From the desk of Jim Snyder
New Wire service
Rivals.com is offering the new Wire service free for the first couple of months. Long term there will be a charge. It may vary by phone carrier. It will probably be about $4.50 per month. It will be available only to Pantherlair subscribers. Give it a try. It’s free right now.
Pitt’s nationally ranked basketball team in action
The Panthers are 2-0 after beating Delaware State on Tuesday night. So far they have looked exactly liked you would have hoped they would. Mike Cook gives them a small forward that can finish. He will pick up a lot of “easy” baskets in transition this year.
Pitt plays at 5:00 PM the next three days. The Saturday game with Massachusetts is being televised locally on Fox Sports Pittsburgh.
The games on Friday with Northeastern and on Sunday with Oakland are being telecasted on the internet by Pitt on their All Access service. Pitt tried telecasting Fan Fest on their All Access Service and I found it unwatchable. Hopefully they have the technical glitches worked out. Give it a try if you are not going to the game.
Northeastern was 19-11 a year ago. They play in the Colonial Conference which has developed into a tough mid-major league. They have road games at Pitt, Syracuse, Louisville and Boston College. Last year the Huskies beat California on the road. Earlier this week they lost to Syracuse 81-58 in the Carrier Dome.
UMass was 13-15 last year. They won their opener against Dartmouth 98-61 this year and beat Temple, St Joseph’s and Dayton a year ago. Many think they could compete for the Atlantic 10 title this year. Dante Milligan who transferred from Pitt will return to the Pete playing for the Minutemen.
Oakland was 11-18 a year ago including an easy win over Duquesne. They are 2-0 in the early going this year. In addition to Pitt they play UCLA, Marquette, Arkansas, Michigan State and Cincinnati on the road. They should be competitive inside their conference if the Grizzlies can survive their non-conference schedule.
Basketball schedules and the scoreboard are now active
The interactive basketball schedules are working now. If you want to see how a Pitt opponent is doing simply click on the team you interested in.
We now have football and basketball schedules stored back to 2002. So if you want to refresh your memory on how Pitt did against a team over the past four year it is very easy to do.
The scoreboard is also active now. The fact that there are 16 teams playing basketball in the Big East means someone is usually playing every night. Check out how they are doing on the Pantherlair.
Pitt Awards Banquet
Pitt will hold their Football Awards Banquet at the Hilton on December 3rd. If you need more information call 412-648-888 no later than November 20th.
Basketball recruiting summary
As far as we can tell Pitt had signed Letters of Intent for the five basketball commits at 4:00 PM on Thursday November 9th. So why did they wait week to issue a release? (The women’s side did not). I can only assume they kept on recruiting. The Beaver County Times reported that as late as this past Sunday Herb Pope was considering Pitt and Memphis before deciding on New Mexico State.
There had been a report that guard Sean Mosley might visit Pitt for FanFest. We spoke to his father this week and he said that the trip was cancelled due to a death in the family. He said Sean had been talking to the Pitt coaching staff this week and plans to make an unofficial visit to Pitt sometime within the next 10 days. We told him we would like to do a follow-up interview after he gets a chance to check Pitt out. Sean Mosley (6’ 4”) is from Baltimore. Maryland. He is from the Class of 2008. I got to see him play AAU basketball this summer for a pretty good Team Melo squad. He can play.
Cassin Diggs has the unbeaten Cloud Community College T-Birds off to a good start. They upset No. 2 Iowa Western 88-78 this week. Cassin Diggs was the high scorer for his team with 17 points although he was credited with only 3 rebounds.
Football recruiting summary
We reported in our War Room last week that Max Gruder would commit within a few days and he did. We were able to interview Max only minutes after he spoke to Coach Wannstedt. I hope you got a chance to watch his senior video. Max may turn into a solid player down the road.
We still like Pitt’s chances of landing Brentwood’s Da’Von Moore in early December and Shariff Harris from St. Peter’s in New Jersey when he visits a week later.
It is starting to look like running back Bo Williams is slipping away. He told the Pantherlair and the Louisville site that he will now visit Florida State December 1st and Florida December 8th. He wants to start college in January. It is now hard to see him leaving the state of Florida although Pitt and others will battle for his one remaining visit.
Quarterback Pat Bostick is scheduled to make his official visit to Pittsburgh this weekend. We will do a follow-up interview.
We had offensive linemanJoel McCleod listed to visit this weekend but when we talked to Joel this week he was still trying to send text messages to Charlie Partridge so we removed his visit from the database. We think Joel McLeod would probably commit to Pitt if they bring him north for a visit. We will have video up later today so you can check him out for yourself.
Hopefully you got to read the article in the Ticker yesterday on LeSean McCoy. He is quoted as saying it will come down to Pitt and Penn State. That is in line with what we have been hearing for several weeks.
Pitt commit Tommie Duhart gets to play another football game before joining the Panthers next spring. No. 13 Coffeyville Community College has accepted a bowl bid to play No. 2 Snow College in the Top of the Mountains Bowl in Salt Lake City, Utah on December 2nd.
Last week we reported there were rumors that Nick Sukay of Greensburg Central Catholic might be rethinking his commitment to Penn state. Yesterday Chris Peak reported on the Between Fifth and Forbes Board that he was at the Pitt-West Virginia game at Heinz Field. It would be a very nice pickup for Pitt if he does change his mind.
There are a lot of all-star games this year
The All-American Bowl will once again be held in San Antonio on January 6th. Pitt commit Chris Jacobson is scheduled to play in this one. There is another high school all-star game being held in Orlando on the Disney property on the same day. Pitt commit Pat Bostick is scheduled to play in this one.
A third East-West all star game will be held a Fort Lauderdale a few days earlier. It will be played on the Florida Atlantic campus. Rivals.com has a tie in with this game. They are still naming players but no one with Pitt ties so far. Over the long run it may be good news to have two of these national all-star games in Florida. We may get to see more Big East players participating going forward.
In addition the Florida-California Bowl will continue. Pitt commit Max Gruder was selected to the North-Carolina-South Carolina Shrine All-Star game. I have seen this game on television a number of times and it usually has some very good football players.
the Big East get two teams into a BCS bowl?
I have pretty much given up on the Big East putting a team in the national championship game. Unless Pitt pulls a big upset against Louisville next week it is possible that two Big East teams could end up in the top six in the BCS standings. The question would then be does the conference get two BCS bids?
The recent losing streak
Pitt was favored in its first 10 games and only managed to go 6-4. Being “upset” 40% of the time is simply too high a percentage.
In any good team sport the team with the best players should win the majority of the time but it must also allow for the possibility of upsets or why would fans go. Upsets should occur maybe 20% of the time but certainly not 40%. It would be getting too close to a game of chance.
Before the season started we thought Pitt would go 8-4 in the regular season. PG beat writer Paul Zeise thought 7-5 might be more realistic. I would have felt comfortable with either prediction. This is a young team that is not deep in talent at certain positions. It was bound to get upset a couple of times. It was almost certain to lose a couple of games it could or should have won.
However, Pitt often looked like they were playing not to lose at South Florida and Connecticut. The opposing coach looked like he was playing win. They gambled and it paid off big time. Of one thing I am certain there are some pretty good football coaches in the Big East. You had better bring your “A” game or they will pull the upset.
In the first 10 games Pitt out scored their opponent 93-16 in the first quarter and had allowed only one touchdown. I think this is pretty good evidence that there are plenty of good coaches on the Southside that know how to breakdown film and draw up game plans. Often, however, they seem to get more conservative as the game goes on. This team is not talented enough to start running out the game clock early in the game.
Ron Cook wrote this week that Paul Rhoads would probably take the fall for the disappointing season. He could be right. There are rumors swirling that a couple of coaching changes will be made after the season. It makes sense that it would be a couple of the hold over coaches. Sal Sunseri’s name keeps popping up as a part of this rumor.
You have to give the Panthers some credit for their effort against WVU in the first half. It would have been easy to mail it in playing on a short week after last week’s disappointing overtime loss. They gave the Mountaineers all they could handle for a half and then talent took over. Pat White and Steve Slaton are special players. West Virginia is a top five team when they are healthy.
The punt return by Darrelle Revis in the first half was something special to watch.
There will be no War Room next week. I will be at the Pitt-Louisville football game and the Pitt-Florida State basketball game but in between there are lot of relatives on the move for the Thanksgiving weekend. It will be a hectic weekend.
Better days are ahead. Let’s see if the Panther basketball team get a few wins this weekend and move up in the polls in the process.
The War Room is targeted towards our premium customers. We ask that all information reported in the War Room MUST stay right here! That’s the way this deal works. When this information is repeated outside of the Between Fifth and Forbes forum it only cheapens the price of yours and every other die-hard who have purchased premium services. The War Room is one of our more popular features...thank you all for keeping the information on this board.
This post was edited on 11/17 9:52 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
This post was edited on 11/17 12:06 PM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
New Wire service
Rivals.com is offering the new Wire service free for the first couple of months. Long term there will be a charge. It may vary by phone carrier. It will probably be about $4.50 per month. It will be available only to Pantherlair subscribers. Give it a try. It’s free right now.
Pitt’s nationally ranked basketball team in action
The Panthers are 2-0 after beating Delaware State on Tuesday night. So far they have looked exactly liked you would have hoped they would. Mike Cook gives them a small forward that can finish. He will pick up a lot of “easy” baskets in transition this year.
Pitt plays at 5:00 PM the next three days. The Saturday game with Massachusetts is being televised locally on Fox Sports Pittsburgh.
The games on Friday with Northeastern and on Sunday with Oakland are being telecasted on the internet by Pitt on their All Access service. Pitt tried telecasting Fan Fest on their All Access Service and I found it unwatchable. Hopefully they have the technical glitches worked out. Give it a try if you are not going to the game.
Northeastern was 19-11 a year ago. They play in the Colonial Conference which has developed into a tough mid-major league. They have road games at Pitt, Syracuse, Louisville and Boston College. Last year the Huskies beat California on the road. Earlier this week they lost to Syracuse 81-58 in the Carrier Dome.
UMass was 13-15 last year. They won their opener against Dartmouth 98-61 this year and beat Temple, St Joseph’s and Dayton a year ago. Many think they could compete for the Atlantic 10 title this year. Dante Milligan who transferred from Pitt will return to the Pete playing for the Minutemen.
Oakland was 11-18 a year ago including an easy win over Duquesne. They are 2-0 in the early going this year. In addition to Pitt they play UCLA, Marquette, Arkansas, Michigan State and Cincinnati on the road. They should be competitive inside their conference if the Grizzlies can survive their non-conference schedule.
Basketball schedules and the scoreboard are now active
The interactive basketball schedules are working now. If you want to see how a Pitt opponent is doing simply click on the team you interested in.
We now have football and basketball schedules stored back to 2002. So if you want to refresh your memory on how Pitt did against a team over the past four year it is very easy to do.
The scoreboard is also active now. The fact that there are 16 teams playing basketball in the Big East means someone is usually playing every night. Check out how they are doing on the Pantherlair.
Pitt Awards Banquet
Pitt will hold their Football Awards Banquet at the Hilton on December 3rd. If you need more information call 412-648-888 no later than November 20th.
Basketball recruiting summary
As far as we can tell Pitt had signed Letters of Intent for the five basketball commits at 4:00 PM on Thursday November 9th. So why did they wait week to issue a release? (The women’s side did not). I can only assume they kept on recruiting. The Beaver County Times reported that as late as this past Sunday Herb Pope was considering Pitt and Memphis before deciding on New Mexico State.
There had been a report that guard Sean Mosley might visit Pitt for FanFest. We spoke to his father this week and he said that the trip was cancelled due to a death in the family. He said Sean had been talking to the Pitt coaching staff this week and plans to make an unofficial visit to Pitt sometime within the next 10 days. We told him we would like to do a follow-up interview after he gets a chance to check Pitt out. Sean Mosley (6’ 4”) is from Baltimore. Maryland. He is from the Class of 2008. I got to see him play AAU basketball this summer for a pretty good Team Melo squad. He can play.
Cassin Diggs has the unbeaten Cloud Community College T-Birds off to a good start. They upset No. 2 Iowa Western 88-78 this week. Cassin Diggs was the high scorer for his team with 17 points although he was credited with only 3 rebounds.
Football recruiting summary
We reported in our War Room last week that Max Gruder would commit within a few days and he did. We were able to interview Max only minutes after he spoke to Coach Wannstedt. I hope you got a chance to watch his senior video. Max may turn into a solid player down the road.
We still like Pitt’s chances of landing Brentwood’s Da’Von Moore in early December and Shariff Harris from St. Peter’s in New Jersey when he visits a week later.
It is starting to look like running back Bo Williams is slipping away. He told the Pantherlair and the Louisville site that he will now visit Florida State December 1st and Florida December 8th. He wants to start college in January. It is now hard to see him leaving the state of Florida although Pitt and others will battle for his one remaining visit.
Quarterback Pat Bostick is scheduled to make his official visit to Pittsburgh this weekend. We will do a follow-up interview.
We had offensive linemanJoel McCleod listed to visit this weekend but when we talked to Joel this week he was still trying to send text messages to Charlie Partridge so we removed his visit from the database. We think Joel McLeod would probably commit to Pitt if they bring him north for a visit. We will have video up later today so you can check him out for yourself.
Hopefully you got to read the article in the Ticker yesterday on LeSean McCoy. He is quoted as saying it will come down to Pitt and Penn State. That is in line with what we have been hearing for several weeks.
Pitt commit Tommie Duhart gets to play another football game before joining the Panthers next spring. No. 13 Coffeyville Community College has accepted a bowl bid to play No. 2 Snow College in the Top of the Mountains Bowl in Salt Lake City, Utah on December 2nd.
Last week we reported there were rumors that Nick Sukay of Greensburg Central Catholic might be rethinking his commitment to Penn state. Yesterday Chris Peak reported on the Between Fifth and Forbes Board that he was at the Pitt-West Virginia game at Heinz Field. It would be a very nice pickup for Pitt if he does change his mind.
There are a lot of all-star games this year
The All-American Bowl will once again be held in San Antonio on January 6th. Pitt commit Chris Jacobson is scheduled to play in this one. There is another high school all-star game being held in Orlando on the Disney property on the same day. Pitt commit Pat Bostick is scheduled to play in this one.
A third East-West all star game will be held a Fort Lauderdale a few days earlier. It will be played on the Florida Atlantic campus. Rivals.com has a tie in with this game. They are still naming players but no one with Pitt ties so far. Over the long run it may be good news to have two of these national all-star games in Florida. We may get to see more Big East players participating going forward.
In addition the Florida-California Bowl will continue. Pitt commit Max Gruder was selected to the North-Carolina-South Carolina Shrine All-Star game. I have seen this game on television a number of times and it usually has some very good football players.
the Big East get two teams into a BCS bowl?
I have pretty much given up on the Big East putting a team in the national championship game. Unless Pitt pulls a big upset against Louisville next week it is possible that two Big East teams could end up in the top six in the BCS standings. The question would then be does the conference get two BCS bids?
The recent losing streak
Pitt was favored in its first 10 games and only managed to go 6-4. Being “upset” 40% of the time is simply too high a percentage.
In any good team sport the team with the best players should win the majority of the time but it must also allow for the possibility of upsets or why would fans go. Upsets should occur maybe 20% of the time but certainly not 40%. It would be getting too close to a game of chance.
Before the season started we thought Pitt would go 8-4 in the regular season. PG beat writer Paul Zeise thought 7-5 might be more realistic. I would have felt comfortable with either prediction. This is a young team that is not deep in talent at certain positions. It was bound to get upset a couple of times. It was almost certain to lose a couple of games it could or should have won.
However, Pitt often looked like they were playing not to lose at South Florida and Connecticut. The opposing coach looked like he was playing win. They gambled and it paid off big time. Of one thing I am certain there are some pretty good football coaches in the Big East. You had better bring your “A” game or they will pull the upset.
In the first 10 games Pitt out scored their opponent 93-16 in the first quarter and had allowed only one touchdown. I think this is pretty good evidence that there are plenty of good coaches on the Southside that know how to breakdown film and draw up game plans. Often, however, they seem to get more conservative as the game goes on. This team is not talented enough to start running out the game clock early in the game.
Ron Cook wrote this week that Paul Rhoads would probably take the fall for the disappointing season. He could be right. There are rumors swirling that a couple of coaching changes will be made after the season. It makes sense that it would be a couple of the hold over coaches. Sal Sunseri’s name keeps popping up as a part of this rumor.
You have to give the Panthers some credit for their effort against WVU in the first half. It would have been easy to mail it in playing on a short week after last week’s disappointing overtime loss. They gave the Mountaineers all they could handle for a half and then talent took over. Pat White and Steve Slaton are special players. West Virginia is a top five team when they are healthy.
The punt return by Darrelle Revis in the first half was something special to watch.
There will be no War Room next week. I will be at the Pitt-Louisville football game and the Pitt-Florida State basketball game but in between there are lot of relatives on the move for the Thanksgiving weekend. It will be a hectic weekend.
Better days are ahead. Let’s see if the Panther basketball team get a few wins this weekend and move up in the polls in the process.
The War Room is targeted towards our premium customers. We ask that all information reported in the War Room MUST stay right here! That’s the way this deal works. When this information is repeated outside of the Between Fifth and Forbes forum it only cheapens the price of yours and every other die-hard who have purchased premium services. The War Room is one of our more popular features...thank you all for keeping the information on this board.
This post was edited on 11/17 9:52 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
This post was edited on 11/17 12:06 PM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
