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December 15, 2006

Jay Bilas’ ESPN.com chat (Insider subs.) gets asked about the Pitt-Wisky game.

Ryan (Oshkosh, WI): Hey Jay, who do you think comes out victorious at the Kohl Center this Saturday?

Jay Bilas: Ryan: I like Wisconsin at home. The Badgers had better take care of the ball better, though. They had 22 turnovers against Marquette, which is what you would expect in two games from a Bo Ryan coached team. I think Wisconsin is very good, but I would not be surprised to see Pitt win if they shoot it well.

Way to be decisive.

Over at SI.com, Grant Wahl looks at the remaining unbeatens and lumps Pitt in the group of “jury still out”

Kudos to Jamie Dixon for taking on a tougher schedule this season, including his willingness to play Buffalo (in a squeaker) on the road. The game of the week is clearly going to be in Madison on Saturday, but we’re also curious to see how the Panthers perform against Oklahoma State in a virtual road game on Dec. 21. If Pitt can win at least one of those games, we’ll fess up and admit that we undervalued them to start the season. (We’ll already cave on the so-far-exemplary performance of Levance Fields at the point-guard spot.)

The Cowboys, by the way, he placed among the teams that could back up being undefeated.

Back to the Buffalo game, Jamie Dixon will defend that game and is working the media to join him (Insider subs.).

“If it’s so easy to win these games, then why aren’t people playing them?” said Dixon, whose Panthers are in a stretch of playing four of five games away from Pitt including games at Auburn (win), Buffalo, Saturday at No. 7 Wisconsin, and then next Thursday against Oklahoma State in Oklahoma City (an hour from the Cowboys’ campus).

“No one understands how hard it is to win these games,” Dixon said. “They were [No.] 55 in the RPI when we played them and so it’s a win on the road, a hard win on the road. And that’s why a lot of people don’t do them. When we go to Dayton next year, that could be another good road win if we can get it.”

The win over the Bulls hardly was a no-win situation for Pitt. It was the first real late-game test for the Panthers (Auburn played Pitt to an eight-point game). They had to bunker down, score late, and hold on defensively during a final Buffalo possession that could have tied the game (a 3-pointer missed).

Lord, help us all, Doug Gottleib is backing Pitt.

I agree with Jamie Dixon’s comment in the Daily Word — it is tough to win at Buffalo, and if the Panthers beat Wisconsin and Oklahoma State, they will be my No. 1 team, hands down. Even if Pitt splits those two games they should not drop out of the top five.

Stop the world, I want to get off. I’m forced to agree with Gottleib.

December 5, 2006

Televised the Rest of the Way

Filed under: Basketball,Media,Schedule,TV — Chas @ 2:07 pm

Nice.

The days of scrambling around Western Pennsylvania looking for a place to watch Pitt men’s basketball games are over. Starting with Duquesne on Wednesday, 22 of the Panthers’ 23 regular-season games are televised, either on CBS, Fox Sports Pittsburgh or ESPN. Only a couple of Pitt’s first eight games were on local TV. The only non-televised game the rest of the season is Florida A&M on Dec. 30.

According to the Pitt schedule, even that game is on FSN/ESPN regional.

December 2, 2006

Finally There

Filed under: Basketball,Internet,Media,TV — Chas @ 12:42 pm

The Pitt Basketball Media Guide 2006-07 is finally up on the Pitt site. It’s broken up into 9 PDF sections for downloading or viewing.

It also seems that the Pitt-Auburn game can be watched locally in Pittsburgh.

The University of Pittsburgh athletic department announced that Sunday’s Pitt-Auburn men’s basketball game will be broadcast on the Comcast Network. Comcast Network digital subscribers in the Pittsburgh area may access the game on Channel 188. Comcast subscribers living in other areas must contact their local cable provider for broadcast information.

Tipoff for the game at Auburn’s Memorial Coliseum is at 3 p.m. ET/2 p.m. CT.

I’ll be over in the corner kicking my cable box with service from Time Warner for another week.

December 1, 2006

Fittipaldo Interactions

Filed under: Basketball,Fishwrap,Internet,Media — Chas @ 11:34 am

He has a Q&A today and a chat yesterday.

Just an idle thought. I figure Fittipaldo assumes he is one of the most hated college sports beat writers. He is hated by plenty of Penn State fans who assume he is biased against/hates their football team as the P-G beat reporter who also covers Pitt b-ball; and by plenty of Pitt fans who assume he is biased against/hates the b-ball team as the P-G beat reporter who also covers PSU football.

From the chat there was someone with unbelievably out of whack expectations for 3-point shooting:

MPM: Thanks for taking this question in advance. Going into last night’s game the Panthers 3PT shooting seemed adequate. Last night was horrible. Was it just a bad night or could this be a problem area for the team?

Ray Fittipaldo: Pitt was shooting 47 percent from 3-point range before last night. After going 2 for 17 from behind the arc, the Panthers are now shooting 41.2 percent. That is still good enough to lead the Big East. One of the reasons Pitt’s guards kept shooting last night was because of the supreme confidence Jamie Dixon has in them. Ron Ramon is shooting 57 percent from 3-point range. Antonio Graves is shooting 45 percent. Ramon is one of the top 3-point shooters in the country. I would view last night’s game as an aberration, but it also goes to show how opposing teams will defense Pitt. Most teams are going to try and stop Gray and force the guards to win the game. It will be interesting to see how Pitt fares in a Big East game when the shooting is off. They were able to get it done against Robert Morris. But will they be able to find ways to win against ranked foes?

“Adequate?” Jeez, I know everyone is hoping for big things, but keep in mind that shooting 40% from beyond the arc is like shooting 60% from inside. Pitt has an excellent chance of averaging over 40% this year with the way teams have to defend inside, but keep it realistic.

The Q&A has a question about Pitt recruiting DC versus NYC:

Q: I was excited about the signings in November. But I was surprised that none were from New York City. I hope the pipeline has not dried up. I find that it is very important to have those guys when playing conference games against east coast teams. Can you provide insight here?

FITTIPALDO: Pitt has not forgotten about New York City. It just happened to be one of those years when New York did not produce many high-caliber players. I did some research on this and wrote a story about it when Dixon hired David Cox as his director of basketball operations back in the summer. One of the reasons Dixon hired Cox was because of his connections as a former AAU coach in Washington, D.C. The Washington-Baltimore area, for the moment, has surpassed New York City as the recruiting hotbed on the east coast. New York City did not produce a top 70 recruit in the 2007 recruiting class. The Washington-Baltimore area had five players among the top 25. I think Dixon would like to make more inroads in the area. He signed Sam Young two years ago. I would expect to see more in the future.

It’s also part of why the football team is looking to tap the area as well. There’s just a boom in athletic talent in the area right now.

There were some questions about Sam Young struggling. As the Fittipaldo story pointed out earlier, part of it is Young playing a different position this year. It’s what Dixon has done plenty of before. Think about the way he has shifted the guards the last couple of years. Having them play both point and shooting. It’s about creating more depth and allowing Pitt to play the best players at once. Young at small forward may not last, but given that Young is 6’6″, not 6’8″ or bigger Young should want to embrace the position. It would enhance his pro prospects more than as an undersized power forward.

November 29, 2006

I Miss Comcast Cable

Filed under: Admin,Media,TV — Chas @ 10:44 am

That’s a phrase I never thought to utter.

It turns out Time Warner Cable is even worse in what they offer and their service.
I was originally going to go satellite this fall, but with the absolute chaos and housing issues we just figured on waiting until things got settled. During that time, TWC started assuming control of the area.

A couple weeks ago, I tried to order ESPN Gameplan (college football package) for the weekend. As I had done on some previous times. TWC was fully in charge now. The Customer Service Rep informed me that TWC doesn’t offer Gameplan on a weekly basis. Only the full package. Very sorry about that. Stupid and annoying, but not ridiculous. I guess. Seems like they are passing up on chances to make more money.
Yesterday, I tried to order ESPN FullCourt for the season. Couldn’t order through the cable box so I called. The CSR said that the computer wasn’t putting it through and that he didn’t know why. I foolishly agreed to let them call back rather than go on hold while he looked into it.

After over 3 hours, I called back. The CSR cheerfully explained that the callback was only 20-45 minutes away. I stopped her before she could hang-up and pointed out that since I had her on the phone and it was a queue issue, not still looking into it. Well, maybe she could just tell me what the situation was now and spare everyone the call back.

She actually had to think about it for a few minutes. Like it was an alien concept.

Finally she told me it seems that TWC doesn’t offer FullCourt in my area. At all. Not weekly, not a full package. I asked why I could locate the channel and the program on the TV. Well it seems that I still have a Comcast cable box, and Comcast offers it. Of course, TWC took over this territory from Comacast and… Hell I don’t know. Typing it out made as much sense as when she tried to explain it.

No sense as to when or if they will offer it.
So, they did it. Got off the phone and went back online and ordered DirecTV. It gets installed in a week and a half.

Congrats TWC, you drove another customer to satellite and you have made me look fondly upon Comcast. The latter just seemed to be a highly improbable shift in my view.

November 28, 2006

Other National Observations

Filed under: Basketball,Internet,Media,Polls — Chas @ 12:33 pm

So give CBS Sportsline’s Gary Parrish credit. After calling this game a challenge for Pitt, he didn’t mind coming back and addressing what Pitt did to FSU.

Worst game of the weekend: Florida State was supposed to give Pittsburgh its first test. If that’s true, then Jamie Dixon’s team had a cheat sheet, because the Panthers thoroughly dominated the Seminoles, and that much of the damage came from the perimeter is an indication that Pitt is balanced enough to win games in multiple ways. The final was 88-66, but that score is misleading. This beating was much worse than that.

Andy Katz seems a little bothered by Ohio State getting to #1 in the Coaches (hat tip to Steve).

It’s not worth getting too worked up about the polls, since they don’t matter in college hoops like they do in football. But since they exist, they should at least make sense. Putting Ohio State No. 1 this week doesn’t.

Jay Bilas is a bit annoyed at the polls on Pitt’s behalf (Insider subs.).

2. Pitt Should be No. 1
Because college basketball has a tournament, the debate over which team is No. 1 is largely irrelevant. All the No. 1 ranking gives you is bragging rights and a nice reward with top billing on SportsCenter highlights and news coverage. Otherwise, it means bupkes.

Notwithstanding the overall lack of true meaning, I think that Pitt should be No. 1, even though I don’t think the Panthers are the best team in the nation. Pitt and UCLA have not yet lost games and should have risen in the polls over Florida, North Carolina and Kansas because of it. The polls are a snapshot only, and the current photo shows the top contenders with bloody noses while Pitt and UCLA are still clean and unmarked.

Remember, Pitt has been in this position before and lost to St. John’s, then lost in the NCAA Tournament to Bradley. The Panthers, however, look like a team that will be a tougher out this season. The reason? Pitt scores the ball much more easily than in prior years. While Pitt advanced to the Sweet 16 when still grinding it out on the offensive end, it is much easier to play when you can score some easy baskets. So far this season, Pitt is doing that.

A little more love and support for Pitt than in the past. Takes some getting used to.

November 22, 2006

Specifically,talking about sports information coming from the basketball section. I’ve let it go for a while, but it is a glaring omission that the Pitt 2006-07 basketball media guide is still not on the site. We are now some 2 weeks into the season. The basketball prospectus, the 05-06 guide are still there. No sign of the 06-07 media guide. Something that should have been there for at least 2 weeks before the season started. You can order it, but there is no PDF of it.
Then there was the Tournament Pitt hosted that had way too much confusion about even letting season ticket holders know about it.

I mean, it’s not like there aren’t huge expectations for the basketball team. Lots of buzz, national attention and excitement for Pitt basketball. Not like the fans don’t want to get as much information as possible and have even more reason to be jacked for every game. Not like the disappointment of the football team doesn’t put the fan attention more to the basketball side in hopes of having something good to cheer.
Apparently they don’t want the good vibes to go to anyone’s head or something. Just a poor job right now and I don’t know why. No reason for this.

November 21, 2006

So Ron Cook puts the fact that Pitt and other teams that go 6-6 will be going to a bowl at the top of his outrage list for college football. Something that everyone has been well aware since it was announced that they were going to 12 game seasons in CFB and there are just way too many bowls.

Looking for it…

Looking for it…

Searching…

Nope, can’t find the outrage. Can’t work up a lather. Hell, I’m having a hard time working up a lather about the other sins he lists:

Penn State going to the Outback Bowl — big deal. It’s a Big 11 tie-in bowl and that’s where they landed in the pecking order. Why does that make them undeserving? Compared to who else in the conference? They may get creamed by LSU or someone like that, but that doesn’t make them “undeserving” so much as point out how top heavy the Big 11 was. Non-BCS bowls are about money and what schools and conferences can bring the most fans for the games. The Big 11 has among the largest fanbases and has historically traveled to bowls well.

Potential Michigan-tOSU rematch for the BCS National Championship. Wait? You mean the BCS is screwed up? Damn, I thought the system was fine. Again, old news.

It’s the feigned outrage in the column that amuses me. These are old complaints wrapped up in an attempt at mouth-breathing anger. Don’t necessarily disagree with them, but spare me the weak emotional effort.

November 19, 2006

Finally, ESPN decided the time for the Louisville-Pitt game. It will be a 3:30 pm ESPN telecast. That means plenty of time to tailgate and prepare for the final football game of the season.

It is still senior day. The last home game for Tyler Palko, H.B. Blades and others. Not to mention, likely the final game Darrelle Revis will play at Pitt.

November 13, 2006

Test Webcasting, Get a Keychain

Filed under: Basketball,Internet,Media — Chas @ 9:00 am

I have no clue what the actual numbers are for Pitt’s All-Access subscriptions are. The prices still seem a bit high. It also doesn’t help that it doesn’t work in Mozilla or Mac or even Internet Explorer 7 at this point (only IE 6). They are almost making it attractive to give it a try for November.

Pitt Athletics is proud to announce that Pitt’s upcoming men’s basketball games against Northeastern and Oakland on Nov. 17 & 19 will be available via live web cast on Panthers All-Access website for exclusive live streaming of these non-televised games.

This special offer includes complete game coverage of Pitt’s basketball game against Northeastern on Friday, Nov. 17 and the Oakland contest on Sunday, Nov. 19. Both games have a 5 p.m. tipoff and live coverage begins at 4:30 on the web cast.

It’s $7.95 for a month. Plus, act now and get a free”Panthers All-Access” keychain. Okay then.

November 7, 2006

I swear, there are days when I think stories like this are planted just to give me hope.

The future prospects of Dan McCarney remaining the football coach at Iowa State beyond Thanksgiving grow more bleak by the week. For some folks the die is already cast, although for others Mac still has their support because of his past exploits…

Pollard has repeatedly passed on opportunities to give Mac, who we shouldn’t forget was just named the Big 12 Coach of the Year three seasons ago, a vote of confidence as of late. Conventional wisdom amongst the media and fans is that Pollard has already made his decision, and I count myself in that camp. It’s gotten to the point that folks are even speculating on prospective names for replacements. Two names I’ve heard bandied about already are Paul Rhoads, the defensive coordinator at Pittsburgh, and Jim Harbaugh, the head coach at Division I-AA San Diego.

Rhoads is a former ISU assistant under McCarney and Ankeny native, this year’s Sporting News College Football Preview named him the best defensive coordinator in the Big East.

Go for the gusto Paul. An opportunity in Ames, Iowa doesn’t come around very often.

November 4, 2006

Feeling a little bitter this morning as I realize that Gameplan is not showing the Pitt game on the air (they are doing it online, but I’m not springing for that as well). The only BE game today, and it’s only on regional channels. Thanks. So I’ll be stuck with net radio and the ticker scrolling.

Pitt wants this game. It wants to get the 7th win now. Not to mention avoiding back-to-back losses.

“The speed they have is going to cause us some problems if we don’t match it from the beginning of the game,” said Pitt linebacker H.B. Blades. “But we have had a long time to think about our last loss, so we’re hungry and we’re eager to get out there and play another game.

“This is a big one for us, at least, because the worst thing you can do is follow a loss with another one.”

The Bulls are focused on stopping Palko as the key. They also have not forgotten that they have lost 2 straight to Pitt.

Pittsburgh’s 74 points against USF the past two seasons are the most points USF has allowed to the same team in consecutive seasons since Hofstra scored 92 in 1998-99.

“It’s always been little mistakes here and there,” USF senior linebacker Patrick St. Louis said. “They had big plays every now and then. We have to try to limit all the big plays.”

The biggest challenge for USF will be limiting Palko, ranked No. 2 in the nation in passing efficiency.

“It’s going to test everybody on our defense,” Leavitt said. “Certainly you need to have a good pass rush and you need to be in the right areas. You’ve got to do both. You’ve got to do a number of things to have a chance to slow them down.

“He’s going to make some throws, he’s going to complete some passes, there’s nothing you can do about that, but it’s going to have to be the whole defense playing together.”

Pitt had the bye to get healthy and think about all that they did wrong against Rutgers. The key for Pitt on defense is to stop QB Matt Groethe. Groethe has had a week to get healthy, but will be wearing a protective shield on his face mask to protect the stitches on his nose from gashes suffered in the Cinci game.

November 3, 2006

Zeise Q&A: Still Looking Back

Filed under: Football,Media,Tactics — Chas @ 10:26 am

No discussion in the Q&A about the Bulls. Zeise in his intro states that he thinks Pitt should and will win this one.

I guess if Coach Wannstedt and DC Paul Rhoads aren’t going to answer the question about stuffing the box to stop the run — other then to give a “because, I say so” response — Zeise is going to have to keep answering for them.

Q: What are your thoughts on the game plans against Rutgers? Why no hurry up offense? Why no eight men in the box?

ZEISE: The Panthers did some hurry-up offense and to some degree it worked.

I thought on defense, the game plan was pretty solid ?? they were losing 13-10 with about 10 minutes to play. The idea that there were so many different things the Panthers should have tried on defense to me is a little silly given the fact that they held Rutgers — despite giving up a huge edge in field position — to six points in the first half. The defense did the job and finally just wore down.

The offensive game plan seemed to be sound, it was the execution that was terrible. I know that is coach-speak but in this case it is true. The Panthers were their own worst enemy. They had penalties, they had dropped passes, they had a lot of negative plays. They seemed to be in terrible field position and third and long the entire first half. It is hard to call plays when that is the case.

I will concede the offense bears a lot of responsibility for doing a poor job in execution. Missing opportunities, making mistakes and drops. No question. It also allowed the Rutgers defense to take more chances and get more aggressive.

Having said that, the defensive game plan was anything but solid.  They held them to only 6 points in the first half, in large part becaues Rutgers brokedown at the very end of those drives and a missed a 35 yard FG. As for the defense wearing down, sure because that’s what happens when you continually bend but don’t break. Rutgers held the ball for over 18 minutes in the first half (10:24 in just the second quarter) and converted 3-6 on 3d downs in the second quarter.

I don’t want to keep rehashing the same thing. It’s just that it defends the indefensible and offers flawed logic. If you allow a team to continually get better field position, you keep the offense further back and don’t do anything to help change field position and it is no shock later in the game that the D is wearing down.

Q: There is a movement among Pitt fans to have a “Blue Out” for the WVU game, where all students and fans wear blue to the game. What do you think?

ZEISE: I think it is noble and all, but doesn’t West Virginia also wear blue? So how can you tell who is cheering for either team because a lot of Mountaineers fans will be wearing blue? I mean, it would make more sense to me if Pitt still wore the blue of the old uniform colors.

You know, I make no promises as to what color I wear to a night game in November other then to be certain it is quite warm.

October 27, 2006

Always the Local Angle

Filed under: Basketball,Big East,Coaches,Dixon,Media — Chas @ 11:16 am

The seeming hallmark of every news story is to find some local hook. I always viewed this as a sort of provinicialism until I moved around to a bunch of cities over the years. I realized it was completely common practice. I ascribed it to some inferiority complex until I started this blog. The more articles I read, the more I realized it was just something everyone does — find that local angle. No place at times is worse about it then NYC. They love pointing out talent that played at a city high school or some local connection. This one about the Big East preseason polls caught my attention.

“It’s not where you are now; it’s where you finish,” said Jamie Dixon, Pitt’s Bronx-bred coach. “These guys get the magazines, get on the Internet. You can’t hide from it. The day after the season they were ranking teams, so it’s not a surprise. It’s a challenge. Our guys love challenges, and what bigger challenge can you have than to be picked No. 1 in the Big East?”

Actually winning it, and coming up big in the Big Dance. The Panthers never have won more than two NCAA tourney games in a season, getting knocked out of the Sweet 16 three straight years – including Dixon’s first as head coach in 2004.

[Emphasis added.]

I love that. Coach Dixon was born in Burbank and his hometown is North Hollywood, California. His folks are from the Bronx and he did live there for a spell, but that just cracks me up. It’s like calling me a Baltimore native since I was born and lived there for the first 6 months of my life.

Additional note, the meme of can Pitt get past the Sweet 16 this year will be one that will dog Pitt.

October 26, 2006

It seems for a team tabbed for the preseason top spot, they are reasonably loose before the media horde.

Reporters were swarming Jamie Dixon on Wednesday when Pitt senior center Aaron Gray held out an invisible microphone and posed a question to his coach.

“How does it feel to be talking to this many reporters?” Gray said.

Dixon looked at his 7-foot star and deadpanned, “I tried to get rid of one of them, but he came back.”

Considering how Coach Dixon has struggled generally to show a personality in media settings and the volume of media friendly and quotable coaches in the Big East, this is progress and says something about improving skills for Coach Dixon in being comfortable in his skin and his position.

This is the third time Pitt has earned Big East preseason No. 1 status. The other two times, in 1987-88 and 2002-03, the Panthers either won or tied for the regular-season title.

So Pitt has that going for it.

Not that Pitt players and coach don’t know it also makes Pitt a target for everyone’s best game and that preseason rankings are not that important.

“We have to accept the challenge and stay strong,” senior guard Antonio Graves added. “We’ll be faced with ups and downs. With this team, the key will be how we stay strong in the storm. With all the pressure and attention, how we handle adversity will be the key to this season.”

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon took the news in stride. He recognizes that being picked No. 1 is a tribute to his and his staff’s ability to coach and recruit, but he also knows the recognition means nothing if the Panthers don’t play to their lofty expectations.

“I think it’s a good thing for our program,” Dixon said. “I think it says a lot about where we’ve come from. I always said when this conference was getting changed around and everyone was wondering what was going to happen, I said we want to play against the best. If we’re picked at the top in the preseason in this conference, I think that says a lot.”

The one thing that can derail any season, though, are injuries. It seems there are some little injuries in the preseason worth keeping an eye on.

Pitt has been bitten by the injury bug this preseason. Freshman guard Gilbert Brown was diagnosed with mononucleosis 10 days ago and has yet to take part in a practice. Sophomore point guard Levance Fields is hampered by a groin injury and senior guard Antonio Graves (back) and sophomore forward Sam Young (knee) have minor injuries.

Graves said the practices have been extremely competitive.

“Guys are still competing and fighting for positions,” he said. “Practice is very competitive, very physical. We’ve had a couple of injuries. It’s been a battle. It will make us a better team.”

Brown, a consensus top-50 recruit, is to be reexamined today. He just started doing some light running on the treadmill earlier in the week and could be out for a while.

“It’ll change some things if he’s not ready to go,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said.

Gilbert Brown was about the only freshman expected to bust through the rotation this season. The issue will be his conditioning coming back from mono. Knee problems for Sam Young are nerve inducing. He needs to healthy knees for his explosiveness.

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