Another steady day of contributions and pledges. Eight PayPal contributions and nine check pledges. That puts the two-day total at 20 PayPal donations and 15 check pledges. Consistency like this is encouraging that the pledge drive can end in under two weeks.

You can help by donating one of two ways. One is to shoot me an e-mail at PittBlather-at-gmail-dot-com and I can give you my mailing address. I’m not going to post it on the site, because that is just plain stupid. The other is clicking PayPal on the right sidebar. Yes, the e-mail address listed on the account when you click is correct — my PayPal account predates PittBlather.

On a nuts-and-bolts issue. I will need to hire someone to help with some of the upgrades and improvements to the site. I know some people, but keeping it in the Pitt family, so to speak, would be good. So if you or someone you know has experience with website design, computer graphics and/or wordpress send me an e-mail to discuss it.

Apparently, now that the CBI is over and the final recruiting push is underway Pitt is pursuing every option and player out there:

And then followed by this:

Both are heavily pursued players.

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Not a lot being reported from spring practice for the last couple days. In fact, the only recent news is that LB Ejuan Price is out for the rest of the spring with a torn Pectoral Muscle. He’s having surgery and is expected back by training camp. Price plays MLB and should be competing with Dan Mason for the starting job.

Of course, I can’t think of pectoral surgery without thinking of this episode of Ren & Stimpy.

Even though Ray Graham has been on the sidelines recovering from his torn ACL and Rushel Shell won’t be here until the fall, the beat writers have really liked what they have seen from Isaac Bennett.

It’s too early for declarations, but Bennett may be the best player on offense.

He is bigger and stronger than a year ago – and unafraid of when Ray Graham returns from a knee injury and high school All-American running back Rushel Shell arrives on campus.

“I’m looking forward to playing beside everybody,” he said. “It’s not competition, but I say teamwork. Everybody will fit in somewhere.”

The ever-smiling son of a Tulsa, Okla., preacher, Bennett was unfazed when the team was abandoned by former coach Todd Graham, who was the only BCS coach to offer him a scholarship.

It’s a good thing, because no one seems too impressed with the QBs performances.

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Congratulations to OrlandoPittAlum for taking the PittBlather Tournament Challenge. Obviously, OPA nailed the championship game. He had 3 of the 4 Final Four teams. Only his West Bracket — like just about everyone else — was wrecked in the course of the tournament. Otherwise, he had a very good performance. Wracking up 1560 points. My pathetic entry garnered a meager 700 points.

Even though, he placed in the 99.5 percentile of all entries, he was still 34,511 places below the winning total of 1780 points.

So OrlandoPittAlum, shoot me an e-mail so I can get your prize pack set to go.

Decent start to pledge/begging week. 12 donations via PayPal and 6 check pledges. Hopefully there can be a steady flow like this all week.

There was a question why I do the pledge drive in April rather than sometime in the beginning of training camp or basically any other point when traffic is going to be noticeably higher,  people (hopefully) are more excited about Pitt athletics and by extension this site, and thus more eager to contribute. Obviously, I have given this some thought.

There are a few reasons. The first goes to my own distaste for having to do this. Writing posts to justify giving me money to operate something I love, necessarily descends in to a bit of self-promotion and self-importance. I’m perfectly willing to have others speak highly of me and talk about how great I am, but I remain uncomfortable doing it for myself. Now that I think about it, this might be why some people speak of themselves in the 3d person when they get self-aggrandizing. Gives them a sense of detachment from the obvious arrogance. But I digress.

Another reason is time. When August rolls around, and pretty much through the end of March, there is usually plenty to post. And there’s a good chance I’m going to fall behind at points. Writing extra posts that don’t hit on actual Pitt athletics is one more thing to put me behind. And then I’m trying to convince people to give when I can’t even keep up with the news. Just doesn’t look good.

The final reason is that I hate pledge drives. I hate hearing them on the radio or on TV. I get the necessity (obviously), but they still annoy me. And I imagine plenty of you don’t like them. The constant interruptions and disruptions to the routine. Delaying news or entertainment. Ugh. So I’d rather just do it during a period that is relatively calmer and less intrusive.

Sure Pitt had a bunch of high school juniors visiting spring football practice this past weekend, but the information on them is stuck behind paywalls. On the other hand, Pitt will have a couple potential late editions to the basketball recruiting class visiting.

JUCO guard Trency Jackson is visiting Pitt this weekend. Kaza Keane plans on visiting Oakland in two weeks

Both are guards, and it is somewhat curious that Pitt would be looking to get yet more guard help.Wwhile there is technically no available scholarship at the moment, it is presumed that Isiah Epps will not be part of the team going forward. Still the two possibilities are quite opposite in terms of immediate impact.

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If you missed it over the weekend, four years of trying to fix TCU basketball was enough for Jim Christian. He is returning the MAC to take the Ohio University job. (Prior to taking the TCU job, Christian was head coach of Kent State.)

Just as TCU would be moving up to the Big 12 — and a higher profile — Christian would rather take a pay cut and step down in prestige. He wasn’t on the hot seat, by most accounts. The team finished 7-7 in the MWC, 18-15 overall.  And when you consider how bad TCU was, that Christian only went 38-58 in the first 3 seasons, he was making progress.

Well, this post from a Dallas paper details the reasons. Low pay scale for coaches and assistants, outdated facilities with no clear timeline for when they would be upgraded, no real commitment to improving facilities without improvement on the court (which is a chicken or egg situation), and simply not being committed to being a legit basketball program.

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The CBI finished Friday night with a Pitt win. The officiating met the standards of the previous games, but Pitt won anyways.

Lamar Patterson was named CBI MVP. Patterson stepped up to a more central role on the team.

“Lamar was tremendous this tournament,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said.

“He’s been real confident,” point guard Tray Woodall said. “He’s a Brad Wanamaker-type player. He instills confidence in the rest of his teammates. Guys are confident he’ll make the right plays. Coach Dixon calls sets for him knowing he’ll make the right play all the time.”

Patterson earned a starting position as a sophomore, but he did not assert himself the way he did in this tournament. He was often in the background as Ashton Gibbs and Woodall dominated the offensive touches.

But in this tournament, Patterson was the focal point of the offense, and it provided a glimpse of what the Panthers will look like next season.

“I feel like coach trusted me a lot more, depended on me a lot more,” Patterson said. “It feels good going into next year.”

I’ve made the Wanamaker comparisons as well, because that is the closest analog. Both are extremely versatile players. Willing and able to play multiple positions on the team. There are some differences between the two at this point in the development. Not where Wanamaker was as a senior, but comparing to their sophomore seasons and heading into the junior year.

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If you have been reading this site for more than two years, then you may know what time of the year it is. It is time for me to ask for financial help.

This site is a joyous time suck for me. My wife is remarkably understanding about the time and obsession I spend on the site and following Pitt athletics. The one rule is that while it can suck time, it can’t suck the money. Therefore, every two years in April I do a week or two of asking for contributions to keep the site going.

The costs are primarily devoted to site upkeep, server costs and updating/upgrading the computer I use. There has been some discussion of trying to set aside a home football game as a PittBlather tailgating event this year. A chance for many of us to meet. That would be great, and some of the donations would go towards the cost of that.

There are two ways to contribute. You can click the PayPal icon on the right sidebar. The other way is e-mail me at PittBlather-at-gmail-dot-com for my address, and send a check.

There is no set amount to send. It is whatever you feel comfortable .

I’ll be running a reminder post each day this week. Hopefully the need to beg uncomfortably will only have to go for one week.

At least if the police report is accurate.

Pittsburgh police arrested Fleming, 21, of Reisterstown, Md., about 10 p.m. Friday outside One Stop Mini Mart on the Boulevard of the Allies in Oakland.

As Fleming exited the store and got into his Ford Taurus, police approached and attempted to stop him for a traffic violation. Fleming pulled away and attempted to hit the marked police car before crashing into a guard rail, according to a criminal complaint.

Fleming then shoved a plastic bag containing marijuana in his mouth and started to swallow, authorities said. Officers pulled Fleming from the car and, after failing to remove the bag, punched him, successfully dislodging the drugs from his mouth, the criminal complaint states.

Despite commands to remain on the ground, Fleming struggled with officers before being handcuffed, authorities said.

He was evaluated at UPMC Mercy, Uptown, and taken to the Allegheny County Jail, where he was being held in lieu of $10,000 bond. Police charged Fleming with two counts of aggravated assault, resisting arrest, fleeing or eluding police, drug possession, tampering with evidence and vehicular offenses.

What ever your feelings on drug laws, if Carl Fleming thought he could swallow the baggie of dope, he probably did not have a quantity sufficient to take this beyond a misdemeanor — and likely a summary offense at that. Not good, but hardly career ending for a 1-A scholarship football player.

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