Credit and curses to J.D. for noting this site. It’s a Craiglist or want ads for basketball games. Rather than individually calling each school, you can post your wants and needs for a game. Specify the date and/or the kind of opponent you want and hope someone gets back to you on this.
For example, UNC-Charlotte posted this gem: “Looking to buy a game for the opener. Competitive $$$$ – RPI 200 and below. Please call or email. Thanks.” They want a guarantee game with an opponent that won’t ding their RPI too much.
That “200 RPI or better” caveat is very common in the ads for a lot of major conference and high mid-majors looking for guarantee games.
Then there are the really sad ones. The ones looking to be bought. Like Alabama A&M looking to have practically their entire non-con on the road:
Hello Coaches! I hope you all enjoyed Dallas as well as the very exiting NCAA Tournament. We are looking for some games to fill our buy dates. They are as follows: Nov. 17, 21, 22, 23, 24, 29, Dec. 14,-23, Dec 29-30. Please help us out in this endeavor. Thanks Coaches!
It’s never been easy, but it is a different kind of rough being a player for a HBCU these days.
Pitt has posted their remaining need:
As you can see, Pitt is looking to fill a final home game right before the New Year. Pitt has a bunch of challenging road/neutral site games. And like many other programs on the list, they need a home game to fill that has to start at home.
So who wants to spend the rest of their day coming through the list to find Pitt a game?
Sigh.
I sure hope we will be seeing an upgraded non-con schedule because last season it was embarrassing.
JD sure isn’t in any rush to replace Slice. I haven’t even heard a rumor.
or Kansas.
Wait, I’m a Pitt hoops fan, your teams sound just about right!!
Jabari Parker is projected 1st overall. To me that seems too high.
They beat the Gamecocks last year & finished third in the Atlantic Sun Conference. (Mercer & Florida Gulf Coast last two NCAA tourney teams). Played in the College Insiders Tournament.
Also Texas Southern is looking for a Guarantee game on DEC30/31.
I say let’s schedule them in all sports. Could be our new rival. LOL
She lives in Rock Hill.
McDermott will be a good NBA player too. I think there are some concerns about his defense, who is he going to guard? In the right place, McDermott could be really, really good.
Was in Columbia,SC when PITT played Upstate in baseball.
I would provide a link but don’t know how.
North Carolina-Charlotte
Mark Bialkoski
(904)881-5277
mbialkos@uncc.edu
Looking to buy a game for the opener. Competitive $$$$ – RPI 200 and below. Please call or email. Thanks.
Provo anyone ?
How many ‘bought’ games have we won in the last 13 years ?
I should have got into college coaching when you can buy 10-12 wins per season.
Henceforth we didn’t win 20 games every year.
The wins were much more legit.
I would rather see us go to a big, east coast city where we could help our recruiting, either NY, DC, Philly or even CT. Not sure any of the big boys will want to subject themselves to coming to the Pete in December, which is a likely loss, every other year. UConn might be willing, their conference situation sucks and Pitt is an old rival, made for TV game.
Or Maybe go to an SEC school. They could use a boost in their SOS. Maybe Vandy or Tenn? Georgia and SC could be cool too, especially if Pitt is going to recruit below the Mason-Dixon Line. Or maybe go west, there are two pittsburgh guys in Arizona (Sendek and Miller).
I’d much rather play Bobby Mo or Penn or St. Joe’s or St. Bonnie. And I see St. Bonaventure is looking for a H & H. A-10 school with long tradition in hoops, not a long road trip, travel costs for both schools would be minimal.
Pitt could even have a fair amount of fans there.
Let’s do it !
Bottom line: Miami is one of the top college programs in the last 30 years, and has a strong brand in the state, the Southeast and nationally. With five national championships, nine conference titles, five Heisman Trophy winners and the best two-county home recruiting base in the country, the Hurricanes are simply one of the top recruiting jobs in college football. Only facility upgrades and its home stadium keep Miami from being one of the best recruiting jobs in the country.
It wasn’t taken advantage of for the inductions of: Tony Dorsett, Dan Marino, Russ Grimm, Ricky Jackson, Iron Mike Ditka, Curtis Martin or Chris Doleman.
Nor the College Football HOF’ers: Hugh Green, Bill Fralic, Jimbo Covert, Mark May, and some of the ones listed above.
HOF, and current stars, Fitz, Revis and Shady should give us some credibility. Hopefully Shady’s excellence continues for a few seasons and Revis has a bounce back year. Fitz needs to pad his stats for a few more and he is a lock for the Hall.
Donald’s senior season should continue the trend.
Some marquis wins are what is needed most to improve the profile.
Frankcan, how about a short update to let us know you are OK?
I am a Chryst supporter, but he has a lot to do this year to right the ship. Early signings are way less than mediocre in numbers and profile. Where’s the beef?
or the schedule ain’t gonna matter.
For throw back Thursday, the first college basketball game I ever saw (as a preschooler) was at the Reilly Center to watch Bob Lanier, Jim Satalin, Billy Calbaugh and the boys play against Calvin Murphy and Niagara in 1969/70. That Bonnie’s team made the final four after beating ‘Nova in the regional finals. Lanier hurt his knee in the nova game (some jackass “clipped” him). They lost to Artis Gilmore and Jacksonville without Lanier. My father and uncle believed SBU would have beaten Jacksonville and would have given UCLA a run for their money with a healthy Lanier.
Thanks for the link. Maybe someday there will be a report on here about who is scheduled to come to the camps this summer. As I recall, that was when we had lots of kids sign up last summer.
Does anyone know who is on the radar and likely to come to Pitt?
H2P
I know the Bonnies aren’t what they use to be, however they are in the A10, and would be a far superior opponent to most of the rent-a-wins we’ve been scheduling. And like I posted travel expenses would be minimal for both teams.
Jacksonville gave UCLA all they could handle that year with their Twin Towers. You might be right about the Bonnies had Lanier been at full strength. The Bonnies crushed Nova in that Regional Final game.
And that was about the last time Niagara was relevant in college basketball, with the tiny Calvin Murphy.
Matt Gant & Vic Thomas led them that day, but couldn’t overcome Artis Gilmore’s double double of 29 & 21.
Might be a good stop gap for Pitt at the two next season?
link to pittsburghpanthers.com
Mark Cuban in some hot water over more words.
Thanks for the link. Could Pederson be any more tentative about the Penn State series extending beyond the four scheduled games?
“I hope we can continue to keep that going forward,” Pederson said. “[Penn State athletic director] Dave Joyner and I continue to have conversations.”
Pitt does not want to play West Virginia. Many of you may agree there’s no point. But the Power Five rule goes into effect for the ACC in 2017 and the Hillbillies are a Power Five team who arouse hatred in the younger Pitt fans.
Just be honest about it, Pederson. You and Dixon don’t want to play WVU. Pederson makes it sound like there’s no way the two sides can get together:
“One team not likely to return to Pitt’s schedule in the near future is former rival West Virginia (Big 12). Pederson said he has not had any substantive discussions with Mountaineers athletic director Oliver Luck about reviving the Backyard Brawl.”
Holgorsen and Luck have basically said anywhere, anytime. How much more willing can they be?
Read more: link to post-gazette.com
Thanks for getting my procrastinating ass in gear and booking a room for UVA game. Tried the Omni and Darden and both were booked. Ended up with Doubletree, they have a bar and shuttle service, so I lucked out. Anyone thinking of making trip should book a room soon.
June and early July are critical for Chryst and staff to land some recruits. Once kids high school camps open if they are not committed they will generally wait until after their season is over.
As myself and a couple other people have pointed out, with some of the local sports down Pitt has a chance to get some much needed buzz and excitement generated in the football program. Getting the casual fan to Heinz Field is the difference from 30-40,000 people to 50,000+. Pitt needs to win more than 6 games a year to get the casual fan interested and when you do get them there WIN! You cannot continually send people home with a loss muttering “same old Pitt”
If the PG article Iron Duke gave us the link to is any indication the move to ACC has generated more money to put back in programs. Winning would create more. I am not delusional Pitt will never have Alabama money or fan support, but they can compete yearly in the ACC Coastal division and realistically average 50,000 fans a game. In basketball the ceiling is even higher, the men’s basketball program has the facilities, fan base, and support to compete for National championships.
Hail to Pitt!!
Let’s go, Rangers!
Can you imagine anyone at Pitt having the common sense to sell a similar message…nope…Too busy with clever sayings like my city my team!
Going to overtime. What fun!
The compete for a national title talk in hoops strikes me as far fetched too. I would so love to see it happen but think it would take a run of luck that is beyond what is realistic to consider.
Recently, in 09 (53,446) and 010 (52,165) were their 2nd and 3rd highest ever .. behind 2003 in which they had over 54K.
Of course, these are tickets sold and not actual attendance.
The highest attended game for Pitt at Heinz was Pitt-WVU in 02 when over 67k saw pitt lose 24-17
I just posted this the other day, we had a little less than 64K for the Cincy game in 2009.
Even though I dislike Heinz for PITT, if we started winning consistently at home and blowing out the weaklings, in a sports crazy town like Pittsburgh, we could average >55k. Maybe 60K.
The key is you gotta win and you have to have an exciting product. Even though I ended up despising Graham, as most of us do, that spread offense, with the right QB, would have been fun to watch and has taken Clemson to the Top 10 and a BCS win over Ohio Fake.
Makes our HOF standing even more impressive.
Another consideration … WVU scored 70 pts on Clemson back in 011, and 21 on us the very game before. Not sure what exactly that means except maybe when you can slow the pace down and make them play your game, you have a chance .. otherwise if you run against them, you better have the speed to do so
Auburn remains a possibility for a home-and-home, but they didn’t put dates. Those were all the ones for listings after May 1st.
I really like this one from Appalachian State. “Appalachian State is looking to get paid”