Welcome back to In The Pitt, PantherLair.com’s weekly discourse featuring a roundup of everything that’s happened in the past week, with insight and inside information thrown in for good measure.
January 9, 2009
Top of the Pitt
It’s the first In the Pitt of the new year, and we’ll mark the event by saying something we’ve never been able to say before:
No. 1 Pittsburgh
Never before, that is, until Pitt took care of business in D.C. last Saturday and the stars aligned to anoint the Panthers No. 1 in the nation. And it was nearly unanimous, too, as Pitt took 70 of 72 first-place votes in the Associated Press and 30 of 31 in the coaches poll.
For the first time in the school’s 101-year history - and the first time in the 60 years that the AP and coaches polls have existed - the Pittsburgh basketball Panthers are ranked No. 1 for all the world to see. And yes, it might just be January, and yes, there are still a lot of games to play, not just in the juggernaut Big East but in the Big East Tournament and the all-important NCAA Tournament.
But no matter what happens, there will always be this week in January - and probably at least one more week, assuming Pitt handles St. John’s properly on Sunday - when everyone in the world of college basketball has to acknowledge that the Panthers are the No. 1 team in the land.
So how does it feel? It’s like the day when you turned 13 or 16 or 18 or 20 or 21 or 30 or 40 or 50 or 60 or 65 or any other notable age and someone inevitably asked you if you felt any different. Does it really feel any different to be ranked No. 1? Pitt has been the No. 1 team in the Big East before and Pitt has won the Big East Tournament before; does it feel any different from those occasions?
Well, yeah. A little. Winning the Big East regular season title or the Big East Tournament comes with hardware, but the No. 1 ranking in the nation comes with a certain prestige; somehow that target on the back seems to work its way through your body to the front, where it noticeably pushes your chest out.
And make no mistake: Pitt now officially has a target on its back. Tyrell Biggs said this week that the Panthers will still keep the underdog mentality that has defined this team in the past - no word if “We all we got” will stay on as a tagline - but they can’t deny that they are now the hunted. Connecticut, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and the rest of the Big East were already gunning for Pitt because Pitt was likely to be one of the top teams in the league; now there’s the added incentive of being able to say “We beat the No. 1 team.”
And that says nothing of the “others” in the conference like St. John’s or DePaul or South Florida or Rutgers. Those teams will have extra motivation to try to find that perfect pitch when they play Pitt, although I think that was probably already the case: as competitive as this conference is from top to bottom, everybody is always gunning for everybody else.
But it means extra when the team you’re gunning for just happens to be ranked No. 1 in the country.
And right now, that’s Pitt.
So when St. John’s comes to the Petersen Events Center on Sunday, they won’t just be working for a win over one of the Big East’s best teams. They’ll be working to upset No. 1. And every team that plays Pitt after St. John’s will be working for that same goal until the Panthers finally do lose a game and drop from the top spot.
And let’s be honest: Pitt can’t really go undefeated, can it? 14-0 overall and 2-0 in the Big East is a good start, but there are 17 games left - 16 conference games - and I don’t know if any team in today’s world of college basketball can possibly survive that gauntlet. Plus, we’re not talking about making a run through Conference USA or the Sun Belt or the Missouri Valley, although those would all be daunting tasks; we’re talking about the 2008-09 Big East, which quite possibly could live up to its billing (from Jamie Dixon’s mouth) as the greatest conference in the history of college basketball.
Never mind the fact that Notre Dame, Georgetown, Louisville, and West Virginia already have three losses or that Villanova and Marquette already have two losses or that Syracuse and Connecticut each have one loss; these teams have shown some vulnerabilities, but they are also extraordinarily difficult to play against.
As of midweek, Notre Dame was sixth in the conference standings, Villanova was 7th, West Virginia was 8th, Georgetown was 10th, and Louisville was 11th; is there any league in the country with scarier teams sitting below fifth place?
So yes, somewhere along the way, Pitt is going to lose. Syracuse, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Marquette, and Connecticut all have dates at the Petersen Events Center, and the Panthers have to travel to Louisville, WVU, Villanova, and UConn. There’s no smooth sailing in those nine games, and any of them could go against Pitt.
So let’s temporarily set aside the notion of going undefeated and look at how good this team just might be (stating the obvious: if Pitt shoots 57% and outrebounds its opponents by 20, as was the case against Georgetown, then the Panthers will go undefeated, but I’m not banking on that happening).
Brandin Knight might not be willing to make comparisons, but I will:
This is the best team Pitt has had in the nine-year resurgence of the program.
Don’t get me wrong: there were some really good teams earlier in this decade, and Knight himself may be the single most important player to put on a Pitt uniform during that time, but there are a couple keys that separate this squad from its eight predecessors.
1. None of those teams had a player like Sam Young. Young has become what everyone hoped he would be when he signed with Pitt: a dynamic game-changer.
2. Of equal importance, Jamie Dixon has shown a willingness to let Young be a 20-point scorer if that’s what the game dictates.
3. Levance Fields may or may not be as good a point guard as Knight was, but he’s close enough that the comparison isn’t really necessary. Fields is an adept, “heady steady point guard” (in Young’s words) and his presence on the floor - assuming he doesn’t lose his mind and decide to shoot too much - makes the Pitt offense go.
4. DeJuan Blair is a once-every-ten-years type of player, not because he’s the best player to come through in 10 years, but because there just haven’t been any players like him in the past 10 years. In fact, there just aren’t many players like him anywhere.
Legendary promoter/music impresario Bill Graham once said of the Grateful Dead, “They’re not the best at what they do; they’re the only ones that do what they do.” Sounds a bit like Blair, doesn’t it?
5. If the bench continues to progress as it has through the first third of the season, this Pitt team’s depth can be the best the Panthers have had. Now, it’s important to note that that is a big “if” and the continued improvement needs to be demonstrable and significant, but Gilbert Brown and Brad Wanamaker (and Ashton Gibbs) have come alive of late. If they can keep it up, Pitt will be even more dangerous.
And while all of those factors separate the 2008-09 Panthers from the Howland/Dixon teams that preceded them, they also point to one somewhat startling conclusion:
This should be the Pitt team that gets over the Sweet Sixteen hurdle, wins in the Elite Eight, and finally makes it to the Final Four. If the Panthers keep playing like they have been, before too long we’ll have to declare that it will be a true disappointment should they fall short of the Final Four this year. With the way the team has played thus far, expectations are climbing to that level.
LeSean McCoy and the NFL draft
Well, word finally broke yesterday that Pitt sophomore running back LeSean McCoy will enter the 2009 NFL draft. I suppose this is arguably bigger news than the hoops team being ranked No. 1, but I wanted to stay positive in the Top of the Pitt section, so this goes into the No. 2 slot.
I’m not sure how much can be said about this. Was anyone really surprised at the news? Even after McCoy announced in mid-November that he would be returning to Pitt next season, was anyone truly convinced? And even after Dave Wannstedt reiterated that McCoy would be back earlier this week, were you 100% convinced?
I think I was still hesitant, and for most of us, I think there was a countdown to the January 15th deadline for entering the draft. Once that date passed, then I think we could all be convinced that McCoy would be back.
Well, we see what has happened.
Pitt will probably hold a news conference to announce the decision sometime in the next few days, and we’ll cover that to see what McCoy and Dave Wannstedt have to say. After that, we’ll break down where Pitt goes from here.
I guess it’s a good thing they’re stocking up on running backs in this class. Think Wannstedt and company might have had this scenario in mind when they decided to sign as many as three running backs for 2009?
Anyway, I guess at this point it’s best to just appreciate the outstanding two-year run McCoy had at Pitt and the fact that he was the main driving force behind every good thing Pitt did on the field over the past two seasons.
Football wrap-up
Turning to an even less feel-good story - although a 9-4 record should still warm at least a few hearts - I thought we could do a little bit of wrap-up on the football season. Truth is, I don’t really feel like going through the issues and topics one-by-one again; it seems like that whole thing has been hashed and re-hashed on the message boards ad nauseam, much to the chagrin of posters on both sides of the debate.
So we won’t restart that conflict here. Instead, I’m just going to post some links to some of the better football content items we published over the past few weeks.
Season-ending football notes from Dave Wannstedt
Looking at the team’s offensive struggles
O-line questions abound heading into next season
Senior: Pitt football with C.J. Davis
Senior: Pitt football with Conredge Collins
Senior: Pitt football with Rashaad Duncan
We’ve got some more wrap-up items coming over the next few days, mostly looking at the quarterback situation, but I think we all know the major issues facing this team.
Official visit weekend
Pitt’s got 14 recruits coming in this weekend for official visits. Eight of the recruits are already committed to Pitt, and the other six are pretty big targets for the coaching staff. We’ll have a full breakdown of the class later today, but here’s a rundown of who’s coming in.
The commits
Kevin Adams
Will Clarke
Brock DeCicco
Fernando Diaz
Tyrone Ezell
Juantez Hollins
Cory King
Devin Street
The recruits
Hoboken defensive linemen Isaac Holmes
- Nunez and Holmes are key targets because the staff is still looking to fill out on the defensive line in this class. Rashaad Duncan graduates this year, and Gus Mustakas, Mick Williams, and Tommie Duhart are gone after next year. That’s four defensive linemen and they’re all interior linemen, making Holmes - a tackle - all the more important. Of the current commits, Ezell is a defensive tackle and his top three are Pitt, Maryland, and Michigan State. But he also said that Maryland is his favorite. Holmes is difficult to reach on the phone, but from what I’ve heard he is pretty high on Maryland, too.
Houston (TX) Cypress Falls quarterback Kolby Gray
- It’s hard to rank this weekend’s visitors in terms of priority or importance, but Gray is up on the list. A dual-threat quarterback who excelled in two different systems in high school - a spread offense as a junior and a zone-read as a senior - Gray has mobility, decent arm strength, and a lot of the intangibles that Pitt could use in a quarterback. Gray is pretty high on Pitt, and although a number of new schools are in the picture - Iowa State, Kansas State, and, most notably, Michigan - there’s a pretty good chance he could commit to Pitt by the end of the visit. Gray’s coach told me this week that, while Gray is excited about the new attention, “he wants to get settled and get it done.”
Linebackers Shane Gordon
- These two are from different parts of the country - Mason from Penn Hills, Gordon from Cypress Bay in Florida - but Pitt would like to take both linebackers if possible. They both seem to be slight Pitt leans, and I think the Panthers have a better than even chance at both of them. Mason has been high on Pitt for awhile, but he’ll probably take one or two visits after this before making a decision. Gordon said this week that Jason Douglas - a teammate of Gordon’s at Cypress Bay - told me that he thinks it’s just Pitt, USF, and Ole Miss. According to Douglas, Gordon just needs to get to Pittsburgh and realize that the cold isn’t all that bad.
Jersey City (NJ) Hudson Catholic cornerback Jason Hendricks
- Hendricks is the newest name to the list. He was offered by Pitt in mid-December after a senior season that saw him emerge as one of the best players in Hudson County. Hendricks is a 6’0” 185-pound running back/cornerback who projects on defense in college, and his Pitt offer is complemented by offers from Syracuse, Temple, Eastern Michigan, and Central Michigan. Maybe not an impressive list, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that the Pitt coaches probably aren’t offering New Jersey players just to offer them. That is to say, if Pitt was going to take a chance on a marginal prospect, Wannstedt would probably do it locally rather than in New Jersey.
So if Hendricks got an offer, I think we can safely assume that there’s something there. Pitt probably wants at least one, if not two, cornerbacks in this class, and Hendricks looks like a probable candidate for one of those spots. We’ll have an article later today, but when I interviewed Hendricks’ coach Thursday night, I got the strong impression that Hendricks is headed to Pitt and could very well commit on or shortly after his visit.
Out of the 14, then, I think we can say that Hendricks and Gray are likely to commit this weekend or soon thereafter. I think they split on Gordon and Mason. And I think it’s too tough to call on Nunez and Holmes. Those two have been high on Maryland for quite awhile now.
One thing to keep in mind: Hendricks is driving to Pittsburgh with Holmes (and possibly Nunez), so if one passenger in that car is high on Pitt, you’d have to wonder if it can get contagious, particularly on the long drive back to the Garden State.
Recruiting roundup
Lots of recruiting stuff going on in addition to the official visit weekend. This is the wild time of year for recruiting.
- Quite possibly the top target on Pitt’s board for the class of 2009 is Irvington (NJ) athlete Josh Evans. Evans was one of the best players in New Jersey this year, if not the absolute best, and his offer sheet reflects his superior athletic ability. The kid has all-world talent, but he has always maintained a strong relationship with Pitt assistant Jeff Hafley.
Earlier this week, the Pitt staff took that relationship to another level when Hafley was joined in New Jersey by Dave Wannstedt, and the two put the full-court press on Evans. Apparently that strategy worked, as Irvington head coach Darnell Grant told PantherLair.com on Thursday:
"Coach Wannstedt came in this week and had a great meeting with Josh and Josh's dad, and now they're right in the mix. They came in and wowed him. They brought up some pretty good points and it was big that they came in this week. That put them right in it, and now it might just be those three: Pitt, Florida, and Oklahoma. But Pitt's right up there.”
That’s rarified air, and it’s a testament to Wannstedt’s (and Hafley’s) abilities as a recruiter. Evans will visit Florida next weekend, and assuming he returns from that visit uncommitted, he’ll make the trek to Pittsburgh the next week. He’s got a track meet the weekend of the 23rd, so his visit to Pitt will be midweek.
The fact that Evans is interested enough in Pitt to make a midweek visit speaks volumes about the Panthers’ chances. I’m not saying they’ll get him, but they’ve obviously made a strong impression and are finalists in the race.
- Pitt has been keeping an eye on Weston (FL) Cypress Bay cornerback set up an official visit to Pitt for the weekend of the 16th. Miles’ teammate - and Pitt commit - Jason Douglas told me this week that Miles is “blowing up,” and Pitt has shown an interest in taking at least one or two corners in this class, so Miles could be on the list.
We’ll see what happens in the week leading up to his visit.
- Then there’s the Hill headed west on the turnpike to join Pitt’s first big official visit weekend.
After that visit, he was excited about Pitt, to say the least.
"Overall, it was a really good visit," he said. "I liked it a lot."
In fact, Hill liked the visit enough that the recruiting process might be coming to a close.
"I'm probably going to have a decision by the end of this week," he said. "I feel pretty good about Pitt."
That interview was conducted on Sunday as Hill and his family rode the turnpike east back to Steelton.
Then Hill pulled the trigger for PSU.
Was it the end of the world to lose Hill? No, probably not. But he was a very good defensive tackle prospect with a lot of potential. He drew a lot of comparisons to current Pitt redshirt junior Mick Williams, and the Panthers could do a lot worse than having a bunch of Mick Williams on the defensive line.
And while it’s disappointing to have a recruit virtually locked up - there were some whispers that he had given Pitt the ever-ominous “silent verbal” while on his official visit - only to lose him to Penn State, it’s simply a fact of life in recruiting. There are kids who fall at the drop of a hat if a certain school offers. For Hill, it was Penn State.
We never had to see what would have happened if Penn State had offered Jack Lippert. Truth is, I’m not sure how that scenario would have played out.
- A couple of other prospects with Pitt offers went elsewhere over the past week or so. Baltimore (MD) Dunbar running back did the same.
Of the two, Jenkins probably hurts Pitt a little more than Austin, although neither commitment is good news for Pitt. A 5’10” 177-pound speedy athletic corner, Jenkins took an official visit to Pitt for the Backyard Brawl the day after Thanksgiving and was even more enthusiastic about the Mountaineers after that visit.
This past weekend, I spoke to Jenkins and he said that Pitt is still a player for his services:
“I'm still leaning to West Virginia, but Pitt is not out of the race yet. I still like what I saw at Pitt a lot.”
Less than a week later, Jenkins was committed to WVU.
This stings for Pitt because the coaching staff was hoping to get at least one or two corners in the class (and Jenkins was probably the best of the current options). And it stings a little bit more because he went to West Virginia.
Also in the “Stings because it’s WVU” department is Austin. Not necessarily because Pitt needed Austin; after all, the Panthers have commitments from three running backs already in Jason Douglas, and none of those three or Austin are taller than 5’9”. Each running back has a unique kind of talent - and Austin is certainly very talented and deserving of his four-star status - but Pitt has pretty much filled up on running backs, and if Austin was genuinely interested in the Panthers, he might have waited a bit too long.
No, the sting of Austin committing to WVU is that Pitt will now have to face him for four years. It’s impossible to predict how successful a prospect will be in college, but Austin appears to have all the tools to be really productive in the Mountaineers’ offense, probably as a running back but also as a receiving threat out of the backfield or even the slot.
The line of fast offensive playmakers at WVU will continue with Austin, and future Pitt defensive coordinators will have their hands full with the Baltimore native.
- Elsewhere in the “Small running back department” is Naples all-purpose back De’Antwan Williams (and that’s not a reflection of those players’ talents; quite the contrary, Austin and Williams will probably be the source of much consternation for Pitt’s defense in the years to come. Rather it’s simply a product of scholarship numbers and position priorities).
So we figured that Pratt and Pitt would likely go separate ways after Douglas committed, but then word got out that he was still looking at taking an official visit to Pittsburgh. After seeing that article from the Colorado State Rivals site, we called Pratt for a PatherLair.com interview to see what the story was.
When we talked to him, Pratt said that he was aware of Pitt’s three running back commitments but that didn’t dissuade him from considering the Panthers.
"Coach Tumpkin told me that they're recruiting me as an athlete, so I could play running back or cornerback or in the slot. And I can return kicks, too."
Pratt added that he talks to Tumpkin “almost every week,” so it doesn’t sound like the contact has been cut off.
I suppose there are a couple ways to slice this. As some proposed on the message board, Pitt may be keeping Pratt on the line just in case something happens with the three running back commits (I guess the number is two now, since Lewis has enrolled at Pitt and is in classes this semester). Or it could be that Pitt sees an option with Pratt as a corner. He doesn’t have great size - 5’8” 165 - but he is quick and athletic, so that could be the angle.
Really, it might be a combination of both: insurance against any problems with the running back commits and a solid plan in case other corner recruits don’t come through. Pratt’s visit is scheduled for January 23rd - the latest known official visit date - so chances are things could change between now and then.
- Pitt commit Rivals.com evaluators. Impressing the latter was key for Fleming, as he performed well enough to likely earn himself a bump from two stars to three.
We also think that these Pitt commits are likely candidates for bumps after strong senior seasons:
Kevin Adams
Dion Lewis (if not from a three-star to a four-star, then at least to a higher three-star)
Devin Street
Ed Tinker (who should be at least a three-star)
- Speaking of Tinker, we might as well address that topic now. Just to refresh: Tinker was a three-star prospect out of Brashear a year ago but didn’t qualify and went to North Carolina Tech in Charlotte for the fall semester. Once he got back to Pittsburgh, committed to the Panthers shortly thereafter.
Since he was coming out of one semester at prep school, Tinker planned to enroll in college for the spring semester. Here’s where things get murky. He told me all along that he was on track to enroll at Pitt for the spring semester and join the team in spring practice. The final step was to get his SAT scores back. Originally he told me he would get them back on Christmas Eve; that didn’t happen. Then he told me he expected to get his test scores on Monday the 5th, and once he had the scores he would be able to enroll at Pitt.
Problem is, Pitt’s spring semester started on Monday. Some posters pointed out that the add/drop period (which ranks among the most magical phrases for any Pitt student) ends on January 16th, so perhaps he could still enroll by then. Perhaps.
To be honest, I just don’t know what to make of this situation. I guess we’ll see if his name is on the list February 4th when they announce the signing class (although I’m sure we’ll probably figure it out before then).
- Also in the “Let’s see what happens” department is Jeannette athlete Jordan Hall. As we’ve said about 100 times before, he committed to Ohio State in April but throughout the summer and fall, we kept hearing about continued contact between him and Pitt. Each time we’d talk to him, though, he’d play it off.
For example, sources told us that he attended the Pitt-Buffalo game and spent a lot of time with the Panthers’ players and coaches before, during, and after the game. When we talked to him, he said that he went there to see former Jeannette teammate and current Buffalo player Davonte Shannon and that he didn’t really talk to the Pitt coaches at all.
This went on for several months. We’d hear that he was always in contact with the Pitt coaches - that’s why we called him for a quote in the Recruits react article after Pitt beat South Florida - but then we’d talk to him and he’d downplay his contact with Pitt.
Finally, in mid-November Hall said that he was planning on visiting Pitt. He wasn’t sure of the date at that point, but he did plan on making the trip. Earlier this week, word surfaced on the message boards that Hall could be looking at this weekend for his visit. So we contacted him to see if he had scheduled any visits, and he replied that he had only scheduled a visit to Ohio State next weekend. I then asked if he was still planning on visiting Pitt. His response, via text message:
“Naw”
Now, I don’t fully believe that we’ve heard the last word on this, and I also cannot say with 100% certainty that he won’t visit Pitt this weekend. We’ve seen throughout this whole thing that Hall is keeping his interest in Pitt close to the vest, possibly so as to explore his options while also doing nothing to jeopardize his standing with Ohio State.
So we’ll have to keep an eye on this and see what turns up.
Odds and ends
A couple of other things that didn’t really fit in this week’s In the Pitt but deserve mention nonetheless.
- Here’s an article Tony and I put together on Thursday with reactions from top hoops recruits about Pitt’s No. 1 ranking.
- Here’s a video feature with Jamie Dixon, Sam Young, Levance Fields, and Tyrell Biggs talking about being No. 1.
- Here’s an article about how the hoops team plans to stay focused while No. 1.
- Here are some photos from Pitt’s huge win over Georgetown last Saturday.
On the air
To wrap up here, just want to throw out a brief reminder about the PantherLair.com Pitt Preview Show and a huge thank-you to all of the PantherLair.com subscribers that have called in for the first four broadcasts so far. I hoped the show would be driven by calls from Pitt fans, and you haven’t let me down.
This past week’s show was particularly lively, what with the anger, frustration, confusion, and disappointment from the bowl game. This week we’ll be going a bit more positive and talking recruiting, offseason football, and, most importantly, the No. 1 team in America.
Hopefully everyone will get a chance to listen in on Saturday. The show runs from 11-noon EST on Fox Sports Radio 970 AM in Pittsburgh. If you aren’t in the Pittsburgh area or you can’t get to a radio, you can listen live online at www.fox970.com. The number to call in is 412-922-2874, and I look forward to hearing from Pitt fans on Saturday morning.
Pitt fans - especially hoops fans - often bemoan the lack of a Pitt presence in the local media; well, here’s your chance. Remember: this is the only all-Pitt talk show in Pittsburgh (and, by extension, the world), so make the most of it. Call in, have an opinion, and sound off.
Thanks for joining this week’s edition of In The Pitt. As always, feel free to e-mail chrispeak1@comcast.net with any suggestions, feedback, or other input.
January 9, 2009
Top of the Pitt
It’s the first In the Pitt of the new year, and we’ll mark the event by saying something we’ve never been able to say before:
No. 1 Pittsburgh
Never before, that is, until Pitt took care of business in D.C. last Saturday and the stars aligned to anoint the Panthers No. 1 in the nation. And it was nearly unanimous, too, as Pitt took 70 of 72 first-place votes in the Associated Press and 30 of 31 in the coaches poll.
For the first time in the school’s 101-year history - and the first time in the 60 years that the AP and coaches polls have existed - the Pittsburgh basketball Panthers are ranked No. 1 for all the world to see. And yes, it might just be January, and yes, there are still a lot of games to play, not just in the juggernaut Big East but in the Big East Tournament and the all-important NCAA Tournament.
But no matter what happens, there will always be this week in January - and probably at least one more week, assuming Pitt handles St. John’s properly on Sunday - when everyone in the world of college basketball has to acknowledge that the Panthers are the No. 1 team in the land.
So how does it feel? It’s like the day when you turned 13 or 16 or 18 or 20 or 21 or 30 or 40 or 50 or 60 or 65 or any other notable age and someone inevitably asked you if you felt any different. Does it really feel any different to be ranked No. 1? Pitt has been the No. 1 team in the Big East before and Pitt has won the Big East Tournament before; does it feel any different from those occasions?
Well, yeah. A little. Winning the Big East regular season title or the Big East Tournament comes with hardware, but the No. 1 ranking in the nation comes with a certain prestige; somehow that target on the back seems to work its way through your body to the front, where it noticeably pushes your chest out.
And make no mistake: Pitt now officially has a target on its back. Tyrell Biggs said this week that the Panthers will still keep the underdog mentality that has defined this team in the past - no word if “We all we got” will stay on as a tagline - but they can’t deny that they are now the hunted. Connecticut, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and the rest of the Big East were already gunning for Pitt because Pitt was likely to be one of the top teams in the league; now there’s the added incentive of being able to say “We beat the No. 1 team.”
And that says nothing of the “others” in the conference like St. John’s or DePaul or South Florida or Rutgers. Those teams will have extra motivation to try to find that perfect pitch when they play Pitt, although I think that was probably already the case: as competitive as this conference is from top to bottom, everybody is always gunning for everybody else.
But it means extra when the team you’re gunning for just happens to be ranked No. 1 in the country.
And right now, that’s Pitt.
So when St. John’s comes to the Petersen Events Center on Sunday, they won’t just be working for a win over one of the Big East’s best teams. They’ll be working to upset No. 1. And every team that plays Pitt after St. John’s will be working for that same goal until the Panthers finally do lose a game and drop from the top spot.
And let’s be honest: Pitt can’t really go undefeated, can it? 14-0 overall and 2-0 in the Big East is a good start, but there are 17 games left - 16 conference games - and I don’t know if any team in today’s world of college basketball can possibly survive that gauntlet. Plus, we’re not talking about making a run through Conference USA or the Sun Belt or the Missouri Valley, although those would all be daunting tasks; we’re talking about the 2008-09 Big East, which quite possibly could live up to its billing (from Jamie Dixon’s mouth) as the greatest conference in the history of college basketball.
Never mind the fact that Notre Dame, Georgetown, Louisville, and West Virginia already have three losses or that Villanova and Marquette already have two losses or that Syracuse and Connecticut each have one loss; these teams have shown some vulnerabilities, but they are also extraordinarily difficult to play against.
As of midweek, Notre Dame was sixth in the conference standings, Villanova was 7th, West Virginia was 8th, Georgetown was 10th, and Louisville was 11th; is there any league in the country with scarier teams sitting below fifth place?
So yes, somewhere along the way, Pitt is going to lose. Syracuse, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Marquette, and Connecticut all have dates at the Petersen Events Center, and the Panthers have to travel to Louisville, WVU, Villanova, and UConn. There’s no smooth sailing in those nine games, and any of them could go against Pitt.
So let’s temporarily set aside the notion of going undefeated and look at how good this team just might be (stating the obvious: if Pitt shoots 57% and outrebounds its opponents by 20, as was the case against Georgetown, then the Panthers will go undefeated, but I’m not banking on that happening).
Brandin Knight might not be willing to make comparisons, but I will:
This is the best team Pitt has had in the nine-year resurgence of the program.
Don’t get me wrong: there were some really good teams earlier in this decade, and Knight himself may be the single most important player to put on a Pitt uniform during that time, but there are a couple keys that separate this squad from its eight predecessors.
1. None of those teams had a player like Sam Young. Young has become what everyone hoped he would be when he signed with Pitt: a dynamic game-changer.
2. Of equal importance, Jamie Dixon has shown a willingness to let Young be a 20-point scorer if that’s what the game dictates.
3. Levance Fields may or may not be as good a point guard as Knight was, but he’s close enough that the comparison isn’t really necessary. Fields is an adept, “heady steady point guard” (in Young’s words) and his presence on the floor - assuming he doesn’t lose his mind and decide to shoot too much - makes the Pitt offense go.
4. DeJuan Blair is a once-every-ten-years type of player, not because he’s the best player to come through in 10 years, but because there just haven’t been any players like him in the past 10 years. In fact, there just aren’t many players like him anywhere.
Legendary promoter/music impresario Bill Graham once said of the Grateful Dead, “They’re not the best at what they do; they’re the only ones that do what they do.” Sounds a bit like Blair, doesn’t it?
5. If the bench continues to progress as it has through the first third of the season, this Pitt team’s depth can be the best the Panthers have had. Now, it’s important to note that that is a big “if” and the continued improvement needs to be demonstrable and significant, but Gilbert Brown and Brad Wanamaker (and Ashton Gibbs) have come alive of late. If they can keep it up, Pitt will be even more dangerous.
And while all of those factors separate the 2008-09 Panthers from the Howland/Dixon teams that preceded them, they also point to one somewhat startling conclusion:
This should be the Pitt team that gets over the Sweet Sixteen hurdle, wins in the Elite Eight, and finally makes it to the Final Four. If the Panthers keep playing like they have been, before too long we’ll have to declare that it will be a true disappointment should they fall short of the Final Four this year. With the way the team has played thus far, expectations are climbing to that level.
LeSean McCoy and the NFL draft
Well, word finally broke yesterday that Pitt sophomore running back LeSean McCoy will enter the 2009 NFL draft. I suppose this is arguably bigger news than the hoops team being ranked No. 1, but I wanted to stay positive in the Top of the Pitt section, so this goes into the No. 2 slot.
I’m not sure how much can be said about this. Was anyone really surprised at the news? Even after McCoy announced in mid-November that he would be returning to Pitt next season, was anyone truly convinced? And even after Dave Wannstedt reiterated that McCoy would be back earlier this week, were you 100% convinced?
I think I was still hesitant, and for most of us, I think there was a countdown to the January 15th deadline for entering the draft. Once that date passed, then I think we could all be convinced that McCoy would be back.
Well, we see what has happened.
Pitt will probably hold a news conference to announce the decision sometime in the next few days, and we’ll cover that to see what McCoy and Dave Wannstedt have to say. After that, we’ll break down where Pitt goes from here.
I guess it’s a good thing they’re stocking up on running backs in this class. Think Wannstedt and company might have had this scenario in mind when they decided to sign as many as three running backs for 2009?
Anyway, I guess at this point it’s best to just appreciate the outstanding two-year run McCoy had at Pitt and the fact that he was the main driving force behind every good thing Pitt did on the field over the past two seasons.
Football wrap-up
Turning to an even less feel-good story - although a 9-4 record should still warm at least a few hearts - I thought we could do a little bit of wrap-up on the football season. Truth is, I don’t really feel like going through the issues and topics one-by-one again; it seems like that whole thing has been hashed and re-hashed on the message boards ad nauseam, much to the chagrin of posters on both sides of the debate.
So we won’t restart that conflict here. Instead, I’m just going to post some links to some of the better football content items we published over the past few weeks.
Season-ending football notes from Dave Wannstedt
Looking at the team’s offensive struggles
O-line questions abound heading into next season
Senior: Pitt football with C.J. Davis
Senior: Pitt football with Conredge Collins
Senior: Pitt football with Rashaad Duncan
We’ve got some more wrap-up items coming over the next few days, mostly looking at the quarterback situation, but I think we all know the major issues facing this team.
Official visit weekend
Pitt’s got 14 recruits coming in this weekend for official visits. Eight of the recruits are already committed to Pitt, and the other six are pretty big targets for the coaching staff. We’ll have a full breakdown of the class later today, but here’s a rundown of who’s coming in.
The commits
Kevin Adams
Will Clarke
Brock DeCicco
Fernando Diaz
Tyrone Ezell
Juantez Hollins
Cory King
Devin Street
The recruits
Hoboken defensive linemen Isaac Holmes
- Nunez and Holmes are key targets because the staff is still looking to fill out on the defensive line in this class. Rashaad Duncan graduates this year, and Gus Mustakas, Mick Williams, and Tommie Duhart are gone after next year. That’s four defensive linemen and they’re all interior linemen, making Holmes - a tackle - all the more important. Of the current commits, Ezell is a defensive tackle and his top three are Pitt, Maryland, and Michigan State. But he also said that Maryland is his favorite. Holmes is difficult to reach on the phone, but from what I’ve heard he is pretty high on Maryland, too.
Houston (TX) Cypress Falls quarterback Kolby Gray
- It’s hard to rank this weekend’s visitors in terms of priority or importance, but Gray is up on the list. A dual-threat quarterback who excelled in two different systems in high school - a spread offense as a junior and a zone-read as a senior - Gray has mobility, decent arm strength, and a lot of the intangibles that Pitt could use in a quarterback. Gray is pretty high on Pitt, and although a number of new schools are in the picture - Iowa State, Kansas State, and, most notably, Michigan - there’s a pretty good chance he could commit to Pitt by the end of the visit. Gray’s coach told me this week that, while Gray is excited about the new attention, “he wants to get settled and get it done.”
Linebackers Shane Gordon
- These two are from different parts of the country - Mason from Penn Hills, Gordon from Cypress Bay in Florida - but Pitt would like to take both linebackers if possible. They both seem to be slight Pitt leans, and I think the Panthers have a better than even chance at both of them. Mason has been high on Pitt for awhile, but he’ll probably take one or two visits after this before making a decision. Gordon said this week that Jason Douglas - a teammate of Gordon’s at Cypress Bay - told me that he thinks it’s just Pitt, USF, and Ole Miss. According to Douglas, Gordon just needs to get to Pittsburgh and realize that the cold isn’t all that bad.
Jersey City (NJ) Hudson Catholic cornerback Jason Hendricks
- Hendricks is the newest name to the list. He was offered by Pitt in mid-December after a senior season that saw him emerge as one of the best players in Hudson County. Hendricks is a 6’0” 185-pound running back/cornerback who projects on defense in college, and his Pitt offer is complemented by offers from Syracuse, Temple, Eastern Michigan, and Central Michigan. Maybe not an impressive list, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that the Pitt coaches probably aren’t offering New Jersey players just to offer them. That is to say, if Pitt was going to take a chance on a marginal prospect, Wannstedt would probably do it locally rather than in New Jersey.
So if Hendricks got an offer, I think we can safely assume that there’s something there. Pitt probably wants at least one, if not two, cornerbacks in this class, and Hendricks looks like a probable candidate for one of those spots. We’ll have an article later today, but when I interviewed Hendricks’ coach Thursday night, I got the strong impression that Hendricks is headed to Pitt and could very well commit on or shortly after his visit.
Out of the 14, then, I think we can say that Hendricks and Gray are likely to commit this weekend or soon thereafter. I think they split on Gordon and Mason. And I think it’s too tough to call on Nunez and Holmes. Those two have been high on Maryland for quite awhile now.
One thing to keep in mind: Hendricks is driving to Pittsburgh with Holmes (and possibly Nunez), so if one passenger in that car is high on Pitt, you’d have to wonder if it can get contagious, particularly on the long drive back to the Garden State.
Recruiting roundup
Lots of recruiting stuff going on in addition to the official visit weekend. This is the wild time of year for recruiting.
- Quite possibly the top target on Pitt’s board for the class of 2009 is Irvington (NJ) athlete Josh Evans. Evans was one of the best players in New Jersey this year, if not the absolute best, and his offer sheet reflects his superior athletic ability. The kid has all-world talent, but he has always maintained a strong relationship with Pitt assistant Jeff Hafley.
Earlier this week, the Pitt staff took that relationship to another level when Hafley was joined in New Jersey by Dave Wannstedt, and the two put the full-court press on Evans. Apparently that strategy worked, as Irvington head coach Darnell Grant told PantherLair.com on Thursday:
"Coach Wannstedt came in this week and had a great meeting with Josh and Josh's dad, and now they're right in the mix. They came in and wowed him. They brought up some pretty good points and it was big that they came in this week. That put them right in it, and now it might just be those three: Pitt, Florida, and Oklahoma. But Pitt's right up there.”
That’s rarified air, and it’s a testament to Wannstedt’s (and Hafley’s) abilities as a recruiter. Evans will visit Florida next weekend, and assuming he returns from that visit uncommitted, he’ll make the trek to Pittsburgh the next week. He’s got a track meet the weekend of the 23rd, so his visit to Pitt will be midweek.
The fact that Evans is interested enough in Pitt to make a midweek visit speaks volumes about the Panthers’ chances. I’m not saying they’ll get him, but they’ve obviously made a strong impression and are finalists in the race.
- Pitt has been keeping an eye on Weston (FL) Cypress Bay cornerback set up an official visit to Pitt for the weekend of the 16th. Miles’ teammate - and Pitt commit - Jason Douglas told me this week that Miles is “blowing up,” and Pitt has shown an interest in taking at least one or two corners in this class, so Miles could be on the list.
We’ll see what happens in the week leading up to his visit.
- Then there’s the Hill headed west on the turnpike to join Pitt’s first big official visit weekend.
After that visit, he was excited about Pitt, to say the least.
"Overall, it was a really good visit," he said. "I liked it a lot."
In fact, Hill liked the visit enough that the recruiting process might be coming to a close.
"I'm probably going to have a decision by the end of this week," he said. "I feel pretty good about Pitt."
That interview was conducted on Sunday as Hill and his family rode the turnpike east back to Steelton.
Then Hill pulled the trigger for PSU.
Was it the end of the world to lose Hill? No, probably not. But he was a very good defensive tackle prospect with a lot of potential. He drew a lot of comparisons to current Pitt redshirt junior Mick Williams, and the Panthers could do a lot worse than having a bunch of Mick Williams on the defensive line.
And while it’s disappointing to have a recruit virtually locked up - there were some whispers that he had given Pitt the ever-ominous “silent verbal” while on his official visit - only to lose him to Penn State, it’s simply a fact of life in recruiting. There are kids who fall at the drop of a hat if a certain school offers. For Hill, it was Penn State.
We never had to see what would have happened if Penn State had offered Jack Lippert. Truth is, I’m not sure how that scenario would have played out.
- A couple of other prospects with Pitt offers went elsewhere over the past week or so. Baltimore (MD) Dunbar running back did the same.
Of the two, Jenkins probably hurts Pitt a little more than Austin, although neither commitment is good news for Pitt. A 5’10” 177-pound speedy athletic corner, Jenkins took an official visit to Pitt for the Backyard Brawl the day after Thanksgiving and was even more enthusiastic about the Mountaineers after that visit.
This past weekend, I spoke to Jenkins and he said that Pitt is still a player for his services:
“I'm still leaning to West Virginia, but Pitt is not out of the race yet. I still like what I saw at Pitt a lot.”
Less than a week later, Jenkins was committed to WVU.
This stings for Pitt because the coaching staff was hoping to get at least one or two corners in the class (and Jenkins was probably the best of the current options). And it stings a little bit more because he went to West Virginia.
Also in the “Stings because it’s WVU” department is Austin. Not necessarily because Pitt needed Austin; after all, the Panthers have commitments from three running backs already in Jason Douglas, and none of those three or Austin are taller than 5’9”. Each running back has a unique kind of talent - and Austin is certainly very talented and deserving of his four-star status - but Pitt has pretty much filled up on running backs, and if Austin was genuinely interested in the Panthers, he might have waited a bit too long.
No, the sting of Austin committing to WVU is that Pitt will now have to face him for four years. It’s impossible to predict how successful a prospect will be in college, but Austin appears to have all the tools to be really productive in the Mountaineers’ offense, probably as a running back but also as a receiving threat out of the backfield or even the slot.
The line of fast offensive playmakers at WVU will continue with Austin, and future Pitt defensive coordinators will have their hands full with the Baltimore native.
- Elsewhere in the “Small running back department” is Naples all-purpose back De’Antwan Williams (and that’s not a reflection of those players’ talents; quite the contrary, Austin and Williams will probably be the source of much consternation for Pitt’s defense in the years to come. Rather it’s simply a product of scholarship numbers and position priorities).
So we figured that Pratt and Pitt would likely go separate ways after Douglas committed, but then word got out that he was still looking at taking an official visit to Pittsburgh. After seeing that article from the Colorado State Rivals site, we called Pratt for a PatherLair.com interview to see what the story was.
When we talked to him, Pratt said that he was aware of Pitt’s three running back commitments but that didn’t dissuade him from considering the Panthers.
"Coach Tumpkin told me that they're recruiting me as an athlete, so I could play running back or cornerback or in the slot. And I can return kicks, too."
Pratt added that he talks to Tumpkin “almost every week,” so it doesn’t sound like the contact has been cut off.
I suppose there are a couple ways to slice this. As some proposed on the message board, Pitt may be keeping Pratt on the line just in case something happens with the three running back commits (I guess the number is two now, since Lewis has enrolled at Pitt and is in classes this semester). Or it could be that Pitt sees an option with Pratt as a corner. He doesn’t have great size - 5’8” 165 - but he is quick and athletic, so that could be the angle.
Really, it might be a combination of both: insurance against any problems with the running back commits and a solid plan in case other corner recruits don’t come through. Pratt’s visit is scheduled for January 23rd - the latest known official visit date - so chances are things could change between now and then.
- Pitt commit Rivals.com evaluators. Impressing the latter was key for Fleming, as he performed well enough to likely earn himself a bump from two stars to three.
We also think that these Pitt commits are likely candidates for bumps after strong senior seasons:
Kevin Adams
Dion Lewis (if not from a three-star to a four-star, then at least to a higher three-star)
Devin Street
Ed Tinker (who should be at least a three-star)
- Speaking of Tinker, we might as well address that topic now. Just to refresh: Tinker was a three-star prospect out of Brashear a year ago but didn’t qualify and went to North Carolina Tech in Charlotte for the fall semester. Once he got back to Pittsburgh, committed to the Panthers shortly thereafter.
Since he was coming out of one semester at prep school, Tinker planned to enroll in college for the spring semester. Here’s where things get murky. He told me all along that he was on track to enroll at Pitt for the spring semester and join the team in spring practice. The final step was to get his SAT scores back. Originally he told me he would get them back on Christmas Eve; that didn’t happen. Then he told me he expected to get his test scores on Monday the 5th, and once he had the scores he would be able to enroll at Pitt.
Problem is, Pitt’s spring semester started on Monday. Some posters pointed out that the add/drop period (which ranks among the most magical phrases for any Pitt student) ends on January 16th, so perhaps he could still enroll by then. Perhaps.
To be honest, I just don’t know what to make of this situation. I guess we’ll see if his name is on the list February 4th when they announce the signing class (although I’m sure we’ll probably figure it out before then).
- Also in the “Let’s see what happens” department is Jeannette athlete Jordan Hall. As we’ve said about 100 times before, he committed to Ohio State in April but throughout the summer and fall, we kept hearing about continued contact between him and Pitt. Each time we’d talk to him, though, he’d play it off.
For example, sources told us that he attended the Pitt-Buffalo game and spent a lot of time with the Panthers’ players and coaches before, during, and after the game. When we talked to him, he said that he went there to see former Jeannette teammate and current Buffalo player Davonte Shannon and that he didn’t really talk to the Pitt coaches at all.
This went on for several months. We’d hear that he was always in contact with the Pitt coaches - that’s why we called him for a quote in the Recruits react article after Pitt beat South Florida - but then we’d talk to him and he’d downplay his contact with Pitt.
Finally, in mid-November Hall said that he was planning on visiting Pitt. He wasn’t sure of the date at that point, but he did plan on making the trip. Earlier this week, word surfaced on the message boards that Hall could be looking at this weekend for his visit. So we contacted him to see if he had scheduled any visits, and he replied that he had only scheduled a visit to Ohio State next weekend. I then asked if he was still planning on visiting Pitt. His response, via text message:
“Naw”
Now, I don’t fully believe that we’ve heard the last word on this, and I also cannot say with 100% certainty that he won’t visit Pitt this weekend. We’ve seen throughout this whole thing that Hall is keeping his interest in Pitt close to the vest, possibly so as to explore his options while also doing nothing to jeopardize his standing with Ohio State.
So we’ll have to keep an eye on this and see what turns up.
Odds and ends
A couple of other things that didn’t really fit in this week’s In the Pitt but deserve mention nonetheless.
- Here’s an article Tony and I put together on Thursday with reactions from top hoops recruits about Pitt’s No. 1 ranking.
- Here’s a video feature with Jamie Dixon, Sam Young, Levance Fields, and Tyrell Biggs talking about being No. 1.
- Here’s an article about how the hoops team plans to stay focused while No. 1.
- Here are some photos from Pitt’s huge win over Georgetown last Saturday.
On the air
To wrap up here, just want to throw out a brief reminder about the PantherLair.com Pitt Preview Show and a huge thank-you to all of the PantherLair.com subscribers that have called in for the first four broadcasts so far. I hoped the show would be driven by calls from Pitt fans, and you haven’t let me down.
This past week’s show was particularly lively, what with the anger, frustration, confusion, and disappointment from the bowl game. This week we’ll be going a bit more positive and talking recruiting, offseason football, and, most importantly, the No. 1 team in America.
Hopefully everyone will get a chance to listen in on Saturday. The show runs from 11-noon EST on Fox Sports Radio 970 AM in Pittsburgh. If you aren’t in the Pittsburgh area or you can’t get to a radio, you can listen live online at www.fox970.com. The number to call in is 412-922-2874, and I look forward to hearing from Pitt fans on Saturday morning.
Pitt fans - especially hoops fans - often bemoan the lack of a Pitt presence in the local media; well, here’s your chance. Remember: this is the only all-Pitt talk show in Pittsburgh (and, by extension, the world), so make the most of it. Call in, have an opinion, and sound off.
Thanks for joining this week’s edition of In The Pitt. As always, feel free to e-mail chrispeak1@comcast.net with any suggestions, feedback, or other input.
