The Weekend Recap

It has been a wild run the past couple days in Pittsburgh, lots and lots of little yet exciting things worth talking about

-As I mentioned, I attended my final game in the Oakland Zoo Saturday afternoon against the UConn Huskies. I already talked at length about that game, but it bears repeating: This was one of the best games I've ever been to. The only others I can think of that were even in the same stratosphere were last year's WVU thriller and the 2006 game against Notre Dame when Chris Quinn exploded all over a porous Pitt D for 37 points before the Panthers won it in double OT. Those two games were thrilling because they went down to the wire and had incredibly exciting endings (multiple endings in the ND game's case). This one was thrilling more because of the raucous crowd (the loudest I have ever heard it for an entire game) and the incredibly high level of play.

-I've said it before and I'll say it again: This is as good of a squad as Pitt can ever really hope to have. Sure, the incoming recruit talent level keeps going up, but this squad is perfectly constructed for a big run this month. A spectacular point guard, a dangerous scorer from the wing and a bullish inside man capable of taking over a game at any time lead the charge. They are supported by a defense-first, rebounding grinder who can guard anyone, a slashing 2 guard who is an absolute lockdown defender, two athletic bench guys who can step up at any time and take over starter's minutes and a sharshooting backup guard who can drill it from long range. If this team doesn't break that Sweet 16 barrier (and for the record I think that they easily will) then what Pitt squad will?

-The Big East tournament gets fired up this week, and I really couldn't be any more excited about it. I'll even go so far as to watch the opening round games on the Internet on Tuesday. Should be a grand old time.

-I know I wrote a column and updated it yesterday and everything with this information, but how in the hell does Levance Fields only make it to the third team on the All Big East squads? That is an absolute joke and shows how stupid the Big East coaches really are. Even worse, TWO point guards made it ahead of him. A.J. Price and Jonny Flynn both got outplayed up and down the court by Fields when their teams met. They couldn't carry Levance's jockstrap. That is just downright stupidity and I feel like Calhoun and Boeheim are somehow the root of this conspiracy, though that might just be because of my blinding hatred of both. What a joke.

-While we are on the subject, how dumb is it that the teams are chosen with no regard whatsoever for the positions on the floor? That's insanity. The All Big East first team has a center, 2 power forwards, 2 small forwards and a shooting guard. You know what would happen if that team sat down one of those guys (there are 6 on the first team) and played Pitt or UConn or Louisville in some sort of video game simulation? The All Big East team would get crushed because THEY HAVE NO POINT GUARD!!!! They would have to move McNeal to the point, play Terrance Williams at the 2 and would probably sit down Luke Harangoy (no I didn't misspell his name, I spelled it that way because there is no D in that guy). The second and third team are structured the same way with 2 point guards a shooting guard a small forward and a power forward who really isn't a power forward. Why not structure the All Conference squads at least sort of like a real time with a point guard, a shooting guard, a small forward, and 2 power forwards/ centers. Why did I structure it as two power forward/ centers? Because there really is only like 4 centers in the whole league, the other teams just start power forwards at the center position. So considering that, here's what I think the teams should look like:

First Team
1 Levance Fields
2 Jerel McNeal
3 Terrance Williams
4 DeJuan Blair
5 Hasheem Thabeet

Second Team
1 Jonny Flynn
2 Wesley Matthews
3 Sam Young
4 Dante Cunningham
5 Luke Harangody

Third Team
1 A.J. Price
2 Earl Clark
3 Da'Sean Butler
4 Jeff Adrien
5 Greg Monroe

Now don't you feel much better about these teams than the other, mismatched squads? I know I do.

-Things are ho-humming along down in Bradenton. One of the stories I read in the paper the other day talked about the Pirates ideally looking to put Nyjer Morgan in the leadoff spot in the lineup. The lineup would likely look a little something like this:
LF Morgan
2B Sanchez
CF McLouth
C Doumit
1B LaRoche
RF Moss
3B LaRoche
SS Wilson
P Maholm

Ugh. I don't even want Morgan to start, let alone get to the plate more often than anyone else on the roster. I was going to go ahead and write something about this, and if they do end up putting Morgan in the leadoff spot, I probably will anyway, but Bucs Dugout beat me to it and said everything and more that I wanted to say. I'm not going to repeat him (at least not yet) so check his stuff out if you want to see what I mean.

-Pitt football released their schedule for the 2009 season, and it seems like a solid slate. There are not 1 not 2 but 3 Friday games, but thankfully they are all away. Personally, I loathe the Friday games and think they diminish what the Big East has tried to accomplish the past few years, but whatever. 1 of the Friday games is the day after Thanksgiving against WVU and I have no problem with that, as that is kind of a cool day for a game. There are 7 home games on the schedule in all, and for once, half the home slate isn't in August and September. They get the token creampuff Youngstown State on September 5 to open the season and then get Navy on September 19. They then get a few weeks away from Heinz Field and play UConn October 10, South October 24, Syracuse November 7, Notre Dame (!) November 14 and Cincinnati December 5. The non-conference schedule also includes road trips to Buffalo (uhm what?) and North Carolina State (solid).

-The Steelers lost Bryant McFadden yesterday to the Arizona Cardinals. Can't say I am surprised, as B-Mc is a solid corner in a market that loves to overpay for corners. However, I was surprised by the contract. McFadden got just a 2 year 10 million dollar contract. I really am surprised that is the best he could do on the open market. I was beginning to get a bit optimistic that maybe he might return, as many teams have already spent a bundle this offseason and somehow McFadden had been passed over and that the Steelers might get him back at a reasonable price. While I don't think 5 million a year is reasonable, I find myself wondering what the Steelers' best offer for McFadden was. I mean what would he have rather signed for: 2 years 10 million with 5 guaranteed or say, 4 years 16 million with 8 mil guaranteed? I don't know what he would have chosen, but the total package in the second option certainly has its upside.

-Speaking of Steelers off-season stuff, here's an interview to check out over at Whatcha Talkin Bout with massive Steelers tackle Max Starks. Definitely worth a listen. There are actually quite a few audio clips over there worth checking out.

-There was an incredibly exciting game of puck yesterday afternoon between the Pens and one of their biggest archrivals, the Washington Capitals. It was a tremendous game, and it was especially vindicating to watch Sidney Crosby steal the show and be the star of the day after the issues last game between Sid and Ovechkin. AO was his usual overly aggressive and pompous self on the ice, and at times I think that hurts the Caps more than it helps. It was also good to see the Pens storm into Washington and get the W and for Sid to be the one to rub it in their faces after the Caps fans tried their best to taunt him. I just love it when fairweather fans like those Caps losers try to act like they are all hardcore. Please. I've been to games in D.C. and seen countless others on TV and this is probably one of the very rare times I've ever seen the Caps fan outnumber Pens fans. And it goes well beyond the ice rink. Remember the absolute no-show by the Skins fans when the Steelers turned their gigantic stadium into Heinz Field south last November? That was tremendous, and spoke volumes about the "support" Washington fans give their teams.

-I've turned into a scoreboard-watching, standing-checking addict the past week or so, and expect that to continue. Coming into this week, here's how things look right now with just 15 games to go for the Pens this season. Here's how things are shaping up right now.
Obviously the Pens have played 1 more game than any of the 3 teams ahead of them, but they also have played the same amount of games as the team 1 point behind them and they are 3 points ahead of Buffalo who has played 1 less game. So they are unquestionably sitting in 8th place right now. That's pretty solid considering where things were a few weeks back.

-We'll finish things up with a bit of a personal anecdote: I'm on spring break this week, and because I have no money and need to interview for some jobs, I'm not in Florida or Mexico or anything. Instead I'm in a weird flex situation between Oakland and my parents' house. It is definitely a pretty strange existence. Oakland is downright deserted, and to tell you the truth I really enjoy it this way. I was at the bar Saturday night and it was maybe 50% of what it typically is and I figure I might be the only person in the house when I head to Hemingway's or Peter's tonight.

So instead of getting hammered every night and running around South Beach with a bunch of similarly aged people on Spring Break, I am laying low in Oakland until I have to head to Philly Wednesday for an interview. I have nothing else to do, so I've started doing some reading. I am now working on Slaughterhouse-Five. I've wanted to read this for some time and am enjoying it so far, though it is definitely a bit strange. Anyone out there have any thoughts on it? Let me know if you do.

Weekend Recap

Seemed like lots of little, yet notable things happened this weekend around the world of Pittsburgh sports. So instead of writing a few smaller posts or something like that, I decided to put all this stuff together in one mega-post bullet-point style.

Football-How 'bout that Pro Bowl.... I mean I'm assuming everyone else had a big Pro Bowl party and had all their buddies over to watch it and wagered heavily on the game and was completely absorbed by the bland, conservative, blitz-less style of play used in the game. Oh wait, that's all complete B.S. Did anyone even watch that snooze fest? If you did, let me know why that would be. Are you related to one of the players? Were you unbelievably sick and couldn't get out of bed and your remote broke? Did you fall asleep from the Pens disaster and then woke up with the Pro Bowl on? Are you Roger Goodell? These are the only circumstances I can imagine where you watched it.

Mom dressed them alike

-Do they really think that moving that Pro Bowl up two weeks to before the Super Bowl and playing it on the mainland is going to change a damn thing?

-It's being reported that Big Ben played the Super Bowl with broken ribs. If you've followed Ben's career at all you probably aren't too surprised to know he was injured, as his crazy physical style of play leads to him always being injured in one way or another. But even still... has anyone out there in Blog Land ever had broken ribs before? I broke a rib in high school playing basketball and it felt like my chest had imploded. It hurt to even get out of bed or walk around. I can't imagine playing football and getting smacked around with that. That's nuts.

-Turns out people really, really like NFL Draft stuff. My browser stats just about exploded thanks to that Mock Draft the other day and a few helpful links from some draft sites around the web. I may have to do those more often.

Basketball
-DeJuan Blair absolutely went off against hapless DePaul. The game was a bit worrisome in the early going as the Blue Demons are winless in Big East play but came out gunning for the Panthers. Thankfully DeJuan took the game over shortly thereafter and continued to cement himself as the best and most important player on the Pitt roster. Blair had his umpteenth double-double of the season and poured in a career-high 32 points. His boards were padded by an insane 9 offensive rebounds. If there is a better offensive rebounder in the nation, I'm not aware of him.

-Also for the Panthers, Levance Fields was in peak form. Fields had a jaw-dropping 16 assists to go along with 13 points as he got a double/double as well. Fields also had just 1 turnover in the game. Just astounding. This is one of the few seasons I can ever remember where multiple Pitt players are among the National Leaders in different stat categories. Fieldsy is currently second in the nation in assists and Blair is fourth in rebounds. That's tough to do playing in the Big East conference.

-While we are on the subject of college hoops, I almost never bring up that other school between Fifth and Forbes in the Downtown region, but I can't overlook the job by the Duquesne Dukes the other night. To upset number 9 Xavier is one hell of a win. Despite feeling some serious after-effects from the shooting of a couple years ago, Dukes coach Ron Everhart continues to do a bang-up job with his squad. The Dukes actually sit in 4th place right now in the reasonably competitive A-10. That's pretty impressive. Typically the A-10 gets 2 or 3 bids, so if the Dukes can keep up this play and swing a few more upsets, we could be looking at two Burgh squads to go dancing. If nothing else, it's pretty likely they will at least head to the NIT. In fact, now that I think about it, Pitt, Duquesne, Robert Morris (1st in the NEC), West Virginia and even Penn State (!) could make the tourney this season. Wouldn't that be nuts? Of course there's also the chance that Duquesne and Penn State could go back to doing what they do best: Lose; Bobby Mo could fall in the NEC tourney and WVU could get squeezed out in the tough middle of the Big East and Pitt could be the only team to Dance.

Did you know wore red uniforms? Cuz I didn't.

-Quick prediction for tonight's Backyard Basketbrawl: Pitt 70 WVU 64

Hockey
-Disastrous Sunday for the Pens. Detroit outplayed them up and down the ice. The Pens shouldn't even be playing in the same league as the Wings right now. Like I said the other day, the Pens may have a few wins of late but I am by no means sold on this team. For some weird reason everyone seemed to ignore the fact that the Pens played like absolute garbage for the majority of the Lightning game and then took care of business against an underwhelming Blue Jacket squad. How is that enough to convince people this team is on the right track? It sure as hell didn't do much for me.

-I know everyone was and still is worked up about the Hossa situation, but what about Conklin? How terrible of a decision does it look right now not to make a better effort at signing him? I've typically been a fan of most Ray Shero moves, but this was a disastrously bad decision on his part. Conks is only making 750K right now, and I'd say he'd be very, very useful to the Pens right now. Flower has been inconsistent at best this year and we saw the benefits of some goalie competition for him last spring. I don't know if Mathieu Garon even made a save in his first (and mercifully only) game as a Penguin, and Dany Sabourin was a mediocre (at best) fill-in for Flower when MAF went down. I'm not saying Conks would be able to right all (or even any) of the wrongs on this squad, but you are kidding yourself if you don't think he'd be good for an extra couple of W's over what Sabu and the struggling Flower have done. That could be huge down the stretch.

Baseball
-I have to weigh in on the A-Rod thing: I can't understand how anyone is really that surprised. I mean yeah it was dumb of A-Rod, but he's a competitive athlete. If there is somewhere for him to gain an advantage and he knows that literally hundreds of his competitors are taking the same stuff if not more potent stuff, do you really think he's not going to leap at that advantage? It's ludicrous to fault him and taint his legacy for that. And the people who now claim they aren't going to vote A-Rod into the Hall because of this...well there really is no reasoning with you I'm sure, but how can you vote for anyone from this era? It's pretty clear that any player in that era except David Eckstein might have taken the roids. Just because A-Rod's name got leaked does that really make him any less worthy? I say no.

-As for Curt Schilling's ridiculous idea to have all 104 players named to make it fair and get it all out there...uhmm...Curt I think some of your former mates and the union you were a part of might be slightly against that. Nothing like hanging your fellow players out to dry, though.

-Only 4 days until Pitchers and Catchers report to camp! And we are greeted with this spectacular 'Burgh weather to get us all in the mood for some spring baseball. Just perfect timing all around. I'll begin putting together some preview stuff for the Buccos, for MLB, and probably even for Fantasy Baseball (the best form of fantasy sports bar none) starting at some point over the coming weekend.

Other Stuff:
-Are the Grammys the most irrelevant of the major "weird nickname" awards? They have to be, right? Do you know anyone who watches them, or cares who wins them? Music is so insanely subjective based on the tastes of the listener I don't know how anyone could really dub themselves a music critic. I thought most of the songs that won Grammys were terrible. Coldplay hasn't been good since "Clocks" or maybe even "Yellow", Robert Plant needs to just get the Led Zeppelin reunion over with already and stop this weird collaboration stuff, Radiohead is one of the most critically overrated but commercially underrated bands in the history of the world (pretty tough to do), and Lil Wayne may be entertaining and funny, but I can't take the guy seriously.

-I saw two movies this weekend (god I miss football already): Gran Torino and Taken. I enjoyed them both thoroughly. I had pretty low expectations for Taken but was pleasantly surprised that Liam Neeson was believable as a spy/killing machine character. Gran Torino was infinitely better than the atrocious Benjamin Button, and I haven't heard that many great things about the Reader, either. Anyway, Clint Eastwood delivered the goods. I'd recommend either one if you're looking for an enjoyable flick.

Get off my lawn!

-As I said before, this weather really makes me want to go out and play baseball. It reminds me so much of the opening couple weekends in I think April when the rec baseball leagues would start up. Baseball was never the sport I was best at but I always really, really enjoyed it, especially after a long, cold winter.

-I had a 9 game winning streak in ESPN's Streak for the Cash going until last night. I thought for sure that Utah over Golden State was a sure thing. I don't know why I pick stupid NBA games. They are unbelievably unreliable. I was already dreaming of how I'd spend the millions. Damn it all.