Panthers Continue Owning the Eers

I could really get used to this. You know, absolutely owning our archrivals in the two major college sports.

The warning signs were all there early in the first half when Panther fans the world over cursed DeJuan Blair's occasional oafishness as he got into foul trouble yet again. When Blair gets in foul trouble against quality squads, too often we've seen the opposing team just start pwning the Panthers. And then Levance Fields racked up his second foul of the first half a bit later and once again we were left cussing at the situation. With both our floor general and our MVP sitting on the bench for a solid portion of the first half, things certainly weren't looking good. Only one man was going to be able to rescue the Panthers:

Sam I Am Young. Of course, while Sam I Am was very good and finally snapped himself out of the slight funk he was, he wasn't alone. Ashton Gibbs continues to develop a hell of a shot, Jermaine Dixon and Tyrell Biggs are the quintessential defensive stoppers/ offensive role players, and Brad Wanamaker and Gil Brown gave solid, steady minutes off the bench.

But the night was Sammy's. Too often he has been overshadowed by the blossoming star of the Grizzly Blair, but that wasn't the case tonight. Even after Blair returned to the lineup in the second half, it wasn't for long and he wasn't effective. After picking up a third foul, this time Blair joined the Pitt fans in their cursing and was promptly T-ed up for his effort. Not good times. Terrifying times, in fact. Blair's immaturity could have easily derailed the Panthers during a big run, but thankfully the leadership of Fieldsy and Sam I Am held the Panthers steady.

This W gives Pitt wins in 5 of their past 6 and 12 of the last 16 hardwood meetings against the Mountaineers. And of course they also have back-to-back W's on the gridiron as well. Not too shabby at all. Few things make me laugh as much as hearing the entire Pitt student section chant "start your tractors" and "We have cable" at the fleeing Mountie fans. Aahhhhh college.

Before I go, one more note: I continue to be vehemently against the Pitt Gold third uniforms. They aren't as bad as the catastrophically terrible all-Gold football uniforms that make the players look like Academy Awards, but these are pretty awful, too. I mean listen, guys, I understand the need to put a 3rd uni out there to boost the olllllllld revenue streams, but you need to do better. Much better. The first and most obvious suggestion is to break out the Script Pitt to everyone's delight. It's not even like you'd have to bring that sucker back frequently, just save it for one football and maybe two b-ball games a year. Wear it for Pitt-WVU b-ball and maybe one other b-ball game against Eastern Southern Missouri Valley Community College or something and then break out the Script for a mid-level football game (like Rutgers or UConn or something) to get the fans fired up.

If you don't want to do this, and I understand if you don't because of the desire to stick with the new design and new colors, at least tone the gold down. I mean our colors aren't gold and white with a hint of blue. But you wouldn't know that from looking at this picture: Emphasize that Blue a lot more in these unis. Try out putting the team name and numers in blue maybe. At the very least put blue side bars on the jersey and extend them on the shorts. For football, maybe instead of head-to-toe gold, keep the jerseys and change the pants to either blue with a gold stripe or white with a blue (or maybe even gold) stripe.