Sort of a grudge match for Howard since Pitt pasted them last year, 70-46. (Anyone buying it? No? Moving on.)
The Bison are at .500 at the moment. They may have been thrashed by Old Dominion and Harvard but they dominated other opponents.
A revamped men’s basketball team is off to a 2-1 start after starting the season last weekend in Burr Gymnasium. The Bison defeated Washington College 69-52 last Friday and routed Gwynedd Mercy University 83-66 on the following Sunday afternoon.
Howard has not won the first two games of the season in over a decade, and with 10 new precocious freshman, more wins hope to follow over the next four years.
Optimism about Howard basketball. It’s the end of times.
What else?
More about Howard. The Bison are in a complete roster overhaul, as indicated with 10 — count ’emm 10 — freshmen.
[Howard Head Coach Kevin] Nickelberry applied a similar strategy to this year’s team.
“It’s easier long term to rebuild with freshmen than junior college transfers,” said Nickelberry, who was 23-69 in his first three seasons at Howard. “I knew the first few years it would be a little rocky, but we have to upgrade the talent.
“Even though they are talented, there’s going to be some days and nights and practices when it’s just not working.”
Howard is 0-2 on this road trip after blowout losses at Old Dominion (77-55) and Harvard (76-44). Sunday’s game against Pitt will be followed by another road game Thursday at Houston, followed by an even longer trip to Brookings, S.D., for two more games in the Legends Classic. Howard also visits USC in December.
“I picked the teams myself, who we wanted to play against, the type of teams we wanted to play,” Nickelberry said.
Howard is still a MEAC team, forced to help balance their entire athletic department budget as a rent-a-patsy team.
Derrick Randall was expected to provide some rebounding and someone to spell Mike Young and Talib Zanna in the frontcourt. He’s actually scoring a bit, which is a bonus. Yes, the opponents are not the strongest, but let’s try to stay positive.
The game is part of the Legends Classic. The game time is 5pm at the Pete. The only visual broadcast outlet is on ESPN3.com.
Pitt will be eating Bison for dinner. Goes good with mash potatoes and a nice Chianti. Maybe some
fatha beans. haha
Pitt wins by 30+ .
Well, Pitt just broke school record for FG% in a half. Howard REALLY stinks…Coach Dix toying with our versatility. Cam Wright played some very right-hand dominant point guard, Michael Young saw a couple minutes at center, I think Patterson played three positions…Most of the half we played man versus a tiny Howard team. A little sloppy now on the closeout to the shooter, but otherwise kicking some serious ass.
Belmont is beating N. Carolina. ND lost to Indiana St. Mich. St. is even with Iowa St. at the half. A lot more parity in hoops right now….
Tarholes losing to Belmont mid 2nd half.
BC who was picked above us,..is 0-3
All of which would lead one to believe, the 3 new BigEast teams are going to come in and possibly feast on some Southern Fried teams.
The next seating for Bison Braised in Dark Ale, begins shortly.
Y with the trey !
Somebody needs to guard him
Pitt 84
Howard the Bison 52
A good time and an excellent meal, had by all !
If you’re gonna have empty seats to an out-of-conference game, open it up to students. Charge them $5 but let them fill out the arena. It’s stupid to restrict student seating to the Zoo on nights when the administration knows that there will be 80+% empties.
And I mean ALL. You’re supposed to be going to these home games to watch PITT play. As other Top 20 programs do.
Not who the f*ck we’re playing.
I use to go the games at Fitzgerald when I was a small kid, when we played CMU and other lightweights. I could care less about who they were playing…I went to see PITT play.
We don’t need them to show up against the UNC’s, Cuse’s, Duke’s, etc.
We need them for ALL the games !!!
Spitball you absolute piece of … what are you on about Gannon/ IUP. Pitt drew Howard as part of the LEGENDS championship. They also play noncon- Lehigh, Texas Tech, Stanford/ Houston, Cinncy, the City Game (familiar with tradition??) and Pedo State. Stick with commenting about ACC baseball stadiums, something you claim to know something about, NOT! Hail to Pitt, to he11 with any pukes. UPone
Or do they only want to be ‘seen’ at the big games.
What jokes !
Seriously though, the truth is 75% of college students couldn’t care less about athletics of any kind. We only have 14,000 undergrads. That means about 3,000 total possible students fans. Even if every single one of them was available/interested The Pete would still be 2/3 empty.
Pittsburgh (pro and college) fans are fickle and fair weathered. Always have been, always will be. Let’s not rewrite history.
While I agree that I would like for Jamie Dixon to schedule a more aggressive non-con, you picked the wrong day to debate it since a ranked ND just lost to Indiana State at home and a ranked NC just lost to Belmont (who Pitt had at home a few years ago) at home. You also ought to take note that Pitt has recently only played the likes of IUP and Slippery Rock as exhibition games.
Next year Pitt plays in the Maui Classic. That’s upping the ante a bit.
If you’re going to call people out….
P.S. I have attended every game this year and this team really looks good. I am just a little concerned if Pitt plays a team with a serious low post player that boards.
And playing in Salt Lake City has little to nothing to do with non-con scheduling. Teams are shipped all over the place in the NCAAs with little regard for regions. Ask UConn, who came through the west coach each time it won its title.
If they pose a serious challenge this year we have a big problem.
