Commentary
Life couldn’t be any sweeter for Pitt Athletic Director PITTSBURGH – Could life be much sweeter than it is this week for Pitt Athletic Director Steve Pederson?
The football team is in the Top 25 for the first time in 11 years and might be headed for a major bowl game.
The basketball team is in the preseason Top 25 and has sold out its brand new building for the entire season.
(OK, Pederson would probably like to see some people show up for women’s basketball games in the same venue but you can’t have everything.)
It’s been a while since things have been going this well for Pitt and it’s a credit to Pederson, who took over a department that was in complete disarray. He’s hired good people he’s learned to navigate the minefield of politics that can scuttle the best intentions in a major college program.
Pederson took the heat that went with the decision to abandon Pitt Stadium but he was right. It was time to move on and the shiny new basketball venue stands where the obsolete stadium once did.
Pitt has succeeded before but it’s been a while since the football and basketball programs were both doing well at the same time.
Now the trick is sustaining the success. There’s a football game against Temple this weekend and the good feelings of last week’s upset at Virginia Tech could evaporate quickly if the Panthers don’t build on that accomplishment.
The basketball team has to live up to its advance billing.
Every Election Day, some candidate will ask the question: Are you better off than you were four years ago?
In Pitt’s case, the answer is an emphatic yes.
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When baseball was hammering out a labor agreement last year, a lot of people thought there should be
provisions for steroid testing.
It was all window dressing, since most steroid tests can be beaten easily enough.
The process also leads to silly situations like the one currently affecting former Steelers defensive lineman Brentson Buckner, who now plays for the Carolina Panthers.
Actually, Buckner won’t be playing for the next four games because he was found to be in violation of NFL steroid policy.
Buckner is a large man, well in excess of 300 pounds. He once showed up for a Steelers practice wearing a Penguins jersey and people were struck by one thought:
Put him in goal and no one would ever be able to get a puck past him.
Buckner’s agent said his client took a diet pill. It happened to contain an ingredient that’s on the list of banned substances and that got Buckner the suspension.
Normally you’d be skeptical about a story like that but it rings true in Buckner’s case.
It’s very unlikely he’d be taking steroids to help build muscle mass.
It is very likely he’d be taking a diet pill to shed some weight before training camp, particularly if he’d been given a weight limit to meet upon check-in.
By the letter of the law, he’s guilty but logic dictates this is just a misunderstanding.
It doesn’t matter. He’ll sit for four games.
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Now the fun starts.
The Steelers have five home games in eight weeks. The weather is taking a turn for the worse, which will make a tough field even tougher for kicker Todd Peterson.
Bill Cowher’s decision to pass on three field goal attempts last Sunday in Cleveland would indicate his confidence in Peterson is fragile under any circumstances.
Now they’re facing a stretch of games at a place that’s been a nightmare for kickers. The winds and precipitation are likely to be a factor. Some of these games are destined to come down to field goals and there’s nothing automatic on this field or with this kicker.
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It’s great that the Penguins are off to such a hot start but remember one thing: Minnesota is in first place, too, and the Wild’s record is even better than the Penguins. There’s a very long way to go.
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A team of major league baseball all-stars left for Japan on Tuesday.
They’ll play seven games on a goodwill tour that starts in a few days.
Major League Baseball was unable to sell the TV rights to the games to any American broadcaster. Somehow 4 a.m. exhibition baseball in November just didn’t get them excited.
John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehno@lycos.com