Joel Huerto is managing editor of One Man Fastbreak.net and a sports consultant with Opposing Views.com. He has been a member of the sports media for almost 20 years, which included nine years as a news editor at the Los Angeles Times. He will cover a variety of topics, from coach and player profiles to hot-button issues. Joel is also known as "maniLA ice" for his cool demeanor in the friendly confines of the YMCA hardwood. He loves to shoot the "tear drop" and prefers to play zone to hide his deficiencies on defense.
It has been a super week in The Steel City. The Pittsburgh Steelers are in the NFL divisional round and the Pittsburgh Panthers are ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll.
Football is, and always will be, king in Pittsburgh, but Jamie Dixon's Pitt Panthers are changing the culture in
Western Pennsylvania, something his predecessor, Ben Howland, started a few years back and laid down the foundation for Dixon.
There is mutual admiration between the Steelers and the Panthers. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and kicker Jeff Reed are regulars at Pitt home games and Dixon wouldn't mind having some of the football players log some minutes for his undefeated Panthers, who can be mistaken for being somewhat of a gridiron gang for the way they get after their opponents on defense.
When The Worldwide Leader's Dana Jacobson asked Dixon which Steelers he would recruit for his basketball team, Dixon mentioned six names: Reed, Hines Ward, Roethlisberger, James Harrison, Max Starks and Troy Polamalu.
Roethlisberger was a good choice since he was an all-district high school basketball player at Lima, Ohio. Big Ben averaged 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists as captain of Findlay High. The 6-foot-5 Roethlisberger can play guard or forward, but Dixon has him pegged at small forward.
The rest of Dixon's starting lineup of Steelers include Reed at the point (his father played at Wichita State), Ward at shooting guard, Harrison at power forward and Starks at center.
Ward possesses excellent hands and would excel as an outlet receiver in transition. He is also regarded as the best blocking receiver in pro football, and his pancake blocks may come in handy in the rugged Big East. I would pay money to see Ward set a down screen.
Harrison was recently named the NFL's defensive player of the year and Dixon was not about to leave him off the team in fear of getting blindsided by the 240-pound outside linebacker, who reportedly can leg press 600 pounds.
Listed at 6-8 and 345 pounds, Starks — son of former NFL standout
Ross Browner — is not only one of the biggest guys on the Steelers but the entire NFL, and it makes perfect sense to have him at center. Dixon knows a thing or two about recruiting big, beefy frontcourt players.
DeJuan Blair, Pitt's undersized power forward, once weighed 300-plus pounds as a freshman before shedding most of it during the offseason. Dixon loves bangers and Blair is the poster child for the Panthers' signature grind-it-out philosophy.
One of Dixon's favorite Steelers is Polamalu. The All-Pro safety is only 5-10, but has the vertical and the quickness to be a defensive dynamo off the bench. His hair alone would be one heck of a distraction for the opposition.
Go Steelers!
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