7pm.
It’s on various RSNs including Root Sports Pittsburgh, Fox Sports South, NESN, Fox Sports West and others.
Georgia Tech has struggled to rebuild under Brian Gregory. Check that. They have just struggled. As a coach on a warming seat, he has added transfers (traditional and graduate) to his roster. Unlike Pitt, four of their transfers are starters.
Pitt will face a team that has more inside presence than, well, any of the teams they have faced in the last couple weeks. Pitt will not have quite the rebounding edge it has enjoyed recently. GT is more balanced.
The Yellow Jackets have some nice wins against VCU, Arkansas and Tennessee. They also lost to ETSU (8-6) and Georgia (7-4), so there is that.
I’m on DVR delay tonight as some parenting duties keep me busy until 8.
I am no Neil Diamond fan. But, I don’t think he is that whacko.
H2P
I also (Hate to Say this) like the Bengals if Williams is inactive. If he plays and is 75% I like the steelers. With zero threat at RB tough to beat Bengals at home with our DB’s.
Who knows pmd…Elton John was singing love songs.
PoS – you try too hard for acknowledgment and recognition. When you grow up and enter the real world you’ll learn that slaps on the back are reserved for special occasions and you don’t get a trophy every time you get something right.
Wasn’t my definition. Did a cut & paste off of Urban Dictionary.
But yeah, CAP LOCK usage a lot is another good indicator.
If we all had the same opinions on everything, this site would be extremely boring.
Much of my entertainment is the verbal jousting, and it is interesting to hear how guys defend their positions.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but with me it’s only about Jamie Dixon getting the same degree of SCRUTINY as any other Pitt Coach… whether you’re talking Pitt Administrators or here on the Blather.
Personally, I have NEVER said anything derogatory about Dixon. “Great Guy”… “Better Coach than Recruiter”… That’s about the extent of it.
But, at some point, after a DECADE… more than a Decade… you have to start asking whether he’s EVER going to get Pitt to the Promised Land. And I’m not even suggesting an NCAA Championship.
Just Sweet Sixteen every so often and Elite Eight every once in awhile.
And just once… MAYBE just ONE TIME… a Final Four. Is this really asking TOO MUCH?
I know, I know… Jamie runs a CLEAN Program and doesn’t cheat like the other Guys.
Great. But at some point, doesn’t it become about WINNING and NOT constantly talking about NEXT year… and this Recruit or that Recruit and how that’s going to put Pitt back on top?
A GREAT Winning Record like Jamie has… and it’s one of the BEST… says a lot about his ability to Coach.
But the reality is… NCAA Basketball and the environment it operates in today… besides making money… is all about WINNING Conference Titles… getting to “the Dance”… and when you get there… outside of an OCCASIONAL upset… BEATING the Teams you SHOULD beat and once in awhile pulling the OCCASIONAL UPSET.
In my opinion… to ACCEPT anything less… is to ACCEPT MEDIOCRITY.
And this is NOT what I remember Pitt being about whether it’s on the Basketball Court, the Football Field… or the Wrestling Mat.
I feel very positive about the kids that have said they will come. My point was that the last two games were a major letdown and stopped much of the positive momentum. Not that we lost but how we lost.
A couple more high profile recruits would do a lot to get that positive feeling back.
What Pitt has always been about athletically is mediocrity. With the exception of a few short periods of time. Jamie is one guy that actually got us above mediocre for a long stretch of time.
We all hope that Narduzzi will do as well.
In football we have had one National Championship and an elite 8, two if you count Mooney’s in our collective lifetimes.
You can count our collective conference championships in all sports on two hands.
In basketball, we are not Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, UConn, Kansas, Michigan St. or any of the other final four teams. Never have been, may never be.
You can rant all you want but Pitt has accepted mediocrity in all sports BUT basketball for many years.
But on another note I find the antagonism to be cute from time to time. It keeps things lively. It just when it slips outside of the sports realm when I find it a bit grating.
No idea where that CBS article got 322 for SOS. I mean our sked is not great but that’s like playing Colgate 15 times in a row.
I would also say that Pitt’s inability to make a final four has more to do with, academic standards, recruiting budgets, shoe contracts, and the ways that other teams have no problem ignoring NCAA rules and taking punishment after the fact if they are caught.
Two other thoughts on Jamie coming out each side of my mouth: 1) If he doesn’t make the tourney this season and next he should go. While he built the program we can’t let him sink it either. 2) If Coach K retired this evening Dixon would be on the phone with Duke tomorrow morning as a top 5 candidate. Emphasizes defense, runs a clean program…his biggest flaw is that he’s not elite at recruiting which would be completely rectified by working for the Emperor of CBB.
i don’t think your post was a rant, in fact, i agree with everything you said. guess some will put me in the haters club as well.
Pitt sports has all been about mediocrity or worse (see Olympic sports) for a long long time.
The few times over the last 100 years, that Pitt football rose to elite levels, the Pitt muckety mucks were always there to pull us back down into mediocrity, into insignificance.
And as we all know football drives everything else.
Pitt FB 39
Pitt BB 21
Steelers 8
We haven’t exactly played ‘chopped liver’ as the National Media would like you to believe.
We always seem to be the media whipping boy. Go figure.
we do it to ourselves.
you have to look at the big picture, 40 teams DID (sorry for the caps) however you are correct, some are repeats, but 40 did have the opportunity. there were a bunch of non-blue bloods that made also. there is no reason we should not have made it at least once.
Your comment about Dixpn’s performance for more than a decade got me to thinking about other longstanding long suffering coaching performances so I looked up Boeheim
National Championship took 26 years
And in that first 26 year span here is what else his teams garnered.
Sweet 16 = 8
Round of 8 = 1
NCAA runner up = 1
So it looks like he (Boeheim) was at the “Promised Land” 11 times in 26 years or about twice every 5 years.
So Boeheim makes 1.9 million compared to Dixon’s 1.8 according to a Business Insider article I found. So is he over paid?
We came very close, one time when we had Blair, Young and Fields and absolutely no one behind them. Even Blair and Young are at best journeymen in the Pros. The Blue bloods put out pros almost yearly. There is every reason we have never made it, we just haven’t had the talent, or the luck in the case of Villanova.
Many solid programs are not on that list of 20.
Marquette, UConn, Butler, etc.
Hoop gods have frowned upon us many a time.
I’ll agree to disagree with you. 9-2,gc, I also theought of Boeheim as well. 26 years and then he gets THE player that takes him there. I believe that Jamie will get that player…you don’t. Maybe my faith is blind but I wouldn’t trade this coach for anyone out there. There is something to be said for a guy who doesn’t cheat and still wins.
That’s all. He quickly corrects his positioning though!
So yeah, enjoy the process more than the destination, after all isn’t it supposed to be entertainment in the first place? If you are only happy when you reach the rarified air of the pinicle of the mountain top you may die an unfulfilled climber. Lots of nice views on the way up even when you don’t make it to the top.
Of course, a university of Pitt’s stature and a Coach of Dixon’s pay rate and quality should be held to a pretty demanding standard. Making it to the party every year sounds like a reasonable standard for a good program and I’m always pissed when Pitt fails to get an invite, that is unacceptable. After that it’s all gravy IMO.
It is extremely difficult in a one and done tournament to get to the final four, especially when you have few future NBA stars on your team. There have been many great and talented teams that don’t make it. Kentucky with all of it’s firepower made it 4 out of ten years. Duke only made it twice with the best coach and the cream of the crop.
you make some good points in your above post. an elite coach should achieve elite results imo and i don’t think we have had elite results. your dead right about enjoying the ride!
Which raises the recruiting question.
When you are a one seed you have to beat 3 teams (I don’t count the 16 seed) that are worse than you to get in. What gripes most Pitt fans is that Dixon consistently loses to worse teams and has never beaten a higher seeded team. Some of the loses were downright embarrassing IMO.
I’m not complaining myself, but until Dixon beats a higher seeded team (Pacific? really?), he’ll be open to criticism.
Dixon’s had some great wins though. The UConn wins were spectacular.
Jamie built strong defensive, rebounding teams to bang in the Big East, didn’t really translate well to the Tourney, where you need strong guard play and individual talent.
Time will tell, but this year’s team with it’s better shooting, foul shooting and overall depth, may be a good tournament team.
Long way to go, but like Jackagain mentioned seeding can make a big difference.
I give you…George Mason !
Dixon hasn’t been able to figure that out yet.
Who knows if he ever will.
Based on a pretty good sampling size, Dixon’s teams invariably play tentative and tight in the Big Dance. Even struggling against vastly inferior opponents.
So that is a big problem, this year’s team seems to play looser atm, we’ll see how that plays out as the season progresses.
Sweet 16: 11 appearances through ’03 (’77, ’79, ’80, ’84, ’87, ’89, ’94, ’96, ’98, ’00, ’03)
Elite 8: 5 appearances through ’03 (’87, ’89, ’96, ’03)
Final 4: 3 appearances through ’03 (’87, ’96, ’03) all three times he made the championship game.
Since 2003, Boeheim made 4 Sweet 16’s, 2 Elite 8’s, and 1 Final 4.
His record speaks for itself. He reached the championship game of the Big East Tournament 15 times in his tenure, going only 5-10 in a 35 year span.
2.Saturday’s game on ESPN 3, WTF?
Ken Pomeroy as of Thursday rated the Panthers’ strength of schedule 314th (out of 351).
From ESPN “Teams you shouldn’t trust … yet,” (Pitt is #3)
I’ll take that 6 seed now please…
Pitt’s D is marginally better than ND’s. But ND is really deficient in 3 point % allowed, and ND does not foul (they have a short bench and cannot afford to).
Although I expect ND to try to “burn” Pitt and I expect Pitt to have trouble stopping ND from scoring, I still think that Pitt can outscore ND.
I hate to sound like Coach Dixon, but rebounding could really be the difference in this game. If Pitt allows ND to get 2nd chances, and “burn” the clock, it could be a frustrating evening.
It would be nice to see Pitt try to trap and force ND to speed-up and make mistakes.
Another OT squeaker in South Bend?
This should be a hard Pitt team to “Burn” as long as we rebound. Take the ball to the hoop and they will give up the easy one or foul.
Just hope we shoot well on the road. Need to get off to a good start.
Dr Tom, you’re killing me…
POD…no one’s all bad. And you’re the least evil of the haters.