James is a potentially dominant player who is inconsistent.  As Everhart put it, “I don’t think he really hit his stride.  He showed in spurts what he’s capable of doing.”  James is a phenomenal shot-blocker, he was fifth in the nation in blocked shots per game last season.

He will probably be a second round pick and will more than likely spend some time in the Developmental League, but the decision is a logical one for James as he is 25 years old and is getting married in the fall.  In other words, it is not a decision made based purely on financial means made by a young kid, but instead a logical one made by a maturing young man.

Everhart has stated that he is proud of what James has accomplished at Duquesne and wishes him luck in the future.  It is fair for Duquesne fans to wish him luck in the future as well, as James was a player for the program to be proud and could represent a stepping stone on the path to success even if he didn’t provide that success himself.

Stull, a redshirt junior, has spent the most time in Pitt’s system and is the oldest of the quarterbacks, but he is probably not the best.  Last year was supposed to be Stull’s year, with Pat Bostick maybe receiving some playing time toward the end of the season, with the two kind of splitting time this season if Stull was ineffective or Stull holding the job outright if he was good.

In the first game of the 2007 season, against Eastern Michigan, however, Stull went down to an injury.  He had looked very solid prior to that injury, but it was one that would keep him out for the remainder of the season.

In the interim, Wannstedt attempted to turn to Kevan Smith to fill the void left by Stull, deeming Bostick unprepared for the challenges of being a Division I quarterback.  Smith looked absolutely atrocious, embarrassing himself and Pitt during his time on the field and leading to Bostick’s being inserted into the lineup beginning with a portion of the Connecticut game.

Bostick was turnover-prone throughout the season, demonstrating the flaws that commonly plague freshman quarterbacks such as throwing into traffic or misreading a defense.  He did, however, mature as the season went on and, along with fellow freshman LeSean “Shady” McCoy, led Pitt to a seminal victory over West Virginia (13-9, anyone?).

Bostick’s teammates know that he can lead them to victory, but he still hasn’t shown an ability to win games.  That means that, as long as the offense is based around McCoy, Bostick will do just enough to not lose.  It also means that Bostick may or may not have the ability to make the deep throw or to work in a pressure situation.  Under Bostick, who went 3-6 as a starter, Pitt lost four games by a touchdown or less.   As Bostick matures, Pitt may win some of those games, but this is a team with enough talent to hope for a legitimate bowl berth, if not a Big East Championship, this season.

That means that Stull needs to be the starting quarterback, with athletic transfer Greg Cross serving as the Tim Tebow, coming in during red zone situations in order to provide the Pitt offense with a more mobile dynamic from the quarterback.  This season is essentially like last season, with Bostick ready to step in if Stull falters, but with Stull receiving the first crack at starting.

And that’s fair to all of the quarterbacks, but, more importantly, is fair to their teammates and to the Pitt fans.

So far this season, Dixon has rejected the University of California, his alma mater, which went after him immediately after firing its coach. Dixon constantly receives interest from West coast teams because, well, ESPN says it better than I can:

There is a perception that Dixon wants to move back to the West Coast because he is from Santa Barbara and his wife is from Hawaii. In truth, he is not looking to get back there as his family thoroughly enjoys living in Pittsburgh.

If Dixon were to leave at some point, however, there is a very natural successor currently residing in the Queen City, Cincinnati, where Sean Miller has helped guide Xavier to the Elite Eight this season. Miller was the runner-up to the Pitt job when Ben Howland left and played for the Panthers. He has, however, risen significantly on the national scene and could be in line for other major coaching jobs. (Then there is also the fact that Dixon turned down his alma mater and that there is nothing preventing Miller from doing the same.)

It is vital to the success of the program as well as those two important c words, continuity and consistency, that Dixon stays on board and, as of right now, it looks like there is a good chance that he will remain in charge at the Pete for a long time to come.

The issues in this game really boiled down to Pitt failing all over the floor. There were instances in the second half, when Pitt desperately needed a three pointer, that a shot would go up, the rebound would bounce off of the hoop and there would not be a Panther in the paint, as all five players would be around the perimeter. Sorry, that just doesn’t work.

Also, Michigan State guard Drew Neitzel shot lights out, hitting threes that many others would have found virtually impossible. He was just dominant from long distance. Neitzel’s attitude, however, annoyed me. There were points where Neitzel would feel that a call should go in MSU’s favor and, as such, would just walk down the floor pointing at MSU’s end of the court. By the end of the game, Neitzel’s attitude seriously began to bother me and I kind of hoped that someone, anyone on Pitt would have the attitude to foul him hard.

Back to the play of the Panthers, however, as the team, outside of Levance Fields, never seemed to find its comfort level tonight. Fields played another inspired game, constantly driving and throwing up shots. The only possible criticism of the Xaverian product is that he may have been a little too aggressive with the ball at times, constantly shooting first instead of looking for open teammates. Unfortunately, he was the best player on the floor for Pitt.

Jamie Dixon only went with seven players tonight, playing Fields, Dejuan Blair, Sam Young, Gilbert Brown, Tyrell Biggs, Keith Benjamin and Ronald Ramon. This showed a painful lack of depth for this season’s Panthers, as the team failed to function as one unit in this game, instead seeming worn out. Going through the lineup, the team looked something like this:

• Blair had a strong line statistically, but that really did not seem evident on the floor. The Schenley product wracked up 10 points, but went 4-for-11 from the field in doing so. He also had seven rebounds, but there were the moments mentioned above where the Panthers would shoot the ball and there would be nobody in the paint, including Blair, who would be on the perimeter just like all of his teammates. In order for the Panthers to be successful, they really needed Blair to become an imposing inside presence, something that he clearly is not ready to be. Blair will clearly be a Panther next season, as his poor performance over the latter part of this season (except for against Georgetown) clearly showed that he is not NBA-ready. He will continue to improve.
• Young played a decent game, but didn’t have one of the dominant performances that he had been able to provide in the past when the Panthers were in trouble. When Young’s pump-fake isn’t working, he panics and doesn’t quite know what to do. There have been times in the tournament where he would stop, pump and then have no idea what to do, driving in on completely set defenders. Young had a good game (15 points) against Michigan State, but the Panthers really could have used some more from him, such as more than one rebound.
• Brown was frustrating tonight, as the player who showed the most improvement over the course of the season seemed hesitant tonight, not taking open shots when he had them and not being as aggressive as he had been in the past month or so. He was not the spark plug off of the bench tonight that he had been over the Panthers’ recent run.
• Biggs just looked bad, to the point that everyone I was watching the game with would just groan whenever he touched the ball.
• Benjamin was a complete nonfactor in this game, unfortunately seeming passive with the ball and not taking the risky shots that he had in the past. Like Brown, Benjamin had the power to energize the Panthers this season. And, like Brown, Benjamin’s presence wasn’t really evident in this game.
• Ramon was the most disappointing player tonight and much of the year, however, as he never proved to be the match for Neitzel that the Panthers needed him to be, instead looking clueless at times. This has unfortunately been a pattern throughout much of the season, as Ramon played 256 more minutes this season than last season and made three more shots. His percentages also dropped from .464% in the field last season to .398% this season. Some of that may have come from his having to play the point guard position for much of the season, but Ramon needed to be a shooter for this team and just wasn’t, letting the team down tonight and for much of the season.

To be fair to Pitt, this season was supposed to be a rebuilding year, with next year being the team’s pinnacle. By winning the Big East tournament, beating Duke and playing very good basketball at times the Panthers surprised everyone, maybe even themselves, demonstrating that they truly were a talented team.

With the losses of Ramon, Benjamin and (unless he can through some miracle receive a sixth year of eligibility) Mike Cook, Pitt will lose a fair amount of veteran experience and some shooting ability next season. Fields, Young and Blair will still be around, however, providing the veteran leadership and skill that any college team needs to advance deep into March, particularly if it will be as young as the Panthers could be next season.

With five recruits coming in as well as the continued development of 0Bradley Wanamaker and Gary McGhee, Pitt will certainly have a young team next season, but it could also be a very good and a very interesting team.

Hopefully they can reach some of the same heights that this year’s Panthers did.

Pitt’s seeming dominance right now comes from the team’s newfound confidence as well as their increasingly speedy style of play.  No longer are the Panthers bringing the ball upcourt and waiting 30 seconds to shoot, as they did in the past.  Instead, the Panthers are quickly moving the ball upcourt and taking shots when the opportunity comes, generally meaning that the team is being more aggressive with the ball.  This should prevent the offense from being bogged down by its own players, as has occurred in the past, and also makes the offense more friendly for tournament play.

Fields’ role in the revival of the Panthers cannot be underestimated.  Fields scored 23 points yesterday, but his best contributions are more in the non-scorecard category, as there is no question that Fields is the floor leader of the team.  When the junior from NYC is pumped up, so is the team, something that began to become obvious around the time Fields hit the game-winning three pointer against Duke and that became more obvious after he was injured against Dayton.  Now that he is fully healthy and focused, the whole team seems as if it is more energized.

The only point of concern for Pitt may be the play of Dejuan Blair, who was the only starter to not score in the double digits yesterday.  Despite nabbing 10 rebounds, Blair also failed to get to the foul line, something that Pitt is going to need out of him if they expect to continue their run.  Blair will hopefully step up as the games come against better and better teams, but over Pitt’s recent run, including the Big East Tournament, Blair has only played well against Georgetown (and Roy Hibbert) and the Panthers have actually looked like a better team when he was not on the floor.

Tomorrow’s game against Michigan State should be interesting and will certainly be worth watching.  Hopefully Pitt’s season will continue.

• West Virginia also looked very good in defeating Arizona on Thursday night.  The Wildcats had the two most hyped players on the floor in Jerryd Bayless and Chase Buldinger, but the Mountaineers and their underrated cast stepped up and flat-out outplayed them.  Bob Huggins deserves credit for having his team ready to play, as it is okay to root for WVU tomorrow night as they are going up against Duke, who everyone is required to hate, at 2:10 on Saturday.

At Ohio State, Pryor will have the benefit of not being thrown into the fire immediately and being able to learn the system for a year before being handed the program.  At Michigan, Pryor would have been the immediate starter and would have been expected to produce in an offense seemingly designed for him, albeit one that is designed primarily for the college game and doesn’t highlight the NFL abilities of quarterbacks like Ohio State’s system does.

Pryor will be given the opportunity to take the field next season in a role that is continually being compared to that of Tim Tebow on Florida’s 2006 team.  Like Florida, Ohio State has a capable senior quarterback and a freshman quarterback who is one of the highest-rated in the land.  Like Tebow, Pryor is expected to take over the system once that senior leaves.  Like Florida fans, Ohio State fans are going to want to see what Pryor can do next season.  Whether that means bringing Pryor on in goal-line situations or letting him play a certain amount in each game is not yet clear, but Tressel will probably take a page from Florida coach Urban Meyer’s playbook and utilize Pryor’s skills the way that Florida utilized Tebow’s.

Most relevant to the Pittsburgh sports scene is Pryor’s revelation that he probably would have looked harder at Penn State if he had been assured that Tom Bradley would be the coach when the Joe Paterno era finally comes to an end.  That should be the single most obvious sign to Penn State administrators yet about the way that they should handle the coaching situation there, meaning that they should inform Paterno that this coming season will be his final one and tell the world that Bradley will be the coach starting in two years (they could just sign Bradley to a lengthy contract that states that he is guaranteed the job, but that would allow the Paterno reign, something that needs to come to an end, to keep on going).

Now, Penn State is going to have to deal with the threat of Terrelle Pryor at the helm of a national champion contender for the next three or four seasons.

CBS

(Parrish) The No. 1 seed most likely to be eliminated first will be … Memphis, and this doesn’t mean I think Memphis is the worst No. 1 seed. What it means is that I think Memphis will run into a legitimate problem quickest, and that legitimate problem is Pittsburgh — a team that just beat Louisville, Marquette and Georgetown in consecutive days.

(Freeman) The potential Sweet 16 game that will make Gus Johnson’s vocal cords explode is … Memphis against Pittsburgh. Gus is a good friend and one of the great, enthusiastic talents in the business. Not only would his vocal chords explode, so would his head.

(Doyel) 3. Killer second-rounder: That game between Michigan State and Pittsburgh in the second round looks beautiful, if you consider sweat and bruising to be beautiful. Tom Izzo and Jamie Dixon preach physicality, which means their second-round game could be won by the first team to score 50 … or by the last team with five healthy bodies on the floor. Pittsburgh has added some flash to its flex, which is why the Panthers won the Big East title — and will advance to the Sweet 16.

(Doyel) Dark-horse pick: Not Saint Mary’s. The Gaels already played possible second-round foe Texas once this season — and lost by 19. So how about Pittsburgh? A fourth seed isn’t that big of a dark horse, granted, but nobody from seeds 5-16 has a chance in this region.

FOX (Team capsule unless otherwise noted)

How they got in: At-large bid

Basically: The Panthers were one of the nation’s hottest teams to start the season going 11-0 with the high point being a 65-64 overtime win over Duke. Nine days later came an 80-55 clunker at Dayton and the mediocrity kicked in from there with nine losses in the following 21 games with only one win of note, a 69-60 victory over Georgetown.

The defense is top-notch, but when the offense goes in the tank, it really stinks. It’s just that inconsistency that makes this a hit-or-miss tournament team. This is a lunchpail team that needs to keep games in the high 60s and low 70s, and if its defense isn’t clamping down on the gunners, it’ll be an early exit.

Strengths: Defense and efficiency. Three aren’t many turnovers, there’s plenty of passing, and it’s one-and-done on the defensive boards with few second shots allowed. For a team that relies so much keeping things close, there aren’t a lot of fouls committed. Yeah, the offense is just mediocre enough for Pitt to get beaten in the first round, but if it can survive a game or two, there’s just enough defensive pressure to shock some big-name team.

Weaknesses: Outside shooting. Forget about it, and it’s not like the Panthers have Aaron Gray inside to feed the ball to. The offense relies on a pair of tough forwards, Sam Young and DeJuan Blair, to set the tone, and while that’s usually fine, there’s no consistent three point threat to worry about. Getting back into games is hard for this offense.

Players you should care about: Blair is a big, beefy inside presence who’s a better midrange shooter than he looks. His game is mostly about rebounding, averaging 9.5 per game, and it’ll be his job to prevent second-chance points. Young might not have the heft of Blair, but he’s a good inside scorer who gives the team consistent points. Oddly enough, the one game he was held to under 10 points might have been the team’s best win, against Georgetown.

Best wins: at Duke 65-64; Georgetown 69-60 & 75-65 (Big East championship)

Worst losses: at Dayton 80-55; Rutgers 77-64

(Goodman) Memphis should get a couple of easy wins in the first two rounds, but the Sweet 16 opponent will likely come from the winner of a Pittsburgh-Michigan State second-round game. Then the Tigers would still have to deal with No. 2 Texas on the opposite side of the South bracket.

(Hill) Teams you may want to foul late in the game . . . A couple of big-time squads have been shaky on the free-throw line Pittsburgh: The Panthers do a lot of good things, but making free throws consistently (65.8 percent) isn’t one of those things.

(Hill) Double-digit seeds with the best chance to shock the world . . . Note: This still doesn’t qualify as a good chance. Oral Roberts: While Pitt really would have to lay an egg to lose, the Golden Eagles have a fine playmaker in Robert Jarvis and legitimate inside muscle from Shawn King and Marcus Lewis.

CNNSI

(Wahl) Bracket buster: Oral Roberts. Scott Sutton’s 13th-seeded Golden Eagles are playing in their third-consecutive NCAA tournament, and they’re blessed with more size than any other low- to mid-major, going 6-8, 6-9 and 6-10 on their starting front line. They will be taller up front than first-round foe Pittsburgh, which is riding high after its Big East tourney title, but for this game in Denver I’m predicting a repeat of what happened the last time Pitt went out west for the NCAAs and got knocked off in the first round (by Pacific in Boise in 2005). But ORU won’t stop there; I think the Eagles match up well with Michigan State, their likely second-round foe, which has a tendency to play down (or up) to its competition. (Wahl picked Texas to win the bracket)

ESPN

(O’Neil)  Hometown hero: No. 1 seed Memphis vs. No. 4 seed Pittsburgh
His name these days is as synonymous with Memphis as Elvis, but John Calipari is a Pittsburgh kid. Born in Moon, Pa., a suburb of the Steel City, he led Division II Clarion State to two top-20 rankings in college. Cal spent three years on the Pittsburgh campus under Paul Evans. He could have his hands full with his hometown squad should the seeds hold until the Sweet 16. Levance Fields is healthy again, and the Panthers looked incredibly strong and tough as they won four games in four days to win the Big East tournament title.

This game, though, could come down to the most basic fundamentals: fewest clangs from the line. Memphis ranks 327th in free-throw percentage, connecting on only 59.2 percent. Pittsburgh is equally ugly at No. 231, making just 67.2.

(Knight, in the hyperlink with me writing in the meantime) The most interesting of all of these developments was Bob Knight’s prediction that Pitt would win it all. Tune in to the point with 1:27 left to view the beginning of Knight’s predictions.

While Pitt looked dominant at times, the victory was just s much a result of Marquette’s inability to put the ball in the basket for the entire first half and part of the second.  Once Marquette’s shooters began to heat up, however, the game became closer than Pitt fans should have been comfortable with, but the Panthers eventually prevailed.

Oddly enough, the fatigue that was expected to be a factor had no effect for the Panthers until the final 10 minutes when passes began to fly a little slower and players began to take a little more time to chase the ball down.

Other observations from this game include:

• Gilbert Brown really does look like a player.  Brown has been using his 38 inch vertical leap much more effectively than he had in the beginning of his career, putting himself into position to make spectacular defensive plays and very impressive offensive plays.  His shooting and passing don’t look half-bad either.  I would argue that his maturation has been the development of the Tournament for the future of the Panther program.
• Marquette message boards have been arguing that Pitt gets away with fouling too hard and is favored by refs.  They have kind of a point.  Pitt bends the rules just to the point where they will not break, fouling hard and almost traveling enough that refs label it as “Big East basketball” and do not blow their whistles, instead allowing play to carry on.  Pitt needs to play that style for another game, but then needs to revert to the style played by the rest of the teams in the NCAA for the tournament.
• Win or lose tomorrow, Pitt should be ranked on Monday.  They have beaten two very good ranked teams on two consecutive nights.
• Sam Young will be the MVP of the tournament if Pitt wins.  He has gone for 20+ points in every game and has been a game-changer both offensively and defensively as he seems to constantly be around the ball or altering the course of play in some manner.
• Ronald Ramon was able to drive on the Marquette defense.  If Ronald Ramon is driving on you, you know that you have defensive issues.
• Marquette has some of the classiest uniforms in all of the NCAA.
• Pitt was actually better when DeJuan Blair was not on the floor for some reason, possibly because the team was better able to keep pace with Marquette without the big man.  At one point, the tallest player on the floor for Pitt was Young, but Marquette was completely incapable of matching up with Pitt’s athleticism offensively or defensively.

So Pitt lives on for one more night at least, heading into a matchup against an intimidatingly good Georgetown team that the Panthers manhandled earlier this season.  The game should be a very interesting contest between two strong teams, but Pitt should be able to run with the Hoyas as long as they are able to force their own style of play and not have a style forced on them.

Pitt and Louisville have almost identical records this season, but one team is ranked and the other is not.  Louisville started slow and then heated up; Pitt started fast and then cooled down.  In March, however, it is all about who is hot at the right time and Pitt looks as if it could be heating up.

The Panthers were dominant at times, reeling off a lengthy run in the second half and one to start the overtime en route to winning a game that was never really in doubt, as DeJuan Blair avoided foul trouble, Sam Fields looked more athletic than anyone else on the floor and Levance Fields’ ball-handling was up to par.

The play of the game was definitely Gilbert Brown’s block in the second half.  I forget exactly which Louisville player it was, but the Cardinals stole the ball and appeared as if they had a fast break to any easy basket until Brown came out of nowhere to leap from behind whoever was taking the shot and cleanly reject it into the stands.  The play was an example of why Jamie Dixon trusts Brown more and more as the season goes on as the redshirt freshman appears to be the second most athletic player on the team, only trailing Sam Young.

Young was one of four Panthers to reach double digits in scoring, as Blair, Ronald Ramon and Levance Fields all scored at least 13.  Despite all of the positives from this game, however, it will be difficult for Pitt to win Friday night, as they will either be facing Marquette or Notre Dame, both of whom had an easy time with Pitt the last time that they played.

On top of that, Pitt has to be extremely exhausted from playing two games in two nights.  Notre Dame’s first game is Marquette, but the Golden Eagles had to play two games in two nights as well.  A game against Notre Dame would be Pitt playing against fresher legs while a game against Marquette would be a war of attrition.  Pitt’s chances don’t look so great.

Note: Four West Virginia Mountaineer football players plead no contest to charges of battery, including cornerback Brantwon Bowser (he could totally be a Super Smash Bros. character), running back/receiver Jockee Sanders (that can’t be his real first name), defensive back Eain Smith (Eain? really?) and the headliner of the group-RB Noel Devine, the gem of last year’s recruiting class.  This is a great start to the Bill Stewart era in Morgantown.

• According to today’s Post-Gazette, there could be a position battle at catcher where Ryan Doumit has entered camp slimmed down and ready to hit while Ronny Paulino still seems lackadaisical and defensively flawed.  Doumit is very strong from the left-handed side of the plate, but he is supposedly a switch hitter and can not really hit right-handed, meaning that if he and Paulino ended up in some type of a platoon situation the offensive production from the catcher position would probably be at its highest.  The other issue to consider, however, is the effect that Doumit’s being in the starting lineup on most days will have on the bench, as he was expected to be the powerful lefty who could come in during pinch-hit/replacement situations, but would not be available if he were in the starting lineup.  How the Pirates handle this could be very interesting and may say a good amount about John Russell’s approach towards building a lineup.
• Joe Flacco, Pitt’s former backup quarterback who transferred to Delaware because he thought that he would spend too much time on the bench with Tyler Palko at Pitt, has turned into a very legitimate prospect.  The 6′6, 236 pound passer has impressed enough people in Indianapolis, the site of the NFL Combine, that he was the front page of CNNSI.com yesterday and is still the main picture on CNNSI’s NFL page.  Columnist Don Banks says that, “people I trust in the NFL have him pegged as a definite second-round prospect, with an outside shot of cracking the bottom of the first round if some team falls hard for him as their starter in 2010.”  Tyler Palko was picked in the sixth round.
• The Steelers released linebacker Crint Kriewaldt, return man Allen Rossum, and tight end Jerame Tuman.  Kriewaldt is a Penn State product who makes a good fifty-second or -third player on a roster somewhere due to his defensive versatility and ability to play special teams.  He will probably end up in a Steeler uniform again at some point.  Rossum had one return for a touchdown early in the 2007 season and then never really contributed again, meaning that he was basically wasting a roster spot and making his release a complete non-surprise, particularly considering that the Steelers have Santonio Holmes, Ike Taylor, and possibly Jeremy Bloom on the roster to return kicks as well.  The surprise of the group is probably Tuman, who made an excellent third tight end even with the presence of Matt Spaeth.  Tuman is a solid receiver who can make the necessary blocks and has been a consistent performer for several years even if it is only in a reserve role.  Ultimately, none of these releases will matter to the long-term success of the team.
• Marc-Andre Fleury will be recalled to Pittsburgh after playing against the Syracuse Crunch tonight, signaling the return of the former number one overall pick and decision time for Ray Shero.  The general manager must decide whether to keep three goalies on the roster, to send the successful Ty Conklin back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, or to attempt to sneak Dany Sabourin through waivers.  Keeping three goalies would seem to be a little bit counterproductive as only one can play at a time and fatigue could become an issue amongst skaters during a playoff run and having another healthy body could be a plus.  This is, according to many sources, the most likely alternative, though.  The “best” solution would be, in my mind, to attempt to sign Conklin to a contract similar to the one that Sabourin signed prior to this season, assuring the team of a veteran backup goaltender that they have trust in for the next couple of years and making Sabourin even more expendable than his lackluster performance for most of this season has made him.

Coming up on the Pittsburgh sports slate is a game for the Penguins against San Jose at the Igloo tomorrow, Pitt heading to Louisville to take on the #18 Cardinals tomorrow, and Duquesne hosting La Salle at the Palumbo tomorrow.