So, this Manti Te’o crap is overshadowing everything at this point. With no resolution in sight. No clarification or understanding appearing to get closer, it leaves everyone still trying to figure this out.
Te’o and his representatives seem to be doing nothing to make this clearer. The bizarre sitdown with Jeremy Schaap of ESPN — where there was no filming and limited audio — has me convinced that it was conducted that way to purposefully confuse things further. A confused and weary of the story public finally says, “F**k it” and gives up trying to figure it out or care.
Think about it. Late Friday night interview. No video and limited audio — ostensibly to make Te’o more comfortable. Jeremy Schaap gets trotted out on camera — clearly exhausted — tries to give some picture of what Te’o was saying in the 2.5 hour interview. It raises even more questions:
Schaap asked why Te’o didn’t go to see Kekua in the hospital.
“It never really crossed my mind. I don’t know. I was in school,” he said.
Somehow all this crap has managed overshadow thoughts about the game at noon against UConn. One more reason to hate Notre Dame.
It’s a big game for Pitt. The Panthers haven’t won two in a row — or even a home game — since before Christmas. Sitting at 2-3 in the conference slate, Pitt needs to go at least 8-5 the rest of the way to make the NCAA Tournament.
Sitting at 2-2 in the Big East and 12-4 overall, UConn has been something of a surprisingly good team. Despite the turmoil of the conference falling apart while being stuck. Despite NCAA and Big East penalties that have them excluded from the NCAA and Big East Tournaments. Despite playing for a new coach — who only recently had the interim tag removed. Despite a thin bench with transfers. UConn has played real well. They upset the Domers in South Bend. They also have an overtime loss to Marquette.
Needless to say, this is the final meeting between Pitt and UConn for the forseeable future. Which means nostalgia time. Clyde Vaughn a former Pitt star and assistant with UConn talks a little.
Vaughan won‘t allow himself to look at it that way. He knows he can neither change the past nor reside in it. He must accept it.
“I thought some things would happen where I would be a head coach, but it didn‘t work out,” he said. “I look at it as it was never meant to be.”
Vaughan now follows the career of his son, C.J., a 6-2 senior guard at Oswego East. Because Clyde — who also goes by his given name, Clive — was born in England, C.J. will play for the Brits in the U-18 European Championships in July.
“He‘s a really, really good ballplayer,” said Vaughan, now a substitute teacher and private basketball instructor. “His game is completely different than mine. He has the range, like I did, and can really shoot it. And he‘s a great defender.”
C.J. is a teammate of Mike McAllister, the younger brother of UConn guard Ryan Boatright, so Vaughan still follows the Huskies. A proud Pitt alumnus, he calls earning his degree in four years at Pitt his proudest accomplishment.
It does amaze me that he’s completely out of coaching after being tagged for solicitation (yet again), while Pitino still goes strong. And plenty of others who have done worse are still in the game.
There will be plenty of nostalgia during the game on ESPN2, given the games Pitt and UConn have played. The Blair toss of Thabeet. Kemba “effin’” Walker. Khalid El-Amin. Big East Tournament meetings.
I’m not worried about that today. I want to see if Pitt can shoot a little better and keep up the defensive effort.
Zeigler and Johnson accounted for nearly half of Pitt‘s points in the 58-43 victory at Villanova, scoring 13 points apiece off the bench. Zeigler played 25 minutes and Johnson 23, and their playing time figures to increase with every game in which they prove they are more than just scorers.
“They‘re playing better and better, and they‘re understanding what we‘re trying to do,” Dixon said. “I‘ve continually stressed rebounding and defense is the secret to playing time.
“It maybe takes some guys a little while to figure out. Again, it‘s a whole other level from where you played high school or somewhere else, defensively. It‘s not even comparable. It takes some time. You can preach it, but they‘ve got to go through growing pains.”
It has been the opposite for Pitt‘s two other newcomers, 7-foot freshman center Steven Adams and 6-3 freshman point guard James Robinson. They earned starting spots during the nonconference schedule, but are going through their own growing pains in providing an offensive punch against Big East competition.
Coach Dixon loves to keep stressing the rebounding margin. To some degree, the stats are bearing him out this year.
The Panthers were beaten on the boards in all three of their losses and entered the game against the Wildcats, the best rebounding team in the Big East, with a minus-3.7 rebounding margin.
Not only did the Panthers come away with a plus-12 margin on the boards, but the Wildcats, also the top offensive rebounding team in the league, were limited to one offensive rebound and zero second-chance points.
Dixon spent most of his preparation time in practice preaching about the importance of controlling the boards, and his message finally got through to his players.
“It’s no secret what you have to do in our league,” Dixon said. “You have to be able to rebound. For whatever reason, in our losses, we didn’t rebound. You have to play to your strengths. If you don’t, you end up coming up short.”
I don’t even know how much Coach Dixon truly believes in rebounding margin. He tends to be much smarter about numbers and stats. My (latest) working theory is that Coach Dixon looks at rebounding margin more as a measurement of the effort way the team is playing. Bad rebounding numbers suggest a lot more standing around. Not being active on the boards and especially on defense.
It’s a nooner on ESPN2. We’ll see what kind of effort Pitt shows today.
My only regret is that Jim Calhoun won’t be there to appreciate it.
Just a little interesting that you left out Jamie’s comments regarding if we only knew what we know now back in September or October.
That is integral to the story by the Post Gazette.
Some ardent Dixon supporters are giving Jamie a pass saying he was referring to the players not getting it.
I didn’t take it that way when I first read the story but hey maybe I was wrong.
Either way, Jamie not getting that rebounding by his big men is the team’s weakness, or the players not getting what he’s trying to get across… the admission is “pretty astounding” given that we’re in mid-January.
We’ll find out today if it was really the changes Jamie instituted against Villanova that made a difference and will continue to make a difference going forward.
Personally, I’m suspicious. Watched the Villanova game and the rebound differential seemd to result from Villanova getting really sloppy late in the game.
Bottom line… find it interesting you left out what I and some others find as the most interesting aspect of Jamie’s rebounding revelation.
I was gone on vacation all week, but I see that we are still talking about the OOC on here. Most teams schedule one or two power teams in the OOC. That’s how it is. It isn’t a Pitt thing it is a college basketball team. So as season ticket holders, we missed out on probably one extra good game, which was supposed to be vs KY before BE pulled out the rug. If you think an extra loss to Duke in late November or early December would have really made the team leaps better you are pretty foolish.
@SFpitt your rant about the erosion of the basketball brand because of the OOC is false. People have never showed up to the bad OOC games. I’ve been going since the Pete opened. There have always been empty seats at those game and there always will be. Also Pittsburgh is a bandwagon town. Just look the Pens were about to move until they got two of the best players in the world. The only way the Pete will be jammed packed for most games is if the Pitt is elite in that given year. And the team isn’t bad as you suggest. It’s a young team learning how to play.
Let’s Go Pitt!
Mason up and win ugly.
And I totally agree with Wardapalooza. Pitt has done a really good job of scheduling over the last 6 or 7 years not including this year or last. Maybe not always the elite matchups we would like, but scheduling against the upper competition of mid majors like Wofford, Belmont, etc. You know, the types of teams that are risky to schedule, but actually help the RPI and (hopefully) you have to play in the first round or 2 of the NCAA’s I imagine it is hard to predict who these teams will be a year or 2 in advance. This year didn’t work out so well.
And, thank you Chas for not trying to read too much into the semantics of one sentence from Coach Dixon where he mentioned rebounding like he has after every game this season. And I’m still not convinced this group of layers has totally bought into the consistent effort to rebound and defend from play to play.
Anyways, let’s go Pitt!
over rated over hyped ND players. Please
make this story on Manti go away!
And beat the cheats from Uconn.
!cid_468375411@19012013-1E32
If you read my post again you will see that I agree that things have changed. Zeigler has 1.5 good games whereas Robinson has struggled for several.
I tried to make it clear that my only complaint was that a few were griping that it took Dixon so long to see that Zeigler whould be playing starter minutes. No one in their right mind would have switch them early in the season However, there are a few who can’t seem to remember more than 2 or 3 games ago.
Also worth mentioning, in addition to what Chas listed above, is when Chevy singlehandedly beat the at Storrs back about 7 years or so ago
Google schedules, rated as one of the poorest.
Several publications have used the word embarrassing. (Atholon Sports, CBS schedule matrix)
Everyone does it???? Considering most of us would be happy just to play another BCS school, or a team known for it’s hoops……………….
BC……Baylor, Auburn, Penn St., Providence
Clem….Gonzaga, Purdue, S.Carolina, Arizona
Duke….Kentucky, Minn, Louis, Ohio St., Temple
FSU…..BYU, St.Joe’s, Minn, Florida, Auburn
GTU…..California, Illinois, Georgia, St. Mary’s
Mary….Kentucky, Northwestern
Miami…Mich St., UMASS, Arizona
NC St…PSU, UMASS, Ok.ST, Mich, UCONN, Stanford
UNC…..Miss St. Butler, Indiana, Texas, UNLV
Virg….Wisconsin, Tennessee
VaTech..Iowa, Ok.St., WVU, Col. St., BYU
WAKE….UCONN, Nebraska, Seton Hall, Xavier
Syr…..Princeton, Arkansas
Louis…Missouri, Duke, Memphis, Kentucky
PSU…..NC St., Providence, Bost Coll., Penn
WVU…..Gonzaga, Davidson, Oklahoma, Va Tech,
——–Michigan, Purdue
PITT….Michigan
Ok, throw in the SEC challenge game we missed.
the pace of this game favors UConn
Cable is out here!!! (Car went into a pole outside of building). Went to ESPN 2 on the computer, it’s asking me for cable provider, then username and password!! WTF!!!!!!!!
Any score updates would be appreciated!!!
Frustrating.
@Pitt Dad. True.
221-15 PITT
Had a feeling it might be rockin yesterday. Big game, Pens starting, NFL playoff games, just had a feeling the place would be going nuts.
Told car into pole has nothing to do with cable being out.
Ok, done posting, don’t want to hog the space. Really frustrated.
Will check in for scores if people are able.
Thanks for your update PittDAD.
7 min left 23-15
Ok, fellas, bring home a winner!!!
Don’t have a real radio here. Can’t go out to truck. LOL
We all have to take our medicine sometime I guess!!!
Dan, you may want to consider CBS Sports or ESPN .. click on College BB andd the Scores, then click on this game – Gametracker o something like that
Please disregard. I hope no one else comments on it, Chas’ topic is about todays game.
I apologize to WARDAPALOOZA and anyone else who was looking for gameday banter.
Sincerely sorry, just pissed I’m missing the game.
You got many brews coming to you if we ever meet up!!!!!!
Part of my frustration, is I am here by myself watching a control panel.
Got the game. Thank You Sir!!!
HTP
Hail to PITT!
-al-
Pitt’s 4-10 on FT’s today….common guys!
And why are these guys rooting for UConn? Do they know the fix is in?
Sleepy coming up large
HTP
2 in a row
still hate nooners 
Hail to PITT!
-al-
He just never is in space to use it.
they had all the mo…after being down by 13 at half.
Proud of my Panthers for showing some resiliency.
Woooooohoooooo
And truly a team win as already stated! With nice clutch play by Dante & Co.!
Needed win.
HTP!
Before the schedule gets tougher.
And beating Uconn is always greattttt !!!
p.s. love the sleepy nickname..good stuff!
Woodie with 13, 2 & 6
JR with 12, 2 & 3
Zeigler 8 & 1
Zanna 7 , 5 & 1
Sleepy 6, 7 & 1 (clutch today)
JJ 4, 5 & 1
Adams 3 & 10 (blocks ?)
After starting 1-3 in the BigEast
PITT is now 3-3
Only 5 more wins for another 20 win season
This has been a difficult coaching jobin my opinion. A lot of talented parts, but no stars. A lot of spurts, but 0 consistency. I give Dixion credit for continually mixing and matching. Sometimes it has worked and sometimes it hasn’t. It’s just 2 games and 3 out of 4 but I think we can start to see some growth.
Two strong finishes in close games! I was starting to think we would never see that again.
Uconn 24
Coach has got them believing in his revelation.
Hey whatever !!!!
As long as they win, bottom line.
haha….maybe Coach has been reading The Blather.
Get Sleepy & Adams in more space. I believe both of them can hit 10-12 foot jumpers, get them following their shots, just get them involved more.
I believe they had Pitt script in white with white trim on the Gold uni’s.
They looked good !
Jamie Dixon on post game said over and over how they won the rebound margin and that was the key to the game and how he’s been saying that after every game…
Anyone who follows Dixon knows that his always stressed that so why some people on this board think it is something new and keep bring it up is beyond me.
Also I thought it was intresting that he thought the comeback was probably due to the fact that he had Pitt playing zone at start of 2nd half and that took away Pitt being aggressive and allowed UConn to comeback.
This team is getting better every game. I feel the best is yet to come with team.
I was looking at the schedule, and if we win these next two games, we’ll be in good shape.
We close with 4 winnable games as well.
We are now on an even keel.
I love nautical terms, don’t u
Once again, the weakness of the team was exposed — unable to defend good guard play
Stay focused on the next game! H2P. UPone
thanks for the update, hoopie beatdowns combined with Panther wins always makes for a pleasant day.
Also this is nice too……previously winless in the Little 10 Nebraska, finally found someone in the Little 10 they can beat……
Pedo State. (still winless in conf)
game was played at the Jerry Sandusky Sports Complex.
Ray Ray will be a big play guy in the NFL.
Good luck to him !
Good point about Blair’s knees. He would have never went in first round because teams didn’t want to have to guarantee that initial contract.
20 regular season wins plus a win in BET should be enough to get in.
Good win. I think I will always be confused by Dixon and his rotations and decisions when to play zone D.
Blair has bad knees as much as I wish he would of stayed one more year he made the right choice to leave when he did.
@Wardapalooza..Good post earlier on the schedule….Pitt does the same as most teams..this year though they really had some bad luck so no question it is bad and really not worth complaining over…Dixon has said himself on his talk show that it wasn’t ideal but it is what it is…he believes in the long run it shouldn’t matter considering the Big East schedule they play.
He deserves success just for the perseverance and team first attitude. A class act.
Too bad we couldn’t keep up the beat down of the first half, but very important to learn ways to win the close ones.
Keep the pedal to the metal and win them one at a time. Emel, good utube, The naysayers have to take the night off.
while there is an OL from Arkansas Pine Bluff playing for the EAST
I was happy to see Pitt handle some adversity. We haven’t been able to do that this season. We got a few big shots off excellent assists when we needed them. This was a big step forward for Pitt. You aren’t going to face too many teams with three guards as good as Uconn’s. Pitt took them out of the game completely in the first half. The second half was little different, but Adams foul trouble was the cause.
Thankfully Dante Taylor came through with some solid offense to ice the game for Pitt. 2 big free throws and a foul line jumper. Way to go Dante! I’m not his biggest fan, but I have to give him credit. He played a horrid game, but stuck with it and made two big plays. Atta boy!
I think this week was a big step forward for Pitt. Nova and Uconn are both better than Rutgers. Pitt beat them comfortably. It didn’t always appear that way, but Pitt was clearly the better team and proved it at the end. I think this team is coming around. I look forward to watching them in the next several weeks. Pitt has a tough stretch coming up, but the team has the talent to win these games.
From Chad Ford’s Big Board Ranking the Top 30 NBA Prospects:
#22 STEVEN ADAMS
Player: Steven Adams
School: Pittsburgh
Class: Fr.
HT/WT: 7-0, 240
POS: C
“Adams is all about upside right now. He’s still figuring out how to play the game. He’s already a terrific defensive talent, and he’s tall, strong, athletic and not afraid to be physical. Adams is still a major work in progress on the offensive end and can still get lost on the defensive end, too. He’s likely to stay in Pittsburgh at least one more season, but if he did declare, someone would likely gamble on him in the first round.”
If Adams was not such a great defender, Pitt could not hang in that zone.
As I said before, Pitt learned a lot from the losses and applied themselves today with some hot shooting, good FT’s and finishing a game with grit.
Sad note….great local sports icon, Stan the Man Musial passed away.
3600 career hits, lifetome average well over 300
And yet….
HTP – great win today
I think he meant say GAY DUDE.
This guy is homosexual neurotic.
Nice win by Pitt v UConn
I read this blog daily & typically like what you have to say. So if you are talking back to my comment then go ahead and address me by name — it’s in fact my real name. Furthermore, I do care about stories that implicate Americans “acting the fool.” It’s embarrassing, frankly.
. I’d rather hear what Notre Dame is doing to investigate the Lizzy Seeburg travesty than their investigation of the T’eo farce for example.
So, in the spirit of all things Pitt, please accept my apology for what was, at best, at misplaced antecedent and, at worst a comment which inadvertently offended a fellow Panther fan.
I have to do a better proofreading job
(Hug) (High 5)
HTP
I like this team.
(High 5 to Pitt Dad)
We’d be cooler with a fist bump.
(fist bump)
While Robinson is playing great for a freshman and came up clutch yesterday, he still makes a lot of careless passes and sometimes dribbles way too much. The team is certainly better when Woodall is on the floor.
Dubbed him that his freshman year based on his resemblance to Sleepy Floyd.
At the blue gold game this year, I asked him to sign a ball “Sleepy” Taylor and he did.
When I showed him an iphone image of Floyd he gave me a disbelieving look. The other players grabbed the phone and had a hearty guffaw at Sleepy’s expense.
Luckily for me Sleepy can take a joke!
On the other hand, our Sleepy was much heralded 6’10 big man, but didn’t turn out to be a very accomplished college player. Nonetheless, I hope he goes out with a bang, graduates and maybe makes good money in Europe or something.
This is Jamie’s biggest challenge, getting the right matchups, recognizing the hot hand, keeping them all happy. I noticed one shot of the bench, everyone but Johnson was smiling and cheering for a big play. Hope it is just an aberration, he has been playing well but was 0-3 in his 10 minutes yesterday.
1. Doesn’t suit Pitt’s talent
2. Best used as a change of pace
3. Takes away some of Pitt’s aggressiveness
Pitt lacks the length and quickness to play zone at an elite level. Patterson, Woodall and Robinson are all too short or too slow or both to move around the perimeter and force bad shots. Pitt has recruited players they think can play man, stronger, tougher guys. Syracuse recruits players with length who they think can bother shots and recover quickly.
When Pitt has been effective with the zone it has been because either the other team was beating the man off the dribble and the zone ensured that there was help ready for the penetration or because the other team wasn’t expecting it. But eventually the other team finds the holes in the zone (baseline or high post) and starts knocking down shots.
This Pitt team is not aggressive enough by nature. Jamie has to constantly push them to step it up. Man to man is a more aggressive defense and gets the team to be more active. A zone is more passive. The attitude creeps into the whole game, they tend to get back on their heels on both sides.
Syracuse is the only big time program that uses a zone full time. They have been doing it forever, it is in their DNA. It is effective for Pitt as a wrinkle and I like that Jamie is willing to use it occasionally. But the second half yesterday was a great example of why it won’t work full time. Pitt used the zone well in the first half to protect against the crazy speed of Boatwright et al. They came out in zone in the second half and quickly gave back a bunch of their lead. UConn found some holes, hit some shots and the momentum switched. Jamie said in his post game comments that HE thought coming out in the zone was a mistake but it took away some of their aggressiveness.
The zone is best when used in small doses.
I did not think this team had the heart to get up off the deck and grab victory from the jaws of defeat.
It was more pleasurable having lost a lead. Ask Louisville about being up 48-40 with 8 minutes to play.
Just keep showing me. Providence is better than people realize and that game will be a huge challenge for us.
Finally, Notre Dame is perfecting the art of hypocricy. George O’Leary, death in the video tower, refusing to speak to rape victims and soaking up the glory of this kids tragic but beautiful “love” life so long as it suited their PR needs.
“Notre Dame” my left nut, “Votre Prevaricator” is a far better description.
Not too many kudos here for Zanna’s turnaround yesterday. He conquered the yips.
Kudos, Talib!
I like that Dixon has trended towards offense versus defense (Cam Wright only 4 minutes).
Seems like they are rounding into shape … hopefully, this Pitt team is the norm. I’m still a little disappointed in the 14 point lead going away but UCONN’s guards weren’t going to be cold the entire game. They came up big when they had to and as Dixon has always said – “They made their free throws when they counted”.
On a final 2012 football note, in the Raycom Div I & II All Star game in Montgomery ALA, Sir Tino finishes his collegiate career as the starting QB, losing 31-3, and going 8-18 with 105 yds, and 2 INT. Can’t blame that one on the O-line or coaching. Let the Savage-Voytik-Chapman era begin.
Sayonara
Sir Tino.
Oy Vey !
Both will probably be defunct next year.
