Nothing like playing to your strengths (Windows Media, about 2 MB).

If that doesn’t work, go straight here.

From the opening paragraph previewing Pitt in Street & Smith’s preview guide:

Jamie Dixon is the toughest interview by far in the Big East coaching fraternity. He never seems at ease, and he offers nothing in the way of news or insight.

Now they try to make it seem like a positive in the next paragraph by comparing that to the way Pitt has played defense — giving nothing away. A bit tortured, but I think we all know that Dixon has been one of the more boring, coachspeak personalities when talking to the media and fans.

Or as reader and Pitt News writer Keith puts it:

For every Bobby Knight, there are 100 coaches who always want to say the right thing in their press conferences. Instead of another press conference full of “We gave our best effort,” or “They just outplayed us,”…

Instead, Keith considers if Dixon interviewed a media person about Pitt and Dixon.

JD: So we aren’t ranked in the top 25, no big deal, but why is everybody sleeping on Pitt this year?

Me: Well, you’re unproven as a head coach. Last year’s team was horribly inconsistent and there is no one to blame but, uh, you. It’s time for you to prove your worth as a head coach.

JD:We did make the NCAA Tournament last year, and losing in the first round isn’t that bad.

Me: You’re right, it isn’t. A lot of good teams lose in the first round, but like all the losses last season, it was the way you lost and the way it was handled that was disturbing. Pitt’s defense, which was their trademark in years past, failed at key times. Chris Taft was allowed to loaf, free throw shooting stunk. You lost to Bucknell! To the public, you never seemed to care.
…
JD: And there is nothing wrong with this year’s team. Sure we might be young, but that’s not going to be an excuse.

Me: You’re already considering your excuses? Look at Syracuse’s team, they are a lot like Pitt — a young team with a veteran point guard — and they were preseason ranked in the top 25. The difference? Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim. The Orange beat Texas Tech, 81-46, looking better versus a Sweet 16 team from last season than Pitt did against Saint Peter’s, who lost its first game of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament.

JD: So I’m not Jim Boeheim, but I do have the best winning percentage among Big East coaches.

Me: I am not saying you are a bad coach; you may end up a great coach. I’m just not sold yet.

For the record, Keith was nice enough to e-mail me in advance, asking if I minded him lifting the Syracuse/Pitt/Boeheim/Dixon comparison I tossed out last week.

Dixon’s job is in no immediate danger. But fan support and confidence is. A lot of people are already negative to him, and a lot more are on the fence. Once that is lost, short of at least coming close to winning it all (a la Tommy Tuberville and Auburn football last year) that doesn’t come back and will eventually get the coach fired.

I’ve long maintained that Dixon’s discomfort and/or unwillingness to be more engaging in large settings would become a major issue for him in terms of job security and fan support.

From the opening paragraph previewing Pitt in Street & Smith’s preview guide:

Jamie Dixon is the toughest interview by far in the Big East coaching fraternity. He never seems at ease, and he offers nothing in the way of news or insight.

Now they try to make it seem like a positive in the next paragraph by comparing that to the way Pitt has played defense — giving nothing away. A bit tortured, but I think we all know that Dixon has been one of the more boring, coachspeak personalities when talking to the media and fans.

Or as reader and Pitt News writer Keith puts it:

For every Bobby Knight, there are 100 coaches who always want to say the right thing in their press conferences. Instead of another press conference full of “We gave our best effort,” or “They just outplayed us,”…

Instead, Keith considers if Dixon interviewed a media person about Pitt and Dixon.

JD: So we aren’t ranked in the top 25, no big deal, but why is everybody sleeping on Pitt this year?

Me: Well, you’re unproven as a head coach. Last year’s team was horribly inconsistent and there is no one to blame but, uh, you. It’s time for you to prove your worth as a head coach.

JD:We did make the NCAA Tournament last year, and losing in the first round isn’t that bad.

Me: You’re right, it isn’t. A lot of good teams lose in the first round, but like all the losses last season, it was the way you lost and the way it was handled that was disturbing. Pitt’s defense, which was their trademark in years past, failed at key times. Chris Taft was allowed to loaf, free throw shooting stunk. You lost to Bucknell! To the public, you never seemed to care.
…
JD: And there is nothing wrong with this year’s team. Sure we might be young, but that’s not going to be an excuse.

Me: You’re already considering your excuses? Look at Syracuse’s team, they are a lot like Pitt — a young team with a veteran point guard — and they were preseason ranked in the top 25. The difference? Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim. The Orange beat Texas Tech, 81-46, looking better versus a Sweet 16 team from last season than Pitt did against Saint Peter’s, who lost its first game of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament.

JD: So I’m not Jim Boeheim, but I do have the best winning percentage among Big East coaches.

Me: I am not saying you are a bad coach; you may end up a great coach. I’m just not sold yet.

For the record, Keith was nice enough to e-mail me in advance, asking if I minded him lifting the Syracuse/Pitt/Boeheim/Dixon comparison I tossed out last week.

Dixon’s job is in no immediate danger. But fan support and confidence is. A lot of people are already negative to him, and a lot more are on the fence. Once that is lost, short of at least coming close to winning it all (a la Tommy Tuberville and Auburn football last year) that doesn’t come back and will eventually get the coach fired.

I’ve long maintained that Dixon’s discomfort and/or unwillingness to be more engaging in large settings would become a major issue for him in terms of job security and fan support.

That has to be the attitude of Coach Dixon as he mixes and matches players to see where the chemistry is, and how the various players fit together.

Jamie Dixon appeared relaxed and quite content for a coach with so many questions to answer.

“How did you think the new players looked?”

“What was the reason for starting a freshman point guard?”

“Who will be in the lineup for the next game?”

Dixon answered them all the best he could following Pitt’s season-opening 82-71 men’s basketball victory over St. Peter’s on Saturday at Petersen Events Center.

“We’re going to play a lot of guys this year,” he said.

If Saturday’s game is any indication, Dixon will be true to his word. A total of 10 Pitt players saw at least 11 minutes of action, including all three freshmen.
…
“This was the first time in a game situation for a lot of these guys,” Dixon said. “We’re going to play young kids. This is the year, and we did it some last year. You’d like to be experienced every year, but that’s just not possible.”

And no where is the team deeper than at the guard positions.

“We have a lot of guards so it is very competitive at practice,” Fields said. “Right now it is still up in the air, so I have to go do the same things in practice in order to be able to start the game on Wednesday [against Robert Morris].

“It meant a lot to start. I was happy to be out there with the first five and hear my name called, but like I said, it is up in the air because everybody has been playing good practice. It is really going to come down to who plays defense better, so I have to continue in practice and, hopefully, I’ll keep on starting.”

Fields played very well in his first game, which was encouraging. But it was still one game. The far more encouraging thing is his attitude and saying exactly the right things. No one whether they started last year, or comes in as a heralded freshman can assume he will be starting. Fields has grasped that and appears ready to lead by example until it is time for him to be the full team leader.

Next up for Pitt is Robert Morris, against whom Pitt is 24-0.

That has to be the attitude of Coach Dixon as he mixes and matches players to see where the chemistry is, and how the various players fit together.

Jamie Dixon appeared relaxed and quite content for a coach with so many questions to answer.

“How did you think the new players looked?”

“What was the reason for starting a freshman point guard?”

“Who will be in the lineup for the next game?”

Dixon answered them all the best he could following Pitt’s season-opening 82-71 men’s basketball victory over St. Peter’s on Saturday at Petersen Events Center.

“We’re going to play a lot of guys this year,” he said.

If Saturday’s game is any indication, Dixon will be true to his word. A total of 10 Pitt players saw at least 11 minutes of action, including all three freshmen.
…
“This was the first time in a game situation for a lot of these guys,” Dixon said. “We’re going to play young kids. This is the year, and we did it some last year. You’d like to be experienced every year, but that’s just not possible.”

And no where is the team deeper than at the guard positions.

“We have a lot of guards so it is very competitive at practice,” Fields said. “Right now it is still up in the air, so I have to go do the same things in practice in order to be able to start the game on Wednesday [against Robert Morris].

“It meant a lot to start. I was happy to be out there with the first five and hear my name called, but like I said, it is up in the air because everybody has been playing good practice. It is really going to come down to who plays defense better, so I have to continue in practice and, hopefully, I’ll keep on starting.”

Fields played very well in his first game, which was encouraging. But it was still one game. The far more encouraging thing is his attitude and saying exactly the right things. No one whether they started last year, or comes in as a heralded freshman can assume he will be starting. Fields has grasped that and appears ready to lead by example until it is time for him to be the full team leader.

Next up for Pitt is Robert Morris, against whom Pitt is 24-0.

A pretty interesting article about Sam Huff, the first Mountaineer football player to have his number retired. A bit stock on that, tough-guy football playing hurt/in pain and such, but somewhat entertaining.

The Hoopie website has an article talking about the best of the Backyard Brawl — highlighting Pitt’s 16-13 win in 1982. They also have a poll on which Backyard Brawl was the best of the last 25 years. It’s close, but I picked the 1997 triple-OT win by Pitt down in Morgantown over the 1989 31-31 tie (Pitt was down something like 31-7 before storming back to get the tie — in the days before OT in college). Pop over there and vote.

WVU Coach Rod is not worried about the ‘Eers being ready for Thursday.

“It’s just the rivalry,” Rodriguez said. “Everybody will say what’s at stake. But outside of just a Pitt-West Virginia game, that in itself is enough motivation for both programs.”
…
“As a coach you have to be careful about putting too much emphasis on one game, because it is just one game,” Rodriguez said. “But our guys understand it, even our young guys. Pitt is Pitt and Pitt-West Virginia is going to be a very intense game every year.”

Another piece on Clint Session’s difficult season. Similar story this past week.

A story, ostensibly appearing to be about the overall depth at tight end, really concerns itself with defending Erik Gill’s less than spectacular season.

Gill’s receptions are down — he has only 17 catches in 10 games, which means if the Panthers were to beat West Virginia and get to a bowl game, he’d likely finish with less than the 25 he had from a year ago. But his yards per catch are up — 18.6 this year vs. 17.3 last year — and he accounts for a bigger percentage of the passing offense because the Panthers have thrown less this season.

The Panthers also have two other talented tight ends that he has had to share the ball with.

“Erik has been a real team player for us,” said Pitt tight ends coach Greg Gattuso. “I think there is an unfair perception that he isn’t having a good year because of his catches, but people don’t realize that with Steve [Buches] and Darrell [Strong] both being such good players, we have had to spread it around a little more. If you add the catches that all three have together, the tight ends are actually a much bigger part of it than they have been in a long time.

“To Erik’s credit, he’s never complained or said, ‘This is my senior year.’ He’s just come to work every day and he’s done a fabulous job developing his blocking. That’s the biggest improvement in him — he’s a much better and more complete blocker than he was last year.”

Gill gets very defensive about the issue of dropped passes. No discussion is made of the of fumbles he has had.

A kind of stock article from a WV paper about the unneveness of Pitt’s offense in Coach Wannstedt’s first year.

The problem is that Pitt is trying to run the ball with personnel recruited by former coach Walt Harris to throw it. The results have not been pretty.

While Wannstedt’s defense ranks seventh in the country against the pass and No. 26 overall, the offense is No. 94 in rushing, No. 74 in passing and No. 92 overall.

Call it trying to put a square peg in a round hole. But Wannstedt knows that for the good of the program, that’s what has to be done.

“The only way we’re going to win a championship around here is if we play great defense and special teams, but we also have to run the ball,” Wannstedt said. “I think if you look at the stats right now and ask who the two best teams in our conference are, it’s West Virginia and Louisville. And both of those teams are at the top of every rushing category on offense.
…
So far, the Panthers have tried a mix of tailbacks and still are generating only 116 yards per game. And it’s actually not getting any better. The last two games the Panthers played resulted in two of their lowest rushing outputs of the season — 62 yards in a loss at Louisville and 76 in a win over Connecticut. There has been only one game with over 150 yards rushing and that was against Division I-AA Youngstown State.

Don’t worry, though, Pitt will keep on pounding that ball.

Speaking of coaches, and coaches speaking. Former Pitt Coach, now special assistant to the AD, Johnny Majors is in Little Rock, Arkansas speaking to the Little Rock Touchdown Club today.

First, it seems WVU WR Vaughn Rivers just can’t stop talking about playing Pitt. He must really be bitter about Pitt not recruiting him.

Vaughn Rivers was like a lot of other football players in Pittsburgh’s City League. He dreamed of playing college football, preferably at Pitt.

And, like most other City League players, it was only that — a dream.

Pitt simply doesn’t recruit the City League very hard, or at least the Panthers didn’t under former coach Walt Harris. And, truth be told, it’s hard to place any blame. City League football, quite frankly, just isn’t very good from top to bottom.

But that doesn’t stop players like Rivers and Eric Wicks, a pair of Perry Traditional Academy graduates, from having a little special incentive to beat the Panthers. Both of them came to West Virginia when Pitt didn’t show much interest, and every year they get a chance at some payback.
…
Rivers knows all about the West Virginia-Pitt rivalry because he used to watch the games when he was growing up in Pittsburgh. And he always figured if he ever played in the game, it would be for the Panthers.

But Harris didn’t recruit the undersized wide receiver and kick returner, nor did he seriously pursue his Perry teammate, strong safety Wicks.

“They only have one City League player on their roster now and the last one they had before that was Rod Rutherford, who came from my high school,” Rivers said. “You always wonder why they don’t look at City League kids.”

Looking at their numbers, Rivers has 6 catches for 38 yards, 8 punt returns for 98 yards and 6 kickoff returns for 135 yards. Wicks on the other hand has 1 interception returned 31 yards for a TD, 47 tackles (5th on the team) and 3 sacks. So why the hell is Rivers even talking? Wicks has more right to yap.

Still more Western Pennsylvania natives playing at WVU stressing how much they want to win the game.

West Virginia kicker Pat McAfee’s former teachers at Pittsburgh’s Plum High School have wished him well–until he tries a game-winning field goal.

“Then they hope I choke,” McAfee said.

That’s the nature of next week’s Backyard Brawl between Big East foes Pittsburgh and West Virginia, and lately, it’s become a rivalry again after the Mountaineers dominated the series in the 1990s.

Pitt’s 16-13 win over West Virginia last year denied the Mountaineers their first Bowl Championship Series.
…
“As soon as I got here, people would talk about the Pitt game before anything,” said McAfee, a freshman. “As long as we beat Pitt, that’s all that matters. I guess it’s funny that they are not worried about the Big East championship, just Pitt. Just beat ‘ol Pitt.”

The 98-game series is the longest in the Big East.

“I have heard it all my life, the Backyard Brawl,” said WVU linebacker Boo McLee, a native of Uniontown, Pa. “It is very important to me to go out and play a good game and come out with a win. Everybody puts in extra effort for the Brawl.”

McAfee is another player who seems bothered by Pitt not bothering with him.

McAfee said Pitt never looked at him during his senior year at Plum, when he made all seven field goal attempts, including one that cleared the crossbar with ease from 48 yards out.

“I’d like to put some points on the board and show them what they missed,” McAfee said. “They kind of gave me the cold shoulder. Whatever. They already had a great kicker in (senior) Josh Cummings.”

Some Hoopie players, though, are still learning.

The No. 13 Mountaineers start four key freshmen on offense, including quarterback Pat White and running back Steve Slaton. That’s four players who have never played in the Backyard Brawl, and four players who are surprisingly settled.

“I’m not sure what it’s like because I was not on the field for a game,” said White, a native of Daphne, Ala. “Alabama-Auburn is a big one where I come from.”
…
So much so that freshman Slaton, recruited out of Levittown, Pa., near Philadelphia, had to be told about the game’s significance.

“This just comes into play now because I am a Mountaineer. Other than that, I am removed a bit,” he said. “I played in a big rivalry game in high school and I can kind of understand. The veterans tell me it is a big rivalry game.”

I’m sure they will learn quickly. As Kicker Josh Cummings did.

“The week leading up to last year’s game was something else,” he said. “I couldn’t believe how intense practices were and the coaches were all psyched and the fans were into it; it was a lot of fun.

“These games are a big deal and given what’s a stake for us, the fact that we want to extend our season and play in a bowl game, it is even that much bigger of a deal.”

Beyond the rivalry, however, Cummings is excited about the game for another reason: he could play a major role for the Panthers as he may be their best offensive weapon.
…
“Obviously, I’m biased, I’d love us to beat West Virginia by kicking field goals, but I wouldn’t mind kicking extra points all night, either,” said Cummings, who transferred to Pitt last year from College of the Canyons (a junior college in California). “I think I’ve just tried to be steady and consistent and I’ve accomplished that in my two years here.

“But I can’t think of a better way to end my career than to kick a game-winner, down in Morgantown to beat West Virginia and send us to a bowl game. That would be special. I haven’t had one of those this year, so maybe this game will be my chance.”

I’ll take that.

If you live Jackson, Mississippi, you can go see Hugh Green speak tomorrow night.

Former Pitt All-American and All-Pro defensive end Hugh Green, a Natchez native, will be the speaker Monday at 6 p.m. when the Jackson Touchdown Club meets at River Hills Club.

A conversation with the longest tenured Tampa Bay Buccaneer, former Pitt player — Dave Moore.

Two hundred career games? That’s a great milestone.

It is. It’s attributed to a few different things. Being in the right place at the right time, being able to stay healthy, which is a lot of luck involved with that, and also the ability to do a lot of different things. I played fullback, H-back, tight end, snapping. I’ve had my share of plays at different spots. Could you ever have imagined when it began that it would last this long? No, absolutely not. Coach [Paul] Hackett’s here, and he told me when I was a senior in college — he was my head coach at Pitt — I asked if I was going to get drafted, and he said don’t get my hopes up because tight ends are a dime a dozen. That’s exactly what he told me. Now he’s coaching me 17 years later.

Moore pretty much does long snapping these days.

Start with that. Pitt won. They didn’t have to come from behind in the second half. No one was injured in the game. Pitt used a lot of players and divided the minutes — as it should be with this many new faces on the team and it is too early to have a set rotation and bench depth.

The performance of Pitt in the game was uneven. Again, this is not unexpected.

Pitt (1-0) won by 11 points — 82-71 — but the score was not indicative of how dominant the Panthers were for the better part of the second half. The score was tied, 28-28, with five minutes to play in the first half but Pitt made 14-1 run to close the half and take control of the game.

The Panthers the began the second half the way they ended the first — on a 14-4 run and pushed their lead to as many as 28 by midway through the half. The Peacocks, led by shooting guard Keydren Clark, did make a late run and did get as close as seven, 77-70, but the Panthers again stepped up their defense and shut them down for good.
…
“I thought we didn’t close the game like we wanted to but we did a lot of good things,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I thought we passed well and we played good defense at times, but the challenge is to do so for 40 minutes and that is never easy. For an opening game, though, this was certainly something to build on.”

For almost 15 minutes (5:12 in the first half to 10:56 in the second) Pitt outscored St. Peter’s 37-9. At that point, with Pitt up 65-37, Pitt started doing a lot more wholesale substituting. Changing up to 3 players at a time. Of course that is going to change a lot of things with how the game is being played, and give the Peacocks some more opportunities. It is also, absolutely, the right thing for Coach Dixon to do.

This is mad scientist time. The starters will change from game-to-game. Time to see which players work well with whom. Who has the intensity and desire. Who will play hard at any point in the game no matter what the score or the opponent. Finding the chemistry and what does and doesn’t work. This isn’t like last season where going in, 4 of the 5 starting positions were established before the first game (Troutman, Taft, Demetrius and Krauser).

In the second half, there was a conscious effort to get the ball inside to Aaron Gray a lot more and have him take more shots. In the first half he only took 5 shots, making 2. In the second half he shot 10 times, netting only 3.

But the Panthers, thanks to the 7-foot Gray, controlled the glass handily, 46-32, and scored 12 second-half points.

“If we get the ball into him, it frees up shots,” Fields said. “Early on, I don’t think we did it enough.”

Graves added 15 points for Pitt, followed by Carl Krauser, 13, and Fields, 12.

Obviously, Gray needs to work on shooting in traffic, and he needs to be more aggressive on defense judging by the fact that Pitt was outscored in the paint 30-26. These are things, that can be corrected. The fact that Gray somehow managed to finish without any fouls probably reflects being overly conscious that he can’t be as reckless inside as he was coming off the bench playing only 10 minutes. He needs to find the balance.

The plus side for Gray, going 7-10 at the free throw line. Including 5-6 in the final minutes.

Start with that. Pitt won. They didn’t have to come from behind in the second half. No one was injured in the game. Pitt used a lot of players and divided the minutes — as it should be with this many new faces on the team and it is too early to have a set rotation and bench depth.

The performance of Pitt in the game was uneven. Again, this is not unexpected.

Pitt (1-0) won by 11 points — 82-71 — but the score was not indicative of how dominant the Panthers were for the better part of the second half. The score was tied, 28-28, with five minutes to play in the first half but Pitt made 14-1 run to close the half and take control of the game.

The Panthers the began the second half the way they ended the first — on a 14-4 run and pushed their lead to as many as 28 by midway through the half. The Peacocks, led by shooting guard Keydren Clark, did make a late run and did get as close as seven, 77-70, but the Panthers again stepped up their defense and shut them down for good.
…
“I thought we didn’t close the game like we wanted to but we did a lot of good things,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I thought we passed well and we played good defense at times, but the challenge is to do so for 40 minutes and that is never easy. For an opening game, though, this was certainly something to build on.”

For almost 15 minutes (5:12 in the first half to 10:56 in the second) Pitt outscored St. Peter’s 37-9. At that point, with Pitt up 65-37, Pitt started doing a lot more wholesale substituting. Changing up to 3 players at a time. Of course that is going to change a lot of things with how the game is being played, and give the Peacocks some more opportunities. It is also, absolutely, the right thing for Coach Dixon to do.

This is mad scientist time. The starters will change from game-to-game. Time to see which players work well with whom. Who has the intensity and desire. Who will play hard at any point in the game no matter what the score or the opponent. Finding the chemistry and what does and doesn’t work. This isn’t like last season where going in, 4 of the 5 starting positions were established before the first game (Troutman, Taft, Demetrius and Krauser).

In the second half, there was a conscious effort to get the ball inside to Aaron Gray a lot more and have him take more shots. In the first half he only took 5 shots, making 2. In the second half he shot 10 times, netting only 3.

But the Panthers, thanks to the 7-foot Gray, controlled the glass handily, 46-32, and scored 12 second-half points.

“If we get the ball into him, it frees up shots,” Fields said. “Early on, I don’t think we did it enough.”

Graves added 15 points for Pitt, followed by Carl Krauser, 13, and Fields, 12.

Obviously, Gray needs to work on shooting in traffic, and he needs to be more aggressive on defense judging by the fact that Pitt was outscored in the paint 30-26. These are things, that can be corrected. The fact that Gray somehow managed to finish without any fouls probably reflects being overly conscious that he can’t be as reckless inside as he was coming off the bench playing only 10 minutes. He needs to find the balance.

The plus side for Gray, going 7-10 at the free throw line. Including 5-6 in the final minutes.

Okay, if Kevin Collier — Pitt’s top RB verbal is actually wavering — and I stress if. I’m trying to figure out what Syracuse has done to indicate they are the better choice. I suppose, I could get it if he chose USC or some top program, but to suggest that Pitt’s season could sway him to Syracuse? I mean, that borders on delusional.

Coach Wannstedt, himself, can’t help looking to next year.

Wannstedt and his staff have been on the recruiting trail this past week, while the Panthers had no game, to put the finishing touches on a group already ranked in the top 10. And the head coach can’t wait to get next year’s incoming freshmen on campus.

“I believe this class can make an immediate impact,” Wannstedt said. “I’m basing that off of the fact that there’s a lot of positions where we need help right now, and I think Penn State is the best example of what can happen. What did they do last year, go (4-7)?

“I know they’ve got a great senior class. Don’t get me wrong. I know it’s the foundation, but the addition of some of those young kids — according to coach (Joe) Paterno — has made the biggest difference in their season. So, I know we’re going to get some instant help from a lot of guys.”

Pitt did not practice until Wednesday, but it was only a light workout. A little more hitting took place Thursday and Friday, even though there was a skeleton coaching staff there. The majority were on the road.

“All our coaches are on the road recruiting,” Wannstedt said. “There were only three of us (Wednesday). So, we kept it pretty basic. … I was here locally, (Wednesday), and I was in Florida (Tuesday).

“The reception has been outstanding. We’re going to hold onto a great class here that we’re focused on verbal commitments, and we’re going to add probably another four or five (incoming recruits) that I believe are big-time guys.”

I hope so, but a lot of that also depends on not trying to turn/treat Tyler Palko into/like A.J. Feeley. There has to be recognition — not just of what you want the team to do; but of what it can do and what it does best to enable it to win.

I’m not arguing against a strong running team, I’m saying that it will take more time. A strong running game depends a lot on an offensive line that is good and works well together. That takes more time than the passing game which is more of a one-on-one situation. It has a lot more to do with individual talent and the match-ups, and is less dependent on building cohesiveness and a group dynamic.

I only caught the last 10 minutes or so on the intenet feed. An 82-71 win, but Pitt made it a little unnerving at the end. I’ll have more later, but my initial impressions: a little unnerving in the last 7 minutes, but not horrible. The team apparently struggled in the first half, but that isn’t totally unexpected. This wasn’t Syracuse-Cornell or Duke-BU, but Pitt made it a little stressful.

Still not a lot of turnovers, and no one had more than 2. Gray pulled double-double. Fields, Graves, Gray and Krauser all had double digit scoring. Good balance, and no one played more than 29 minutes.

I only caught the last 10 minutes or so on the intenet feed. An 82-71 win, but Pitt made it a little unnerving at the end. I’ll have more later, but my initial impressions: a little unnerving in the last 7 minutes, but not horrible. The team apparently struggled in the first half, but that isn’t totally unexpected. This wasn’t Syracuse-Cornell or Duke-BU, but Pitt made it a little stressful.

Still not a lot of turnovers, and no one had more than 2. Gray pulled double-double. Fields, Graves, Gray and Krauser all had double digit scoring. Good balance, and no one played more than 29 minutes.

The opening game, and the team is not making a big deal about not being in any top-25 rankings. It isn’t actually a shock. Everyone has this team on the bubble of the NCAA. Last I checked, teams predicted to be on the bubble in the pre-season don’t end up being ranked pre-season. Carl Krauser is looking forward to the season, and speaks of being a teacher to Freshman Levance Fields.

He was referring to a group that includes Krauser, junior Antonio Graves, sophomore Ronald Ramon and Fields, who joins Krauser as the team’s only true point guards.

“I just want to go out there, lead the team and show these guys about hard work and a team commitment and taking care of each other on the court,” Krauser said. “I’ve been an understudy to a great point guard, Brandin Knight. Now, I have an understudy of my own.”

I find that very encouraging that he keeps talking about wanting to make the freshmen better players. Krauser has spoken about this season in terms of the team and improving. He would appear to get that for him to have rising stock and a chance to be drafted, requires him to make the team better.

That’s very important for Krauser, because this year should be a shallow draft. With no high schoolers in the draft and even a few less international players, it increases his chance. Still, despite that, he is not included in an early list from ESPN.com on top 100 draft prospects for 2006 (Insider Subs.). Rudy Gay heads up the list.

This article cribs some tidbits from the game notes.

Then another article on the Peacock’s Keydren Clark.