TODAY'S HEADLINES

Pens remain perfect in shootouts: The Penguins were able to overcome a sparkling 46-save performance from Jimmy Howard and outlast the Detroit Red Wings by a 2-1 count in OT on Sunday afternoon in front of a national NBC audience. The win gave the Pens a perfect 7-0 record in shootouts this season.

Sidney Crosby scored in regulation and in the shootout, and Evgeni Malkin added the shootout clincher as the Penguins won for the third time in their last four games. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 23 shots in regulation and both Detroit attempts in the shootout for the win in goal.

It was a playoff atmosphere at the Igloo, which was packed to above-capacity with more than 17,000 in attendance. The teams played a relatively clean game, but neither side would capitalize on the eight power plays handed out.

The Pens are back at it on Monday night against Buffalo. Gametime is set for 7 PM and TV will be on Versus. [ESPN]

Pitt scorched in Florida: Guard Dominique Jones shredded the Pitt defense to the tune of 37 points in a disappointing 70-61 South Florida victory over the Panthers on Sunday afternoon. Pitt was playing without defensive stopper Jermaine Dixon, who injured his foot in their win over St. John's on Thursday. I think it's safe to say they missed him.

The loss was the third in four games for the Panthers, who can officially be tagged as "struggling". They did get a career high 25 points from Gilbert Brown, but this one can be boiled down to free throw shooting, where Pitt was definitively weak on this day. The Panthers, who are making 70% of their foul shots on the season, shot just 54% from the charity stripe on Sunday, missing five free throws after USF's lead was cut to 54-50 with 5:33 remaining.

Brad Wanamaker scored 14 and Ashton Gibbs added 11 for the Panthers, who fell to 16-5 and 6-3 in the Big East with the loss. Next up is the basketball version of the Backyard Brawl on Wednesday night at WVU, with a 7 PM tip on ESPN. [ESPN]

Pitt to the Big Tenleven? This rumor gained a lot of steam over the weekend, and it's going nuts in a few message boards. I know I'm opening up a major can of worms mentioning anything regarding Pitt and the conference which houses Penn State, but I actually think it would be a good business move for the Panthers. And as an extra bonus, back comes Pitt-Penn State. I can hear Nittany teeth gnashing as we speak. [KC Star]

And speaking of Pitt and Penn State: Adam the Penn State fan penned an article on Black Shoe Diaries where some of you are quoted, and wanted me to pass it along. Thy will be done. [Black Shoe Diaries]

AFC wins Pro Bowl, nation collectively yawns: The AFC won the 2010 Pro Bowl with a 41-34 victory on Sunday night in Miami, with Houston's Matt Schaub, the AFC's fifth choice for QB, taking home MVP honors.

Nearly 40% of the players originally selected for the game didn't play, but the Colts and Saints did show up despite bulk complaints out of Indianapolis. Super Bowl players have to show up a night early, not have to play, and be adored by fans and media? And everything is comped? How dare you, Roger Goodell!

Of local interest, Heath Miller had one catch for 13 yards, James Harrison had a late interception, and LaMarr Woodley had a 64-yard pick six of Donovan McNabb wiped out by a 12 men on the field penalty. Didn't anyone learn anything from the Vikings game? [ESPN]

A 300 game and hole in one two days later. Had to be a former Yinzer: And it was 57-year-old Wayne Persang, formerly of Pittsburgh, who rolled a perfect 300 game while bowling in a league at Countryside Lanes in Clearwater, Florida on January 11. On January 13th at Highland Lakes Golf Course in Palm Harbor, Persang aced the fifth hole. Someone buy this guy a ticket to Vegas, because he's on fire. [TampaBay.com]

PirateFest crowds are up: Total attendance for PirateFest was 15,398, up 271 from last year, with a 1,200-person boost over last year's final day. Unfortunately, 1,000 of those people showed up expecting to see Mario Lemieux.

I kid, I kid. Of course they were there for Evan Meek. [PBC Blog]

Because you asked for it: Some of you have noticed, but I did place a little schedule of the week's upcoming local games on the right sidebar for convenience purposes. This weekend, I also added standings and stat page links for each local team as well. Chalk up this innovation to the end-of-year survey and thank your fellow readers who suggested it.

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TODAY'S HEADLINES, PART DEUX

As expected, Bruce Arians has divided the readers: As of this writing, there are 1,028 votes in yesterday's "Would you keep Bruce Arians" poll question, and it's currently 50.2-49.8 in favor of bringing him back. [Vizu Poll Results]

Adam The Penn State Fan....takes on the "Sour Old Men" of the Pittsburgh sports media. Say what you want, this guy generates a debate. [BSD]

Leavitt out at South Florida: Longtime USF football coach Jim Leavitt became the most recent coach to lose his job in the wake of player abuse claims, as he was let go today.

Leavitt, who built the program from scratch, had just completed the second season of a seven-year, $12.6 million contract. He leaves with a record of 95-57, including 3-2 in bowl games. Under his tenure, USF peaked at #2 in the BCS poll in 2007. [Fox Sports]

Steve Miller to distract you from bad baseball: If you want to watch Pirates-Padres, hear "Fly Like an Eagle" live, and get "a nice night out at the ballpark", mark your calendar for July 24. [TimesOnline.com]

Pirates' Lukewarm Stove Update: The Buccos have zeroed in on Octavio Dotel as a closer, and have also shown interest in reliver D.J. Carrasco, who spent 2009 with the White Sox. The 32-year-old Carrasco, a Pirate farmhand from 1999-2002, had a 3.76 ERA in 49 appearances last season.

The Bucs appear to be backing off of free agent OF Rick Ankiel, who is represented by Scott Boras. Their plan right now is to have an outfield of Lastings Milledge, Andrew McCutchen and Garrett Jones, and therefore they are not promising any full-time gigs to any free agents. [PG]

Hire Bill Cowher: The Billboard: If there's one thing that could sway Bill Cowher to Buffalo, I can guarantee you that it's a billboard. How do you think the Steelers got Mike Tomlin? [PFT]

Jason Bay, New York Met: Here's the video the Mets sent to their ticket-buying mailing list (preceded by a 30-second ad, of course). Hey, they've gotta get that money some way. [MLB.com]

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PITT IS RANKED...AGAIN

Had to get a quick mention of this in, but congratulations to the Fighting Wannstaches for their current ranking of #24 in the AP poll following Thursday's upset of South Florida.

The Panthers will be resting until October 18, when they take on Navy, so odds are they will probably move up a few spots by then based purely on my speculation that some teams in front of them will lose between now and then.

USF fell from #10 to #19 with last week's loss, and they are currently the only other Big East team in the top 25. UConn dropped out following their blowout loss to Butch Davis's North Carolina Tar Heels, who are two spots ahead of Pitt at #22. Pitt is also in first place in the Big East at 2-0. Raise your hand if you saw any of this coming after week one.

In other rankings of local interest, Penn State remains at #6 on the heels of their 20-6 win at Purdue, and Terrelle Pryor's Ohio State Buckeyes are #12 following a tough 20-17 win at Wisconsin. Pryor was 13-19 for 144 yards and a pick while adding 20 yards and a touchdown on the ground. As for WVU, they're 3-2 after a narrow win over 1-4 Rutgers, which puts them nowhere near the top 25.

THE PITT ROLLER COASTER CONTINUES

PITT (4-1) 26

10- SOUTH FLORIDA (5-1) 21

STULL 16-27, 228, 1 TD

MCCOY 28-142, 2 TD

TURNER 3-60

Well, I guess I'm happy to report that 64.3% of you were wrong in this week's poll question about who would win the Pitt-USF game last night. Of course, I couldn't blame any of you for voting that way, because as I mused last week, my feelings on Pitt seemed to change with each drive this season.

But it's sure hard to find too many complaints about what happened in Tampa last night. Sure, it wasn't a perfect game: there was a blocked punt returned for a TD, there were mental errors, there was that fake punt debacle, there was another Shady McCoy fumble...but there were a lot of positives, too. We saw the re-emergence of McCoy, who has been truly dominant in Pitt's last two upsets of top-10 teams; we saw gutsy play-calling from Matt Cavanaugh, who was being praised by the ESPN announcers throughout the game (and yes, I thought I was in Bizarro World all the while); we saw big plays from young WR Jonathan Baldwin, who was a matchup disaster for USF; we saw the continued maturation of Bill Stull, who thew for 228 yards and a touchdown; and we saw the defense step up when they needed to on numerous occasions.

So where does that leave us, as Pitt fans? Should our expectations be raised back to their preseason levels? Sure, I'll have another tall glass of my favorite drink, Wannstache Fruit Punch.

I think we can take from the first five games that Pitt's conditioning is excellent, due greatly to the presence of strength & conditioning coach Buddy Morris. They're outlasting teams in the fourth quarter, and they're finishing strong. This is not a coincidence. Last night makes three consecutive games that they've won while trailing at some point in the fourth.

Last night's game was kind of like a microcosm of Pitt's season. It starts bad (Bowling Green) and gradually gets better. Unfortunately, football fans are about as impatient as a group of people that you'll ever meet in a lifetime, and are willing to write off a season after one bad game.

Fortunately, Dave Wannstedt, his coaches, and his players don't subscribe to that theory.

Game Notes:

--Tampa Rays rookie hero Evan Longoria and his female "friend" were at the game last night, much to the enjoyment of the announcers.

--Pitt is off until October 18, when they play at Navy, followed by Rutgers at Heinz Field on the 25th.

--The Great Greg Cross Experiment netted two carries for eight yards last night. OK, it's a work in progress.

--Don't look now, but Conor Lee is becoming as consistent as Skippy Reed. Wanny has too feel very confident in his kicking game.

--Many of you probably missed at least parts of the VP debate last night due to the Pitt game, but I'm guessing Tina Fey will fill you in tomorrow night on SNL. If I may inject some opinion, that skit was really funny for the season premiere, but if they go to the well too many times, it will become about as fresh as a Najeh Davenport poop joke.