OT: D1

[IUPbigINDIANS]

A few Pitt items to cover---

-Tomorrow evening they will play host to Slippery Rock at 7PM in The Pete for an exhibition basketball game.

-The Panthers then open the regular season a week later on November 6 at home against Florida State in an early season ACC matchup.

-As I reported a week or two ago---Head Coach Jeff Capel has confirmed that it is a full-go for frosh forward Justin Champagnie. It was earlier feared that he had sustained a season ending knee injury.

-Looks like Nov. 4 could be the date when five star recruits SG Earl Timberlake and 6-9 SF Josh Hall will announce decisions on their choice of colleges. Pitt has been on Timberlake's final five list for some time. Some crystal ballers are now predicting him to Miami but there seems to be a lot of mystery where he will choose to go. South Carolina, Seton Hall and Providence are the other schools among his final five. As for Hall---He has recently visited DePaul and LSU and is scheduled to visit Pitt before his decision is announced. Many CBs have him selecting North Carolina State at the moment.

-The fallout from the failed R.J. Davis recruitment has likely hit the Pitt staff hard as they had perhaps put too many eggs in one basket with their all-out effort to win him. I am personally not that rattled over it. After doing some more film study of possible candidates for the PG position I have to feel that he is more of a shooting guard to be honest. I personally like PGs like Shakeel Moore (Hall's teammate at Morovian Prep) and Noah Farrakhan out of IMG Academy. Moore had Pitt in his final seven schools but things seemed to cool a month or so back when he cancelled his visit to Oakland. No doubt a product of the all-out blitz Pitt put on Davis. Hopefully they can pick things back up with him as he is a major backcourt talent. Farrakhan is a most interesting prospect----major game and the personality of a pop star. My best guess here is that he may be waiting for an offer from one of the bluebloods. He hails from New Jersey so failing that maybe he would even be interested in signing on with a resurgent Seton Hall program which I see is ranked in the top 15.

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Those are some odd finalists for your two mentioned Five Stars.

Kind of disappointing Till can't play against Pitt tonight. That would have been interesting to watch.

[IUP CRIMSON HAWKS]

Those are some odd finalists for your two mentioned Five Stars.

Kind of disappointing Till can't play against Pitt tonight. That would have been interesting to watch.

Very odd grouping of finalists for both Hall and Timberlake. Sounds like it could go just about any way yet.

SRU did actually outboard Pitt in the first half 24-19.

But Pitt a 98-47 winner. 17 for X-Man and 15 for Trey. 13 for Drumgoole.

Starting five for Pitt were X, Trey, Drumgoole, Toney, and Hamilton.

Not sure how much you can glean from a game such as this to be honest. But it at least serves as a bit of a dress rehearsal to get ready for the invasion of the Seminoles next Wednesday night.

Pitt said to be on the trail of Top 50 PG Jalen Terry who de-committed from Michigan State. Quite a long list of D-I heavies in pursuit of him. That doesn't favor Pitt.

Champagnie saw action this evening after initially being ruled out of the exhibition. 8 points for him.

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[Chuck Norris]

[IUP CRIMSON HAWKS]

I agree with all of that. I would love to see Pitt get up to 17 wins this season and like you said----some good ACC victories as well. The ACC is just so unbelievably brutal. It is so hard to find easy wins. It just doesn't exist.

First off---some news on the recruiting front---

-Earl Timberlake opts for Miami. Pretty much a major surprise for most observers although the crystal baller crowd did hit it in recent weeks.

-Puff Johnson commits to North Carolina. I think most agreed all along that it was down to UNC or Arizona.

As for the game last evening, some thoughts would be:

-Xavier and Trey form a real nice 1-2 backcourt punch. They lose nothing when Trey takes over running the point.

-Ryan Murphy was a real find.

-Terrell Brown was absolutely fantastic in the second half. Looks like he may have found his game.

-Justin Champagnie looks like he could be a good one as does Drumgoole.

-Au'Dise Toney is a pretty darn good basketball player but he can't shoot the ball AT ALL! Capel had seen enough and pulled him after going 0-7 from the floor.

-The game was rather sloppy and I was amazed how Pitt was still in the game later in the second half after going down by nine when it looked like the Seminoles were about to break it open. But they proved themselves the grittier team when it counted.

-It was a fantastic win to open the season. Pitt back in action at noon on Saturday against Nichols State or some such school. Hopefully we get our first look at Karim Coulibaly whom I believe added an Abdul in front of his name since the last time we spoke.

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[IUPbigINDIANS]

H2P more like YIKES

Pitt lost at home to Nichols State ... Wow

[Chuck Norris]

H2P more like YIKES

Pitt lost at home to Nichols State ... Wow

Yeah, trailing pretty much wire to wire at home against a team picked to finish 10th in the Southland Conference...not good. Those 6 or 7 ACC wins and 17-18 overall wins I was hoping for looks a lot less attainable than it did a few days ago.

[IUP CRIMSON HAWKS]

H2P more like YIKES

Pitt lost at home to Nichols State ... Wow

To paraphrase Larry the mayor of Shark City from the film of Jaws---

If you say that Pitt lost to Duke or North Carolina, people shrug their shoulders or just say yeah.

You say that we lost at home to Nichols State and we have a panic on our hands in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.

It's not a good look to say the least. I did not get to see the game since I believe that it had to be streamed from ACCNX or one of the ESPN feeds. I did catch some of it on the dial. It was frustrating to say the least. They are a young team and were no doubt emotionally and maybe even physically spent from their clash with FSU the other night. Nichols State may not be nearly as bad a team as what has been put out there as well. They took Illinois to OT a few night back (okay, the Illini are hardly world beaters). But anyway you want to slice it---this loss was not exactly what the program's new gloss needed. I guess you could parallel it to last season's home loss to Niagra. It's not a fun thing but it unfortunately is a part of a rebuilding program.

Pitt is back in action this week this Tuesday at Robert Morris as they open up their new arena and then again on Friday at the Pete as they tangle with WVU in the Backyard Brawl. Let's see how they respond to the rollercoaster of differing emotions that they experienced last week.

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[Chuck Norris]

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Yeah ... makes sense.

I do feel bad for the Pitt football team. They get a Thursday night game this week and it happens to be on the same night the black-and-gold Yinzers are playing (at Cleveland).

Heinz Field may be historically empty.

[Chuck Norris]

Yeah ... makes sense.

I do feel bad for the Pitt football team. They get a Thursday night game this week and it happens to be on the same night the black-and-gold Yinzers are playing (at Cleveland).

Heinz Field may be historically empty.

[CALUPA69]

All the while, AB sits at home playing the victim on social media and Lev Bell is having a lousy year on a lousy team.

History shows it is almost certainly a bad move to leave the STEELERS for greener pastures. Can't remember many other than ROD WOODSON who had an equal or better career after leaving HEINZ FIELD. On the other hand joining the BLACK&GOLD has greatly benefitted a number of players.

[IUP CRIMSON HAWKS]

I'm in the camp that FSU is actually a rather good college basketball team. I believe they were Sweet 16 a year ago but had to re-tool. Pitt's win over them was legit and I think it did play a part in their shoddy performance on Saturday. I also would think that Nicholls State is not a bad team either.

Looks like Five Star SF Josh Hall has trimmed his wish list down to three schools---DePaul, Louisville, and NC State. He has canceled his scheduled visit to Pitt. I honestly did not think that there is any way that he would come to Oakland. That said---I would love for Pitt to sign his teammate PG Shakeel Moore. But unfortunately word is going around that the boat has sailed on that happening.

Tune in to ESPNU tomorrow at 6 PM for Pitt @ Robert Morris. This is a big bounce back redemption opportunity for the Panthers. They need to get some momentum for their tangle with the Mountaineers in the Backyard Brawl on Friday.

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[IUP CRIMSON HAWKS]

History shows it is almost certainly a bad move to leave the STEELERS for greener pastures. Can't remember many other than ROD WOODSON who had an equal or better career after leaving HEINZ FIELD. On the other hand joining the BLACK&GOLD has greatly benefitted a number of players.

I agree with you all the way here. I think that we could list former Steelers LB Mike Vrabel as someone whose career blossomed after he left the Steel City for the Cheaters of New England.

Most made huge mistakes in leaving the black and gold. You can count dolts like AB and Lev Bell pretty high on that list.

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[IUP CRIMSON HAWKS]

Mike Tomlin is undoubtedly doing his best coaching job in a long, long time. Minkah Fitzpatrick has to be up there as a candidate for Defensive POY.

And also worth pointing out that a number of Steelers defenders are candidates for the Pro Bowl---Fitzpatrick, Haden, Bush, Heyward, Watt. Maybe even guys like Dupree and Nelson who has quietly had a very solid year at corner. The arrow is at long last pointing up for the Steelers D!

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[CALUPA69]

Mike Tomlin is undoubtedly doing his best coaching job in a long, long time. Minkah Fitzpatrick has to be up there as a candidate for Defensive POY.

And also worth pointing out that a number of Steelers defenders are candidates for the Pro Bowl---Fitzpatrick, Haden, Bush, Heyward, Watt. Maybe even guys like Dupree and Nelson who has quietly had a very solid year at corner. The arrow is at long last pointing up for the Steelers D!

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For people who haven't really been paying attention, crazy good D got the STEELERS to SBs with NEIL O'DONNELL and 2nd year BIG BEN. This may not be that level but it is moving in that direction. They've lost 4 games to teams that are now 30-5. Other than the embarrassment in NE, the other three losses were by 9 total points, one in overtime. Loses are loses but some are much more understandable than others. This isn't the COWBOYS losing to the JETS or the SAINTS losing to the FALCONS. I'll say now that week 17 vs the DIRTY BIRDS will matter.