Berenato the best coach in the Big East? Fact!

1. After leading the Pitt women’s basketball team, Agnus Berenato should win Big East Coach… 1. After leading the Pitt women’s basketball team, Agnus Berenato should win Big East Coach of the Year.

Geoff Dutelle: Fact. Staying within the top five of an incredibly talented Big East Conference, where the top four (headed by No. 4 UConn) are ranked, for essentially the entire season is enough to get her the award. Having done all of it without starting point guard Mallorie Winn, though, makes it all the more impressive, and I think it makes the choice clear. Give it to the woman who talked of an NCAA Tournament berth before coaching her first game at Pitt.

Dave Thomas: Fact. The improvement the Panthers have shown under Berenato is remarkable. Also, the fact that we’re even talking about women’s hoops on this campus with this tough a conference is even more remarkable. She has changed the attitude of Pitt women’s basketball and done it by winning. This year, they’ll finally be rewarded with a bid to the tourney, and it seems over the next few years the sky is the limit. She has to be the Big East Coach of the Year and maybe even in consideration for the national award. 2. The San Diego Chargers made the right choice in firing Marty Schottenheimer.

GD: Fact. We’ve all made Marty-Ball jokes, but this clearly wasn’t about his team’s divisional playoff loss to New England – you can’t be fired for losing to Tom Brady in the playoffs. It has, instead, everything to do with the fact that he and general manager A.J. Smith, who assembled this young, talented team that went 14-3 last year, couldn’t get a working relationship. You have to toe the company line and make it work with your higher-ups. It’s just a fact of life. Look at Joe Girardi, last year’s manager for the Florida Marlins, who won Manager of the Year but was fired because he couldn’t get along with management. It’s a shame. Sometimes these things happen, but the coach will always lose.

DT: Fiction. He won 14 games – count ’em, 14 – last season. They had the best record in the NFL and he got fired. That’s unbelievable, and I can’t say that’s the right decision. I understand that four coaches from his staff have up and left for greener pastures, and that he has been known to delegate a lot of authority to them, and a lot of the disagreement came over how those assistants would be replaced, but how can you not let this guy have more control? He’s won more than 200 career games and has proven he knows how to win. Granted, his teams haven’t had much playoff success, but it seems this Chargers team that Schottenheimer put together with a bunch of young superstars is so close to getting over that hump. It’s not right he won’t be there with them. 3. Steelers Pro Bowl guard Alan Faneca was out of line when he said over the weekend he wanted Russ Grimm to get the Steelers’ head-coaching job.

GD: Fact. There is no reason to believe that the Steelers made the wrong hire. In fact, I think they picked the best candidate available to them in Mike Tomlin. Clearly something didn’t sit well with the Steelers with Grimm and I can see that, given that he didn’t even manage to swing a second head-coaching interview with the Arizona Cardinals. Faneca may have the pedigree to run his mouth, but is this really what he needs to be doing to his new coach so soon?

DT: Fiction. Faneca was asked a question at the Pro Bowl about whom he wanted to be hired and all he did was tell the truth. Grimm had been his position coach for six years, so obviously the two had a good working relationship. Of course he would support Grimm. He did not bad-mouth Tomlin, a guy he said he has never met. All he did was say he was pulling for Grimm. While I understand it probably wasn’t the best thing to do, Faneca was asked a question and gave an honest answer (what an outrageous thing to happen in sports these days). Faneca has been nothing but a true professional in his nine years as a Steeler and he is quite possibly the franchise’s best lineman; I doubt his intent was to stir up any trouble but rather to just answer a question. 4. After a tough home loss to Louisville, Pitt will still win the Big East regular season championship.

GD: Fact. Every team is entitled to one terrible showing and the loss to the Cards was Pitt’s. The Panthers still have some tough roadies at nationally ranked Georgetown and Marquette, but Pitt has still been the most consistent team all year and that has to come into play. I say they drop one of the two to either the Hoyas or Eagles, but they still win it by a game when all is said and done.

DT: Fact. While their horrible loss to Louisville exposed some weaknesses in the Panthers, I still don’t think many teams have the personnel to go that hard pressing matchup zone that Louisville was so deadly with. Things won’t get any easier, but I think Pitt will respond with its best play of the year to finish out the season. This Panther squad understands the Big East title is there for the taking and they will find a way to get it done.