A good piece on the Oakland Zoo’s history and a little more info on the St. John’s game where the official tossed one of the Zoo.

At that moment several hundred Pitt students, all identically clad and sitting courtside, let the officiating crew know they were displeased at an earlier technical foul called against point guard Carl Krauser.

One of the officials then summoned security, and pointed at a fan in the middle of the crowd. Moments later, Matt Cohen was escorted from the Petersen Events Center.

Talk about taking one for the team – make that two teams.

Following Cohen’s dismissal, Pitt ended the game with a 31-21 run on its way to a 55-44 win over St. John’s, all the while being cheered, applauded and celebrated by Cohen’s creation, the Oakland Zoo.

“Evidently he had a short leash,” Cohen said of the official that requested his removal. “He came over and egged us on. He walked right in front of us and stared. I said to him ‘Why don’t you go back to officiating NAIA games? You’re only here because we’re playing the bottom feeders in our conference.’ But I like to think I might have inspired the team a little.”

Guess that may have hit a little too close to home.

Coach Wannstedt better not have the program take a step backwards this season. Fans at the game may be a little more cranky.

The University of Pittsburgh announced new donor-based seating policies for football and men’s basketball season tickets yesterday as part of an aggressive fund raising campaign called “Quest for Excellence.”

The goal of the campaign is to raise $45 million for the Pitt athletic department by June 2007. The money will be used to bolster the school’s scholarship fund and endowed scholarships and for capital improvements.

While the campaign has a flashy name, the bottom line is the price for football and basketball season tickets is going up. And the only way to get the best football tickets, which are increasing by as much as 70 percent, is to donate money to the Panther Club — the fund raising arm for Pitt’s athletic department.

The “good news,” the actual ticket price won’t be increasing. Instead, either the amount of the annual mandatory “donation” to the Panther Club (formerly known as Team Pittsburgh) will be rising significantly or be added for the privilege of paying for a season ticket.

Naturally, Pitt has a study to back-up the need for the increases. They released the summarized facts showing how far behind Pitt is to other schools.

To be honest, I’m not terribly surprised. Trees Hall, the major rec facility was decrepit and not well kept when I was there in the late ’80s to early ’90s. I remember they had to close my Pistol and Rifle class early that semester — never to be reopened as far as I’m aware (how many people even knew there was a firing range in the bowels?) — when after years of firing, but no clearing out all of the lead from the sand led to dangerous ricohets if an errant shot went too low. Sad truth, Pitt’s Athletic Department is still digging out from over 15 years of neglect. The mid- to late-90s saw the revamping of the primary money programs — football and basketball — and now they are using those to target the rest.

The other factor, is many — including most of the guys who post here — were agitating for Pitt to be willing to step up and spend the money for a head football coach and his staff. Well, we got our wish and this is part of the reward. (Yes, I’m fully aware they probably would have pulled this even if they hired Rhoads, but can you imagine how many season ticket holders would have dropped?)

Here’s the press release from Pitt on the plans, and the area explaining the whole “Quest for Excellence” plan.

To some degree, I guess I have to agree with Starkey’s view. Believe me, I’m not happy about seeing my ticket prices increase. The Trib. has PDF diagrams of the Pete and Heinz Field showing where the donations will be added or increased. I guess the closest thing to a bright side, personally is that the PSB crew’s seats (section 132) are only looking at having a $50 mandatory donation per ticket tacked on (still, about a 35% increase per ticket).

I’m sure there will be plenty more about this.

Ripped from the posts and comments of the last week or so, a piece on Carl Krauser and the possibility that he might turn pro.

The 6-foot-2 Krauser, who is Pitt’s leading scorer at 15.9 points per game, will be faced with some tough decisions regarding his NBA future after the season. He has the option of playing one more year at Pitt or testing the waters of the NBA.

He said he hasn’t made a choice at this point, though he acknowledged that he is on pace to graduate and would be eligible for his senior year. As a partial qualifier, Krauser was required to sit out his freshman year. He is also required to graduate in four years to be eligible for a fifth.

Krauser admits freely that he wants to play pro-basketball. Not a surprise. There is also the issue of his age. He will be 25 next season. Still, he’s a mostly unknown quantity to the NBA.

According to one NBA scout, who did not want to be identified, Krauser should compete in pre-draft camps this summer and, if nothing else, get more name recognition, just like Nate Robinson of the University of Washington did last year. Robinson returned to school, but is known throughout the NBA and is listed as a 32nd overall pick by NBAdraft.net.

Krauser might also consider working out with some NBA teams this summer. He is permitted to do so, but must reimburse those teams for all expenses incurred if he chooses to come back to Pitt. Senior guard Chris Thomas of Notre Dame did that a year ago.

Right now, I just don’t see how he goes pro after this season. The article misses the most obvious factor mitigating against him going. This year’s draft will be absolutely packed with point guards. Krauser would have no shot of being drafted with the sheer numbers.

Gene Collier took his time and got out a piece on the St. John’s-Pitt game.

Pitt and St. John’s staged this “event,” a term also used in nuclear power plant accidents by the way, and nobody who found themselves an eyewitness will soon forget it, no matter how often it got described in the immediate aftermath as forgettable.

Greg Gattuso, just added to Dave Wannstedt’s Pitt football staff after his dazzling success at Duquesne, sat behind the baseline and somehow refrained from rubbing his eyes. Surely, he thought he had dragged this across town from the A.J. Palumbo Center For Costly Turnovers.
…
In a matchup of storied programs from a storied conference, the basic story went something like this: St. John’s missed nine of its first 10 shots, but by halftime, settled down to miss only 29 of its first 35.

“I thought we did some good things at the end of the first half,” said St. John’s coach Norm Roberts.

Honest to God.

I’m guessing he meant that of the 14 St. John’s players in uniform, every single one went to the correct locker room for the intermission.

And on a night when St. John’s would end up shooting 28 percent from the floor, Pitt still managed to commit 16 personal fouls. What, do you imagine, is the purpose of fouling a St. John’s shooter? It’s only going to increase his percentage.

Amusing enough.

That is today’s main topic. I noted the lack of production from the bench after each game. The bench has gone a combined 3-15 shooting and 0-5 on free throws in the past two games. The bench players, Gray, Ramon and Benjamin have all been big factors recently. Add in Kendall’s game that earned him starter minutes, and you realize how important the bench is to Pitt’s chances in every game.

Ronald Ramon’s recent injury has been a major factor in the reduced production from the bench.

He is the team’s fourth-leading scorer (7.5 points per game) and one of its best 3-point shooters in conference play (17 for 42). He is fourth in minutes played (26.0), fourth in field goals (44), fourth in field-goal attempts (110) and second in 3-point field goals (34).

Ramon came off the bench to score 21 points to lead Pitt past Rutgers. He has led the reserves in scoring in five of nine Big East games.

Compounding the offensive problems the past two games has been the untimely sag in production from the other bench players. Backup center Aaron Gray (4.6 ppg, 2.9 rpg) has not scored in the past two games. Reserve guard Keith Benjamin (2.3 ppg, 2.1 rpg), who had a breakout game with 10 points against Syracuse, has scored seven points in the past three games, none against St. John’s.

Senior forward Mark McCarroll (2.1 ppg, 1.9 rpg) is the biggest enigma of the season. He was a super sub last season, once scoring 26 points off the bench, but he has scored six points in the past six games. And John DeGroat, the junior-college transfer who was expected to be a big contributor, has scored two points in nine Big East games.

Let’s be somewhat fair to DeGroat and McCarroll. You can’t expect them to score much at this point. They are barely in the games. The combined minutes for the two in the St. John’s game was 4. They get maybe one chance to take a shot. I mean, yes they earned the lack of playing time with their lack of production and defensive effort early in the season. Barring any injuries it doesn’t seem likely they will get a chance to change that.

Publicly, Coach Dixon and the other players aren’t concerned. They probably aren’t regarding the big picture. This was just a couple games. It’s just, with the next 3 games, Pitt will need everyone producing and playing well.