Sorry about the comment problems. One of the comment spam catcher is giving me a little problem for the past 24 hours or so. Telling me it is hitting a bad URL or some other anti-bot file. I really don’t have a clue what the issue is, since I hadn’t done any tweaks to the site in that timeframe.

For now, it is dumping everything in the spam file so I have to go in and manually aprrove them.

Thanks to everyone for the e-mails and the comments left. It, admittedly, surprised me about how much it meant to read. The family is doing well, as there was about six weeks to prepare for this time.

A very big thanks to Keith for making a return to this blog for even a few days. Keeping things going and generally helping out. You’re always welcome to post here, Keith.

Watched both games on DVR delay.

I was not shocked that Pitt lost to Louisville. I was a little disappointed in the way they lost — but then I’m trying to figure out a way that I wouldn’t be disappointed. The thing I take away from that game, is that Pitt can beat Louisville and any team out there. Pitt got caught up in the concern over the trap and press and forced the ball to the basket too fast. It’s one thing to get the ball over half-court, but they still have plenty of time to set a play. Letting the shot clock get down to single digits is not necessarily a bad thing — especially against Louisville.

Then the Syracuse game, was excellent on several levels. The team bounced right back from the loss and losing the #1 spot to wear out the Orange. Once Rautins cooled down a bit in the second half, no one else was able to really do much against Pitt’s defense. Once more, the Orange zone was ineffective against Pitt. With Paul Harris in foul trouble, they were limited in going to man defense. I was most impressed with the way they shut down Jonny Flynn until he was scoring garbage points late. That really prevented them from ever getting a spark.

In case you hadn’t noticed, home court means as much as ever in the Big East. The best teams in the Big East are going to go no worse than 6-3 at home and 4-5 on the road. I really don’t  see how a team won’t finish with at least 4 losses. Inititally, I thought maybe 5 losses minimum, but Cinci and Seton Hall have not been as close to the middle as first thought and DePaul is far worse than expected. Providence and St. John’s — to varying degrees — seem just good enough to lose close games more often than not.

Good to be back.

I’m probably going to be taking a couple days off. My grandfather passed away yesterday evening. It wasn’t unexpected. He was 92, and had a host of issues from Cancer, to heart issues and well,  just being old.

I’ll be sitting shiva, being with family and generally be in a frame of mind that won’t be able to give Pitt much priority.

The good news is that I’m living forever. My 6-year old daughter told me so at dinner as we were struggling with a good way to explain what was going on. So, I’ve got that going for me.t

(more…)

Let’s start this New Year off with a friendly little reminder. I generally let a 12-24 hour spell after losses for people to vent a bit and go a bit over the top on complaints about the players. After that, the criticisms have to be limited to simply their performances.

Regardless of the state of college football, the actual value of a scholarship, etc. The kids playing the game are still just that to me — kids. They aren’t making a living off the game. They are representing our school. This isn’t talk radio.

I’m not at all happy with Bill Stull’s performance. Stull blew chunks in the game and simply has been sub-par the second half of the season. That does not give anyone license to attack his character or anything else.

Obviously ending the season with a loss. Especially this poor a loss on a national stage will hurt more. That said, time to dial it back.

No, I’m not dead from all the good stuff.

Was at the in-laws for Thanksgiving. No one thought to tell me that their internet connection was fubar-red.

Went to the the Backyard Brawl on Friday then back to the in-laws. Got back home this evening.

Now, I have a night shift chat over at FanHouse to do. Stop on by.

Otherwise, I’ll be trying to restore some normalcy tomorrow.

I don’t want to have to have anymore to do with this, so please cooperate.

I have removed the personal information on commenter “Joshua.”

I have told him not to come back.

The IP addresses he has used on the Pitt Network have been saved, and if he does not comply I will forward accordingly to the Pitt IT department and appropriate people to deal accordingly.

This is not about someone who dislikes Wannstedt. If it was, he would have been banned long ago. This is about trolling and not helping to have a conversation.

This is not a free-for-all message board. A minimal level of civility is expected. Please act accordingly.

I’ll be getting the remaining Pitt-Cinci links out in a while. I’ve got to run the FanHouse chat around noon. Stop over to chat.

And yes, there will be a liveblog here for the game tonight.

On the road yesterday. I’ve got my grandmother’s 90th birthday tonight so I may have to cut out early. That said, I will be liveblogging and drop me a direct line and I will see about adding panelists and other producers to allow more participation. The last one I did there apparently was a queue on participants so I’m trying to work around the limitations.

Special invite to the guys at Cat Basket, Hail to Pitt, Panther Prowl, and The Intersection at Forbes and Fifth, to co-liveblog with it simul-blogging on their own sites.

Okay folks, I know many of you are planning to go to the Rutgers-Pitt game tomorrow. As am I. That means no Live Blog unless there are some volunteers to run the show.

Here are the job requirements:

• Ability to type without excessive profanities.
• Willing to moderate/approve comments.
• Able to do this while paying attention to the game.
• A good enough computer (or computers) to have ESPN360.com running and the CIL interface.

I’m looking for at least one person, though, having a few volunteers makes it easier on everyone.

Just shoot me an e-mail at pittblather -at- gmail -dot-com to let me know if you can meet these standards.

Otherwise I’ll just set-up a comment thread for tomorrow.

Sorry everyone. My computer is having some major issues that completely killed any free time this weekend. It’s a problem that has popped up on my model of laptop for the past year, but waited until Thursday to rear its head for me. The only good news is the manufacturer is completely covering the repairs, despite it being well out of warranty. The bad news is I will have to ship it off for the repairs. Expect reduced output in the meantime.

The site remains the same, but there are some things that are being done behind the scenes right now. It does mean there is a slight chance of disrupting things. Some new installs, updates and adjustments to the blog that need to be done.

There are some minor changes that I am working on/having done to improve the site. Generally, not very noticeable things once put in to place, but it should improve the functionality.

Overall, though, the premium is still on loading quickly and not piling a bunch of useless widgets that no one cares about and trying put cookies on your computer.

This is the final day of annoying solicitations. I’m happy to write that it looks like all costs will be covered for the next two years with a final round of contributions. A couple of the checks have already arrived.

Yesterday I wrote about no political ads for this election. One other ad-related note that you won’t see. Any of the ad-sense programs. You know, those little text ads at the bottom of posts on other sites. I’m not a big fan of them, and with the support received, I see no reason to plug those in and create more clutter.

That’s one of the things I am very happy to with this site — keeping it relatively clean, uncluttered and simple.

Thanks to the support of everyone, it gets to stay that way.

Just a couple more days of slightly annoying pledge posts.

One of the things I hate about election years are political ads when I’m watching sports. Drives me nuts. Watching sports is part of the escape from the daily crap. Partisan stuff just wears on me.

So, with everyone’s support for this site, I will get to be more picky about what I accept for blogads on this site. I’m making a promise now, that for this Presidential election there will no political ads on PittBlather.com. No pro- or anti- anything regarding the candidates (including non-Presidential) or “issue” ads. It’s going to be nasty enough, probably by September.
Essentially I’m promising a politics-free safe-haven.

Just click one of the begging buttons on the right sidebar and make sure this can be a reality.

This is day 2 of the pledge drive for PittBlather.com. For those who don’t remember why I ask for support, here’s why. When I started writing PittBlather (and its predecessor PittSportsBlather), the deal with my wife was that this would not cost anything other than time.

Keep in mind that your contributions to PittBlather.com can help to indoctrinate the next generation of Pitt fans.*

_{*This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA.}

It’s that dreaded time again. It’s been two years and now it’s time to ask for donations in support of PittBlather.com. Unlike the last time, this go-round has modest goals. I’m just looking to take care of server costs for the next couple of years along with getting some work done on the site.

I’m as uncomfortable about asking as you probably are reading this.

As usual, all the contributions during this week will be plowed directly into this site.

Some of you have already hit the begging buttons this year, so thanks once more.

If you are more comfortable directly sending a check, drop me an e-mail at pittblather-at-gmail-dot-com and I’ll give you an address.

It’s with your assistance that this kind of hard work can continue.