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Miles Bridges - we're out

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Athletic Director
Jan 9, 2009
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Don't know if we were ever considered but his name was mentioned plenty here.

@MilesBridges01: My Top 8 schools in no particular order.
MSU
Michigan
Kentucky
Indiana
UNC
NC State
Iowa State
Louisville
 
Smoke couldnt even get us in Bridges final list. Not a good sign, since he was brought here to get us Michigan kids. Let's see where we end up on Winston's list. Hey at least Bridges put his home state schools in his final list. Mav didn't.
No worries, we can always grab some mid major 5th year transfers at the end of this coming year.
 
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Smoke couldnt even get us in Bridges final list. Not a good sign, since he was brought here to get us Michigan kids. Let's see where we end up on Winston's list. Hey at least Bridges put his home state schools in his final list. Mav didn't.
No worries, we can always grab some mid major 5th year transfers at the end of this coming year.
Who is Smoke? Haven't seen any evidence of he being involved with anybody yet. Is he our savior asst coach? This entire staff is a joke.
 
I have watched this team for the past 10 plus years since my son has gone to school at Pitt. I know this is not a great sample size, but I can tell you that recruiting is not a Pitt strong suit. In fact, it is poor at best. Jamie is a good coach, but recruiting has not been good.....for whatever reason.....there are many theories. I think eventually it will be his undoing. I do like the man a lot....too bad.
 
I have watched this team for the past 10 plus years since my son has gone to school at Pitt. I know this is not a great sample size, but I can tell you that recruiting is not a Pitt strong suit. In fact, it is poor at best. Jamie is a good coach, but recruiting has not been good.....for whatever reason.....there are many theories. I think eventually it will be his undoing. I do like the man a lot....too bad.
Well 13 years is a longer run than most get, and his results buy him the benefit of the doubt.
 
I have watched this team for the past 10 plus years since my son has gone to school at Pitt. I know this is not a great sample size, but I can tell you that recruiting is not a Pitt strong suit. In fact, it is poor at best. Jamie is a good coach, but recruiting has not been good.....for whatever reason.....there are many theories. I think eventually it will be his undoing. I do like the man a lot....too bad.

Then you've been watching long enough to know...

In the good times, Jamie is a good coach. In the bad times, he's a bad recruiter.

No more nuance to it than that.
 
Smoke couldnt even get us in Bridges final list. Not a good sign, since he was brought here to get us Michigan kids. Let's see where we end up on Winston's list. Hey at least Bridges put his home state schools in his final list. Mav didn't.
No worries, we can always grab some mid major 5th year transfers at the end of this coming year.
We're not on Winston's list, won't ever be, and we were never on Bridges' list either. Smoke will NEVER pull those kinds of players out of Michigan-read my lips-NEVER. Moreover, I really doubt that Dixon expected him to be able to deliver the best players from Michigan to Pitt. That just ain't gonna happen. Maybe some occasional tier 2 kids, but never the top kids. It has only happened once in Pitt history, over 30'years ago in the Gokden Panther heyday, and there's reason to suspect money was involved. Winston to Pitt is a pipe dream, even more so than Diallo to Pitt.
 
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Who is Smoke? Haven't seen any evidence of he being involved with anybody yet. Is he our savior asst coach? This entire staff is a joke.

Where there is fire.....there is Smoke. I wish it was, "where they are good basketball players, there is Smoke".
 
We're not on Winston's list, won't ever be, and we were never on Bridges' list either. Smoke will NEVER pull those kinds of players out of Michigan-read my lips-NEVER. Moreover, I really doubt that Dixon expected him to be able to deliver the best players from Michigan to Pitt. That just ain't gonna happen. Maybe some occasional tier 2 kids, but never the top kids. It has only happened once in Pitt history, over 30'years ago in the Gokden Panther heyday, and there's reason to suspect money was involved. Winston to Pitt is a pipe dream, even more so than Diallo to Pitt.
I'm not trying to be negative. Just trying to be realistic. I guess Smoke needs time to show what he can do.
However, I have read that basketball talent in the state of Michigan is not as abundant as it was in the 80s and 90s, just as western PA doesn't have as much football talent as it did in the 80's. I disagree in that I think Jaime EXPECTS Smoke to be AT LEAST having a couple of Michigan's better players consider Pitt. This considering he ran one of Michigan's best AAU teams. We are a power 5 conference team. We should have at least some top tier players considering us. Lesser teams in worse conferences have top tier players considering them. I know Jaime doesn't get his hands dirty like others do. If he did we would have a lot better players. I'm not knocking him for that. So let's face it. If the talent is down in Michigan and the National programs take their players.The Michigan schools take their players. The Big 10 schools take their players. What is left for Pitt? Michigan has good players, but it's not like the state of Florida in football where 2 and 3 star players that aren't recruited by Fla., Fla. St., or Miami can go become solid players elsewhere, unless I am mistaken. You also have to consider that Michigan is not in Pitt's geographic recruiting footprint. You are selling the ACC to kids that grew up with how good the big 10 is beat into their heads. Let's face it, unless I'm wrong Smoke was brought here for one reason " recruiting." Hopefully there is either more basketball talent than I am aware of in Michigan that we can get, or Smoke has AT LEAST a chance to lure some top tier players here. If one or the other isn't true, unless Smoke Is real good at coaching up lesser players, it will show that Jaime made a big mistake bringing in Smoke. I hope Jaime and Smoke prove me wrong.
 
I'm not trying to be negative. Just trying to be realistic. I guess Smoke needs time to show what he can do.
However, I have read that basketball talent in the state of Michigan is not as abundant as it was in the 80s and 90s, just as western PA doesn't have as much football talent as it did in the 80's. I disagree in that I think Jaime EXPECTS Smoke to be AT LEAST having a couple of Michigan's better players consider Pitt. This considering he ran one of Michigan's best AAU teams. We are a power 5 conference team. We should have at least some top tier players considering us. Lesser teams in worse conferences have top tier players considering them. I know Jaime doesn't get his hands dirty like others do. If he did we would have a lot better players. I'm not knocking him for that. So let's face it. If the talent is down in Michigan and the National programs take their players.The Michigan schools take their players. The Big 10 schools take their players. What is left for Pitt? Michigan has good players, but it's not like the state of Florida in football where 2 and 3 star players that aren't recruited by Fla., Fla. St., or Miami can go become solid players elsewhere, unless I am mistaken. You also have to consider that Michigan is not in Pitt's geographic recruiting footprint. You are selling the ACC to kids that grew up with how good the big 10 is beat into their heads. Let's face it, unless I'm wrong Smoke was brought here for one reason " recruiting." Hopefully there is either more basketball talent than I am aware of in Michigan that we can get, or Smoke has AT LEAST a chance to lure some top tier players here. If one or the other isn't true, unless Smoke Is real good at coaching up lesser players, it will show that Jaime made a big mistake bringing in Smoke. I hope Jaime and Smoke prove me wrong.
There is definitely less talent in Michigan than in the glory days, but there is still plenty-and typically Michigan's top talent is national top talent. That said, Michigan is nowhere for Pitt to try to make a living recruiting baskeball talent, I can promise you that. You hit on the primary reason for that-MSU and Michigan dominate Michigan recruiting, and every couple of years Michigan has a national top 10 type and one of the blue bloods like UK, Duke or UNC are in play. For that reason, World Wide Wes maintains a permanent residence in one of the most affluent communities in metro Detroit.

We have had two Michigan players that I can recall in the entire history of Pitt basketball. Demetrious Gore, who was a national top 20 HS player out of Detroit in the early 80s, and Chad Varga in the early 90s out of Detroit Catholic Central, who was a transfer from Richmond. We aren't going to suddenly start landing any of the better players from Michigan just because we hired the former Family coach. It's a non-starter. Pitt needs to get back to its prime turf and find those kids that fit the system and develop them, or change the entire approach.

The truth is style of play has become a major factor in where elite HS prospects with eventual NBA aspirations end up.
 
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Michigan is Big 10 country... not gonna get many recruits out of there if any. May as well recruit the west coast or Texas.
 
Constantly berating the coaching staff because the best / elite players in the country aren't considering Pitt is kind of silly. Do any of you really expect these players to come here? Is being on a list of schools really important if you have no realistic chance of landing them? There will be a kid every now and then that decides to come here who is highly rated ,but Pitt needs to live in the land of underrated/overlooked players with a lot of upside. Finding these players is how Pitts recuirtors should be judged.
 
There is definitely less talent in Michigan than in the glory days, but there is still plenty-and typically Michigan's top talent is national top talent. That said, Michigan is nowhere for Pitt to try to make a living recruiting baskeball talent, I can promise you that. You hit on the primary reason for that-MSU and Michigan dominate Michigan recruiting, and every couple of years Michigan has a national top 10 type and one of the blue bloods like UK, Duke or UNC are in play. For that reason, World Wide Wes maintains a permanent residence in one of the most affluent communities in metro Detroit.

We have had two Michigan players that I can recall in the entire history of Pitt basketball. Demetrious Gote, who was a national top 20 HS player out of Detroit in the early 80s, and Chad Varga in the early 90s out of Detroit Catholic Central, who was a transfer from Richmond. We arent going to suddenly start landing any of the better players from Michigan just because we hired the former Family coach. It's a non-starter. Pitt needs to get back to its prime turf and find those kids that fit the system and develop them, or change the entire approach.

The truth is style of play has become a major factor in where elite HS prospects with eventual NBA aspirations end up.

I was skeptical/puzzled on the Smoke hire for this reason. NOW, I am giving him a shot, but the big thing everyone was worried about was how the program has lost its pull in its recently traditional recruiting wheelhouse in the northeast with the move to the ACC and how they needed to focus on ACC recruiting areas and JD hires someone from the Michigan area? Big 10 country and as noted, where the blue bloods go to get a few top kids.

That said, I have rejected the the idea that they had to start trying to go into traditional ACC territory.

I still believe the breakup of the Big East and their move to the ACC should have been an OPPORTUNITY to recruit the same areas even harder. Yes, you don't have as many games in the region, but if JD worked to get a game in the NYC and Phllly area every or more years, it would help. But, the bigger point is that over the years, they got a lot of good second tier guys from these areas, but almost always were brides maids to Nova and UConn on top kids.

IMO, with those programs relegated to secondary conferences it should have STRENGTHENED the Panther's position if JD couched it right. If you are kid from NY/Philly, the NE in general and you want to play in the best league and get on national TV, Pitt and Syracuse are now your only real choice where family and friend can reasonably drive to see you play.

IMO, he should have gotten the best NE recruiter he could have gotten and really staked his flag.

Now, Smoke does have some other connections past his AAU team and early history, but not a lot.

We can only hope he, BK and JD can get it done over the next 6 months, but just not the route I would have gone.
 
There is a reason why Boeheim and Dixon weren't exactly thrilled by the move to the ACC. We now are finding out why.

It was a good move for Pitt football and overall Pitt revenue; but, if things don't turn around soon, it will prove to have been bad for basketball as Boeheim and Dixon seemed to have believed from the beginning.
 
Smoke couldnt even get us in Bridges final list. Not a good sign, since he was brought here to get us Michigan kids.

Smoke wasn't brought here to get us Michigan recruits. That's very unrealistic. He was brought here because he's an AAU schmoozer who apparently (hopefully) has good sales skills.
 
I was skeptical/puzzled on the Smoke hire for this reason. NOW, I am giving him a shot, but the big thing everyone was worried about was how the program has lost its pull in its recently traditional recruiting wheelhouse in the northeast with the move to the ACC and how they needed to focus on ACC recruiting areas and JD hires someone from the Michigan area? Big 10 country and as noted, where the blue bloods go to get a few top kids.

That said, I have rejected the the idea that they had to start trying to go into traditional ACC territory.

I still believe the breakup of the Big East and their move to the ACC should have been an OPPORTUNITY to recruit the same areas even harder. Yes, you don't have as many games in the region, but if JD worked to get a game in the NYC and Phllly area every or more years, it would help. But, the bigger point is that over the years, they got a lot of good second tier guys from these areas, but almost always were brides maids to Nova and UConn on top kids.

IMO, with those programs relegated to secondary conferences it should have STRENGTHENED the Panther's position if JD couched it right. If you are kid from NY/Philly, the NE in general and you want to play in the best league and get on national TV, Pitt and Syracuse are now your only real choice where family and friend can reasonably drive to see you play.

IMO, he should have gotten the best NE recruiter he could have gotten and really staked his flag.

Now, Smoke does have some other connections past his AAU team and early history, but not a lot.

We can only hope he, BK and JD can get it done over the next 6 months, but just not the route I would have gone.
Agree--the NE is the place to work hard, Eastern PA, NYC and NJ in particular. Penn State should never out-recruit Pitt for a top 15 basketball player from the state of PA--never. There is a ton of talent in Philly, and with the BE disbanded, I think the ACC out-sells the non-Power 5 eastern leagues. I also think Pitt should always work Ohio hard, there is plenty of talent there, and every year some of those kids that go to Xavier or Cinci end up being really good college players--I'd like to think Pitt would be at least as attractive to a recruit as either of those two schools, particularly as an ACC program. Lastly, I think it would make some sense to dedicate some effort and resources to recruiting the better JUCOs early, instead of turning to JUCOs and transfers as a last resort only after all else has failed at the end of the recruiting cycle. Smoke might be able to deliver on some occasional borderline Power 5 Michigan kids from The Family, and some of them end up being really good players, but it's just no place for Pitt to try to recruit to rebuild this program to what it was a few years ago.

I mean, going after Winston is pissing in the wind. It really is, and I suspect JD and Smoke know that as well as anyone. I know he has us on his list, and that is strictly because of Smoke--just as Keller Chryst had us on his list to help prop up Uncle Paul--but I also know that Tom Izzo has been in his living room since he was in 8th grade. Coach K has been to several of his games. Calipari talks to his family. He is considered a virtual lock for MSU--I was at one of Winston's playoff games this season, and when Izzo walked into the gym to sit behind Winston;s bench, the entire crowd started chanting the MSU fight song and "Izzo..Izzo...". he was treated like a conquering hero.
 
There is definitely less talent in Michigan than in the glory days, but there is still plenty-and typically Michigan's top talent is national top talent. That said, Michigan is nowhere for Pitt to try to make a living recruiting baskeball talent, I can promise you that. You hit on the primary reason for that-MSU and Michigan dominate Michigan recruiting, and every couple of years Michigan has a national top 10 type and one of the blue bloods like UK, Duke or UNC are in play. For that reason, World Wide Wes maintains a permanent residence in one of the most affluent communities in metro Detroit.

We have had two Michigan players that I can recall in the entire history of Pitt basketball. Demetrious Gore, who was a national top 20 HS player out of Detroit in the early 80s, and Chad Varga in the early 90s out of Detroit Catholic Central, who was a transfer from Richmond. We aren't going to suddenly start landing any of the better players from Michigan just because we hired the former Family coach. It's a non-starter. Pitt needs to get back to its prime turf and find those kids that fit the system and develop them, or change the entire approach.

The truth is style of play has become a major factor in where elite HS prospects with eventual NBA aspirations end up.

Actually, Pitt has signed 5 Michigan players if you use the criteria of including Chad Varga. Howland signed top 100 center Walter Waters and Dixon released him when his grades were an issue. Previously, Chipman signed Ypsilanti's Keith Armstrong. And Dixon signed Trey Zeigler as a transfer.

I think we also had another kid who rarely played but those are the guys I can remember off the top of my head.

I don't think Pitt is going to sign 5-stars out of Michigan but then again, Pitt VERY rarely signs 5-stars out of ANYWHERE. I see no reason Smoke cannot sign some of the same caliber of under-rated but overachieving kids out of urban Michigan that Slice used to sign out of NYC. There were certainly more schools recruiting NYC than recruit Michigan.

If this program is going to live or die on recruiting 4-stars, the future is bleak. The key is recruiting the right kids, not the highest rated kids.
 
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For what it's worth... I feel we should stick to the recruitment areas we have had in the past.... with just a slight adjustment. I don't think we can get as many recruits out of the NYC Metro area as we have in the past... but we are not the only NE team in the ACC with Cuse and BC also there. So, we may not be able to get as many but we still should be able to get SOME... and make up for that with more recruits in ACC country like Maryland, DC, and further south... including Florida.

We got Gary McGhee I believe out of Indiana.... but he was not that highly rated coming out so I believe we can always get a recruit or two from who knows where... but most of the recruits should come from the east coast.
 
Gary recruited Pitt actually. He had gone to Sandcastle as a kid and liked the area and called Pitt to express his interest in coming here. Hard to believe but that's the story Jamie tells people
 
For what it's worth... I feel we should stick to the recruitment areas we have had in the past.... with just a slight adjustment. I don't think we can get as many recruits out of the NYC Metro area as we have in the past... but we are not the only NE team in the ACC with Cuse and BC also there. So, we may not be able to get as many but we still should be able to get SOME... and make up for that with more recruits in ACC country like Maryland, DC, and further south... including Florida.

We got Gary McGhee I believe out of Indiana.... but he was not that highly rated coming out so I believe we can always get a recruit or two from who knows where... but most of the recruits should come from the east coast.

BC rarely is ever recruits the same players/areas at Pitt has. They just are a different style/demographic.

Over the last years of the BE Pitt was knocking heads with Cuse, UConn and Nova for the better players they targeted in the NY and Philly area for the most part.

That said, we mostly agree about sticking to the NE mostly.
 
Actually, Pitt has signed 5 Michigan players if you use the criteria of including Chad Varga. Howland signed top 100 center Walter Waters and Dixon released him when his grades were an issue. Previously, Chipman signed Ypsilanti's Keith Armstrong. And Dixon signed Trey Zeigler as a transfer.

I think we also had another kid who rarely played but those are the guys I can remember off the top of my head.

I don't think Pitt is going to sign 5-stars out of Michigan but then again, Pitt VERY rarely signs 5-stars out of ANYWHERE. I see no reason Smoke cannot sign some of the same caliber of under-rated but overachieving kids out of urban Michigan that Slice used to sign out of NYC. There were certainly more schools recruiting NYC than recruit Michigan.

If this program is going to live or die on recruiting 4-stars, the future is bleak. The key is recruiting the right kids, not the highest rated kids.
Demetrius Gore
 
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Gary recruited Pitt actually. He had gone to Sandcastle as a kid and liked the area and called Pitt to express his interest in coming here. Hard to believe but that's the story Jamie tells people

Dixon watched McGhee play in the same events that Blair did. If he hadn't been on Blair, I doubt he ever would've taken McGhee.
 
Constantly berating the coaching staff because the best / elite players in the country aren't considering Pitt is kind of silly. Do any of you really expect these players to come here? Is being on a list of schools really important if you have no realistic chance of landing them? There will be a kid every now and then that decides to come here who is highly rated ,but Pitt needs to live in the land of underrated/overlooked players with a lot of upside. Finding these players is how Pitts recuirtors should be judged.
Not if we are going to pay Jamie as a top 10 coach. He needs to get top players and top results.
 
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