Worst. Pittsburgh. Sports. Week. Ever.

Seriously? What in the Sam Hill is going on around here?

I'll give a box of Twinkies to the person who can point out to me a worse week, because I don't need any fancy math skills to know that this:

PLUS this:

PLUS this:

equals the worst week in memory.

Just what have we as a city done to piss off the sports gods? Personally, I blame the Mayor.

Putting the Pitt Loss to Butler in Perspective

For Pitt fans, we've been here before -- bounced from the tournament. Bitterly. Devastatingly. Even prematurely, some would say.

Every year, there's a reason, some phenom who decides to explode on the scene at the exact moment he takes the court against Pitt, or a bad match up, or just dumb luck. There's always a reason, isn't there?

Let's take a stroll through the last decade of painful losses.

2002: As a 3 seed, Pitt made it to the Sweet 16, beating 14-seed Central Connecticut State and 6th-seeded Cal along the way before going down to Kent State (10 seed.)

Reason: A Golden Flash player named Antonio Gates. Maybe you've heard of him. He's gone on to be the fame and fortune in the NFL as a tight end for the San Diego Chargers and has been selected to the Pro Bowl seven times.

2003: As a 2 seed, Pitt made it to the Sweet 16, beating 15th seed Wagner and 7th seed Indiana, before losing to 3rd seed Marquette, by a score of 77-74.

Reason: D-Wade. Was named the Midwest Regional Outstanding Player after compiling 51 points, 14 boards and 15 assists in two games -- taking out Pitt, then Kain'tuck.

2004: As a 3 seed, Pitt made it to the Sweet 16, beating Central Fla. (14) and Wisconsin (6) before losing to Oklahoma State, 63-51.

Reason: Okla. St. was smoking hot coming into this game, having won 19 of their last 20.

2005: Pitt (9 seed) lost a depressing game to Pacific in the first round, 79-71.

Reason: Who cares, really?

2006: Pitt won their first round game versus a D-Wade-less Marquette, then dropped in the 2nd round to Bradley (out of the Missouri Valley Conference)

Reason: Two Braves went completely bananas in this game, as Patrick O'Bryant had 28 points and 7 rebounds, while Marcellus Sommerville added 18 points and 6 boards. To think, this was supposed to be the Panthers' bounce-back year.

2007: Pitt earned a 3-seed and advanced to the Sweet 16 before losing to UCLA.

Reason: UCLA did advance to the Final Four. And they proved to be a much tougher team. Probably Ben Howland's best team.

2008: Lost in the second round to Michigan State.

Reason: There's never really any shame in losing to Tom Izzo's Michigan State program. When the game was on the line, Drew Neitzel and Kalin Lucas took over, putting on a late shooting-and-ballhandling show. Of note: This win over Pitt gave Spartie five wins in five NCAA tournament games against Big East teams, which tied the longest winning streak against Big East teams in NCAA tournament play, set by Duke (won five straight against the Big East from 1990 to 1992.)

2009: Lost in the Elite 8 on a last second bucket by Villanova's Scottie Reynolds.

Reason: They were one great play away from going to OT and possibly advancing to the Final Four, when Reynolds made the best, most clutch play of the night. Still, this loss was a move in the right direction -- as Pitt finally got past the Sweet 16. Still, it was disappointing, given that this was probably Pitt's best team ever, and certainly the best team in the Jamie Dixon era. This one hurt. A lot.

2010: Lost in the 2nd round to Xavier.

Reason: This was a team figuring out who they were in the absence of Dejuan Blair, Sam Young and Levance Fields.

2011: Do we have to relive this second round loss to Butler?

Reason: Facing Butler which should never have had a seed as low as 8 with four starters returning from last year's Butler team. Plus Shelvin Mack going bananas and hitting 7 of 12 three-point shots. Plus Matt Howard flopping like an Italian futbol player. Plus Pitt's shot clock violation. And their sheer stupidity. That about sums that up, right?

I had this wonderful principal in high school -- Sister Regina Clare. She used to tell us that there was a world of difference between an excuse and a reason. But I wonder, if I could ask her now, if even valid reasons cannot turn into excuses when they are heaped upon each other, layer after layer, over and over again?

Sure, there's really no shame in losing to Dwyane Wade. Or losing to last year's finalist, a team that came within 2-points of knocking off Duke.

And in a vacuum, either of those loses is perfectly acceptable to all but the most rabid Pitt fans, no?

But at some point, if you want to actually be deserving of elite status, actually be deserving of a 1-seed in the tourney, don't you have to win one of those games every once in a while? Not all of them. Just one or two of them. Because elite teams do sometimes win these kinds of games. Elite teams sometimes rise up and pull off the big win in the toughest setting.

After a while, don't legit reasons take on another shape and morph into excuses?

None of which is to say that I'm ready to make crazy changes at Pitt, like firing coach Dixon or something else equally extreme. But ... Dixon et al do have to examine some things this off-season. There are chinks in the armor that simply have to be mended. Pitt was badly out-coached by Jim Calhoun in the Big East tournament, and other weaknesses were painfully apparent against Butler, such as Pitt's inability to adjust to and/or cool off a hot 3-point shooter. Frankly, that's something that has been a problem for the Panthers over the years. So there are things for Dixon and his staff to work on, starting today; areas that they simply have to improve upon. Have. To.

Meanwhile, the NCAA men's basketball selection committee should cease and desist from ever conferring a No. 1 seed upon Pitt until the Panthers actually win one of these things tough games in March, because I'm sure the white hairs at the committee are just as sick of seeing this as Pitt fans are:

Pitt Women's 2010-2011 Hoops Schedule Released

Per the Post-Gazette, the Pitt women's basketball 2010 non-conference schedule is out. (Listed below).

And of course, after they slog their way through the likes of Minnesota, Duke, Texas Tech and Duquesne (no longer a gimme game with Suzie McConnell-Serio at the helm), they will have to play teams like UConn, Rutgers, Notre Dame and WVU twice weekly, week in and week out. Which is great for women's hoops fans.

Plus, this should be a particularly interesting year, given how much things changed since last March.

The 2009-2010 season was the most disappointing I've seen from an Agnus Berenato team. Of course, graduating players like Xenia Stewart and Shavonte Zellous will set you back -- you don't replace players of that caliber overnight -- but even so, it was a strange and frustrating season. It felt like that team never came together. Naturally, there were big doings when it was over.

A number of players left, pretty much the entire sophomore class -- Pepper Wilson, Sarah Ogoke and Katie Popovec. I don't know those girls, but I have the utmost confidence in Coach B. Since she arrived at Pitt, I have followed her closely. I've been lucky enough to interview her and I've been around her a bunch of other times. Coach B is the real deal. If a player cannot get motivated to play for her, it's pretty likely that player has a problem getting motivated for anything.

Then, after that, Coach B's longtime assistant coach and super guy, Jeff Williams left to take the head coaching job at LaSalle. (Williams was the second key member of that staff to move on. Following the 2007-2008 season, Pitt Assistant, Shea Ralph, returned to her alma mater of UConn to take an assistant coaching job. Both Williams and Ralph did great work for Coach B. And both made great career moves by leaving. At the time that Ralph left, Coach B. told me that Geno (Auriemma) almost never has an opening, so how great is it that one of her coaches was chosen for that spot. I'm paraphrasing, but the point is, it's a feather in Pitt's cap that they've had their coaching staff raided for these other openings.)

First, Coach B. hired former New York Liberty Head Coach Patty Coyle, then she hired Khadija J. Head, an assistant at Middle Tennessee State for the staff.

Just a moment for this interstitial -- I should point out that Middle Tennessee State played their first round NCAA tournament game at the Pete last year. My buddy UConn Fan was there and sent pictures of the Mid. Tenn. St. mascot which looks like a blue transgendered 'Love My Pony,' sporting a silver pompadour mane, sparkly silver tail, silver wings and bright blue muscles.

Here it is on the sideline.



And here it is dancing to 'YMCA.'



[I am not making any of this up, but none of this reflects on Khadija Head who I am sure will do a great job for Pitt. I just thought that it was time to give transgendered athletic mascots their due.]

Then, there is the final piece of the coaching puzzle, former Pitt standout and fan favorite, Mallorie Winn. Even when Winn was a player, you just knew she'd end up coaching some day. I think she's gonna prove to be a great hire.

So, there's an entirely new coaching staff, lots of new faces on the bench and a chance for seniors Shayla Scott and Taneisha Harrison to make this team theirs. It's not gonna be boring.

Schedule:
Nov. 12 - Youngstown State (School Day)
Nov. 17 - At Minnesota
Nov. 21 - Radford
Nov. 24 - Duke
Nov. 28 - Loyola (Md.)
Dec. 1 - at St. Francis (Pa.)
Dec. 4 - Mount St. Mary's
Dec. 11 - at Valparaiso
Dec. 19 - Texas Tech (at Las Vegas)
Dec. 20 - Texas Arlington (at Las Vegas)
Dec. 28 - Austin Peay
Dec. 31 - at Central Michigan
Jan. 5 - at Duquesne

Big Ten Conference Considers Wooing Pittsburgh

From True/Slant on December 18, 2009:

Big Ten Sets Sights on Pittsburgh
The Big Ten Conference is looking to add another team, which would technically make it a conference of twelve teams, but we won’t talk about that because there’s already a Big 12, so officially it’s the Big Ten, but really it’s 11 big schools looking to be 12 big schools. Unofficially, of course.

When they started looking around for another school, naturally, the Big Ten really wanted Notre Dame. What conference doesn’t want the cash cow that is Fighting Irish football? Beyond that, Notre Dame is an appropriate geographic fit.

But Notre Dame said no, as they should. What would the Domers gain by joining the Big Ten? Not one single thing. To this day, really, is there a higher profile college football program? Not a better program, but a higher profile one? They already enjoy their own personal TV contract for football and aside from their traditional rivalry games against USC and the like, they are free to schedule at will, be it cupcake or schedule of death. Why would they give up all that money and all that freedom?

Meanwhile, they still get to reap the benefits of playing in one of the top basketball conferences in the country, with some of the best teams in the nation, plus a tremendous basketball tradition. Nobody who was alive for the Villanova-Georgetown final has forgotten that game. For the women, too, the Big East is head and shoulders over the Big Ten. The Notre Dame women’s program is ranked in the top five and five other Big East teams help fill out the Top 25. So, to state the obvious for the fifth time in as many paragraphs, Notre Dame would gain nothing by joining the Big Ten.

The Big Ten has cast their glance further eastward to the University of Pittsburgh.

Like Notre Dame, Pitt’s basketball programs gain nothing by the move to the Big Ten, except that both could probably rule in that conference. I’m sorry, I know there are good teams in the Big Ten, but when I watch Big Ten basketball, I drop off to sleep. Their style of basketball seems to mimic the old Ohio State football coach’s philosophy of three yards and cloud of dust, which may work from time to time, but I’ve been to audits that were more entertaining.

But the Big Ten knows all this. Pitt’s basketball programs would give the Big Ten a boost, and while they don’t exactly need the addition of Pitt football, it would be a good fit. Geographically, Pittsburgh is not in the midwest, but then, neither is Penn State and that doesn’t seem to bother the conference a bit. And Pittsburgh football has returned to respectability, so they wouldn’t be an embarrassment to the Big Ten. For Pitt, despite my protestations to the contrary, Big Ten football is highly regarded and highly ranked. Every year. No matter what. So finishing 9-3 in the Big Ten is a very animal different than finishing 9-3 in the Big East.

Let’s face it – football drives the bus. Football is the money maker. So if one program is going to assert it’s will, it will be football.

But might I say, for the love of all that is holy – NO!

Like Seuss’ Lorax, let me speak on behalf of those who have no voice, or, at least, little voice — the women’s basketball program.

I’m sure I’ll get some arguments from fans of the ACC and the SEC and the PAC-10, but to me, there is no finer conference for women’s hoops than the Big East. Every year, I get to see teams like Rutgers, UConn, Louisville, Xavier, WVU, and Notre Dame pass through, bringing with them a veritable Who’s Who’s of Women’s Basketball Coaching legends. And characters. It’s worth the price of season tickets just to watch C. Vivian Stringer work the officials on the sidelines for Rutgers, worth driving through two feet of snow to watch Geno Auriemma glower and steam. It’s a beautiful thing.

Beyond that, the women of the Big East play the most physical basketball permitted within the confines of the rules. Every conference game is a rough and tumble, bodies sprawled on the hardwood, elbows flying, trench-type warfare in the paint, defensive masterstroke, fast-break laden brawl. There are great programs outside the Big East, naturally, and I love watching Stanford, Baylor, Maryland and Tennessee ply their trades as much as the next women’s hoops aficionado. But top to bottom, game in and game out, nothing short of the NCAA tournament is as much fun as Big East conference play.

As much as I would love to renew the Pitt-Penn State football rivalry that JoePa quashed in a fit of panties bunching, I’d lose so much more on the hardcourt. And I know it’ s not as tempting as the potential revenue to be gained by joining the Big Ten, but pissing off Joe Paterno is a another good reason for Pitt to tell the Big Ten to keep looking.

Hello, Mrs. Upset

Hello, Mrs. Upset, we’ve been expecting you.

The upsets keep on coming in the women’s bracket and I, for one, couldn’t be happier. Following the first round of upsets, the second round provided some other notable top 25 teams going down.

Purdue took out North Carolina, a three-seed in the tourney and ranked 11 overall. Rutgers romped over two-seed Auburn (and I stupidly thought this game would be a good one.)

But the big news, of course, was sixth ranked Duke, the one-seed in the Berkeley bracket, losing to Michigan State. Duke looked soft against Michigan State, working far around the perimeter, unable to get to the basket. It was all compounded by the fact that the Dookies didn’t make a single shot for the last seven and a-half minutes of action. Ladies, you cannot win when you do not score. It is an immutable law of physics. Or something.

It also means that Maryland is the only ACC team remaining, the practical upshot of which is that my pal, henceforth known here as U.Conn Fan, is ecstatic. EX-Static.

It also sets up some great games in the Sweet 16.

Baylor sneaked by the South Dakota State Jackrabbits on a last half-second shot by Kelli Griffin to win. Seriously, the clocked showed 0.5 when she let the shot go. Coach Kim Mulkey, who had been hospitalized with the gleets (kidney stones; also a shameless Deadwood reference) the day before the game, was on the sidelines for this one. Now they get to take on Louisville and the Cardinals' silent assassin, Angel McCoughtry, who had 28 points and 8 boards in their win over LSU. This game figures to be epic.

Meanwhile, Pitt takes on Oklahoma and Ben Roethlisberger’s sister, Carlee. Pitt struggled against the running Catholics of Gonzaga, but they can play with anybody (well, anybody but U.Conn) and it’s possible Coach B and Shavonte Zellous have a little magic left in them. They’ll have to fight both the Sooners and a hostile crowd in Oklahoma City if they want to make Courtney Paris reimburse the university for her tuition. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/sports/ncaabasketball/24win.html?ref=ncaabasketball)

Meanwhile somebody woke up Rutgers. Come on, guys, didn’t I tell you not to wake the sleeping giants of Piscataway? Now coach C. Vivian Stringer has Kia Vaughn playing like she did a few years ago when they made a run to the finals and got Don Imus canned for calling them ... nevermind.

Meanwhile, in the Trenton bracket, the Connecticut Huskies keep rolling and the best reason to watch them is to see if they can complete the perfect season. If not, sir Geno himself has said that the story of the 2009 season will be the Huskies losing. I tend to agree with King Auriemma that, in women’s hoops circles, a U.Conn loss would be right up there with the New England Patriots finishing 18-1.

Of a side note, yesterday, two days after Tennessee’s first first-round loss, The Summitt had her team practicing. I expect that she will continue to do so right through the end of the school year or as along as she’s allowed to under NCAA guidelines. Don’t think for a minute that’s not what she spent Monday doing - looking into just what the legal limits are for how hard she can ride these girls. They’d be better off in Marine Corp. boot camp right now.

Women's Hoops for the PC Crowd

Eight Elite Things to say about the Women's NCAA Basketball Tournament at Pittsburgh Dish, below:

http://pittsburghdish.typepad.com/pittsburgh_dish/2009/03/everybody-has-an-opinion-on-the-mens-tourney-at-dish-we-wont-add-to-the-din-because-youve-no-doubt-heard-47-differ.html#more

Moses and the NCAA Tourney

Why Passover and March Madness are similar religious experiences penned for 'Burbia:

http://www.burbia.com/node/2463