DeJuan Blair Is A Man Amongst Boys

Pitt BasketballThis was a statement game for Pitt. That statement was made on this play. Last night Pitt showed just how tough they are. Hasheem Thabeet was being referred to as one of the best players in college basketball. However, he was phisically manhandled by DeJuan Blair last night. Blair did a great job of staying out of foul trouble (which Thabeet did not) in order to handle the inside for Pitt. Blair did not go over or around Thabeet; that would have gotten plenty of shots blocked. Blair chose to go through him. And all he did was have another 20-20 night. When the ball is in the air, you know who is coming down with it. And when Blair isn't scoring, Sam Young is. Young is STILL underrated! He's the best all-around scorer for Pitt and one of the best players flying under the radar in the NCAA. And speaking of players flying under the radar, Levance Fields is one of the best floor generals in college. The three point shooters showed up for Pitt last night too. Pitt hit the big shots when it counted, especially from the free throw line. That is what great teams do. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come for the tournament...Pitt fans know all too well what I'm talking about.


Steelers
It looks like the staff will remain status quo for next season. For a lot of people, this is a disappointment because they wanted to see Bruce Arians go. I'm ok with B.A. staying. Besides, my fiance is his barber. You have to look at it like this; they won a Super Bowl with him at coordinator. Pittsburghers want him gone because he has done away with the fullback, for the most part. However, I saw an awful lot of Sean McHugh (my fiance is his barber too) playing fullback toward the end of the season. You have to keep as much of the Super Bowl staff together as possible. The big problem with the offense wasn't the playcalling...it was the o-line. The line was shaky to begin with. When you add in all of the injuries to the line, that's a recipe to get your quarterback killed. Considering all of that, the Steelers were lucky to do what they did this season. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next two months with free agency and the draft. Hopefully they can make some upgrades and add some depth.


Pirates
So we start another season with the Buccos. If you can believe it, it looks worse than it did last year. At least last year we started of the season with Xavier Nady and Jason Bay. Granted, these aren't great players, but they sure are better than anything the Pirates have this year. And the big news with the pitching staff...new coach (the good), same rotation (the bad), Rinku and Dinesh (the ugly). Here's to being the record-holding Pittsburgh Pirates...no wait, that's not a good thing.

Sign Mientkiewicz. You need a guy like him in the locker room.


Penguins
I don't know much about hockey, but maybe Michel Therrien was spot on when he called his players "soff". Where are the guys like Ryan Malone and Georges Laraque? These were tough players that protected the star players like Crosby and Malkin. The Penguins lack the toughness that they had last year. They had a swagger. They knew they were good and gritty. It seemed to me that they won a lot of games last year because of that, not because of talent.