I don’t know if Jamie Dixon ever forgave Keno Davis for the upset at Providence when the team was #1 in 2009. Dixon seems to have made it a mission to make Davis’ life miserable since. In 2010, Pitt beat Providence’s road upset shot with a half-court 3-pointer at the buzzer by Ashton Gibbs. In 2011, Providence gave Pitt its best shot yet again, but lost. 2012 saw Davis forced to call the 4 straight Pitt games in the CBI — downright cruel.

Then Davis lands the Central Michigan job, and the best player transfers to Pitt. Sure, everyone knew Zeigler was going to transfer, but to go to Pitt? That’s like an extra knife twist into Keno Davis’ gut.

Here’s a radio interview with Coach Dixon from last week — don’t buy the title use of “redemption.” Dixon refused to call the CBI that. It’s not particularly in depth. He talks positively about what the team got through. He talks about needing to play defense, stay healthy and cut down on turnovers for next year. He does admit to being disappointed in the season.

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An interesting move by TCU to get Trent Johnson from LSU. Johnson had built a solid resume/reputation going from Nevada to Stanford and having success. He’s had mixed results at LSU at best. It was initially believed Johnson would make roughly what he made at LSU, though, his salary pool for assistants would be smaller.

Then…

The reports came out that Johnson was going to be earning close to $2 million. What? That seemed crazy. Turned out that the $2 million number  was bogus. More likely that the number was the total package for Johnson with incentives and his pool for assistants.

The move as whole has brought shrugs from both sides. It is also interesting in that Q&A between TCU and LSU about Trent Johnson that the LSU side views it as a Penn State-Ed DeChellis-Navy situation. Where the coach sees what could be happening after next year (and only one year left on the contract) and goes for another job before being fired. That actually seems more like what Jim Christian did at TCU. He saw the situation at TCU — in terms of the team, talent, time left on his contract, and step-up in conference difficulty — and made a move downward to the MAC.

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Good Friday, Passover, Easter, the Masters. It is one active holiday weekend. Thank you everyone who made a pledge or paypal donation over the weekend. Eleven PayPal hits and six check pledges was better than I expected for this kind of weekend. Some of the checks arrived over the weekend, so thanks again.

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. The Pennsylvania and Ohio Turnpikes were wonderfully empty yesterday. We went and retrieved our daughter from the grandparents, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen both highways that empty — of cars, trucks and cops. If the roads were like that during football season, I believe the 140 mile trip from my house to Heinz Field could be done in under 2 hours.

This should be the final day of asking for help. One more good day and posts asking for money disappear for 2 more years.