2012 has been rough so far on the court and for me in the offline world. Another night where I have to go to DVR delay.
Pitt needs a win tonight. Right now, Pitt needs a win every night. Rutgers is showing the hallmarks of a young team with potential. They have been playing up or down to the level of their competition.
Presumably Zanna and Johnson will get to start once more. Their play was solid in the loss to DePaul so I don’t see that changing.
Need to see the guys on the perimeter knock down some 3s, get into the lane a bit and just, please stay in front of their guy on defense for 40 minutes. In other words, play like they have not most of the season.
7pm game on Root, SNY, MASN, ESPN FullCourt and ESPN3.com.
You do realize that our last two losses last year were to the two teams in the finals, right? Pitt was just a play away from beating Butler LAST YEAR and a play away from from the Final Four two years before that. They’ve been #1 in the polls and beaten #1 teams. They have played well against elite competition. THIS IS RECENT HISTORY.
The tourney is a crapshoot. It’s one and done. Luck has played a part in almost every National Championship of the decade. Somewhere in the tourney, the winning team got a bounce to go there way to pull out the game. I have NO clue what mediocrity you are talking about. Even this year’s team skipped the mediocre part – they are just bad….but guess what, we have a top 5 class coming in next year and this team does have some good role players on it.
Leadership is the key ingredient missing from this year’s team and the PG (Robinson) coming in next year has leader written all over him – it’s considered his biggest strength. Even if Adams leaves after a year, Gilbert (who already looks like a man out there) will be able step in with 3 years in the program.
Once again, where is the mediocrity of the last decade in hoops?
Oh how far we have fallen. The only thing that has improved is the head football coach at Pitt now doesn’t say anything.
Chas, are you sure you want to come and see this in person?
some how he lost this team
a team that plays hard may lose but not like this
they look like a div 2 team no not even that good
One of my all time favorite players, and I’m sure many peoples favorite on here.
SEAN MILLER
He’s now had 8 years of head coaching experience.
One elite 8, no, that is, no final fours, and this year, his team is 10-6, including a home loss to something called Seattle Pacific Rim or something.
And this is with, by all indications, several top 10 recruiting classes. People say he can recruit, and I absolutely believe it.
Why hasn’t he done it??? Especially with all of that talent. Does Sean Miller suck???? Should Arizona fire him and get it over with????
My point is, it is very difficult to get to a final four, and even tougher to win it.
There are 351 Division 1 baketball schools.
We had some really good teams in the 1980’s, especially the late 80’s. The Jerome Lane moment…send it in Jerome, still the most defining moment in Pitt basketball lure.
Pitt’s top 2 all-time leading scorers came out of the 1980’s. Charles Smith & Clyde Vaughn
1974 is still our best team ever, they won 22 games in a row and produced PITT’s best player EVER. That of course being Billy Knight. And got to the Elite 8, losing to National champion NC State on basically their home court.
The late 70’s gave us Sam Clancy and several good teams that made the NCAA’s.
People act like we never had a good basketball team before. We did.
What changed in 2000, was PITT invested several HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR$ IN THE PROGRAM.
Had we done that sooner, we would have had sustained success quicker.
FIRE DIXON, TOMLIN, BIELSMA, CHRST & MILLER NOW!!!
They went 10-3 this year, got blown out by WVU in the bowl game,
FIRE THAT GUY NOW TOO!!!!!!!
LMAO. Good night all!!!
Jamie better hit the recruiting trail cause the talent is not here. So….how are the Pens doing??
Oh losing too…my have times have changed in Pittsburgh.
The coach was Bob Timmons and if you think Jamie looks frustrated you had to see the looks on the faces of the coach and his assistants (I think they had 2 in those days).
We are now in an entirely new phase of Pitt Basketball….rebuilding and don’t be surprised if it take three or four years. Look at what happens to once powerhouse teams when the wheels fall off. St. John’s, Georgetown, Providence, Maryland, St. Bonaventure (yes, the Bonnies), UNLV(No Birch comments, please) etc, etc. Some of these teams have made comebacks, while others fall by the wayside. I believe that Pitt will recover, however, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Dixon head West if the frustration continues for another year or two. Jamie will find a good job….will Pitt find a replacement (if needed) to recruit the talent we will need to stay alive in the ACC? For now WE STINK…the future will be most interesting to watch as it plays out.
2004–2005 Xavier 17–12 10–6 T–2nd (West)
2005–2006 Xavier 21–11 8–8 T–7th NCAA 1st Round
2006–2007 Xavier 25–9 13–3 T–1st NCAA 2nd Round
2007–2008 Xavier 30–7 14–2 1st NCAA Elite Eight
2008–2009 Xavier 27–8 12–4 1st NCAA Sweet Sixteen
Xavier: 120–47 55–22
Arizona (Pacific-12 Conference) (2009–present)
2009–2010 Arizona 16–15 10–8 4th
2010–2011 Arizona 30–8 14–4 1st NCAA Elite Eight
2011–2012 Arizona 10-5 1-1
Arizona: 56-28 25-13
Total: 176-74
When we were good, we had decent coaches who –wait for it — recruited some good players. And you know what? None of those coaches could do it for more than just a few years. Buzz Ridl — do you know who he was? – left after his great year. Evans was incompetent as a coach, although a very good recruiter (or was it his great assistants — look to see who he had). We’ve been very lucky that Howland worked out and so did Dixon — and you can spend money and still hire poor coaches.
Curious Emel –when were you at PItt?
What I’ve suggested is, he needs to bring in a top assistant or two. Somebody who can teach a zone or some other type of defense when the MAN to Man is not working, like now.
Didn’t see the Zone being played tonight at all, as the PG article today suggested it would.
Of course I know who Buzz Ridl is/was. Buzz is dead now. Fran Webster as well.
I was at PITT from 1976-1981.
Eastern 8 baby !
Looks like I picked the wrong time to quit amphetamines.
I wonder how this move to the ACC is going to pan out. The BigEast was great for PITT basketball, for the most part(sans the Willard Era). It’s been terrible for PITT football, pretty much the whole time.
At one time a couple years ago, it looked like both the football program and the hoops program were both going to be top tier programs.
Even Sports Illustrated or someone had the Top 5 or Top 10 universities with both excellent basketball & football programs. And PITT was number 5 I believe. In fact I think I saved that bookmark on my computer somewhere. Since that article was published it’s been all downhill.
I almost made my first sports bet tonight since 1986 (almost lost my house on the last one) when I saw that Pitt was favored by 8. Someone should make some money from this travesty.
I grew up with Mickey Martin and played basketball with him almost daily in my teens. He was superhuman on the court and I got to go along for the ride as his team in the 70’s under Buzz Ridl had a great year. Lost to David Thompson and NC State in the NCAA’s. As a coach, I tried for years to figure out Tim Gurgerich’s Amoeba Defense (looks like a matchup zone but is really a man/man d) but never could
These are brutal sports times in the great city on this earth. Pens lost again…hey maybe the Pirates will be goo…oh nevermind, I’m not that drunk.
So here’s how it’s going to go. Flyers win the Cup, Ravens the Super Bowl, WVU the national championhsip.
Hide the women and children, it’s going to get ugly!!
How would you like to contine playing at MSG for your conference tournaments? We might’ve moved too fast on our “deal.”
Obviously we will have a very rough time of it if we start in 2013. Call me a cockeyed optimist because I have feeling that we will start to show some improvement by 2014. My reasoning is that Jamie has no choice in recruiting, shooters are priority #1. I believe that Pitt has a good enough reputation to still be attractive to players of very high quality.
The one MAJOR concern that I have is that in order to accomplish any kind of a turnaround Pitt has to upgrade its basketball assistants. Jamie is now a one man show and it AIN’T WOIKING (as they say in Noo Yawk).
We shot 21% from the floor(12-57) with Moore leading the Panthers with 10 points on 2-10 FG shooting. I think it only got above 20% because of some very late garbage baskets. (or Mike Rice felt sorry for us)
Gibbs had 8 points on 2-11 FG shooting(0-7 from 3) (why he is still playing PG is anyone’s guess, I guess no one else can play it)
Zanna had 6 points(2-7) and a whopping 2 rebounds.
Patterson had 2 points (1-7) and 5 rebounds.
Sleepy has one of his more memorable performances,
0 points and 3 rebounds. (yes as one can see Sleepy certainly should have got more minutes than Birch)
Robinson had 7 points (3-9) and 9 rebounds
Epps had 0 points and 4 assists (led the team in assists in only 11 minutes)
Wright had 0 points and 1 rebound.
Johnson had 6 points (2-8), both 3’s and 1 assist
Rutgers only shot 40% FG and had a whopping 19 turnovers but still won by 23 points.
Though our rebounding finally fell apart, Rutgers outrebounded PITT by 18 rebounds. Can you say Sleepy Zanna?
10,812 unbelieving souls witness this fiasco.
Most were in varying states of yawning through out the game. Not many were left by the 5 minute mark. Sort of similar to a PITT football game, without Sweet Caroline.
Dixon has had his teams within a play of doing something special. The ball just hasn’t bounced Pitt’s way. Most people believe that Dixon will eventually get over the hump and I happen to as well. Mix in Patterson, Moore, Zanna, Gilbert and JJ Johnson with a top 5 recruiting class and it could happen. Those are all quality role players. The team’s not without talent, it’s without leadership and elite talent (was supposed to be Taylor and Birch).
Sleepy is getting less minutes than Zanna these days. Only got 15 minutes tonight.
So in effect, Birch lost his minutes to Sleepy when he came back from his Migraines. And now Sleepy has lost those extra minutes to Zanna.
If any of that makes sense.
I again, will offer my solution that will at least help us win A Game. Put John Johnson at point guard and leave him there. Move Gibbs to the 2. After that, it really doesn’t matter…the rest of the “talent” is about even.
Comment by Tossing Thabeets 01.11.12 @ 10:45 pm
Yes, I know, the Kent State game, the Marquette game, the Okla State game, the Pacific game, the Bradley Game, the Michigan State game, the Villanova game,the Xavier game & last but not least the Butler game. No the ball didn’t bounce our way in any of these games. I remember them all like they were played yesterday.
You either get over the hump…or the hump becomes a Mountain…. to high to get to the other side. Only time will tell.
and I’ve said it before. You’re taking your best scorer(Gibbs) and negating him by playing him at PG. If Johnson at 6’1″ tall can’t play PG, why in the heck was he recruited.
And since you lost your #2 scorer (at the time) Woodall, why on Earth would you put your #1 score in a position that negates his scoring ability.
Woodall is really a PG either, so he really hasn’t recruited a true PG since LeVance Fields, how many years ago was that?
Oh and I forgot Epps, and I’m sure Dixon would like to too.
Yea, I heard that, Reggie Theus. Quite ironic because Reggie Theus played at UNLV, where you know who transferred to.
When it rains it pours sometimes. It’s pouring at PITT these days. Better days ahead !!!
V e V
H T P !
Secondly, we just don’t play defense with passion.
Jamie will be fine with the incoming class and he will really need to watch recruiting head cases with their respective possies like Khem. Do not despair grasshoppers, we will win some games.
OK, Paul Chryst, now on top of all the other pressures imposed on your new head coaching career, you’ll be expected to produce a good enough football team next season to help all the Pitt faithful forget about this impending disaster of a basketball season.
Don’t you love being a Pitt Panther fan!
Think of how many times easy putbacks were clanging off iron. We have players as tall as the California Redwoods and they can’t get inside for 2 points. THIS TEAM IS SUPER SOFT!!!!!
NO GUTS////NO HEART////NO INTENSITY////NO TALENT AT THIS LEVEL!! Epps and Dante are wasting scholies. Dante is the biggest let down in recent Pitt basketball history. The kid just does not have it!!
Once again I call out the need for better assistants coaches. Jamie needs help!!
what is the reason we are still 4 coachs short is he waiting for the pro teams to be done?
could all 4 coachs be comeing from the pros or is he just haveing a hard time finding some one to say yes we will coach at pitt?
AZ penn state and az st have full staff already so what is the hold up with us?
please move Gibbs from PG. play JJohnson there. Move Gilbert into this ineffective lineup. He’s raw, but has potential. Can’t say that about some of our other players.
smattering of boos throughout the Pete for first time in my memory (charter season ticket holder). Bad team. Big challenge for Jamie to win a game, honestly. Can only hope to battle hard against the likes of Marquette, Syracuse & Louisville. will be hard to watch 2 losses against the Hoopies. Going back to 3 stooges reruns.
HTP, but this team is downright embarrassing. Not calling for Jamie’s head like some, but new blood with assistant coaches would be welcome. Have to change it up somehow. Same old O. Same old D. Same old 2012 result: Loss.
Steelers entire aging team injured and embarrased in Denver.
Penguins now drop 6 straight and lose the games greatest player…probably forever
The Pirates…well they are the Pirates
Pitt Football had one of the most disappointing seasons combined with a coaching circus
Pitt Basketball suddenly looks like a playground team
And yes even the great State Penn has fallen off the pedestal.
Wow, things are getting ugly in a hurry.
@upittbaseball 6-7 subpar seasons and 1 final four run that’s just silly. I’ve been getting season tickets to Pitt basketball since 2000 and some of the most rewarding wins have been regular season wins by the good “underachieving” Pitt team. I would not trade 10 years of excellent regular seasons with consistent wins over top teams in the nation for 1 flukey tournament run to the Final 4.
@Emel I think you need to take a few deep breaths. Pitt was just a top team with a 1 seed last year. All evidence suggests that the current losing streak is an anomaly. If Pitt keeps losing next year then I’ll join you in the doom and gloom. Also, I can’t agree with your point about Pitt being worse next year because they are losing their top rebounder and scorer. I think in the case of Nasir and Gibbs it will be addition by subtraction. Nasir is undersized and isn’t a good shooter. His game last night was HORRIBLE. And Gibbs, he can’t play D and right now can’t shoot (Pitt was fine without a better shooting Gibbs last year). Gibbs and Nasir are the two biggest reasons as to why Pitt is struggling.
Bottom line it comes down to this, how many teams in the nation would be able to lose their starting PG and starting 5 (Birch was playing minutes and although up and down had good performances and was giving minutes, his “replacement” barely plays and clearly needed to be redshirted, in December and then keep on winning? (Not to mention the fact that Pitt lost 3 senior who contributed tons of minutes from the previous season).
I want to know which assistant coach brought Taylor and Zanna in. I’ve never seen two lousier, softer big men. Think combined they had like 5 rebounds last night against a crappy Rutgers front line.
And Taylor and Zanna are the guys we kept. Let’s not forget about the Dwight Millers and the JJ Richardsons — big men who were even lousier.
And then I want to know which ass’t coach thought Epps and Wright were Big East guards.
Ridiculous. Bad inside and bad outside.
Faulkner has coached the running backs at Ball State since 2005 and has been the Cardinals’ offensive coordinator for the last two seasons. Under his direction, tailback MiQuale Lewis set the Ball State single season rushing record during the Cardinals’ undefeated Mid-American Conference regular season campaign in 2008. Ball State was ranked for nine straight weeks that season and achieved a ranking of as high as No. 12 in the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) standings.
The previous year, the BSU backfield tallied nearly 2,000 rushing yards despite losing Lewis in the fifth game of the season. Ball State played in bowl games following both the 2007 and 2008 seasons. After beginning his coaching career at Anderson University in 2002 as running backs coach and junior varsity offensive coordinator, Faulkner, a native of Muncie, spent the 2003 and 2004 seasons on the Ball State coaching staff as a graduate assistant coach.
He was a four-year letterwinner at tailback for the University of Wisconsin and helped the Badgers to two Big Ten Championships and five bowl games during his playing career. After graduating from UW, he was a free agent signee of the National Football League’s Pittsburgh Steelers in 2001 and played professionally with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League
Minutes also don’t make Epps thinner or quicker or make Wright’s shot stop having sidespin.