From the desk of Jim Snyder
A few hoops thoughts
The college basketball schedule has been light this week because many schools including Pitt are taking final exams but things will start to heat up shortly.
The Panthers are now 9-0 after beating Duquesne and Washington on the road. They play Oklahoma State Saturday afternoon at the Pete. The Cowboys have been up and down this year with a 5-3 record but they did beat Washington by 25 points in Stillwater.
Pitt played a very good second half at Washington and the Huskies were lucky to have still been in it at the very end. DeJuan Blair was clearly fouled while shooting in the closing minutes and it was not called. A minute later they call a held ball on a Blair rebound. The freshman quickly became the Oderick Turner of basketball. Fortunately Pitt won both games but they were victims of some questionable calls at the end.
I would love to see Pitt beat Oklahoma State this weekend and head to Madison Square Garden 10-0 to face Duke. Last year the Cowboys won 95-89 in two overtimes in a game played in Oklahoma City. Hopefully it is payback time.
I will be travelling to New York next week to see the Duke game and as a result there will be no War Room but I will take a portable computer and still hope to be on line.
It is still early but it looks like these five schools will battle it out for the four byes at Madison Square Garden at the end of the season.
1) Georgetown
2) Pitt
3) Marquette
4) Villanova
5) West Virginia
I wonder what those folks were thinking about when they picked West Virginia to finish tenth in the conference?
Football recruiting roundup
It has been a big recruiting week so far with Pitt picking up commitments from Gateway’s Cameron Saddler, Dublin Coffman’s Zack Stoudt, Aliquippa’s Jonathan Baldwin, Norwin’s Mike Shanahan, Fort Scott’s Greg Cross and Central Catholic’s Tino Sunseri . Pitt now has commitments from thirteen (13) players. You can see the complete list by clicking on the link at the bottom of the Home Page.
We hear rumblings of Pitt taking 20 players. We have no clue as to how they would fit them all in. Obviously you can defer (greyshirt) or players have to leave the program. They do not have to sort that out until next summer. The staff is recruiting as though it will be something close to that number.
On the assumption that they take seven more here is our Christmas Wish List. We have tried to take in the likelihood of Pitt actually landing the guy plus filling Pitt’s needs.
1) Shayne Hale-DE/LB ?Gateway (four stars)
2) Robb Houser-C-Butte Junior College (unranked)
3) Mike Cruz-DT/TE- Johnstown Bishop McCort (3 stars)
4) Jarred Holley ?DB Easton (4 stars)
5) Dan Vaughn-DE-Central Catholic (3 stars)
6) A.J. Alexander-Ath-Altoona (four stars) or Andrew Taglianetti DB Pittsburgh Central Catholic (unranked)
7) Mikhail Marinovich- DE/TE Milford Academy
There are about a half dozen other prospects I would not mind having if they strike out with anyone on this group. Linebacker Steve Gardiner, DE/LB Rooselvelt Maggitt, DB Averin Collier, WR Marcus Sales, OL Mike Farrell, DE Dan Hutchison and QB Dominic Britt might all be nice additions to the Christmas stocking.
Gateway’s Shayne Hale will make an official visit to Pitt this weekend. He will be the only official visitor. They will also invite a host of others in to watch the Oklahoma State game on Saturday. They are predicting snow showers so who knows how many from this group will show up. A.J. Alexander and Dominic Britt were planning on attending. I am sure a host of local players were invited including the players that have already committed like Cameron Saddler.
We should know this weekend which way Rob Houser will go (Pitt or Syracuse). I have to think Pitt wins this one but until they commit you never know.
Pitt has commitments from three quarterbacks but as a colleague pointed it is really only 2 ½ because the junior college player only ties up a scholarship for two years. On top of that Ohio State has been chasing Jeannette’s Terrelle Pryor all year. It is a long way until Letter of Intent Day in earlier February. If they don’t get Pryor will they try to poach Zack Stoudt who lives in a suburb of Columbus?
It might be a good idea to keep recruiting QB Dominic Britt from Trotwood-Madison in case you lose Stoudt down the road.
Next fall Pitt should redshirt Pat Bostick. It would be best for Pat and it would be best for Pitt. Bill Stulll should be the starter with Greg Cross and Kevin Smith backing him up. All freshmen are signed to Letters of Intent should redshirt.
Pitt scored a spectacular upset in Morgantown but this staff still needs to move this program out of the .500 range. I think Stull and Cross give you the best chance of moving forward next fall.
Last January Montour’s Christian Wilson exploded and picked up more offers than I can count. It appears the Montour quarterback will also be heavily recruited. E.J. Banks already has offers from Clemson, Kentucky, North Carolina State, Louisville, Minnesota, North Carolina, LSU, Virginia, Rutgers, Boston College and Michigan State. He will be recruited as an athlete. He is a cousin of Christian Wilson.
Earlier this week we were corresponding with West Scranton head coach Mike DeAntona who reported Illinois had offer his junior lineman Eric Shrive. (Pitt has also offered). Coach DeAntona said that he thought he would be more heavily recruited than his tight end Hubie Graham who had over 30 offers. One of the folks on the Southside once said, “This recruiting race will get down to us and the rest of the world.”
Pitt commits Greg Cross and Ronald Hobby are scheduled to start college in January. If Pitt lands Rob Houser, Mikhail Marinovich and/or Averin Collier they also plan to start in January.
Next week we will move into a Dead Period which runs from approximately December 17th to January 3rd. During this period a coach cannot watch or speak to prospect in person anywhere. This allows teams to practice for and play in bowls without having to worry about recruiting. A recruit can still call the school and commit so it does not completely shutdown the process.
Bowl Pick’em
Yahoo! Sports has set up a Bowl Pick’em contest. You can find a link on the Pantherlair Home Page. A link has been set up for a Pantherlair league. Simply click on the Pantherlair once you are in and you should be good to go.
The twist on this game is that you must ranks the bowls in order of your confidence level. If you are unsure about a game move it to the bottom of your list.
A little off topic but with a Pitt connection
This past week Rodger King died at age 63 in Boca Raton, Florida. Rodger was an executive with CBS and King World. Many years ago he took over a family business that distributed the Little Rascals. He later distributed Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Phil, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and many other shows. He made Oprah one of the wealthiest women in the United States and became very wealthy himself.
I knew him well as a business colleague. He trusted our company enough that we often did deals worth tens of millions of dollars at a restaurant with the only written record being my scribbled notes on a napkin.
Legend had it that he once lived in a condo with Rodney Dangerfield. He invariably became Rodney Dangerfield in the middle of a conversation with the “I get no respect” routine.
He threw lavish parties (often on his birthday). In one three-year span I got to see Jerry Lee Lewis, Michael McDonald and Elton John perform at his parties.
He had a bad gambling habit and often lost small fortunes on trips to Las Vegas.
A few years ago he was attending a golf outing in Florida hosted by Dan Marino. He got the urge to gamble and chartered a jet to the Bahamas for a night of gambling. He took Dan Marino, Marino’s father and a Pitt alum with him. When they got to the casino they hooked up with Lawrence Taylor from the New York Giants and his date “Downtown” Judy Brown. When Dan Marino and Lawrence Taylor are at your table large crowds are sure to gather.
Marino is not a gambler so Rodger King gave him $25,000 to gamble with on the condition that all winnings went to charity. Unfortunately the only winner that night was the casino.
Every so often your life takes you into the path of a Damon Runyan like character. Roger was all of that. He was only 63 when he passed away but he crammed double those years into his lifetime.
Looking for a last minute Christmas gift
Rivals.com is running a special. If you upgrade now to an annual subscription for only $99.95 you will get a gift certificate worth $20.00 in the Rivals gift shop.
There are plenty of neat Pitt items in the gift shop. The certificate is only good on one item so if you pick something valued under $20.00 that will be your gift.
This is your chance to save money and buy a Christmas gift for someone you know. It’s a very good deal.
Or you might want to buy a Pitt fan a subscription and help build the Panther Nation and keep item from the Rivals store for yourself.
See the link at the bottom of this message to upgrade.
This post was edited on 12/14 8:03 AM by Jim Pantherlair
Upgrade here
A few hoops thoughts
The college basketball schedule has been light this week because many schools including Pitt are taking final exams but things will start to heat up shortly.
The Panthers are now 9-0 after beating Duquesne and Washington on the road. They play Oklahoma State Saturday afternoon at the Pete. The Cowboys have been up and down this year with a 5-3 record but they did beat Washington by 25 points in Stillwater.
Pitt played a very good second half at Washington and the Huskies were lucky to have still been in it at the very end. DeJuan Blair was clearly fouled while shooting in the closing minutes and it was not called. A minute later they call a held ball on a Blair rebound. The freshman quickly became the Oderick Turner of basketball. Fortunately Pitt won both games but they were victims of some questionable calls at the end.
I would love to see Pitt beat Oklahoma State this weekend and head to Madison Square Garden 10-0 to face Duke. Last year the Cowboys won 95-89 in two overtimes in a game played in Oklahoma City. Hopefully it is payback time.
I will be travelling to New York next week to see the Duke game and as a result there will be no War Room but I will take a portable computer and still hope to be on line.
It is still early but it looks like these five schools will battle it out for the four byes at Madison Square Garden at the end of the season.
1) Georgetown
2) Pitt
3) Marquette
4) Villanova
5) West Virginia
I wonder what those folks were thinking about when they picked West Virginia to finish tenth in the conference?
Football recruiting roundup
It has been a big recruiting week so far with Pitt picking up commitments from Gateway’s Cameron Saddler, Dublin Coffman’s Zack Stoudt, Aliquippa’s Jonathan Baldwin, Norwin’s Mike Shanahan, Fort Scott’s Greg Cross and Central Catholic’s Tino Sunseri . Pitt now has commitments from thirteen (13) players. You can see the complete list by clicking on the link at the bottom of the Home Page.
We hear rumblings of Pitt taking 20 players. We have no clue as to how they would fit them all in. Obviously you can defer (greyshirt) or players have to leave the program. They do not have to sort that out until next summer. The staff is recruiting as though it will be something close to that number.
On the assumption that they take seven more here is our Christmas Wish List. We have tried to take in the likelihood of Pitt actually landing the guy plus filling Pitt’s needs.
1) Shayne Hale-DE/LB ?Gateway (four stars)
2) Robb Houser-C-Butte Junior College (unranked)
3) Mike Cruz-DT/TE- Johnstown Bishop McCort (3 stars)
4) Jarred Holley ?DB Easton (4 stars)
5) Dan Vaughn-DE-Central Catholic (3 stars)
6) A.J. Alexander-Ath-Altoona (four stars) or Andrew Taglianetti DB Pittsburgh Central Catholic (unranked)
7) Mikhail Marinovich- DE/TE Milford Academy
There are about a half dozen other prospects I would not mind having if they strike out with anyone on this group. Linebacker Steve Gardiner, DE/LB Rooselvelt Maggitt, DB Averin Collier, WR Marcus Sales, OL Mike Farrell, DE Dan Hutchison and QB Dominic Britt might all be nice additions to the Christmas stocking.
Gateway’s Shayne Hale will make an official visit to Pitt this weekend. He will be the only official visitor. They will also invite a host of others in to watch the Oklahoma State game on Saturday. They are predicting snow showers so who knows how many from this group will show up. A.J. Alexander and Dominic Britt were planning on attending. I am sure a host of local players were invited including the players that have already committed like Cameron Saddler.
We should know this weekend which way Rob Houser will go (Pitt or Syracuse). I have to think Pitt wins this one but until they commit you never know.
Pitt has commitments from three quarterbacks but as a colleague pointed it is really only 2 ½ because the junior college player only ties up a scholarship for two years. On top of that Ohio State has been chasing Jeannette’s Terrelle Pryor all year. It is a long way until Letter of Intent Day in earlier February. If they don’t get Pryor will they try to poach Zack Stoudt who lives in a suburb of Columbus?
It might be a good idea to keep recruiting QB Dominic Britt from Trotwood-Madison in case you lose Stoudt down the road.
Next fall Pitt should redshirt Pat Bostick. It would be best for Pat and it would be best for Pitt. Bill Stulll should be the starter with Greg Cross and Kevin Smith backing him up. All freshmen are signed to Letters of Intent should redshirt.
Pitt scored a spectacular upset in Morgantown but this staff still needs to move this program out of the .500 range. I think Stull and Cross give you the best chance of moving forward next fall.
Last January Montour’s Christian Wilson exploded and picked up more offers than I can count. It appears the Montour quarterback will also be heavily recruited. E.J. Banks already has offers from Clemson, Kentucky, North Carolina State, Louisville, Minnesota, North Carolina, LSU, Virginia, Rutgers, Boston College and Michigan State. He will be recruited as an athlete. He is a cousin of Christian Wilson.
Earlier this week we were corresponding with West Scranton head coach Mike DeAntona who reported Illinois had offer his junior lineman Eric Shrive. (Pitt has also offered). Coach DeAntona said that he thought he would be more heavily recruited than his tight end Hubie Graham who had over 30 offers. One of the folks on the Southside once said, “This recruiting race will get down to us and the rest of the world.”
Pitt commits Greg Cross and Ronald Hobby are scheduled to start college in January. If Pitt lands Rob Houser, Mikhail Marinovich and/or Averin Collier they also plan to start in January.
Next week we will move into a Dead Period which runs from approximately December 17th to January 3rd. During this period a coach cannot watch or speak to prospect in person anywhere. This allows teams to practice for and play in bowls without having to worry about recruiting. A recruit can still call the school and commit so it does not completely shutdown the process.
Bowl Pick’em
Yahoo! Sports has set up a Bowl Pick’em contest. You can find a link on the Pantherlair Home Page. A link has been set up for a Pantherlair league. Simply click on the Pantherlair once you are in and you should be good to go.
The twist on this game is that you must ranks the bowls in order of your confidence level. If you are unsure about a game move it to the bottom of your list.
A little off topic but with a Pitt connection
This past week Rodger King died at age 63 in Boca Raton, Florida. Rodger was an executive with CBS and King World. Many years ago he took over a family business that distributed the Little Rascals. He later distributed Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Phil, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and many other shows. He made Oprah one of the wealthiest women in the United States and became very wealthy himself.
I knew him well as a business colleague. He trusted our company enough that we often did deals worth tens of millions of dollars at a restaurant with the only written record being my scribbled notes on a napkin.
Legend had it that he once lived in a condo with Rodney Dangerfield. He invariably became Rodney Dangerfield in the middle of a conversation with the “I get no respect” routine.
He threw lavish parties (often on his birthday). In one three-year span I got to see Jerry Lee Lewis, Michael McDonald and Elton John perform at his parties.
He had a bad gambling habit and often lost small fortunes on trips to Las Vegas.
A few years ago he was attending a golf outing in Florida hosted by Dan Marino. He got the urge to gamble and chartered a jet to the Bahamas for a night of gambling. He took Dan Marino, Marino’s father and a Pitt alum with him. When they got to the casino they hooked up with Lawrence Taylor from the New York Giants and his date “Downtown” Judy Brown. When Dan Marino and Lawrence Taylor are at your table large crowds are sure to gather.
Marino is not a gambler so Rodger King gave him $25,000 to gamble with on the condition that all winnings went to charity. Unfortunately the only winner that night was the casino.
Every so often your life takes you into the path of a Damon Runyan like character. Roger was all of that. He was only 63 when he passed away but he crammed double those years into his lifetime.
Looking for a last minute Christmas gift
Rivals.com is running a special. If you upgrade now to an annual subscription for only $99.95 you will get a gift certificate worth $20.00 in the Rivals gift shop.
There are plenty of neat Pitt items in the gift shop. The certificate is only good on one item so if you pick something valued under $20.00 that will be your gift.
This is your chance to save money and buy a Christmas gift for someone you know. It’s a very good deal.
Or you might want to buy a Pitt fan a subscription and help build the Panther Nation and keep item from the Rivals store for yourself.
See the link at the bottom of this message to upgrade.
This post was edited on 12/14 8:03 AM by Jim Pantherlair
Upgrade here
