As far as bowling, that doesn’t seem to be something to watch closely. That would require external assistance and some weirdness at this point. Instead, it’s time to look to the South Side facility for puffs of smoke to tell us what Coach Dave Wannstedt figures out this week.

That’s probably a good thing because Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt will need an extended offseason to come up to some solutions to some of the Panthers’ biggest problems.

Wannstedt’s first item of business will be to decide whether changes are needed on his staff, and that means defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads will be on the hot seat for at least a few weeks. Wannstedt said he will spend this week in the office evaluating the entire program, including his staff, before hitting the road to recruit.

Rhoads is the guy who has drawn the most criticism because the Panthers’ defense has struggled for four seasons. Many times it seemed as if it was overmatched by teams, such as Connecticut, with marginal talent. The Panthers gave up 139 points and 1,621 yards in their final three games.

Against the Huskies — a game Pitt needed to win — the Panthers had a 31-17 lead in the fourth quarter but allowed Connecticut to drive 98 yards to pull to within seven and then 77 yards to tie the score as time expired. Connecticut then won, 46-45, in two overtimes.

One of the things Wannstedt said after that game and many other losses for that matter, is that the Panthers were close to making some plays but just couldn’t get it done. Pitt’s defense often looked a half step too slow and the defensive line showed its youth and inexperience more often than not coming down the stretch.

The problem was and is that the team showed no improvement on defense over the entire course of the season. If anything the defense regressed during the season. Fundamentals such as tackling form, rather than hitting or arm tackling, pursuit angles, staying in the lanes, and so on. Again, something that has been seen from the defense for the last 4 years.

The question is, will Wannstedt hang all the blame on the players or at least consider whether the coaching and schemes are doing anything to help the players make the plays and improve their fundamentals?

While Wannstedt gave defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads a public vote of confidence last Tuesday, Wannstedt also said he would evaluate his staff at the end of the season.

After Pitt allowed an average of 405.3 yards and 46.3 points in its final three regular-season games — losses to Connecticut, West Virginia and Louisville — its defensive coaches could be in trouble.

Wannstedt hired defensive line coach Greg Gattuso, but Rhoads (secondary), Charlie Partridge (special teams) and Curtis Bray (linebackers) are Harris holdovers.

Wannstedt, however, consistently defended Pitt’s coaching and its schemes all season. He hinted that it’s going to take player improvement in every phase for a turnaround.

“Right now, we are not good enough, and obviously, as we do every year, we’ll take a good look at things,” Wannstedt said. “We’ve got to recruit like we’ve never recruited. We’ve got to have as tough an offseason as we’ve ever hard. We’ve got to bring these young kids along at a fast pace.”

And that’s another issue. The development of the kids. Plenty of redshirts burned, but it seemed too many were wasted. Dickerson, Collier, Fields, Porter, Chappel and Berry to name just a few. Supposed impact players that didn’t get much time.

Leaving the fans to wonder. If the players out there were that bad, but the new kids with supposedly better raw talent still weren’t ready 9 or 10 games into the season, then what does that say about the teaching and coaching?

To the shock of no one, AD Jeff Long supports whatever Coach Wannstedt does. Gee, really? Considering Wannstedt was Long’s biggest hire, and fair or not, will be the primary way in which Long’s performance as AD will be judged. Yeah, I’d say he’d be fairly supportive of Dave Wannstedt.

On the bright side, it was a very nice day. Had a chance to get together one last time this year with some friends. Had a good stogie. Got inside early enough — go figure the lines weren’t particularly long — to cheer the seniors before the game.
Had to drive back that night, so no drowning the sorrows.

First half, the offense was doing okay. Louisville, was playing conservatively and not bringing a lot of pressure. The defense struggled. Inexplicably, Revis was not shadowing the 6’6″ Mario Urrutia on every play. Just about any time Cox was stuck on him, they were throwing his way. If Revis was on him, Brohm recognized and avoided many throws that way. Generally, Brohm always accounted for where Revis was on any pass play. Not that it really mattered. If they really wanted a completion, just a nice pass over the middle where the safeties were not up to the challenge. Jameel Brady, Mike Phillips, Sam Bryant, it didn’t matter. They were a step slow coupled with poor reads and tackles. If Elijah Fields really couldn’t match their effort, I’m afraid for the future and the development of the young talent upon which we are all hanging our hopes.
At halftime, the crowd mood was not confident being down only 7. Instead, the general reaction from fans was, “Let’s see which team shows up in the second half.” Yeah, most of the crowd had suffered through the WVU game last week.

The second half saw the usual. Well, kind of. It wasn’t the running game that killed Pitt. Still, their offense moved at will and the L-ville defense had a quickly growing lead. This allowed the defense to really bring the blitz. To the shock of no one, Pitt’s O-line couldn’t handle it and Palko started taking the hits. It also led to Palko to start forcing throws, and not setting his feet. Yes, that then led to the INTs.

Ugh.

Okay, I’m with Zeise on this one that I’m not holding out a lot of hope for the game today. That said, I’m in the ‘Burgh for the game and I’ll still be trying to nurse a little bit of optimism.

At the very least, I’ll be in there to cheer the seniors playing their final game for Pitt at home.

Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News is very impressed with Pitt’s start and the way they look.

The team, though, is something to behold. Nine players are major contributors. They are amazingly unselfish, with 28 of their 35 baskets against the Seminoles coming from assists. They also might be the best shooting team Pitt has fielded since Ben Howland reinvigorated the program in the 2001-02 season.

Florida State was most disappointed in its inability to defend the Panthers’ transition game. Pitt has not been known as a running squad, but pushed the ball hard early on and wound up with a 15-0 advantage in fastbreak points at halftime.

“They’re going to always be good in halfcourt,” said guard Jason Rich. “If you give them transition baskets, that’s too much of an advantage for them.”

Pitt has more offensive weapons than at any time in its recent history, and more ways to use them. In the next month, it will need every one. This is not what you’re used to seeing, not at all.

He’s also paying attention to what Pitt fans are saying. I can’t help but have some sense of caution when I remember the way Pitt dominated what was supposed to be a good Memphis team to start 2004-05. Memphis that year was bad, and Pitt had a lot of problems that showed later. Of course that could just be my normal paranoia.

FSU coach Leonard Hamilton thinks they hit Pitt at the wrong time.

“I think we ran into a Pittsburgh team that was hitting on all cylinders,” Hamilton said. “They kind of gave a clinic, I guess you might say, in ball movement, execution and shot selection. I thought they did a good job moving us around on defense, setting screens, and seemed to have created some situations that took some energy away from our players.”

Like vampires?

The FSU strategy of taking away Gray inside, also meant they were giving up Thornton.  He may not be a center, but a Power Forward has to go inside. Trying to take away the inside game with fouls, all too often bites back. It did for FSU.

I was mistaken that Brown by playing, burned his redshirt.  He can still play a bit more before losing it. I’m guessing, though, that he will break into the line-up. That Coach Dixon played him at all, makes me believe he won’t be able to keep him from working harder and pushing for more playing time — and deserving it.

Pitt’s defense was tremendous against an up tempo team like FSU. They had under 40 points with less than 8 minutes left in the game and Pitt with a 30+ lead.

Good times.

Okay, for those who like to predict the next comment from national naysayers about Pitt after the game of dominance over Florida State, it will most likely be something like, “yeah, but they haven’t really gone on the road yet. That Western Michigan neutral court game doesn’t really count.” The other option is to reverse field and say that FSU wasn’t really that good. Who knows, maybe there’s something to the latter.

Wow, an 88-66 win and the score wasn’t even that close. Pitt got the FSU All-American forward candidate Al Thornton in early foul trouble and blew the rest of the Seminoles out of the water. This despite little from Gray and Kendall. Giving pause, at least, to those who presume that a team that doesn’t have that one big player is not going to go far.

Graves and Ramon led the way from the outside, but Mike Cook again threw in 15. He’s already a reliable steady force. The depth on the team is exciting. Gilbert Brown played, so I’m reasonably sure that means his redshirt is done. He must have made a good recovery and showed the coaches something in practice. Cool. More depth and potential headaches, but not a bad kind to have.

BC went down to the Providence Friars. Nice to see another slow start for the Eagles, but I really am not wild about seeing BE teams play BC. Especially in B-ball where the Eagles are desperate to find games that they don’t have to travel far or pay a fortune to host.

Butler wants to show they aren’t one year wonders and took another step to that by knocking off Gonzaga. Still bitter about last year, but it isn’t just Pitt.

Wisconsin lost as well. Lots of early stumbles for top-ten teams.

Pitt gets back into action with Florida State (Game notes, PDF). It should be a good match-up tonight.

Game worth driving to see in person: Third-ranked Pittsburgh should get its first test against a talented and dangerous group of Florida State Seminoles Friday night (No, I’m not counting Pitt’s sluggish win over Oakland as a test). For the Panthers, this is the only obvious challenge until they visit No. 7 Wisconsin on Dec. 16. As for FSU, this is the start of a brutal stretch, one that features three consecutive games against top 10 opponents. The Seminoles, led by Al Thornton and Toney Douglas, also get Wisconsin on Tuesday and Florida on Dec. 3, proof that Leonard Hamilton is still trying to play an NBA schedule.

Pitt last played FSU in 2003, at the Pete. Pitt won 63-56. (FSU Gamenotes, PDF).
So which storyline to try first. Oh, let’s start with the issue of match-ups.

There will be nearly two dozen NBA scouts at Petersen Events Center tonight, but not all of them are coming to see Aaron Gray.

Florida State senior Al Thornton, one of the top players in the Atlantic Coast Conference and a projected first-round draft pick, will display his talents when the undefeated Seminoles (4-0) visit Pitt (5-0) for the Colonial Classic final.

Thornton, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound power forward, is considered one of the most physically gifted players in the nation…

…Thornton is averaging a team-high 16.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game for Florida State (4-0). He earned first-team All-ACC preseason honors and is ranked the No. 3 NBA prospect in the conference.

Because he’s improved his perimeter game, and he has outstanding athleticism, Thornton is among the toughest matchups that Pitt will face all season.

“He can go inside and outside,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “He’s so athletic and he can run. He plays hard. He’s skilled. He’s a senior, and he’s gotten better each year.”

Thornton will draw either Levon Kendall or Tyrell Biggs. Both of them will get help, including Gray, the 7-foot pre-season All-American senior center and projected first-round draft pick.

“There won’t be one guy guarding him,” Dixon said. “It will be a team defensive thing.”

The article points out that the power forward of any team Pitt has faced has gotten points this year. Lots of challenges in this game. FSU also has a talented backcourt to make Ramon, Fields, Graves and Benjamin have to really work on defense. They also play aggressive on both ends — plenty of steals and turnovers. They obviously like to play at a faster pace, and it is especially reflected in a defense that tries to fly at the guy with the ball and force mistakes.

“They’re very deliberate,” FSU senior forward Al Thornton said of the Panthers. “They’re not going to make mistakes; they execute their offense well. The thing that we feel like we can take advantage of is they like to run set plays. We feel like with our team defense and quickness, we can disrupt some of those plays.”

Of course, FSU has its own concerns in stopping a likely 1st rounder who came back for his senior year.

“He’s a load,” said 6-8 power forward Al Thornton, who expects to take a turn defending Gray when the Seminoles go with a small lineup. “We’re going to have to play helping team defense and execute our principles to slow him down.”

FSU coach Leonard Hamilton described Gray as a “point center” because the Panthers run so much of their offense through him to utilize his passing skills. A conventional approach of double-teaming the big man could be problematic.

“It’s a double-edged sword with him,” Hamilton said. “He’s finding cutters and he’s finding spot-up guys for shots.”

Both teams seem to see the need to go with help defenses with the opponent’s best player for this game. Not straight double-teaming but another guy collapsing on him or getting in front.

For FSU they are beginning a brutal stretch of games against top-10 teams.

But never, in all his years as a coach, has he encountered a stretch of games like he will be starting today. Florida State visits No. 3 Pitt tonight in the final game of the Colonial Athletic Association Classic at the Petersen Events Center. After that, the Seminoles travel to No. 7 Wisconsin Tuesday and then play at No. 1 Florida next Sunday.

Something about how the schedule worked out. FSU was victimized by a very soft non-con schedule and a down year in the ACC. It cost them a NCAA Tournament bid last year. They upgraded. Just as Pitt upgraded to improve its seeding and make sure a veteran, talented team wouldn’t take things for granted and know what would be expected all season.

Just can’t believe there is no TV coverage for this. Not even FSN-Pittsburgh or a Florida sports station. Radio only.

I rarely do this but the amount of vitriol directed here is enough that I have to go direct. I don’t mind people disagreeing. I like it. I don’t think of myself as infallible. I do, however, try to keep things from getting personal. “Firewalt” is pushing things. He seems to be channeling some Mark Madden shock-jock thing trying to get people all riled up. Taking the same approach — changing the subject from the defenses problems to bandwagons, Walt Harris support, the offense, Kordell Stewart?, and anything else just to make it seem like he knows what he is talking about. It’s quite tiresome, and I don’t need it.
This isn’t a message board where you can flame away wildly without any clue. I don’t moderate comments — other then a spam filter that has caught other commentors at times (sorry Steve and Neil). I’m not about to start. I also haven’t banned anyone, though, I have thought about it when someone has gotten a little too close to crossing the line with criticisms of Carl Krauser wholly unrelated to the game.

I don’t like set policies, but here’s a basic thing to follow. Don’t insult the readers and commentors especially because there’s a disagreement. Especially don’t do it by trying to claim a knowledge of their inner-thoughts and dreams. If that is the approach you take in trying to make your case, then I will have to start banning people because that isn’t making an argument. That is just an ad hominem attack to win without having the facts.
So, a few facts, for FW. The only time Walt Harris has ever run a spread offense was for about half a season in 2001. That he thinks the offense under Harris was a spread, well, “I do not think that word means what you think it means,” is being kind.

As for Blades being the leading tackler because the D-line sucks. One does not necessarily follow the other. Even if the D-line didn’t suck, Blades would likely be the leading tackler and among the all-times at Pitt. Likely not by so great a number. Here’s the list of leading tacklers for the country this year. Notice a trend if you look at the position? Blades has played all 4 years, and started for 3. It stands to reason that he would have ended up near the top of the list in all-time tackles with playing this long. Linebackers make more tackles.
It hasn’t mattered what scheme the defense runs. Whether it’s Wannstedt’s or his own choice. The run defense has blown chunks and sucked since 2003. The biggest issue with that, has been the absolute lack of progress on teaching the kids the fundamentals. That has been there with Rhoads for quite some time. That goes directly to the job of the DC. There are these things called archives on the site. It might help to review to see those complaints are nothing new.
Putting the blame for the personnel and try to put the recruiting entirely on the head coach — well, now who’s being naive? Johnny Majors was fired from Tennessee in large part because the Tenn administration recognized who was really bringing in the talent and didn’t want to lose him. What is one of the big reason that assistants get hired by other programs? It has a lot to do with their reputation as recruiters. It is a major part of their job. That the defense has gotten worse the longer Rhoads has been in charge reflects poorly on his skills regardless of whether it’s teaching the schemes or the helping to get the personnel.

As for Dorsett and Marino not setting foot on the campus while Harris was here. Huh? Must have missed the 1999 end of  Pitt Stadium. Must have forgotten about when Marino was honored in-person for his HoF inductions. Just to name a couple times off the top of my head. Again, arguments that are not even germane to the discussion of Rhoads and whether he should stay or go. It isn’t even an issue with Wannstedt’s role in the defense.

Again check archives for the just for the past couple of months regarding complaints about Wannstedt’s inflexibility. Wannstedt deserves and takes blame for that. Despite pretending otherwise, Wannstedt is not being absolved.

That’s it. Keep the arguments on point and not personal.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Specifically,talking about sports information coming from the basketball section. I’ve let it go for a while, but it is a glaring omission that the Pitt 2006-07 basketball media guide is still not on the site. We are now some 2 weeks into the season. The basketball prospectus, the 05-06 guide are still there. No sign of the 06-07 media guide. Something that should have been there for at least 2 weeks before the season started. You can order it, but there is no PDF of it.
Then there was the Tournament Pitt hosted that had way too much confusion about even letting season ticket holders know about it.

I mean, it’s not like there aren’t huge expectations for the basketball team. Lots of buzz, national attention and excitement for Pitt basketball. Not like the fans don’t want to get as much information as possible and have even more reason to be jacked for every game. Not like the disappointment of the football team doesn’t put the fan attention more to the basketball side in hopes of having something good to cheer.
Apparently they don’t want the good vibes to go to anyone’s head or something. Just a poor job right now and I don’t know why. No reason for this.

Didn’t need the morning coffee to wake me up this morning. The “defense” of Paul Rhoads pretty much got me going. You want my defense of Rhoads? As a DC, he’s a hell of a secondary coach.

Very nice of Coach Wannstedt to try and take the blame for the defense and absolve Rhoads of his screw-ups and bad teaching and coaching.

Pitt has been shredded for 1,122 yards and 91 points in consecutive losses to Connecticut and West Virginia. Many of the problems that have dogged the Panthers for the past four years — missed tackles, bad angles, poor execution, failure to get key stops — have returned, renewing calls to fire defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads.

One person who hasn’t jumped on the bandwagon is the only person whose vote counts — head coach Dave Wannstedt. Rhoads declined comment yesterday, but Wannstedt came to his embattled defensive coordinator’s defense, saying the criticism of Rhoads has not been fair.

Three things. First, when did the calls to fire Rhoads stop?
Second, the problems pointed out are the primary reason I want Rhoads gone. It’s been something that has driven me crazy about the defense for years — poor fundamentals. The very thing coaching is supposed to be about. You can be creative and run all the schemes you want. It still comes down to players doing the basics — wrapping up, tackling, not hitting or arm tackling. Yes, the players deserve some of the blame. They have to execute, but when it’s been the same s**t and different people over four years it’s more than just “getting the right personnel.”

Third, this is so typical of Rhoads. When things are going well he’s happy to talk to the media and chat up things going right. Let everyone talk up his potential for the future and be at the forefront.Since the defense has engaged in its death spiral or even just the MSU game — no comment. And somehow he is allowed to slide on this. No willingness to face the criticisms. When Harris or Wannstedt refused to actually take responsibility, they at least acknowledged it directly to take the criticisms of “not my fault.” Rhoads won’t even do that much. Go back over the past years, and notice the pattern of Rhoads not on the record about the problems unless absolutely forced to by the head coach. Harris essentially brought him out to talk after the Temple game in 2004. That was about it.

Of course Coach Wannstedt doesn’t think the problem is in the coaching.

“We’re coaching these guys as hard as we can coach them,” Wannstedt said. “Paul does a great job. All our defensive coaches are very good coaches. We’ve just got to keep developing these players. I think for the most part, we’ve done that.

“The last couple weeks, we’ve had some missed tackles and had some extenuating circumstances. I think you have to look at each game and understand what we’re trying to do and not just at the end of the day say, ‘Well, they gave up 300 yards rushing when a quarterback scrambled for 150. The defense stinks. It’s a bad scheme.’ That’s not true. People may want to think that. And that’s fine. Go ahead, think it. I don’t care. That’s not the case.”

Alumni and fans have called for the dismissal of Rhoads after the Panthers’ defense allowed an average of 303 rushing yards and 459.75 yards total offense in losses to Rutgers, South Florida, Connecticut and West Virginia.

The mishaps were magnified when Pitt allowed UConn and WVU to run for 317 and 437 yards, respectively, and score a combined 91 points in the past two games.

“…Some missed tackles and had some extenuating circumstances.”??? WTF!!!??? 1212. Do you know what that is? That is the rushing yards surrendered in this 4 game skid. That is not effing “some missed tackles and some extenuating circumstances!” That is pathetic and lousy run defense.The only reason Rutgers and South Florida didn’t score more points was because USF had a ridiculous number of turnovers and Rutgers kept settling for FGs (and even missing a chip shot). UConn hasn’t scored more than 21 points in a game before or after Pitt. Against Pitt, they got 31 just in the regulation time.

The defensive collapse follows a 2005 season in which the Panthers ranked 94th out of 119 teams in the nation against the run (185.18) but 31st in total defense (338.0). Now, Pitt ranks 105th (183.0) in run defense and 72nd in total defense (350.73) entering Saturday’s game against Louisville, which boasts the nation’s No. 3 offense.

Let’s not forget 2003’s defensive collapse. Remember. The year Pitt was going to make the jump. The year Pitt lost to Toledo. How about the fact that including this year, 3 of the last 4 years the Pitt run defense has allowed 4+ yards/carry (and that one year where it didn’t crack 4 it was close at 3.8). Isn’t that something of an effing trend that points somewhere in the vicinity of what the DC is doing.

And that brings us to Joe Starkey’s column in defense of Rhoads. I generally like Starkey’s stuff but this one doesn’t even come close. I’m going to have to break this one down.
(more…)

Aw, geez, Antonio. That was my initial reaction.

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Antonio Bryant was arrested on reckless and drunken driving charges after his Lamborghini was seen speeding faster than 100 mph on a freeway, police said Tuesday.

Bryant, 25, was arrested Sunday night on suspicion of misdemeanor charges of reckless driving, driving under the influence and resisting arrest, police Capt. Kevin Raffaelli said.

An officer entering U.S. Highway 101 saw Bryant speed past and tried unsuccessfully to catch him, Raffaelli said. He radioed another officer who pulled over Bryant.

The next reaction I had was, “Damn. He’s got a Lamborghini.”

On the field, he’d been fine. Relatively problem free this year. Now this.

So Ron Cook puts the fact that Pitt and other teams that go 6-6 will be going to a bowl at the top of his outrage list for college football. Something that everyone has been well aware since it was announced that they were going to 12 game seasons in CFB and there are just way too many bowls.

Looking for it…

Looking for it…

Searching…

Nope, can’t find the outrage. Can’t work up a lather. Hell, I’m having a hard time working up a lather about the other sins he lists:

Penn State going to the Outback Bowl — big deal. It’s a Big 11 tie-in bowl and that’s where they landed in the pecking order. Why does that make them undeserving? Compared to who else in the conference? They may get creamed by LSU or someone like that, but that doesn’t make them “undeserving” so much as point out how top heavy the Big 11 was. Non-BCS bowls are about money and what schools and conferences can bring the most fans for the games. The Big 11 has among the largest fanbases and has historically traveled to bowls well.

Potential Michigan-tOSU rematch for the BCS National Championship. Wait? You mean the BCS is screwed up? Damn, I thought the system was fine. Again, old news.

It’s the feigned outrage in the column that amuses me. These are old complaints wrapped up in an attempt at mouth-breathing anger. Don’t necessarily disagree with them, but spare me the weak emotional effort.

Pitt is 3d in the AP Poll and 3A (4th) in the Coaches poll. It’s nice but don’t take it seriously. Most of the polls are still about pre-season expectations and name recognition this early in the season.
5-0 is a solid start, and it is impressing people.

No. 5 Pittsburgh (5-0)
The Good: The Panthers proved they are for real. Pitt routed Massachusetts (one of the Atlantic 10’s top teams) 85-68 at home. Better yet, the Panthers proved they can play without 7-foot center Aaron Gray. With Gray’s minutes limited because of foul trouble and a cut on his lip that required seven stitches, the Panthers relied on their balance. Five players scored in double figures, but nobody had more than 14 points. Nine players have finished in double figures already.
The Bad: The balance is certainly impressive, but a go-to guy has yet to emerge – a role that trigger-happy Carl Krauser played for the last two seasons.
The Ugly: None.

Rex made a good point about Pitt not going to blow any team out of the water by 50 points.  Pitt is a very efficient team on offense, but they are not a run and gun team. The Pitt approach is to take their time to find the shot on offense and make the other team work hard on both ends of the ball. It’s a very controlled tempo. A team like UNC or Memphis will seek to run like crazy so they will have 50 point wins over Gardner-Webb. Pitt won’t. Don’t expect it or you will make yourself crazy complaining about wins.
Just remember, at least Pitt didn’t go down in flames to Stony Brook and are looking to a game with 0-3 Bucknell as a statement game. That’s building up the old confidence.

Lowell Robinson is a semi-finalist for a new college football award recognizing the best return man.

Now the bad news. They actually named the award after — brace yourself — Randy Moss.

Kind of overshadows the whole honor.

I’d love to see the numbers, and some of the research. Not to mention that the sample size might be questionable. Still, it’s an interesting premise regarding the correlation.

Recently, national basketball recruiting analyst Dave Telep did an analysis of his evaluations from the classes of 2000-2004. He did it mostly to see how he had missed ranking two future NBA draft picks, but he also wanted to find some trends in the sport. After having a local computer whiz kid crunch the numbers, he saw some disturbing things about players attending multiple high schools.

There were 31 players in the top 100 as seniors who had gone to multiple high schools and 61% of those players failed to meet Telep’s expectations. Of course, academics are a big issue with student-athletes who transfer, but there are other less obvious issues that play into the success rates. In his analysis, 24 of those multiple-school players were identified as having academic issues. Of the seven who did not, 25% failed to achieve their expected level of success.

Telep was quick to say that evaluating high school players is hardly a science and those expectations were based on his judgment, but he also thinks that stability is a major factor in players’ development.

“The issue (of a player’s character and poise) has come up in the last year with college coaches more than in the previous 10 years I have been doing it,” Telep says. “So much of being a college basketball player is multitasking, handling classes, basketball and everything else going on. Players that have dealt with issues, who have stability, seem to be able handle it better.”

Keep in mind how small the numbers are. Only 31 of 100 went to multiple schools. Of those, (61% of 31 players is only about) 19 were disappointing in Telep’s estimation. How that compares to the other sample size of 69 is not mentioned and makes it hard to have context. Correlation does not equal causation.

This sort of thing should be looked at a little closer by coaches you would think. It might give them a better idea about players beyond simply their talent potential. Going to multiple schools is usually a red flag for academic issues, but it might also indicate other issues that could have as great an effect on the court. One more tool for evaluating.

After 3 games in 3 days, everyone needs a little rest. Pitt doesn’t play until Friday when the FSU Seminoles come to the Pete (Pitt returns the favor in 2008) for a post-Thanksgiving game that is technically the last game of the FCCAABC Tournament. I don’t pretend to understand how this tournament played out, other than the fact that Pitt got to host and play a bunch of early games.

The Oakland team gave Pitt a good battle. Dennis at Pitt Hoops has his thoughts on the game
Pitt came out sluggish and not fully ready to play.

Pitt missed its first five field-goal attempts, and Oakland went on a 12-2 run to take a 25-15 lead on Vova Severovas’ back-door layup with 8 minutes, 20 seconds left in the first half.

Pitt trailed, 33-29, at the break. The Panthers shot 33 percent and had as many turnovers as field goals (eight) in, by far, its worst half of the young season.

Oakland, located in the Detroit suburbs, was trying to match Oral Roberts’ upset at Kansas, and become the second Mid-Continent Conference team in less than a week to beat a top-5 team on its home court.

“I think we were maybe a little fatigued,” Kendall said. “We weren’t expecting them to come out quite as hard or be quite as good as they were. We were a little bit tired.”

Oakland also was playing its 3d game in 3 days, but they were presumably a little more juiced about taking on Pitt then the other way around. Pitt was the opponent, each team coming into the Pete, wanted to take out.

The Grizzles hung close for most of the second half but Keith Benjamin came off the bench and hit two crucial baskets and a lay-up with seven minutes left which gave Pitt a 12-point lead, 57-45.

He also sank a tough 3-pointer from deep in the corner that pushed Pitt’s lead back to double-digits, 60-49 with five minutes left, much to the disappointment of Oakland coach Greg Kampe.

“We’re disappointed. We had a chance to beat the No. 3 team in the country,” Kampe said. “Just when I thought we were getting close enough to steal the game at the end, that No. 1 (Benjamin) hit a tough 3-pointer.

“We knew they would go to Gray, but I thought we defended him as good as you could defend him for players of our size. We knew Pitt was coming out in the second half as intense as they could so we went into the locker room happy to be up four points on the No. 3 team in the country, then we came out in the second half in a fog and just watched.”

The second half, though, was really about Aaron Gray — sore lip and all — just dominating inside.

The Panthers avoided the upset by force feeding the ball to Gray in the second half. Pitt’s 7-foot, 270-pound senior center scored 15 of his 23 points after halftime and the Panthers came back to beat the pesky Grizzlies, 66-55, at the Petersen Events Center.

“Coach Dixon told us to get the ball down low,” Gray said. “He has confidence in me to make good decisions. I got a couple of easy buckets. I had a few good post moves. I started to really get confident.”

Pitt played a nice little tournament, won the games and (mostly) no one got injured.