This guy is an absolute clown. I watched him in the playoffs last year and he’s a talent, no doubt. But his whole process of selecting a school, verbally committing, then not, really looked bad. Just for fun, I looked up articles last year about his re-committing verbally to Pitt – saying things like he wanted to prove people wrong that said he would switch schools, etc. What a jerk (even if he is an 18 year old kid). He can’t seem to make up his mind and it seems like he took the path where he would get the most playing time so he could bolt to the NBA after his freshman year. New Mexico State? Instead of possibly starting as a center (although, he likely would have started as a backup) on another good Pitt team next year, he picked NMS?? Good luck with that, Herbie – we’ll see you in the NIT.

I still would have taken him.

I have a co-worker whose son is getting some Division I AA consideration from several schools. His son has played against Pope a few times during his career. He has been preeching against Pope for a few years. Poor grades, poor attitude, uncoachable. He doesn’t believe Pope has the discipline or motivation to be a good college player, let alone being a one and done kid.

I’ve seen him play some highschool games and while he has what it takes to be great on the court, it’s a different story off the court (and it’s eventually going to spill over onto the court anyways).

I think its a smart decision by him. He’ll be the man there, dominate their small conference, get loads of stats, and start to impress the scouts. He’ll play only a few games a year against top competition- less chance to screw yourself over. This kid is scared of high competition, thats why he never ended up transfering to a better high school for basketball, and why he was scared to come to Pitt and face expectations at a high level.

37-27 Pitt at the half against Delaware St

In the PGH trib review today:

“Revis also hinted that the Panthers are tinkering with a special defensive gameplan intended to stop WVU’s read-option offense, which accounts for 318.22 yards per game to lead the Big East and ranks second nationally.”

“We’ve got something for that, Revis said. Trust me, we’ve got something for that this week. We’ve been practicing on this for months now, even at the end of camp. We’re well prepared for this game.”

All I have to say what the hell is going on here?

They have been practicing for months?

They haven’t been able to stop the little sisters of the poor, Pat White and Steve Slaton will be the 2 fastest players they have seen all year.

We are in deep shit, no doubt about it.

If i’m off base you can bust my balls.

Pitt’s new innovative defensive scheme to stop Slaton and White: 11 in the box!!!

My theory on what Revis is talking about, the Tonya Harding approach.

link to pittsburgh-football.aolsportsblog.com

You need to catch White or Slaton in order to break their legs. I will watch the game ofcourse because I love too much, but I will not expect too much. The Basketball team did well tonight though. Won by 17 I believe.

Addendum to my last post:

Had he come to Pitt, I’d say he’d have been at least an even money bet to become the next Chris Taft: a guy with loads of talent who underacheived, still made the NBA based on his potential, then disappeared. That he chose a school in basketball Siberia pretty much spells it out.

That said, I still would have taken a chance on the guy. He’d immediately be the most athletic guy on the team, and with Kendall gone next year, they’ll be without a true power forward, anyway. The guy most certainly is a headcase, but isn’t part of the staff’s, at the risk of sounding cliched, to shape young minds and bodies and bring out the best in them? With someone as talented as he is, wouldn’t you at least want to give that a shot, if you’re Jamie Dixon?

when I was in HS our opponent beat us in a tune-up game using the “hook & ladder Play” at the end of the game. Our coach told us that “they really didn’t want to show that until conference play.” NOW, I UNDERSTAND THE GENIUS BEHIND OUR RECENT PLAY.! Imagine how confused WV will be if we spy on the QB, stay in our lanes, WRAP UP ON THE TACKLE,and generally act like we know what the hell we are doing on defense!!!I like it more tha
our recent stategy of trying to get the other guy tired out from running up and down the field…

Hell, we could put 22 guys on the defensive side of the ball, I don’t think they can stop Slaton or White, it has the potential to be a 400 plus yard rushing night. WVU’s coach is going to use this game to stick it up our ass with future recruits.

Pray for rain, and hopefully WVU’s OC features the pass like they did 2 years ago.

Another nice performance for the basketball team. Delaware St. likes to slow the game down, therefore the possesions were limited. They played with a relatively small lineup and tried to get Gray in one-on-one situations on defense. It is a credit to him that he did not get into foul trouble. Our front-line was much too big for this team and Gray had his way. Most impressively he hit a couple of jumpers from 14 or 15 feet. Cook had another nice game, even hitting a three. He has a feathery touch around the rim, very soft hands. It seems like he can make the ball bounce however he wants off the backboard. Kendall had another solid game with a few blocks, some nice finishes around the rim, and a jumper. Fields ran the team very efficiently, but he is struggling on the drive right now. Hopefully he can continue to work on it. Delaware St. was very concerned about Ramon on the perimeter. His shooting has been unbelievable thus far and it is really opening things up for the offense. I hope he keeps it up. Graves continued to show an explosiveness that he has not had the past three years. He must have undergone some serious training over the summer. Biggs struggled today, but he continued to battle and pulled down some nice rebounds. Young showed a few nice moves in his mid-range game, had a nice block, and an impressive two-handed dunk off a rare Ramon miss from three. The team did not shoot all that well from the foul line, I can remember Gray missing at least one and Cook missing two. K. Benjamin also did not play well, forcing a few shots and leaving his man open for threes a few times.

It was another nice performance against much better competition than we are used to playing this early. The team seems very close and they all seem to be cheering for each other. Even the kids who are competing for minutes like Cook and Benjamin. I look forward to our next game on Friday, but our first test should be Saturday versus Umass.

Anyone want to make some predictions for the game?

I say: WVU edges Pitt 58-24

What? We have some “special” defense prepared for WVU? Let me change my answer.

WVU edges Pitt: 65-24

well considering the special defense and home field advantage: WVU 62 Pitt 13

I think our special defense can hold slaton and White to under 400 only because neither one of them will be playing in the 4th quarter.

[…] Omar provided a good first-hand report of the game, noting that the team seems exceptionally close this season. […]

There isn’t I A and I AA in Div. I basketball.

Jeff –

To follow-up on your comments about Pope, I can see why he’s intriguing. He could bring a star power that Pitt has honestly lacked since they’ve again become competitive. I just think the guy reeks of ‘bad news.’

I live in Pittsburgh, but am not from here so I don’t follow all the hype about high-school sports in the area. When I heard about him, they had one of his playoff games last year on Comcast On Demand, so I took a look. The guy was amazing – he ended up with close to 30 points (I think more than half of those were free throws – and he shot like 90% from the stripe), had about 15 rebounds, and played an all-around great game. Five years ago, I would have said, “Give me that player – I don’t care how many problems he has.” But it looks like Pitt is turning into the type of program that will be good year in and year out…simply based on the system they play – emphasis on defense, smart shot selection, and buying into a team mentality.

While I don’t think Pope would destroy that (just as Taft didn’t destroy it), I think he could affect it. I think he’d affect it MORE than Taft because he seems to be more of a scorer. I don’t know if he could buy into playing team ball.

I’m not saying I would have hated it if he came here, I just don’t think they really need him.