Tree of Life

11 Nov

RMU Women's Basketball Update by Marissa Dubaich

published in category: Uncategorized on Sunday, November 11th, 2012 – 11:11 am

The Robert Morris Women's basketball team opened their 2012-2013 season last night (November 9, 2012) against the Niagara Purple Eagles at the Sewall Center in Moon Township. The neck-to-neck game was entertaining to watch but with only .4 seconds left on the clock in the second half, the Colonials lost the tough game. Randi Jackson, freshman, shot the last basket of the game but she unfortunately missed her three-pointer. At the end of the night, the score was Robert Morris 59 and Niagara 63.

The RMU team brought in three new players this year to their ten-person team. Freshman guard, Randi Jackson from Oakland, California stepped out onto the court as a Colonial after the second media timeout in the first half. She showed off her skills but had one rebound. Another freshman from Toulouse, France, Lou Mataly, had an excellent game when she posted 11 total points on the game. As for Ashley Ravelli, also a freshman out of Princeton, New Jersey, was part of the starting line-up for the first time as a Robert Morris Colonial. Ravelli had two total rebounds but did not have any points. Even though she did not have any points, Ashley Ravelli showed the crowd that she has potential to improve on the season this year.

During the first half of the game, the Colonials and the Eagles both had a lot of steals and made the game even tougher for Bobby Mo to get the lead. Robert Morris kept throwing the ball out of bounds but they improved throughout the game. Both teams were either down or ahead less than six points in the first and second half of the game.

Artemis Spanou, junior forward from Rhodes, Greece had an outstanding game when she had the team-high throughout the entire game. Spanou reached her career-high of 32 points and 16 rebounds late in the second half. Also, she almost reached a double-double early in the second half. At the end of the game, Spanou had a team-high of 30 points, 14 rebounds and four assists on the night. Lou Mataly, fell behind Spanou in most total points. Mataly had three rebounds and was 4-9 on shooting.

The Robert Morris Colonials had a shooting percentage of 40.4% (21-52) and had a percentage of 26.7% (4-15) from the long range. The Niagara Purple Eagles had a shooting range percentage of 36.8% (21-57) and had a percentage of 21.4% (3-14) from the long range too. Also, RMU had seven fast breaks and Niagara had nine on the game.

The Bobby Mo team will be on the road for their next four games when they will play against Colgate, Miami (Ohio), Iowa, and Michigan State. The team will not be home again until November 28, 2012 when they will play Stony Brook at 7:00 p.m. at the Sewall Center.

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Posted in Uncategorized

 

11 Nov

TribLIVE Radio High School Football Athlete of the Week

published in category: Sports Talk Radio on Sunday, November 11th, 2012 – 11:03 am

Congratulations to West Allegheny's Chayse Dillon for being voted TribLIVE Radio's High School Football Athlete of the Week.

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Posted in Sports Talk Radio

 

07 Nov

Who Will Run Against the Chiefs?

published in category: Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday, November 7th, 2012 – 4:40 pm

Issac Redman, Jonathan Dwyer, or Rashard Mendenhall?

Who will be the Pittsburgh Steelers feature ballcarrier this week?

At his press conference this past Tuesday, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said that his decision on who will get the carries at running back this week against Kansas City depends on health and effectiveness.

"Whoever's being productive when healthy is going to get the totes," said Tomlin. "I really think it's that simple. I'm not going to make it any more complex than it has to be. At times this season we've had a running back by committee approach because none of them had been overly effective at that time. When someone's effective, they'll get the ball."

What does that mean exactly?

Last week's 147-yard rusher Redman isn't sure.

"I don't really understand what he means by that," he said after Wednesday practice. "Tomlin said 'I'm going to stay with the hot hand.' I had a pretty good game, Dwyer will be back this week, we'll both get carries. I'm not sure about Rashard's status. I don't know if he means the 'hot hand' is if you get two-yards on your first carry the next guy's up. I don't know. I'm just going to go out there and play hard. If that's what the coaches feel. I'm not a coach so I'm not going to sit here and say who should be the starting running back or not."

Left guard Willie Colon, part of a surging offensive line that is making the choice of back seem more insignificant as the weeks go by, didn't seem concerned who Tomlin would pick.

"I don't fall into the 'whoever is behind us we block differently' category," said Colon. "Every running back we have on this team is capable, hard-nosed to a certain degree. 'Red' is obviously coming off a great game. Dwyer is starting to find his identity at running back. I'm happy for both of them. It's a good problem to have. You know both guys are capable and willing to get the job done. It's just one of them things, who's hot right now. I would love to have both of them ready to go. We'll see. I know whoever is out there is going to do the best job to their ability."

Redman played 53-snaps in the team's win over the NY Giants, a number that even he was amazed by.

"I'm pretty sore right now," said Redman. "I played about 53 snaps and that's kind of unheard of for a running back. My body is kind of feeling it right now. We were down to just me and Chris Rainey. Baron Batch was limited because he was banged up and they told him he wouldn't play any offensive snaps, they wanted him strictly special teams."

Coming off a high-ankle sprain himself, Redman entered the game at less than 100% by his admission. However, he felt he came out of the game fine.

"I don't feel like it's a setback because I didn't re-injure it," he said. "It's just sore, which I knew it would be."

As for his career best day in terms of both carries and yardage, Redman was still riding high off the success.

"It felt good because I was out the past few weeks," said Redman. "I hate sitting on the sideline and watching my team go to battle and I'm just sitting there not being able to contribute. To know that we were down [players] and there wasn't any other running back that could step in, I had to really go out there and try to put the running game on my back. I just went out there and tried to do my best."

This week, however, he likely won't be alone with Dwyer returning from a thigh bruise. Dwyer had the team's first back-to-back 100-yard rushing games in four years prior to the win in New York. And Redman knows that he and Dwyer are comparable in the eyes of the bosses who will make playing time decision.

"We're similar," Redman said. "We're the same type of runner, with power, straight down-hill. Dwyer's a good running back, I'm a good running back. We're power runners so the longer the game goes on the more we wear defenses down. The less they want to tackle you. You can see it on film, the secondary and linebackers by the time it's the end of the game they don't want to tackle anymore."

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Posted in Pittsburgh Steelers

 

07 Nov

The Steelers Clicking at the Right Time by Ryan Shaffer

published in category: Ike Taylor, Pittsburgh Penguins, Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday, November 7th, 2012 – 3:02 pm

The 2012 season started slow for the Pittsburgh Steelers. After a 2-3 start in which the team lost all three games on the road to AFC teams, the revived Steelers reeled off three consecutive wins. Most recently, Pittsburgh dismantled the New York Giants (6-3) at Metlife Stadium, 24-20. The score fails to tell the true tale of the game, as Eli Manning and company only accumulated 182 yards of total offense. The team found the right time to start playing strong football on both sides of the ball.
In week 1, Peyton Manning looked unstoppable, and thrashed the typically feared Steelers' defense at will. After Ben Roethlisberger's stunning performance on third downs, and complete control of possession in the third quarter, Manning needed only one 71-yard play to put Denver back on top. The defense, sans Ryan Clark and James Harrison, uncharacteristically surrendered several big plays and the team lost 31-19.
After beating the lowly Jets handily in week 2, Pittsburgh traveled to Oakland and battled the winless Raiders. Again, the defense gave up big plays at less than optimal times, and the Raiders stunned the Steelers, 34-31. This time, the offense turned the ball over multiple times which left Carson Palmer and crew too many opportunities. Eventually, Palmer capitalized on those chances.
Mike Vick essentially handed the Steelers a win against the Eagles by fumbling three times, including one just before the goal line after an impressive Philadelphia drive. The sloppy game fell into Pittsburgh's favor, but the team ran out of luck in their week five matinée in Nashville. The third loss to an AFC opponent in only four tries put the Steelers in danger of losing any tiebreakers at the end of the season. Remember, last season the team traveled to Denver instead of hosting a game at Heinz Field due to a tiebreak with Baltimore.
Then, after a slow start in Cincinnati, the defense shut down the Bengals who employ one of the greatest receivers in football, A.J. Green. Ike Taylor took plenty of heat after a few atrocious games, and rose to the occasion against an elite player. The Steelers defeated the division-rival Bengals in convincing fashion, which turned their luck around. Against Cincinnati, the defense and offense finally clicked in all facets of the game. Jonathan Dwyer erupted for 122 yards on only 17 carries, while the defense stymied the Bengals potent passing attack and held them to only 185 total yards. The Steelers offense totaled up 431 yards in the victory. The team's road woes finally fell to the wayside.
The next week, while sporting some of the ugliest uniforms ever worn in professional sports, the Steelers shocked the league with a blowout win against the Washington Redskins. Dwyer scampered for over 100 yards for the second consecutive week, and Roethlisberger picked the Redskins secondary apart with three touchdown passes. While the offense did their part, the defense held the dynamic superstar Robert Griffin III to 177 yards. Not to mention, the quarterback failed to gain significant scrambling yards for the first time in his career.
On Sunday, the New York Giants gained most of their yards on questionable penalties, such as the terrible blow to the head call against Ryan Clark on Victor Cruz. Other than a controversial touchdown scored on a fumble by Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers dominated the game. The win notched their second consecutive road victory, which happened at the expense of the defending Super Bowl champs. Also, running back Isaac Redman rumbled for over 140 yards, which means that the Steelers backups keep trampling defenses. The offense cruised after the costly turnover with yet another backup running back.
This week, Pittsburgh hosts offensive coordinator Todd Haley's former club the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs (1-7) held zero leads this season, as their only win this season came in overtime against the New Orleans Saints. Trap games exist, but I believe that with the offense and defense clicking so well together, the Steelers should win easy. In fact, the rest of the league needs to take notice of Pittsburgh, because a seventh title could be on the horizon.

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Posted in Ike Taylor, Pittsburgh Penguins, Pittsburgh Steelers

 

05 Nov

Jay Bell is the Pirates' Hitting Coach, Whoopty Doo by Jon Pennline

published in category: Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday, November 5th, 2012 – 8:50 am

The Pittsburgh Pirates finished the 2012 season with the third lowest batting average in the National League. They also had the fourth lowest OBP in the majors and the third most strikeouts. So what did the Pirates do to remedy this problem? They went for nostalgia and hired Jay Bell.

Surprise, surprise.

Yes, nothing says "improve our hitting" like a former shortstop with a career .265 average. Never mind the fact that his last coaching gig was for the Arizona AA affiliate Mobile Baybears where his team finished ninth out of ten teams in hitting. Now, he is suppose to take a group of major leaguers, well, players at the major league level, and turning them into a better hitting ball club?

To be fair, he can't be worse than Gregg Ritchie. If you've spoken to coach Ritchie, you know he's an extremely nice person with a lot of knowledge of the game. But, he's not a good hitting instructor. Like Bell, Richie's past teams have never put up solid numbers under his guidance. His departure to George Washington University is a positive for the Pittsburgh Pirates despite the fact that the hitting instruction may have been coming from Clint Hurdle.

You may be asking, "if Clint Hurdle is the real hitting coach, why the outrage over Jay Bell?"

Because he's a waste of a spot on the bench. Judging by his numbers as a player and a coach, Jay Bell offers zero new approaches to this team. Bell does have some decent numbers from his playing days with the Indians, Pirates, Royals, Diamondbacks and Mets. For a middle infielder his 191 career home runs are certainly impressive. But, he's going to a team that finished 12th in baseball with 170 homers. He is currently ranked 227th all-time in runs scored with 1,123. But what is Bell most known for?

Bunting!

That's right, Jay Bell use to move runners over with ease back in the early 90's under Jim Leyland. In 1991, Bell had 39 sacrifice bunts. By comparison, Clint Barmes and Kevin Correia led the way last season with eight. Now the team's new hitting coach is bringing his bunting skills to Pittsburgh where they play small ball with a lineup that possesses pretty good power.

The beat goes on for the Pittsburgh Pirates. There's never a solid solution to fill a hole. For all intents and purposes, the front office is Chevy Chase plugging gum into the Hoover Dam. Obviously the losing and lack of money have become obstacles for fixing a problem, but there has to be a smarter way to improve the club.

Unlike Bob Smizik, I plan to write off Jay Bell with this team. His expertise is not in any category the team actually needs to improve on. How is he going to teach players about their approach to hitting when he struck out 20% of the time during his career? Unless the Pirates plan on signing a big free agent to improve the lineup I just don't see Bell as a positive impact on the team.

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Posted in Pittsburgh Pirates

 

02 Nov

Robert Morris Basketball Starts Strong

published in category: Uncategorized on Friday, November 2nd, 2012 – 3:20 pm

The Robert Morris University Men's Basketball team had a successful Thursday night during their first exhibition game of the season (11/1). They defeated the Saint Vincent Bearcats by a score of 81-67. There are four new players who joined the team this season, Vaughn Morgan (Pittsburgh, PA), Karvel Anderson (Elkhart, Indiana), and Jervon Pressley (Charlotte, N.C.); all transferred to Robert Morris University. Also, Robert Morris recruited a freshman, Stephan Hawkins from Gary, Indiana.

All the newcomers had a great start as a Colonial except for Jervon Pressley who did not play. As for Vaughn Morgan, he had seven rebounds and ten points and was also a starter. Robert Morris Guard, Karvel Anderson had 8 points in his first game at the Sewall Center. Stephan Hawkins, a freshman forward, had four total rebounds, four points, and had two assists.

The starters of the Robert Morris Men's Basketball team, Mike McFadden, Velton Jones, Coron Williams, and Russell Johnson did not let the "Colonial Crazies" down. They all came out strong and entertained the fans with a barrage of three-pointers. Robert Morris Guard, Coron Williams, had the team-high (17) and had two rebounds and two assists. Anthony Myers-Pate fell right behind him with a total of 12 points, two rebounds, and three assists. As for Velton Jones, he had four points. Jones played only ten minutes due to a minor injury in the game. Mike McFadden fell behind Anthony Myers-Pate in points (11) but had three rebounds and four assists. The senior forward, Russell Johnson, had eight points, four rebounds, and two assists.

Overall, Robert Morris rarely missed any of their three-pointers (68.4%). Their shooting percentage was 47.2% at the end of the game. The Colonials are going to have a big season with their new talented players and their main playmakers. Next weekend, Robert Morris will travel to Lawrenceville, New Jersey, where they will play Rider in their second exhibition game. Also, The Colonials will be competing in the NIT Tournament on Monday, November 12, 2012, where they will play against Lehigh in Pittsburgh at 9 p.m.

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Posted in Uncategorized

 

02 Nov

TribLIVE Radio High School Football Athlete of the Week

published in category: Sports Talk Radio on Friday, November 2nd, 2012 – 3:00 pm

Congratulations to Burrell Quarterback James Liput for being voted the TribLIVE Radio High School Football Athlete of the Week. Liput threw for 222 yards and three touchdowns in a 51-18 win over Deer Lakes. Burrell finished the regular season 8-1.

Burrell takes on Mt. Pleasant in the first round of the WPIAL Playoffs tonight.

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Posted in Sports Talk Radio

 

31 Oct

Smash-Mouth Steelers?

published in category: Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday, October 31st, 2012 – 5:37 pm

<strong>"We have the personnel, the running backs to do it. The offensive line, they're looking for a fight" – Issac Redman</strong>

Going into their 4th game of the season against Philadelphia Eagles, the Pittsburgh Steelers running game was a statistical mess.

Filling in for Rashard Mendenhall, backs Jonathan Dwyer and Issac Redman had combined for 142 yards rushing on 56 carries in three weeks of football, a 2.5 per carry average. The team had a record of 1-2.

Mendenhall returned after Pittsburgh's bye week, producing a much improved stat line of 14 totes for 81 yards, a 5.8 yards per carry mark against the Eagles. The Steelers appeared to have a real ground-game breakthrough in the second half of that contest, at one point calling run plays on 6 out of 7 plays on a scoring drive, followed by a game-winning FG drive which chewed up the final 6:33 of time.

All was not perfect, with left guard Willie Colon's four holding penalties keeping the offense to 16-points, but it was an improvement.

Then came a trip to Tennessee, another defeat, in which the run game regressed to 22 carries, 56 yards, a 2.5 per carry average. Mendenhall suffered another injury in the game. Redman did too, just when it appeared he was ready to have a breakout performance. Pass catches of 33 and 55 yards, mixed with five early 3rd quarter touches, had Redman's engine going.

The engine stalled for the night when Jason McCourty's helmet met Redman's ankle.

"It looked like it was on my knee, but it was actually my ankle," said Redman. "I got a high ankle sprain, and I was already battling an ankle sprain on my left ankle. Personally, I hadn't felt that good all season. I felt like I was getting back to my old self."

To make matters worse, the team's right tackle Marcus Gilbert suffered a knee injury, which would push rookie Mike Adams into the lineup.

But in the second quarter in Cincinnati, trailing by a score of 14-3 and when things appeared bleakest, everything changed.

Dwyer ripped off runs of 11, 5, 3, and 21-yards. Colon's finished one of the team's signature power runs with a ground tussle on top of Bengals' linebacker Vontaze Burfict. According to right guard Ramon Foster, it was a moment that could "potentially change the season."

"I felt like I was in debt to this team," Colon said after the game. "I had to do something. I was hungry and tired of losing on the road. If I've got to start a fight to get this team going, I've got no problem doing it"

The Steelers went on to win the game 24-17. Dwyer's 17 carries for 122 yards included another key late-game clock eating drive, as the team kept possession for the final 3:57 to preserve the victory. Rookie Chris Rainey got into the mix with a 12-yard TD burst.

And the following week against Washington, Dwyer backed up his 100-plus-yard performance with 107-yards on 17 carries. The offensive line was blowing open holes in the 27-12 win, including a 34-yard tote in the 1st quarter which was Pittsburgh's longest run of the year.

All of a sudden, the Steelers' ground game was back.

Redman said that in the two weeks that he's had to watch from the sideline, he's noticed a big change.

"You can just tell they've been playing with attitude," said Redman. "They're really taking pride in getting up and getting on their guys, and they're just putting up the extra work. You can just watch Willie Colon's demeanor on film, how he's just finishing every play. I don't know if he needed time to transition into the guard position or what, but he's been playing angry. And that kind of spread all the way down to the rest of the o-line. That's what we need, we need some angry offensive linemen out there willing to smash people. That's what everybody's been doing the last couple weeks. Guys have been playing angry."

It appears Redman will get that chance this week in New York against the Giants, as Issac returned for Wednesday practice. He admitted that he's not at 100% health, but with Dwyer now battling a thigh injury and Mendenhall still nursing a sore achilles, it might be Redman's turn at-bat.

"It's sore, but right now I'm at the point where I can play through it," Redman said of his ankle. "I've had high ankle sprains every year that I've played football, it's just something that you've got to deal with from the running back position. I'm ready. It's tough sitting on the sideline, watching those guys get at it the way they have. I just can't wait to get out there and run behind them."

Redman is eager to the point of even dreaming of turning the Pittsburgh Steelers back their ground game roots.

"I think we can," Redman answered when asked if Pittsburgh can be a dominant run team again. "We have the personnel, we have the running backs to do it. Dwyer's been playing at a high level since he's been given his chance. The offensive line, they're looking for a fight. They're coming in, they're straight smash-mouthing. I don't see why we can't be a straight smash-mouth team and play football at a high level. This o-line, they're huge. Starting with Max [Starks], then you've got the rookie [Adams] coming in. These guys are big guys, and we like to smash-mouth and go downhill because it's tough to deal with."

With Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback and a premiere group of pass-catchers, painting the Steelers as a new-found ground-and-pound team might be over-doing it a touch. However, that's not to say the run-game won't be a determining factor in the story of the 2012 Pittsburgh Steelers.

"It's starting to be our identity," said Colon after the Washington win. "If we're able to run the ball efficiently the sky is the limit for this offense."

This week in particular, Starks stressed the importance of the run-game against the defending champions.

"They're a very athletic crew up front," said Starks, admitting he'll see edge rusher Jason Pierre-Paul almost exclusively. "They do a lot of versatile things, but also teams have found ways at different points to run on them. Which I think kind of changes up that predictable passing situation. When teams can run and pass on them, it makes it tougher on them to figure out what to do, because you have to play truer. I don't think they're built to handle that run, play-action game as well as they have been in years past. Every week [the run game] is important but it's definitely paramount now."

And as for who the feature running back should be, if by chance Mendenhall, Dwyer, and Redman are all healthy and available?

"For us, really it's whoever wants to step up to the challenge," said Starks. "As long as we get consistency back there I think that's the biggest thing more-so than picking an individual runner. That makes it a lot easier on us. Guys have paved the way and done things to earn roles on this team, so it is a tough decision to have all guys healthy, but I think it's a good problem to have. Come game-day, whoever lines up there, as long as we have a primary and a secondary runner, third down guys and roles clearly defined, I think we'll be fine."

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Posted in Pittsburgh Steelers

 



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