Donovan Johnson

[Chescat]

Puff, Cam and the family visiting is HUGE. Hopefully Cam gets drafted on the East Coast and maybe the family would be more inclined to stick around, who knows?

Not sure either how quickly a re-class, visits and enrolling in a school would take. Would imagine this would be a sooner, rather than later, sort of thing.

I find this whole situation really interesting. OK, he can't play in the WPIAL
where I assume he would like to play and finish his h.s. career.
IMO (without knowing anything about how he and his family think), I feel
that the best solution would be to attend a prep school.
However........
Meeting with Capel yesterday indicates that there's interest in Pitt. If that's the
case I wonder how much of the discussion was on reclassification to
2019 and enrolling this fall.....maybe even taking a summer class or two.
Could Johnson be the guard for which Capel has held that open scholarship?
Was a redshirt discussed if he reclassified. There's a lot of possibilities here.
Given Cam's time and experience at Pitt, the family undoubtedly has some
thoughts, feelings and maybe concerns, and they would like to get those
things on the table and discussed. Capel sure as hell ain't Stallings, and
maybe the family likes what they see with Capel and the direction of the
program.
I think we're all curious. Let's see what occurs.

 

[Elsalvador]

I think the concerns with Pitt from Cam's time here, were only with Stallings and his staff. Not the university and surely not the new staff and Capel. Stallings and company were BAAAAD.

 

[HailToPitt1985]

If Stallings weren't the coach, Cam would have stayed, especially if Dixon had stayed on. But essentially having worse than no coach for 2 years made Cam's decision very easy to leave. I don't blame him one bit. For the 2 years that sleepy was here, it would have benefited Pitt more to drop basketball for those 2 years and start over. With the players and coach we had, that pretty much what we did anyhow.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

That's a part of the rule as well.

All the more reason not to have anything at all other than the age-out rule.

 

[goalieman]

All the more reason not to have anything at all other than the age-out rule.

If there was an age cut off only and it was that you can't be 19y/o before 6/30 each year (as it is now) to play that next season, then some students in the SAME grade could play 7 years of high school sports and others only 6 years of high school sports starting in the 7th grade depending on whether their birthday was before or after 6/30 and so to make sure everyone can play the same number of maximum years, the other rules are in place.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

If there was an age cut off only and it was that you can't be 19y/o before 6/30 each year (as it is now) to play that next season, then some students in the SAME grade could play 7 years of high school sports and others only 6 years of high school sports starting in the 7th grade depending on whether their birthday was before or after 6/30 and so to make sure everyone can play the same number of maximum years, the other rules are in place.

IMHO, that is still dumb--why should anyone care how many max years you can play beginning in 7th grade? Maybe it made sense prior to outside (i.e., AAU) play opportunity; but it just seems truly dumb to me to remain a consideration in 2019.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

IMHO, that is still dumb--why should anyone care how many max years you can play beginning in 7th grade?

Because these are supposed to be school teams, not pro teams or semi-pro teams. It's supposed to be based on kids who are getting an education, not kids who are trying to game the system so they can play an extra year of high school ball.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

Because these are supposed to be school teams, not pro teams or semi-pro teams. It's supposed to be based on kids who are getting an education, not kids who are trying to game the system so they can play an extra year of high school ball.

Well, we will agree to disagree. Why should anyone care if anyone plays an extra year of HS ball? Nearly all the really good players will be off to play college ball, JUCO ball or Prep School ball by age 18 or 19 anyway.

 

[Elsalvador]

$ean Miller $ucks.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

$ean Miller $ucks.

My post was deleted but if I had to make a prediction right now, I'd say Puff will play his senior year in Phoenix then stay fairly close to home and go to Arizona.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Why should anyone care if anyone plays an extra year of HS ball?

I'm guessing kids in high school, and their parents and probably a few other family members care.

On the other hand, why should anyone care that someone who is trying to game the system simply so that they can play one more year of high school sports might not be allowed to do so, at least at some certain schools?

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

I'm guessing kids in high school, and their parents and probably a few other family members care.

On the other hand, why should anyone care that someone who is trying to game the system simply so that they can play one more year of high school sports might not be allowed to do so, at least at some certain schools?

FFWIW, I am not opposed to having eligibility rules. I just believe they should be simpler and solely age based so that 20 year old men are not still playing in HS.

IMHO, whether a player gets to play 1 year more than some or most others either because he was a year young for his grade at some point from Middle School or later, or he repeated a grade for academic reasons, and is therefore still in high school making progress to graduate playing one more year shouldn't matter. IMO, if a kid is academically a senior in good standing and not older than 19 he should be allowed to play--just my opinion though and obviously not shared by others.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

IMHO, whether a player gets to play 1 year more than some or most others either because he was a year young for his grade at some point from Middle School or later, or he repeated a grade for academic reasons, and is therefore still in high school making progress to graduate playing one more year shouldn't matter.

But that isn't the reason that it happens, and that isn't what the rule is designed to prevent. The rule is designed to prevent kids who don't need to repeat grades due to academics and who are merely doing it to play sports another year older than the other kids in the same grade from being able to do it.

I'll give you an example. There was a kid who was in the same grade as my older brother back in the day. They went to the same schools all the way up from first grade until tenth grade. Played on the same Little League teams, youth basketball, all that kind of stuff. So in tenth grade the kid, who fancied himself to be a great basketball player, goes out for the varsity/JV team at the local high school. Turns out he wasn't as good as he thought he was and got cut. So at the end of the school year he transfer to a nearby private school (that is no longer in existence, fwiw). And he made their basketball team that next season. As a tenth grader. He repeated tenth grade for one and only one reason. To play one more year of high school basketball. At the time, that wasn't against the rules. It's people like that for whom they have the rule for.

 

[DiehardPanther]

Just said in an interview that he is looking into reclassifying for 2019. Okie St, UNC, Arizona, Pitt, ND, Miami, and Ohio St possibilities.

 

[pittchagg]

Reading between the tea leaves in that article, it doesn’t sound like UNC can take him in 2019. Pitt, Arizona, ND, and Louisville can take him in 2019 if that’s what he wants to do.

 

[DiehardPanther]

Reading between the tea leaves in that article, it doesn’t sound like UNC can take him in 2019. Pitt, Arizona, ND, and Louisville can take him in 2019 if that’s what he wants to do.

I would say UNC, Arizona, and Pitt are the leaders.