Easter lilies don't have to be white. This pink one from Chapon's Greenhouse in Baldwin has a sweet aroma when it opens. I like to buy lilies when the buds are closed, they last longer inside. Photos by Pam Panchak

The Easter lily is the number one choice for a seasonal indoor plant to celebrate the holiday, but there are lots of other cool choices too.

Lets talk lilies first. I like to pick plants which are just budding, but not open yet. They will last longer inside that way. They don't have to be white either, I have a pretty pink one with a sweet aroma.

Plant the lily in the garden in a few weeks. They will come back year after year, blooming in June or July instead of at Easter.

Hyacinths offer the fragrance of spring. They will fill a room with thier wonderful aroma. They can be planted outside when the blooms fade and will return next spring.

I bought some wonderful mums at Chapon's Greenhouse in Baldwin. I have no idea what the variety is, but the blooms are beautiful in pink and white.

I have no idea what this mum is called except beautiful.

All indoor plants should be kept a little on the dry side, but be sure they get the water they need.

'Strawberries and Cream' is a pretty indoor hydrangea. It's going to be one of my experiments this season.

I've fallen in love with Strawberries and Cream hydrangea. It's available at independent garden centers and box stores too. This plant is bred for indoor growing, but is hardy to zone 7. That's a little warmer than our climate, we're zone 5/6. I'm putting mine out in the garden in May. I'll plant it in a container and bring it in to an unheated greenhouse for the winter. I I cross my fingers, it will come back next spring.

I love to visit local nurseries, greenhouses and garden centers to find interesting and different plants for the holiday windowsill.

I don't think there's anything which compares to the perfume of hyacinths.

Pitt scrimmaged for the second time of the spring season, running 18 series and around 110 plays in their indoor facility Friday. Here are the relevant stats and a few notes...

PASSING
Tom Savage: 5/18, 149 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
Chad Voytik: 12/17, 110 yards, 1 TD

RUSHING
Isaac Bennett: 24 car, 103 yards
Malcolm Crockett: 4 car, 5 yards
Desmond Brown: 30 car, 141 yards, 2 TD
Chad Voytik: 6 car, 49 yards, 1 TD

RECEIVING
Kevin Weatherspoon: 4 rec, 41 yards, 1 TD
Manasseh Garner: 3 rec, 66 yards
Devin Street: 2 rec, 70 yards, 1 TD
Ronald Jones: 2 rec, 35 yards
Drew Carswell: 2 rec, 5 yards
Chris Wuestner: 2 rec, 2 yards, 1 TD

- Crockett banged up his leg on the first series, hence the small number of carries for him. Demitrious Davis was also banged up and sat out of practice. So Pitt was basically down to two running backs for the entire scrimmage. Brown definitely looked good and explosive in his chances, though.

- As you can tell from the stats, it was a rough day for the passing game, especially for Savage. Just looked like his timing and reads were a little bit off today. Voytik has looked really solid and improved the past two practices, and it will be interesting to see next week if he can continue it.

- The Panthers had a problem with five or six pre-snap penalties early in practice, but Pitt coach Paul Chryst didn't seem too upset by them afterwards. He just hoped the team would learn from it.
"That's alright," he said. "I like it. How do you deal with that adversity? A couple were on first down. You still have three downs, but you have to go earn it."

- Defensive coordinator Matt House said that the Panthers had 17 missed tackles in the first scrimmage last week. Linebacker Todd Thomas said he thought that improved today.
"We definitely got it down, but we still need to improve on everything – knowing the plays, tackling, and all the above," he said. "But we definitely need to improve on tackling."

- The started off doing first team vs. first team and second team vs. second team. The first-team offense was struggling a bit early, while the second-team offense was moving the ball very well. About midway through, the coaches switched things up and went first team offense vs. second team defense and vice versa. The first-team offense responded with an easy 65-yard touchdown bomb from Savage to Street, but the second-team offense was still able to put together a 25-yard touchdown drive against the first-team offense.

- Practice ended with a simulated overtime. The first-team offense failed to gain any yards against the first team defense, and Drake Greer had his 42-yard field goal blocked. The second team offense also struggled, but gained six yards and Brad Lukasak hit a 36-yard field goal to end practice.

- Chryst declined to answer questions about Rushel Shell's situation after practice.

Penguins

-Dave Molinari's recap from last night's game. "They're a pretty good team. And we dominated them." - Tomas Vokoun (above, stopping Winnipeg's Kyle Wellwood) on the Jets.

-The Winnipeg Free Press' recap. "Fortunately for us, we won’t see these guys again until the Eastern Conference Final and if that happens we’ll have a different play for them." - Jets defenseman Ron Hainsey.

-The Associated Press' recap. ''Fifty is a big number.'' - Dan Bylsma on Vokoun recording his 50th career shutout.

-Highlights:

-Mike Lange's goal calls.

-Bright times for Vokoun:

-Winnipeg's Al Montoya kept an eye on this puck:

-Brenden Morrow showed off why he's here with this screen on Montoya:

-Evgeni Malkin being popular:

-Happy times for Pascal Dupuis and Tanner Glass:

-Winnipeg's Dustin Byfuglien > Morrow:

-Sidney Crosby tried to split Byfuglien and teammate Nik Antropov here:

-Dan Bylsma speaks:

-Vokoun speaks:

-Douglas Murray speaks:

-The Iginla trade took months for the Penguins to orchestrate.

-“Getting an opportunity to play with the two best players in the world (Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin) and a team on a roll like they’re on . . . I wanted that opportunity. I’m excited about it and I really do want to win a Stanley Cup. Pittsburgh is a great organization. The firepower, the group, the chemistry they have, I look forward to just going . . . to do my best and play hard and try to help them win.” - Iginla.

-"We both like to work down low. He's not afraid to go to the tough areas, in front of the net and things like that. He's a pretty easy guy to play with." - Sidney Crosby on potentially playing on a line with Iginla.

-“We relied on the fact that we had a deal. Now, these things happen all the time, more than you know, about deals going south for whatever reason. We believed we had a deal. We operated on the premise that we had a deal. When things were silent, in my experience, when things go silent, things are usually going screwy from your end. And it was.” - Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli claiming he had a deal arranged with the Flames for Iginla (right).

-“We had a deal with Boston that we liked. We certainly felt that would have been an acceptable way for us to go as an organization. The player indicated he wanted to be with Pittsburgh, so we got a deal done with Pittsburgh.” - Flames general manager Jay Feaster.

-“I understand how important he must have been to the organization. But for me, I just have to worry about becoming a better hockey player and contribute to the organization some day and try not to deal with that pressure.I don’t necessarily think that’s healthy.” - Former Penguins prospect Ben Hanowski on being part of the Iginla trade.

-“There should be a statue out front at some point. I don’t know what they’re going to do. But he was just unbelievable for this team and what he did." - Flames executive and former forward Craig Conroy on Iginla's impact to Calgary.

-“Obviously, seeing him with another team in our conference wouldn’t be as pleasant as watching him in the East.” - Canucks forward Jannik Hansen on Iginla.

-Welcome back Evgeni Malkin from injured reserve.

-What does the Iginla trade mean to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins' lineup?

-Happy 75th birthday to former Penguins defenseman Duane Rupp (right). Acquired midway through the 1968-69 season in a trade which sent  Leo Boivin to the North Stars, Rupp spent parts of five seasons in Pittsburgh. He finished 1968-69 by appearing in 30 games and recording 13 points for the Penguins. His first full season with the Penguins was 1969-70. He saw action in 64 games and scored 16 points and helped the franchise reach the postseason for the first time. He appeared in six playoff games that season and scored four points. In 1970-71, Rupp played in 59 games and scored 33 points. Rupp saw action in four postseason games that spring and failed to record a point. During 1971-72, Rupp was limited to 34 games and 22 points. He rebounded in 1972-73 by playing in 78 games and scoring 20 points. After spending all of 1973-74 with the Penguins' AHL affiliate in Hershey, Rupp signed with the Vancouver Blazers of the WHA. In 265 regular season games with the Penguins, Rupp, the first defenseman in franchise history to record a hat trick, scored 104 points, 81st-most in franchise history. In 10 postseason games, he scored four points.

-Happy 62nd birthday to former Penguins forward Hartland Monahan. Acquired early in the 1977-78 season in a trade which sent a draft pick to the North Stars, Monahan's Penguins career amounted to seven games and two goals that season. In November of that season, he was traded to the Kings along with Syl Apps, Jr. in exchange for Dave Schultz, Gene Carr and a draft pick. He is currently the national director for ourFund.us, a Georgia-based fundraising company.

-Today would have been the 73rd birthday of former Penguins defenseman Dunc McCallum (right). Acquired in a trade along with George Konik, Paul Andrea and Frank Francis for Larry Jeffrey, McCallum spent parts of four seasons with the Penguins. During the club's innagural season of 1967-68, McCallum appeared in 32 games and recorded two assists. He followed that up in 1968-69 with 62 games, 18 points and a team-leading 81 penalty minutes. During 1969-70, he was limited to 14 games and no points. He appeared in 10 postseason games that spring and recorded three points. McCallum's final season in Pittsburgh was 1970-71 and saw him play in 77 games while contributing a career-best 29 points. He was released in the 1971 offseason. He passed away in 1983 at the age of 43.

-After the Jump: Toronto's Joffrey Lupul scores on of the best goals of the season and Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk embarrasses San Jose's Logan Couture.

The discussion surrounding Andy Toole and the head coaching vacancy at Siena has shifted from premature speculation to a far more concrete state over the last few days.

As was first reported by Mark Singelais of the Albany Times Union, Toole was on the Siena campus yesterday for an interview. This development came after Toole met with unspecified school officials off campus last week.

According to numerous reports, Toole is one of three finalists for the position, along with Loyola (Maryland) coach Jimmy Patsos and Virginia Commonwealth assistant coach Mike Rhoades, both of whom are scheduled to interview with the school early next week. The school is said to want to make a final decision before the Final Four next weekend.

To push things further, SNY’s Adam Zagoria tweeted that both Toole and Patsos are “battling hard” for the Siena position.

A tweet like that, if true, leads me to believe that this isn’t a matter of whether or not Toole wants the job – it comes down to whether he is offered it and if the money on the offer is enough to persuade him to leave what is largely a comfortable position as the beloved head coach at a smaller school.

As far as money goes, tax records from Siena indicated that former coach Fran McCaffery made north of $500,000 in his final year at the school, benefits and everything else included. In his first season, Mitch Buonaguro, who was fired Mar. 12, made a little over $266,000.

From people I’ve talked to, it looks like Siena may be willing to offer as much as $500,000 a year, which for Toole, would represent a significant pay raise.

The question now becomes this: if Toole is offered the position, would Robert Morris be able to match with a counter-offer? Having talked to athletic director Craig Coleman today, it sounds like the school is willing to do anything within its power to keep Toole, who is in the third year of a five-year contract.

But will that be enough? As Robert Morris is a private school, its employees’ salaries are not public record, but tax records show that Toole was not among the school’s highest paid employees in 2011, a list that bottomed out with someone that was paid $152,000 per year.

The school showed in the past that it is willing to keep coaches, as it signed former coach Mike Rice to an extension (and a raise on a salary that was already near $270,000) right before he left for Rutgers, where he makes about $650,000/year.

There has been confusion from some people as to why Toole would take this job, as some don’t see it as a definitive step up the proverbial coaching ladder. In some respects, that opinion makes sense as Siena plays in the one-bid MAAC, which isn’t a drastic improvement from the NEC.

However, the Saints play in a 15,000-seat downtown arena before large crowds when the team is doing well. That stands in sharp contrast to a successful Robert Morris program that struggles to fill the 3,000-seat Sewall Center when it’s not playing in a conference tournament or against a marquee opponent.

Let’s also not forget this is a program that went to three consecutive NCAA tournaments under McCaffery, with the Saints winning a game in each of their first two appearances (2008, 2009). It’s also proven to be a launching point for coaches to get major conference jobs, as McCaffery landed at Iowa and before him, Paul Hewitt went to Georgia Tech after a successful stint at Siena.

Quite a few people around college basketball that I’ve talked to undoubtedly believe that Siena is a better job and that if the offer is right, Toole should accept the position there.

There is also a difference in the basketball commitment of the two schools. According to figures from Basketball State, 19 percent of Siena’s athletic expenses went to basketball ($2.29 million) while 10 percent of Robert Morris’ went to basketball ($1.36 million).

I won’t speculate at this point whether or not Toole will take the job, but from everything I’ve gathered, he’s serious about the Siena opening. There’s not a whole lot Robert Morris can do at this point except wait for Toole to return to campus (he’s taken this week off, as the season just ended) and see if he’s offered the job.

I’ll keep things updated both on the blog and on Twitter as news develops, but I wouldn’t expect things to progress until early next week.

Meanwhile, here’s some of what Coleman had to say from our conversation earlier today:

On what the process becomes if Toole is offered the position at Siena: “Every one of these situations is completely different. We love Andy Toole. We think he’s a great coach, we think he’s a great person, we think he’s very smart, we think he’s very wise beyond his years. We have nothing but positive feelings about him and we’re going to do what we think is the right thing to do for him, whether he gets another offer or not.”

“We want him to stay. We’re going to do what we think we need to do to try to keep him.”

On what the school’s limits are in negotiations: “Every school has its limits – that would be true of any school in the country. Not everybody has the same limits, but everybody has resources and everybody’s got limits. I can’t really tell you what our negotiating points are or what our offer is going to be. I don’t talk about that publicly.”

On if retaining talented coaches is a key piece of helping build a strong mid-major program: “When you’re talking about schools in the power conferences, schools that have seemingly unlimited resources in their athletic department, obviously it’s difficult to compete with that. I think that money is the only factor in anyone’s decision. I don’t really want to get into specifics. Obviously, if you’re recruiting an athlete at a mid-major school and then a power-conference school begins recruiting that athlete, you’ve got an uphill battle on your hands, right? It really isn’t any different for coaches. It’s obvious that the more resources you have, the more you can bring to bear in terms of trying to attract someone, whether it’s a recruit or a coach or whatever. We also think there are some non-monetary things that are important to many coaches and many folks that we also feel like are factors in the equation.”

On the idea that this is a good problem to have (an in-demand coach): “I would not want to have a coach nobody else wanted. With the fact that we have a coach and have had other coaches that have attracted interest by other schools is, I think, a very positive thing in that we have a quality coach that’s running a quality program.”