A little administrative issue. Especially around this time of year there’s a lot of contests and promotional events centered around the NCAA Tournament. As most are internet based, they look to market them beyond simply advertising. A lot are going to “grass roots” campaigns. These consist of sending a flattering e-mail to relevant sports blogs to ask/suggest/recommend/submit for consideration posting on the promotional events.
They never seem to include any financial incentives for the blogger, so I get nothing out of these things.
This also goes on during football season for bowl promotions and other events.
Occasionally I’ll pass some along, but I seem to be getting more so I thought I’d see what the rest of you think. In the form of a simple poll question.
Maybe the one factor that’s missing is an unknown to most: how the selection committee will take the absence of Jermaine Dixon and Gilbert Brown into consideration.
Dixon missed the season’s first eight games rehabbing a knee injury and sat out the Panthers’ loss at South Florida with an ankle injury. Brown missed the first 11 games under academic suspension.
With Dixon, the Panthers’ shutdown defender, in the lineup, Pitt is 15-5 (.750) against a schedule that included 15 games against the RPI top 100. Against the RPI top 50, the Panthers are 6-2 with Dixon, a number better than Pitt’s overall mark vs. the top 50 (7-3). The numbers are similar against the top 100.
It’s a nice point, but I’m guessing it won’t get much weight considering the whole team improved into the season. Pitt’s run in the Big East will give it plenty of weight — assuming they take care of the next couple of games.
Hayward is fourth in the league in scoring (15.8) and third in rebounding (8.5). He credited Butler strength coach Jim Peal and USA coach Jamie Dixon of Pittsburgh for improving and expanding his game.
Dixon was “on me from day one” to rebound, Hayward said. “He was exactly right. Sometimes I would just sit on the perimeter and get ready to go back on defense.”
SNY.tv: What sold Jermaine, and so many other young athletes, on Pittsburgh?
JD:: When we talk to a player and player’s family, we make them a promise: you’re going to improve as a player, as a student, and as an individual. That’s what a coach’s job is. That’s what we put our efforts and our energy into. It’s about helping young people improve. When their time as a student is finished, I want them to be a better player, but ultimately, I want them to have their degree and to have become a better human being.
Lot of good stuff including wanting to be at a place where the fans aren’t satisfied (boy, is he at the right place). Plus he stated (at least for public consumption) that he felt the ND game was just one of those games where ND wasn’t going to lose to anyone. I can somewhat agree. The fact that it was a blowout loss, though, was on Pitt playing a step slow.
Speaking of defense, Providence does not seem to be playing any. Their coach is frustrated.
Up at PC, it is Spring Break, so the Friars’ campus is quiet. The one exception is inside Mullaney Gym, where Davis is still stinging from the 99-93 loss to South Florida. In the heated moments after that game, Davis could be heard from behind closed doors laying into his team. After pleading with his players all season for defensive basics such as closing out on shooters, getting back after made baskets, and halting penetration, the coach now seems to be swallowing hard, shrugging his shoulders and thinking a better defense won’t appear until next November.
“We need our returning guys to improve defensively or they won’t play as much or at all,” Davis said Monday in the toughest remarks he’s made all season about a defense that is allowing 81.2 points, the third-worst total in the nation. “Some of our players have offense as their strength and their weakness is on defense. That’s going to change or they won’t be playing.”
Davis insists he knows how to teach defense. He considers it a priority, although this team seems to regard it as an afterthought. He’d like to hold his weakest defenders more accountable for their misdeeds, but says a lack of depth has prevented him from making those moves.
“There’s a point where guys make mistakes, and as a coach you can sit them, but are you ruining your chances of winning a game?” Davis said. “I’m always about winning each game. Accountability comes down to flexibility. With our top six or seven (players), you have to fight through their faults.”
It will be interesting to see if they respond to having a national game and absolutely being embarrassed. Last night, during the Georgetown-WVU game Jay Bilas called Providence the “Worst defensive team I’ve ever seen in the Big East.” Yow.
