Pitt Panther Prowl

Tempered Expectations

With regards to Pitt football, there are generally two camps (within those of us who actually follow it regularly, that is).  The first camp is the one that has extremely high expectations.  Pitt will win 9-10 games this season and at least have a shot at a BCS bowl. The second camp is the ever optimistic “we will be lucky to be .500 and we need to fire the coach, the athletic director, the president of the university, and all the mail room clerks” camp.

One side has faith, but can have so much faith, that a solid season could be perceived as a let down.  The other side thinks Pitt sucks (even though they consider themselves fans) and even if Pitt wins 10 games this season, they will find a reason to complain or question the accomplishment.

What can be hard to find are more objective expectations of what this Pitt team can do.  This isn’t to bash people in either of the other two camps.  But just like in basketball, there were Pitt fans all season who wanted Dixon fired and fans who thought they’d win the national championship.  What we really need in order to gauge how good this team can be are those objective expectations from people not emotionally attached to the team or university.

We all know that it can be hard to get objectivity out of the local Pittsburgh media.  You would think that they would support the team, but (especially the columnists for the Post-Gazette) they usually tear the team down.  Likewise the national media (by which I mean ESPN and the like as opposed to websites and publications that actually spend their time looking at all the teams instead of their 5 favorites) tends to be overly hard on the Big East and therefore teams like Pitt get passed over while they only mention WVU in their obligatory Big East coverage.

If he has done nothing else in his time as Pitt football coach Dave Wannstedt has successfully built hype around his program, mainly through solid recruiting, to the point where the national media finds themselves forced to at least acknowledge Pitt.

The thing is, once you recognize that you need to at least look at Pitt, they become difficult to ignore.  Getting into the roster and behind the numbers, all of a sudden Pitt looks much better than what those outside of the Pitt fanbase expected.

This culminated today on ESPN News Pregame, where two different football analysts during two different segments suggested that Pitt could win the Big East this year.  Joe Schaad and Todd McShay both see Pitt as having the potential to be Big East champs, with McShay even saying that Pitt is, in his opinion, the most underrated team in the nation this year.  Neither Schaad nor McShay suggested that Pitt was in any way a lock for the Big East title.  But they both recognized that Wannstedt has put together a solid team and that Pitt has enough offensive weapons as well as a solid defense that they could well be Big East contenders.

These expectations from national media are what I would consider more objective because neither Schaad nor McShay has a real stake in Pitt being any good.  But McShay believes in the team so much that he flew to Pittsburgh (he said in the segment, though it could have just been a nice backdrop) for the segment just to emphasize how good he thinks Pitt is.  Of course both used the word “could” in regards to Pitt winning the Big East.

Now this kind of media coverage becomes the blessing and the curse for Dave Wannstedt and Pitt.  It is one thing for the fanbase to pick the team to be good.  The local media is almost irrelevant because you have either the guys paid to say nice things about the teams they cover or the other guys who are paid to hate all the local teams.  But when the analysts start picking the team to do well, it becomes “put up or shut up” time.

Dave Wannstedt could have survived a 7-5 season at Pitt this season without national media attention.  But every article, segment, or prediction by a major outlet or analyst that suggests that Pitt is a 9-10 win team this year that could win the Big East; the harder it is going to be for Wannstedt to survive as coach if he doesn’t have a 9-10 win season.  He is now the product of his own expectations.

We have been willing to wait for his recruits to be on the field.  We have been willing to watch the team struggle as he implemented a new system.  We have been willing to allow injuries to excuse a failure to meet expectations.  All of this is because Wannstedt and Pitt have been pointing us towards this year as the pay off year.

For the last three years we have tempered our expectations.  Many of us are still doing so this year, believing that 8 wins is both achievable and a realistic expectation.  With the national media jumping on board, there is only one thing left for Wannstedt and this Pitt team to do: win!!

Posted in Big East, Dave Wannstedt, Football | 2 Comments »

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Pitt football has something this year that it hasn’t had in a long time. Pitt has a multi-dimensional offense with many offensive weapons. Through the Walt Harris era, it was common for Pitt to have a top wide receiver. Latif Grim, Antonio Bryant, and Larry Fitzgerald all gave us much to be excited about. At one point, Pitt even had the combination of Antonio Bryant and RB Kevan Barlow.

As Pitt fans, we got used to having one really explosive offensive player and often lived with the delusion that a Larry Fitzgerald was all we really needed to be competitive at the highest levels. It also helped that Walt had a knack for getting the most out of moderately talented QBs (John Turman anyone?).

This year things are different. Not only does Pitt have RB LeSean McCoy, a potential Heisman candidate if Pitt can win enough games. Pitt has the combination backfield of McCoy and LaRod Stephens-Howling. They also have Derek Kinder and Oderrick Turner as WRs, and Nate Byham and the surprising Dorin Dickerson as TEs. Pitt’s offense is full of weapons. They are potentially loaded with weapons of mass destruction.

The only real question mark at the skill positions is QB. Bill Stull will be the starter, and all signs point to him being pretty solid. But without any real game experience we don’t truly know what to expect. Pat Bostick may be better than last year; but he wasn’t very good last year, so being better doesn’t necessarily equate to being effective. If Stull turns out to be just adequate at QB Pitt has enough weapons to really do some damage.

One example of the potential of this offense is the opportunity for a two RB set in the backfield. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Panthers have worked in several sets where McCoy and Stephens-Howling will be in the backfield at the same time. According to Paul Zeise they envision this working like WVU’s backfield has worked the last few years where there were multiple legitimate threats that could each have the ball at any given time (as opposed to when Walt used Rod Rutherford to run the option but never had him pitch the ball once).

Whether a 2 RB set is used much doesn’t even matter. It is just exciting that Pitt has the players to consider something like this. In the past, teams could focus on shutting down Larry Fitzgerald (which most failed to do) in order to beat Pitt. But with so many weapons, taking the focus off of McCoy by stacking the line is going to open up the passing game because of having several legitimate threats at WR and TE to go to. Putting more guys back in the secondary will open up the run game. Factor in the added possibilities with two solid RB’s in the backfield and you can see how explosive this offense can be.

How this will pay off comes down to two primary factors. First, as mentioned above, we don’t know how solid we are at QB just yet. Second, we have to see how the coaching staff uses the talent it has amassed. Will they design brilliant game plans that utilize their weapons and play to their strengths? Or will the potential be squandered by bad decision making, poor play calling, and mismanagement of the roster?

For the sake of my sanity I hope that Stull has a breakout season and that Dave Wannstedt and staff realize what they have and figure out how to use it. With these weapons on offense, Pitt is seriously capable of having the most explosive offense in the Big East.

Posted in Bill Stull, Dave Wannstedt, Derek Kinder, Dorin Dickerson, Football, LaRod Stevens-Howling, LeSean McCoy, Nate Byham, Oderrick Turner, Pat Bostick | No Comments »

Give the Guy a Break

I never wanted Pitt to hire Dave Wannstedt. First of all, his name is too hard to spell so it deterred me from blogging about Pitt football for a few years until I mastered the silent “d”. Beyond that, he was a bust as an NFL coach. I understood the reasoning for hiring him. 1. Wlat wasn’t getting the job done. 2. Wanny is a Pitt guy so he has a vested interest in the program as opposed to using it for a stepping stone. 3. As a former NFL coach, he has a recruiting angle because he knows what it takes to make it in the NFL. Since just about every recruit wants to play pro ball, Wanny’s NFL knowledge and connections were believed to be invaluable to recruiting.

Thus far the hiring of Wannstedt has been somewhat controversial. Many Pitt fans hate him and want him gone. Others think he needs to be given time to clean up Wlat’s mess. After three straight losing seasons, though, most people couldn’t believe he got a contract extension.

The thing is, despite the fact that I didn’t want him to be hired; and despite the fact that he has not had better than a .500 team so far at Pitt; Wannstedt has indeed proven himself to be a solid recruiter. He has brought in talent that is capable of winning games in the Big East even without a superior game coach running the show. On top of that, he has put together a pretty solid coaching staff. What remains to be seen is if he can run the team as head coach, bringing talented players and position coaches together to form a (at least semi) dominant team.

What really bothers me (even as one who didn’t want Wannstedt hired) is the way that many out there treat him, heaping all of Pitt’s failures on him (despite losing with Wlat’s recruits) and finding minutia to attack him about.

An example comes from a blog called www.coacheshotseat.com. I haven’t read the whole blog, only reading the post about Dave Wannstedt. But two things are clear from the blog. First, Wannstedt gets no credit for being a good recruiter.

Another troubling item is that according to Rivals.com Pitt’s recruiting classes are getting worse, not better in the last three years (Pitt’s recruiting classes 2006 #21, 2007 #26, 2008 # 28 - Rivals.com). That is just very odd, because so much has been made about Wannstedt’s ability to recruit the players to Pitt that Walt Harris could not.

The argument is being made that he is getting worse at recruiting when he is bringing in some amazing players and has been named the top recruiter in the Big East by his peers, including his most hated former rival Rich Rodriguez. The fact that he is getting top 30 recruiting classes to a program that hasn’t had a winning season since he took over is actually amazing. It is a sign of a GREAT recruiter. People want to play for him even when he has yet to yield fruit. I guess getting the likes of LeSean McCoy or the 15 wide receivers that could be starters at most schools, or having Conredge Collins, the top ranked FB in the country are all meaningless, which of course brings us to the second problem with the blog: it gives no weight to the players on the team.

If you read the entire post, it never mentions the kind of impact players that Pitt has. It never suggests that having a potential Heisman candidate in McCoy could help this team out. It never mentions that Pitt suffered so many significant injuries last season, including their starting QB Bill Stull, top WR Derek Kinder, and their top lineman.

It also blames Wannstedt for close losses that should have been won, leaving out the details of why those games were lost. The Navy game was 100% Wannstedt’s fault. There is no arguing that point. But LeSean McCoy’s fumble against Lousiville, Oderrick Turner’s dropped TD(s) cost Pitt against Michigan St., and unfortunate officiating cost them against Rutgers. None of these were caused by Wannstedt’s coaching. In fact, the post about Dave Wannstedt spends more time talking about how great a coach Jimmie Johnson was than it talks about the talent on Pitt’s team (which Wannstedt recruited) and Wannstedt himself combined.

The final analysis by www.coacheshotseat.com is that Pitt will finish 5-7 (and they pick Pitt to lose to Syracuse because of the location of the game, again ignoring actual players on each team) and Dave Wannstedt will be fired. While I agree that a 5-7 season would likely spell the end of the Wannstedt era, and would at the very least cost him any and all good will from the fans, I am not willing to accept their analysis on any level.

Sure Wannstedt hasn’t proven himself to be a fantastic coach. But there is just no questioning his recruiting. To get the recruits he has been getting without having won anything is a significant sign of his ability in that area. Beyond that, the assumption that games are decided solely based on who has the better coach is moronic. If that were the case then why doesn’t tOSU win the National Championship every year? Why did Florida win the national championship one year and then the following year limp into a bowl game with the same coach? Is it because the players on the field matter as well?

Wannstedt indeed needs to have a good season. He needs to take control of this team and deliver a solid 8 win season to really build and keep momentum. On the positive side, many of his solid recruits will just be breaking into the starting lineup this year, getting him out from under Wlat’s mistakes. But even as someone who isn’t particularly a Dave Wannstedt fan I have to say give the guy a break. Most of us as Pitt fans feel strongly that the program is moving in the right direction. We have been willing to cut slack because we see the recruiting classes coming in and we presume it will pay off. If it doesn’t, we will likely lead the charge in demanding Wannstedt’s head. But any analysis that can’t give him credit for doing a single thing right is analysis coming from someone with a definite agenda against the man.

My prediction: Pitt will have a good season and make a bowl game because Wannstedt isn’t playing the games; the studs he recruited are. And you can’t take the talent of the players out of the equation. Wannstedt will vindicate himself (though not necessarily making himself a top coach in the nation) by leading this team to contention for the Big East title.

Oh yeah, and Pitt will beat Syracuse.

Posted in Dave Wannstedt, Football | No Comments »

The Circle of Recruiting/Coaching

There are two keys to a successful college athletic program: the need for a good coach and the need for sound recruiting. The two play off of each other and continue a circle that, when done correctly, will build on itself and bring a program along further and further over time. The theory is that if you can get a coach or a coaching staff that can begin as either a solid recruiter or a solid coach, the success in one will open doors to the other. If the coach has an aptitude for both, then one can build off the other and vice versa, to the point where a program becomes a perennial threat.

There is an inverse way in which this works as well. If a coach or staff is good at one but not the other they will ultimately fail to reach the level of success possible if they could achieve some degree of skill at both.

Consider Jamie Dixon. As an assistant to Ben Howland, he was known as a solid recruiter. Because of his recruiting abilities he has been consistently able to get in talent that the Pitt basketball program hasn’t seen in years. As it turns out, he is a pretty solid coach as well. He has led Pitt to unprecedented success in the Big East and to a reputation as a nationally feared/respected program. His success at recruiting gave him the tools and his success at coaching has allowed him to get the most out of his recruits. Arguably he is a better coach than recruiter because he has been able to get 5-star talent out of many 3-star athletes. But he recruits players that fit his system and then has the skill to coach them up.

Dixon’s recruiting got Pitt solid players, though not necessarily top tier players. His coaching then allowed him to get the most from those recruits. If you put total success alongside recruited talent, Dixon has arguably had more success than UCLA, Kansas, Duke, and UNC based on the facts that those teams are all littered with McDonald’s All Americans and Pitt is full of 3-star recruits with the occasional 4-star added to the mix. Kansas and UNC have national championships in the last few years, but Pitt is comparable in regular season success, and in the case of UCLA and Duke/UNC, they had comparable records while playing in a far better and tougher conference.

Dixon’s coaching success with decent recruits has led to better recruits coming to the program, which has, in turn, led to more success. All of this culminated yesterday with the commitment of Dante Taylor, a potential McDonald’s All American (the first of Dixon’s tenure should he be named one), and a top 25 recruit by both Scouts.com and Rivals.com, two of the premiere recruiting sites on the web. (Read more at Pitt Blather here and here.) This is a huge get for Pitt and it comes back to the circle of recruiting and coaching feeding off of each other in a symbiotic relationship that creates a successful program that can draw players to it. For example, Coach K doesn’t have to recruit the way other coaches do. He has his choice of McDonald’s All American’s and 4-5-star recruits dying to play for Duke. While Dixon has a ways to go to reach that level of success, the Taylor commit shows Pitt fans great reason to be excited and patient as Dixon only seems to be improving with time.

Then there is Dave Wannstedt. He has done a phenomenal job at recruiting. What everyone is holding their breath over is whether or not he can coach. In most respects he could be considered a better recruiter than Dixon is in basketball, considering he has managed to bring in talent such as LeSean McCoy and has been voted the top recruiter in the Big East- no small thing considering he has to recruit against WVU and Louisville. However he has yet to translate that into winning.

To be fair, football is on an entirely different scale than basketball. In basketball there are usually 8-9 players in a rotation. In football, you have to have 22 starters plus special teams. Given the numbers involved in football it stands to reason that it takes longer for the recruiting to filter into the program to the point that it makes an impact. It wouldn’t work, even with all 5-star recruits, to start an entire team of true freshmen. So Wanny has to be given some time.

If he proves to be even a competent coach, the talent level of recruits should be enough to bring success. If he can have decent success, such as making bowl games and beating teams like WVU, on a semi-regular basis, then the recruiting will increase and the team will get better. Given his skill at recruiting, Pitt could, over the next 5-10 years, return to being a national powerhouse. Somehow he has the knack for getting sound recruits. All this is dependent on a competent level of coaching, however. Should he fail to develop that talent and turn it into wins, then it will be a completely wasted resource. Potential recruits will watch other players go into the Pitt program and get swallowed up, never to be heard from again, and they will decide to go elsewhere.

All of this points us back to the original point: coaching and recruiting are the two necessary keys to a successful college athletics program. Our patience is paying off with basketball, where Pitt his flourishing under Jamie Dixon, being chosen a preseason top 5 team and landing a big time recruit this offseason. Football is on the right track, and has the potential for even more success than basketball based on the recruits Wanny has brought in. But it remains to be seen whether or not the football staff can deliver on coaching the way it has in recruiting. If they can, then the circle will continue, and soon enough, all will Hail to Pitt.

Posted in Basketball, Dave Wannstedt, Football, Jamie Dixon, Recruiting/Scouting | No Comments »

Latest Panther Recruit

Joshua Timothy Prowler

Born July 2, 2008

8lbs, 7oz; 22 1/2 inches

Posted in Off Topic | 2 Comments »

Grades aren’t the only indication of brains.

Grades are certainly important for student athletes.  Most of them aren’t going to be professional athletes, so taking advantage of a free education, especially at a quality university like Pitt, is a smart thing to do.  Having that degree opens up doors that aren’t there otherwise.

Grades are also important to student athletes because of the grade point average requirements to remain eligible for NCAA athletics.  Of course, grades aren’t the only thing that affect your eligibility.  They aren’t even the only thing regarding intelligence/brains that affect eligibility.

Being smart enough to not enter the NBA (or NFL or MLB etc) draft early when you aren’t a lock as a first rounder is arguably as important as maintaining good grades, being increasingly more important the fewer years of eligibility you have used.  Consider that if you are on a team and get bad grades, you are only ineligible for a set period of time, pending the grades being raised.  On the other hand, if you enter the draft after your freshmen season and don’t get drafted, your career is over, your eligibility is gone, and you don’t have a degree or scholarship.

In this regard, Sam Young is a rocket scientist.  He knew he wasn’t a lock for the first round.  He probably knew that it was possible he wouldn’t get drafted at all.  While he could have a bad year next year and lower his draft stock a la Carl Krauser, at least he would end up with a degree if he didn’t get drafted.  If he entered the draft this year and either didn’t get taken, or got taken in the second round, getting no guaranteed contract, he would be without a degree and quite possibly without a career.

Andy Katz has a blog on espn.com about this topic.  He talks extensively about the disappointing night underclassmen had at the draft, despite the record number of freshmen getting taken in the first round.  Just ask junior Jamont Gordon and freshmen Davon Jefferson if they wished they had stayed in college another season.  While both assumed they were a hot commodity (I never heard of either of them frankly), neither got drafted.

What about Mario Chalmers (picked 34th) and Chris Douglas-Roberts (40th)?  These are two guys that seemed like super studs in college.  Who would have guessed they wouldn’t even be close to the first round?  If these two guys weren’t first round picks, there is no way Sam Young was going to be.  They did get picked, and will both have a real shot as NBA players because of their talent.  But, as Katz said (about Texas A&M’s DeAndre Jordan), do you think Chalmers and CDR left college, especially teams that could compete again for a national title, in order to be drafted in the second round?

Leaving school early for the draft is a gamble unless you are a super stud that is being talked about as a top ten pick.  In football, a player can be drafted in the seventh round and end up on the team.  In basketball, there are only two rounds, and second rounders have much less of a shot.  After all, they are competing for a limited number of roster spots.

All of this points back to the fact that grades aren’t the only indication of how smart a person is.  Decision making is a vital part of intelligence.  Leaving school early and losing all of your collegiate eligibility isn’t a smart choice if you aren’t certain you will make it in the pros.  Sam Young understood this and made a brilliant decision.  He certainly has athletic ability.  He is fun to watch and could well be a solid NBA player.  But he, like many of us, realized that this year wasn’t the best year for him to try.  There is always next year.  And if he makes the improvements between this year and next that he made between the last two seasons, then his brilliance will shine even brighter when he is truly a potential (albeit lower) lottery pick.

Posted in Basketball, Sam Young | 2 Comments »

Pitt Panthers at Olympic Trials

The following is a letter which was sent to Pitt alumni about three Pitt Panthers from the swimming and diving teams (1 current student and two alumni) who are set to compete at the Olympic Trials beginning June 29. I am posting the whole letter so everyone can read about it and support them in their attempt to represent our nation and our university in Beijing in August.

Three Panthers Set For Olympic Trials*

Pitt’s swimming and diving team will be represented by
two of their top freestylers in recent history as well as one of its
fastest butterflyers at the 2008 US Olympic Trials, as senior *Stacie
Safritt* and alumni *Kristin Brown* and *Jason Miller* each qualified to
compete for a spot on the Olympic team at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb.,
from June 29-July 6.

“These three athletes have helped to make a great name for the
Panthers,” said head coach *Chuck Knoles*. “Stacie and Kristin have
both been to NCAA’s and Kristin and Jason are both on Pitt’s ‘Walk of
Fame.’

“I am excited and proud to have worked with these athletes and I
know they will represent themselves and the Pitt community very well in
Omaha.”

Safritt *(Cranberry Township, Pa./Seneca Valley)* is the lone active
member of the squad to earn an invitation to the trials, after she
finished 17^th in the 50 free at 26.19 at the Omaha Swimvitational
Grand Prix.

This past season, she recorded several multi-event victories
including,first-place finishes in the 100 and 200 free against
St. Bonaventure and Virginia, and 50 and 100 free wins in meets
against Syracuse, Cincinnati and Notre Dame.

In the Big East Championships, Safritt posted an NCAA provisional
time in the preliminaries of the 200 free, and tied for seventh in the
finals. Later at the ECAC Championships, she recorded first-place
finishes in the 50 and 100 free with times of 23.77 and 51.25,
respectively.

The 2006-07 Big East/Aeropostale Student-Athlete of the Year, Brown
garnered an invite to the Olympic Trials in four freestyle events.
She will swim the 50, 100, 200 and 400 free. During the Mutual of Omaha
Swimvitational, Brown finished with top-15 times in the 200, 100 and
400, while placing 10th in the 200.

Brown ended her career at Pitt as a two-time Big East Champion in
the 200 free and held five school records.

A Big East Champion in the butterfly, Miller will compete in the 100
fly at the trials. During his career at Pitt, Miller won the 200 fly at
the conference meet in 2003, was a member of the 200 free relay team
that won a Big East title in 2005 and aided in a school record as the
anchor of the 200 free relay team at the 2006 conference meet.

Safritt, Brown and Miller hope to join Sue Heon and Angie Lopez as
the only Panther swimmers to compete in the Olympics.

Congratulations to Stacie Safritt, Kristin Brown, and Jason Miller in making it this far. We will be rooting for you guys. Hail to Pitt!!

Posted in Olympics | No Comments »

Offseason Hoops Excitement

For college sports fans, especially those of us in the north where college baseball (and in Pittsburgh, pro baseball) isn’t very exciting, this is a difficult time of year.  A few months ago we were teased with football spring camps, only to be left with months of void before the season starts.  Basketball pops in and out of the news because of the NBA draft, which allows rankings to be reworked twenty different times based on who is in the draft, who is out of the draft, who is in the draft that might later be out of the draft, and who may be transferring, injured, academically ineligible, or denied parole.

In short, May through July sucks for college sports fans.

There are, of course, a few reprieves in an otherwise torturous quarter year of sports nothingness.  For example, there are those ESPN, Rivals.com, Scouts.com, Weknowmoreaboutsportsthanyou.com, and other such articles and blogs that serve to get us ready for a season that seems like it will never come.

Lucky for us, with the NBA draft looming, we have had a bit of such college hoops news coming out.  One such piece being the latest bracketology on espn.com.  In it, Joe Lunardi lists our beloved Panthers as not only a 1 seed; but as the #1 overall seed in the 2009 NCAA Tournament.

On a side note, apparently Greensboro, NC will host the 1 seeds from the South and East brackets, giving both Duke and UNC a shot at playing home games for a good portion of the tournament.

Likewise Andy Katz has nice things to say about Pitt, ranking them #2 in his super preseason poll.

The hint of Mike Cook coming back for a sixth year (after tearing his ACL in December) makes the Panthers even more formidable. Sam Young and DeJuan Blair are big-time bigs, and Levance Fields might be as good a floor leader as anyone in the country. This Pitt team could win the national title.

You hear that?  This Pitt team could win the national title.

Then there is Andy Glockner’s piece about how seniors are going to be the key this year in hoops.  Of course you can’t mention seniors without mentioning Sam Young, whom Glockner calls Pitt’s “Unassuming Leader.”

Since Pitt’s resurgence/resurrection/dawning as a basketball power, this kind of praise has been non-existent.  Pitt has often been a sexy pick as a team to watch; a gritty team from a tough conference who can beat the most explosive teams with its grind it out defense.  Never have they been a team that was being picked as a favorite for a national championship.  Never have they been a team being crowned a 1 seed by a guy who has historically been pretty hard on Pitt when putting together his brackets and analysis.

This is something new.

As Pitt fans, we have been expecting a national title since Ben Howland’s third year.  We can name the top players from each season and why most of the teams of the last eight years were well equipped to make deep tourney runs.  We have complained that the analysts aren’t giving Pitt enough props and respect.  We have then witnessed those analysts be correct, though never admitting that they were in fact so, as Pitt failed to make it past the Sweet 16.

But what we have never had is a media that seems so giddy about our beloved Panthers.  While we are thrilled with the praise, we are left wanting to write a letter such as this:

Dear Media,

You didn’t believe when we did.  Now you want to jump on the bandwagon.  Its too late, losers.

Hail to Pitt.

PS- Even though you aren’t allowed on the bandwagon, please keep writing those wonderful articles about our team.

All of this makes for an exciting, if lengthy and otherwise bland off season.  I already want to start planning my National Champion Pitt Panthers party.  Unfortunately we are still four months from the season even beginning.  Who knows what can happen between now and then?  Who knows what can happen early in the season, such as losing two pivotal starters for the year?  For now, we just have to wait with anticipation, speculating on what could happen; what might come to be.

In the mean time, it won’t hurt if we can get some more of those articles about how good our team is going to be.

Posted in Basketball | 1 Comment »