Be Like Tike

Saturday, January 5th, 2008 by Adam Wagner

Friday night/Saturday morning Pittsburgh sports roundup

As usual, there are a ton of little notes worth mentioning and nothing really huge worth writing a post about, so here goes:

DePaul did not help out Pitt on Thursday night, defeating #17 Villanova 84-76 and giving one of the teams that expected to be the class of the Big East a shock to start the season. Pitt has to play in Philadelphia tomorrow, opening up their portion of the Big East schedule against what is sure to be a more focused group of Wildcats. Villanova would be a very tough game for Pitt even if the Panthers had Mike Cook and Levance Fields, but without the two guards, the Wildcats and their six guards will likely be able to play at a level significantly higher than that of Pitt and their four inexperienced guards (yes, there are two seniors in that group, but Keith Benjamin is seeing his first playing time in years and Ronald Ramone is not a point guard). The game should be competitive, but it is unlikely that Jamie Dixon and his team will be able to pull off the upset.
While on the subject of the Panthers, they football team has had some more major recruiting developments. Top defensive end/linebacker Shayne Hale from Gateway (Pittsburgh, PA) and coveted tight end Mike Cruz from Bishop McCort (Johnstown, PA) both verbally committed to Pitt yesterday. Hale had offers from Ohio State, Michigan, WVU, and LSU. Pitt had not been in contention until their upset victory in the Backyard Brawl and were certainly helped out by the commitment of Cameron Saddler, Hale’s cousin and good friend. Cruz had formerly verballed to Pitt, but decommitted three weeks later after receiving offers from Clemson and Florida State. He will be a huge boost to a tight end unit that has been suddenly decimated by graduation and serious injuries.
Troy Polamalu is probably going to start against Jacksonville Saturday night, meaning that the Steelers’ will not have the absence of their Pro Bowl safety to blame if they lose against a Jacksonville team that is playing at an extremely high level right now. The return of Polamalu should be a boost for a Steeler defense that has been lacking veteran leadership without the presences of Polamalu or Aaron Smith.
It is supposed to start raining at about 12 o’clock Saturday, meaning that the field should be nice and soaked by the time Fred Taylor comes out for warmups. If anything happens to him during the game that could be even remotely blamed on the turf, it will interesting to see whether or not he follows through on his word and actually files a lawsuit.
Remember, the Steelers, especially Hines Ward, play the respect card better than any other team in the game today. And the media has definitely been disrespecting the Steelers in the week leading up to this game.
Matt Morris and Damaso Marte are providing great veteran leadership and not attending the Pirates’ mini-camp next week in Bradenton. For two of the veteran players and, therefore, expected leaders to not attend mini-camp is not a good sign. Neither one is a star, as Morris is a drastically overpaid replacement level pitcher and Marte is a left-handed specialist, but both players are putting themselves in front of the team by not showing up.
Speaking of Matt Morris, Neal Huntington apparently believes that he will make up 1/5 of the Pirates’ starting rotation next year along with Ian Snell, Tom Gorzelanny, Paul Maholm, and Zach Duke. That comes as something of a surprise as the Pirates’ should probably be attempting to dump Morris and his $9 million salary, while counting on Zach Duke for anything has been a huge mistake for the past two seasons. Huntington should be bringing in somewhat legitimate arms, not settling for the mediocre (in Duke’s case, the mediocre-at-best).
One of the arms that Huntington should have been pursuing, Matt Clement, signed a contract for one year, with an option, with the division rival St. Louis Cardinals. That Clement avoided signing with Pittsburgh, where he would probably be able to be a better left-handed pitcher than Zach Duke (Clement is a righty) says a good amount about how he feels about the situation here and about the way that the organization has treated veterans in the past.
Huntington did, however, sign Elmer Dessens, inking the veteran right-handed reliever to a minor league contract. Dessens, 37, was awful last year, putting up a 6.60 ERA with Milwaukee. If Dessens is giving anything larger than the John “this game is getting out of hand, let’s conserve arms” Wasdin role, John Russell is an even worse manager than Jim Tracy was and deserves to be fired on the spot.
Maxime Talbot practiced yesterday, signifying the beginning of a return to the ice for the feisty center who has become one of the most valuable players on the team almost by accident.
Pittsburgh has a full weekend of sports ahead, with the Penguins hosting the Florida Panthers at 3:08 and the Steelers hosting Jacksonville at 8 on Saturday, while the Panthers play the Villanova Wildcats in Philadelphia at noon on Sunday.