Pitt Beats Down The Irish

Notre Dame came out firing against Pitt today and gave us a nerve-wracking start that saw the Irish nailing treys like they had Chris Quinn back in the lineup. Thankfully, the Panthers came out blazing hot and ruggedly tough in the second half and bowled over, around, and through the hated Notre Dame Fighting Irish en route to a 93-80 W. It was one hell of a way to rebound from the disappointing loss earlier this week to Villanova.

The key for Pitt was DeJuan Blair. The guy spent the better part of the afternoon drinking Luke Harangody's milkshake. I walked away from this game very unimpressed with the highly touted Harangody. The Grizzly Blair had a 10/18 shooting day with 23 points and a ridiculous 22 boards including an absolutely unheard off 11 offensive boards. Harangody just couldn't bang with the infinitely more physical Blair. Most of Gody's gaudy 27 points came in garbage time when the Panthers had the game in hand.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up the stupendous work of Levance Fields and Ashton Gibbs. On a day when Sam I Am could get anything going offensively or defensively, Fieldsy and Gibbs were absolute money. Gibbs had 13 points in 17 minutes, 11 of them coming in the first half as he was really the biggest reason that Pitt was able to stay close to the Irish early on. Guy was crazy good.Fields did the usual floor general stuff, 7 helpers and 0 turnovers. Ridiculous. He also poured in a very effective and very efficient 17 points and a pair of treys.

I also can't believe I made it through this much of the article without mentioning Jermaine Dixon. The guy is so good on defense I think Dick LeBeau might sign him away this off-season. He also drained all three treys he took en route to 16 points.

Like I said, this game a freaking beatdown in the second half. The Irish's fantastic start was spurred by out-of-this-world shooting, mainly by role player Luke Zeller who was averaging a whopping 6 points per game. Zeller had 18 first half points, all on treys, but predictably disappeared. And when it came time for the real basketball players to take over, it was all P-I-T-T.

Pitt Rebounds Against Syracuse

The lone blemish on the Pittsburgh sports weekend belonged to the Pitt basketball squad in their Saturday evening loss to Louisville on their home turf. It was a tough loss that was made more difficult by Pitt holding a sizable 10 point lead late in the game and some spotty officiating that drove me to the brink of insanity.

I was more than a little worried about this game tonight, because while Pitt has had a lot of success against the Orange of late, the Cuse are still a very good squad and are one of the few teams that actually have the ability to match up with DeJuan Blair's uhmm... girth... on the inside. And being that the Cuse are at 8, they are obviously a pretty good and pretty frisky squad.

But the Panthers put on an absolute statement game with a 78-60 smackdown of Syracuse. The game was infinitely tighter at the half at 31-28 Pitt, and the Panthers were clanking the free throws early on causing a near-riot in the stands at the Pete. But the second half was a very different story, as Pitt outscored the Orange 47-32 in that stretch and coasted to a big win on the backs of DeJuan Blair, Sam Young, and Levance Fields.Outside of the Big 3, there wasn't much scoring done by this squad, as those three had a whopping 57 points. The other guys on the roster all filled their roles very well, though, especially in that exciting second half.
-Tyrell Biggs put up an 8 point 5 rebound night and was relentless in his physicality inside against Syracuse. The Orange were really shaken up by how insanely physical the Panthers are. Despite Syracuse having two tanks inside in Jackson and Onuaku, the Orange just seemed very uncomfortable to me.
-Jermaine Dixon didn't have the scoring touch he's had in the past few games, but he had another very nice evening, doing a bit of everything. He's excellent guarding the perimeter, had a stunning block on a Syracuse breakaway, made a few steals happen, and continues to be a pretty effective penetrating guard. I think this kid has a much higher ceiling than I would have expected when I first saw him play.
-Gil Brown's athleticism is a force to be reckoned with at times. He's definitely a little on the wild side and still very raw, but when he matches up with opposing swing men types, they just have a ton of trouble playing him the right way even if he's having an off night on just 1/6 shooting.
-Brad Wanamaker is one of the better reserve guards around. He's frisky defensively and is superb handling the ball. I know he projects to start at the 2 or 3 depending on the situation in the future but, aside from Levance, I think he's the best ball handler on the roster. He's also very smart and makes great passes and plays.
-Ashton Gibbs was his usual serviceable self and is at least giving me some confidence when he comes into the games, as opposed to early in the season when he made me fret every time he brought the ball up. I don't mind seeing him get 7-8 minutes a night to spell Levance.
-I was very impressed by the work of Nasir Robinson, and I think, like I said here a few weeks ago, that he HAS to get more minutes as the season progresses. I originally compared him to Gil Brown, and while the size and athleticism are there, he's already more physical than Gil and plays better inside than him even if he struggles at the perimeter and has questionable ball handling ability. I like the work he gaves us at the 4, and I wouldn't mind taking advantage of that athleticism for 5-10 minutes a game against a slower power forward.

I guarantee that Syracuse fans are going to bitch and moan about the refs in this game. In fact, I already have seen that on the message boards (a given for fans to whine there, but this is more than usual given the weirdness of the game), but the officiating seemed equal to me. Blair was getting basically sucker punched half the time he had the ball inside, and Syracuse was leaping around at their offensive zone going consistently over the back and nothing was being called. Pitt was doing the same, no question about it, but it was equal. The technicals, well, I don't know enough about that because it's hard to tell anything about T's when you're at the game, like I was. It's all about context, and while Harris' I have no idea about, Jackson's was a no question about it T. He gave Blair an arms-extended shove after a basket, and Blair fell backwards. You HAVE to call a T there, it was blatant and the refs made it plainly obvious they weren't going to stand for that kind of play.

But maybe all these complaints lead to a larger issue here. Is the Big East becoming too physical? I personally don't think so, but it is becoming clear that the refs are having a very difficult time officiating a lot of these games because you could call a foul every single time down the court on somebody. Hell you could probably call a flagrant just about every other time down the court. I don't really mind the style of play so long as the refs call it the same way all game long, and that was my big complaint about the Louisville game. The refs were blowing their whistles like crazy early in that one, and then as the game wore on, they realized they were on pace to call about 200 fouls and ended up swallowing the whistles when they probably should have been calling at least some fouls.

Live Blog of Panthers- Cardinals

5:58 We are live from... our apartment in Oakland! All set to put together a live blog of the Pitt-Louisville basketball game that is slated to get under way in precisely two minutes. This game boasts the number one team in the nation (god I will never tire of saying that) matching up against the 20th ranked Louisville Cardinals in Louisville's Freedom Hall. The key players for our Panthers are, of course, DeJuan "The Windex Man" Blair, Sam I Am Young, and Levance Fields. For the Cards, its freshman star Samardo Samuels, Earl Clark, and 10th year senior Terrance Williams (just kidding of course, it only SEEMS like he's been there since the 80s.) Should be fun.

6:00 Soooo....yeah the Big Ten matchup of Illinois-Michigan State is going long. Its not enough that the Big Ten has to play awful basketball, they have to play slow awful basketball that forces the rest of us to inadvertantly watch them disgrace the James Naismith's game? Just appalling.

6:05 Evidently the tipoff has been delayed until 6:10 PM. Well okay then. By the way, I've seen youth league YMCA basketball games that were more interesting and better played than this atrocity of a game. There's still 3:56 left in this trainwreck.

6:11 ESPN is so appalled by having to broadcast this Big Eleven disaster with its 0.0 Nielsen rating that it briefly takes us to a split screen of Pitt-Ville where Ty Biggs drains a trey. Then they immediately switch back to Illinois-MSU. What a tease.

6:16 Panthers are up 9-2 right now and we are still suffering through this worthless Big Eleven game. I'm freaking out right now, I've seen more Big Eleven basketball today than I have in my entire life, and I understand why that is so. These teams would get debacled by Pitt.

6:18 Hey Michigan State finally F-Ing wins this game. ESPN can't cut the chord to that one fast enough. Ahhhh.... Big East basketball. Thank God. Of course they are at a media timeout. All 5 Pitt starters have scored we are told.

6:20 Superb! The wonderful Bill Raftery is calling the game alongside Sean McDonough and Fran Frischilla. This is a pretty good crew calling our game. "Send it in Jerome!"

6:21 Jermaine Dixon welcomes us to the game by nailing a 3. He is playing about 1,000 times better in the last couple games.

6:23 What happened to Edgar Sosa? Wasn't this guy supposed to be a really good player when he came here. I just looked up his stats and he has gotten worse statistically every year since he got to Louisville.

6:28 Edgar Sosa gets hacked going to the basket and falls away from the basket out of control and does a weird hug/dance thing with one of the refs. Kinda creepy. I don't think anyone knew what the hell to make out it. The Panthers are driving me crazy right now. Louisville is picking up steals and offensive boards all over the place right now. Despite a nice lead, I'm seeing a lot of the danger signs of sloppy first half play for the third game in a row.

6:36 Jermaine Dixon breathes on Terrence Williams the wrong way and gets called for a foul. This refs are calling a lot, a LOT of fouls right now. If this keeps us, there are going to be a fair amount of players on both teams in trouble.

6:40 Pitt has let the Ville back into this game, it's 23-17 as we head to a media timeout with 7:57 remaining. Too much sloppiness for Pitt after the red-hot start that no one actually saw. Ville is on a 10-3 run right now.

6:44 The refs appear to have wagered heavily, very heavily on Louisville, as Sam Young gets his second foul and is likely done for the half. Then, a Louisville player commits aggravated assault on Levance Fields and nothing gets called.

6:47 DeJuan Blair gets his second foul at the same time the ref's shirt gets untucked to reveal Cardinal Red underneath. What a bunch of B.S. Louisville takes their first lead of the game, but having 8 men on the court (including the refs) will do that.

6:50 After watching Gary McGhee play defense like he's missing a chromosome, I've determined Pitt would be better off playing with 4 men on the floor then with 4 and Mcghee.

6:55 Please God can Pitt learn to shoot free throws one of these F-ing years? Ashton Gibbs clanks two critical ones and Pitt is down 3 right now, 29-26.

6:58 Louisville is pwning Pitt on their offensive glass. I've never seen Pitt get shoved around like this on the glass. Of course DeJuan and Sammy haven't played in like an hour, so that might have something to do with it. I'd like to think we could at least hang with them though. I guess not.

7:03 And that's a half... Pitt surprisingly is up 32-30. If you had told me Sam and DeJuan would miss huge chunks of the first half with foul trouble I would not have expected to be up on Louisville at the half. So I'll take that, at least. Back for the second half.
SECOND HALF
7:20 We are back and the its good to see Sam and DeJuan back in the ball game. I'm nervous as to how the Cardinals are going to attack the foul-ridden Panthers. Biggs immediately picks up a foul, his 3rd, and this alarming stat is dropped on us: 6 PANTHERS HAD 2 FOULS AT HALFTIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey dumbass refs, I think you may be calling a shade too many fouls!

7:24 DeJuan Blair is making his presence felt right now. He picks up an offensive board and dunks it in traffic and then next possession down grabs another offensive board and gets a foul called against the Cards for a reach-in.

7:26 Panthers are on a mini-run, a 7-0 stretch capped by a Sam Young trey. The anouncers celebrate it by making a weird reference implying that they went out drinking with Bill Hillgrove and Dick Groat last night. Sounds like a grand old time.

7:31 Our first Sam Young shot fake of the evening. Man I was way off! I had 6:25 in the poll. Anyway it sets up a Jermaine Dixon trey, his third of the night. If Dixon can keep up the great work on threes he could turn into a real weapon and give them the one thing they are really lacking.

7:32 Crap. DeJuan picks up his 3rd foul on a silly reach-in. He heads to the bench. Gil comes back down the court on the next possession and picks up HIS third foul. Biggs, Blair, and Brown all have three now. Not good folks, not at all good.

7:35 Sam does a double ball/head fake. That's like the unicorn of Sam Young fakes. We just saw a truly special moment. of course he celebrates by turning the ball over almost immediately after.

7:36 Biggs is freaking OWNING the offensive glass. He is a tremendous inside role guy and continues to do his season-long impression of Chevy Troutman. Sam hits a banker after Biggsy gets those 2 offensive boards. 46-39 Panthers. Timeout Ville.

7:38 Okay this can't possibly be right, but ESPN is telling me that Tim Frye played in the first half of the game. Uhmm... What? The same Tim Frye who is the stereotypical short walk-on white guard who plays only in the final minute of blowouts? I mean I know Pitt was in foul trouble, but that can't be right can it? There's no way I could have missed that, right?

7:43 Sam makes a great steal but can't control as he is racing downcourt and tosses one to Dixon who tosses it to Fields who, clearly trying to look elsewhere for a fancy pass or something, lets it slip out of bounds. Bad job by Levance who sometimes will do things like that to drive you crazy. The Cardinals come down and score to make it 46-42.

7:44 Jermaine Dixon is having a spectacular day. he snatches a rebound, outlets to Levance who races upcourt and somehow Jermaine makes it all the way back up court and takes a bounce pass from Fields for a layup. This kid is turning into a legit offensive weapon all of a sudden, and I, for one, am stunned by his exponential upward progress. I guess he just needed to get comfortable or something, but he's been great. 48-42 Panthers

7:47 DeJuan Blair comes back in. I will be watching closely to see how Louisville attacks him and how he responds. Just as I type this, Sam makes an easy steal and puts in an absolute monster dunk on a breakaway. He walks menacingly away from the hoop looking like he's ready to run through a brick wall or something. The boy is fired up.

7:50 I haven't mentioned this yet, but Jamie Dixon is employing Brad Wanamaker in a point guard role to bring the ball up against the Louisville press. I'm not sure why exactly he's doing this, but he is doing a tremendous job at it.

7:51 DeJuan picks up his 4th on a ticky-tack 4th foul. It wasn't much of anything, but Blair took an unnecessary chance and paid the price. The kid still needs to learn.

7:53 All of a sudden Louisville is only down by a point as Pitt spends three straight defensive possessions crapping themselves and taking dumb shots on offense. I don't get how they can fall apart so quick when Blair comes out of the game like that. Grrr.... Pitt had a 10 point lead at one point. I had a feeling the Cards would work their way back into this sucker, but I didn't think that THIS would happen, especially so quickly.

7:55 Bill Raftery gives us what we wanted all day... a little parody for Sam Young's earlier dunk, shouting, "Send it in... Jerome!"

7:58 Blazing hot Jermaine Dixon drills a pair of free throws, Pitt is up by 3. He now has 18 points on the night. I have a done a total 180 on this kid in the past week or two.

8:01 A monster dunke for Louisville and this sucker is tied up. Yikes. We head into the last media timeout 58-58. They just showed the replay of the dunk and Gil Brown had an alarming petrified look on his face. Not what I want to see there Gil.

8:06 Levance Fields gets called for a foul that I think the Louisville fans made from the first row. Especially because the ref clearly signalled double foul at first and then pretended like he didn't. What f-ing garbage. Such a homer call. Cardinals are up because of this homerism.

8:08 Biggs makes a god-awful pass to Blair. Just a terrible idea. 19 turnovers for Pitt today as they are playing crazy sloppy right now.

8:11 Here we go, 1:07 to go in this puppy. It's gonna be a fight. 62-58 Cardinals right now.

8:12 Clark hits a monster shot as the shot clock expired. Not sure if its a 2 or 3, the refs are reviewing. I think its a 2 though. Yup it is. Shit. 64-58 Louisville. Pitt is hanging on by a thread, if that. The worst part is Clark hopping around like an idiot afterward. I hate that.

8:14 For some bizarre reason, after Louisville grabs a rebound after another missed 3 for Pitt, the Panthers take about 10 seconds to foul a Cardinal player. Just sloppy and not wanting it enough.

8:17 Truely bizarre, DeJuan Blair gets fouled as he goes to score and the bucket is good. Pitt down 66-62. Pitt may not have the best odds right now, but at least they still have some odds...

8:19 Louisville hits both free throws to go up 68-63. It's over now. Oh, and then Sam Young makes an awful inbound pass and Blair fouls out trying to get the ball back. Ugh.

8:22 Yup that's a wrap, 69-63 Cardinals. Pitt drops its first game of the season. I don't think I'll be doing another one of these anytime soon. Sorry Panthers for jinxing you guys. Still, it was a very good effort, and kind of a weird game filled with lots of runs and streaks. I'll be interested to see where we rank come Monday morning.

Diary of a Crazy Sunday

What do you get when you combine 5 hours of sleep, a nasty hangover, the number 1 basketball team in the NCAA, Steelers-Chargers, and the return of Jack Bauer? A Three River Sports running diary of course! What follows spans a hectic 13 1/2 hours for yours truly.

8:30 (beep, beep, Beep, Beep, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP...)"ugh, stupid alarm" (pressing sleep button)
8:37 (beep, beep, Beep, Beep, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP...) "NO! There is no way it's time to get up yet (pressing sleep button)
8:44 (beep, beep, Beep, Beep, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP...) "crap" I finally stumble out of bed cursing those extra drinks I insisted on last night at Peter's Pub.
8:46 Trying to shower myself awake
9:30 Only about 25% awake, I embark through the frigid Oakland weather up the large hill in front of the Petersen Events Center that feels roughly like Mount Everest right now. Why did I leave at 9:30 AM for a noon game you ask? Because these are the sacrifices necessary when you are a student fan on the number 1 basketball team in the land. If you don't get to the Pete a minimum 2 1/2 hours early for Big East games, you're seat in the Oakland Zoo just isn't good enough. Plus, it's sort of like a badge of honor. "Oh yeah, well I got up here at 9:30 and I was still a little bit drunk!" Damn I'm going to miss college.
10:20 They finally let us into the Zoo a little before the designated 10:30 time, and everyone rushes inside, only 100 minutes now until the game gets under way! It's always a little weird to look around the Zoo and see it about 80-90% full and see no more than a couple dozen people in the rest of the arena this early.
10:50 Me and my buddies spend the first half hour of the pre-game time discussing the Steelers-Chargers game at every single position. Yeah, we're kind of fans. We're getting a little tired of that discussion, and, distracted by the warming-up Panthers we decide to discuss how far we think each player on the Pitt roster will go with basketball
11:30 Our Consensus: Sam Young hangs around the NBA for about 6 or 7 years as a borderline rotation guy on bad teams or a 10th/ 11th man on good teams. DeJuan Blair has a 10+ year career and spends the majority of that time starting. We also decide he gets badly overpaid at least once in his career. He ends up being about a 15-and-8 guy for his career. Levance Fields goes the Jaron Brown/Julius Page/ Antonio Graves/ Carl Krauser route and plays in the CBA or something weird like that for a couple yers and eventually ends up coaching somewhere before long. Tyrell Biggs does similarly for a year or two and then leaves the sport behind. Jermaine Dixon is a D-Leaguer or something, partially because of name recognition, and kicks around Europe for a while. Gil Brown matures into a stud at Pitt and plays in the NBA, Brad Wanamaker becomes a better Antonio Graves and is a CBA/ D-League type player, as well. Nas Robinson turns into a good player and gets a brief shot at the NBA that doesn't last long. Ashton Gibbs is a CBAer, as is Tra Woodall.
11:47 HERE COME THE PANTHERS!
12:00 Tip-off gets under way with DeJuan losing the tip to a guy wearing a freaking Rip Hamilton schnozzo mask.
12:20 St. John's is a frisky bunch. DJ Kennedy is playing well. Pitt really isn't. Just a sloppy start to this one.
12:56 Halftime. Pitt pulled ahead 41-36 late in the first half. D.J. Kennedy is a hell of a player. I think he was fouled somewhere between 4 and 3,000 times in the first half. Like a poor man's poor man's poor man's Dwyane Wade. Why didn't Pitt go hard after this kid? DeJuan got in foul trouble with 4 minutes to go in the first half. No good Blair, we need you to be nice and available in the second half. Gil Brown, Sam Young not looking good at all. Jermaine Dixon had a decent half as did Levance. Should be an interesting second. Let's hope they remember they need to play defense.
1:19 Just got word from my buddy watching at home that I made an appearance on the tube. Bad-ass-ness. I freakin' love being in the Zoo.
1:30 Things looking much more comfortable, Pitt up double digits. DeJuan has taken control underneath, and I can't be positive, but there is at least a 10% chance that Juan Dixon stole his little bro's body for this game because Jermaine is lighting the stuff up out there.1:35 Forgot to mention, there are all sorts of recruits for the football squad hanging out here today. A few have come over, including QB Kolby Gray, who is not exactly an imposing figure, but at least he can't be any worse than Billy Stull right? I've got to say, Cam Saddler, if he doesn't recover from the torn ACL, has a serious future as a recruiter. He was encouraging the youngsters to come over to the Oakland Zoo and hang out with us and cheer and sign their name on the little white boards the Zoo guys bring along. Even the guys who haven't committed yet are over here basically saying their gonna be Panthers. This comes a year after Saddler helped us land his buddy Shayne Hale in an absolute coup. He just seems like a real cool guy. I wish I was good at football so he could recruit me.
2:05 Panthers win! 90-67 over the Johnnies, pulling away at the very end. Even Tiesi and Sean Brown make an appearance at the end of the game. Jermaine Dixon had a great game, as did Blair and Fieldsy. Sam I Am was okay, but it was obvious that the Storm game planned to keep him in check, so you've got to give him credit for that.
2:18 I finally get the heck out of the Pete. I mean I love that place and all, but it is freaking impossible to get out of there when a packed house attends a game and hardly anyone leaves early. I'm absolutely starving now, having overcoming my earlier nausea and nasty hangover. Time for a Wendy's run.
2:25 Turns out we weren't the only ones feeling some Wendy's. A minimum 15 consecutive people in front of us on the street turn in to Wendy's. I consider other alternatives, but I've already begun salivating over a Spicy Chicken sandwich and a chocolate frosty.
2:35 Mmmmm....Spicy Chicken...2:55 I'm finally back to my apartment with less than two hours until game time. I'm real tired all of a sudden. Thinking about a nap...
3:15 Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
4:15 Woken up yet again by that damn alarm. Better get another shower before the game starts.
4:30 Heading over to my buddy's house for the game. Luckily he only lives about 2 minutes away.
4:45 HERE WE GO STEELERS HERE WE GO! clap clap4:50 Crap! Phil Rivers drills Vinny Jackson for a touchdown. Jackson celebrates by pretending to walk a straight line, then falling off like he's drunk. Just kidding. But how funny would that have been? I'd be laughing even if the Bolts go on to win this thing 70-0. Anywho, the Bolts are off to a cookin' start, 7-0. Our D was having some serious struggles on that one. Bad news bears.
4:56 Steelers going for it on fourth down?!?! Really Mike Tomlin? One of my buddies, who is no Mike Tomlin fan, is quickly irritated and says Tomlin doesn't know how to coach in the playoffs. But Wait! Big Ben with the quick kick! My buddy quickly sits down and doesn't say anything more. That was a bold strategy Cotton, definitely paid off though, as its downed at the 9. Okay Mikey Thomlin, I'm with you on that one. I like the creativity, anyway. Plus, anything that keeps Mitch Berger off the field can't be all bad.
5:09 SANTONIO! Our beleaguered wide receiver HOUSES a punt return from the Mike "Jesus Christ" Scifres. All week long I heard people yelping about Scifres being the ultimate difference maker for the Bolts, including Bill Simmons' ludicrous picking of the Chargers because of Scifres, yet no one mentioned that booming kicks that don't land near the goal line too often out-kick their coverage, which is exactly what happened now. Suck on that Sports Guy.
5:49 The aforementioned friend who doesn't like Tomlin is borderline homicidal right now after a bizarre fake punt that was so bad it looked like it was drawn up by Matt Cavanugh. That's just a ridiculous decision there considering how wonderful our D has been since the opening drive. This game has turned into a field-position battle, and this isn't helping us.
5:58 Field Goal Nate Kaeding. This one's on you Mike Tomlin. You'd best more than make up for it as the game progresses.
6:07 Steelers run a spectacular 2 minute drill with Willie Parker scooting in to the end zone from 3 yards out. Hines Ward made the critical play on this drive on a deep ball from Giant Ben.6:14 We are at the half. 14-10 Stillers. The Yinzers are loving it. Ben is showing almost no ill effects of that concussion, and is doing an excellent job of not risking mistakes or getting hit. The key has been Willie being incredibly effective running the football. And of course, the D has really clamped down after an unusually lackluster opening drive effort. Should be a heck of a second half.
6:34 The Steelers absolutely dominate the opening drive, holding the ball for nearly 8 minutes to start the third quarter. Ben hits Heath for 8 yards for a score. That was old school, Bill Cowher era clock control. Nice mixture of runs and passes on the drive, with Heath being a popular target at thend of the drive. That was a statement drive. 21-10 Steelers.
6:41 After a long kick runback, the Chargers run exactly 1 (one) offensive play and it is... INTERCEPTED by Larry Foote, who apparently stole it from James Harrison on the ground. That was HUGE!
6:45 No Brain Norv spends his last challenge despite absolutely no evidence that the pick was even remotely in doubt.
6:46 AHHH! Ben just made me nearly soil myself throwing a crazy block on a Santonio Holmes end around. Listen, Ben, the extra couple yards gained by you throwing that block wasn't even remotely worth the injury risk. Thankfully he's okay. And by the way... it was a SICK block for what it's worth.
6:52 Holy friggin crap! Mitch Berger's punt smacks off the top of some Chargers doofus and is piicked up by William Gay and run into the end zone! Of course, you can't advance a muff in what is a truly strange rule, but still, the Steelers get the ball on what was basically a long offensive play downfield. Crazy day, eh? Ben knocking a punt inside the 10, Mitch Berger turning into an offensive weapon and Ryan Clark taking the snap on a punt. Just weird all around, but the Steelers have a chance to put this game almost on ice here.
7:01 Fourth and goal at the 6 inch line, and the play goes to... Carey Davis?!? He would have been my 8th guess. It goes mostly without saying this didn't work. The Bolts take over. Let's hope for some more Jimmy Harrison end zone magic.
7:08 The Steelers get the ball back with great field position and march down the field thanks to an Eric Weddle PI call. I think that was the same guy who Pele'd that punt to William Gay before. I think he may have money on the Steelers. Ball at the 1 and... Gary Russell into the end zone! Touchdown!
7:24 Chargers strike back for a touchdown, 28-17. This sucker isn't over yet folks. Hold on!
7:41 Okay NOW it's over. Slick Willie caps off a fantastic day by housing a 16 yard run. 35-17 Men of Steel. Okay, this puppy IS over.
7:58 Let's call it a day. 35-17 Steelers win. And with just 2 minutes to spare until the return of the one, the only, the immortal Jack Bauer!
8:00 Beep...Beep...Beep...BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. (Nothing sends chills through my spine like the "24" clock).
Jack's Back! I'm not going to blog this because, well, it just means too much to me to be distracted. If you want a blog for 24, go here.
10:00 That was so good I think I might smoke a cigarette. Good night all.

Impressions From Pitt-Georgetown

After countless critics questioned just how good the Pitt men's hoops squad really was for the better part of November and December, Jamie Dixon's crew went out and made a very powerful statement earlier today in whooping up on Georgetown 70-54. Leading the way for our Panthers was DeJuan Blair who, after a dreadful M.I.A effort against Rutgers a few days ago, was an absolute beast out on the court. Blair put up a 20 point, 17 rebound effort, and set the tone for the Panthers early and often. The Panthers dominated the Hoyas on the glass, outrebounding them by an incredible 43-17 margin. Pitt had 18 offensive boards to Georgetown's 4, another incredible margin. Some other impressions:

-The much ballyhooed "next great Georgetown center" Greg Monroe has a long LONG way to go to live up to the hype. Yeah the guy can fill the basket, as he put up 15 points, but defensively he is an absolute liability against savvy offensive players like our marvelous DeJuan Blair.

-Let's hope Gil Brown is okay after going down with a shoulder injury late in the game. Brown was a real difference maker for the Panthers today, using his incredible athleticism to really cause some big time matchup problems for the Hoyas. Brown is further cementing himself as a guy who can do it all, as he played the 2, 3, and 4 for extended periods in the game, and was excellent at each spot. At the 2 he can use his size and at the 4 he uses his speed. I think this guy has a very, very bright future ahead of him as a pro someday. For now, he is a spectacular force coming off of the bench.

-Speaking of great bench play, how about the work of Brad Wanamaker the last two games? Who or what lit a fire under his butt? After pouring in a career-high 15 against Rutgers, Wanamaker may not have filled the stat sheet quite as well (5 points, 4 boards, 2 helpers), but he was excellent out there. I've never been a believer of Brad's in the past, and never could understand the appeal of him to Jamie Dixon, but I am a believer in him now and think he will be a big part of this team's success as the 7th man.

-How about Tyrell Biggs doing his best Chevy Troutman impression? Biggs is a perfect mucker-and-grinder type of role guy, and today he showed a strong knack for taking advantage of the space opponents are forced to give him when Blair is lighting it up as he was today. If Blair keeps playing like a force of nature, Biggs will benefit as much as anyone, and let's hope the efficiency (7/10 shooting today) continues.

-Very little was demonstrated by our deep bench guys that reassured me we can survive if either Levance Fields or Blair is in foul trouble or (knocking on wood) injured. Ashton Gibbs is a nerve-wracking point guard who appears very uncomfortable with the position, and Gary McGhee looks mostly like the same player he was a season ago. I hope one of these guys or a guy like Tra Woodall or Nas Robinson can make a Wanamaker-like improvement, but I'm not holding my breath.

-How did I get this far in without mentioning Sam Young and Levance Fields? Fields, despite what some announcers say, looks as close to 100% as ever, and continues to be nothing short of brilliant as a point guard. He is one of the national leaders in assist/turnover ratio, and certainly did nothing to hurt his status with an 8 Assist 0 Turnover performance. He also got Georgetown sharpshooter DeJuan Summers very, very irritated. Hard to say if this had anything to do with it, but Summers was not nearly as effective after getting T'ed up. Not saying it was a great thing to happen (Fields was T'ed up too) but maybe, just maybe Fieldsy got in his head a little bit.

-As for Sam, it was something of a ho-hum day for him. He put in 14 points and snatched 8 rebounds, but this wasn't a vintage Sam I Am game. Don't get me wrong, he played well defensively, and you could tell G'town was definitely keeping an eye on him at all times when the Panthers were on offense, but we've all seen better from Sam. With that said, it was very encouraging to see the Panthers look so crisp and be so successful without Young having to go for 20+ points and be the go-to option. Be quite sure that we will see many teams make shutting down Young their number 1 priority this season, so if the other guys on the roster can learn what they have to do to win when this happens, the Panthers will be all the better for it.

-I'm still having a lot of trouble forming a real opinion on Jermaine Dixon. Defensively, he seems very good, though I did notice at least two lapses on his part, but it wasn't because of a lack of talent, so it can at least be corrected. Offensively, if his shots aren't falling early, he seems to disappear. I'll stand by my statement that I made a couple weeks ago: Jermaine Dixon may be a starter for the whole season, but Gil Brown will be the finisher. And Brown would have been the finisher today had it not been for the injury. I also might add Brad Wanamaker to the role of a finisher over Dixon right now, too. Dixon was a miserable 1/7 on field goals and 0/5 on treys. Jamie Dixon needs to get Jermaine touches from inside the arc. He seems fine from the 15 foot range, yet is inept on 3-pointers. I would take that 3-point option mostly out of his hands and get him to take more close jumpers. If he starts to hit those and gain some confidence and gain a good feel, THEN allow him more rope to attempt the long bombs.

Pitt Hoops comes through for us

Whew...It was not a very aesthetically pleasing weekend for Pittsburgh sports, was it? The Pens get absolutely crushed by a very mediocre Toronto squad in front of thousands of freakin' invading Maple Leaf fans at the Igloo, the Steelers get run over by the Titans, and, even in a moment of victory, the Pitt B-ball squad picks up a W over Florida State in one of the most hideous displays of basketball the world has ever witnessed. If James Naismith had seen this coming when he invented the game, he probably would have gone back to the drawing board.

Neither team could shoot the ball to save their life, and I was quite terrified that I would be subjected to the chants of "A-C-C" from giddy ESPN analysts who love anything that can promote the glory of Duke and UNC and its even better if they can tear down the ACC's biggest competitor at the same time. I know this FSU squad is not highly regarded in the ACC, but I'll tell you this: that is a good ball club. They may not be ready to challenge Duke and UNC for ACC supremacy, but that's a tourney-bound team in my book, as they are extremely athletic, have a legit star scoring threat in Toney Roberts, and a spectacular D orchestrated by their coach Leonard Hamilton.

To the Panthers' credit, they responded well to their first extreme adversity of the season. Just as I hoped, Sam I Am Young took control of this one when Pitt needed him most with 21 points and 7 boards. Also coming up big for Pitt was Jermaine Dixon who posted a surprising 11 points after a dreadful start that saw him looking a bit too eager to shoot (and miss I might add), and Dixon was also excellent defending the perimeter, though I'm not sure he is "one of the best perimeter defenders in the country" as the announcers for the game claimed. I thought Jamie Dixon did a nice job on a night when the shots just were not falling at all for our Panthers. Let's hope this was an abberation and not the beginning of a trend. Dixon used a lot of subbing and put out some surprising crunch time lineups (Brad Wanamaker played more minutes than Gil Brown!) that somehow gelled enough to get a W on the road against a tough matchup.
The Mayor (DeJuan Blair NOT Sean Casey for those of you not in the know) had a bit of a tough night, as the athleticism of the FSU defenders seemed to fluster him quite a bit. Not that I'm the least bit worried about Blair, but it will be interesting to see how he matches up against similar defenders and game plans in the future now that the Noles achieved some success in stopping him, at least offensively. He was still a force on the block, though as he hauled in 12 boards including a startling 5 on offense.

The Panthers bench continues to worry me, though. I originally thought this had the potential to be one of the deepest teams that Pitt has ever had, but I am growing more skeptical with each passing day. Gary McGhee has made next to no progress this season, quelling any hope of getting him serious minutes next to Blair in what would be a terrifying combo, Brad Wanamaker may be solid fundamentally and can eat up minutes but has next to nothing offensively, Ashton Gibbs has looked terrible when really challenged at the point and his shot has been pretty awful when playing the 2, Tra Woodall has mysteriously disappeared, Nas Robinson is barely playing, probably because he's too similar to Gil Brown to get many minutes (though that doesn't explain why he didn't play more than 2 minutes tonight when Gil was in foul trouble), and Gil himself continues to be a freak of nature on the court, but his scoring touch hasn't evolved like I'd hoped.

The biggest glimmer of hope for a late-season bloomer among the lesser bench guys right now is probably Robinson, but that's only because he hasn't played enough to really get a good feel for him. He was pretty highly touted coming in this season as a recruit, so the skills certainly are there. I am hoping the biggest reason for his lack of minutes is because there are only so many minutes available in this lineup for a 2/3/4 ultra-athletic swing guy available, and that Gil Brown was gobbling them all up. Obviously, I'm not as sure now. I think Jamie Dixon would be wise to try to find more minutes for Robinson, as he is at least a threat to create and make plays offensively, unlike Wanamaker and McGhee, neither of whom look even remotely capable of being difference makers in Big East play. I think it's highly unlikely this actually happens, as Jamie seems to want to spend this season having Nas sit and learn and be molded into a Pitt man, and only be used very, very, very sparingly. Robinson played 81 minutes in the first 5 games of the season, but in the 7 since then, he's seen just 35 minutes total. Clearly, something is a bit off here, but its hard to say exactly what that is.

Blair a Man Amongst Boys; The Zoo Strings Gottlieb Up From the Rafters

Although Pitt-Siena was slightly marred by refs who had apparently never seen a Big East basketball game before judging by their shock at the Panthers' style of play, and by Pitt's difficulty in going for the jugular, it was still a highly entertaining late night at the Pete for any number of reasons. What follows are some of those highlights:

-DeJuan Blair continues to be an absolute monster underneath the boards. Smaller, less physical teams are going to get absolutely obliterated by this guy. He was brilliant as a freshman, but rarely was he good enough to dominate and become the best player on the court. That has already happened several times this season, and it happened for the entirety of the 30 minutes of playing time he logged last night. He put together 21 points and 16 rebounds and was absolutely hosed by the freakin' refs in this one. He was given the Shaq treatment where, if he so much as breathed in the wrong direction the refs whistled him for a foul, yet down on the offensive end, Siena did everything to stop him short of using pitchforks and torches yet nothing was called because the refs continuously choked down their whistles. Ridiculous. The good news is, the Big East regular season typically gives us competent refs, except of course this guy:For those of you unaware, that's the Notorious T-I-M aka Tim Higgins. Anyway, Blair's progression has been eye-opening this season, and while the stats may not really show that much of a difference from last year, one look at this guy on the court and the difference is unbelievably obvious.

-If there have been any unknown government advances in cloning in recent years, I volunteer Levance Fields' cells be the first to be replicated, because the Panthers NEED to find a way to get him out there for 40 minutes a game come Big East time. I'm sorry but Ashton Gibbs had the complete deer-in-the-headlights look going tonight when Siena put the press on him. In case you weren't aware, the Big East coaches, to a man, are probably 16 of the best defensive coaches in basketball and are guaranteed to be licking their chops at the thought of sicking the dogs on him. If he's doing anything other than running the point in blowout home wins during Big East season, the Panthers are going to have some issues. And I'm not sure what happened with Tra Woodall tonight, though I'd guess he's a bit banged up, as he didn't play despite some promising efforts in recent games.

-I know he made 2 treys, but can someone please tell Tyrell Biggs it's not okay to launch threes and long-range jumpers? He does know he's a role player whose sole reason for being on the court is to grab rebounds and hustle back on defense right? The only way he should score is if Sammy or Levance clank one and he shoves the putback in.

-Jermaine Dixon may start every game this season, but mark my words, in close games he'll be popping a squat the same as Gary "The Koopa Troopa" McGhee, Gibbs, Woodall, Nas Robinson, and the white guy scrubs. That's because Gil Brown's energy, athleticism and versatility will make him the ultimate weapon late against their Big East foes and he'll be the guy playing the two spot instead of JD. Now, you may say, "Well why wouldn't Gil start then?" And my response is this: He's the perfect weapon off the bench. Around that first media timeout when Blair and/or Biggs and Dixon come out of the game and the Panthers have to work in a 2 or 3 new guys into the game for the first time that day, Gil is the ultimate spark plug to keep that lineup going and give them a bit of a different look. Then have Gil move down to the 3 (or even 4) spot when Sammy takes a quick breather and put JD back at the 2. I mean let's be honest, despite the fact that this Pitt team has as much talent as any Pitt team that I've ever seen, there is a definite hierarchy to this team. It really comes down to the Big 6 (the starters and Gil), the Small Big 1 (Gary McGhee whose enormous but small in court presence and ability), the Small Small 2 (Tra Woodall and Ashton Gibbs, who combined weigh roughly the same as the Koopa Troopa), and the Other 2 (Nas Robinson and Brad Wanamaker, both of whom have talent but are too similar to Gil to really merit serious crunch minutes). So the more minutes they get out of the Big 6, the better off this team will be.

-Although I knew Doug Gottlieb has snubbed our Panthers and the Big East as a whole in years past (though his idiocy really isn't confined to a single team or conference), I didn't anticipate the venom spewed his way tonight by the Oakland Zoo. As always I was sitting right smack dab in the middle of things, and was shocked, amused, and at times even a little uneasy over the rioting mob mentality that developed toward him. Good, clean, fun chants like "Where's my Visa?" (A reference to Gottlieb being given the boot from Notre Dame many years ago after, I think, stealing credit cards or some kind of credit card scandal) started the night off. From there, things got crazier in a hurry. Much like the Anchorman fight, "That escalated quickly, I mean that really got out of hand fast...Roc killed a guy..." After some of the self-proclaimed "leaders" of the Zoo put some inflammatory quotes on their little dry erase boards claiming that Gottlieb claimed the Zoo wasn't a tough place to play, a recurring "Gottlieb sucks" chant started and continued for much of the second half. This obviously isn't anywhere near as creative or fun as the Visa trade, and led to only more malicious stuff, such as a number of derogatory sexual slurs directed at himself, his mother, and other family members. Good times all around!

-Gary McGhee, if you can't even freakin' dunk the ball, why are we keeping you around? He was matched up against someone named Josh Duell tonight who was easily 40 lbs. overweight for most of his breathtaking 6 minutes of PT, and it's probably safe to say this clash of the titans wasn't quite what James Naismith had in mind. And the highlight (or more accurately, lowlight) came when Duell took McGhee off the dribble around the 3-point line. And by off the dribble, I mean he stared head down at the ball as he slammed it insanely hard into the ground while slowly moving forward. I'm pretty sure that was the quietest the crowd was all night long as all 12,000+ in attendance gawked in horror at what was taking place. The weirdest part of all was Duell draining two treys despite looking like he would lose to Casey Hampton in wind sprints.

-This Siena team may have been a frisky bunch that played with solid fundamentals and had a smart, if somewhat loathsome, head coach, but I can't figure out how in the hell they ever beat Vanderbilt last year if this was their team. Pitt, if this was a meaningful game, would have blown the doors off of Siena early in the second half instead of subbing in the backups, who allowed the Saints to stay within striking distance. Any half-decent squad could've beat them tonight, and I really didn't see much in the way of potential three-point ability for most of the game that so often characterizes those mid-major Cinderellas. They were 6-23 from downtown, and no one on that team, except for maybe the aforementioned fat guy, looked comfortable shooting it, either, so I don't think it was just an off night.

-Our Panthers are now 11-0, and there is no way rest for the weary, as they play an athletic Florida State team Sunday evening in Tallahassee in what figures to be a very interesting game to keep an eye on. The 'Noles may not be a powerhouse ACC program, but they know how to play with the big boys, and add that to the fact that it's outside of the 4-1-2 area code, and it's probably the toughest non-conference game the Panthers will play this season.