It’s another ESPN3.com game. That means another open thread. One more reason to look forward to the start of Big East play. Games being aired on the Mouse Monopoly. Have to say that Root Sports really blew it. Not bothering to air any games. in the non-con. I get they aren’t the most inspiring match-ups but they are at least live sports. I guess they were actually banking on a NHL season.
We will see if Pitt can come out with a bit of energy and accuracy in their shots to start the game. Slow starts have been the disturbing norm in the past couple of weeks. Either they are coming out taking teams for granted or this is just a team that starts slow.
The opponent is North Florida. The Ospreys have played — and been soundly thrashed by — Pitt once before. North Florida is an Atlantic Sun team living the non-con life as a rent-a-patsy. This will be their seventh road game in the season. They only play two home games in their non-con. Yeesh.
I was a little surprised the bench didn’t get emptied last night, with the last 2 guys on it getting some PT. Those being Aron Nwankwo & Mike Lecak, as we don’t often have such a huge lead against an obviously over matched team. As these guys practice every day and need a little reward of some real game court time. Plus the fans love it.
Attendance has started to go down every year at all these non-con games which is kind of startling. Who exactly are the fans coming out to see, their own team, PITT (which they should be doing) or do some of them (a growing number) only show up when certain teams are at The Pete.
Some of them don’t even show up for certain BigEast teams !
That’s lame, they should give them up to people would absolutely LOVE TO ATTEND ANY PANTHER GAME !
Very excited about next year’s football team, especially since we’ll have a new QB under Center for the first time since 2009. Seems like eons ago.
Oh the agony, the agony. lol
P.S. would be more excited if we land Foster & Boyd and another good lineman & scatback.
How will the number of scholarships be affected? A recruiting update mid-week would be awesome with early enrollees accounted for. When is the date for early enrollees to begn class? This recruiting season is exciting on its own just because we have the same coach….Hopefully he can close out strong. Class right now is good, but it could turn to really good, very soon.
Count me among the season ticket holders who abhor the all too soft pre-conference schedule.
Actually, I split with two other guys (we all have kids) and my job is to equitably divide the tickets between us.
First, the Duquesne game is not part of the package. It should be added to the first “x” number of thousand who submit their applications based on FIFO. That would help everyone.
Next, there are only so many patsies that will hold your interest. RMU was dropped from the schedule. At least they were local and add to the interest.
I know Jamie doesn’t want to lose and I know PSU pu$$ied out when DeChellis cried “Uncle”, but if RMU can play Ohio U, can’t we? There are other schools in PA (Philly) who play basketball. I know, I lived there. Are we afraid of losing to LaSalle, St. Joe’s, Temple, Penn (we went there last year).
Bottom line is that many of these games are glorified practices. I can handle some, but not an entire schedule of scooby snacks.
However more than once I have seats next to me that sat empty for almost every game the entire season except the major BE games..(makes a nice coat holder)…The guy who had them one year had them lived near Columbus and had 8 tickets total and they gave him 6 in a little better section and then 2 next to me.
A lot of the tickets are owned by companies as well and they don’t really care if they get used or not when they give them to clients.
I will say this though..for those without season tickets who want to see the place filled more, come down and buy the extra seats that are almost always on sale for these non conf games…especially the next three game when the students are on break. The Cinncy game may not that be hard to get seats either since it is on New Years Eve and again no students.
Not like Pitt can go out and just pick another top program to play at Pitt…very hard to find another team to do it because most are doing the same thing as Pitt.
That said, there’s been two games I couldn’t make, or give away, and I still ended up selling them on StubHub for $6 and $8 a seat respectively. (Better than nothing!) So the demand is still there. Like milobloom said, as long as the tickets are still being bought and waited for, I don’t expect great change.
Count me as someone who sees the early non-conf schedule as pretty much meaningless. What good has it done anyone ever to have played good games before their conference schedule? Its nice to see good competition early but purely for fun, it has had no relevance to our post-season odds in my lifetime. But I guess we have to be upset about something.
link to espn.go.com
Pitt is sixth, which is ABOUT right, for now. Pitt has more potential and I expect them to be in third before too long, after beating Cinci.
The best part of the rankings, Villanova is dead assed last!!!! Dana O’Neal describes them as a “mess”. Awesome.
The non-con schedule is embarrassing. As a season ticket holder, I have been to all but one game, but totally understand why others have stayed away in droves. In some ways, Pitt is a victim of their own success. Rarely do any of the non-cons put up much of a fight. There isn’t any excitement, the fan base has come to expect a Pitt beat down of an inferior opponent.
And while this could be called putting lipstick on a pig, Pitt could do a better job of selling those games. I had no idea how good Ray McCallum was until I got to the game. I knew that Lehigh was good and that they had a NBA prospect, but had no idea how good. And I follow this stuff closely. Jamie has gotten better at being the front man for the program, but he still has a long way to go. And Pitt should be more aggressive in getting the word out and building a buzz.
Going forward, Pitt should try to maintain the rivalry with 1 or more of the big east basketball only catholic schools. Villanova would be a good choice. Good brand name, good historical rivalry (Scottie Reynolds still haunts me) and great location. Philly is very important for recruiting. The question is would Nova agree to a home and home? If not, go down the list, Georgetown, St. John’s and Seton Hall would all be choices. WVU could also be a consideration, and Huggy bear would agree to it in heartbeat.
carousel that has been goining on?
i saw a lot of good hires like tommy tuberville to cincinati.
but the the hire that i think stinks is steve
addazio to boston college i mean he won just 4 games this year with temple.
the big east gets tuberville and the ACC gets
addazio i think boston jumped the gun on there hire or maybe they did not want to pay the money
for a good hire.
