Right after the UCLA loss, Coach Jamie Dixon was about as down as he gets about losing. His quote

“It feels like a loss, and a bad one, a disappointing end-of-year loss,” Dixon said after a 64-55 defeat Thursday to Howland-coached UCLA in the West Regional. “I’m trying to remember the 29 wins. I only seem to be remembering this loss.”

And if you saw the press conference, you could see how hard it was on him to lose that game.

So, now a week later Mike Prisuta takes his run at the team losing in the Sweet 16. He seems particularly bothered that Pitt and especially Coach Dixon would mention the good side to this team.

The impression left by coach Jamie Dixon is that Pitt desperately wants to win more than two games a tournament and experience firsthand what all the real fuss is about every March. The trouble is, Dixon has a tendency to rationalize Pitt’s continued inability to get knee deep in the Madness, as he did on a recent appearance on Fox Sports Radio 970’s “Bendel and Benz” show.

“Schools would die to have the success we’ve had, even though that doesn’t diminish the disappointment we had,” Dixon said.

Then, why bring it up?

As for Pitt’s “success,” Dixon went over the top in assessing that when asked whether this year’s Sweet 16 exit was the most disappointing of the four in the past six years.

So, Coach Dixon goes on a radio show and defends his team and the program? That he won’t rip his players? That’s the problem? That he didn’t rend his shirt on the air and scream, “why? Oh, why can’t we win?”
I’m not sure that Dixon could win this no matter what. He said he was disappointed. He wants to win. Everyone was disappointed by the outcome. That he put anything positive on the season apparently bothered Prisuta to no end.

That’s crap. Part of Dixon’s job is to go out in the public, the fans, the alumni, the boosters and the media and sell the school and the team. Part of that is not just to talk about what you want to accomplish, but to also discuss what has been accomplished. To put it in a positive light.

This isn’t settling for some above average mediocrity. It’s selling the good in the program to date.

Hey, I can see in the comments there’s a lot of wondering what is happening with Dokish’s old blog.

I don’t know why he quit it or anything like that. I can explain some of what you are seeing now based on my understanding of Blogspot.

Dokish didn’t just quit and abandon his blog. He took it down. Deleted it. That’s why there was a 404 message for a day or two. That meant he deleted it, all the archives and the name from Blogger and the Blogspot servers. That also meant that he gave up the name on Blogspot.

He had used one of many standard templates that Blogger offers for blogs. It was not something of his.
So it is safe to surmise that someone simply set up a new Blogger account and used the old name since it was now free once more. Then they set up the blog, using the same template.

There was no hacking in this case. Simply someone taking shots at the old blog right on Blogger (and now you know why I haven’t deleted my old Blogspot site despite having all the files transferred to Pitt Blather).

While on blog stuff, a quick note in the blog roll to a new Pitt blog, Pitt Panther Fans. Be sure to stop by and say hello.

Paul Zeise has his first Q&A. He likes what he sees from some of the players.

That being said, several players have really stood out to me. Jason Pinkston, for one, can become a standout tackle. He has really jumped out among linemen and his athleticism and strength are easy to see.

Shane Brooks seems to be running harder and seems a little quicker as well — he could be a factor in the backfield, particularly since he is also getting reps at fullback.

T.J. Porter and Darrell Strong both seem to have decided it was time to try to maximize their potential and both have had an excellent run thus far in the spring.

Marcel Pestano looks like he might become a star and Derek Kinder just keeps getting better as well. Corner Aaron Berry is feisty and physical and more importantly an excellent shut down corner.

I think the thing that isn’t a shock, so I don’t know why I was hoping. Pinkston was the only one on the  line that he noted is standing out. We may be watching the QB battles and who will be the primary back. Let’s face it, though, the lines have been the biggest problem and it is just not clear how much that is changing for this year. If Pitt is going to have any success this year, the line play on both sides just has to be significantly better.

That said, it’s probably not fair to judge yet on the lines no matter how much anxiety they generate. Instead I’ll turn to my favorite negative slant on the football team — Paul Rhoads.

Q: Do you think keeping on staff and then moving Paul Rhoads from secondary to linebacker coach is a good move or not? Do you think Paul Rhoads likes the move?

ZEISE: The move gives Paul Rhoads a chance to be involved more in the run defense as well as the pass defense. This is the model that Dave Wannstedt has used ever since he has been a head coach or coordinator and everyone on the staff seems more comfortable with it. This has enabled Wannstedt to hire Chris Ball as secondary coach, and I think he has been tremendous for this team. And talking to the players and watching some of the things he’s been working with the players on, he is going to be a major asset. I have talked to a number of coaches and all of them tell me the same thing — Rhoads is an excellent football coach.

First, observe that Zeise actually never answered the question of whether it was a good move or not to keep Rhoads. He says that Wannstedt is happy with the new approach. That Chris Ball was a great hire and will really help the team in the secondary from a coaching standpoint (I don’t disagree). Then, that other, unnamed coaches think Rhoads is an “excellent” coach. Of course, generally opposing coaches love and think very highly of other coaches who they own. The last thing they want to see is a coach they can beat tossed over the side.