I’m dubious as to the use of “hellacious” by the writer in the first excerpt. If I said “Pitt had a hellacious defense,” you wouldn’t think that’s a good thing.

link to kenpom.com

Last night’s game was fun to watch. I laughed when there were comments here about Pitt finally having to play a close game. Uhhhhh, that never really happened especially after DJ’s 4 point play.
H2P!!!

This team looks very good, but ACC schedule is no picnic-if they blow away Penn St and Cincy and continue to play solid on d they should be a top 4 team. I know PSU and Cincy are not Duke and UNC but they are ‘rivals’ so dominating them will bode well.

Top 4 in ACC that is, although top 4 nationally sounds nice

I don’t see the ACC schedule to be any harder than the BE schedule. Sure Duke and UNC will be tough and FSU looks to be pretty good …. but so was UConn, Louisville and Marquette .. not to mention Georgetown and Villanova.

Go to ESPN and vote for Donald in their Heisman poll. BB looks great.

link to panthersprey.blogspot.com very high on this Pitt hoops team:

@@@@@@@

Pitt making free throws and several guys making threes while
Retaining unselfishness.
Lots to like about this team.
A thinner Paterson will provide senior leadership. Robinson
is a stud. Durand is my favorite.

ESPN bloggers predict Pitt win on Friday:
link to espn.go.com

Chas, you must have begun writing in the first half. Pitt was allowing guys to get to the rim in the second half and also fouling. They put Stanford in the bonus first. Still a lot of contested shots however. This team is very capable of turning teams over without actually pressing. Very active hands in man or zone.

The interesting thing to me about last night’s matchup is that Pitt finally played a team with a bigger front line and still won decisively. They even won on the boards.

Pitt shot lights out from the FT line. I can’t believe I wrote that!

Trying to quell enthusiasm, but this team has many positives and few clear negatives.

great job panthers, keep it up!

So the ESPN.com folks thought that the Legends field was weak? Could be, Pitt sure made the rest of the field look weak, didn’t they?

I think Pitt gets a peak into the top 25 very soon, an early season “must win” is the Cincy game. I see that as this team’s first potential stumbling block.

I love the play of this team. They seem to be the most complete team that I have seen in a long time (Blair, Young team compares). We will get a suprise eventually but we will also deliver a few (see Syracuse, Duke as I would count out taking 1/2 from SU and knocking of Duke at home).

I am very suprised to keep hearing that Pitt will struggle in the ACC. Let’s be real. The current ACC can’t come close to the level of competition that we faced the last 5 seasons in the BE. Not close. Jamie Dixon teams are made for a long drawn out season. His team are prepared for the journey. Where we tend to fail in in a one and done environment (NCAA).

As I have said before I expect Pitt to finish in one of the top 4 spots in the ACC regular season. I would not be suprised to see Pitt and SU challenge for the title in their first year.

H2P

I’m getting sick of hearing about Pitt being ready for the ACC. The Big East had been the best conference for the past decade and JD has done pretty damn well. Outside of Duke and Carolina (the old ACC), there’s a ton of mediocrity. Pitt will be just fine in the new ACC.

ACC vs. BE based on last year…
Georgetown > Miami
Louisville > Duke
Marquette > UNC
Pitt > NC St.
Cuse > UVA
ND > FSU
Nova > MD
UConn > BC
Cincy > Georgia Tech
If anything, the story should be “Is the ACC ready for the Big East teams?”

Patterson looks like he did in the CBI tourney when Gibbs went down(quit) Patterson took over the leadership roll and seems to be doing it again. Woodall didn’t allow him to do that last year, Robinson is such a better fit at the point to set up other players. This team is fun to watch and with a good mix of older and younger players they should continue to get better. Can’t wait for ACC play Pitt just might have something for Tobacco Road!

Frank MD, didn’t find a Heisman poll on ESPN site, but Donald bringing up the rear in the Bednarik and Outland polls. Get out the vote!

Unfortunately he didn’t have the stats in the ND game and few have seen the highlight film of his special games.

I hope the real voters do their homework.

This team is fun to watch not like other years when it was a grind it out approach. It is nice to see Young and Artis at the 4 with them both being able to hit a nice jumper and some 3s’. The next two months should be fun. Have to see what games would be a good road trip.

Wardapalooza, not sure I’d rate GTown over Miami last year. GTown also went out early in NCAA.

@Benzene and Emel, You guys were both right on about how easily we would dispatched Stanford. I bow to your amazing prognostic skills. Nice call.

@@@@@@

Checked out the college FB schedule
for this weekend. Although I glad we
are in the ACC wish we were playing
PSU or WVU to close the season. Miss
those old rivalries Big Time.

@Dr. Tom–If Sagarin’s computer is anywhere close to being correct, Pitt should handle Cincy comfortably. They are only rated about 1 point better than Stanford. They also lack Stanford’s height in the post.

Zanna didn’t get enough credit for his role in last nights game. Though undersized and outmanned inside he got our offense started when we seemed nervous early. Then without getting in foul trouble he held a bigger stronger frontline in reasonable check defensively. He is hitting for high shooting percentages both from the field and the line. He is an important contributor to our success so far after many of our fellow blatherites suggesting he would be a liability.

Pitt avg ppg – 81.333
Opp avg ppg – 56.5
Avg margin of victory – 24.833

Over 80 ppg and average margin almost 25 ppg.

Did we ever think we would see stats like this for Pitt?

@Pitt72, IMO After last nights thumping of a competitive top 40 team we should be into the ACC road schedule before we lose a game. Before the season I thought this team might be able to win 27 games, now that number is in the low 30’s. Pitt is all the way back and this team might be capable of a high seed in the NCAA’s. We are closer to the best team in the ACC than we are the 6th best. This should be a great season. If we could have shot 75% from the foul line we would already have been to 3 final fours. We are a surprise good team and this is a very weak year.

Last night was one of the most enjoyable games I have watched in over a decade. Gone are the days of plodding overachievers with weak offensive skills. Gone are the days of milking the clock through laborious over passing only to settle for a mind numbing turnover or I’ll advised shot. Hopefully gone are the days of poor almost sickening free throw shooting. Gone are the recent post-Levance Point guard leadership woes thanks to JR. Same defense. Same rebounding;

If we never out a one dimensional project on the court again, I will be fine!

I see us no lower than a 4 or 5 seed.

My only wish is that we had a little more defensive stature at the 5. Zanna did ok last night, but someone with a defensive body in height and weight to at least slow a more offensive and larger 5. Nitpicking, I know.

Hail to Pitt!!!

I think we’re all encouraged by how the team looks. On defense, the new rules are forcing more zone and Pitt finally has long-enough guards to play a zone effectively, so the timing is perfect there.

On offense, having two reliabe three-point shooters in Patterson and Johnson is something we’re not used to and Robinson is running the team nicely and everyone is willing to work the ball until they find a good shot.

The only weakness looks to be inside, where Zanna continues to underwhelm against anything except local and D2 competition. And they will eventually face opposition where guys like Artis and Patterson will struggle at the 4.

But the perimeter looks as good as it ever has and Newkirk seems to be finding his sea legs as a backup PG and on-ball defender.

This looks to be a down year in the ACC and it would have been a down year in the old BE as well, so I wouldn’t bother making any meaningless comparisons. (Have you seen G-town, the ‘Cuse and UConn this year yet? Not exactly their best squads…)

The most exciting part of this team is the future. We are 2 deep gold at guard into the future. Forward is headed in the same direction and center has several projects underway. The best part is I don’t see any more posts worrying about losing Gilbert and Zeigler. Neither could play on this team.

@Hugh Green, Your continued criticism of Talib Zanna is hogcrap. “Zanna continues to underwhelm except D2 competition” That was a huge tough front D1 frontline that he faced last night. He did a whole lot better than “underwhelm”. Get off the Zmans back and give credit when it is due. You are the same clown that said Adams wasn’t ready for the NBA. Last I looked he is now on the verge of starting as a 20 year old. Patterson rarely plays the 4 and most freshman like Artis will face a few that cause them to struggle so what’s your point?

Just watched Bostick’s breakdown of the Miami Hurricanes. SCARY!

At first glance, those ‘Canes look pretty damn tough… and FAST!

And looking again at the MOST CRITICAL STAT when it comes to weighing up Pitt’s chances against an opponent. There’s “THE U” sitting at No. 38 in the Nation in SACKS with “27.” That’s ONE SACK MORE than North Carolina and we know how much trouble they caused.

But, change is in the air. No longer do we need to be so afraid. It’s MR. HOLLINS to the rescue!

After watching Juantez busting “Hurricane Hump” protecting Savage’s backside Friday, we’re all going to be wondering “Why Chryst didn’t just play him from the start?”

But even with the added protection and the time… I don’t think it’s going to be so much Savage to Boyd or Savage to Street that will be the UNSTOPPABLE FORCE blowing the ‘Canes Defense back out to sea on Friday.

Looking again at the stats that is these Miami Hurricanes, we see sitting WAY DOWN there at No. 76 in the Nation no other than the ‘Canes fearsome RUSH DEFENSE.

Come Friday, we’re going to get to see the PITT OFFENSE play a little game Chryst and Co. like to call “Can you stop No. 40?

The ESPN Heisman poll is hard to find. Look at the little video pictures under the big one on the NCAAF page. You will see a vote link in the Heisman picture. AD needs votes.

spiritofsection22, Hugh and I are on the same page re: Zanna.

Don’t get me wrong, his effort isn’t in question. But compare his decisiveness on both offense and defense to Michael Young’s and you’ll see that they’re in a different league.

I can’t tell you why. Confidence? (Zanna often sulks) Innate ability? (He runs like a thoroughbred). Not playing the game when he was kid?

Dunno but…

Hail to Pitt!

ACC vs. BE based on last year…
Georgetown > Miami
Louisville > Duke
Marquette > UNC
Pitt > NC St.
Cuse > UVA
ND > FSU
Nova > MD
UConn > BC
Cincy > Georgia Tech
If anything, the story should be “Is the ACC ready for the Big East teams?”

Comment by Wardapalooza 11.27.13 @ 11:34 am

Exactly Ward.
All this talk about the ACC is funny as hell. This conf. has been down for quite a few years. Limited NCAA bids and even the 2 marquee teams have been up to snuff. Miami kicked everyone’s ass last year. That’s right Miami.

Almost as much as trying to kill BigEast football, I think the ACC knew they needed an infusion of quality bball programs to bring the bball side back.

As I’ve posted before, don’t see any reason whatsoever that Pitt can’t finish in the Top 4.

**typo**

and even the 2 marquee teams have NOT been up to snuff.

BTW we had about 5-10 shots that rimmed out, about half of them were 3 pointers. Or we would have scored over 100 points.

Think about that for a minute.

@Steve 1, If you are on the same page as Hugh and criticizing Zanna off of last nights game I would urge you to visit the Pitt Athletic site and watch last nights hilites. Zanna was putting on a clinic offensively and defensively against some very tough competition. How you get the terms weak and underwhelm off of that performance confuses me. He played great.

@Benzene and Emel, You guys were both right on about how easily we would dispatched Stanford. I bow to your amazing prognostic skills. Nice call.

Comment by spiritofsection22 11.27.13 @ 1:59 pm

Thank you kind sir. Very nice of you. Just figured they hadn’t played anyone that plays defense like PITT is playing atm.

spirit, while I agree that Zanna is not the ideal 5, it is not due to a lack of effort. He is simply playing out of position due to the lack of a real 5 on this roster. He will work hard and provide maximum effort and will be appreciated by us, and more importantly, by his coaches and teammates.

He will be an asset I many games, and be overmatched in a few.

After watching Juantez busting “Hurricane Hump” protecting Savage’s backside Friday, we’re all going to be wondering “Why Chryst didn’t just play him from the start?”
Comment by PittofDreams 11.27.13 @ 4:08 pm

This is a very interesting question since LT has been a problem since the 1rst half of the UVA game. Think I intially posted a comment calling for a ‘look see’ for Hollins several months ago.

Kid had played relatively well when he played a couple seasons ago and Biz was overmatched and outphysicalled in more than several games.

Just as with DJ, was Biz thrown in there too quick before he was physically able to compete ?
This all raises more questions than answers about Hueber and if this guy is ‘over the hill’.

@WBB, Did you find Zanna’s play last night “underwhelming and weak” as described above? I thought he played very well. He was the one who got us started during the first 5 minutes of the game. He ran the floor great, held his own defensively against much bigger players and scored, rebounded and generally had a nice game. If he was overmatched last night I didn’t see it.

Back to bball.

PITT’s RPI has jumped to #45

We were #32 in the Coaches Poll/USA, with a few losses in the bottom half of the Top 25 we might be able to sneak in.

@Emel, I was looking over the schedule. Barring an upset we should be undefeated into mid January. I would guess we would have a good chance of cracking the top 10 by then. I also think we will win 14+ games in the ACC. I feel it is more likely we win the ACC than we finish 6th. We are coming in from under the radar and this could be a lot of fun. Do you ever remember a Pitt team making 30 foul shots?

lol Not unless Ashton Gibbs shot 31 or 32 foul shots in a game. 🙂

I have been questioning why Juantez didn’t get some time earlier in the season. Might have cost us some games if he really is better. Also unfair to him.

Quality guy gave no public complaints. Came back after sitting out a year for the undisclosed breaking of a team rule.

If he would have start from the beginning, Bisno could have been the back-up, still got some experience and might be suited up instead of in the whirlpool.

Also DJ could have got the redshirt and spent more time in the weight room.

Never understood how you keep a redshirt senior on the bench, at least one that was a previous starter. I questioned in the middle of the season was he that bad,injured,or in the dog house?

I still think Chryst is the guy, but this is another of his decisions that has me scratching my head.

We’ll also find out just how good Stanford is in the coming games.

They play #13 Uconn and #20 Michigan in mid Dec.

The PITT/Cincy game will be a good test, as they know our style and have beaten us a couple times here in recent years. They beat NC State already and that is our first conf. game opponent. So…..

Zanna played well last night. I made a comment that he will have trouble defending the bigger centers. Nastic only got 5 points last night but Powell had 20, some of those were on Zanna.

This is where we miss Adams the most. He swatted away a lot of the inside power stuff. His presence in the middle stopped many from even trying.

But Zanna is definitely not underwhelming and weak, he will win his share of the battles.

right gc,

I always thought Hollins was better than Schlieper, yet Hollins never got off the pines until now. Realize they play different positions, but still.

Just watched the scoring highlights on the Pitt site. I can honestly say I don’t remember a better exhibition of ball movement and shooting excellence.

Somebody mentioned Blair and Young, but there were only 3 scorers on that team. None of them looked as smooth as Patterson and Johnson. Blair got all his points in the paint. Everyone on the team can make the occasional 3 other than Randall.

The foul shooting, always an albatross, has become a strength. That alone may set this team apart. If we shot our normal 50%, this game would have been a lot closer.

The Kool-Aid is tasting spiked with the good stuff.

Also on the Pitt site is Pat Bostick’s Breakdown of Miami. The kid is a real professional. Wonder when he will be picked up by a network?

Still pissed that Wanny never gave him a chance. The kid obvious has brains, heart and won our biggest game in a decade. He bleeds blue and gold.

Did you hear last night Brevin Knight when asked whether he would root for his brother’s team or his alma mater, said no question, he would root for the nerd herd.

Unlike the schlub that texted for FSU

Bostick kept his mouth shut when he could have not, so he was taken ‘care of’. Don’t know if I could have done that if given the opportunity to voice otherwise.

Pat’s a good kid, glad it worked out for him.

He will be forever rememebered as our QB for 13-9 and the big road win over the Irish. And playing as a ‘true’ freshmen under adverse circumstances.

While the schlub will be.. eternally a schlub. lol

Maybe the Hoopies can do us favor tonite and take out the #10 ranked Badgers in Cancun.

Sryacusa gets tested with Baylor tonite. They have not looked real impressive.

spiritofsection22, I watched Zanna carefully last night and focused on him in person Monday at Barclays.

He’s OK defensively but not intimidating. Offensively, unless he’s ahead on a break, he always hesitates before shooting.

I appreciate his contribution to the program, but I think he’d be better coming off the bench.

Micah Mason of the Dukes out with a broken hand.

This from ESPN’s national bball blog:

One more thing: Pitt’s soft nonconference schedule is likely to either a) keep the Panthers off the national radar or b) inspire doubt (or both), but it’d be silly to ignore how dominant Jamie Dixon’s team looked in a win over a not-horrible Stanford team in Brooklyn Wednesday night. Pitt, no surprise, is grabbing every offensive rebound in sight, which sounds like a very frightening proposition for huge swaths of the ACC.

link to espn.go.com

Check it out bro’s.

PITT is ranked #2 in the Nation.

link to kenpom.com

It appears something more, is keeping PITT off the national radar.

Mainly the Main Stream Media !!!

Happy Thanksgiving fellow Blatherites!

Watched parts of 3 tournament games. Impression: Pitt competent and confident–not much in the way of drama or showboating, just took care of business and didn’t embarrass the other teams, except by dominating them. The faces and body language of the players on the Stanford bench in a tv camera shot toward the end of the game said it all! I think the football team is moving in the same direction but they have less depth and are very young so are probably at least a year away more likely 2 or 3. Happy Thanksgiving! HTP!

Emel:
Don’t forget Bostic quarterbacked Pitt in the dramatic 4-OT victory by Wannstedt in 2008. I still enjoy watching that one.

4-OT victory over Notre Dame in South Bend that is.

Great photos of Pitt-ND posted on Phil Steele’s site.
link to facebook.com

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone on the Blather.

I echo Moe’s message.

Did you see that Pitt will be in the Maui classic next year? So hopefully this time next year, we’ll be gloating about another tourney championship, led by the likes of Wright, Young, DJ, and Artis.

Happy Thanksgiving to all you guys on the Blather. I was a wet blanket about the Miami game a couple days ago, predicting Pitt had little chance of winning this game of Friday. But you know what? That is why the play the games.

The link below is especially for one of our posters that we haven’t heard from for awhile, the Ghost of Pete Gonzales. I hope on Friday evening, that we’re all cheering just like we were back in 97 when that Pitt team put an unlikely hurt on the Hurricanes. It would be a very appropriate tribute to a bunch of Seniors that have gone through a whole bunch more BS during their Pitt tenure that they deserved to have to put up with.

Hail to Pitt! Maul Miami

link to youtube.com

Neat UTube Dr Tom. Happy Thanksgiving Guys! We have a lot to be thankful for. Our football team will finish above the line.

We got to watch the great Aaron Donald trashing a lot of opponents backfields. Devin Street finish his record setting career. Savage throw some strong passes. A bunch of stellar freshmen including superstar Tyler Boyd and superstud James Conner. The great career of Jason Hendricks, the ferocious tackles of Todd Thomas. And Ray Vinopal go from goat to hero.
Hopefully the birth of a strong offensive line.
Best of all we beat Notre Dame.

A chance to beat Miami and finish strong.

Our basketball team looks like it has a chance to make some noise in it’s inaugural ACC season.

I have great tickets, so I am very thankful.

Hail to Pitt!

Blow away the Hurricanes.

Stanford didn’t have time to prepare for two very different Pitt defenses. They seemed to be prepared for our man-to-man, but not our zone.

As Hugh Green pointed out above, our long guards are perfect for the zone. We pulled away in the first half when we switched to zone and our guards stole one Stanford pass after another.

The next good team we play will be better prepared for both of our defenses. But our defenses should also be even better. In his post game quotes, Dixon said:

“I like this team and we got better this week in our post defense and we needed to. The three new guys, Jamel (Artis), Mike (Young) and Derrick (Randall) were the guys that stood out for me as far as taking the right step defensively in post defense. We needed it for both these teams we were playing against because they were both big and athletic.”

To read the quotes, go to:

link to pittsburghpanthers.com

Happy Thanksgiving to all the fellow Blatherites.

Any semblance of this Pitt Basketball team’s shooting to it’s preceeding teams is a mirage. I don’t know how, who or why but this Pitt team’s shooting form is balanced, similiar in follow thru, and well practiced. I think Jamie took a good look and realized that Pitt could not hold up in the ACC with such slow down play and just awful shooting. You do not go 30-34 at the FT Line by accident! Thank you Slice for whatever you have brought to this team.

I have one brick in my hand to start the monument to Jamie outside the Pete!

Can any of you imagine if Pitt former team’s had made the same changes in form and was able to hit shots with regularity?? For sure we beat Butler in the NCAA’s.

No matter, this team may be a real suprise.

Cannot see us beating Miami with the talent deficit but as Dr T said “that’s why you play the game”. H2P All….Go Steelers…I will be freezing my ass off tonight in Bmore!

Happy Turkey Day to all you Turkeys !

Just kidding. 🙂

May each and everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving !

EMel

Happy Thanksgiving, all…even you, pittbaseball (grin)

Hail to the Rovers who easily handled the Stateliners this morning, 16 – 7

@Steve 1, He isn’t Wilt Chamberlain but for a guy stuck playing center he is doing real well. He might be a little slow to shoot but he is scoring 13 pts. a game and shooting close to 70%. What were you hoping for? I have a hard time with those posting here who insist on finding fault. We are 6-0 and kicking the snot out everyone we play. Instead of this being a tough rebuilding year it looks like we will fly in under the radar and grab a big slice of ACC kudos. Zanna is a key contributor on this team whether you like his play or not, and he is our best option at the 5. So far this year he has done way better than 1 and done Adams did at this point last season. There are a few centers we will face that Zanna will struggle to defend. He is doing great so far and if Dixon has a better defensive option you can bet he would use it. I understand those who don’t want to come across as cheerleaders pointing out weaknesses on the team. If Talib’s play is our problem this is going to be a really good year.