So, yeah there’s a basketball game tonight at 7. Eastern Kentucky comes to town. The Colonels are picked to be a middle-of-the pack team in the Ohio Valley Conference. They won their season opener against West Virginia Wesleyan (D-2) 102-71. They didn’t impress their own coach on defense and they have no player taller than 6-7.

That’s probably a good thing since Coach Dixon wants better rebounding from the Pitt players.

“We’re not worried about our height or size or anything,” Robinson said. “We just have to put a body on somebody and go rebound. Coach preaches about it every day in practice about how we have to outrebound our opponent. So I just try to focus on that, box out and beat my guy to the basket and grab the rebound.”

Some of the other issues have been inexperience and personnel changes. Wanamaker played mostly shooting guard his first two seasons, but he is playing small forward because of Gilbert Brown’s academic suspension. In Pitt’s offense, the small forwards crash the boards when the shot goes up and the shooting guard retreats to play defense in the event of a miss.

Wanamaker has admittedly had a tough time remembering to crash the boards. Getting the small forwards and guards to contribute more in the rebounding department is the main focus as the Panthers get ready to play Eastern Kentucky tonight in another non-conference game at the Petersen Events Center.

“We’ve played teams that have shot a lot of 3s, so there are a lot of long rebounds, and I don’t feel like we’re getting enough of those,” Dixon said. “But I’m always concerned about our rebounding. We’ve been the best rebounding team in the country in certain years and I’ve still been concerned about it. You’re never satisfied with rebounding or defense. We have to get our guards to rebound more, especially on the long 3s. [Binghamton] was taking deep 3s, and the guards have to get those.”

Coach Dixon had noted the problem rebounding by the guards right after the Binghamton rout.

He’s just asking questions.

Joe Starkey penned what may be one of the laziest, craptacular, most regurgitated column I’ve read in some time — and yes I am saying it is worse than anything written this year on booing Bill Stull.

Let  me put it this way. This column would be derided as deluded fan ranting from a message board if a columnist had to respond to it.

(more…)

Well a 3d straight night game was probably out of the question.

It will be a noon start which sucks for tailgating. That said, no excuses for the place not to be packed. To decide whether Pitt goes BCS bowling or not.

The good news for those who can’t attend, is that it will be a true national game. ABC and apparently no split map crap.

Nothing like a strong national win, to change Bruce Feldman’s opinion (Insider subs).

I was skeptical about Pittsburgh. Not anymore. I do think it’s one of the country’s best teams. Dave Wannstedt has built a very solid team in all areas, and the Panthers showed that Saturday night against Notre Dame. They have a much-improved QB in Bill Stull, a great RB in Dion Lewis and two playmaking receivers in Jonathan Baldwin and Dorin Dickerson. Plus they have four excellent D-linemen and a capable secondary. That was a very good offense that they bottled up for much of the evening.

As for the Irish, what more can you say at this point about Charlie Weis? His O-line looked overmatched again, and his defense was shaky.

Baldwin got a haircut before the ND game which provided a hook for a couple stories.

Pitt wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin showed up for Saturday’s win against Notre Dame sporting a Mohawk haircut. It was a new look for the sophomore off the field, but on the field it was the same old Baldwin, making acrobatic catches for touchdowns and helping to keep drives alive.

“I was sitting in the barber’s chair at Damions in Ambridge paging through the haircut book and I liked the Mohawk cut so I went with it,” Baldwin said. “I just wanted to go out in this game and have a good time in helping us win.”

With the talent on ND, and many of them juniors and seniors it’s no surprise that plenty of scouts were there as well as media. So, you know that Baldwin just rocketed up some boards for 2011.

The new ‘do made Baldwin stand out, but it was the epic performance he delivered in a 27-22 victory over Notre Dame on Saturday night that turned heads all over the country.

NFL scouts in the press box must have been drooling when they watched the 6-foot-5, 225-pound Baldwin make two catches that any great receiver this town has seen — Larry Fitzgerald, Lynn Swann, whoever — would have been proud to call his own.

Notre Dame’s star receiver, Golden Tate, was getting all the publicity heading into the game, which led a reporter to wonder if Baldwin was trying to “make a statement.”

“I don’t get much into that stuff,” he said. “I just go out there and make the plays that are there to be made.”

Pitt made the big plays throughout the game. On the ground and air. Something that ND’s defense has allowed to happen all season.

Didn’t we just see this last week?

The Irish defense, one of the worst in the country giving up plays of 20 yards or more, was true to form. The Panther offense had six plays of at least 20 yards.

Weis calls them “explosives.” Saturday they detonated a desperate bid. Later, they may add to the implosion of a regime.

Pitt generated 429 yards of total offense. Stull wasn’t sacked, and the Panthers didn’t have a turnover.

The puzzling over ND’s struggles keeps falling on the coaching since they have the talent.

Recruiting evaluations over the last five years don’t add up to explain the present situations facing the Notre Dame and Pittsburgh programs.

Both have head coaches that took over in 2005. Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis and Dave Wannstedt at Pittsburgh had to do some scrambling to put that first class together.

Since then, the Irish have had talent success that hasn’t necessarily translated onto the field.

That first year was the only year that Rivals.com rated the Panthers (38th in the country) ahead of the Irish (40).

Notre Dame has had its classes ranked in the top 10 three times – 2006 (eighth), 2007 (eighth) and 2008 (second). Those years, Pitt was 21st, 26th and 28th, respectively. Last year, Rivals rated Notre Dame 21st and Pittsburgh 47th.

In those five years, the Irish have signed seven five-star recruits while Pitt has landed just one.

But there is always that decided schematic advantage.

Even as Pitt is on the edge of discussions for the BCS bowls, the team is sticking with the “one-game-at-a-time” position.  It makes them a collectively boring quote.

Q: I see a really positive trend in the maturity of this team Paul. I have noticed in this six game win streak, the team has had less penalties. Aside from the absurd 4 or 5 pass interference calls against them in the Syracuse game has this team matured through this year?

ZEISE: Yes, the maturity factor is key to the success. And while there are a lot of signs of it on the field — the lack of penalties, the composure, the lack of panic, the lack of making key mistakes and turnovers — where it really shows up is during the week. This team is all business. A lot of us media types often say this team is one of the most fun Pitt teams to watch in recent history – but one of the most boring to cover. And by boring, I mean, they are focused, they are serious and they don’t say much of anything during the week. It is just all business with this group. They practice hard, they are focused and a couple of the guys who are seniors have set the tone by making it clear that anything less than a Big East championship will be a failure.

Pitt QBs have endeared themselves to fans when they show toughness. Rutherford won over many when he ran over defenders — particularly in a VT game. Palko for knocking over a BC guy. Not only tough plays, but moments that swung the momentum and energy completely to the Pit side of things. Stull didn’t do it like that against ND with the ball and plowing a guy over. Instead, he threw a key block that was big.

Stull’s numbers — 15 of 27 for 236 yards and a touchdown — were rather ordinary. Yet, Stull’s extraordinary lead block helped pave the way for tailback Ray Graham’s dazzling 52-yard run in the third quarter.

Graham scored from the 2-yard line on the next play to give Pitt a 20-3 lead. The margin was too wide for the Irish and their star quarterback Jimmy Clausen to erase.

While Graham’s touchdown and a 152-yard effort by tailback Dion Lewis enabled the Panthers to stretch their record to 9-1, it was Stull’s block that fueled a Pitt engine that seemingly ran on empty much of the first half.

“That was a highlight reel in one run,” Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said. “I’ll have to wait and see (who missed tackles).”

It wasn’t the missed tackles. Rather, it was Stull’s block of Notre Dame strong safety Sergio Brown — a telling blow that energized his teammates and the Pitt fans.

And luckily he didn’t get concussed doing it.

It seems a little early — what with two games left — to declare the promise fulfilled, but it fits with the whole full circle of the ND game now and in 2005.

That was in 2005, Dave Wannstedt’s first game as Pitt’s head coach, a 42-21 loss to the Irish. After the game he said the Panthers would not be able to compete until he rebuilt their lines. He then preached patience because he said rebuilding lines — as well as changing the mentality of a team — took time.

With that in mind he took to the recruiting trail hard in search of offensive and defensive linemen and made several changes in the next two years that he believed would give the Panthers’ lines a chance to develop into dominant units.

Those included moving Greg Gattuso from tight ends coach to defensive line coach after the 2005 season and hiring Tony Wise as the offensive line coach and Buddy Morris as the strength and conditioning coach after the 2007 season.

Fast forward to Saturday night when those same Irish came to Heinz Field to play the Panthers. By the time that game was halfway over this much was clear — Wannstedt has delivered on his promise of rebuilding the Panthers’ offensive and defensive lines into physical and dominant units.

West Virginia next week will be the continuation of another full circle moment regarding the need to “get faster.”

The House Rock Built are violating all sorts of Domer stereotypes of entitled, too-full-of-themselves, humorless, bandwagon fans that feel everyone is against ND and it is all because of jealousy. They are actually taking their imploding season with, you know, humor.

I will not hold that against them, since they are producing fine muppetry.

Binghamton acting head coach Mike Macon is just trying to make sure his team’s psyche isn’t further damaged after the game.

“You kind of try to see their psyche going into a game like this,” Macon said. “A lot of guys never played a team like Pitt in their careers. We had three guys returning who played Duke last year, but they didn’t get a high measure of minutes. It was a quantum leap (from the opener against Bloomsburg).

“This is where we want to be. How do we get there? Accept the challenge. Go out and be tough. Go out and let people know you’re here.”

Little side note, the story above from the Binghamton paper was written by the P-G Pitt beat writer, Ray Fittipaldo. Outstanding to pump out two different stories for the same game. That’s working smarter.

His P-G story focused on the backcourt performance of Gibbs and Woodall. Mainly Gibbs since he was drilling the 3s.

“I knew it was going to come sooner or later, so I wanted to be patient with it,” Gibbs said. “I wanted to be unselfish and take the open shot. I have confidence in myself. If I have an open one, I’m going to be confident enough to make it and keep shooting.”

That is exactly what he did in the first half when he almost single-handedly beat the Bearcats on the scoreboard. Gibbs had as many points at halftime as Binghamton (17). He made five of his six 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes, including three in a span of 1:45 midway through the half. All five 3-pointers came in a little more than nine minutes.

Woodall, though, very quietly notched a double-double with 10 points and 13 assists. The assists totals were helped by the fact that Pitt made 50% of the shots. Not as many loose balls and plays that weren’t set.

Plus when you pass to Gibbs and he drills 3s, it really helps pad the stats.

Gibbs made six 3-pointers on the way to a career-high 22 points, highlighted by a searing first-half run in which he made five 3-pointers in a 9-minute, 6-second span.

“I knew it was going to come sooner or later,” he said. “I just wanted to be patient with it.”

It was the most 3-pointers by a Pitt player since Levance Fields made six at Cincinnati on Jan. 24, 2007. No Pitt player has ever made more 3s in a game at the Pete.

Woodall, though, is playing humble and giving credit to watching Fields.

Woodall’s assist total — which ties the seventh-best ever by a Pitt player — came in his second career start. By contrast, Fields, the player Woodall is trying to replace, didn’t get his first double-digit assist game until his 66th start (as a senior against Miami, Ohio), and surpassed Woodall’s 13 assists only once in 100 career starts at Pitt.

Woodall said watching Fields last season while taking a redshirt is the reason for his progress.

“That’s him helping me,” Woodall said. “It’s almost like me cheating to get 13 assists, because he helped me out a lot.”

Pitt outrebounded Binghamton by only 6. It wasn’t because of the frontcourt. Robinson grabbed 10 and McGhee and Taylor combined for 10 boards. Coach Dixon was bothered by the guards not getting after the long ones.

“We’re concerned for obvious reasons,” Dixon said. “We have to get our guards to rebound more, especially on the long 3s. The guards have to get those.”

Coach Dixon was also named 2009 USA Basketball Coach of the Year thanks to coaching the U-19 team to a gold medal.

“Jamie Dixon has established himself as one of the finest collegiate coaches there is in the game today and this past summer he proved himself on the international court too,” said USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo. “In leading the USA Men’s U19 Team to the World Championship, he not only accomplished something that the U.S. had not done since 1991, but to do so he had to quickly form a team from 12 individual players and earn their respect and confidence. He obviously did so and his team responded by winning it’s nine games in an impressive team manner.”

Butler’s Shelvin Mack was the quote from a player lauding Dixon.

“(Coach Dixon) helped my game out a lot,” Mack said in a news release from USA Basketball. “He stressed that I should be more of a leader and more vocal. Since I was a point guard, I was more in control in making sure everyone got the ball in the right position, and he helped me accept that role. He made it clear that my job was to get everyone involved, stay positive and not worry about individual goals.

“His practices were very intense,” Mack continued. “Everything was full speed, so you had to pick up things quickly. But he emphasized the right things, the things you need to do to be successful.”

Maybe it is because my old law school roommate was a SUNY Binghamton grad so it makes the win even better from that perspective. Even if it was some 12 years ago.

It was a fairly easy 71-46 win for Pitt. The game was never truly in doubt. Not with a Binghamton team that lost almost all of their key players. What it was, was an opportunity for those of us outside of Pittsburgh to see the team early. I for one, was especially juiced to finally watch.

With the Pitt team this year, the beginning of the season, and the competition faced this is not a game that you judge in terms how they will compete in the Big East or make the NCAA. It’s one in which you watch individual players, look to see how chemistry is working, and generally strengths and weaknesses. Or that could just be how I am looking at it.

I wasn’t surprised to see how empty the Pete looked, but a solid student turnout.

I was happy with the play calling crew of John Saunders and Bob Valvano. No, they aren’t one of the regular b-ball playcalling crews. In fact, they rarely do any game calls at this point for the Mouse Monopoly. That’s what made it pretty good. No personal affections for the coaches and players. Not being bogged down by crap. Inside jokes, personal crap. Mainly focusing on the game itself. It was refreshing from pros who can call a game.

Bob Valvano made a great point late in the game about how Pitt had communicated all game long on defense. Observing that it was something they watched the coaches emphasize in practice and shoot-arounds.

So, from my notes on the game.

From a strictly physical standpoint, Gary McGhee looks so much better. Credit the Pitt basketball nutrition and conditioning folk. He’s come a long way from his freshman year with his physique. He runs more and can definitely come out further to defend. That said, his defense is clearly limited and the coaches are doing what they can to help.

It was very noticeable early that when Binghamton got the ball inside against McGhee, the nearest guard would collapse in from the perimeter and help. The risk, obviously was creating an open perimeter shot. Against Binghamton that was not too much of a risk. As Pitt opened up more of a lead, they let McGhee go one-on-one a lot more — primarily in the second half — and then Binghamton found more shots inside.

The guard play is definitely an uneven thing. Early in the game, they looked very unsure. Swinging the ball around a lot and hesitant to take shots. As Pitt started getting some putbacks and rebounds inside, Binghamton was unable to keep the perimeter pressure creating lots of open looks especially for Ashton Gibbs.

Gibbs was getting and making open looks and spot-up shots from the perimeter. That blew the game open and made it easy for the rest of Pitt’s offense.

Chase Adams is a dynamo on defense. He harasses and bothers whoever he is on. That said, whether he is deferring as the new guy or it is his size, he is very tentative on offense. He only took (and missed) 3 shots, all from the 3-point arc. He looked very frustrated that he couldn’t get clean looks very easily.

Brad Wanamaker is one of the few upper-classmen playing right now. He’s also a very clear leader. It was very noticeable when he was out there that other players were looking to him to instruct and guide them to where they should be. If Woodall wants to be the point guard running things this year, he needs to know what the whole team should be doing and show some assertiveness.

You have to love the energy and effort from Nasir Robinson. He is visibly working on every possession he is out there. He’s giving great effort and gritty solid defense. That said, he is so awkward on offense. At times, I swear it is like he is trying to score points  with an unseen style judge. Not finishing his drives cleanly and strongly. Trying instead to finesse and abruptly avoid contact.

If you are a fan who can’t understand poor free throw shooting. Rants against it, and just plain doesn’t like it. Well, you are in for a long season. I do not exaggerate to say that there will be at least two losses this season where someone can (and likely will) point to the free throw shooting and say, “if they had shot at least 65% or better Pitt would have won.” Just warning you now.

Dante Taylor knows how to step in and take charges. If he played for Duke, I would hate his guts.

Dwight Miller, Talib Zanna and J.J. Richardson all played just a few minutes each. Richardson had energy and lots of athleticism. But very, very raw. Zanna didn’t have the energy, but the potential is only matched by how raw he is. Miller is most likely the one who has a chance to crack the rotation this year. Very active and was putting the effort on the defensive end first. That will go a long way to getting minutes.

The coaches on the bench amused the hell out of me. Of course, Dixon never sat, but Herrion and Knight quite literally would take turns standing and screaming as well. Knight would be there exhorting the guards and  getting after them. Then you would see Herrion tap him, Knight would sit and Herrion immediately would pop-up to go after the forwards. It would alternate.

Definitely going to be a journey with this team.

I’m on DVR delay to watch later. That means I have to enter social media deprivation.

I’ll be back after I watch with my thoughts. In the meantime, if you get to watch or go to the game. Please share.

Years from now, the story of the Binghamton Bearcats will be told as a cautionary campfire tale to scare overly ambitious athletic directors at low-mid-majors and coaches looking to take shortcuts of the potential dangers.

From their first NCAA appearance ever and widely expected to win the America East in 2010 to a mess.

Six months after losing to Duke in the first round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament, Binghamton (1-0) was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

In a five-week span beginning in late September, six players were kicked off the team, including star guard Emanuel “Tiki” Mayben, arrested for distribution of cocaine; athletic director Joel Thirer resigned; coach Kevin Broadus was placed on an indefinite paid leave of absence; the athletic department underwent an independent review by the State University of New York; and the school self-reported to the NCAA for secondary violations under Broadus.

Then, after all that, the Bearcats — the conference’s defending champion — blew off the American East preseason Media Day in Hartford last month.

…

Mayben was joined by five other players kicked off the team two days later (reasons were not given by their dismissals). Among them were the team’s top scorer, guard D.J. Rivera; guard Malik Alvin, the team’s third-leading scorer; and former Rutgers transfer Corey Chandler.

Three weeks before the start of practice, Binghamton didn’t have enough players to hold a live scrimmage. Former Temple great Mark Macon, an assistant under Broadus, was promoted to interim coach Oct. 14, three days before the start of practice.

That is a heavily abbreviated and fairly sanitized version of how bad things are.

As it stands, the Beacats of SUNY-Binghamton have only 7 players on scholarships. Days before the season started they had tryouts to have more walk-ons if only to get bodies to practice against.

It showed as the Bearcats managed to win their season opener 54-49 over D-2 Bloomsburg. A team that won 4 games last season and well here’s some of their competition: IUP, Slippery Rock, Kutztown, Clarion and other forces in the PSAC.

It’s a situation that has the 40-year old, never been a head coach before Macon spouting cliches at every turn trying to be positive.

“We play to win,” Macon said. “I guess they put their pants or shorts on like we do. We’re men, we’re trying to win. We respect our opponents, we also want to win.”

…

“It takes time, we’re only two games in (including the exhibition game against Holy Family), with a month or so of practice,” Macon said. “We have a whole new team. Now we have to build these things on a daily basis.”I wish it could happen in one day, but it doesn’t happen like that. I do have confidence in all my guys.”

Enough. Enough with the cliches.

“There is always opportunity in adversity,” Macon said. “There are always good things that come from facing adversity. If you press coal long enough you get a diamond. We’ll go through our ups and downs. We’ll try to get better. But we’re always going to play hard and play to win.”

Something  in the notes that Pitt turned down the ESPN Hoops Marathon last year because of a less than friendly time slot. Good for Pitt. This is a great little gimmick, but Pitt and the Big East already bend over too much with their football deal with ESPN. 5:30 is going to be tricky enough.

It should be interesting to see what kind of crowd comes out for the game tomorrow evening. A 5:30 p.m. weekday start is unprecedented at Pitt. Not only are most people working until 5 o5 6, but the traffic getting to Oakland will be interesting to say the least at that time of the day. Jamie Dixon said today he has no idea what to expect.

Lots of aggravation I’m guessing from those trying to get to the Pete.

Aaron Berry took a lot of criticism early in the season. The corner was another player who fell far short of expectations in 2008. Considering his doghouse status in the spring, he had little goodwill banked. He also struggled early in the season and then got injured in the UConn game and had to miss the Rutgers game.

Oddly, since coming back he’s been solid. Put it this way: the complaints have been very, very limited. He may not be the shut-down corner that Revis was, but he had been doing the job in a way that has reminded me of Shawntae Spencer.

Berry had been doing a solid job on Tate in the ND game, but went out with a shoulder injury (again) in the second half. Ricky Gary came in and did decently in relief, but he came out as well with an injury. After the Buddy Jackson flag fest from the 4th quarter of the Syracuse game, the coaches were left putting in Antwuan Reed, who was no match for Tate. That as much as anything was a major reason why the ND offense seemed to wake up in the 4th quarter.

It wasn’t surprising to see nothing from the national and ND media perspective. I mean, in part the Domers have a script in their losses where they stumble along for the first 3 quarters and stage a furious comeback in the 4th that succeed (Michigan State) or fall short (USC and Navy). So that was familiar.

Pitt’s defense hadn’t face a team ranked higher in total offense than 30th (N.C, State) in the 120-team Football Bowl Subdivision and more than half of the offenses they clashed with ranked below 70th. N.C. State was also the only top 30 passing offense Pitt had had to deal with.

The Irish came in fifth in total offense and sixth in passing offense. But they took too long to find any kind of offensive rhythm against the Panthers, and finished with a season-low 349 total yards.

Clausen’s final numbers weren’t Heisman-esque (27-of-42 for 283 yards, 1 TD and one interception), but he and Tate (9 receptions, 113 yards) were all that kept the Panthers from turning the Irish into Youngstown State. He quietly eclipsed the 3,000-yard passing mark for the second straight season, something only Brady Quinn has done previously in Notre Dame history.

I was mildly surprised not to see anything in the local write-ups. What makes it surprising is that Zeise did acknowledge how big it was in his blog notes.

Pitt made it through for the most part healthy except for two key injuries which likely changed the outcome of the game, or at least the final score. First Aaron Berry went down with a shoulder injury (and did not return) and then Ricky Gary went down with an undisclosed injury and as a result, Pitt had to finish the game with only one healthy experienced corner and the Irish clealry took advantage of it. Gary is OK but Wannstedt said he’s not sure what is going on with Berry’s shoulder and won’t know until today. Berry can miss the WVU game – the Mountaineers don’t pass that much anyway – but Pitt absolutely needs him to have a chance to beat Cincinnati.

No word on Gary’s injury but according to Coach Wannstedt, Berry is “day-to-day.”

“He’s day to day,” Wannstedt said. “This is a good week to have a bye for guys like Aaron. He was in here [Sunday] and did fine, though he is sore. It was not a season-ending injury or anything like that, so he’s just going to work through it.

“[Berry’s injury] provided a learning experience [for several young defensive backs who had to fill in] and they did fine against probably the best one-two combination of receivers in the country. And [safety] Jarred Holley has been a pleasant addition.”

Yes, Pitt learned that they need Berry to get healthy.

I still miss Bloom County.

Pitt survived its game with Wofford. Time will tell just how tough Wofford was. Off-hand and without having seen the game, I’d say Woodall and Gibbs shooting a combined 6-22 was a big issue.

That said, it still went in as a win. Gary McGhee is not Blair, or Gray or even Ontario Lett. Still he’s showing progress.

Plus, while the defense was spotty in the first half, they held Wofford late.

Pitt, which trailed 31-24 at halftime, clamped down on Wofford defensively. The Terriers, who returned all five starters from a 16-14 Southern Conference team, scored only six points in the final 6:22 of the game.

“I thought we were in good shape, but they made more plays than we did when it counted most,” Wofford coach Mike Young said. “Our guys are devastated that we didn’t finish the deal. They feel like we blew it.”

Coach Dixon felt that the team would respond better to reassurances than lots of screaming at halftime.

Dixon started five new players for the first time in his career, and it showed in the early stages. There were uncharacteristic defensive breakdowns, bad turnovers and poor blockouts on rebounds. That was the most disappointing part for Dixon, whose program was built around defense and rebounding.

Even though things looked bleak with a 31-24 deficit at the intermission, Dixon took a different approach in the locker room.

“I didn’t hop all over them,” he said. “I told them, ‘I guarantee you that we play better in the second half.’ It was almost like we were too pumped up to play.”

That was the result of the emotional pregame ceremony when the players watched taped video messages from the four departed players who meant so much to the team a year ago — Sam Young, DeJuan Blair, Levance Fields and Tyrell Biggs.

“It was real emotional, seeing those guys,” Wanamaker said. “Then, we had the jitters. It was everyone’s first start, so we were nervous.”

Hopefully. We will see a little more tomorrow  when Pitt plays at 5:30 as part of the ESPN Hoops Marathon. The game is on ESPN2. Andy Katz at ESPN2 has a list of reasons to watch all the games.

14. The imploding program: Binghamton. This almost feels like slowing down to see the damage left by a wreck on the side of the road. After six of the Bearcats’ best players (who accounted for 89 percent of the scoring) were thrown off the team in September, just three bodies remain of the defending America East champs, and the roster includes six walk-ons. Former Temple star Mark Macon got his first win as interim coach when the Bearcats beat Division II Bloomsburg 54-49 on Saturday. But trying to beat Pitt at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN2 is a different story.

15. The next DeJuan Blair: Dante Taylor, Pitt. Taylor has the physique but doesn’t muster the Blair effort just yet. He scored 13 points and grabbed five boards in Pitt’s comeback win over Wofford on Friday night. The Panthers will need a consistent effort out of Taylor.

Yeah. Before Binghamton self-detonated, it looked like that could have been a very tough game. Not going to be able to liveblog it. In fact, I have to DVR-delay watching. There will be an open thread, of course.

As big a recruiting weekend as it was for Pitt football, the Pitt basketball team is already angling for 2011 with Sterling Gibbs stopping by unofficially. I’m not sure how serious either side is right now, but the lines are still open. Even plans for 2012 are afoot as Omar Calhoun, a 6-4 sophomore guard already offered by Villanova and getting interest from Louisville and Kansas took a visit.

“It was a tremendous visit,” said Calhoun Sr., “Coach Knight has been incredible and it was great because we were able to see what kind of emphasis Coach Dixon and their program put on supporting their players academically. Seeing that piece of the puzzle was very important to both Omar (a 4.0 student) and I. It was also really nice to see the way they still have their arms around players from the past as well as both Carl Krauser and Ronald Ramon were around, two New York guys, and still welcomed with open arms even though they’re no longer student athletes. That was impressive and definitely showed that it’s a family at Pitt. It was obvious to me they really care about the kids on and off the floor and give them a lot of individual attention.” Calhoun was also impressed with the Peterson Events Center.

“The facilities were beautiful,” said Calhoun, “and we were able to experience a true game-day atmosphere because the game was very competitive and exciting, they showed a lot of grit in coming back to win that game and their crowd was into it. Coach Dixon was gracious enough to spend time and talk to us after and expressed that Omar is a priority for them.” Asked about any list his son might have in his head Calhoun Sr. said: “After that visit Pitt has to be right at the top, it’s hard to imagine anything topping it.”

Sounds nice. Again, this is only a high school sophomore. Take it all with a grain of salt.

This time, next week Pitt will have a tough game against the Wichita State Shockers in Kansas City. One thing to note, while Pitt will still be without Jermaine Dixon (probably) and Gilbert Brown, the Shockers will lack their senior starting guard and leading scorer.

Wichita State is already 1-0 without leading scorer senior guard Clevin Hannah, who was suspended for the first three games because he wasn’t properly certified last season. The error was deemed to be administrative. That’s too bad for the Shockers. Hannah misses the Arkansas-Moticello game but will also have to sit out the CBE semifinal against Pitt in Kansas City, a game the Shockers would (and maybe still can) have a shot at winning.

Pitt’s got a couple games between now and then to keep improving.

The John Mackey Award for best tight end cut down the list to 8 semi-finalists.

Dorin Dickerson is on that list.

The Nassau County Sports Commission has announced eight semi-finalists for the 2009 John Mackey Award. Listed alphabetically, they are Dorin Dickerson (SR, Pittsburgh), Ed Dickson (SR, Oregon), Aaron Hernandez (JR, Florida), Anthony McCoy (SR, USC), Tony Moeaki (SR, Iowa), Dennis Pitta (SR, BYU), Kyle Rudolph (SO, Notre Dame) and Cody Slate (SR, Marshall).

The eight semi-finalists were determined by confidential balloting of the John Mackey Selection Committee. The 2009 John Mackey Award finalists will be announced on Monday, November 23, 2009 at www.johnmackeyaward.org.

So, let’s look at the numbers to this point:

• Dickerson: 43 receptions, 496 yards, 10 TDs
• Dickson: 37 receptions, 488 yards, 5 TDs
• Aaron Hernandez: 46 receptions, 571 yards, 2 TDs
• McCoy: 17 receptions, 382 yards, 1 TD
• Moeaki: 26 receptions, 302 yards, 4 TDs
• Pitta: 45 receptions, 624 yards, 5 TDs
• Rudolph: 33 receptions, 364 yards, 3 TDs
• Slate: 50 receptions, 607 yards, 4 TDs

By the numbers you can probably eliminate McCoy and Moeaki from making the list of finalists for next week. Rudolph is also out at this point because he is injured and at best might be back for a bowl game so his numbers are stuck where they are.

Slate might not make the cut, despite really good numbers because he got hurt in the last game and might be done for the season. He had great numbers, but they were also for Marshall which hurts the chances because of the C-USA competition.

That leaves Dickson, Hernandez, Pitta and Dickerson. The finalist list is the top-3 candidates.

I would say that Hernandez is a lock since he is an integral part of the Florida offense and on the #1 team.

Pitta and Dickson are both the leading receivers for yards and receptions for their respective teams. I think Pitta might not make it because of the infrequency of anyone seeing him and how BYU has failed compared to early expectations.

Dickerson’s 10 TDs are impossible to overlook since it is twice as many as anyone else on the list. He leads Pitt in receptions and is second in yardage. The problem is that Pitt has a bye week so his numbers in terms of yardage could suffer when it comes time to make the cut.

I think Dickerson should make the top-3 cut, but if both Pitta and Dickson have big games it could bump Dickerson right out of it.

Heh.

Other than a cash cow for ESPN and the author, this is why you wait to write history.

Plenty of copies still available from this 2006 epic. The reviews, were awesome especially this one that links to the Ty Willingham specials.

You will forgive me if I don’t bother with much of the national media which is just working on the autopsy of Charlie Weis. It is the dominant storyline. It is the way it is. It was the big story going into the game and nothing changed.Here’s a fine fact sheet on Weis that was compiled before the loss.

Generally, the Irish fans are almost past caring. He’s done. Just fire his ass. Get a new guy (paging, Brian Kelly) — especially since Gruden seems to be staying in the booth. Weis even canceled his usual Sunday post-game presser for the first time since coming to ND.

ND isn’t going to make it easy to watch the coaching search. They are even blocking the tracking of their private plane.

A great weekend. The only downside are those reminders of age catching up to me. Loved the atmosphere. Not having to be on the road at 7 am on a Saturday. Tailgating all day. Being able to go out afterwards. Not driving back the same day. But…

Ending up crashing on a friend’s couch sometime after 2 am and waking up with a sore back and a bad night of sleep before driving home was a definite downside. I was dragging and off all of yesterday and still feel like I’m trying to put things back together today.

The Pitt Shop down on Forbes Ave may not have the best selection or prices, but they are a lot smarter than the official athletic department store in the Pete. They not only open on Sundays, they open at 9am. When you are an out-of-towner, this is a nice thing to be able swing over to campus before leaving. They were doing brisk business, but no where near as packed as the places can be on a Saturday (which is part of why I don’t go over on Saturday). An instance where the University is being smarter than the Athletic Department.

As for this week’s winner, it isn’t easy. No one hit the exact score of 27-22, but a lot of close ones.

Brian was  a total of 3 points away at 28-24. Same with m24romano with 28-20.

Justin closed at 27-20 to be off by 2. Also 2 points away was CSK at 28-21. As was Matt42 with 27-24.

Two guys, though, picked within 1 point.

Jared S. was within 1 point at 27-23 and Cool Hand Nuke was on the other side at 27-21. On the toin coss, Cool Hand Nuke prevailed.

Special LiveBlog for those of you unable to get to the game. Yes, I’m at the game, but Lee in Altoona will be running the show tonight. Lee is an original poster to this site back when it started.

He’s stuck in Altoona because it was his son’s birthday today and, well, he’s whipped. Still he’s going to run the show tonight.

I’ll be tweeting, and set up the live blog to show my tweets during the game. I’ll also be tweeting during the tailgating — provided I’m conscious. I’ve yet to see Pitt win against ND while tailgating on the North Side. That needs to change.