To quote Bull Durham, “Million dollar arm and a 10 cent brain.”

He may be an elite talent, but Herb Pope is a danger to any team that is already good. When Jim Calhoun, Bob Huggins and John Calipari are backing off a kid you know there are issues.

That Pitt may or may not have still been involved with Pope was a very disturbing thing. Thankfully that is in the past as Pope has gone to New Mexico State with Reggie Theus (hat tip MoE).

There is a patsy basketball game tonight to take some of the frustration away. The season opener against the Delaware State University Hornets. Coach Dixon’s 100th game as Pitt head coach.
You can even watch online, provided you have Internet Explorer 6.

One of the Hornets’ best player, Darrin Shine has been hobbled by a nasty ankle sprain for a while, but says he’s all better now.

Not that Pitt is taking DSU lightly. You can’t take the pre-season favorite to repeat as MEAC champ lightly. Seriously, they actually have some talent.

Senior Jahsha Bluntt, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard, is picked to win MEAC player of the year honors for the second consecutive season. He considered a shot at the NBA before changing his mind. And he might not even be the best player on his own team.

That honor could go to small forward Roy Bright, a 6-6 transfer from Big East rival Cincinnati. Bright played in all 33 games with the Bearcats as a freshman before being dismissed by then-coach Bob Huggins for having a concealed weapon.

Bright, one of the top recruits in the nation his senior year at Mount Zion (N.C.) Academy, shined at Garden City (Kan.) Community College last season. He turned down multiple major Division I offers to sign with Delaware State, based on a connection with a former high school assistant he knew.

Pitt expects, though, to do well tonight. Have to expect a juiced house.

Leftover from the Pitt-WMU game, a local NY paper gives some love to a couple of the local kids on Pitt’s roster, Tyrell Biggs and Keith Benjamin. It seems Biggs, much like Aaron Gray didn’t gain the freshman 15 so much as carry it from high school — so his svelte new figure was noticeable. Benjamin seems to be in a good place about coming off the bench. Or is at least saying the right things.

The 6-2 Benjamin must continue to play well to keep his spot in Pitt’s crowded backcourt mix. Six players saw action at guard against Western Michigan, although the competition is open following the graduation of starting point guard Carl Krauser.

“I definitely feel comfortable with my role coming off the bench,” said Benjamin, who averaged 15 minutes a game as a sophomore. “My goal every day is to work hard and bust into that starting lineup. If it never happens, I’ll just be satisfied with coming off the bench and bringing a spark to the team every time I come in.”

If there was one player I feared might not be happy with his minutes situation this season, it was Benjamin. He stands to have the hardest time to keep consistent minutes. I’m glad to read the postive attitude right now.

I noted for AOL that it might be in the best interests of the Big East and the SEC to downgrade Boise State in the coaches poll, so that they don’t get a BCS bid. Especially after UConn’s Randy Edsall all but admitted that sort of thing goes into considerations in voting.

An old WV columnist seems to think that the Big East has already taken advantage of having 4 BE Coaches voting and now needs to get the rest of the Coaches convinced.

Apparently if the truth is bludgeoned home enough times, you have to admit a coach may need to go. Ron Cook has had great affection for Defensive Coordinator Paul Rhoads over the years. By all accounts, Rhoads is a “good” guy and a solid interview. If you are looking for reasons why Rhoads has skated free over the years from the press asking real questions directly of Rhoads and his defense — this seems to be the simplest reason. He can’t have incriminating pictures of everyone.

Ron Cook appears as close as he is willing to come to admitting that Rhoads needs to go. I’m sorry, he doesn’t need to go. He’s the unfortunate victim of the failures of the defense.

How can someone not take the fall for that?

No, it won’t be coach Dave Wannstedt. It’s true, his first two seasons have been painfully disappointing. It’s also true his approval rating has plummeted faster than President Bush’s. But Wannstedt deserves more time. He deserves at least four seasons to show what he can do.

Defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads doesn’t have that time on his side.

His time appears to be all but up.

It would be unfair to put all of the blame for Pitt’s significant defensive shortcomings on Rhoads, in his seventh season as defensive coordinator.

Cook then proceeds to heap most of the blame on Coach Wannstedt — and there are some points that I’ll come back to in a moment — but eventually Cook has to concede to reality (sort of).

Go back even farther, to the ’03 and ’04 seasons, Harris’ final two seasons. Pitt has played 46 games since then. Its defense allowed individual backs or quarterbacks to rush for more than 100 yards 24 times, including six games of more than 200 yards. Four times, it gave up 100-yard rushing games to two players in the same game.

How can that all be personnel problems?

How can there not be schematic issues that Wannstedt needs to take a hard look at?

How can Rhoads survive?

How could any coach in his situation?

I guess he really wanted to stick with the “how” theme, but the final 2 questions shouldn’t be “How can” and “How could” but “Why should?”

Imagine that, the howling ignorant masses of fans on message boards and this blog might have been right.

As usual, there is also the ignoring of any responsibility that the DC bears in recruiting the personnel over the years — I mean, unless its a star like Revis.

Cook ends his column noting that Wannstedt has time, but sadly enough, it seems Rhoads does not.

As for what Cook said about Wannstedt, there is no doubt Wannstedt was highly defensive about his defensive approach and strategy. That Wannstedt needs to do more adapting to the players he has and the offenses the team faces is not a new complaint. It’s something, frustratingly enough, I don’t think Wannstedt is willing to do.