Georgetown and John Thompson III has had Pitt’s number the last couple of years. They upset Pitt in January 2005 at the Pete, and beat Pitt last February after Pitt blew a lead in the first half. That second game, JTIII made a bunch of adjustments in the second-half and completely out-coached Jamie Dixon. Hibbert spent the second half on the bench as G-town went smaller and forced Gray to defend further and further from the basket. Not sure we can expect to see G-town go to that tactic again as Hibbert has since improved significantly.
The game notes are available if you want to look back (PDF) on the sub-par history of the Pitt-Georgetown series (29-37).
For Pitt, this is the start of the brutal stretch but also a huge opportunity with the timing of the 3 home games.
“Not only do we have three tough home games coming up, but against three of the best teams in the Big East,” center Aaron Gray said. “We have a little bit of an advantage, having them at home. But at the same time, you’re playing three of the top teams in the Big East in (nine) days.”
The three incoming visitors are off to relatively disappointing starts.
All three have been inconsistent at best in the last couple of weeks, but don’t worry, Aaron Gray isn’t looking ahead. He is armed with the cliches.
“We just have to take it one game at a time, prepare individually for each game and do our best,” Gray said.
Meanwhile Hoya faithful are looking for consistency from their team. Well, that and try to be like Wisconsin.
Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert might want to inquire as to what Wisconsin senior forwards Alando Tucker and Brian Butch had for breakfast the morning of Dec. 16. Whatever the Badger big men ate, it worked. Tucker and Butch scorched Pittsburgh pre-season Big East Player of the Year candidate Aaron Gray and scored season-high point tallies as the Badgers trounced then-No. 2 Panthers 89-75.
While the Georgetown frontcourt tandem may not add Wisconsin cheddar or Milwaukee’s Best to the pre-game spread menu, it couldn’t hurt to try and emulate everything else Tucker and Butch did in the early-season showdown.
Hey, if Hibbert wants to step out for 3s for the first time this season, that is fine by me. This being Georgetown, you knew someone was pining for the old JTII days of thug-ball. Oh, I’m sorry, Mike Graham was merely Patrick Ewing’s protector. Yeah, sure.
What I won’t do is give him an apology, or a pass, on his handling of his pending departure, and his agent’s declaration that PITT would always be a second rate program (and city & school if you read the whole interview). That in itself pretty much showed how much loyalty he had to the University, and before you tell me he didn’t control his agent’s outspokenness, neither did Harris fire him – while Harris was still employed by PITT.
For some reason we tend to romanticize Head Coaches and what they mean to a University. They are employees (albeit highly visible ones), and at the bottom line should be treated as such. It was evident that Harris wanted out, and the University accommodated him – plain and simple. As we all know there is a lot more going on with a Coach’s tenure than just wins and losses – how they represent the school, interact with the Alumni donors & the local community, and how they get along with the administration. Looks like Harris was not very good at any of those things. He was arrogant and it showed, and that ultimately lit the fire that burned the bridge behind him.
It’s not up to us to burnish his legacy here so that he can land other jobs. He was best buddies with Bill Walsh (another narrow minded West Coast snob – as evidenced by his insulting comments about the Oakland and the city) at Stanford and Harris knew he would be going there – and he did. Let that experience be his legacy.
As far as Marco’s original post – I think we might be getting a very good coach with Ball from Alabama. Over the last three years his secondarys have consistently ranked in the top ten in numerous catagories, and really contributed to the Tide’s overall defensive excellence.
Hope he is good with youngsters because I’d like to get him onboard now and have him start working to get Fields, Chapple and Berry into the lineup.
I mean come on people, look at these guys:
Antonio Bryant – NFL Receiver
Larry Fitzgerald – NFL Pro-Bowl Wide Receiver
Kris Wilson – NFL tight end
Brandon Miree – NFL FB/RB, back up in GB
Kevan Barlow – NFL RB, NY jets
Nick Goings – NFL RB, Carolina panthers
Lousaka Polite – Starter/Backup NFL FB in Dallas
Rod Rutherford – NFL Scout Team Extraordinaire
Even on the defense, Shawntae Spencer, Gerald Hayes, and Hank Poteat have all had “successful” pro-careers.
The thing that plagued Walt Harris was the atrocious Line play, on both sides of the ball. Rob Pettiti turned out to be overrated, Claude Harriot disappeared after 1 good season. This all culminated with Tyler Palko running for his LIFE against Utah in that bowl game. Poor line play will make an otherwise good team look horrible against the wrong opponent.
The excuse last year for Dave Wannstedt’s run offense failure was that the O-linemen were recruited by Walt for pass blocking, yet they couldn’t even do THAT.
To me, the difference now is that DW is recruiting for the long run to really strengthen the program’s talent base, and has put as much – if not more – emphasis on the unsung positions, re: lineman & TEs. I can’t remember when PITT has had the type of running game that could be counted on to control the ball by grinding out first downs and the clock by extending sustained drives. Reality is we might not see that actually happen here because no one can accurately predict the future, but I like the way DW has publicly stated he wants to get there – and so far has backed that up with his recruiting efforts.
I know a lot of fans think that Harris was let go because he never took PITT to that “next level”, but I really think it was much more than that. I believe the powers to be at PITT were fed up with his attitude and lack of loyalty to the University itself. Look, a school does not let a coach that had a winning record and was in a BCS bowl (no matter how strangely they got in it) go unless that are completely convinced the school would be better off without him. That’s why I don’t see them bailing on DW even if he does not get us in a BCS bowl in the next few years. From all indications I can see the PITT decision makers love DW even with the average record he has put up, and that’s because he has been the type of coach that represents the school in a positive light, both locally, nationally and to the alumni.
I don’t see the team going the opposite way either – and by that I mean that I don’t believe they will sink to a 2-3 win team any time soon. My thoughts are we’ll see steady progress and better, more consistent play over the next few years. And, we did see an improvement in offensive line play from year 1 to year 2 under DW – it’s just not where it needs to be yet, but it is getting better. Some of the stud lineman DW has recruited will be coming into their own over these next two years.
So, I’m excited about these next two years, as much as for the unknown as I am optimistic that we’ll see progress on the field. But, regardless of what happens with our wins & losses, I think the program is in a better place for hiring DW.
I sent her an email on an article she wrote in 05 and she responded with some it was her responsibility to write it like she did garbage.
