7-Eleven Closure to Usher in a New Era of Pitt Football | Take Tuesday

7-Eleven Closure to Usher in a New Era of Pitt Football

Take Tuesday

Arthur W Mueller

It’s no secret that Pitt Football has been struggling this season. The Panthers are 1-3, and their only win was in overtime over FCS team Youngstown St. Out of 130 college football teams Pitt is 107^th in points scored, and 113^th in points allowed. USC transfer Max Browne started the first three games of the season at quarterback, but now he has been benched for Ben “The Nooch” DiNucci.

The losses to Penn State and Oklahoma State were understandable. Penn State is a top five team, and while Oklahoma State slipped up against TCU this week, they are also a high quality football team. Pitt’s most recent loss to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets is more concerning. Georgia Tech is an average ACC Coastal team, the kind of team that Pitt will need to compete with for the rest of their season. If Pitt is going to play as poorly as they did against Georgia Tech, they won’t make a bowl game.

Fortunately, Pitt is making some changes that could shake up the team and produce some wins. Pitt will be closing the 7-Eleven that is on Pitt’s campus across the street from the Hillman Library. The Panthers are now not just playing for themselves. They are playing for their convenience store. A college football team dedicating their season to the memory of someone or something can be powerful. Last season, Boston College won their first bowl game since 2007 when their quarterback Patrick Towles dedicated their season to Harambe the gorilla.

Hopefully playing for 7-Eleven will motivate Pitt. At the rate they’re going, they won’t even get a bowl appearance.

The 7-Eleven could have other effects on Pitt athletics. Without 7-Eleven, Pitt students will have to walk several blocks to get to Rite Aid. That extra ten minute round trip walk could get Pitt’s students athletes in better shape. The added inconvenience of having to walk farther for sodas and junk food could also decrease consumption. 7-Eleven is basically the only place on Pitt’s campus to buy Coke products. Once everyone is stuck with inferior Pepsi products, soda consumption will decrease.

This could be the turning point for Pitt Football. Four games into the season, they only have one win. They will have to step it up if they want to make it to Tampa for the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl.

College Basketball

A major college basketball scandal broke today. It just broke so I haven’t really gotten to take a look at it, but I do know one thing: Arizona is involved. So far an Arizona assistant coach has been implicated. What happens if the NCAA punishes Arizona for the actions of one assistant coach? Might Arizona’s head coach want to return to his alma mater to coach?

Now obviously there would still be tons of questions. Are we sure Sean Miller is innocent in all of this? Is his profuse sweating during games a sign of guilt? Doesn’t Pitt already have a great head basketball coach in Kevin Stallings? That’s why it’s just a rumor. If you don’t spread Sean Miller to Pitt rumors, then you aren’t a real Pitt fan.

One last thing, I’m surprised the FBI were the ones who put together this case, given that the Congressional investigation into this has planted Ted Cruz on the Duke basketball team for the past four years.

NBA

NBA teams had media days this week. There were some great quotes from some quotable people, like this one from Charlotte Hornets center Dwight Howard:

Just asked Dwight Howard if he'd go to the White House if he won the title (his goal). "I'd go to Dwight House."

— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) September 25, 2017

However, my favorite thing to come out of media days was Knicks forward Michael Beasley on the podcast Timeout with Taylor Rooks. This two minute clip was popular on Twitter, but the whole episode is highly entertaining.
https://twitter.com/TaylorRooks/status/912685121886654464
The biggest NBA news of the week wasn’t at media day; it was the Knicks trading Carmelo Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and a 2018 second round pick. For the Knicks, this might not look like a great return for the face of their franchise, but it is important to remember that the Knicks were very limited in where they could trade Carmelo Anthony due to the no trade clause that the Knicks agreed to in his contract. The Knicks could only make a trade with a team that Carmelo agreed to, so even if other teams had better offers, this seems to be the best they could do. I’m not sure how Enes Kanter fits onto a Knicks team that already has a number of big men but Doug McDermott could be a useful shooter. The second round pick should be high in the second round because it originally belonged to the Bulls.

For the Thunder, they were able to add a ten-time all-star while giving up two bench players, one of whom was such a big defensive liability that they couldn’t pay him in the playoffs, and a future draft pick. I don’t think Carmelo Anthony makes the Thunder that much better but he definitely makes them more fun and interesting. We will have to wait and see how Carmelo works with Paul George and Russell Westbrook.

College Football

College Football was pretty boring this week. Out of the 22 games featuring ranked teams, only seven were decided by one score. Only four ranked teams lost, and one of those teams lost to a team ranked above them. The only game with playoff implications was Oklahoma State’s loss to TCU. This means TCU jumps ahead of Oklahoma State in the Big 12 pecking order, but Oklahoma is still the most important team in the conference.

NFL

This was the best week of the NFL season so far. I think that is because the NFL seemed more like college football.

• The Jaguars and Ravens played a game in London that was streamed on Yahoo. If anyone can capture the feel of Raycom Sports, it’s a platform that only broadcasts football once a year. Technically Yahoo’s broadcast was great, but their color commentator and studio show was awkward and comically bad.
• There were a bunch of weird/dumb plays. The Bears cost themselves four points when they got stripped of the football from behind after slowing down while running back a blocked punt. The sequence was so confusing that the Steelers went to their locker room because they thought the half was over only to have to come back for one untimed down for the Bears. The Lions lost their game in a weird fashion when the game-winning touchdown was overturned on replay.
• Games got weirdly high scoring, especially in the fourth quarter. The Giants especially seemed to flip some sort of switch and become good at offense in the fourth quarter of their game. Unfortunately, it was too little too late.

In Memoriam

I will miss Pitt’s 7-Eleven. The only thing I ever bought there were beverages that Pitt doesn’t sell on campus because they have exclusive deals with an inferior brand of beverages. Now, instead of 7-Eleven being right next to the William Pitt Union, I will have to walk .2 miles to go to Rite Aid. Rest in peace 7-Eleven.