Finally, some good news for Pitt

Pitt received some great news yesterday that may be a key difference in Saturday's game against Cincy. Wannstache tore his achille's tendon and may not be on the sideline for the game.

Wannstedt missed practice Tuesday after tearing his left Achilles' tendon earlier in the day, requiring surgery that took place several hours after he was hurt.

And the last sentence of the article sums up pretty nicely why this is good news for the Panthers:

...hired by Pitt in December 2004. He has a 13-16 record.

Round of Reubens

Bad news for next week's opponent. Back-up/potential future first string Maryland QB, Josh Portis, got suspended for cheating. Some have suggested the punishment was too harsh, but we Bastards have uncovered that not only did Portis cheat on a quiz, he also stole some leftovers from Friedgen's personal fridge. A lesser player would not have survived such a transgression.

In Tuesday’s Baltimore Sun, Heather Dinich reported that Brandon Bullock, who now attends East Carolina, said that Portis cheated by looking on his paper during a quiz in American Studies 212 (Diversity in America) during the spring semester. Portis refused comment on Dinich’s article, which went into a few other details. Bullock, who is from Bel Air, told Dinich that he got a note back after that quiz to see the instructor who brought up academic dishonesty while showing him copies of his quiz and another quiz with the name covered up and the answers to the quiz were similar including one question that they were identical “word for word.” Portis reportedly sat behind Bullock and to the left. Bullock also told Dinich that Portis approached him later and asked him to say that there answers were so similar because they had studied together.

Speaking of Maryland, tummysticks and I will be in hostile territory next week thanks to some much appreciated generosity. We're packing extra sammies in case we cross paths with a wheezing, photon lensing mass of a football coach. Maybe we'll run into Steve Danneman and I can convince him to bet on Maryland again while tummysticks bums beer from Gavin Smith.

In other news, based upon Notre Dame's success last week not really picking a quarterback before its matchup with Georgia Tech, Pitt head coach Dave Wannstache has decided not to pick a starting quarterback for this weekend's matchup with Grambling. Wannstache will instead wait until kickoff to choose his starter by following his magical dowsing mustachio.

Finally, Cincinatti dutifully represented the Big East earlier this evening by easily defeating Oregon State 34-3. While Oregon State's performance was magnitudes worse than during its defeat of USC last year, the credit goes to an aggressive and hard hitting Bearcat defense. The Big East is now 9-1 in interconference play to start the season.

Pitt week not so good afterall

Not everything is coming up roses for Pitt this week as DB, and potential difference maker on defense, Elijah Fields has been suspended for the season.

"Although we have suspended Elijah for the season, he will remain part of our program and practice," Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. "We will continue to demand that he work hard on the field and in the classroom so that he can be an important part of our program's future."

No reason was given for the suspension although the Post-Gazette mentions some off the field issues which could be anything, but I'd bet drugs, alcohol, or a she-devil that stole his soul.

Meanwhile, despite having Shawn Chacon and Damarso Marte at the peak of their respective values with Chacon going fee agent next year and not coming back to Pittsburgh; the Pirates failed to make any significant trades in what was described as an unbelievable seller's market. There were rumors that Solomen Torres was also shopped and Jack Wilson would be gone in a salary dump. Instead the Pirates traded for Matt Morris who is owed $14.5 million over the next two years. Wilson will still be gone as soon as the Tigers agree to take the contract. So congratulations Pirates management for looking at the .404 winning percentage and deciding to stand pat. That takes a lot of guts or whatever Elijah Fields was smoking.

A tale of two cities

It appears as though WVU fans must support not only their favorite team, but any other team within traveling distance to keep opponent athletic departments functional. WVU has stopped selling season tickets after approximately 38,000 have been sold despite a raise in ticket prices this year. It is unlikely that there will be single game tickets to many, if any, games this year. The most likely game for Mountaineer fans to grab a single game ticket is UConn since they probably won't use their entire allotment. In fact WVU fans are so excited they have nearly bought out Marshall's season tickets to get a ticket to WVU-Marshall despite it starting at 3:30 a.m.

Monroe pointed to West Virginia's allotment of 5,000 tickets at Joan C. Edwards Stadium (capacity 38,089) and the limited eligibility (donors must give at least $2,500 to the Mountaineer Athletic Club to qualify for WVU-Marshall tickets through West Virginia's ticket office, Monroe said) as incentives for Mountaineer fans to purchase Marshall season tickets.

"I can definitely see those season ticket packages coming from WVU fans as well," Monroe said.

Meanwhile Pitt continues to fall into irrelevance as they are now one step away from Soup Can night according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazzette. A home schedule of Eastern Michigan, Grambling, Connecticut, Navy, Cincinnati, Syracuse and South Florida is not exactly causing the season tickets to fly off of the shelves. In fact Pitt has had to resort to drastic measures to try and sell these turds.

Season tickets for the seven-game home schedule to be played at Heinz Field are going for as low as $120, but that's not the tenth of it. Anyone purchasing such a plan, which comes to $17.14 game, can buy a second season-ticket package for $10, which comes to $1.43 a ticket.

Looks like there are going to be a lot of Pitt fans dressed up like yellow seats again this year. Pitt has lived on the traveling fans of WVU, ND, PSU, and others for years now including increasing ticket prices for games in which the opposing team's fans will travel to make a profit for their season. They better hope the seamen bring some fans this year or that rent check to the Steelers may bounce.

Bad week for Pitt

Over the weekend one of the top returning players for the Panthers smoked his way into the big house (not Michigan).

Defensive end Joe Clermond led the Big East with 16.5 tackles for lost and had 5.5 sacks last year. He also enjoys the Summer Jam at the Mellon Arena after begging for free cigars from the E-mart apparently.

Street Response Unit officers were patrolling Mellon Arena parking lots at 1:45 p.m. Saturday when they smelled marijuana smoke coming from one of the vehicles.
Clermond, 22, who was getting out of the silver sport utility vehicle when officers pulled up, denied smoking marijuana, but police spotted what appeared to be a half-smoked blunt, which is a cigar with the tobacco removed and replaced by marijuana.

Clermond was arraigned in Night Court where he got a $50 fine and time served from Harry as usual. Pitt has decided to take the Michael Vick/Falcons approach to this one: "At this juncture, we will decline comment and let the judicial process run its course."

One person Pitt probably won't take the same stance is John Duffy, a local sports announcer for Pittsburgh and press box announcer for Pitt football. Duffy got arrested last week for having a bunch of computer images and video files of sexin'. Between kids. Duffy had at least 18 files of child pornography on his computer. He was relesed on bond and should be heading to trial soon and hell shortly thereafter.

NIT - Why does it hurt so bad?

It officially took 3 days and a smashing of Delaware State to recover from my shame. Ever since WVU finished 4-4 down the stretch, I suspected we would be left out of the big dance, so none of this came as a big surprised. But why did it hurt so bad? A few short years ago, we were grateful for an NIT birth, simply because there would be more opportunities to see our Mountaineers. Then, of course, things changed: Back-to-back sweet 16 appearances in 2005 and 2006. So yeah, this is a bit of a let down. But was it always so?

The NIT began in 1938, one year prior to the NCAA Invitational Tournament. That year, the NIT field was filled with modern day powerhouses (record entering tournament): Bradley (18-1), Colorado (14-5), Long Island (23-3), NYU (15-6), Oklahoma A&M (24-2) and Temple (20-2). Temple went on to win in a knee-biter over future Supreme Court Justine Byron White and his Buffs 60-36. I think that was the first year the Owls were coached by John Chaney. But then again, coaches weren't allowed to talk to their players during games in 1938, so its pretty much irrelevant. The low score by the Buffs was attributed to two reasons: 1) the all night stripper rape the night before and 2) the fact the circumference of the ball was changed to 30 inches from the very specific "eh, anywhere between 29 1/2 and 30 1/4 inches is cool with us" rule.

Even though the NCAA began the "Big Dance" the following year, the NIT paralleled inner city elementary schools by continuing a separate but equal existence well into the 60s. Interestingly, a few of the exceptional teams actually played in both tournaments, i.e. CCNY and Kentucky. During that time period, WVU's first appearance came in 1942 where the Mountaineers went on to win the tournament upending Western Kentucky 47-45. During the next 3 years, '43-'46, the winners of the two tournaments met in a unofficial game in Madison Square Gardens to benefit the Red Cross, which by that time was busy patching holes in the Greatest Generation. The NCAA winner won all 3 games (Wyoming, Utah and Oklahoma A&M, respectively).

West Virginia also participated in the NIT, while it was still relevant, in 1945 (lost first round to DePaul), 1946 (lost semi-final to Kentucky) and 1947 (lost in a semi-final nail biter to Utah). No appearances in the NIT during its relevancy by Pitt, Virginia Tech or Maryland. Pitt first showed up in college basketball postseason play in 1941 when it lost in the NCAA East Finals to Wisconsin 36-30. During the same time period (between 1938 and 1960), WVU also appeared in the NCAA tournament 6 times (1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 when we finished runner-up and 1960) while Pitt showed up thrice (1941, 1957 and 1958). [All facts from Wikipedia and Infoplease.]

Eventually, money, corruption and ESPN came along. Increased field size and expanded television coverage began pushing the NCAA tournament to the forefront. Rumors exist that the NCAA also bullied invited teams into foregoing the NIT in favor of the NCAA Tournament. In 1974, a third national tournament, the Collegiate Commissioner's Association Tournament came along further diluting the NIT field. The CCAT, though, was as well conceived as the XFL, and died in just 2 years. Unfortunately, the damage had been done and the NIT has now been relegated to the tournament for 66th place.

But hell, at least we get to see our Mountaineers play a few more games, Alexander might find some shooting rythm, Patrick Beilein and Mike Gansy can film some more Lotto commercials and we can go on reporting on the basketball team. Afterall, we're facing the Sahara with a single Blue and Gold oasis between here and September 1st.

For the sake of the kids III

Pitt

7 a.m. Arrive and am ushered into Coach Wannsteadt's office. He is busy picking out which pleather jacket (he has hundreds) to wear. His office is awesome in a 1970s Burt Reynolds kind of way. He has dozens of bottles of English Leather, 4 lava lamps, an eight track player, and all of the vinyl furniture was green. Coach wasn't ready to met yet as he needed a while to get the 'stache ready for the long day.

8 a.m. The kids arrive and are taken on a tour of the facilities. They are less than impressed with the 12 "national titles" before 1940 as there are no trophies for them, but instead handwritten "Champs" on construction paper. They would have been shown more, but the Steelers people tell them Pitt needs to pay rent before access to all parts of the stadium. Instead the kids shine Coach's gold medallion and platform shoe collection.

9 a.m Breakfast. Oatmeal and water. Kids claim it is a little bland. Coach calls it blue-collar. After being told the kids want something else Coach blames the cafeteria workers for not giving him enough to work with and states he'll get better.

10 a.m. Morning excercise. The kids play in the parking lot while a drunken Antonio Bryant drives his Lamborghini around as fast as he can. When one of the children is injured he is told he should have "run faster." Coach then takes the kids to see his "bitchin' Camero"

11 a.m. Storytime with local legend Beano Cook. Beano tells Han that he has been avoiding him and Han owes him money. He then tries to eat one of the kids. The children escape through one of the many holes in the wall around Western Pa.

12 p.m. No lunch. Coach forgot to order anything last week and failed to make any adjustments on the fly. Tony Siragusa volunteers to get something for everyone and takes up a collection and heads to KFC. Comes back with a bucket full of bones.

1 p.m. Flag Football game. Wannstedt coaches one team and Pitt grad Marty Schottenheimer coaches the other. Wannstedt has no game plan other than to run the ball up the middle three times then throw a short slant on fourth down. Despite gameplanning all week Schottenheimer goes conservative around the goal line. After an hour it is broken up at 0-0. Shottenheimer still can't win in January and Wannstedt blames the kids for poor execution. Pitt grad Pop Warner rolls over in his grave.

2 p.m. Coach invites the kids to a karyoke sing off. Kids are pumped. Only songs on the machine are by Boston, Foreigner, Journey, Kansas, REO Speedwagon, and Eddie Money. Kids not so happy. Coach wins after belting out a heart warming rendition of "Can't fight this feeling."

3 p.m. The kids are really excited for the afternoon petting zoo. Unfortunately Jackie Sherrill beats them there and is busy castrating every male animal he can find to "fire up" the children to learn. Instead Coach decides to take the children to see the old stadium. When they get off the bus shots they are accosted by a group of homeless men and shots are fired in the background. They flee back to the bus.

4 p.m. Powerpoint presentation on the history of Pitt football capped with modern achievements. The modern achievements stopped around 1983. When asked why Coach told the kids that it wasn't his fault and ran out of the room.

4:30 p.m. Pitt fan carivan. Pitt diehard fans come out to put on a play for the kids. Only two guys and a "girl" that looked a lot like Coach in a dress showed up. They performed an episode of "Three's Company."

5 p.m. Kids are told they can board the bus after catching a pass from either Tyler Palko or Rod Rutherford.

9:30 p.m. All 15 kids get on the bus. Coach thanks them all and gives them each an authentic 1976 twinkie. Coach says goodbye and tells them all to keep rockin' and that disco dancing is for gays.