The best thing to do in Dayton? Leave

That's right. No one here likes this town. The city is terrible, the food is awful and over priced, there is no culture (unless you love chain restaurants), the sports are awful, and there basically no reason to ever come here.

I really don't see how the NCAA grants Dayton the first round of games. The arena is too small, the views are awful, and it looks terrible on tv. The best part about getting to the arena is that there is only one road that goes in and one road that goes out so that makes traffic really fun.

Am I biased? Sure. The last time I was here I saw Levance fall with an injury that kept him out 2 months and we lost the game to a team we should have crushed. What made it worse were the idiot fans that filled their arena.

I'd like to take the time now to rename Dayton as Morgantown - West.

This year we have the fun of coming back to Dayton for a couple of games. The first against ETSU the second against OK State. Now I get that everyone wants to see the big upset for the 1 vs 16. What I don't get is all of the Louisville fans rooting for every other Big East team to lose. Maybe they got caught up in the moment and were rooting against us so that ETSU would pull the huge upset. All that means for me is that I will be pulling for Siena to upset Louisville.

A few years ago when we were playing in Detroit, lower seed Bradley was giving us a game. West Virginia was scheduled to play after us. So after hearing all week of how WVU fans were going to root for Pitt, it was interesting to see that all of the Hoopie fans in attendance were pulling for Bradley. Maybe it was a mistake to put conference ahead of personal rivalry, but now I root against WVU in everything whether it is a conference or non-conference matchup.

Now I will add Louisville to that. In fact, it just might be best to say forget about rooting for the conference, just root for Pitt and root against everyone else.

The best part of last night was dealing with all of the arrogant Dayton and Ohio State fans. Most Dayton fans are Ohio State fans, so it was great seeing OSU fall to Siena in double overtime. I guess all of those paid off recruits, goofy Europeans, and guys that couldn't hack it in the Big East aren't good enough to beat a team that Pitt had dominated earlier in the year.

Now at the game yesterday I was rooting for WVU to beat Dayton just to mess with the Dayton fans in the arena, but that didn't happen and I can't say I'm too upset. I just never feel bad about WVU losing.

Speaking of WVU, there were a bunch of WVU fans at the Pitt game yesterday. Why do they always come to our games? Is it their inferiority complex that they just must be around us all the time? Do they like coming to Pitt events just to mess with us? Either way, it was fun watching them leave yesterday knowing they had just lost to Dayton.

Hopefully tomorrow Pitt dominates Oklahoma State, Louisville loses, and Kansas destroys Dayton.

All three of those would make a perfect day with the perfect ending.

Actually the perfect ending is this, so go ahead and check it out.

How the Big East is going to play out

So I thought it would be fun to predict how the Big East would finish up as most teams only have 6-7 games left.

So here are the predictions.

1. Uconn
2. Louisville
3. Pitt
4. Marquette
5. Villanova
6. Syracuse
7. WVU
8. Notre Dame
9. Cincinnati
10. Providence
11. Georgetown
12. Seton Hall
13. South Florida
14. St. Johns
15. Rutgers
16. Depaul.


There ya go folks. That is how it is going to play out.

A Pitt/ND preview from a Notre Dame fan

Hey everyone, well my friend Kent was kind enough to write up a little of what we should expect between Pitt and Notre Dame. I haven't watched Notre Dame as much as I should have this season, so luckily Kent who is from Pittsburgh but goes to Miami for college ended up a Notre Dame fan at some point and is helping us out. Luckily Kent's brother is a big Pitt fan and goes to Pitt, so we can't hate on him too much. Sorry for the dig Kent, it's all in good fun. Anyway, here is Kent's preview for the game tomorrow.

Both Pitt and Notre Dame are going to be hungry for a win on Saturday. The Panthers enter the game with an 18-2 record overall, and 6-2 in the Big East. Both losses were on the road to top 25 teams (@ Louisville, @ Villanova). The Panthers have not lost at home this season and hope to continue this trend into the month of February. For the Panthers to remain in the hunt for a Big East Championship, they can ill afford to lose back-to-back conference games.

The Irish are in much desperate need for a win. Mike Brey’s boys have lost four in a row and it not many people across the country are expecting Notre Dame to win in Oakland on Saturday. Notre Dame had hopes at the beginning of the season of challenging for a Big East Championship. However, with four straight losses, Brey would simply want to get any win at this point to help his team’s disappointing season.

You may ask, why should Pitt be worried? They are in the top 5 playing against a team with 7 losses and a 3-5 Big East conference record. For starters, this isn’t your typical 3-5 conference team. Notre Dame is led by National Player of the Year candidate Luke Harangody.

Harangody is 5^th in the nation in Points per game (25.0) and 2^nd in Rebounds per game (13.3). He leads the Big East in both categories. The defending Big East Player of the Year is averaging an astonishing 27.6 PPG and 14.8 RPG in Big East play. There is no doubt Harangody has brought his A-game all season long, but the supporting cast must step up. After winning 45 straight conference home games, the Irish lost two in a row against Connecticut and Marquette.

The difference in both games was Notre Dame’s inability to make open three point shots. The Irish are usually the best 3-point shooting team in the Big East, but lately Kyle McAlarney and Ryan Ayers have struggled mightily beyond the arc, especially Ayers, going 0-12 in his past two games. Pitt has done a better job recently of defending the long ball, but they are going to need a superb effort on Saturday because it’s most likely only a matter of time before Ayers and McAlarney find their stroke.

The X-factor for the Irish could be Notre Dame Point Guard Tory Jackson. Last year, the 5’10” Jackson dominated Pitt on the glass with a team-high 13 rebounds. Jackson Is a smart player that usually looks to get his teammates the ball first as opposed to scoring for himself. Notre Dame leads the nation in Assist-Turnover ratio (1.85), Pitt is 3^rd in the nation in that category (1.47). The Irish are also 5^th in Assists per game (18.1), Pitt is 8^th (17.8). Expect both teams to play relatively mistake-free basketball on Saturday afternoon.

The key for the Panthers is to, A) Keep Blair from getting into foul trouble, B) Contain Notre Dame from heating up beyond the arc. Notre Dame scores a lot of points, but the Panthers need to force the Irish to play their tempo, not Notre Dame’s. Whoever wins the tempo battle, will most likely win the game. The X-factor for the Panthers could be Jermaine Dixon. He will be the man guarding sharp-shooter McAlarney throughout most of the game. If he does a good job in preventing McAlarney to get open, then the Panthers could win by double digits. If he struggles, then the Irish may be able to escape the Pete with a victory.

Another way in which the Panthers can have tremendous success is the transition game. Notre Dame is not very good defensively in terms of transition, and therefore, Sam Young, Dixon and Levance Fields can have a field day with the Irish if Notre Dame makes mistakes.

There is a pretty good chance that Harangody will get his 20+ points, 10+ rebounds and DeJuan Blair will get close to 15 rebounds, but the key of the game will come back to the Irish making, or missing, the 3-point shot. If Notre Dame make 12 or more three-pointers, then it is very likely that the Irish win. If they struggle shooting beyond the arc, or if McAlarney has trouble finding openings like he did against Marquette, then Pitt could win by double digits.

Both teams really need this win, and typically you have to favor the better team in a matchup like this. Pitt is the better basketball team, but Notre Dame will play with the “Us against the world” mentality. It could be enough, but I expect the Panthers to come away with a hard fought victory.

Prediction: Pitt 76, Notre Dame 70.

...

The athletics department does not want us to wear eye black for tomorrows game against Syracuse.

Take it as you will.

Lets Be Big Time

Just like Max said below, we are #1 in the country, so it is time for us to be an elite program. Other programs across the country wear a specific color. I don't care if you are a PSU bball fan, a WVU fan, or what not, if you come to Pitt basketball home games this is your turn to wear gold. Syracuse has been playing well lately and is a top 25 team. If you don't think this game means anything then think again. They are the first ever Big East team to win at the Pete. There is no excuse for them to ever win again here. Flynn looks disinterested playing in college. You know he is waiting until he can cash in an NBA paycheck. Devendorf hit's women. I have a sister and I love my mom so if you have any female connections you should be at this game letting little Eric that it is not O.K. to hit women. We need to be on him all game long. There is no excuse ever to hit a woman.

Syracuse pulled their strings and gave him a small slap on the wrist for him "PUNCHING A GIRL".

If you think hitting a girl is O.K., then fine, take 79 south and route for WVU because it is not OK for Pitt. On Monday we will be lining up early at Pitt ready to let Cuse have it. I feel bad for Jim Boeheim because he looks very tired and frustrated. 20 years ago he wouldn't have had to deal with this but because of coaches like Bob (T)Huggins and Bobby (dirty man) Gonzalez we have to deal with coaches who bend the rules for certain players.

The Big East should have no tolerance for obvious rule breakers like this. Sadly, we have to deal with this to over come our piss poor perception in football. So cheer your heart out Big East Basketball fans because we need to set the trend!