The Oakland Zoo has the new design for the Zoo t-shirt this year. It’s a clean look and apparently already on sale.
Pitt also announced the non-con schedule for 2011-12. I’m not saying that the Pitt athletic department was purposefully downplaying this news, but I get suspicious whenever information like this is released on a Friday.
Looking it over. Yeah, it’s not exactly one that screams out “daunting.”
Or even “challenging.”
2011-12 PITT MEN’S BASKETBALL NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
(as of August 20, 2011; schedule subject to change)
Date Opponent (TV) Location Time
| Saturday, Oct. 22 | BLUE GOLD SCRIMMMAGE/ | ||
| FAN FEST/MAGGIE DIXON HEART | Petersen Events Center | TBA | |
| HEALTH FAIR |
| Saturday, Oct. 29 | LA ROCHE (Exh.) | Petersen Events Center | TBA |
| Monday, Nov. 7 | KENTUCKY WESLEYAN (Exh.) | Petersen Events Center | TBA |
| Friday, Nov. 11 | ALBANY | Petersen Events Center | TBA |
| Sunday, Nov. 13 | &RIDER | Petersen Events Center | TBA |
| Wednesday, Nov. 16 | LONG BEACH STATE | Petersen Events Center | TBA |
| Tuesday, Nov. 22 | &La SALLE | Petersen Events Center | TBA |
Philly HoopGroup Classic (Philadelphia, Pa.)
| Friday, Nov. 25 | at &Penn | Philadelphia, Pa./The Palestra | TBA |
| Sunday, Nov. 27 | &ROBERT MORRIS | Petersen Events Center | TBA |
| Wednesday, Nov. 30 | vs. Duquesne | Consol Energy Center | TBA |
Big East/SEC Challenge
| Saturday, Dec. 3 | at Tennessee (ESPN) | Knoxville, Tenn. | 5:15 p.m. |
| Tuesday, Dec. 6 | VMI | Petersen Events Center | TBA |
Madison Square Garden Classic (New York, N.Y.)
| Saturday, Dec. 10 | vs. Oklahoma State (ESPN2) | New York, N.Y./MSG | 2:30 p.m. |
| Saturday, Dec. 17 | SOUTH CAROLINA STATE | Petersen Events Center | TBA |
| Tuesday, Dec. 20 | ST. FRANCIS, Pa. | Petersen Events Center | TBA |
| Friday, Dec. 23 | WAGNER | Petersen Events Center | TBA |
When the most dangerous home game is probably Long Beach State, it’s not going to be a non-con schedule that sells tickets. It isn’t even that this schedule is loaded with really bad teams. It is just that it is a schedule of all, very beatable teams.
The most difficult games are the road trips to Tennessee (SEC/Big East Invitational) and the semi-neutral court game with Oklahoma State at MSG. None of the opponents will really kill Pitt’s RPI or Pomerory rating, on its own. They just will do very little to enhance Pitt’s computer numbers.
I have to admit that I expect Pitt to go undefeated in the non-con, with a side of analysts (kind of legitimately) asking, “but who have they played?”
Finally, some more love for James Robinson, and the decision to go with Pitt.
Robinson’s gift is his ability to lead, assimilate within a team concept and use his cerebral play to galvanize a unit. He’s been a consistent winner his entire career at DeMatha and in travel team ball. Known for his competitiveness, his father said that winning the right way was ingrained in him from a young age.
“We don’t believe in the ‘I’ conversation around here,” James Robinson Sr. said. “When he was 4 or 5 years old we made a habit of talking about winning and doing it the right way. There’s a way to win or lose and how to compete.”
There are kids who talk about loving basketball and then there are kids who are students of the game. Robinson, according to Keith Stevens, his Team Takeover travel team coach, knows all of his weaknesses and plays with an edge that makes him mentally strong.
“The thing that he does, he really studies the game,” said Stevens. “He knows he’s not the quickest or the most athletic. He just asks questions. With this decision, he had to go somewhere he wasn’t going to lose. We lost four games all summer and he cried after every one one of them. He couldn’t go somewhere and learn how to lose. He’s a trickster, he’s an old-school guy that finds a way.”
I say it too often, but I, like Tony Dorsett, was just a kid checking out a bunch of colleges until I first saw the Catherdral — an architectural statement so powerful that kids have and will continue to decide to go to Pitt on the spot. When I drive to the airport on the Parkway East 22 years later, I still always glance back at the thing when you can see it briefly after the Squirrel Hill exit.
Seattle Pacific, Humboldt State, Oakland, Bryant University, Ball State, Northern Arizona and San Diego State. Not exactly causing a stampede for the ticket booths.
I hope they can find a way to get the Pitt/Penn game on TV before the Backyard Brawl on the 25th.
I’ll give Pitt a pass on the non-con. These are just pre-season games before the conference begins. Why waste your money on these tune-ups? I doubt these games will have much of an impact on Pitt’s RPI given Pitt does play in THE toughest and best conference.
Too bad football can’t say the same. When is this ACC/Big East merger going to happen anyway?
And, I stopped crying in March a long time ago. I’m hardened now and the taste of a Final Four will be all the sweeter when it happens. Until then, I’ll taste Bourbon and undergo electro shock to forget those maddening March losses.
Long Beach State won the BigWest conference last year and are returning 4 of their 5 best players, so that is not going to be a walkover. Pacific is in the BigWest(need I say more) and they and Pepperdine have beaten Pitt in the past. And Pitt travels to Penn where winning at the Palestra for a Pittsburgh team is NEVER easy.
Actually for losing team stalwarts like Wanny, Brownie & McGee and having a lot of unknowns, like Taylor, Birch, Patterson, JJ, Wright, Epps, and the Johnson’s(hopefully I didn’t slight anyone), this is a perfect non-con schedule to see who the real players are going to be. It will be interesting to see how Dixon manages this really inexperienced team.
another local 4-star FB player transferring from tOSU back to Pittsburgh
I think it is funny that THE Ohio State University and THE U are THE current scumbugs of THE NCAA
I wish Dixon would play a non-conf like Miller is this season, just for fun one year, and see how it goes.
Besides the Coaches v Cancer tourney, Arizona’s playing New Mex St, Florida, Gonzaga on the road and Clemson at home………not to mention that Oakland and SDSU will also be tough matchups at home.
Wow, now that’s a fun schedule.
Then, I’d like to see them make a deep run in the NCAA, Elite Eight or better.
Then, for 2012-13 and 2014 seasons, a Final Four.
I can dream, can’t I?
Other disappointing news, U.S. team with Ashton Gibbs got knocked to consolation round in the World University games–> link to espn.go.com .
and jeez, Melvin, how do you consider playing Okla St at MSG and Tenn on the road a wash with playing Fla and Gonzaga at their places? That doesn’t sound like a wash to me.
and the topper, Melvin……..Ariz lost the best player in the country. Pitt lost a stud in Wanamaker, a really serviceable center in McGhee and a roller coaster in Brown and they have plenty of bodies ready to plug into those roles. Tough to compare that to losing a guy like Derek Williams.
While the jury is out on the incoming freshman, I’m not sure there are any current dogs on the current roster that can be shown the door should Coach once again over-recruit. Maybe the big question mark would the eligibility of Adams. Otherwise, Coach may well be content with the two new recruits.