Calling B.S. on the Pitt Athletic Department

Since being named Athletic Director at Pitt in 2017, Heather Lyke has pretty much distinguished herself in that role, but a development this past week has caused me to call "bulls----" on the Pitt athletic department, and since the buck stops with her, well, sorry about that, Ms. Lyke.

I am speaking about the decision that Pitt has made to not play against Duquesne in the annual City Game basketball game next season.  "We just can't fit it on to our schedule next year" seems to be the word coming from Oakland.  Are you kidding me?  How many basketball games will be on Pitt's non-conference schedule next year? How many of them will be cream puff guaranteed wins against schools like East Overshoe State? 

Duquesne sits a few miles down Forbes Street from Pitt.  Duquesne is willing to play at the Peterson Center if PPG Paints Arena is somehow not available (which I find it hard to believe).  And Pitt can't see their way to playing this game?

I give credit to Pitt for agreeing to play Robert Morris next season in Moon Township for the opening of RMU's new on campus arena, but if they are using the scheduling of THAT game as an excuse NOT to find a way to play Duquesne, well, like I say....bull----!

All this is even more incomprehensible when one considers how the Pitt administration seems to be willing to crawl on its knees to schedule football games with Penn State, and then allows its fan base to bellyache and moan about Penn State's arrogance in not wanting to include the Panthers on its football schedule.  Looks like Pitt has learned a lesson from PSU and is doing the same thing to Duquesne in this instance.

Welcome to Pittsburgh, Jeff Capel

With the Pirates Opening Day game in Detroit postponed a day, let's talk about basketball, specifically, basketball at the University of Pittsburgh.

Pitt introduced its new Head Basketball Coach, Jeff Capel, at a news conference yesterday.  Capel was a player at Duke University under Mike Krzyzewski, and head coach at both Oklahoma and Virginia Commonwealth, and, for the last seven years, the Associate Head Coach under Krzyzewski at Duke.  The announcement has been greeted positively by the media and even by the unbelievably finicky Pitt Hoops Fan Base, although I have not checked into the comments on some of the more radical Pitt fan sites on social media.

When it was first reported that it was going to be Capel, I expected that the reaction would be "Euww, who wants anybody associated with Duke?"  You know, all the people who who reside outside of Durham NC who can't stomach Coach K, Jay Bilas, and just about anyone else associated with what is arguably the best and most successful collage basketball program over the last thirty years.  Yeah, who would want that?

Surprisingly, though, this hire seems to be well received and AD Heather Lyke deserves much credit for being able to pull this one off.  Apparently, neither she nor the rest of the University athletic department were behaving like the Keystone Kops as many people in the talk radio world were portraying them.  And I give much credit to Pitt for staying away from the guy that "the fans" seemed to really want most: Sean Miller.  It says something good about Pitt that they chose not to go that particular route.

As we all know, though, being an assistant under a great head coach does not necessarily guarantee success, but it's a good place to start, so let us all hope that this works out well for both Pitt and Jeff Capel.

I will close with an absolute classic call that I heard on The Fan yesterday morning.  Morning host Colin Dunlap was talking to "Sam from New Castle" who was, of course bitching and moaning about the hiring of Capel.  Among the many of Capel's shortcomings, according to Sam, was that he, Capel, was "known cheater" while at Oklahoma.  When Dunlap then asked who Pitt should have hired, Sam's first choice was Rick Pittino.  How's that for logic?

Welcome to Pittsburgh, Coach.  Enjoy the Primanti sammitches and Iron City's n'at.