Well, I was all set to start ripping on the local papers for not doing much in the way of coverage of Pitt basketball. Figured this was the result of the newspapers being lazy about a team that isn’t a pre-season top-25 like last year. Then I made the mistake of checking the PSB archives to compare things to this time of year. Well, so much for that plan.

The difference, I would say, is that I am that much more aware of all of the other blogs and coverages of teams than I was last year or even the year before. So, I notice a crapload of UConn, Syracuse, Louisville even some Rutgers b-ball coverage, and don’t even get me started on what is coming from outside the BE and the all-b-ball blogs. Then there has been nothing from the Pittsburgh dailies other than BE media day and a couple stories on the exhibition game.

Anyways, a pretty good puff piece on Carl Krauser and coming back for his final season at Pitt.

Krauser, last season’s starting point guard and de facto team captain, believed he might be playing rather than practicing in early November. Just a few months earlier, he declared for the NBA Draft, though he did not hire an agent. He attended the pre-draft camps. He rode the yellow school buses from the hotel to games. He ate fast food. He packed the equipment. He trained in front of scouts and general managers.

Then, he made the final decision. He was withdrawing his name from the draft and returning to Pitt, where last year he was the team’s leading scorer at 16.0 points per game.

“Three reasons,” Krauser said. “I wanted to get my degree, I wanted to be with my son (who turned 1 in August) and I wanted to play at Pitt again.”
…
This year’s team needs Krauser. He’ll be a calming influence on a young nucleus still unfamiliar with Dixon’s physical play, yet he’s able to match them in exuberance and creativity.

“I’ll be a teacher,” Krauser said. “I’ll show them how to do things.”

Had Krauser not returned, the Panthers would have been without their top three leading scorers and 44.3 of their 73.3 points per game. Taft was NBA-bound, and bruising inside star Chevon Troutman graduated.

Had Krauser not returned, he wouldn’t get one more year to learn basketball, one more year to get his degree in legal studies, one more year to see his son virtually whenever he wants.

Now, I freely to admit having questions about how much he really wanted to come back to Pitt and get his degree. I have no doubts, though, that he wanted to be able to see his son on something approaching a regular basis. That has appeared to have been the one big thing. While I hope he does get to and stay in the NBA after this season, most of the reports on Krauser and what he is probably keenly aware of — he will likely have to go overseas to earn a living playing b-ball.

He made the decision to stay relatively near his son for another year. I’m not going to argue with that.

Frank Burlison of Scout.com/Fox Sports ranks the BE this season. He puts Pitt at #7

Frank’s spin: Coach Jamie Dixon lost the bulk of his post attack (Chevon Troutman and Chris Taft) but has an even stronger perimeter than he anticipated because guard Carl Krauser removed his name from the NBA Draft pool when it became apparent to all that he wasn’t going to be drafted as a junior. Junior forward Levon Kendall dropped 40 points on Team USA while playing for Canada in the 21-under World Championships in Argentina in the summer. Watch how productive forward Sam Young is for Dixon; he’s got a solid opportunity to be the Big East Freshman of the Year.

Postseason possibilities: The return of Krauser, the improvement of Kendall and the addition of Young helps the Panthers get their fifth consecutive NCAA tourney bid.

Pitt will likely be sweating the bubble this season.

Well, I was all set to start ripping on the local papers for not doing much in the way of coverage of Pitt basketball. Figured this was the result of the newspapers being lazy about a team that isn’t a pre-season top-25 like last year. Then I made the mistake of checking the PSB archives to compare things to this time of year. Well, so much for that plan.

The difference, I would say, is that I am that much more aware of all of the other blogs and coverages of teams than I was last year or even the year before. So, I notice a crapload of UConn, Syracuse, Louisville even some Rutgers b-ball coverage, and don’t even get me started on what is coming from outside the BE and the all-b-ball blogs. Then there has been nothing from the Pittsburgh dailies other than BE media day and a couple stories on the exhibition game.

Anyways, a pretty good puff piece on Carl Krauser and coming back for his final season at Pitt.

Krauser, last season’s starting point guard and de facto team captain, believed he might be playing rather than practicing in early November. Just a few months earlier, he declared for the NBA Draft, though he did not hire an agent. He attended the pre-draft camps. He rode the yellow school buses from the hotel to games. He ate fast food. He packed the equipment. He trained in front of scouts and general managers.

Then, he made the final decision. He was withdrawing his name from the draft and returning to Pitt, where last year he was the team’s leading scorer at 16.0 points per game.

“Three reasons,” Krauser said. “I wanted to get my degree, I wanted to be with my son (who turned 1 in August) and I wanted to play at Pitt again.”
…
This year’s team needs Krauser. He’ll be a calming influence on a young nucleus still unfamiliar with Dixon’s physical play, yet he’s able to match them in exuberance and creativity.

“I’ll be a teacher,” Krauser said. “I’ll show them how to do things.”

Had Krauser not returned, the Panthers would have been without their top three leading scorers and 44.3 of their 73.3 points per game. Taft was NBA-bound, and bruising inside star Chevon Troutman graduated.

Had Krauser not returned, he wouldn’t get one more year to learn basketball, one more year to get his degree in legal studies, one more year to see his son virtually whenever he wants.

Now, I freely to admit having questions about how much he really wanted to come back to Pitt and get his degree. I have no doubts, though, that he wanted to be able to see his son on something approaching a regular basis. That has appeared to have been the one big thing. While I hope he does get to and stay in the NBA after this season, most of the reports on Krauser and what he is probably keenly aware of — he will likely have to go overseas to earn a living playing b-ball.

He made the decision to stay relatively near his son for another year. I’m not going to argue with that.

Frank Burlison of Scout.com/Fox Sports ranks the BE this season. He puts Pitt at #7

Frank’s spin: Coach Jamie Dixon lost the bulk of his post attack (Chevon Troutman and Chris Taft) but has an even stronger perimeter than he anticipated because guard Carl Krauser removed his name from the NBA Draft pool when it became apparent to all that he wasn’t going to be drafted as a junior. Junior forward Levon Kendall dropped 40 points on Team USA while playing for Canada in the 21-under World Championships in Argentina in the summer. Watch how productive forward Sam Young is for Dixon; he’s got a solid opportunity to be the Big East Freshman of the Year.

Postseason possibilities: The return of Krauser, the improvement of Kendall and the addition of Young helps the Panthers get their fifth consecutive NCAA tourney bid.

Pitt will likely be sweating the bubble this season.

Well I survived the week despite putting Rutgers in the top-25. They sure did their part to validate that pick. Boston College in its first year in the ACC showed them what they have showed everyone for years in the Big East — the slow fade away. Expect them to win whatever minor bowl they end up in, though.

The full blogpoll results are here, along with individual votes. My votes are as follows. Sorry about the limited comments and not posting my ballot until now, but time has been minimal this week.

1. Southern California — Romp
2. Texas — Romp
3. Miami (Florida) — Impressive
4. Alabama — Shakier every week
5. Notre Dame — Probably a little too high
6. Virginia Tech — Just as I came to fully believe they weren’t going to collapse
7. Louisiana State —
8. Ohio State —
9. Penn State —
10. West Virginia — Backyard Brawl is now looking like their second most important game of the season
11. Georgia — Hanging on until Shockley returns
12. Florida — Vandy? Had to get help from the refs to beat Vandy?
13. Auburn — Beat somebody, please
14. Texas Tech — Eh, maybe
15. Wisconsin — Not as good as it seemed
16. Florida State —
17. UCLA — Epic collapse
18. TCU —
19. Michigan —
20. Oregon —
21. Fresno State —
22. Colorado — 3rd best team in the Big 12
23. Louisville — Try to win on the road, occasionally
24. Northwestern — Wheeee
25. Georgia Tech —

In: Louisville and Northwestern
Out: Boston College and Rutgers
Standing By: Um…
Games Seen whole or in part: UConn-WVU, Pitt-L-ville, Miami-VT, Alabama-MSU, Tenn-ND, Wisc-PSU, Vandy-Fla.

The boys at Every Day Should Be Saturday, have a tremendous thread going on what music should be used as a team takes the field.

Now since I am admittedly so far out of the loop these days with music, I’ll turn it over to you to help come up with one for Pitt.

A very interesting story about former Pitt and Colt Fullback Randy McMillan (hat tip to Stratton).

He didn’t quite have the grades initially to get into a major college, but he dominated at Harford Community College for two years, and University of Pittsburgh coach Jackie Sherrill practically begged him to become a Panther. Oklahoma, Nebraska and Penn State wanted him, too, but when Sherrill introduced him to Dorsett, it was an easy decision.

“Tony Dorsett is the only reason I went to Pitt,” McMillan says. “He was my idol.”

McMillan didn’t even get the ball much in college, especially after a brash, young quarterback named Dan Marino showed up on campus, but he was such a good athlete, by the time he was a senior, NFL teams were intrigued by his potential. He was 6 feet 1, 220 pounds, and could run a 40-yard dash in 4.57 seconds. He could easily dunk a basketball, even though his hands were too small to palm one. Dolphins coach Don Shula told McMillan at the Senior Bowl that if he was available when it was Miami’s turn to draft in the first round, the club planned to grab him with the 13th pick. He showed up in New York for the 1981 draft, dreaming of sandy beaches, warm breezes and the beautiful women of South Beach.

“Baltimore had the 12th pick, and right before they went, John Madden says on TV, ‘I think they might be thinking about Randy McMillan here,'” McMillan says. “I wasn’t thinking about the Colts at all. They’d just drafted Curtis Dickey out of Texas A&M the year before. But they picked me. After they made their pick, Madden looked at me and said, ‘Well, are you happy?’ I said, ‘I’m ecstatic.’ But really, I wasn’t. I couldn’t tell the truth.”

He didn’t have a fantastic career, but he was doing okay until a car accident. He still made a life for himself after football, but another accident left him in a wheelchair. He fell into a depression, that old friends eventually pulled him out of. The unintentionally funniest line in the story, though:

“Gerry was really the sunshine in my life, to be honest,” McMillan says. “I hate to say that about another guy, but it’s true. Without him, I don’t know that I’d have any contact with anybody.”

Really, the whole story is very interesting, but that is just classic.

Meanwhile in high school the WPIAL AAA semifinal is tomorrow night and Pitt commits on each team will face-off.

Dickerson and Nix have met a few times at camps and also at Pitt games this season. Tomorrow, they will most certainly meet again, helmet to helmet.

Dickerson is a star receiver/running back/quarterback/defensive back at West Allegheny, while Nix is a standout running back/linebacker for Thomas Jefferson. Two slices of Pitt’s future will be on display on the artificial turf at Moon.

“I’m sure we both have something to prove to each other,” Nix said. “The fact that we’ll be on the same team next year brings a little more attention to this game. Hopefully, we’ll show people what Pitt is going to get.”

And hopefully, this sort of storyline/angle will become stock.

Then there was a Q&A with Dorin Dickerson.

Q: What is the most unique thing to happen since you committed to Pitt?

A: I took a bunch of sophomores to the Pitt-USF game. We were walking to get something to eat at halftime, and this whole section stood up and started clapping for me. The other guys were laughing at me. I was embarrassed. I was like, ‘Whoa! Uh, thank you.’ I’d go to the bathroom or get something to eat, and dads would bring their little kids up and ask me for an autograph. I’m not used to all that stuff.

A little disturbed by the bathroom approach is, but the rest is cool. You can also bet that his younger classmates took note of how he was treated for staying home.

Well the Connecticut papers are a little more focused on basketball getting started. Those vital exhibition games. The Pittsburgh papers are just the opposite. Completely ignoring basketball (presumably they might start to pay a little attention after Saturday with a week-and-a-half lay-off for Pitt before the Backyard Brawl).

The only story out of Storrs is that the Huskies are trying to stay loose.

After exiting the room just as his sophomore free safety, Marvin Taylor, was about to talk with the media, Edsall felt comfortable in throwing a little jab Taylor’s way.

“You going to talk about your receding hairline?” the coach said with a laugh.

“Don’t worry,” Taylor whispered to reporters. “I’ll get him later.”

It has been more than a month since their last victory and they are facing a difficult finishing stretch, but Edsall insists his Huskies (4-4) aren’t ready to throw in the towel.

UConn Coach Randy Edsall is a Central Pennsylvania native, so there’s an article about him and recruiting the area in the Harrisburg paper.

As far as Edsall is concerned, Connecticut needs to keep central Pennsylvania in its recruiting plans.

“As long as we can continue our recruiting success in central Pennsylvania, it can’t help but be good for our program,” Edsall said.

There are seven players on the roster from that area, but he gets a puff piece and a chance to sell the program in the paper. UConn has another seven from Western PA and a few others from the eastern part of the state.

The Pitt stories are both on WR Greg Lee. Lee was finally made available to the media and he stressed that he hasn’t lost confidence and no one has in him.

Those dropped passes by Pitt wide receiver Greg Lee were a big deal then, but as they say, “this is now.” How else would Lee be expected to view Saturday’s Heinz Field finale for the Panthers against Connecticut?

Speaking publicly Wednesday for the first time since suffering through a miserable performance in Pitt’s 42-20 loss at Louisville on Nov. 2, the junior from Tampa, Fla., who leads the Big East Conference in receiving yards, is determined to bounce back from a game that saw him catch seven passes but fail to hold on to four others.

Two of the drops occurred on a crucial Panthers drive early in the third quarter, when Pitt (4-5, 3-2 Big East) was still in range of Louisville, 29-20.

“I’m my toughest critic. No one can get on me as tough as I can. It’s over and done. There’s nothing I can do about it now. I’m just trying to move on,” Lee said.

Of course, Lee might be a little more sensitive than he is admitting.

Lee said one of the things that has helped him get through this tough time is the support from his teammates, coaches and, for the most part, fans. He said many of the students have been very supportive, too — with the exception of one group.

“It hasn’t been that tough because I don’t let things like that bother me that much,” he said. “Some classmates [have been critical], like we have a local school newspaper called the Pitt News that just ripped me up the other day. I mean, they tore me up, and they were talking all kinds of stuff about me. But it is what it is. I’m learning that when you are up they will support you and it is natural, but, when you are not winning, they’ll point the fingers at you.

“I don’t mind, I guess if you are going to point fingers, point them at me, that’s fine.”

That Pitt News story was hardly vicious (except for the comparison to Chris Taft). It essentially said the same thing everyone else has said and written. Lee has been inconsistent this season.