The impact for Panther Digest, remains to be seen.

I’m kind of surprised about this. When Fox Interactive Media (FIM) bought Scout.com nearly 2 years ago, I thought it meant Fox was gearing up for more competition with ESPN across platforms on college sports. With deep pockets behind them, they seemed more stable. Especially as Rivals.com seemed to be looking for a buyer or their own media support.

Instead, it seems that things have gotten very strained. Scout.com has suffered a series of embarrassing losses of affiliates in the last couple of weeks and months. Ohio State’s affiliate left, as did Florida, and then USC. Today, Oklahoma left. These are some of the biggest of the fanbases and subscriber groups. Gone.

You can likely add Texas to that list real soon. The Texas, OSU, Oklahoma and Stanford sites filed a suit against Scout.com and FIM (PDF) in May seeking class action status over the accounting and financial practices.

So the problems at Scout.com is not about a new corporate attitude that stifled the freedom and creativity of the publishers, editors and writers of the sites. It’s about the  money. It’s always about the money.

Looking over the suit, the team sites that will most likely be interested in joining and/or head for independent status will be the big sites. Sites that have their own magazine (ex, Michigan, Nebraska, Penn St. and Alabama), since there are some heavy allegations of big accounting irregularities with the allocation between magazine and site.

Scout.com has the financial support to fight and perhaps even successfully defend the lawsuit. The problem is that they will still lose some of their biggest network affiliates. Even as they build new affiliates in their place, they will face increased competition.

More changes a-coming.

There are very few fans that would be against a return to the script Pitt and colors from Pitt’s better days. There’s been plenty of discussion about it and I don’t care why we’re not wearing it, whether it be something legal or someone just making an executive decision about it — I just want to see a return to those colors.

Are we going to see that soon? Well, there are some seemingly small changes being made according to Sitting Ringside.

The “PANTHERS” across the chest will be replaced with “PITT” and blue pants will return for the first time since 2003, when they were worn against Virginia Tech.

It seems like we’ll never get to the point where we see the same jerseys that we wore against Youngstown State in that throwback game. Thankfully I picked mine up in that auction of the game-used jerseys because we might never see them on a Pitt team regularly for a while.

I’ve always been mildly intrigued by fan-created websites that call for the firing of a coach. It started with sites like FireRonZook.com which gained all kinds of attention from media outlets including SportsCenter and Pardon the Interruption. Zook ended up getting fired from Florida and the idea was put into every fan’s mind that they could oust a coach by buying a domain name and putting up a website. There’s even a “company” out there that sells some of these domain names.
There is, in fact, a FireDaveWannstedt.com — in operation since his days as head coach of the Miami Dolphins.

OK Pitt’sters— ya gotta agree with me that this year is kind of a little tiny watershed year for your boy Dave. All I heard the year before is how Pitt had one of the greatest recruiting years in the history of the planet. oooooK. Well–as someone once said— “It’s the Coach Stupid!”

As always—I wish you guys the best of luck…I’m sincere in that because I feel that were kind of brothers—much the way Bears fans are Brothers with us Phin fans. Sitting with a Bear fan in a bar is a hoot because boy oh boy we have something in common. I suspect that someday I’ll be throwing back a few with some Pitt fans and I’m pretty sure we’ll be ranting in harmony. Wouldn’t be a riot if a Bears fan joined us?

If you think you’ve had enough of Wanny and want to turn in into a protest of his time here at Pitt, feel free to buy it. Only $1,000.

There is no “Fire Jamie Dixon” website out there except this petition (that looks like it’s from a few years ago) that was signed by all of 51 people. If someone were to make a Dixon-based site, they’d have to be pretty crazy. You don’t call for a coach’s head over the internet when he’s put up this kind of record. You can say he’s not coaching at the level we want him to but he’s definitely not reached his coaching potential yet. In 10 years if we still haven’t made it past the Sweet Sixteen then we can start talking about said website.

As far as I know, there’s somehow not a “Fire Paul Rhoads” page out there and yet more people seem to be against him than any other coach on either the football or basketball staffs. FirePaulRhoads.com is still availible — I know there’s someone out there who wants to buy it.

One thing that the Pitt Athletic Department has yet to do it take a page from Iowa and buy the domain name to fire one of their own coaches. Not a bad idea to help spare your coaches a little.

Saw some great news on Steelers.com the other day. Forget that the Steelers will be wearing some throwback unis this year or got a creepy new mascot. No, I’m talking about a little nugget buried inside of the festivities this year.

The 75^th Season Celebration theme will also be reflected at each of the following Steelers annual events:

Men’s Fantasy Camp (Saint Vincent College) – Friday, June 1 – Sunday, June 3
Women’s Training Camp (Saint Vincent College) – Late July
Hall of Fame Game – Sunday, August 5, Canton, Ohio
Kickoff Luncheon – Wednesday, August 29
The 2007 Rib Fest – Thursday, August 30 – Monday, September 3
Pittsburgh Steelers 5k Race and Fun Run – Sunday, September 2
The Pittsburgh Steelers Fashion Show – Friday, October 5

Whoa. You see that? RIB FEST!

Honestly, I look forward to eating great ribs before the season opener each year almost as much as the game itself. Anyone else with me on that one?

With our season ticket renewal in the mail, it is officially time that we can start counting down the days until Eastern Michigan. I don’t care if this team had a bunch of blue chip recruits or high school bench warmers playing — there’s nothing better than spending a Saturday afternoon watching Pitt football.

Except for the occasional Wednesday night game…ugh.

Breaking news: Pitt and Penn State fans dislike one another. I’ve sometimes heard over the last few years that it’s a “dead rivalry” and that a ton of people don’t really care. Personally, I’ve always wanted to see the annual football game make a return and things I’ve read this week have opened my eyes to see that I’m not the only one and there is still bad blood. It’s too bad this is all being played out by fans and not players on the field, but it’s still happening whether you’re for the return of the game (100% of the Pitt fans and half of the PSU fans) or not (the other 50% of the PSU fans).

The first time in a while that I really started to think about the rivalry was with this post on Mondesi’s House. It wasn’t actually the post as much as the comments, where Adam (a convicted PSU homer) had this to say in response to “Things That Annoy You About Sports”.

Pitt fans who think Penn State is afraid of them. Honestly, Penn State doesn’t need Pitt to generate buzz. There will be 105,000 asses in seats to watch TEMPLE. So c’mon, admit you need us, and admit that Joe was right in going to the Big 10 and move on. Come to Beaver Stadium twice to every one time we go to Pitt and everything will be ok. Otherwise, quit taking pot shots at JoePa on natinal television on what is supposed to be your biggest rivalry game (on a Thursday night no less, can anyone take that seriously?). And remember, your sour grapes go no furthur east than maybe Johnstown. No one else cares the Pitt doesnt play Penn State. We are busy winning.

Oh, the fire was definitely started with that. I’ll save his very first comment of Pitt fans thinking PSU is afraid of us for later in this post. The rest is easy to pick apart though.

It is more than easy enough to cram that many people in a stadium a few times a month for four months when you live in the middle of no where. This is Happy Valley, not New York City. There is nothing to do in central Pennsylvania other than count down the days to the next Penn State home game. Let’s look at that in comparison to the city of Pittsburgh, where on any given Saturday there are many more choices of things to do instead of see a college football game. I’m not saying the Pitt’s excuse for low attendance, but saying how great Penn State’s attendance is in comparison to our’s is absurd.

Adam also makes a great point — in favor of the Panthers. I forget where I read this, but someone made the point that Penn State is a state school, while the University of Pittsburgh represents a city.

Population of Pittsburgh and surrounding metro areas: 2,358,695
Population of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: 12,281,054

So tell me, which is easier to draw fans?

Ending his comment saying, “We are busy winning” had to have been made by someone who very recently jumped on the Penn State bandwagon. Obviously someone has forgotten that PSU’s record from 2000-2003 was 22-26. Busy winning, indeed.

But wait, this all extends into basketball too.

As for the basketball team, did you notice PSU isnt on the Pitt schedule this year? why? because last year we didnt have a losng record. 15-15. Apparantly thats too goo a record for Jamie Dixon to deal with. as soon as we become remotely competitive, we are taken off the schedule. funny dont you think?

Yes, Adam, because Dixon is the guy who has total control of the schedule. I also wasn’t aware that schedules were made after each season. Oh wait, they’re not. Too bad that 15-15 record was a fluke; this year’s PSU hoops record was 11-19 with all of 2 wins in the Big Ten.

That’s just one little fan though, albeit one uninformed fan. The debate was brought up yet again at Mondesi’s House with this post. More of the same babble going on — it all died down for a while though.

Then I gave you a story from Penn State’s student newspaper, The Daily Collegian. Many of the comments were what you’d expect: anti-Penn State, calling Paterno names, and all around hatred toward Happy Valley. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking some of the exact same things some people wrote. We had one brave State fan who naturally went with the name “JoePa”.

And Nick, if it’s Penn State’s loss that the alleged rivalry not be renewed, why does this issue eat at Pitt fans so much? –JoePa

I don’t know, JoePa, if the story appeared in “The Daily Collegian” then there must be a fair number of PSU fans that care a little. –Nick in State College

Not the first time Mr. Paterno has been wrong. I think that’s why some Penn State fans aren’t quick to want to see this rivalry start back up. Paterno is looked to as a god by PSU fans, and if a god doesn’t want to see this game get played then neither will his followers. Those followers are also the same ones who called for him to retire after the 2004 season, saying things like, “He’s too old!” I guess he’s not too old to ruin a great rivalry though.

A few days later, that post was then relayed to the masses over at the AOL Fanhouse by Brian Grummell. Grummell says maybe Penn State should join the Big East or go Independent, and while even I can agree with PSU fans that they won’t go Independent, they have nothing special going for them in the Big Ten. No one considers them a real rival while they’d like to think they have something going with Ohio State and Michigan State.

Penn State fans always say how they don’t care about Pitt when they need to take a look at themselves first. Ohio State is too busy playing in the most important games of the decade against Michigan to consider PSU even a mini-rival. Just because you play Michigan State for trophy doesn’t mean that constitutes a rivalry either. In Big Ten basketball, Penn State is dirt.

Meanwhile, Pitt has a solid group of rivals. Sure, West Virginia has beaten us up the last couple years but that doesn’t automatically take away it’s rivalry status, at least judging by the “conversations” that Pitt and WVU fans had during last year’s Backyard Brawl. In basketball, we’re building rivalry games with teams like Marquette, UConn, and a WVU team lead by Bob Huggins.

The last place where we saw this come up in the last week was Black Shoe Diaries. Other than taking a shot at some of our commenters (” Well hey, Pitt fans. At least you’ll always have your dignity.”), there wasn’t anything too special in the post. One thing that did stand out to me was that PSU shouldn’t leave the Big Ten because of “the opportunity to be highly ranked and in the running for the BCS every two or three years.” Well if you guys are as good as you think and the Big East is as bad as you’d have everyone think then wouldn’t you be able to come over here and go undefeated, be ranked Top 10 all the time, and earn the BCS bid every year?

The comments were full of great stuff though. There were a few Pitt fans who comment here that made their point over there.

Now listen, I can’t argue with the results we’ve seen from the last few Pitt football teams. I also don’t consider Pitt to be a top college football program right now and I’m not sure if they’ll ever get over the hump into that top group. I’m have realistic enough thoughts to see this. I do, however, think that sometimes Penn State fans, while they’re busy putting our program down, over-inflate their own program. Remember when the author over there said the Lions were “in the running for the BCS every two or three years.” I’ll let Stuart take it form there.

If by “in the running for the BCS every two or three years,” you mean you’ve made 1 BCS bowl game EVER, then yes, you are in the running. Every 2-3 years would mean you’ve been in 3 to 5 by now. I’m sure math is not a strong suit for you.

That’s not even close to the best comment I saw though. In response to a Pitt fan’s remark, we get this gem.

“So, until you actually win a game against us this decade IN ANY SPORT, remember you are winless against Pitt and will be for the foreseeable future.”

Before you go spouting off maybe you should look first – I prefer wrestling over basketball any day of the week.

Wrestling
PSU-Pittsburgh W 26-19 2005
PSU-Pittsburgh W 28-15 2004

So how many million people out there filled out there brackets for this year’s basketball tournament? How about this year’s wresting tournament? How much money was wagered on each? I laughed out loud when I read that.

Penn State always tries to make excuses about how they don’t care about their basketball team, but this has to be the worst one I’ve heard. At least say you’d rather spend your money on making that stupid ice cream rather than trying to convince us more people care about college wrestling then hoops.

Anyways, remember when Adam said Penn State isn’t afraid of us in that Mondesi’s House post?

A commenter at the Penn State blog gave us the exact reason Paterno won’t schedule us.

The bottom line is we don’t need this rivalry. We’ll get our guaranteed win elsewhere.

It would be horrible to lose a team like Pitt, wouldn’t it? Penn State fans will call us a second tier program, however they know it’s not out of the question that we could be them. How do you avoid that? Don’t play them.

I don’t want to talk money, TV deals, or any of that garbage. In the end, Penn State and Pitt can both live without playing this game. I want to see this game for the fans, for rivalry, for tradition, and for history. By the way, the next time someone tells you a Pitt-Penn State rivalry is dead or doesn’t exist, have them read this post. Have them read the mud slinging that goes on at varioud blogs and websites. Have them recall the last time they didn’t root against any PSU team in any PSU sport (or vice versa for you Happy Valley folks) and then have them tell you it’s dead.

According to spokespeople from Penn State, renewing the football rivalry isn’t going to happen anytime soon. PSU’s student newspaper, The Daily Collegian, has a story on the rivalry that made me sick, especially hearing what this Penn State spokesman says.

“Current discussions by the Big Ten regarding the possibility of adding another conference game to the football schedule would limit our ability to schedule out-of-conference games,” he wrote.

Yes, it must be very hard to schedule and fit in all of those games against the Florida International’s and Buffalo’s of the world.

MacCarthy also said an additional football game would be a financial burden.

Yeah, it’s a huge financial burden to have the stadiums full at both schools while local hotels and bars fill up for the weekend. Other than the big wigs at Penn State, everybody else wants to see these games happen.

Borghetti said it is a shame that students at both universities do not know the importance of the rivalry that he “knew and appreciated.”

Some Penn State students said they would like to see a Penn State versus Pittsburgh rivalry reinstated.

Penn State doesn’t even have a real rival right now. They play Michigan State every year for a stupid trophy, but a yearly trophy doesn’t make a game into a rivalry (see: Pitt vs. Cincinnati).

Since this world could use a lot more good people, and the people running the Oakland Zoo seem to be those good people, I figured I could pass this along to any students (or anyone else I suppose) who perhaps want to help:

Tomorrow (April 10) we will be joining former Panther, Charles Small, for a clothing drive. We will be collecting clothes and taking them to a local homeless shelter. Also, following the clothing drive we will be going to the homeless shelter to serve dinner to the people there.

We will be collecting at the following locations:

William Pitt Union 9 – 4

Sutherland Lobby 9 – 12

Towers Lobby 9 – 12

It’s great to see student organizations, especially ones connected to our sports teams, getting involved with the community.

It seems like I’ve been out of the house so much the last few days that I forget how to use the computer. Thankfully it’s during a slower time in Pitt athletics, but there are still a few bits of info to be passed along.

First, it starts up in New York City back on Thursday night. I won’t even lie, I was rooting for West Virginia in the NIT Finals because it’s nice to see Big East teams do well. I wasn’t aware, however, that they decided to change the school’s name to “West Virgina“.

Continuing the theme of Pitt rivals, Penn State has a new policy at Beaver Stadium. It’s almost as bad as not wanting to play Pitt in a fair one-for-one deal. They won’t let you bring your own little seatback into the place — instead you have to pay to lease one from them. The best quote comes from Black Shoe Diaries about the policy.

Forty bucks for this?!?! I can buy one of those at McLanahan’s for $20, and I get to own the friggin thing. Is this thing going to be mounted in my seat permanently all year? Through the sun, rain, and snow as well? But I can’t bring my own dry seat that has been sitting in my vehicle all day. No, I have to sit on your soaking wet one? And pay you $40 to do so?

Back to our Panthers though in a few Pitt related notes.

We brought you info on Blue Chip day. According to PSI, a few of the big names who were in attendance were Terrelle Pryor, David Posluszny, Christian Wilson, Andrew Sweat, Jonathan Baldwin, Mike Zordich, Shayne Hale, Leon Green, Cameron Saddler, Ed Tinker and Lucas Nix.

Former Panther (kind of sounds weird saying that) Tyler Palko was selected to the Coca-Cola Community All-American team.

As this year’s honoree, Palko (Imperial, Pa./West Allegheny) is able to select a charitable cause to be the recipient of a $5,000 donation by the Coca-Cola Company. The donation will go to the TC House Foundation, an organization Palko helped establish to raise funds for the construction of a group home for individuals with Down Syndrome in his hometown of Imperial, Pa.

You’ve probably heard of Palko’s friend Chris McGough who has Down Syndrome, who Tyler has become a very good friend with and who has made appearences at a few Pitt football games. Congrats to Tyler Palko on this honor.

Pitt students, if you have nothing to do this Saturday, maybe you should think about attending Student Day at Spring Practice. From an e-mail from the Panther Pitt…

Hey Panther Fans,

You are all invited by Coach Wannstedt to attend a DAY AT SPRING PRACTICE!!! On March 31st, Coach Wannstedt has invited everyone to come to the south side complex and watch a spring practice. Buses will start leaving the Union at 10am and will be returning around 12:45pm. At the event, we will be touring the practice facility, having lunch, and watching the team prepare for the upcoming football season. Also, at the conclusion of the event we will be having a raffle and giving away some great prizes including SEASON TICKETS!!! Buses will begin leaving the Union at 10am, so get there early!

Also, while not required, we request that you please respond to this email or RSVP on the Facebook group so we can have an good approximation of the number of students to expect.

We can’t wait to see you there for a very exciting day!

Please RSVP to thepantherpitt@gmail.com

It’s also blue chip junior day, and if you don’t believe that these kinds of things don’t get fans attention, just look at how LeSean McCoy reacted to the great support fans showed for College Gameday in January.

I don’t hold great animosity any longer to Ben Howland. I used to, but I don’t have the energy. I don’t hold great affection for him either. I’ll try to explain in my usual, concise way.

The Ralph Willard era was pathetic. Willard took too many chances on players with some talent but a lot more issues. Willard was horrible as a coach at Pitt. I don’t care what kind of job he has done or continues to do at Holy Cross, I won’t forget just how bad he was at Pitt. Pathetic in-game coach and even worse in reaching the players. I had the misfortune of attending the two biggest collapses by Pitt under Willard. A loss to Rutgers in February, 1996, 71-70. Pitt had been up by well over 20 points in that game and took the entire entire 2nd half to give the game away — 1000 paper cuts. The other, of course, was that epic collapse in December 1998. A 70-69 loss to UConn that Willard claimed caused the team to suffer a sustained hangover effect as they lost 5 of their next 7. I always have believed that Willard sealed his own fate then. Not by losing to UConn, but by saying the effects of the loss stayed with the team for over a month — essentially conceding he couldn’t get the team past blowing the game.

Howland came in as several of the bad seeds either failed out, left or were kicked out for criminal issues. There’s no getting around it or pretending Pitt may have had some of the seedier collections of players this side of a Jim Harrick team.

The resulting teams for the first couple of years were undermanned; but the team embraced a defense first style, the effort was obvious and the game plans sound. The turnaround wasn’t nearly as sudden as sometimes portrayed — except in attitude. Even the second year, the turnaround wasn’t huge. Pitt finished 7-9 in the Big East, a two game improvement. Then came a tremendous run in the Big East Tournament that got everyone’s attention — mainly because Pitt had never done it before. A team that went no more than 6 deep won 3 straight games (including an OT) to get to the Big East Championship. By that point the team was gassed and toasted by BC by the second half.

I remember that run vividly because I had to go to a nearby dive bar to watch. I had just moved in with my girlfriend and she didn’t have cable (and I still married her). So I spent 4 straight days in a little bar filled with cheap beer and smoke. Intently watching the game on a smeared TV screen in Euclid, Ohio I was able to get them to switch to. Drinking probably a little too quickly and much because of the nerves. It was great.

But now there was real hope, belief and some actual expectations. The next two years were very special.

In the 2002-03 season, it quickly became clear that Steve Lavin was not long for staying in charge of the Bruins. All talk centered on Ben Howland considering all that was happening at Pitt. Locally and nationally, few doubted that Howland would be pursued by UCLA. His Southern California roots, his father still back there, Jim Rome pushing him for the job any chance he could get. As my friends and I debated and discussed whether Howland would leave Pitt for UCLA, I posted (way back on my original blog) some of what worked pro/con in Howland leaving; and what goes into being an elite basketball program. By elite, I don’t mean a top team right now, I mean a team that has sustained success, storied tradition, history and fans with a sense of entitlement. UCLA fit that mold.

As you would expect from most coaches, Howland did the usual coachspeak, denial/non-denial cliches: I haven’t been contacted; I have a job; I don’t want to discuss it… Nothing unusual or unexpected. UCLA didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament and Lavin was gone quickly. That meant heavy speculation on Howland was underway early. There was wishful thinking that perhaps the Bruins would cast their eye on Mark Few at Gonzaga.

It didn’t happen. A few days after Pitt lost to Marquette and Wade in the Sweet 16, Ben Howland was introduced as the new head coach of UCLA. I was not surprised, and really was more concerned about who would take over the job at Pitt. There were plenty of compelling reasons for him to take the UCLA job — from prestige to family and all the stuff in between. Disappointing to lose a very good coach, to be sure.

Then some things came out to sour the feelings. (The stories about why Donatas Zavakas was pulled from the game and appeared to quit on the team — for what he said to Howland about the UCLA job, allegedly — I did not hear for a while. For some this is a reason to hate Howland — being distracted by the UCLA job and a player calling him out on it. For me, since I didn’t hear the story at the time it never really entered into my issues with him.)

It turned out Howland didn’t even want to tell his old players he was leaving. That fell to the Jamie Dixon. After that came out, Howland, belatedly, returned to meet with them. That left a bad taste. Then came reading the story of his introductory press conference.

The day after Pitt lost to Marquette in the third round of the NCAA tournament, Howland had a friend contact Guerrero.

“I knew right away what I wanted to do, which was to pursue this opportunity,” the coach said.

That was the killer for me. All the coachspeak about not looking, and happy where he was just went out the window. He had just stated that as soon as Pitt had lost. The pain hadn’t even receded for the fans, the team, and he was having intermediaries tell UCLA he wanted the job. Howland couldn’t even wait for UCLA to contact him like everyone knew they would. The corpse was still warm. It was open and admitted pursuit and made me along with most fans wonder how much he really cared or tried as a coach in the Marquette loss.

As a Pitt fan, how does that not come off as incredibly cold, callous and just wrong by Howland? How does that not create some very hard feelings in what otherwise may have been an amicable departure?

Yes, Howland did a lot of good at Pitt. He helped — along with the new building and an aggressive AD — change the culture around Pitt basketball. That doesn’t change that he created some hard feelings with the way he left.

There’s was also — and while this is not at all Howland’s fault, it contributed to fan frustration and animosity to Howland’s departure — the piss poor way that Pitt handled trying to decide on a new coach. Pitt was acting at the time with only an interim AD — no excuse for that since it had been 4 months since the former had left (and he gave notice). So you had the school chancellor and an interim AD doing the search. They only interviewed two candidates: Wake Forest’s Skip Prosser and Jamie Dixon.

Prosser was the guy they wanted. It was to the point where they were down in New Orleans for the Final Four and didn’t even contact any other possibilities to at least informally talk about the job. Prosser ultimately turned down the job and chose to stay at Wake Forest. A good deal of which had to do with still not finding a full time AD. After very publicly flubbing the pursuit of Prosser, the school hired Dixon. Now, obviously this has turned out to be a good hire, but the issue wasn’t the hiring. It was the process — or rather the complete lack of planning and thoroughness in searching for candidates. It just has seemed much more luck then skill.

It was one thing to pursue one particular coach hard and strong, but to not get him, and then fall back on an assistant, who at the time was an unknown and the interview seemed like a courtesy to him and the players that wanted him. It wasn’t like Dixon was the “hot assistant” at the time. The highest profile job he had been considered was at Wright State. This was and is no knock on Coach Dixon. It was the reality of the situation.

Well it came off as minor league and a decision that if they couldn’t get the guy they really wanted, the school would take a clear 2nd choice on the cheap. That contributed to fan frustration and more annoyance at Howland leaving.

Is it all logical? Is it fair? No. It also doesn’t matter. Being a fan has very little to do with logic. There’s just too much emotion involved. A coach leaving a team is like a divorce. It doesn’t matter how many good times were had. It doesn’t matter if on side professes to still care after they were the one to leave. The fact is they left and it is the last memory. There’s going to be bitterness.

They come out with new Oakland Zoo tee shirts each year. The next marketing gimmick might be upon us: “postseason shirts”.

The men’s shirt says “Together!” and the women’s has “We Got This!” on it.

If you’re looking for a way to get rid of $20 then click here.

When I have some time — hopefully tomorrow — I’ll have my definitive Ben Howland-Pitt post up. It will be the usual mix of history and my own views on things. And yes, lots of links. The UCLA fans who are stopping by, will hopefully gain some context for the feelings towards Howland.

On the West Coast a UCLA student from Pittsburgh finally resolves his identity crisis.

Many would call it a futile attempt. How can I abandon a decade of Pitt fandom? Could I possibly lock myself in my room, here at UCLA, and root against the Bruins? Won’t I see some silver lining regardless of the outcome?

The doubters are wrong. After a moment of deliberation I came to an easy decision.

It’s UCLA: I am 100 percent behind the Bruins.

My memories of Pitt basketball are just that, memories. The love I have for the Bruins today easily overwhelms my history as a Panther supporter.

Now that I’ve committed, I’m desperate for a UCLA victory.

Good. UCLA is your school. They are your team. There should be no doubt. A little overwrought and angsty about it, but getting the angst out of the system is part of college.
I grew up in a Penn State house. Both parents. I was dressed in PSU gear as a child (any photographic evidence believed to be accidentally destroyed a couple years ago). Went to some games. Probably cheered for them, though I don’t recall. Doesn’t matter. The minute I chose to attend Pitt, I had my team and my school.

This might seem a little disjointed. I’ve had this up in my browser all day trying to find the right words, and I’m still not happy with the way it is coming out. Still, it doesn’t seem to be getting any more coherent, so I’ll just throw it out there and let everyone tell me where I’m off or unclear.

Don’t really know what to say. It was an incredibly frustrating game to watch and even more problematic in what to recap. There’s a part of me that just wants to give in and say, that this Marquette team simply has Pitt’s number. Whether it’s simply the match-up, something else. Whatever.

I don’t buy that.

I also don’t buy this lack of “toughness” on the team and/or how that’s a reflection of Dixon’s lack of “toughness.” Mainly because I don’t know what the hell that means. Is Dixon not a tough guy because he never says a negative word about the players? Because he doesn’t go off on rants in a post-game interview? Because his approach is to be positive and encouraging in the games? Because he keeps the criticisms behind closed doors? Because he generally doesn’t try to embarrass his players publicly or call them out? It sounds like some sort of cheap convention from a hack writer looking for an easy explanation and assign blame. Or perhaps just the way someone thinks a coach should do it.

Maybe it means, “these guys are no Brown, Page and Knight.” Well, yeah. Isn’t that what made those guys special? Those could be the only guys that would rank as the tough guys still pined for. They were the overachievers. They guys on the undermanned, not as talented or higher potential teams. They at least made the Sweet 16 before falling to teams that had at least 2 future NBAers on the squads.

Surely no one is pining for Chevy Troutman who came up small at the end of his career in the important games — the Big East Tournament game against Villanova and then against Pacific in the opening round — apparently the thing this present team is also failing to do. I definitely know no one is pining for the toughness of Chris Taft. Half the time Carl Krauser — a definite tough guy — is vilified for plenty of other things.

I see toughness as much about what a team does when it is down. Last night, Pitt went down. Deep. They didn’t hang their heads. They didn’t give up. They fought back despite nothing from the perimeter. They battled despite the guards not penetrating or finding the open men.

So, maybe it’s useless self-pity about what might have been if Howland hadn’t gone to UCLA. That’s just pathetic, if that’s the case. It’s been 4 years. Get over it. That’s the kind of speculation that goes no where.

Here’s the final thing, and it may be small comfort. Pitt doesn’t even come close to being a disappointing team this season. Pitt fans aren’t the only ones suffering. LSU was a preseason top-10 team that won’t make the NCAA. Alabama, a top-15 won’t make the NCAA. Washington was a top-20 and won’t make the NCAA. Arizona is unranked, after being expected to be a top-15 team. Florida State was top-25 and may not make the Tournament. UConn absolutely imploded with youth despite one of the best coaches in the Big East. Illinois has quickly fallen from elite to average. DePaul was supposed to be a NCAA Tournament team. Just about all of these teams had at least one All-American player or candidate. They all had big expectations. Almost all of them would happily trade positions to be where Pitt is right now.

Maybe you don’t care. Maybe you think the expectations of Pitt were higher and Pitt was obviously better than these teams from the start of the season. I don’t know. Maybe I’ve lost some perspective, because I’ve been covering so many different teams and had to hear from a lot more fans and their frustrations.

I’m disappointed with some of the losses this season. I wanted more from Pitt. I do know that I also like the future of this program even more. In the long term (the next 3 years or so) I expect a lot even more.

Pitt has gone 25-6 this season, 12-4 in the Big East. And for the entire season, no player’s singular performance was enough to even merit Big East Player of the Week. Obviously some of that has been a little luck where another player on another team had a bigger game or bigger impact that week. It’s also been reflective of the fact that this team has been so balanced and consistent most of the year.

Seems there was a little act of vandalism by Pitt fans on the Georgetown campus.

Vandals spray-painted vulgar phrases on the blue and gray “Hoya Saxa” sign near the Canal Road entrance to campus on Saturday on the same day the men’s basketball team defeated the University of Pittsburgh in a game that received national attention.

Students returning from the basketball game Saturday afternoon said that they saw several curse words spray-painted over the Georgetown catchphrase. The sign has since been repainted.

Emily Dorff (COL ’10) said she saw that the sign had been vandalized on her way home to campus.

“It had ‘Go Pitt’ and ‘Fuck Georgetown’ spray-painted on it in blue,” she said.

There’s a picture with the article. It’s not the biggest picture, but it would appear that there was only one of the 7 dirty words used once. So I’m not sure about multiple vulgarities.

Students who saw the vandalism said that they suspect that the phrases were painted by Pitt supporters some time before the end of Saturday’s game.

You mean Hoya fans didn’t do it themselves? There are times when I love student papers.

Though students said the graffiti could not totally ruin the positive atmosphere surrounding Georgetown’s win Saturday, it was a source of anger and frustration for many.

Michael Driscoll (MSB ’08), who heard from a friend about the sign’s alteration, said he was infuriated by the offensive vandalism.

“You just don’t do something like that,” he said. “It’s tasteless.”

Some students, however, said that the vandalism did not upset them much.

“I wouldn’t say I was upset. Perhaps annoyed, with a tinge of amusement,” Dorff said.

The sign has already been repainted and no evidence remains beyond the photographs and memories.

I’m not condoning it, because I don’t think “Fuck” was necessary. Simply painting Pitt over a sign that could and was easily repainted seems harmless enough.