in Pitt Football 161 Words

ACC BB Pre-Tournament Info

  • Mar 6 (Tue) – Mar 10 (Sat)
    vs TBD
    Brooklyn, N.Y.  Barclays Center
    TV: ESPN / ACCN Radio: 93.7 The Fan

    Event Information

    The ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament is returning to Barclays Center March 6-10, 2018. College basketball’s premier conference brings the country’s biggest programs to Brooklyn in the battle for the prestigious ACC title.

    Luxury suites are available for all sessions of the Tournament. For more information, call 718-257-8483 or email suites@brooklynse.com.

    A limited number of tickets for the Opening Round Sessions are on sale now. The Opening Round Sessions include tickets to all three games on Tuesday, March 6. The game times are 12PM, 2PM & 7PM.

    GAME TIMES*:

    Opening Round – March 6

    • 12:00 PM
    • 2:00 PM
    • 7:00 PM

    Second Round – March 7

    • 12:00 PM
    • 2:00 PM
    • 7:00 PM
    • 9:00 PM

    Quarterfinals – March 8

    • 12:00 PM
    • 2:00 PM
    • 7:00 PM
    • 9:00 PM

    Semifinals – March 9

    • 7:00 PM
    • 9:00 PM

    Finals – March 10

    • 8:30 PM

    For hotel information, please visit New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge. For special rates, check “corporate/promotional code” and then enter W85.

71 thoughts on “ACC BB Pre-Tournament Info”

    1. New King James Version I Samuel 17
      As David approached Goliath, thy oddsmakers gave him a .003 percentage chance of surviving

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  2. And if you need any qualitative information to back that up you only had to watcha few games at the Pete this year.

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  3. Not making this up …. as you may know, WV teachers have been on strike for > a week, and WV Senate President Mitch Carmichael voted down the pay raise. There is a photo of the striking teachers outside the senate building and a sign in the back reads “Mitch Loves Pitt”

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  4. Let’s go guys. Win one for pride. Win one for yourselves. Win one for the crazies like me that have still followed the team all year. Win one for Stallings in what his hopefully his last game. H2P

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  5. Thinking back to all those disappointing Dixon NCAA tournament losses. We don’t have to experience that this year.
    See, there is always a silver lining. LOL

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  6. I hesitate to bring this up and I dismissed it out of hand at the time, but here goes. When I was visiting my friends in South Carolina on my recent golf trip I went to my buddies Tuesday coffee club. Guys get together and talk sports, half ACC guys, Half SEC. The subject that dominated the conversation was when( not wheather) the ACC was going to kick Pitt out of the conference. They were dead serious, saying that we were not adding anything and should be replaced soon as our sports teams were a joke. I defended this argument until the one guy brought up a site that listed all ACC sports standings. I sheepishly admitted we kinda stink, but proudly pointed to our 2 big upset football wins. Ya, one guy actually said “bless your heart”.
    I really didn’t think too much of this until yesterday, mentioned to a friend, who shockingly agreed. Could, or, would they do that??

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    1. That is really sad. Did they say that about BC all those years they were on the bottom.
      Football has been fairly competitive. In Basketball we just don’t cheat enough and hired a really awful
      coach. But how do we get the elite kids to come if we don’t offer them 100,000 large?

      I used to watch the Big East Tourny even when Pitt wasn’t good, but have no desire to watch any basketball this year.

      I do hope someone posts JoeKnew’s comment on Heather’s Bulletin Board and she takes it to heart.
      What a travesty.

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    4. Actually we should be in the MAC or some other garbage conference. It’s where Universities & colleges go who care 10 times more about academics than sports let their kids play ball.

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  7. We were actually invited to the ACC due to the following
    — the BC AD campaigned against UConn which was originally approved along with Syracuse back in 2011
    — Pitt’s basketball prowess; the ACC was determined to reclaim the mantle of the NCAA’s best basketball conference from te BE
    — Pgh TV market

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    1. Pitt’s academic standing was a factor as well. Doesn’t hurt that it is a member of the AAU (Association of American Universities) either.

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  8. I did, in fact, mention BC. They quickly pointed out that even when they went winless they were at least competitive. Hyperbole, nope. Don’t let those pesky facts get in the way of your beliefs.
    I mean, these were just guys shooting the sh*$. But it really stung. More so when they could back it up. I think this is the 21st century. The old BoT attitude will get you to D2. Maybe that’s what they want. I mean, they were happy if we were .500 and sometimes a little above, but even conversation about getting the boot is a major black eye and a hit to our prestige. That has to smart.

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    1. Do we get a buyout when they give us the boot? How would you Lyke to be the AD when that happens?

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  9. We won’t be kicked out of the ACC.
    Everyone needs a whipping post, a doormat, a perennial loser, a miscreant that allows u to feel better about yourself in times of sorrow.
    I actually believe many of the administrators enjoy losing records – makes them believe its about the academics and nothing else…but they still want their raises and benefits.

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  10. Here is the title of any article in today’s Trib: “Three ways Pitt can defeat Notre Dame in ACC first round”

    Without reading it, my guess is …

    1) flu epidemic strikes ND squad
    2) ND team bus in accident on route to arena (no fatalities but all taken to hospital for observation)
    3) Evidence surfaces at 3:30 pm that Bonzie C has taken illegal payments, ND decides to forfeit despite a 34-17 halftime lead

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    1. Good stuff.

      The line on this game is currently ND -17. I find that odd. ND only lost by 5 to UVa last Saturday at Charlottesville. Colson played 37 minutes and had 24 points and 15 rebounds. Farrell, Gibbs and Pflueger all shot poorly. Pitt lost to ND by 17 just last week but Colson only played half the game. I realize that game was in South Bend but I’d take ND -17 today.

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  12. No, the ACC is not going to drop Pitt, but the idea that it is watercooler fodder in the South is is disturbing.

    Sure the Big East dropped Temple, but remember their BBall team wasn’t in the Big East and their football team was an absolute disaster forever. I think they have only beat PSU once in their entire history. They have now picked it up and good on them. I think a series with Temple would be good for Pitt and Temple in both sports.

    By the numbers of ACC fans attending both Football and Basketball games, I would say they love coming to Pittsburgh, and for now they are pretty sure of seeing a victory, at least in BBall. There will always be cheap seats for them and there are plenty of hotels and great bars and restaurants that love having them.

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  14. Name me all the college stadiums in the ACC in excess of 50K. ACC football has come along way due to the additions of the BE programs. Without VTech, Miami, Louisville, Pitt, the conference may be the AAC as a BB conference. FSU and Clemson are in another conference at this point. BE was a better football conference and if a football commish is in charge, no telling what it may have become with the above, plus Cincy, Rutgers, and U Conn. Potential BE: Pitt,Cincy, Louisville, VTech, BC,UConn, Rutgers, Miami, Syracuse, ND. You tell me who has a better football and BB conference by now..

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  15. I think the (negative) BB play of the year was the Virginia game in the first half. Pit had scored a total of 7 points, and Carr was holding the ball for the last shot. I can’t believe that KS called this play, so I’m leaning to the probability that Carr is as dumb as a rock…

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  16. I don’t think that a brand new 50,000 seat PITT football stadium would be cause for PITT to be removed from the ACC. Chet I think there are only 3 teams under 50,000 right now. Although the average attendance for home teams in the ACC has many team averaging around or under that number.

    Also having a large pro stadium (Heinz Field) available for the bigger more important contests would relieve any fears of a “smaller” stadium.

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  17. Syracuse and BC stadiums are less than 50k but in upper 40s. And Duke’s holds 33.5k and Wake’s is 31.5k. We’ll see its field this year, I believe. Louisville, NCSt and GT are 55k or less.

    Don’t think ACC would mind at all if Pitt a built a brand new 45k stadium. The issue with Heinz is that Pitt leads the ACC (and I’m sure ranks high in NCAA) with the lowest attendance per capacity

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  18. Speaking of BB, I thought someone may find this of interesting — if you haven’t see it.

    —On Feb. 27, Craig Meyer had a nice story in the Post-Gazette — the title was “Parker Stewart hasn’t let his stutter stop his growth.” I found it to be a pretty compelling story about Parker dealing with stuttering – doing things like trying to avoid certain letter combinations that he struggles to say. Unfortunately, one of those combinations is at the beginning of his last name. Anyway, I recommend this story – nice to get to know some background on a Pitt athlete.

    Here’s the site address for the article:
    http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/Pitt/2018/02/27/parker-stewart-pitt-panthers-acc-basketball-pittsburgh/stories/201802260016

    —Then in yesterday’s PG, there was a letter to the editor, prompted by that article, that indicated that a Pitt grad, Malcolm Fraser, who had faced discrimination in finding a job because of his stutter, had been a founder of NAPA, the auto parts store. Then later in life, in 1947, he founded the Stuttering Foundation, an international nonprofit that now reaches 147 nations in helping people with this problem.

    Here’s the address for the letter to the editor:

    http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/letters/2018/03/05/A-Pitt-grad-made-a-big-impact-for-those-who-stutter/stories/201803020091

    Hail to Pitt!

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    1. Good stuff. Not making this up … my older cousin stuttered badly when he was young until he went away to college .. at Pitt. He graduated circa 1964. He was a CPA who had a very successful downtown accounting office.

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  19. I think sometimes we need to slow down and realize these are young men trying their best while growing up, which isn’t all that easy at times.

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  20. As a musician, one of the most amazing things I’ve seen and heard is that stutterers do not stutter when they sing! Almost 100%

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  23. Hail to Pitt…
    – that this ugly season is about to end.
    – that our student athletes on the team hung in there and held their heads high (at least publicly)
    – that Stallings will most likely be gone as soon as this debacle is over (or at least we can hope)
    – that spring ball IS ONLY 1 WEEK AWAY!

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  24. Dan72…. MMMMel TTTillis is a perfect example… my 2 year old granddaughter started stuttering… I do at time…

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  25. MY point is the ACC is not and never has been a football conference and give Swafford credit for changing the narrative. Now with the additions, they may be the top 2 if the trend continues. ACC had 60 invites to the combine. Big pretend had 50. Pitt is going nowhere as a conference member. And a really good couple of years in football and fix of the BB program, Pitt is a traditional name that is good for the ACC. College BB is under immense pressure here. I wouldn’t bank on college BB being a winner here with the options that may be coming for elite young talent. Plus the big names coaches are old and probably not easily replaced.

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  26. PSN does it’s usual job of saying how unfair we are to KS. Geez:
    1) Pitt has one of the most loyal fan bases and student sections in college B.B.
    2) The handling of the “search” turned most fans stomachs.
    3) The insulting way it was presented to fans did nothing to ingratiate coach to public.
    4) Pretty much anyone could have read the mood of the fan base and expected the rough treatment at the introductory presser.
    5) He was, in fact the coach of the team. If you can’t control a couple of 22 yr old prima donnas, wel….. I might have expected that from a rookie coach, but not one with over 20 yrs of experience.
    6) The excuse of “ of course he was going to struggle with this team”. Hey, he knew what was coming and had 20 months to recruit players. Heck, unlike football he wasn’t hamstrung with someone else’s guys. He recruited each and every one of them.

    So, Vucovan, tell me who is the wronged party, the coach who was responsible for the product, the AD who did the hatchet job, the BOT who approved it or the fans who got this hot mess dumped on them?

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    1. I read that article and he was way off course. While I blame Barnes more than Stallings, still I don’t remember anything in Stallings’ initial conference call about a total rebuild,

      But most of all … he could have easily won the fanbase last season with a senior laden team that had made the NCAA the year before. And even if this year’s team showed any improvement as the freshmen gained experienced …… buta big fat 0 in both situations

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  27. Reed.

    Why would the ACC drop Pitt if we built a stadium with capacity under 50,000? They wouldn’t.

    FOUR of the 14 members currently play in stadiums with less than 50,000. What’s one more?

    Alumni Stadium/Boston College- 44,500
    BB&T Field/Wake Forest- 31,500
    Bobby Dodd Stadium/Georgia Tech- 55,000
    Carrier Dome/Syracuse- 49,250
    Carter Finley Stadium/NC State- 57,583
    Doak Campbell Stadium/Florida State- 82,300
    Hard Rock Stadium/Miami- 65,236
    Heinz Field/Pittsburgh- 65,500
    Kenan Stadium/North Carolina- 62,980
    Lane Stadium/Virginia Tech- 66,233
    Memorial Stadium/Clemson- 81,500
    Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium/Louisville- 55,000
    Scott Stadium/Virginia- 61,500
    Wallace Wade Stadium/Duke- 40,004

    I’ve got an idea.. If we can get Bojangles to sponsor the new stadium and offer concessions, we might get a few calls from Foghorn Leghorn and the other ACC officials! “Y’all, we got a personal foul on Pitt. 15 yards for being North of the Mason Dixon Line. That’s an automatic first down.”

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    2. 50 k would be great
      pitt averages 45k with ticket sales
      more like 35k with actual fannies in the seats come game day
      and there is always a pro stadium in town for the larger games
      what good is a 70k stadium when its only half filled 80% of the time
      pitts % of capacity is lowest in the ACC…that should concern the big wigs more
      and wouldnt it be nice if it was on campus so visitors could see our campus instead of the bland north side

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    3. the future trend is actually builder smaller venues
      look at what pro teams are doing to their large stadiums
      they are tarping
      ripping out bleacher seating
      taking away seating for large concourses
      lounge seating
      the future stadium is one with a retractable dome and 40k plus
      pitt will be ahead of the times
      its about a better experience, more intimacy, and how to leverage technology in the real time viewing

      Liked by 1 person

    4. If we built a bowl, it would be a perfect match with a sponsorship by The O. Great greasy food at all the concessions. The stadium itself could be called “The O”.

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  29. I like Vukovcan and will continue to read his site, but that article from today regarding Stallings is more embarrassing than the Stallings hire and subsequent firing after 2 years. It is so wrong and so one-side and naive in its perspective, that I just don’t know where to begin… Truly unbelievable. I guess we all have our bad days though, myself included…

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  30. Hey Tx, you’re right. Smaller more quaint baseball stadiums with a personality has become all the rage… again.

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  31. 1618, didn’t read Vuk’s article but if he said Stallings was the most maligned head BB coach in the history of Pittsburgh. He’s right. I’ve never witnessed the outcry over a coach the minute he was hired. I don’t mean the next day. I mean the very next minute.. Right or wrongly, that’s a fact.

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  32. Couple things. They are closing Forbes Ave next week and going to one lane. They are going to do major construction on Parkway East. No improvements, just repairs. Who in their right mind would go to Oakland?
    Also, as I have been out of town, what has happened to Upitt? Is he banned or exiled to Estonia?

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  34. Stallings isn’t liked in the athletic department, either. I can’t give much more detail or betray the source but let’s just say he’s as abrupt and condescending in the offices as he is at press conferences.

    Maybe he is “on the right track.” And maybe he is “building for the long haul.” But hated guys don’t get the benefit of the doubt. And he’s deservedly disliked.

    Do you think he gets the boot as he walks of the court today, ala Brett Bielema? That would be epic!

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  35. Believe it or not I also had a terrible stuttering problem up until about 9th grade. I would go days without speaking and literally flunked Spanish 1 three times because I couldn’t says the dialogues out loud.

    My older brother also stuttered his whole life.

    Not to be crude but mine went away after I got laid the first time.

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  37. Again, Jay – What I am talking about is new construction. The ACC is a revenue sharing conference and that means ticket sales also. New construction will have a minimum qualifier to it.

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  39. I wish pitt would make up its mind if it wants to be a basketball school or a football school. Based on the amount of avid posts and demands by fans for Stallings head I would say Pitt fans would rather be a basketball school. Count me as a die hard Pitt fan but I believe the key for all sports success is a strong football program not basketball. Tear the pete center down move bball back to fitzgerald build a new retro pitt stadium troth urinals and all. Football Football Football.

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  40. Opinions formed about Stallings after he was at PITT and looked like a failed coach not withstanding. He was hated for no other reason than just being hired. Which in my book is unreasonable behavior. Given time… I think he was a bad hire.

    I have said many many times I was not in favor of the hire. Once he was hired, I gave him a benefit of the doubt which he certainly earned…. my doubt! ike

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    1. “He was hated for no other reason than just being hired.”

      Wrong. He was hated because:
      1. He was a retread with a losing record. After 17 seasons at Vanderbilt in the not-so-great SEC his in-conference was below .500, and
      2. The way he was hired: Scott Barnes, Todd Turner, and the $100k fee to Turner’s search firm. And,
      3. The absolutely smarmy Scott Barnes press conference introducing him.

      In other words, he came in with not one redeeming feature. To top that off, he started throwing players under the bus. And, as it has proved out, he really cannot coach.

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  42. Football pays the bills
    Acc was known for basketball
    Now its become known for football
    It’s pretty good in both

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  46. I knew what you meant, Reed. But what should stadium size matter if you can’t fill what you have? Additionally, they don’y have ticket, parking and concession revenue sharing in the ACC. That refers to TV.

    What’s the difference between having 40,000 fans in a 45,000 seat stadium or 40,000 fans in a 65,000 seat stadium?

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      1. In Pitts hey day it was 50k max. With a population nearly double what it is now. There’s just so many fans and it’s a pro town. And there’s always a pro stadium in town for the one big game each year.

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      2. ..and there will always be a Steelers stadium to use for those BIG games. It used to happen with Three Rivers. Pitt will NEVER be good enough or important enough to the City of Pittsburgh to draw over 50k to games against Syracuse, GT, Duke, UNC.. Only 40 FBS teams average over 50k and only TWO (PSU & WVU) in the ENTIRE Northeast region of the country.

        In Pitt’s best years of the modern era, Pitt only averaged over 50k TWICE.

        1973: 33,609 (56,500) 6-5-1
        1974: 41,279 (56,500) 7-4-0
        1975: 42,022 (56,500) 8-4-0 (#15)
        1976: 45,405 (56,500) 12-0-0 (#1)
        1977: 44,181 (56,500) 9-2-1 (#8)
        1978: 49,472 (56,500) 8-4-0
        1979: 41,029 (56,500) 11-1-0 (#7)
        1980: 44,342 (56,500) 11-1-0 (#2)
        1981: 50,854 (56,500) 11-1-0 (#4)
        1982: 54,809 (56,500) 9-3-0 (#10)
        1983: 49,905 (56,500) 8-3-1 (#18)
        1984: 32,337 (56,500) 3-7-1
        1985: 41,758 (56,500) 5-5-1
        1986: 46,498 (56,500) 6-4-1
        1987: 47,982 (56,500) 8-4-0
        1988: 41,692 (56,500) 6-5-0

        Yep, that’s TWO times. In the 9 year span from 1975-1983, Pitt averaged 46,891. That’s with a team that finished the season ranked EIGHT times, SIX times in the top ten.

        When the City doesn’t care and the University makes the sports program so unimportant to the student experience (I’m sorry.. “secondary to the University’s mission”) that Alumni don’t care, there is NO REASON to play in a stadium that big.

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  47. ike.

    I “hated” Stallings for the same reason I “hated” Graham.. they both immediately came off as “jacka$$es” at their press conferences and both proved that assessment correct during their tenures.

    Good Riddance to bad rubbish!

    I’m anxious to “positively” receive the new coach as I did with Howland, Dixon, Wanny, Chryst and Narduzzi.

    H2P

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  50. As to the stadiums. who sells out and fills the stadiums, very few. Secondly drawing 50K is not bad relative to many programs. We are not a large land grant only game in town situation. If Pitt had the way to fund a new stadium, and they will need to eventually, 50K is the nice compromise between demand and capacity. Hard to judge looking at Stallings if he knows he is gone or not. I don’t think he has be given any indication so he must think he is back. Any dealings will be with his rep anyway until the need for a final face to face to dismiss him. If the buyout is roughly 6 million, hard to bring him back.

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