BleacherCoaches.com

Got kinda boring on here over the past few weeks. Let's look into the past and here are some questions about our favorite teams. 2000 is basically 13 seasons. For any team, that will give you some good times and some bad times.

Best Game:

Worst Game:

Best Offensive Player:

Best Defensive Player:

Biggest Recruit:

Best "Hidden-Gem":

Best Walk-On:

Biggest Bust:

Best Assistant Coach:

Worst Assistant Coach:

Biggest Win:

Most Crushing Defeat:

Best Season:

Most Disappointing Season:

Best Memory:

Worst Memory:

I'll take the challenge of Pitt Basketball, my favorite team.


Best Game: February 26, 2009. #3 Pitt takes down #1 Connecticut on the road on ESPN's Big Monday. DeJuan Blair was a man among boys out there, even flipped over Hashem Thabeet on his back. Blair had 22 points and 23 rebounds at 6-7 playing Center, Thabeet was 7-3 guarding him. Unreal game.



Worst Game: March 19, 2011. #8 seed Butler took down the #1 seeded Panthers in the second round of the tournament. Pitt had no business losing that game. A number of dumb mistakes on both sides made it an Instant Classic, but for all the wrong reasons for Pitt. Butler went the whole way to the championship game, making it realistic to think Pitt could have done the same.


Best Offensive Player: Sam Young- Young averaged 18 points as a Junior and 19 as a Senior. The most memorable about him, the exaggerated head fake. Hey, It worked? Young was a big part of Pitt's great 09 team that went to the Elite 8. He was versatile at 6-6, and was not shy about taking big shots. Freak athlete as well.

Best Defensive Player: Brandin Knight. He should really be the Godfather of modern day Pitt Basketball. He was my hero. He led Pitt to 27, and 28 wins and two Sweet 16's in his junior and senior seasons. He averaged 2 steals a game throughout his career. Very good on ball defender. Very good Point Guard, and is a pretty good assistant coach right now.

Biggest Recruit: Steven Adams- Haven't seen him play yet, but huge things are expected. You could argue Blair. He was a good impact freshmen, not a giant recruit.

Best "Hidden-Gem": Jaron Brown. During Pitt's initital success, you always heard about Brandin Knight (rightfully so) even Julius Page. Brown played PF at 6-4. He was Nasir Robinson before Nasir Robinson, and he played on some very great Pitt teams.

Best Walk-On: Charles Small, for the shear fact he was 5-7.

Biggest Bust: Chris Taft- Awesome Freshmen season. Terrible sophomore season. His sophomore year he was supposed to be an All American and potential top 5 pick, went in the second round and had no NBA career.

Best Assistant Coach: ummmmm, Jamie Dixon. Started off as Howland's assistant and all he has done is take over the program. Become the Big East's all time winningest coach in winning percentage, Win muliple Coach of the Year awards, most wins of any coach in the least amount of time. Dude Can Coach.

Worst Assistant Coach: Pat Skerry, Why? He was a one and done, and he was the only reason Khem Birch came to Pitt. When Birch was here, he was an outcast. Had Skerry been around, we would be talking about Birch and Steven Adams starting side by side.

Biggest Win: 2008 beating Georgetown in the Big East tournament championship. Pitt dealt with tons of injuries that season, but they were the first team to win four games in four days at the Garden. Always good beating John Thompson.

Most Crushing Defeat: Villanova 2009 Elite 8. Pitt was set to play UNC in the Final Four. No doubt in my mind that DeJuan Blair would have made Tyler Hansbrough cry.


Best Season: 2009. Elite Eight. 31-5 overall. Started out 16-0 and earned the #1 ranking in the polls. Had a few slip ups along the way, but beat #1 UConn twice. That team had Championship talent. SHOULD have been in the Final Four.

Most Disappointing Season: 2012 would have to be it. Although it was clear they were not that talented, they started the season #9 in the country. Ashton Gibbs was supposed to have a huge season. Khem Birch was the biggest recruit ever. It wasn't suppsoed to end in the CBI, I can tell you that much.

Best Memory: Being at the Garden in 2003 as a 12 year old. Pitt won their first ever Big East Tournament championship beating the hated Huskies 74-56.

Worst Memory: 2009 Elite 8 Scottie "F'n" Reynolds. Nuff said.

Best Game: Easy, the 13-9 win that spoiled WVU's shot at the BCS title. Second would be Palko's 4 TD performance at Notre Dame. "I'm so #$*#&@^ proud of this team!" - Tyler Palko, live on NBC.

Worst Game: 3-0 Sun Bowl loss to Oregon State.

Best Offensive Player: Fitz

Best Defensive Player: Revis

Biggest Recruit: I remember being pretty stoked about Jon Baldwin. Great combo of size and speed = 1st round draft pick.

Best "Hidden-Gem": LB Scott McKillop. Wasn't highly recruited and didn't have great athleticism, but the dude was a tackling machine. He had a nose for the football and hardly ever missed tackles.

Best Walk-On: Not real sure, I didn't follow Pitt recruiting much until probably 2004ish. Would love to see a list of guys who walked on though. Maybe Crimson has a better idea.

Biggest Bust: Pat Bostic. I expected a lot more out of him when he walked on campus. He did win some big games in his career, but never produced enough to hold onto the job and didn't even play his senior season. He is now a Pitt broadcaster. I would have put Dorin Dickerson ahead of him, but he did finally find a position and broke out as a SR at Tight End.

Best Assistant Coach: Paul Rhoads. Was the defensive coordinator thru most of this time period. Put a good many players in the league. He was the DC for 13-9, which probably got him the job at ISU.

Worst Assistant Coach: Matt Cavanaugh. Perfect example of how great players don't always make great coaches.

Biggest Win: 13-9. Wanny's best recruiting class was a direct result of that one game.

Most Crushing Defeat: 45-44 loss to Cincinnati the final week of 2009 with a BCS birth on the line. Dion Lewis had like 48 carries for over 200 yards. Wanny kicked off to Marty Gilyard EVERY SINGLE TIME, even after he took one to the house and another inside the 20. Wanny kept kicking to him. Pitt led 28-7 late in the 1st half when Gilyard took a KO to the house. Tony Pike brought UC back late to win it. BTW, Pitt's 44 points would have been 45 if not for a bobbled hold on an XP by Jonoko from Clearfield. Crushing is definitely the word for that meltdown. One highlight was my friend starting a "UC Sucks" chant throughout all of Heinz lol.

Best Season: That 2009 team went 10-3 and was ^that^ close to going to the BCS. Bill Stall had a great year at QB. Dion Lewis and Ray Graham were a great freshman duo in the backfield. Dorin Dickerson and Nate Byhnam were two very good TE's. Mick Williams, Jabal Sheard, and Greg Romeus on the DL was rediculous.

Most Disappointing Season:

Best Memory: Darell Revis' punt return vs WVU. Kinder knocking out two Eers with one shot and Revis tiptoeing and spinning down the sideline. It was a thing of beauty. Enjoy

Worst Memory: Watching a game from my dorm room in South Carolina, Pitt/Rutgers in 05. It was Rutgers first season as a decent team, they were always garbage before so I expected an easy win. On a 3rd down in a tight game, the refs missed a big facemask on Rutgers which forces Pitt to punt. I was pretty upset about that. Then Rutgers returns the punt for a TD on the next play. I spun around and threw an 87 mph fastball with a 32oz gatorade at my door. Gatorade everywhere. What a mess. Rutgers won the game.

GREAT topic adpk, brought back some good and some not so good memories!

I had a lot of fun with that. Doing Pitt Football now too.

Best Game: Saturday November 8, 2003. Pitt beat Virginia Tech 31-28. College gameday in the house, nationally televised and the Panthers came out on top. Lousaka Polite with the most exciting 2 yard run in Pitt history to seal the deal. Beautiful.

Worst Game: Thursday September 23, 2010. Pitt had 75 former Panther greats in the house on Thursday national TV. They were a supposed top 25 caliber team, and the Canes came up and kicked their butts. 31-3. It was miserable.

Best Offensive Player: Larry Fitzgerald. 161 catches. 2677 yards. 34 touchdowns. IN JUST TWO SEASONS. He was unbelievable, unguardable, and unreal. He was the best player in college football in 2003, I don't see it any other way.

Best Defensive Player: Darrell Revis. Revis island started at Pitt.8 career interceptions, two pick 6's. Nobody really threw his way.

Biggest Recruit: LeSean McCoy. I knew out of HS he was can't miss. Then he shattered his ankle, and people backed off. I knew he would still be unbelievable, and he was just that.

Best "Hidden-Gem": Bill Stull. Man was this guy taking heat for a long time. He had a pretty average junior season, and boom senior year. It all came together. Pitt won 10 games. Oh so close to a Sugar Bowl appearance. He had 2600 yards and 21 TD passes, a fine season if you ask me.

Best Walk-On: Man, thats tough. I can't even think who was a walk-on or not. Austin Ransom was pretty cool I guess?

Biggest Bust: Dorin Dickerson. Yes he is in the NFL. Yes he had a tremendous senior season. The first 3 years? Nothing, nothing at all. Big time top 100 recruit from West A. He changed positions a hundred times before becoming a really good H-Back.

Best Assistant Coach: You know what, maybe Cignetti. Pitt's offensive was clicking in 2009, and Rutgers hired him away. He left a national impression. Paul Rhodes is....ehh. maybe him.

Worst Assistant Coach: The entire Todd Graham staff. The offense didn't work, so they blamed it on the players.

Biggest Win: Beating #2 WVU on the road as an un-ranked and horrible football team was very, very satisfying. Beating Notre Dame in 2003 with Tyler Palko dropping an F-bomb on NBC was also cool. And of course, 12-0.

Most Crushing Defeat: 2009 Cincinnati. UGH, dropped snap on an extra point 45-44 loss with the Sugar Bowl on the line. The way it ended yeah, the way Pitt was dominating the first half made it worse.

Best Season: 2009. 10 Wins. Spent time as a top 10 team. Close loss to WVU on the road, the aforementioned Cincinnati debacle, and a road loss to Russell Wilson to NC State were the only defeats. All winnable games. Close to being undefeated. seriously.

Most Disappointing Season: 2003. Preseason #8. It wasn't a year you were expecting an 8-5 season. That team was supposed to win 10-11 games.

Best Memory: I talked about the '03 Tech game. I mean I was in Pittsburgh from 9:00 AM to 11:00 at night. I'm 13 years old. I got to meet the Gameday guys, I held Dorsett's Heisman, I was on the field pre game, Larry Fitzgerald threw a ball to me during warmups, Pitt won, I mean come on!!

Worst Memory: It has to be the Cincinnati game. It literally makes me sick.

I was at your best and worst game. I attended the VaTech game with none other than bleachercoaches own Coach. Kevin Jones went for 243 yards in a losing effort. That Miami game was awful, I thought about it in mine as well. That was an electric atmosphere that night and Miami proceeded to dominate. Jacory Harris picked our secondary apart with 6 yard hooks and outs while the corners were 10-12 yards off all game.

I'll go with my Nittany Lions...

Best Game: Penn State over Ohio State in 2005 where Tamba Hali sacked Troy Smith at the end of the game and rolled up over him. After a few years of struggles this game put Penn State back on the map. Later in 2008, Penn State went into Ohio State and won a huge game on the road. I thought they were going to the national championship game that year after that win...

Worst Game: 6-4 loss to Iowa. It was so, so, so bad. Just look at the final score and try not to vomit. To top it off, Titan has made fun of it so much that it makes it even worse.

Best Offensive Player: Larry Johnson. He was a man out there. 2000 yards rushing in college football in a major conference is awesome.

Best Defensive Player: Paul Posluszny. He is probably my all time favorite defensive player.

Biggest Recruit: Easy one- Derek Williams. He signed when we stunk and was a top recruit nationally. Paired with Justin King those recruits changed Penn State from the blah it had become.

Best "Hidden-Gem": Jordan Hill was a 2* recruit and he is a terrific football player. The kid will end up playing on Sundays.

Best Walk-On: Ethan Kilmer. Loved the guy. Special teams freak that was a great football guy.

Biggest Bust: Anthony Morelli most likely...although we have had some busts at QB that were highly recruited. This guy was a 5* that everyone in the country wanted. He threw about one route his entire career, the 4 yard out. He just wasn't a very good quarterback.

Best Assistant Coach: Easy- Larry Johnson. The guy has coached some terrific NFL linemen. He is the best DL coach in the entire country and is a terrific motivator.

Worst Assistant Coach: Bill Kenney was just a guy I never cared for as an OL coach. He worked with tackles and tight ends (I hated that a different coach, Dick Anderson worked with centers and guards). Many people would say Jay, but I actually liked him. Jerry was gone prior to the 2000 season or this would be super simple.

Biggest Win: I don't know if it was the biggest, but maybe the most important was the comeback win over Northwestern in 2005. That was the spring board to the Orange Bowl season. PSU converted a long fourth down on the final drive and then DWill caught a long touchdown for the win. This was a huge win for the program.

Most Crushing Defeat: Michigan when Manningham scored after time was added back to the clock. Disgusting. Add the loss to Iowa at Iowa when Penn State was still undefeated a few years ago and was trying to get to the national championship game. That was horrible to watch.

Best Season: None they lost every game from 98-2011

Most Disappointing Season: All of the early 2000's

Best Memory: Night games at Beaver Stadium.... When Taliaferro walked the guys out of the tunnel before Miami in 2001....awesome.

Worst Memory: Everything that has taken place with the Sandusky trial

Coach wrote:
Best Season: None they lost every game from 98-2011

Most Disappointing Season: All of the early 2000's

No offense, But I laughed out loud. wasn't expecting that as your answer.

Obviously the whole PSU debacle isn't a laughing matter, but still there are some funny things about the sanctions and such....my favorite line from the whole mess.

"Well Penn State they took away all your wins, but they can't take away your losses, you still lost 6-4 to Iowa."

Steelers version.....


Best Game: Super Bowl XLIII 27-23 over the Arizona Cardinals. One of the best Super Bowl endings ever! Roethlisberger's drive and he catch by Santonio to seal the deal. How sweet it was.

Worst Game: September 11, 2011. Baltimore beat the Steelers 35-8 in the season opener last year. And literally, I have never seen the Steelers get killed before. It was an absolute beat down. And Baltimore made it much worse.

Best Offensive Player: Ben Roethlisberger. Ben is 52nd all time in passing, and will pass Terry bradshaw this season to be the franchise's all time leading passer. I mean this guy is the offense and has been for a few seasons now. Can you believe this is his NINTH season as the Steelers QB?

Best Defensive Player: Troy Polamalu. Troy is one of the best Defensive Backs of all time. His ability to dictate a game from the Safety position is mind blowing. His awareness and feel for the game are unmatched. He is not what he used to be, but in his prime....leaping over the line, coming from nowhere to make interceptions were his daily routine.

Biggest Draft Pick: Ben Roethlisberger. He is a franchise quarterback in every sense of the word. He has won two Super Bowls and been the most important player to this team since his arrival. And incredibly under appreciated by plenty of people.

Best "Hidden-Gem": Man back when this team ran the ball a lot, I loved Dan Kreider. He was tough as nails. Opened up plenty of room for the Bus. He would help the current team out a lot.

Best Undrafted Player: Mr. James Harrison. scary dude, scary good. He gets held more than anyone, and is a beast in the pass rush. One of the NFL's most intimidating players, and he was undrafted because of his height.

Biggest Bust: might throw you off with this one, Alonzo Jackson. This guy was Bill Cowher's hand picked second round pick in 2003. He was supposed to be the next great outside linebacker and never had much of a career.

Best Assistant Coach: Dick LeBeau, and words can't describe him. He is awesome.

Worst Assistant Coach: Hard to say Wisenhunt and Arians won Super Bowls. I guess Mike Mularkey.

Biggest Win: Super Bowl XL. The one for the Thumb.

Most Crushing Defeat: Super Bowl XLV. Anytime you go that far, you never want to lose.

Best Season: 2008-09 15-4. Super Bowl Champions. AFC North Champions. works for me.

Most Disappointing Season: 2009-10. 9-7 missed the playoffs after the Super Bowl.

Best Memory: Both Super Bowls wins.

Worst Memory: Tim Tebow's game winner last season.