Thank you Horns! If that’s all it takes to give Griffin a concussion, I’ll put him in a body bag.

Texas is terrible. McGhee the difference-maker. Hail to Pitt!

Just saw 2 interesting things on ESPN:

1) all but one of the college bb panel thinks Pitt is the team to beat, loving their physical and mental toughness … and if course, Bilas will think UNC will win it al even if they lose in the third round

2) another Calhoun post-game rant .. but this time I may be on his side. A reporter asked him if his $1.6 million salary was justified considering it was a state run univ with a deficit. He first said that he makes more than that … and then tells the guy that UConn bb brings in $12 mil into the university each year, and tells the reporter to get all of the facts before asking such a stupid question. Can’t say that I blame him this time

@w bill,

Calhoun was right to go off on that joke. While the “part-time journalist/activist” or whatever ESPN called him may have had a point in principle it’s utter garbage to sandbag the guy at a post-game press conference.

Nice to be number one, but I just want to be on top April 7.
Hope Griffin is okay. He is, in my opinion, the best player in the nation. I like his game and he seems to have his head on straight. Would love to see a Blair-Griffin match-up in Detroit.
As for Calhoun, I have mixed feelings. He has a reputation as a bully and whiner, but I’m not sure I would have ambushed him with that question during a post-game press conference. The reporter has a legit point. High salaries will eventually become an issue if these economic conditions continue. The cost of these salaries will eventually filter down to the fans. Kind of like trickle-down economics in reverse.
A relatively recent study showed all but one major Division I program was operating in the red.

“When you don’t count institutional subsidies as revenue, only 17 out of 300 Division I program (5%) were profitable during the 2004-2006 period that was the scope of the study. 16 of these programs were in the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly, DI-A). Moreover, DI institutions’ expenditures rose an average of 23%, outpacing the increase in revenue, which rose 16%.”
Source: link to tinyurl.com
I love sports as much as the next guy, but the spending is getting out of control. Kind of like consumerism in reverse 😉

Regarding Calhoun,

I wrote about it earlier this evening at FanHouse.

link to ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com

There is a debate over this, and I don’t mind it at a press conference, but the guy wasn’t prepared. When Calhoun gave him numbers, and challenged him, he couldn’t answer.

It was more an attempt at activism and seeking attention than actually challenging on an issue. That makes the effort weak and probably hurt whatever cause he wanted than helped.

That is unless, the cause was getting attention for himself. Then he’s set for another 15 minutes.

Shocker: Gottlieb on the midnight ESPN show said that Oklahoma is the favorite to win the tourney, because he doesn’t think Pitt could have won the Texas game without Blair, but OU at least kept it close.

I’m not sure how that makes Oklahoma any better than Pitt, but there it is. He also said that North Carolina is better than Pitt, but “decides” to stop defending sometimes, so they could be vulnerable.

What a doofus.

I give him 20 minutes. The bathroom stop to dry the piss off his pants will take a good 5 minutes. He should have at least brought up Calhoun’s other wife.

personally… I love it when those knuckleheads at ESPN doubt us at #1, because it gives our boys motivation to prove them all wrong!!

so here’s to us being called a ‘flash-in-the-pan’ #1 team!!

ps)maybe blair will flip jay bilas over his back the next time he picks UNC 🙂

I like the mentality change around here.

When we hit #1 last month, we acted like it was Christmas.

But now, it’s nothing. Winning the tournament is all that matters, as it should be!

Calhoun brings this sort of thing on himself. I’m sure if he didn’t do his rant after the Pitt game, this questin would have never happened. I heard on ESPN radio that a member of the Pittsburgh media asked his boss if he would get a bonus if he could get Calhoun to melt down after the game in Pittsburgh. His actions bring this sort of thing on.

Both Pittsburgh papers ran columns on the possibility of Blair turning pro — he is projected by almost all experts to go mid to late 1st round, and now is higher than Sam.

The thought of he going pro is sobering in that Gary McGhee will be the only returning frontcourtman (4 or 5 Position.) If Blair does return, I beieve we are again a legit Top 5 team.

BUT this is a main topic for this blog for April to June, and we should enjoy this year until then … just as Blair is and should be doing now.

if Blair has another good game against Thabeet, one of the questions in post-game prsser to Calhoun should be “why did you not recruit Blair?” … (remember Ryan Gomes) this will surely lead to a Youtube entry

#1 for a 2nd time is great, but obviously as Chas says, all that matters is that #1 spot in the tournament. But staying #1 could be very important because of the way the #1 seeds play out…for us, ending up as the #1 in any region except the west is huge, because i believe we will travel well whether its boston, indy or memphis….the problems lie where if we get that #1 seed out west, and we’re stuck in phoenix..and the committee gives UCLA the 3 out west or some crap like that….thats the biggest nightmare for us…..id rather be a 2 in the east/midwest/south then a 1 in the west……

but for know, lets just keep winning!

“Werent’ expected to happen”? Texas was favored on most sites, Chief.

Don’t let the facts get in your way….

haha…but for “know”…writing when you just wake up rules…

what was the line on the game..thats the only “fact” and im sure it was oklahoma..if you’re talking about what some websites were saying, then thats opinions and not fact….dont let those facts get in your way……….

I am really tired of hearing about Blake Griffin.
Blair would eat him for lunch and Pitt would light up OK by 15. They do not have the depth that Pitt has and neither OK or Texas play any defense. Does anyone out there think for a second that Pitt would have let either 3 point shooter for Tex or OK get off almost uncontested shot after shot. Really appreciate BE D after watching the patsies in the Big 12. OH, and I like #1 and predict we stay there thru April 7! Hail to Pitt.

I love the analysts who fell in love with Oklahoma because they played much of the game without Griffin and almost won and suggest Pitt could not do the same thing. First, they were playing an unranked Texas team which was playing terribly for the last month. Second, do these analysts have memories that last less than one week? Do they not remember the games against Villanova and Louisville? Didn’t Pitt “almost” win those games with Blair playing less than 20 minutes and barely contributing? Yes, they did. In fact, they had double-digit leads late in both games. The national media suffers from short-term memory loss. Pitt would beat Oklahoma going away.

schoey, in recent years, I’d be concerned about Pitt getting a “bad” #1 seeding out west. This year though, I’m not. I’m convinced that this Pitt team can beat just about anybody, anywhere.

Good points Omar. Our losses came on the road (with Blair on the bench b/c of foul trouble) to top 25 teams.

We should all be used to not Pitt not getting its due respect. I personally love when these commentators struggle to mention us in the same breath as Duke/UNC or OU this year. It motivates our team, and I think they are well aware that they can play with/beat anyone in the country.

A couple posters don’t seem to like Blake Griffin…I am also getting a little tired of hearing about him so much, but he is still a tremendous player. I’ll take DeJuan any day of the week because I love how he plays, but Griffin would be a tough matchup I think.

Also, regarding the possibility of losing Blair to the draft…remember we have McDonald’s All-American Dante Taylor joining the front court next year.

We’re #1…again. Keep it rollin’.

Don’t get me wrong, Blake Griffin is a tremendous talent and would get his points and rebounds against Pitt, however Mr. Blair would do the same. I simply feel that the team surrounding Blair is more experience and better, by a large degree, then Oklahoma. Yes, Willie Warren is a great player also, but so is Sam Young. Warren is a freshman and Young is a senior, advantage Pitt. Additionally, with the point guard position being as important as it is, I would rather have Mr. Fields than any other player in the United States. Oklahoma has nobody with Fields experience and courage and that is the main difference between the Panthers and Oklahoma. Plus, I like our bench better and I think Jamie Dixon is a bit better than Jeff Capel at this point because of experience in big games and the NCAA tournament. Pitt wins handily over Oklahoma.

Thanks to my pal, a link to Gary Parrish’s humble opinion:

link to cbssports.com

When was the last time a #1 team ended up national champions? Does it go all the way back to Indiana’s perfect season?

while I agree with most of the comments here, let’s hope that the team stays a lot more grounded than we are.

also, while I know this will not be popular here, I don’t see Griffith being eaten for lunch — note that his mid range jumper is much more polished than Blair’s and could force Blair away from the hoop. But I certainly believe Pitt is the better team.

#1 teams win the national championship all of the time. Obviously Florida was an odds-on favorite that won the year they repeated (two years ago?). UConn was #1 the year they won it all (maybe both years). Duke was #1 when they won in 2001. One of the craziest misconceptions out there is that being highly ranked doesn’t help you in the tournament. People also seem to think that winning the conference tournament doesn’t help you. As some of you will recall from my long rant last year, it was something like 22 of the last 28 final four teams had won their conference tournaments. Being number one means A LOT at the end of the year. So does beating number one right now. Don’t think that Marquette, Seton Hall, Providence, and UConn don’t know that though. They will all bring it to us, trying to make their cases for seeding/bids, in the next few weeks.

All I know is I don’t worry too much about what the talking heads say week to week on ESPN about who’s hot and who’s not. Those conversations are for a viewing audience that doesn’t know how to formulate its own opinion.

UNC, as Vegas will tell you, is still the odds on favorite to win the national championship, no matter what 3 out of 4 on that august ESPN panel think. And last time I checked, there was a large delta between the Tar Heel odds and the rest of the field.

When you’re looking for rationality and want to get outside the hype, look at what’s going on with the money.

Whoa’ The season isn’t over yet by a long shot. You are talking about a gifted sophomre who should return to school next year. I respectfully suggest that Ron Cook and the other scribes plus the talking heads on the tube keep their cool and stop trying to attract readers and hearers by their fanciful mumblings. The most encourging aspect of last night’s game was the emergence of Gary MaGhee. Blair is great, but please let him enjoy his college days. that.s my perspective from Columbus, Ohio Go Pitt.

“…it was something like 22 of the last 28 final four teams had won their conference tournaments…”

You could also mention that something like 7 of the last 11 national champions won their conference tourneys too…both are close to 75%…you want to win all those games.