Welcome back to In The Pitt, PantherLair.com’s new weekly discourse featuring a roundup of everything that’s happened in the past week, with insight and inside information thrown in for good measure.
September 5, 2008
Top of The Pitt
So yeah. Bowling Green. How about that?
It probably goes without saying, but the biggest story in Pitt athletics over the past week was the Panthers’ upset loss to Bowling Green in the season-opener on Saturday. It also probably goes without saying that losing to Bowling Green was not the way anyone at Pitt hoped to start the season.
Here are 14 observations from the game (most of which have already been made on this message board):
- Pitt played a very good first quarter on both sides of the ball.
- Pitt did not match that effort in the second, third, or fourth quarters.
- The controversial calls - to wit, two punts inside the Bowling Green 35 and settling for a field goal before halftime - were poor decisions by a staff more interested in making safe plays and winning a battle of field position.
- The Pitt offense did not respond or adjust to Bowling Green’s defensive adjustments.
- The Pitt defense played well enough to win, despite miscues, missed tackles, and an apparent lack of adjustments.
- Bill Stull did not play like the seasoned veteran many had hoped he would become. In fact, Stull didn’t play with the poise and demeanor he showed in training camp.
- Nate Byham played very well. Well enough, in fact, that he should have proven once again that he can be a considerable weapon in the offense.
- Joe Thomas did not play very well. In fact, one could say Thomas played very poorly, and the response to his poor play should be a promotion for true freshman Lucas Nix. We won’t know if that will happen until Saturday when the offense takes the field.
- Using Jonathan Baldwin for a handful of plays is not enough. He needs to be part of the down-to-down offense.
- LeSean McCoy has to be more direct in his efforts than he was on Saturday.
- Dom DeCicco showed he still has room for improvement. Still, I feel like DeCicco is smart enough, talented enough, and important enough that he should not be benched for his struggles. I think the upside for DeCicco is high enough that the coaches should leave him on the field and let him learn. I doubt that he will struggle as mightily as he did on Saturday.
- That being said, Elijah Fields has to play. If that means using more defensive sub-packages, so be it. The defense didn’t lose the game for Pitt, but Fields could have had an impact.
- Greg Cross probably should have played on Saturday. I’ll discuss that in more detail later.
- There is a distinct difference between playing to win and playing to not lose, and the latter often leads to losing anyway.
Pederson and Wannstedt
I wouldn’t read too much into Athletic Director Steve Pederson’s comments (which followed his initial non-comment) in the newspaper earlier this week. First of all, what did you really expect Pederson to say? Steve may have a reputation as something of a head-hunter (and not in the HR connotation of that term), but he’s not a stupid man; Pederson knows that to publicly criticize Dave Wannstedt, Matt Cavanaugh, or anyone in the football program for Saturday’s loss would serve no purpose whatsoever. To come out after the game and issue an ultimatum or a mandate for the remainder of the season, or to speak strongly about changes to the offense or the coaching philosophy, would accomplish nothing for Pederson, Wannstedt, or the football program.
Pederson knows this.
But Wannstedt knows this: he has to win more than he loses this season. He has to have a winning record. He has to get to a bowl game. This much is certain, and Wannstedt doesn’t need a late-night clandestine cloak-and-dagger meeting with Pederson booming fire-and-brimstone to understand what is expected from the 2008 season.
Probably the best thing for the hopes of Pitt fans is that Wannstedt still seems to be genuinely convinced that his team is capable of getting there. He’s not worried about his job because he’s not worried about a losing season. He knows that he’s got a lot of talented players and he knows that these players are capable of winning a lot of games.
Was Pederson disappointed in the outcome of Saturday’s game? Absolutely, maybe even more than the adamantly passionate fans on this message board, since Pederson and his staff invested nine months of work - virtually every day since the West Virginia win last season - in selling this football program with the number one goal of putting a body in every seat at Heinz Field.
But Pederson’s disappointment is not going to be realized in the form of quotes in the newspaper after the first game of the season.
The Cross situation
There are three names that have been thrown around in the “should have played/played more” category:
Jonathan Baldwin
Elijah Fields
Greg Cross
I touched on Baldwin and Fields in that opening segment. For Cross, I’m going to bring up a post I made on the message boards yesterady. I pretty much said everything I want to say about that situation, so with a little minor editing, here is what I think.
I think you have a situation where the plan was and has been to hold Cross until several games into the season, a la the Wildcat last year. If you recall, they didn't use that package until the Michigan State game.
I think there are a couple problems with that approach.
1. You're trying something new, and there will inevitably be some kinks that need to be worked out. So rather than deal with those issues when you're playing South Florida or Notre Dame, why not work on ironing out the kinks against Bowling Green and Buffalo?
Additionally, when Cross does get in the game, it will be his first Division I appearance. Would it be better for that appearance to be in front of a packed Raymond James Stadium on a Thursday night for a nationally-televised game? Or would it be better to let him get his feet wet on the home field against MAC opponents?
2. Personally, and I'm going to speak strongly here, I hate deception as a gameplan.
Hate it.
First of all, you should believe that your players, your scheme, and your execution of the scheme will be effective. You shouldn't have to rely on tricking somebody in order to move the football (or stop someone on defense). Every now and then, a little deception can go a long way, but to consider it a major strength of one of your offensive packages seems to me to be a fool's quest.
And once you use the Cross package (as was the case with the Wildcat last year), the deception angle is virtually gone. I don't care if they kept the quarterback in the huddle for the Wildcat; once they split Pat Bostick or Kevan Smith out wide, the defense knew exactly what was going on. With Cross, it won't even take that long for the defense to figure it out: every opponent is going to know immediately what is happening when Bill Stull comes off the field and Cross goes on.
This brings me to point 3.
3. Use the package as a game-preparation advantage.
If you keep the Cross thing a secret, no one is going to know about it, and maybe that's the point. But rather than hold out for the three series of “surprise!” that you'll get against South Florida, why not compound the game-preparation process for all future opponents by using Cross in the first game?
Once you use Cross (or any other wild package), every future opponent is going to have to prepare for it. If they had used it against Bowling Green, then the remaining 11 opponents would have to prepare for it. But if they hold off until South Florida or Rutgers or Notre Dame, then they're making it easier on the first opponent they use it against.
Let's say they don't use Cross against Buffalo, Iowa, or Syracuse and decide to bring him out against South Florida. Sure, the USF defense might be caught by surprise, but why not add some extra things for them to prepare for by showing Cross in one of the earlier games? Get the game film out there. Make it known that you’ve got a package with a running quarterback who can change the course of the game. Force every opponent to divide their preparation time into work on Pitt’s base offense and the Panthers’ special Cross package.
To me, that’s at least part of the advantage of having a player like Cross. Obviously his biggest contribution will come from what he does on the field, but at the same time, his presence on film is going to give every defensive coordinator in the Big East something else to worry about when they play Pitt. But if the Pitt staff waits until South Florida (or later) to use Cross, then they’re limiting the number of teams whose game prep they can affect.
And that’s what I think about Greg Cross.
The week in video
Here at PantherLair.com, we like moving pictures, so much so that we put out a lot of video interviews. Here’s a review of the videos we put out this week, in case you missed any of them.
8/30 - Dave Wannstedt’s post-game press conferencehttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=844373
9/2 - Wannstedt’s weekly press conferencehttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=845325
9/3 - Bill Stull talks about his first full gamehttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=845620
9/3 - Matt Cavanaugh talks about play-calling in the Bowling Green gamehttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=845791
9/3 - Wannstedt talks about Adam Gunn, LeSean McCoy, etc.http://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=845983
9/4 - Wannstedt talks one last time before Saturday’s gamehttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=846289
If I could recommend one video from the week, it has to be Cavanaugh. Cavanaugh was (perhaps understandably) one of the main targets for the venom and vitriol of Pitt fans after the loss to Bowling Green, and when he faced the media this week, he didn’t shy away from the biggest complaints. In fact, Cavanaugh owed up to the charges, even using the phrase “crummy play-calling” and openly criticizing his decisions in the field goal drive before halftime.
Cavanaugh may not say all the things you hope to hear, like “we’re going to become a vertical offense” or “our goal is now to score 60 points per game,” but his accountability and self-awareness is refreshing. To be honest, I didn’t think Cavanaugh would even address the media this week; that he did and was fairly forthcoming in his remarks speaks well of what kind of man he is.
The mindset
Still, sometimes you have to wonder about the approach of the coaches and how it filters down to the players. Consider this quote from Nate Byham earlier this week:
“I don’t feel our team needs to score 38 points, 50 points like teams like Florida and stuff. We just need to execute and put up our mid-20’s and 30’s points. That’s just how we are. We have a great defense. We can play and win games with 27 points, 24 points, with the defense that we have. That’s not the problem.”
Byham later said that the offense is looking to score as many points as possible, but I think that initial quote is pretty indicative of the mindset that this program has adopted.
Adam Gunn
By now you’ve all seen the news on redshirt senior linebacker Adam Gunn, who will miss the rest of the season with a fractured vertebra suffered in the Bowling Green game. Never mind the three solo tackles and two quarterback hurries recorded by redshirt freshman Greg Williams in place of Gunn; those were good plays, but this loss nevertheless hurts the team.
Gunn had emerged as a reliable, savvy leader on a team with few seniors. He led by example and his example was how to make sure you are in the right place at the right time and how to finish the play.
I think back to training camp 2007 when everybody around the Pitt program - coaches, players, media, everyone - talked about the inevitability of Gunn eventually losing the starting strong-side linebacker job to Dorin Dickerson. No one had any doubt that the transition would happen by the end of camp; then, as the season opened, the expectation evolved into Dickerson taking the job by mid-season; then, as the season wound to its end, everyone came to the realization that while we were all waiting for Dickerson to step up, Gunn had become a pretty good player.
While a number of players at the position had strong spring camps, the Pitt linebacking corps wasn’t exactly a deep group coming out of training camp. The redshirt freshmen who shined in the spring - Williams, Brandon Lindsey, Max Gruder, and Tristan Roberts - did not build on that work in training camp. Now, with Gunn out indefinitely and starting weak-side linebacker Shane Murray sidelined with a knee injury, the depth will be tested.
Redshirt senior Austin Ransom played well in place of Murray against Bowling Green, putting up a team-high 7 tackles, 4 solo stops, 1.5 tackles for loss, 2 quarterback hurries, and 1 interception. Williams looks like the most likely candidate to replace Gunn at strong-side.
Men’s basketball
While the football team’s loss to Bowling Green was the biggest story of the week, there was some notable news on the men’s basketball side, as Pitt released its men’s basketball schedule on Thursday.
Most notable about the release was the unveiling of Pitt’s non-conference opponents for 2008-09. Long a subject of derision, Jamie Dixon has steadily increased the strength of the Panthers’ non-conference schedule. No, that doesn’t mean Pitt will play Duke, North Carolina, Texas, and Kansas every year; it means that Dixon has managed to get the Panthers nine opponents with RPI’s in the top 100 at the end of last season.
Those nine opponents are Washington State (RPI 19), Mississippi State (41), Siena (63), Florida State (67), Akron (69), Texas Tech (74), Belmont (75), Miami (OH) (81), and UM-Baltimore County (87). Washington State, Texas Tech, and Mississippi State are all part of the four-team Legends Classic with Pitt in Newark, NJ, November 28th and 29th, so the Panthers will only play two of those teams.
With those two games on neutral courts, Pitt’s only true non-conference road game will come Sunday, December 21st at Florida State. The Seminoles finished the 2007-08 season 19-15 and made an appearance in the NIT.
Pitt’s conference schedule has the Panthers playing two games each against Connecticut, West Virginia, and DePaul. The regular season ends with a home game against Connecticut on Sunday, March 7th.
In the exact middle of the conference schedule, the Panthers play host to arguably the team’s most intriguing non-conference matchup: a home game against Robert Morris University and former Pitt assistant Mike Rice. The Colonials won the Northeastern Conference regular season championship before bowing out in the conference tournament last season and settling for an NIT appearance.
On the hoops recruiting front, Sewickley point guard Tom Droney took a visit to Pitt last weekend, and Texas power forward J.J. Richardson is planning to visit this weekend. We’ve got a report coming later today on Droney’s visit, and we’ll get in touch with Richardson after his visit.
Wrapping up
A couple items before we go:
- Make sure to get your picks in for the Pick ‘Em game. I know the format is kind of screwed up since we don’t have a separate PantherLair group, but that’s why you need to make sure you have your pick name set as (your username) - PantherLair. That is to say, my pick set is named Chris Peak - PantherLair. ddurm and SterlingPitt - who each scored 18 points in the first week - have their picks set as ddurm - Pantherlair and SterlingPitt - Pantherlair, respectively. We need everyone from this site to identify themselves as such; that way we can rank the PantherLair.com players at the end of the season to award the six-month comp subscription.
Also, it looks like we are picking against the spread (which is why no one got the Kansas game right), so keep that in mind. Cincinnati at +21.5, Ohio at +34, and UTEP at +27, we’re looking at you here.
- Hopefully you got a chance to check out last week’s PantherLair.com Friday Guest, Tony DeFazio. Tony is the editor of the Pittsburgh Sports Report and he contributed a great piece last Friday basically saying that the time has come for Pitt to win. We’re planning on having a different member of the Pittsburgh media join us each week of the football season as the Friday Guest, offering a unique perspective on the Panthers. Later today we’ve got a commentary from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Pitt football beat writer Kevin Gorman.
- And finally, we’ll close down this edition of In the Pitt with a prediction for Saturday’s game against Buffalo. I know we didn’t talk about the upcoming game once today, and that pretty much follows the pattern of the past week, as virtually all of the questions for Wannstedt, Cavanaugh, McCoy, Stull, Byham, etc. seemed to revolve around the Bowling Green game and how to move forward from it.
Regardless, I think the Panthers get back on the positive side of things and even their record at 1-1 with a win over the Bulls.
Pitt 30, Buffalo 20
Add your official prediction to the bottom of this thread.
Thanks for joining this week’s edition of In The Pitt. As always, feel free to e-mail chrispeak1@comcast.net with any suggestions, feedback, or other input.
September 5, 2008
Top of The Pitt
So yeah. Bowling Green. How about that?
It probably goes without saying, but the biggest story in Pitt athletics over the past week was the Panthers’ upset loss to Bowling Green in the season-opener on Saturday. It also probably goes without saying that losing to Bowling Green was not the way anyone at Pitt hoped to start the season.
Here are 14 observations from the game (most of which have already been made on this message board):
- Pitt played a very good first quarter on both sides of the ball.
- Pitt did not match that effort in the second, third, or fourth quarters.
- The controversial calls - to wit, two punts inside the Bowling Green 35 and settling for a field goal before halftime - were poor decisions by a staff more interested in making safe plays and winning a battle of field position.
- The Pitt offense did not respond or adjust to Bowling Green’s defensive adjustments.
- The Pitt defense played well enough to win, despite miscues, missed tackles, and an apparent lack of adjustments.
- Bill Stull did not play like the seasoned veteran many had hoped he would become. In fact, Stull didn’t play with the poise and demeanor he showed in training camp.
- Nate Byham played very well. Well enough, in fact, that he should have proven once again that he can be a considerable weapon in the offense.
- Joe Thomas did not play very well. In fact, one could say Thomas played very poorly, and the response to his poor play should be a promotion for true freshman Lucas Nix. We won’t know if that will happen until Saturday when the offense takes the field.
- Using Jonathan Baldwin for a handful of plays is not enough. He needs to be part of the down-to-down offense.
- LeSean McCoy has to be more direct in his efforts than he was on Saturday.
- Dom DeCicco showed he still has room for improvement. Still, I feel like DeCicco is smart enough, talented enough, and important enough that he should not be benched for his struggles. I think the upside for DeCicco is high enough that the coaches should leave him on the field and let him learn. I doubt that he will struggle as mightily as he did on Saturday.
- That being said, Elijah Fields has to play. If that means using more defensive sub-packages, so be it. The defense didn’t lose the game for Pitt, but Fields could have had an impact.
- Greg Cross probably should have played on Saturday. I’ll discuss that in more detail later.
- There is a distinct difference between playing to win and playing to not lose, and the latter often leads to losing anyway.
Pederson and Wannstedt
I wouldn’t read too much into Athletic Director Steve Pederson’s comments (which followed his initial non-comment) in the newspaper earlier this week. First of all, what did you really expect Pederson to say? Steve may have a reputation as something of a head-hunter (and not in the HR connotation of that term), but he’s not a stupid man; Pederson knows that to publicly criticize Dave Wannstedt, Matt Cavanaugh, or anyone in the football program for Saturday’s loss would serve no purpose whatsoever. To come out after the game and issue an ultimatum or a mandate for the remainder of the season, or to speak strongly about changes to the offense or the coaching philosophy, would accomplish nothing for Pederson, Wannstedt, or the football program.
Pederson knows this.
But Wannstedt knows this: he has to win more than he loses this season. He has to have a winning record. He has to get to a bowl game. This much is certain, and Wannstedt doesn’t need a late-night clandestine cloak-and-dagger meeting with Pederson booming fire-and-brimstone to understand what is expected from the 2008 season.
Probably the best thing for the hopes of Pitt fans is that Wannstedt still seems to be genuinely convinced that his team is capable of getting there. He’s not worried about his job because he’s not worried about a losing season. He knows that he’s got a lot of talented players and he knows that these players are capable of winning a lot of games.
Was Pederson disappointed in the outcome of Saturday’s game? Absolutely, maybe even more than the adamantly passionate fans on this message board, since Pederson and his staff invested nine months of work - virtually every day since the West Virginia win last season - in selling this football program with the number one goal of putting a body in every seat at Heinz Field.
But Pederson’s disappointment is not going to be realized in the form of quotes in the newspaper after the first game of the season.
The Cross situation
There are three names that have been thrown around in the “should have played/played more” category:
Jonathan Baldwin
Elijah Fields
Greg Cross
I touched on Baldwin and Fields in that opening segment. For Cross, I’m going to bring up a post I made on the message boards yesterady. I pretty much said everything I want to say about that situation, so with a little minor editing, here is what I think.
I think you have a situation where the plan was and has been to hold Cross until several games into the season, a la the Wildcat last year. If you recall, they didn't use that package until the Michigan State game.
I think there are a couple problems with that approach.
1. You're trying something new, and there will inevitably be some kinks that need to be worked out. So rather than deal with those issues when you're playing South Florida or Notre Dame, why not work on ironing out the kinks against Bowling Green and Buffalo?
Additionally, when Cross does get in the game, it will be his first Division I appearance. Would it be better for that appearance to be in front of a packed Raymond James Stadium on a Thursday night for a nationally-televised game? Or would it be better to let him get his feet wet on the home field against MAC opponents?
2. Personally, and I'm going to speak strongly here, I hate deception as a gameplan.
Hate it.
First of all, you should believe that your players, your scheme, and your execution of the scheme will be effective. You shouldn't have to rely on tricking somebody in order to move the football (or stop someone on defense). Every now and then, a little deception can go a long way, but to consider it a major strength of one of your offensive packages seems to me to be a fool's quest.
And once you use the Cross package (as was the case with the Wildcat last year), the deception angle is virtually gone. I don't care if they kept the quarterback in the huddle for the Wildcat; once they split Pat Bostick or Kevan Smith out wide, the defense knew exactly what was going on. With Cross, it won't even take that long for the defense to figure it out: every opponent is going to know immediately what is happening when Bill Stull comes off the field and Cross goes on.
This brings me to point 3.
3. Use the package as a game-preparation advantage.
If you keep the Cross thing a secret, no one is going to know about it, and maybe that's the point. But rather than hold out for the three series of “surprise!” that you'll get against South Florida, why not compound the game-preparation process for all future opponents by using Cross in the first game?
Once you use Cross (or any other wild package), every future opponent is going to have to prepare for it. If they had used it against Bowling Green, then the remaining 11 opponents would have to prepare for it. But if they hold off until South Florida or Rutgers or Notre Dame, then they're making it easier on the first opponent they use it against.
Let's say they don't use Cross against Buffalo, Iowa, or Syracuse and decide to bring him out against South Florida. Sure, the USF defense might be caught by surprise, but why not add some extra things for them to prepare for by showing Cross in one of the earlier games? Get the game film out there. Make it known that you’ve got a package with a running quarterback who can change the course of the game. Force every opponent to divide their preparation time into work on Pitt’s base offense and the Panthers’ special Cross package.
To me, that’s at least part of the advantage of having a player like Cross. Obviously his biggest contribution will come from what he does on the field, but at the same time, his presence on film is going to give every defensive coordinator in the Big East something else to worry about when they play Pitt. But if the Pitt staff waits until South Florida (or later) to use Cross, then they’re limiting the number of teams whose game prep they can affect.
And that’s what I think about Greg Cross.
The week in video
Here at PantherLair.com, we like moving pictures, so much so that we put out a lot of video interviews. Here’s a review of the videos we put out this week, in case you missed any of them.
8/30 - Dave Wannstedt’s post-game press conferencehttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=844373
9/2 - Wannstedt’s weekly press conferencehttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=845325
9/3 - Bill Stull talks about his first full gamehttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=845620
9/3 - Matt Cavanaugh talks about play-calling in the Bowling Green gamehttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=845791
9/3 - Wannstedt talks about Adam Gunn, LeSean McCoy, etc.http://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=845983
9/4 - Wannstedt talks one last time before Saturday’s gamehttp://pittsburgh.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=846289
If I could recommend one video from the week, it has to be Cavanaugh. Cavanaugh was (perhaps understandably) one of the main targets for the venom and vitriol of Pitt fans after the loss to Bowling Green, and when he faced the media this week, he didn’t shy away from the biggest complaints. In fact, Cavanaugh owed up to the charges, even using the phrase “crummy play-calling” and openly criticizing his decisions in the field goal drive before halftime.
Cavanaugh may not say all the things you hope to hear, like “we’re going to become a vertical offense” or “our goal is now to score 60 points per game,” but his accountability and self-awareness is refreshing. To be honest, I didn’t think Cavanaugh would even address the media this week; that he did and was fairly forthcoming in his remarks speaks well of what kind of man he is.
The mindset
Still, sometimes you have to wonder about the approach of the coaches and how it filters down to the players. Consider this quote from Nate Byham earlier this week:
“I don’t feel our team needs to score 38 points, 50 points like teams like Florida and stuff. We just need to execute and put up our mid-20’s and 30’s points. That’s just how we are. We have a great defense. We can play and win games with 27 points, 24 points, with the defense that we have. That’s not the problem.”
Byham later said that the offense is looking to score as many points as possible, but I think that initial quote is pretty indicative of the mindset that this program has adopted.
Adam Gunn
By now you’ve all seen the news on redshirt senior linebacker Adam Gunn, who will miss the rest of the season with a fractured vertebra suffered in the Bowling Green game. Never mind the three solo tackles and two quarterback hurries recorded by redshirt freshman Greg Williams in place of Gunn; those were good plays, but this loss nevertheless hurts the team.
Gunn had emerged as a reliable, savvy leader on a team with few seniors. He led by example and his example was how to make sure you are in the right place at the right time and how to finish the play.
I think back to training camp 2007 when everybody around the Pitt program - coaches, players, media, everyone - talked about the inevitability of Gunn eventually losing the starting strong-side linebacker job to Dorin Dickerson. No one had any doubt that the transition would happen by the end of camp; then, as the season opened, the expectation evolved into Dickerson taking the job by mid-season; then, as the season wound to its end, everyone came to the realization that while we were all waiting for Dickerson to step up, Gunn had become a pretty good player.
While a number of players at the position had strong spring camps, the Pitt linebacking corps wasn’t exactly a deep group coming out of training camp. The redshirt freshmen who shined in the spring - Williams, Brandon Lindsey, Max Gruder, and Tristan Roberts - did not build on that work in training camp. Now, with Gunn out indefinitely and starting weak-side linebacker Shane Murray sidelined with a knee injury, the depth will be tested.
Redshirt senior Austin Ransom played well in place of Murray against Bowling Green, putting up a team-high 7 tackles, 4 solo stops, 1.5 tackles for loss, 2 quarterback hurries, and 1 interception. Williams looks like the most likely candidate to replace Gunn at strong-side.
Men’s basketball
While the football team’s loss to Bowling Green was the biggest story of the week, there was some notable news on the men’s basketball side, as Pitt released its men’s basketball schedule on Thursday.
Most notable about the release was the unveiling of Pitt’s non-conference opponents for 2008-09. Long a subject of derision, Jamie Dixon has steadily increased the strength of the Panthers’ non-conference schedule. No, that doesn’t mean Pitt will play Duke, North Carolina, Texas, and Kansas every year; it means that Dixon has managed to get the Panthers nine opponents with RPI’s in the top 100 at the end of last season.
Those nine opponents are Washington State (RPI 19), Mississippi State (41), Siena (63), Florida State (67), Akron (69), Texas Tech (74), Belmont (75), Miami (OH) (81), and UM-Baltimore County (87). Washington State, Texas Tech, and Mississippi State are all part of the four-team Legends Classic with Pitt in Newark, NJ, November 28th and 29th, so the Panthers will only play two of those teams.
With those two games on neutral courts, Pitt’s only true non-conference road game will come Sunday, December 21st at Florida State. The Seminoles finished the 2007-08 season 19-15 and made an appearance in the NIT.
Pitt’s conference schedule has the Panthers playing two games each against Connecticut, West Virginia, and DePaul. The regular season ends with a home game against Connecticut on Sunday, March 7th.
In the exact middle of the conference schedule, the Panthers play host to arguably the team’s most intriguing non-conference matchup: a home game against Robert Morris University and former Pitt assistant Mike Rice. The Colonials won the Northeastern Conference regular season championship before bowing out in the conference tournament last season and settling for an NIT appearance.
On the hoops recruiting front, Sewickley point guard Tom Droney took a visit to Pitt last weekend, and Texas power forward J.J. Richardson is planning to visit this weekend. We’ve got a report coming later today on Droney’s visit, and we’ll get in touch with Richardson after his visit.
Wrapping up
A couple items before we go:
- Make sure to get your picks in for the Pick ‘Em game. I know the format is kind of screwed up since we don’t have a separate PantherLair group, but that’s why you need to make sure you have your pick name set as (your username) - PantherLair. That is to say, my pick set is named Chris Peak - PantherLair. ddurm and SterlingPitt - who each scored 18 points in the first week - have their picks set as ddurm - Pantherlair and SterlingPitt - Pantherlair, respectively. We need everyone from this site to identify themselves as such; that way we can rank the PantherLair.com players at the end of the season to award the six-month comp subscription.
Also, it looks like we are picking against the spread (which is why no one got the Kansas game right), so keep that in mind. Cincinnati at +21.5, Ohio at +34, and UTEP at +27, we’re looking at you here.
- Hopefully you got a chance to check out last week’s PantherLair.com Friday Guest, Tony DeFazio. Tony is the editor of the Pittsburgh Sports Report and he contributed a great piece last Friday basically saying that the time has come for Pitt to win. We’re planning on having a different member of the Pittsburgh media join us each week of the football season as the Friday Guest, offering a unique perspective on the Panthers. Later today we’ve got a commentary from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Pitt football beat writer Kevin Gorman.
- And finally, we’ll close down this edition of In the Pitt with a prediction for Saturday’s game against Buffalo. I know we didn’t talk about the upcoming game once today, and that pretty much follows the pattern of the past week, as virtually all of the questions for Wannstedt, Cavanaugh, McCoy, Stull, Byham, etc. seemed to revolve around the Bowling Green game and how to move forward from it.
Regardless, I think the Panthers get back on the positive side of things and even their record at 1-1 with a win over the Bulls.
Pitt 30, Buffalo 20
Add your official prediction to the bottom of this thread.
Thanks for joining this week’s edition of In The Pitt. As always, feel free to e-mail chrispeak1@comcast.net with any suggestions, feedback, or other input.
