Recent Stories
- Costco 4 Haiti
- Pitt wins Backyard Brawl in 3OT, 98-95
- Pitt Program Council sponsors free Flower Arranging
- Friday, February 12, 2010
- Pitt-WVU Part Two should be a thriller
- “A Few Thoughts on the University’s Recent Decisions” - By Giles Howard
- New Website Aids Pittsburghers with Snowy Street Navigation
- Costco 4 Haiti - Rescheduled
- Thursday, February 11, 2010
- G-town Overpowers Pitt Women in Final Minute
- Chancellor Nordenberg: University Function to Return “Back to Normal”
- HAT TRICK
Costco 4 Haiti
By Kyle McCormick
Even after snow delayed the event for a week and despite horrendous Friday traffic, students impacted the lives of many with donated toiletries on Friday afternoon. The trip gave students the opportunity to purchase items for Haiti earthquake victims in addition to personal items at Costco. Costco did not require students to have memberships and the event was in coordination with Pitt’s “Bucket Brigade for Haiti.” You can continue to donate to Haiti relief by purchasing the necessary toiletries and placing the items in one of the numerous buckets located around campus.
Pitt wins Backyard Brawl in 3OT, 98-95
By Jon Kanelstein
After losing decisively to West Virginia (19-5, 8-4) last week, Pitt (19-6, 8-4) got major revenge with a thrilling 98-95 victory in triple overtime. Pitt is now 6-0 all time in the Petersen Events Center against teams ranked nationally in the top 5. Round two of the backyard brawl was full of momentum swings. After trailing by 5 to 10 points the entire second half, the Panthers trailed 68-63 with 0:35 left. Then Freshman Travon Woodall quickly scored a jump shot. On the ensuing inbound, Nasir Robinson forced a steal. Then with 0:16 to go, Ashton Gibbs drained a 3-pointer to tie the game at 68 and send the game to overtime.
In overtime, Pitt had a 77-75 lead with 0:07 left when Ashton Gibbs made one of two free throws, but West Virginia’s Darryl Bryant hit a 3-pointer with one second left to cause a 78-78 tie and force a second overtime. The second overtime consisted of a similar sequence of events. Up by 88-85 with 0:19 left, Pitt’s Gary McGhee fouled Da’Sean Butler on a three point attempted. Butler made all three. Travon Woodall made a jump shot as time expired, but it was waved off because it was shot after the buzzer. In the third overtime Wanamaker, and Woodall fouled out. After the teams swapped leads for most of the period, Gilbert Brown made two free throws to put Pitt up 96-95. After a defensive stop, Ashton Gibbs made two free throws and Pitt held on for the amazing 98-95 victory.
The Panthers got dominated on the boards for most of the game, but they began to pull down most of the rebounds in the overtime periods. That may have been the difference. Pitt played all of the overtime periods without their only senior Jermaine Dixon, who fouled out. Travon Woodall, however, stepped up in his place with 12 points and clutch decision-making. Although he is only a freshman, Head Coach Jamie Dixon said, “He played like a veteran.” Wanamaker and Gibbs led the team with 24 points each, while Wanamaker also had 10 assists. Don’t miss any exciting basketball and come to the Petersen Events Center Sunday February 21 to see Pitt take on #4 Villanova.
Additional photos submitted by Kyle McCormick
Pitt Program Council sponsors free Flower Arranging
By Rita Patel
Friday, February 12, 2010
Did you hear about something exciting going on in the city? Know of any interesting events happening around campus? Want to promote your club activities on PittBriefly?
1:00 PM - Flower Arranging with the Pitt Program Council - 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. @ William Pitt Union Lower Lounge - “Don’t know what to get your sweetheart for Valentine’s Day? Low on cash but still want to show you care? Single...this is the perfect way to snag a date for Valentine’s Day! Everything needed to create a beautiful bouquet will be provided FREE to all PITT Undergrads with a valid PITT ID” This event is OCC approved.
3:00 PM - Shop @ Costco 4 Haiti - 3:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. @ Costco Warehouse, 501 W Waterfront Dr, West Homestead PA 15120 - “Help the victims of the Haiti earthquake through PITT’S BUCKET BRIGADE FOR HAITI by participating in an exclusive Shop @ Costco 4 Haiti. A Costco membership is NOT required!”
5:00 PM - Vietnamese Student Association New Years Celebration - 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. @ William Pitt Union Ballroom - “There is going to be a short, concise list of activities including a lion dance, a fear factor eating competition, and lantern painting (with monetary prize). We will follow up the activities with a feast to bring in the New Year.”
6:30 PM - SHAC Friday Night MESS: Fargo - 6:30 p.m. @ 3500 Cathedral of Learning - The Student Honors Activity Community Friday Night M.ovie E.veryone S.hould S.ee welcomes all students to attend this week’s movie, Fargo, with an introduction by Josh Demaree.
7:00 PM - Green Screen Film Series Presents: YERT! (Your Environmental Road Trip) - 7:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. @ 1700 Posvar Hall - “Don’t let the winter blahs make you start rooting for global warming! Take a road trip instead. Join filmmaker Mark Dixon as he presents and discusses clips from his quest to find unique ways of living greener in all fifty states. And there will be cookies!”
7:00 PM - Pitt Vagina Monologues - 7:00 p.m. @ 120/121 David Lawrence - “The Vagina Monologues is an annual production to raise awareness about violence against women. This year, the Campus Women’s Organization will host the Vagina Monologues February 12th and 13th in 120/121 David Lawrence.”
8:00 PM - OMG Movie This Week: Daisies - 8:00 p.m. @ 1700 Posvar - “The film we are screening this week is Daisies, or ‘Sedmikrásky’ in Czech. Also, we will have refreshments available as soon as 7:45PM. Feel free to come early to chat and snack with fellow members.”
8:00 PM - Oakland Teahouse - 8:00 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. @ Commuter Lounge in Nordy’s Place, William Pitt Union - “Don’t know what to get your sweetheart for Valentine’s Day? Low on cash but still want to show you care? Single...this is the perfect way to snag a date for Valentine’s Day! Everything needed to create a beautiful bouquet will be provided FREE to all PITT Undergrads with a valid PITT ID” This event is OCC approved.
Pitt-WVU Part Two should be a thriller
By Brian Batko
There will certainly be no shortage of excitement when the West Virginia Mountaineers (19-4, 8-3) come to the Petersen Events Center Friday night to take on the Pittsburgh Panthers (18-6, 7-4) for the second time in less than two weeks. West Virginia won the first contest handily at home back on February 3rd but this tough Pitt team isn’t going to let that 19 point defeat break their confidence. Not only have the Panthers won their last two games since that trip to Morgantown, they won them by a combined 49 points. The Mountaineers, on the other hand, are coming off of an 82-75 loss to Villanova in which they shot 18-32 from the free throw stripe.
West Virginia is led by senior guard/forward Da’Sean Butler, who is averaging 17.1 ppg and had 18 the first time these two teams met. Highlighting Butler’s supporting cast are sophomore forwards Kevin Jones and Devin Ebanks. Jones had 16 points in the first game and Ebanks had 16 rebounds. Juniors Brad Wanamaker and Gilbert Brown have been two of Pitt’s top players all season but both failed to score in the previous match-up. Don’t count on that happening again Friday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 9 p.m. and the game will be broadcast live as part of “Rivalry Week” on ESPN.
“A Few Thoughts on the University’s Recent Decisions” - By Giles Howard
A Syndicated Editorial by Giles Howard
The following is an excerpt of a post from the author’s blog, Publius Awakened (the full entry is available at http://www.gilesbhoward.com/blog). The views expressed in this piece are those solely of the author.
Publisher’s note: PittBriefly welcomes syndication of Pitt and Pittsburgh related blog entries. If you’re interested in having a blog entry syndicated on PittBriefly, contact the publisher, James Lomuscio, at
There were a few things wrong with the city’s response to the recent snowstorms: some residents were stranded for days without power, many tertiary roads are still unplowed and the city’s workforce was unable to cope with the volume of snow that fell.
These flaws were magnified by Mayor Ravenstahl’s promise in 2008 to totally revamp the city’s handling of snow removal so that the mistakes of that year were not repeated.
That being said, Public Works Director Rob Kaczorowski appears to have handled the situation as best he could and we as Pitt students all owe him our thanks. Without Kaczorowski’s intervention, Pitt might have held classes Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday leaving students to either miss class or brave the dangerous streets and sidewalks to reach campus.
Pitt should not have needed to be told to cancel classes and should have recognized, on its own, that the safety of students dictated the canceling of classes. But Pitt’s record of holding classes during severe weather in past years demonstrates that it cares more about the appearance of normality than the safety of its student body…
Read the full entry at http://www.gilesbhoward.com/blog .
New Website Aids Pittsburghers with Snowy Street Navigation
By Phil DiCicco
According to a press release from City Councilman Bill Peduto, a team from Carnegie Mellon consisting of Professors Priya Narasimhan and Rajeev Gandhi, Ph.D. students Nathan Mickulicz and Shahriyar Amini and undergraduate student Max Salley have designed a website called How’s My Street. The website allows citizens throughout the Pittsburgh area to enter road conditions of nearby streets via the website itself or Twitter. The user has a choice of three categories for the road condition: “Not Passable,” “Passable” and “Clear.” The idea for How’s My Street came from a collaborative effort between Councilman Peduto and Professor Narasimhan, who is the C.E.O. of YinzCam Inc., creators of the iBurgh iPhone application.
To submit a report, visit http://www.cityzenmobile.com/howsmystreet or Twitter the details with the tag #HowsMyStreet.