Pitt somehow managed a delay of game penalty.

USF looks good in the opening drive. With a mix of runs to the outside and short passes, they get to the Pitt 20. Then they proceed to run up the middle twice for only 3 and 0 yards. 4th and 2 and they go for it. Rather than option run or just short pass for the first down, they try for a TD. Horribly inaccurate pass, and Pitt takes over on downs.

USF lost the game there. They were taking it to Pitt. Making a statement that they weren’t going to roll over. It looked like they made an adjustment to take advantage of Pitt’s weaknesses. Then they got greedy and stupid. It didn’t matter that Pitt went 3 and out on the ensuing possession and USF scored a TD to make it 29-14, the game was over for USF when they blew the opening possession.

Pitt immediately countered with a 92 yard drive in just 3 minutes. DelSardo made a nice catch for 20 yards and then Lee caught a 39 yarder to set up 1st and goal. Pitt scored on a screen pass to Furman. It was Furman’s first TD of the year. Extra point was good. 36-14 Pitt. On the drive Palko broke 300 yards passing, and Lee brought his reception totals to 8 for 153 yards.

Lee was done after that drive. He ended the regular season with 1,204 total receiving yards (leading the BE, 6th best in the country and 3rd best in a season at Pitt); 61 receptions (2nd in the BE, 6th best in Pitt history); 9 TD catches (2nd in the BE); his BE leading avg. receiving yards/game increased to 109.45 (6th in the country); and it was his 6th 100+ yard receiving game. How was Lee not 1st team All-Big East?Feel free to explain it to me.

The biggest concern out of this game was the continued poor play of special teams as 2 kickoffs went out of bounds; and several were short allowing good field position.

USF did nothing again, and forced to punt. The ball went into the endzone for a touchback. Only 1 second left in the third quarter when Pitt starts from their own 20. This was a doozy. Palko drops back and throws the ball about 20 yards downfield to TE Eric Gill who was wide open. The cornerback (cornerback?) who was covering him let him slip (slip? Have you seen the size of Gill?) behind him and tried desperately to make a play on the ball. Missed and Gill rumbled all the way for a TD. An 80 yard TD to end the quarter. With the extra point it was 43-14. Palko now had 5 TD passes and 398 yards.

USF quickly gave the ball up. Pitt took over, and on the first play, Palko threw a pass to DelSardo good for 13 more yards. At that point Palko was also lifted with 14 minutes left. Joe Flacco came in.

Palko ended the day with 411 yards on 19-28 passing, 5 TDs and 0 INT. The 411 yards was 5th most for a Pitt QB in a game. That gave him 2,816 yards for the season. That puts him 6th on the Pitt single season passing records. He had 23 TDs for the season (leading the Big East).

The entire Pitt bench was emptied in the 4th quarter. I sighted Brandon Mason and Darren McCray playing RB, Joe Stephens and Darrelle Strong at WR. Steve Buches got some time at TE. It was a great thing to see Harris get everyone into the game.

Some thing that makes me nervous is that Murphy had one carry at the start of the 3rd quarter (-3 yards) but never went back into the game. Was he hurt? Why was he kept out the rest of the 3rd quarter?

Fine, fine win. Next stop Tempe.

A snippet from the postgame interview with Coach Walt Harris (shown on ESPNews). It was the first time I could see him visibly look a little tired. It was a question regarding the season and the questions about him locally. He seemed to let his guard down at that moment and show a man who has taken a lot of abuse (yes, from this blog as well), but has finished the year on top.

I’ll be back later with more of a write-up on the game. Right now, I owe the wife an extended break for keeping the kid busy while I watched the game.

I’ll keep this short. Long week, and I just happily overslept. Not a lot more to say that hasn’t been said all week long. So I’ll just do it in quick hits:

The loss to USF ranks as one of Pitt’s most humiliating. For the seniors this is their only chance to address that (today’s best read).

The fifteen Floridians on Pitt’s roster have been waiting for this game.

A little more on USF Johnny Peyton being talked into reneging on his verbal to Pitt because of his mother.

In preparing for the game against USF, the Pitt defense will be focused on stopping running back Andre Hall. Hall has 1,269 rushing yards this season and 2, 200 yard games. I’m just glad his last name isn’t Jones.

Let’s Go Pitt!!!

The issue of rivalry between Pitt and Duquesne, or the lack thereof from the Pitt perspective, is the theme today. Take this story for the best summation.

“It’s just another game for us,” said senior forward Chevon Troutman, who has won all three of the City Games he has played in.

Pitt’s rivals are in the Big East, with Connecticut, Syracuse and Notre Dame. The Dukes? Well, there’s familiarity because players hang out and play pickup games in the offseason, but that’s about it. There’s no dislike, no bad blood.

“We don’t view them as a rival at all,” Troutman said.

Don’t blame Troutman for being honest. Rivalries are born out of competitive series and close games. The City Game has hardly been competitive during his lifetime.

It’s not to say that Duquesne doesn’t take it seriously.

Whatever the case, the point is that the Dukes view this game as a rivalry much more than the Panthers. For many of the local players, it’s a chance to stick it to the bigger and more successful Division I school in town for not recruiting them. For others, it’s a chance to pull a momentous upset.

“They’re going to be really pumped up to play us,” Troutman said. “We’re just going to have to sit in our stances and do our basic stuff we’ve been doing. This is going to be a big game for them.”

For them. Not for Pitt. For the Panthers, this game ranks only slightly higher than the other local annual games against Robert Morris and St. Francis, Pa.

That about says it all. The game is at 4pm this afternoon. It looks like you might be able to listen for free to the game (from a Duquesne perspective) here.

Maybe it’s me. Maybe I didn’t care that much about the game in school because I wasn’t from the ‘Burgh so playing a local foe that wasn’t really in the same competitive sphere didn’t really matter. It’s not like the two schools fight for the same recruits. Maybe I was just drunk. I just don’t recall much reference to the annual Pitt-Duquesne match up as “The City Game.”

I mean let’s be honest. This is not exactly up there with the Philly schools going at each other every year. It can’t compare with the annual Cinci-Xavier game, that comes complete with full corporate sponsorship.

Well, the game notes are out (PDF). I’d say the most shocking thing is not that Pitt has a 41-31 series lead. It’s that Pitt has won 22 of the last 25 games. That means in 1979, Duquesne actually held a 9 game lead in the series history. It also means Pitt only evened the series up at the earliest in 1988.

The game will be Fox Sports Net at 4pm. It doesn’t appear to be on the Fox Sports Atlantic channel, so I will have to wait until Tuesday when I can finally see the 2004-05 Panthers play.

ESPN.com pro-basketball “insider” (Read as subscription only) breaks down the top players for the NBA draft. Chris Taft was the #1B college player behind Wake Forest’s Chris Paul:

The skinny: Taft, over the summer, moved into a dead heat with Paul as a favorite for the No. 1. He definitely fits the more traditional bill.

Taft has the rare combination of size, athleticism, strength and power that NBA scouts covet in a good power forward. And unlike many players who possess those abilities, Taft prefers to score with his back to the basket. His footwork is sound and he’s patient in the paint always working for a good shot.

Taft, too, has enjoyed his share of hype this summer. And he, too, has struggled a bit to live up to it. Despite his superior strength and athleticism, he’s been just an average rebounder and shot blocker this season.

However, he’s also the only American big man with the talent to justify a No. 1 selection. In other words, he could end up on top by default, the way so many big men before him have.

From what I understand, part of the reason Taft’s numbers are down, is that he isn’t playing much more than 20 minutes against the present competition, he had an infection in his left elbow, and he just hasn’t been trying too hard against the teams so far because he hasn’t needed to.

There appears to be only one at the moment. Walt Harris and Stanford. Even there, it is really unknown.

Despite published reports, USC offensive coordinator Norm Chow said Thursday that he has not heard from anyone interested in hiring him as a head coach and does not have an interview lined up for Sunday with Stanford.

The Cardinal program has already interviewed Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris, according to published reports.

Of course there are no published reports saying any such thing. The most that has been said is something like this:

Stanford made arrangements Wednesday to interview its top choice, Pittsburgh coach Walt Harris, for its vacant coaching position.

Harris might be interviewed after the Cardinal interview Norm Chow either Sunday or Monday. Former New York Giants coach Jim Fassel also is a candidate, along with former Stanford wide receiver James Lofton, currently an assistant with the San Diego Chargers.

It would be a physical/time-space continum impossibility for Stanford to have already interviewed Harris. They only fired their head coach on Monday or Tuesday. Harris is in the middle of preparations for the game tomorrow. I’m willing to ascribe a sloppy reading of stories to the writer of the story.

The Stanford job is not exactly a high paying job. The former Stanford coach, Buddy Teevens, was only getting about $400,000/year. Coach Harris is making around $600,000 and is definitely looking for a bigger bump. No question Stanford can pay the money for a coach. The question becomes, will they right away? Are they willing to?

An interesting aside comment in a piece mainly about the stupidity of Indiana University, “Pitt coach Walt Harris is going to be somebody’s fallback hire when they don’t get their top choice.” I believe that could be the most accurate statement regarding Harris and other jobs. I just have my doubts for some reason about the Stanford job and Harris. Harris may be a lot of schools second or third choice if they can’t get their pick.

P-G beat reporter Paul Zeise returns with his Q&A and weighs in about the Harris situation with Pitt.

Q: How dumb would it look if Pitt fired Walt Harris coming off a BCS berth and him winning the coach of the year award?

ZEISE: There is always more to any of these situations than just wins and losses. If it were just about wins and losses, it would look really dumb. But sometimes relationships grow sour and beyond repair. Sometimes there are more factors than what is seen. People just need to find a comfort level with the people they work with and it isn’t always possible. It is no different than in the business world – you can be good at your job and lose it, or be asked to move on for whatever reason. Some of the most successful people I know have been fired several times because they wouldn’t toe the company line or kiss up to the right people. I’m not saying that is the case in this situation, but there is more here than meets the eye. Like I’ve said all along, I think Walt Harris should be offered what he wants – an extension, a raise and even a raise for his assistant coaches. He has earned that. But I also know a case could be made that maybe it is time for both parties to move forward. I’m not going to make it because it is not my call.

If Pitt is prepared to let Harris go with only a token/PR attempt to keep him, they better be able to move quickly, better be sure of their guy, better be sure he will accept, and — most importantly — better be right.