More than a little hype for this one. Promoted by ESPN channels all weekend. No matter what they were broadcasting. An ad for Cuse-Pitt was going to show up somewhere at sometime.
Fun fact. Pitt is a Big East, Big Monday team in three of the next four weeks. Rest of the Big East might be a little tired of that.
7:30 pm with the tolerable Dan Shulman and the excruciating Dick Vitale on ESPN. Make sure you have the appropriate adult beverage to numb the aching in the ears.
In-laws staying with us. Kids off from school. And basically, just trying to get all the crap I’m expected to do so I can start watching basketball around 3:30 with UConn-Nova. Liveblog for the Cuse-Pitt game at 7:30 tonight, as you would expect.
Just going to plow through the links and stories. And if you are a student going to the game, shouldn’t you be in line?
As is usual these days with a new coach, it isn’t enough for him to be good coach and recruiter. We have to like him. We have to know his story, the losses and what made him who he is.
Sorry if this sounds too cynical. It’s just that while this is the common thing, it still comes down to wins and losses. It won’t matter how sympathetic his story is, or carefully packaged information that might offer insights into what makes Todd Graham tick. It is simply about winning.
That’s not to say there weren’t interesting nuggets in the profile pieces today. The influence of a high school coach that helped change his life. The mother that worked multiple jobs and sacrificed for her kids.
There are games where one player dominates and changes the game. There are others where a team plays so far over its head, or a team plays so far underwater. This was not anything like those games. This was a game where a team played a simple game of using its strengths to exploit the weaknesses of the opponent.
Pitt is blessed with outstanding depth at virtually all positions. Seton Hall not so much, and even less in the front court. That quickly became an area Pitt targeted in a relatively easy rout of Seton Hall, 74-53.
The Pirates have a frontline of Herb Pope and Jeff Robinson and that’s about it. The one other guy that tries to spell both is a true freshman. That means a relatively undersized frontcourt can’t play aggressively for fear of picking up too many fouls. Pitt’s game plan was to take advantage of this by going inside, often.
I realize many of you will have your attention divided by the Ravens-Steelers game, so I’m counting on the NY, NJ and Philly-based Pitt fans to show up tonight.
The game is on ESPN FullCourt, ESPN3.com, SNY, MASN and FoxSports Pittsburgh starting at 7pm.
Remember, new football HC Todd Graham will be showing up for the game tonight. Let’s put some drinking game rules in place. Drink when he hits the talking points from his press conference and message to Pitt fans. Kill whatever bottle from which you are consuming if he is almost verbatim from the message.
Odds were if you were going to the Pete tonight, it was to see Pitt take on Seton Hall. But as an added bonus, New football Head Coach Todd Graham will be on hand.
Hope Coach Jamie Dixon talks to his team about the Marquette-Louisville game today. Marquette up by 17 with 5:44 left and lost by one. It was an inspired comeback by Louisville at home, and Preston Knowles went off in the final five minutes. But Marquette made it possible. Rather than trying to keep attacking and run their offense, they tried to run a four-corners offense and then chuck up a shot with 2 seconds left. Something that just shouldn’t be done in the shot-clock era — and especially when you don’t have the shooters or poise. I was pissed at Marquette for that stupidity, and I didn’t care who won.
Liveblog tonight as you would expect.
Going all the way back to Todd Graham’s opening press conference at Pitt. Graham uttered one statement that should be remembered.
“Kids sign with coaches. I really believe that.”
So, it should come as no surprise, then that kids who committed to Tulsa when they thought Graham would be their coach would look at Pitt.
Yesterday, Jakeem Grant, a receiver from Mesquite, Texas, decommitted from TU and is interested in Pitt, the Dallas Morning News reported. Grant’s coach calls his player the fastest man in Texas.
Today, I’m told by one of our TU beat writers, another Hurricane receiver commitment now has Pitt on his list. TU commitment Keyarris Garrett, a 6-4 receiver from Daingerfield, Texas, is taking visits. (Mike Brown is working on a story for Sunday’s paper about the impact Graham’s departure has had on recruiting.)
Garrett’s high school coach told Brown that Garrett has added Pitt to his list in the last few days. Garrett plans to visit TU this weekend, but he also will visit Pitt and Louisiana Tech in the next couple of weeks, according to his coach.
Garrett has 40 career TD receptions and is a member of a three-time state champion team. He’s a three-star recruit, according to Rivals.com, which also is reporting Garrett’s interest in Pitt.
Although evaluating recruits is never easy, these arguably are TU’s two best receiver commitments.
These two, plus Jason Frimpong are all coming to visit Pitt next week.
Kevin Willard returns to the place where he went to school, met his wife, played Pitt basketball for his father — and as a result probably caught more sh*t than he deserved. The first year Seton Hall coach, though, is not going to be caught saying anything negative.
Kevin Willard figures to reflect, if only for a moment, when he looks over at the Pitt basketball players Saturday.
There were years when he was one of them.
The first-year coach at Seton Hall played at Pitt for his father, Ralph, from 1995-97 and this weekend returns to campus as a head coach for the first time.
“I’m really proud how well they’ve done,” Willard said. “You have to have a sense of pride.”
Coach Dixon, possibly thinking ahead to a couple years when TCU is in the conference offered his own thoughts.
“It’s a unique situation,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I was thinking about here’s a guy coming back home, a place where he graduated and played at.”
Yes, and?
Pitt has its first new verbal since Todd Graham took over. A JUCO Offensive Tackle out of New Jersey named, Zenel Demhasaj.
Now Demhasaj is a 2-star recruit, but when it comes to evaluating JUCO players, ratings tend to be less accurate, plus he has been recovering from an ACL tear. When you factor in Pitt’s absolute need to get depth and fast on the O-line it seems like a decent risk.
Demhasaj was a guy Pitt was actually recruiting before Wannstedt was fired ($$). He’s big. Very big. Mearsuring 6-6 to 6-7 and about 320 pounds.
Time to get through some browser tabs and media reactions and stories relating to Head Coach Todd Graham, the hire by Pitt and anything else that I decide fits in this post.
As I said when the hire happened, the hiring process may seem like the easy part compared to all that has to follow. I’m sure Graham is going to make a public appearance at Pitt’s basketball game soon. I’m hoping it will not be until Monday. Bigger impact on a nationally televised game, and a much bigger crowd since there won’t be the conflict/overlap of Saturday night with the Ravens-Steelers at 4:30. (For those wondering why Pitt can’t/won’t change it. The time is locked in with Fox Sports Pittsburgh to televise, and the Big East since the women’s team is playing ND at 2 pm at the Pete.)
I don’t know the last time Pitt actually had a designated QB Coach (ever?). Walt Harris didn’t want/need one since that was sort of his thing. The OCs under Dave Wannstedt also served as a QB coach, and well, the results were mixed.
Coach Todd Graham appears to want a guy specifically teaching the QBs according to rumors/reports. The guy to do it is reportedly another Todd. In this case, Todd Dodge.
Dodge, for those unfamiliar with him, was considered one of the best high school coaches in the state of Texas. He ran an open offense (are we allowed to say “spread” with Graham — because that was what Dodge ran) called the “Air-Raid Offense.” Among Dodge’s QBs were Chase Daniel (Mizzou) and Greg McElroy (Alabama). In his last five years as a HS coach, his teams went 79-1.
Coming into last night’s game I expected a few scenarios. I thought Georgetown would come out desperate and energized. Knowing that their season was hanging in a precarious balance. They couldn’t afford a second straight home loss and start the season 1-4 in the Big East. They would be playing a lot better and with purpose against Pitt.
My expectations were honestly that Georgetown might overwhelm Pitt right away and put Pitt in the uncomfortable and unfamiliar role of having to come from behind for most of the game. Or that it would be a back-and-forth tight game throughout with it coming down to the final minute or two to decide it. I never expected to see Pitt just take it to Georgetown like that and see the Hoyas fold.
If you haven’t gotten the e-mail. Here’s the message from new football head coach Todd Graham. It appears to be nearly verbatim from his opening press conference, but still good stuff.
I’m re-posting it below the fold.
It’s a desperation game for the Hoyas. That loss to the Hoopies at home was something they didn’t need if they hope to win the Big East (or even finish in the top-4). So, Pitt is going to have a really tough one. Especially if the Hoyas snap out of their 3-point shooting slump.
Pitt was up-and-down in its only true road game this season. Pitt has been hot shooting 3s, and they will probably need it again tonight.
The game is on ESPN at 7pm.
Maybe you don’t need alumni coaching your school to make a rivalry game better. The Holgorsen-Graham feud appears to have people already fired up for next November. Well, at least on the WV side, they are ready to ignite couches post-haste.
The resurrected claims by Holgorsen from his days as Houston OC accusing Graham’s Tulsa teams of faking injuries/cramps to slow Houston’s offense has West Virginia columnists cackling with glee. To say nothing of the number of former West Virginia coaches now on Graham’s staff.
First, Graham is hiring Calvin Magee, Rich Rodriguez’s former right-hand man and offensive coordinator both at WVU for seven years and for the last few at Michigan. Magee initially endeared himself to Mountaineer fans for sticking around to call plays for the early 2008 Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma. He stuck around for the game after Rodriguez bolted. He did not, however, endear himself to the WVU administration when he and agent Mike Brown claimed he was not considered a possible replacement for Rodriguez because he is black.
Also, former Mountaineer assistant, fan favorite and Van native Tony Gibson is joining Graham in the Steel City.
The best is coming from the former Hoopie players seeing their position coaches now at Pitt.
The overwhelming response from these past players was to wish their former coaches well, while also acknowledging the awkwardness that will come with seeing a person they knew as a Mountaineer on the opposite sideline when Pittsburgh visits Morgantown in the fall.
But…
Larry Williams, who played his senior night in the infamous 100th edition of the Backyard Brawl back in 2007, was not quite ready for the news when he first heard it.
“I’m shocked,” said Williams. “This is one of those feelings like excuse me, what’d you just say? I just feel disappointed in a way. I understand everybody needs a job, but why Pitt? Out of all the schools you could have gone to, why are you going to go to the rivalry school? Why are you going to go to the program that we’ve grown through the years to actually hate? It just kind of hurts hearing it.”
Who said Pitt needed to hire DickRod to add gas to the couches.
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