THE SQUAD

The Pens 5-2 loss was an awful one to watch last night. A day after being praised by the Floss, Marc Andre Fleury played like a flower. He gave up 3 goals in the first period, 2 of which were his fault. He played the puck too much and poorly when he did. He still can't control a rebound, and Bob Errey let us know 344,000 times last night. All in all a bad game, coupled with a 3 goal 3 period win for Montreal, it was a bad night for the Pens. Safe to say they won't get a top blog position or a title for a while. Hey, at least Sid has a 2 game point streak since his return.



ALL TIME(ER SORT OF) PITT TEAM

I was pondering this question all week, even discussing it with friends, I wanted to make the all-time Pitt team(er sort of). Really my Pitt basketball fandom started when Brandin Knight took us to the tourney in the '01-'02 season. So here we sit in 2008, about to embark on our 7th consecutive NCAA tournament berth. These last 7 years have been fun and frustrating for all Pitt basketball fans. Historically a football school, Ben Howland put the Pitt Panthers basketball squad back on the map. In 4 out of the 6 years that have been completed, the Panthers have lost in the Sweet 16, which sucks, but it is also a nice accomplishment. We have been spoiled recently and the Floss wanted to look back on what will be considered one of the strongest time periods of Pitt hoops. For nostalgic value, I am going to give my all-time starting 5+1 for the last 7 years.



PG: The strongest position in the Floss' opinion over these last seven years was the point guard position. It made the choice at the point guard position very tough for the Floss. The three candidates in contention are Brandin Knight, Carl Krauser, and Levance Fields. Knight led us to the first two Sweet 16's, but he was not a clutch player. Fields has only had one solid season under his belt, but he had the clutch factor. Compare Knight's 50% free throw shooting to Field's near 80%. Not too mention Le Le can hit the 3 ball with more regularity. Carl Krauser was the best scorer of the bunch, but he never seemed to have the whole team playing at his speed. So really it comes down to Fields and Knight. Fields still has a year left of playing the college level plus a chance to take Pitt on a tourney run this year. The Floss has to go with Brandin Knight here. He led us to 2 Sweet 16's plus he led us to our only BE tourney title in those years.

WINNER: BRANDIN KNIGHT

SG: The weakest position over the last seven years is the shooting guard position. If Keith Benjamin had played two years like he has for the majority of this season, he would have this spot locked up. Antonio Graves never averaged over 10 points a game in his career, a fact the Floss did not know about until about 3 minutes ago. Julius Page still averaged 11 points a game in his miserable senior campaign when he was supposed to be the star. However, when he played with Brandin Knight he was much better. Since he is playing with Knight on this team, I guess he is an even more obvious choice. Note: Ronald Ramon was never even given consideration.

WINNER: JULIUS PAGE

SF: Many ways to go with this position. Since Pitt currently starts 3 guards all under 6'2, you could make a case for many traditional 2 guards. You could also put Sam Young into his NBA position here. If Mike Cook played this whole year, he might have been a perfect player to play alongside Knight and JP1. However, the Floss boiled this decision down to two players, Jaron Brown and Sam Young. Jaron Brown will be the Floss' favorite Pitt player for many many years to come. He was the glue guy. He would go out and lead the team in rebounds and assists. He put in 10 points a game plus those intangible stats like 5 reb, 5 assts, 2 steals, and a block. Sam Young however has developed into a scorer, which is something Pitt has lacked in these 7 years. The only scorer in crunch minutes over these years has been "Black Magic" Carl Krauser(and to an extent Fields). Sam Young has been called out by Fields and Dixon recently for whining and such. The Floss has cut him a break all year because he has been the straw that stirs the drink(under-used sports analogy) all year for the Panthers. I do see that lack of intensity when it comes to Sam Young. Maybe he can prove me wrong in the tourney. Just don't take your shoes off like that smelly Lithuianian jerkoff Donatas Zavackas. Needless to say, the Floss is taking the winner.

WINNER: JARON BROWN

PF: Sam Young could technically be picked again here at the 4-spot, but there are 2 way more qualified players for this spot. Those two would be Chris Taft and Chevon Troutman. Taft only played two years before jumping ship to the NBA(nice one Chris) and Chevy was a beast for all four years at Pitt. Chevy was a PA kid, who more old men loved than any Pitt player in recent memory. The reason old men loved him; shoots over 60% from the floor, gets rebounds, always happy, not cocky, just an all around class act. However, Chris Taft was a special talent. Taft averaged near double-doubles in both his freshman and sophomore years. He was close to Troutman in production. It is scary to think what he might have been had he stayed even an extra year. Since this All-Star team gets an extra year, Taft is the Floss' eventual pick here. Taft was a player that could lead you to a title, Troutman was in the glue guy mold. We already have a glue guy, Jaron Brown. Sorry Chevy, more on you later. Interesting that Taft is the first player to not play with Brandin Knight, another reason I would love to see this team.

WINNER: CHRIS TAFT

C: Since I didn't pick Troutman at the 4 and Taft at the 5, the readers should realize that the Floss is going with someone bigger than 6'10 Chris Taft. Before all of you cringe out there, I'm going to justify the pick of Aaron Gray. First off, he is a matchup problem for any team, especially with Taft on the other block. Second, he is a solid rebounder. Before people start making the Blair argument, I'm going to give you the reasons why he really never got consideration: he can't score in double figures consistently, his rebounding numbers are high because he is the only one who can rebound, defensively he is too small, and he gets way too many fouls. Aaron Gray put in his ten points pretty much night in and night out. He also could go for 16+ as frequently as Blair. He was a solid rebounder. The reason his numbers weren't that great(as good as Blair's) were the player rebounding around him. Levon Kendall, Troutman, Jaron Brown, Mike Cook, Levance Fields, all of these guys are great rebounders. On defense, Gray was sort of a stiff, but his size still would scare people away from the post, forcing outside shots. Gray also didn't get 2 fouls in 2 minutes in every road game. Sidenote: About rebounding, in the last X amount of games this season, I bet Levance Fields is 2nd in rebounding in at least one or two of them. Since Young doesn't board, Keith doesn't board, and Gil and Tyrell "back to Littles on the Floss" Biggs won't get minutes.

WINNER: AARON GRAY

6TH MAN: Another position where you could go any which way. For leadership, Knight is playing all 40 at the point. Page is playing all 40 for defense. Brown is playing all 40 because he is a pimp. So basically the 6th man needs to be a versatile 4 or 5. I think Tyrell Biggs would fit perfectly in this role...hahahahahahahaha. I just hate him that much. Or we could go with a shooter like Ronald Ramon...hahahahaha. Ditto. The 6th man spot came down to two players, Sam "I AM" Young and Chevy Troutman. I could give you all of their positives again, but I am going to sum this argument up quickly. Do you remember Sam Young bitching about coming off the bench last year? Do you remember Chevy Troutman winning the 6th man of the year award? Chevy would be honored to be the 6th man, Sam would be insulted.

WINNER: CHEVON TROUTMAN

The Squad looks like this:
PG: BRANDIN KNIGHT
SG: JULIUS PAGE
SF: JARON BROWN
PF: CHRIS TAFT
C: AARON GRAY
6TH: CHEVON TROUTMAN

This is the Floss' squad. I think we could go far into the tourney with this team. Feel free to post your all-time(er sort of) Pitt team.

IN FEELING A RUN TO THE BIG EAST TITLE(SHHHHH)