My kids have been sick all through winter break.
This afternoon, my wife started feeling ill.
I watched Miami play like absolute garbage against ND and wondered why Pitt had to get their one fantastic game this year.
Pitt’s new football coach is sitting in jail on a suspicion of domestic violence charge.
Screw it. I’m signing off for the night.
Here’s to 2011.
Dammit. This 2010 year can’t come to a close soon enough for Pitt football.
NewsCenter 16 has confirmed that Mike Haywood, former Notre Dame player and offensive coordinator and newly-named Pittsburgh coach, has been arrested for domestic violence in South Bend.
St. Joseph County Police say Haywood was arrested around 2:30 p.m. on Friday at a home in the 50000 block of Hawthorne Meadow Drive.
He has a child with the woman living there.
Police say there was a custody issue and the woman attempted to leave.
As she left, police say a physical altercation broke out.
The woman told police Haywood grabbed her by the arm and neck and pushed her.
According to the police report, the woman had red marks on her neck, arms and back.
Wow. Just wow.
I’m not even going to speculate at this point. I have no idea how this plays out.
Don’t have a lot today.
I mean, there is always the rehashing of Pitt decommits, but none of it is a revelation. Just a rundown on losses and possible losses. Honestly, the only one that I really wish wouldn’t have decommitted was cornerback Kyshoen Jarrett. Really could use the depth there. Jameel Poteat is annoying since he is a talented back and related to Hank Poteat, but I don’t feel too bothered. It’s wait and see on everyone else.
If you want to know why I don’t really like the idea of too many games at the Con for Pitt basketball, just check out the long-term effects of UConn’s cash grabs by playing in Hartford at the larger XL Center.
Jim Calhoun would like you to make it part of your party plans as you welcome in 2011. The Huskies just found out what life is like on the road, losing to Pitt at the rowdy Petersen Events Center. UConn would love to have a similar home court advantage for the 10 remaining home games.
“Clearly, a lot of people care about our basketball program,” Calhoun said. “They need to get out and we need to find out ways to make sure they get into the building. The building atmosphere becomes important. In Maui, it was a great atmosphere. 2,400 people, a great atmosphere. Other times, the places have become a little dead. … We need our fans to show up as much as they possibly can. Every home game becomes critical.”
None of their games in Hartford are sold out, with several thousand tickets remaining. The energy levels are that much lower. The students aren’t just marginalized. They are frustrated by having to make the trip and makes them less enthusiastic.
Well, new Coach Mike Haywood is trying to work while the whole situation remains weird.
While Haywood is working hard to get off to a running start on recruiting, he has had some challenges. Pitt (7-5) is playing in the BBVA Compass Bowl against Kentucky (6-6) on Jan. 8, which means Wannstedt and his staff are still working at least through that day. Haywood and Elias, who came to Pitt with Haywood from Miami (Ohio), had to get special waivers from the NCAA to be able to begin recruiting for Pitt because of limits on the number of full-time coaches permitted on a staff.
…
Haywood has not gone to the office until the evening and has worked into the early hours of the morning because he wants the players to understand it is still Wannstedt’s team until after the bowl game. He also wants to make sure the Panthers have every opportunity to end things on a positive note with a win against Kentucky.“It is really important for me and for everyone, really, to give coach Wannstedt the respect which he deserves for the job he’s done,” Haywood said. “I never had the opportunity to meet him before, but now I’ve had two chances to sit down and talk with him and I even got a chance to sit back and watch a practice.
“Coach was really open and forthcoming. I wanted to find out his perspective on things, on the program, on what we need to do in recruiting, on who the key people are around the state — all of those things, and he was really open with information and extremely helpful.”
Pitt sits at 12-1 overall and 1-0 in Big East play. The team is ranked #6 and will probably move up a spot next week. The team just came off of a strong team performance against the Kemba Walker Huskies that reminded everyone that Pitt hasn’t gone away. Despite all the accolades to the surprise teams, players and where the attention is in the conference — Pitt is on top and quietly worrying every other team.
So everyone is feeling good about Pitt and the players. There’s no one star or standout, other than by default.
I really want to pile on the Hoopies for their sloppy, unfocused, turnover-filled non-effort against NC State. Except for the fact that it wasn’t like I was rooting for them. Big East solidarity has its limits.
Heck, the outcome shouldn’t be too surprising since they lost their starting center for academic issues, and starting CB to injury. To say nothing of the coaching mess they have created for themselves over the next year.
So, part of the pile-on is over back-up running back Shawne Alston having the temerity to post to Facebook at the half. Some sort of oversimplified evidence of how little the players were into the game. Hoopies were down 10-7 at the half and it wasn’t like he posted about the cheerleaders, giving a shout-out to someone or going out after the game.
“2nd half is da best half!!! Let’s go!!”
Apparently that sort of thing is only acceptable to put on Facebook or Twitter before the game. Halftime is sacred. When the coaches spend the entire time talking to the players and the players listen attentively without any thought of distractions or wanting to post the things they are supposed to be thinking should happen.
I’m rather cynical about most things. Especially when it comes to sports. Yet, I have to admit to being taken aback by the way Coach Wannstedt is acting.
Then Pitt’s administration tried to do the right thing by giving him a few days to decide if he wanted to coach the bowl game. As of today, he still has not given Steve Pederson his final decision. And the times I have talked to him over the past two weeks – the last time being Thursday – he said he was “going to work with the team, get them prepared, run practices and then wait to see where he is at and how he feels next week” before he makes his decision. Now, that is what he has said and that is what he is saying on the record.
Unfortunately, he has also told a number of people around him he is not likely to coach in the game and that he doesn’t want to go through a week of news conferences and luncheons and all of that “play happy” stuff. If it was just about the game, he would coach but all the other stuff he’s not sure he wants to go through.
I do know this – if he doesn’t coach, it will be defensive coordinator Phil Bennett who will be in charge and run things through the bowl. And while Hafley is gone and at least one more is likely to be gone shortly, for the most part the current assistants will coach through the bowl game.
I get that he is probably a bit bitter about the whole thing. I am sure he still feels blindsinded and never saw the firing coming. It’s seems obvious that he feels betrayed by AD Pederson, and this kind of putting off the decision is as much to get back at Pederson as anything else.
Plenty to run through as UConn-Pitt was the marquee game in college basketball last night. The overarching theme is that UConn had the best player on the court, but Pitt was so clearly the better team. Not to mention the argument in favor of experience over a young team.
Pitt, the Big East preseason favorite, never trailed and led by as many as 17 points in the second half to improve to 48-1 in its past 49 home games.
“I think we showed what a veteran team we are,” Gibbs said. “I think it was more of us being an experienced team rather than them being a young team.”
The past 11 meetings between the two Big East rivals have been decided by 10 points or fewer, but the over-capacity crowd of 12,725 saw Pitt’s most lopsided regular-season victory over Connecticut in 23 years.
A point that even Jim Calhoun had to acknowledge.
I thought they just locked us up defensively. … We thought the bailout would be a fall away three pointer or some tough shots. The only thing we did was rebound. … I thought we didn’t react well to being manhandled defensively. I think a lot of players, young players in particular, predicate their whole game [making jump shots]. They weren’t allowing us to get good shots. We took some ill-advised ones.
When you look at the box score — whether the basic or advanced — UConn’s shot numbers jump out. Pitt held the Huskies overall to 19 of 60 (31.7%). It gets more absurd when you see that Kemba Walker shot 10-27 (37%) and the rest of the UConn squad shot 9-33 (27.3%).
Welcome to semi-Big Monday. The game starts at 8:30. It’s an ESPN2 affair as there is still Monday Night Football. There’s also the chance of a delay because of the bowl game airing ahead of it.
This game is obviously a lot bigger than ESPN and the Big East thought it would be. Mainly on the UConn side this year. Middle of the pack to lower half of the Big East was the UConn expectations — like Pitt from last year. Instead, #4 national ranking. Perhaps a tad overinflated, but reasonably earned to this point.
Not much happening. Hell, it still isn’t clear if Dave Wannstedt will coach the BBVA Bowl game yet.
If you wonder why new Coach Mike Haywood is being excessively cautious about contacting Pitt recruits during the dead period, maybe this article can help explain things.
College football coaches now run the risk of being suspended by the NCAA for one or more games if they commit a secondary recruiting violation, such as exceeding phone-call limits or sending a text message to a recruit.
The move is part of an effort to implement enhanced penalties for recruiting violations. It was proposed by the American Football Coaches Association and approved in mid-September by the NCAA Division I and II Committees on Infractions. The membership was informed but no public announcement made. The penalties apply to both Division I subdivisions and Division II.
A package of enhanced penalties for basketball, including a similar suspension element, was passed in October.
Michigan State’s Tom Izzo can confirm that suspension part. And since Pitt just had to report some very minor secondary violations, the program is probably being extra cautious.
Merry Post-Christmas. Been down at the in-laws and it’s enough of a rural area that the local Starbucks was actually closed on Christmas Day. Caught me off-guard as I figured on at least having the early morning to glom on the wifi.
Obviously Pitt won before Christmas, knocking off American to give Coach Dixon his 200th win. Pitt’s offense was meh, but the defense did a good job on all but Vlad Molodveanu who had 23 of American’s 46 points. It has to be noted that Moldoveanu has done this in just about every game this season according to the announcers. Just going off in the second half, and hitting shots regardless of the defense. That’s what he did against Pitt.
Dante Taylor was aggressive on the boards, going after rebounds. He’s really embraced going for rebounds. Realizing it is the key to staying on the court and being a part of the offense. The scary was that the big guys (McGhee and Taylor) continue to be a purely random adventure at the FT line. This time 2-8. Coupled with Zanna and Robinson also being 50-60% FT shooters on most nights, and I wouldn’t be completely surprised to see a 4-guard lineup out there late in some games if Pitt is clinging to a lead.
I mean, who didn’t see this coming?
Pitt has distributed between 2,000 and 3,000 tickets, athletics department spokesman E.J. Borghetti said. Borghetti declined to say how many have been sold and how many are allocated for free, such as to staff members, band members, cheerleaders and players’ families.
Kentucky media relations director Tony Neely reported the school’s ticket sales at 4,000. He also did not elaborate on the number sold compared to distributed.
Both teams had disappointing seasons. Kentucky has suspended their senior starting QB for the game. Pitt is in a coaching turnover, and fired/reassigned/resigned Coach Wannstedt still has not decided if he is coaching this team. (Wannstedt is starting to piss me off about this. I get that he is still upset over everything, but he is screwing around with his own players by refusing to make a decision yet.)
Seemed even sillier to type that for the post title, but there it is.
The American-Pitt game is on ESPN3.com if your ISP offers it.
Otherwise it will be somewhere on the radio or some technically not quite legal feed. Which I don’t want to know but some other wise soul will post in the comments.
Tonight Pitt will go for their 12th win of the season and close out the non-con part of basketball season. It’s against American, and no one is expecting much of a problem.
That, of course, isn’t what makes this game kind of big. The expected win, will be Coach Jamie Dixon’s 200th win as head coach at Pitt.
With the firing and hiring on the football side, Dixon’s hire has gotten a bit of a second look. It has paid off in a way I know I never expected.
In one of the many jobs I have had in my life, I worked as a bank teller for Union National/Integra/National City/PNC Bank for a few years at Pitt and a little beyond. I would float from branch to branch filling in for sick or vacationing tellers. Eventually it timed out where a branch I was working out in Penn Hills got held-up.
It was the first and only time I’ve had a handgun stuck in my face. It happened quickly. I didn’t even look into the eyes of the masked robber. I just stared straight at the handgun — very aware how easily I could die at that moment — and then gave him the money. All the other details of that day and the robbery have fallen away after nearly 20 years. But I will never forget looking straight into the barrel of the weapon.
So everything about this situation sucks.
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