From the desk of Jim Snyder
Jam Fest
This weekend Pitt holds its third annual Jam Fest. There are 96 teams participating in the 17 and under group. If you are looking for players that will be incoming freshmen at Pitt this fall you will probably be disappointed. The 17 and under group is made up primarily of juniors although a few of the better underclassmen play up in age. Seton Hall Prep’s Ashton Gibbs will be in Pittsburgh but only to watch his younger brother Sterling Gibbs play for the New York Panthers.
These games are spread out at a number of locations but most of the top teams will play at the Pete or Trees.
I have not seen rosters for these teams but based on where they have played in the past here is where you may find players that Pitt has been involved with.
1) Playaz (NJ) (Pool 6)
Dominick Cheek (5-star guard from St Anthony’s)-Pitt offer
Brian Oliver
Note: Playaz is out of New Jersey where Pitt has recruited heavily recently. I am sure they may have other prospects.
2) Team Melo (Pool 30)
Dante Taylor (6’ 8”-4 star) Pitt offer
Andrew Fitzgerald (6’ 9” - NR)-Pitt offer
3) Pittsburgh Storm (Pool 12)
Zeke Marshall (6’ 11” - NR) McKeesport
4) DC Triple Threat (Pool 11)
Maurice Creek (6’ 4” -4 stars)
5) NY Panthers (Pool 20)
Omari Lawrence (6’ 3” - 3 stars)
Kevin Parrom(6’ 5”- NR)
Sterling Gibbs (younger brother of Ashton Gibbs)
6) Team Final (Pa.)(Pool 30)
Lamar Patterson (Pitt commit)
Andre Gillett (6’8” -NR ) Philadelphia Neumann-Goretti
Here is a schedule of where these six play on Friday & Saturday.
Friday 6:30 pm Petersen Ct #1 Pittsburgh Storm
Friday 6:30 pm Trees Ct #1 Team Melo
Friday 10:00 pm Petersen Ct #1 Team Final
Saturday 8:30 am Trees Ct # 2 Pittsburgh Storm
Saturday 9:40 am Petersen Ct #3 Playaz
Saturday 9:40 am Trees Ct #1 DC Triple Threat
Saturday 9:40 am Trees Ct #3 NY Panthers
Saturday 12:00 pm Petersen Ct # 3 Team Melo
Saturday 1: 10 pm Petersen Ct #1 DC Triple Threat
Saturday 1:10 pm Petersen Ct#2 Playaz
Saturday 1:00 pm Petersen Ct #3 NY Panthers
Saturday 3:30 pm Petersen Ct. #3 Team Final
On Sunday teams advance depending on where they finished in their pool.
PS: Football recruit Duron Harmon is also playing in the Jam Fest. Best shot at catching him is on Saturday at 10:50 am at the Pete on Ct #2.
We have provided a link below to the Jam Fest site. You can find a link to a list of all 96 teams in the 17 under pool on this page.
Hoops round up
Bracketoligist Joe Lunardi projects Pitt as a No. 1 seed in next year’s NCAA tournament. Apparently the folks at ESPN think Pitt is loaded with talent. With the one and done nature of this tournament if Pitt fails to reach the Final Four next year will some on the message boards be arguing Coach Dixon can recruit but he cannot coach?
Before we start hanging banners in the Pete please keep in mind Rivals.com had 8 Big East teams in the Top 25 in their first pass and they did not include Louisville. It now appears Earl Clark will return to school next fall and Derrick Caracter may too so their stock could go up.
Despite its collective success in 2007-08, the Big East was hardly a league dominated by seniors. Among the eight teams that earned NCAA bids this year, no squad started more than two seniors. In the final league statistics, only four of the top 25 scorers were seniors. Only three of the top 20 rebounders were seniors. None of the top nine players in assists were seniors. This Big East figures to be tough grind once again.
I hope you caught the remarks of the recruiting analyst Jerry Myer after watching Lamar Patterson in the Boo Williams Invitational. Jerry Myer wrote “It was quite enjoyable to watch a skilled, no-nonsense player who gets it like Patterson. With good size and strength for the shooting guard position, Patterson can make all the plays you need out of the position.
His passing is top of the line, his outside stroke is reliable, he's strong with the ball, can guard multiple positions and will grind out a rebound. Looks like a Pitt Panther already.”
Something tells me Patterson’s rating could go up the next time they update the rankings.
Pitt recruit Nasir Robinson was selected as a second team EA Sports All-American. A very nice honor for Nasir. We will have an article on him today.
This weekend Pitt commit Travon Woodall will play in the Jordan Brand Classic in New York City.
This weekend Rivals.com will be covering Kingwood Classic in Houston, Texas and the Real Deal on the Hill in Fayetteville, Arkansas. For you hoops fanatics we will see a series of AAU events over the next six weeks.
I have tried to reach guard Jermaine Dixon the past several days. He visited Pittsburgh recently and I want to do an article on how his trip went. Unable to reach him I called Tallahassee Community College and a member of their athletic department volunteered that Dixon had signed a Letter of Intent with the University of Pittsburgh this week. Normally I would have expected Pitt to put out a press release but so far nothing. So what is going on? Why not public announcement about signing Jermaine Dixon?
Jermaine Dixon is taking finals this week so it may be as simple as the offer being conditional upon him receiving his Associates Degree. Or it maybe they are still trying to sign another player and don’t want to scare him away (DeAndre Kane?).
All I can say with reasonable certainty is that Dixon has signed a Letter of Intent.
Rivals and Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports has settled into second place as a sports destination on the internet behind ESPN (it is a close second). The new partnership with Rivals.com has also resulted in the Rivals network seeing a 231.5% increase in unique viewers in the first quarter of 2008.
Rivals.com announced this week that Jamie Newberg would be joining their staff. Jamie Newberg has 16 years covering recruiting. Most recently he has been a national recruiting analyst for Scout.com. Once he is on board with Rivals.com he will be covering primarily the Southeast portion of the United States although I am sure you will see his name come up on the Ticker from time to time (most likely with athletes from Florida). A nice pickup for Rivals.com.
Rivals.com is moving their Customer Service Dept. It will be handled by Yahoo! going forward. Apparently they are undergoing a few transitional problems but long term it promises to cut down the wait time to talk to a customer service representative and that is a good thing. Please be patient.
Recruiting roundup
We started into an Evaluation Period this week which runs through the end of May. This means Pitt coaches are allowed to recruit off campus and will be visiting high schools within Pitt’s recruiting footprint.
There has been one big change this year. The head coach is not allowed to recruit off campus. No head coach has worked harder during this period the past few years than Dave Wannstedt. This time around he is not allowed to be one of the coaches on the road. It is hard to see how this rule change helps Pitt.
Saturday evening Pitt will hold its annual Blue-Gold game. You can expect several recruits to watch this game although I suspect most will be local because it is being held in the evening.
Steel Valley’s Tyrone Ezell told us he plans to attend. Delaware’s Jaron Harmon will be in Pittsburgh for the Jam Fest and he also plans on attending the spring game.
We had a couple of articles this week on Tyrone Ezell. He told the Virginia site he did not want to go too far from home and that was my sense when I interviewed him this week. He is definitely a player to watch. He could be a Panther before it’s over.
This Saturday Student Sports will hold a Nike Combine at the Baltimore Raven practice facility. Last year they were overwhelmed with over 800 prospects in attendance. Hopefully it will go smoother this year.
Spring practice comes to a close
Last night was the last practice session of the spring camp (We hope you saw Chris Peak’s report and the video interview with Coach Wannstedt). The Panthers only have to play the Blue-Gold game Saturday evening at Heinz Field. Some of the players will sign autographs beginning at 4:00 pm. The game is scheduled to be televised locally at 6:00pm on WPCW and nationally via the NFL network.
Fans often look to spring game hoping to find out if the team will be any good next fall. However coaches often look at it as a chance to get young players some reps. It might be best to view it that way. Check to see if you think there are young players with enough talent to help provide depth.
The offensive line is still big question mark. Pitt got a big scare when redshirt tackle Dan Matha went down in practice last weekend but then got good news when it was determined it was a sprain that will not require surgery. Still to be determined is the status of Jason Pinkston.
The single biggest question up front is does Pitt have three tackles that can play? They should be fine at guard and center once C.J. Davis and Chris Jacobson are back in the mix.
On defense the only real question is who will start at corner opposite Aaron Berry. This one might have to be settled at fall camp.
The defense is ahead of the offense at this point. One camp observer remarked they only give it to “Shady” for 3-4 carries in a scrimmage but he can’t gain a yard. That about tells you where they are right now.
We had Get to Know You articles of Greg Cross and Ronald Hobby this week. This series is normally done before the player arrives on campus. Tony did a good job on both of them. We hoped you got a chance to read them.
The Pitt-Navy game this fall will be televised by the College Sports Network. This channel is owned by CBS and is their version of ESPNU. If you have trouble picking up ESPNU you will have trouble finding this channel too.
Former Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko is hosting a golf outing on June 20th to benefit the TC House Foundation. This organization is trying to build a home in Imperial for those with Down Syndrome. To register please go to www.tchouse.org.
The NCAA will meet on April 29th in Weston, Florida to consider three new bowls. One of those bowls would match the Big East with Conference USA. The proposed bowl would be played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Last year there were seven bowl eligible teams that did not play in bowls.
The War Room is targeted towards our premium customers. We ask that all information reported in the War Room MUST stay right here! That’s the way this deal works. When this information is repeated outside of the Between Fifth and Forbes forum it only cheapens the price of yours and every other die-hard who have purchased premium services. The War Room is one of our more popular features...thank you all for keeping the information on this board.
This post was edited on 4/18 9:08 AM by Jim Pantherlair
This post was edited on 4/18 12:19 PM by Jim Pantherlair
This post was edited on 4/18 12:19 PM by Jim Pantherlair
Jam Fest
Jam Fest
This weekend Pitt holds its third annual Jam Fest. There are 96 teams participating in the 17 and under group. If you are looking for players that will be incoming freshmen at Pitt this fall you will probably be disappointed. The 17 and under group is made up primarily of juniors although a few of the better underclassmen play up in age. Seton Hall Prep’s Ashton Gibbs will be in Pittsburgh but only to watch his younger brother Sterling Gibbs play for the New York Panthers.
These games are spread out at a number of locations but most of the top teams will play at the Pete or Trees.
I have not seen rosters for these teams but based on where they have played in the past here is where you may find players that Pitt has been involved with.
1) Playaz (NJ) (Pool 6)
Dominick Cheek (5-star guard from St Anthony’s)-Pitt offer
Brian Oliver
Note: Playaz is out of New Jersey where Pitt has recruited heavily recently. I am sure they may have other prospects.
2) Team Melo (Pool 30)
Dante Taylor (6’ 8”-4 star) Pitt offer
Andrew Fitzgerald (6’ 9” - NR)-Pitt offer
3) Pittsburgh Storm (Pool 12)
Zeke Marshall (6’ 11” - NR) McKeesport
4) DC Triple Threat (Pool 11)
Maurice Creek (6’ 4” -4 stars)
5) NY Panthers (Pool 20)
Omari Lawrence (6’ 3” - 3 stars)
Kevin Parrom(6’ 5”- NR)
Sterling Gibbs (younger brother of Ashton Gibbs)
6) Team Final (Pa.)(Pool 30)
Lamar Patterson (Pitt commit)
Andre Gillett (6’8” -NR ) Philadelphia Neumann-Goretti
Here is a schedule of where these six play on Friday & Saturday.
Friday 6:30 pm Petersen Ct #1 Pittsburgh Storm
Friday 6:30 pm Trees Ct #1 Team Melo
Friday 10:00 pm Petersen Ct #1 Team Final
Saturday 8:30 am Trees Ct # 2 Pittsburgh Storm
Saturday 9:40 am Petersen Ct #3 Playaz
Saturday 9:40 am Trees Ct #1 DC Triple Threat
Saturday 9:40 am Trees Ct #3 NY Panthers
Saturday 12:00 pm Petersen Ct # 3 Team Melo
Saturday 1: 10 pm Petersen Ct #1 DC Triple Threat
Saturday 1:10 pm Petersen Ct#2 Playaz
Saturday 1:00 pm Petersen Ct #3 NY Panthers
Saturday 3:30 pm Petersen Ct. #3 Team Final
On Sunday teams advance depending on where they finished in their pool.
PS: Football recruit Duron Harmon is also playing in the Jam Fest. Best shot at catching him is on Saturday at 10:50 am at the Pete on Ct #2.
We have provided a link below to the Jam Fest site. You can find a link to a list of all 96 teams in the 17 under pool on this page.
Hoops round up
Bracketoligist Joe Lunardi projects Pitt as a No. 1 seed in next year’s NCAA tournament. Apparently the folks at ESPN think Pitt is loaded with talent. With the one and done nature of this tournament if Pitt fails to reach the Final Four next year will some on the message boards be arguing Coach Dixon can recruit but he cannot coach?
Before we start hanging banners in the Pete please keep in mind Rivals.com had 8 Big East teams in the Top 25 in their first pass and they did not include Louisville. It now appears Earl Clark will return to school next fall and Derrick Caracter may too so their stock could go up.
Despite its collective success in 2007-08, the Big East was hardly a league dominated by seniors. Among the eight teams that earned NCAA bids this year, no squad started more than two seniors. In the final league statistics, only four of the top 25 scorers were seniors. Only three of the top 20 rebounders were seniors. None of the top nine players in assists were seniors. This Big East figures to be tough grind once again.
I hope you caught the remarks of the recruiting analyst Jerry Myer after watching Lamar Patterson in the Boo Williams Invitational. Jerry Myer wrote “It was quite enjoyable to watch a skilled, no-nonsense player who gets it like Patterson. With good size and strength for the shooting guard position, Patterson can make all the plays you need out of the position.
His passing is top of the line, his outside stroke is reliable, he's strong with the ball, can guard multiple positions and will grind out a rebound. Looks like a Pitt Panther already.”
Something tells me Patterson’s rating could go up the next time they update the rankings.
Pitt recruit Nasir Robinson was selected as a second team EA Sports All-American. A very nice honor for Nasir. We will have an article on him today.
This weekend Pitt commit Travon Woodall will play in the Jordan Brand Classic in New York City.
This weekend Rivals.com will be covering Kingwood Classic in Houston, Texas and the Real Deal on the Hill in Fayetteville, Arkansas. For you hoops fanatics we will see a series of AAU events over the next six weeks.
I have tried to reach guard Jermaine Dixon the past several days. He visited Pittsburgh recently and I want to do an article on how his trip went. Unable to reach him I called Tallahassee Community College and a member of their athletic department volunteered that Dixon had signed a Letter of Intent with the University of Pittsburgh this week. Normally I would have expected Pitt to put out a press release but so far nothing. So what is going on? Why not public announcement about signing Jermaine Dixon?
Jermaine Dixon is taking finals this week so it may be as simple as the offer being conditional upon him receiving his Associates Degree. Or it maybe they are still trying to sign another player and don’t want to scare him away (DeAndre Kane?).
All I can say with reasonable certainty is that Dixon has signed a Letter of Intent.
Rivals and Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports has settled into second place as a sports destination on the internet behind ESPN (it is a close second). The new partnership with Rivals.com has also resulted in the Rivals network seeing a 231.5% increase in unique viewers in the first quarter of 2008.
Rivals.com announced this week that Jamie Newberg would be joining their staff. Jamie Newberg has 16 years covering recruiting. Most recently he has been a national recruiting analyst for Scout.com. Once he is on board with Rivals.com he will be covering primarily the Southeast portion of the United States although I am sure you will see his name come up on the Ticker from time to time (most likely with athletes from Florida). A nice pickup for Rivals.com.
Rivals.com is moving their Customer Service Dept. It will be handled by Yahoo! going forward. Apparently they are undergoing a few transitional problems but long term it promises to cut down the wait time to talk to a customer service representative and that is a good thing. Please be patient.
Recruiting roundup
We started into an Evaluation Period this week which runs through the end of May. This means Pitt coaches are allowed to recruit off campus and will be visiting high schools within Pitt’s recruiting footprint.
There has been one big change this year. The head coach is not allowed to recruit off campus. No head coach has worked harder during this period the past few years than Dave Wannstedt. This time around he is not allowed to be one of the coaches on the road. It is hard to see how this rule change helps Pitt.
Saturday evening Pitt will hold its annual Blue-Gold game. You can expect several recruits to watch this game although I suspect most will be local because it is being held in the evening.
Steel Valley’s Tyrone Ezell told us he plans to attend. Delaware’s Jaron Harmon will be in Pittsburgh for the Jam Fest and he also plans on attending the spring game.
We had a couple of articles this week on Tyrone Ezell. He told the Virginia site he did not want to go too far from home and that was my sense when I interviewed him this week. He is definitely a player to watch. He could be a Panther before it’s over.
This Saturday Student Sports will hold a Nike Combine at the Baltimore Raven practice facility. Last year they were overwhelmed with over 800 prospects in attendance. Hopefully it will go smoother this year.
Spring practice comes to a close
Last night was the last practice session of the spring camp (We hope you saw Chris Peak’s report and the video interview with Coach Wannstedt). The Panthers only have to play the Blue-Gold game Saturday evening at Heinz Field. Some of the players will sign autographs beginning at 4:00 pm. The game is scheduled to be televised locally at 6:00pm on WPCW and nationally via the NFL network.
Fans often look to spring game hoping to find out if the team will be any good next fall. However coaches often look at it as a chance to get young players some reps. It might be best to view it that way. Check to see if you think there are young players with enough talent to help provide depth.
The offensive line is still big question mark. Pitt got a big scare when redshirt tackle Dan Matha went down in practice last weekend but then got good news when it was determined it was a sprain that will not require surgery. Still to be determined is the status of Jason Pinkston.
The single biggest question up front is does Pitt have three tackles that can play? They should be fine at guard and center once C.J. Davis and Chris Jacobson are back in the mix.
On defense the only real question is who will start at corner opposite Aaron Berry. This one might have to be settled at fall camp.
The defense is ahead of the offense at this point. One camp observer remarked they only give it to “Shady” for 3-4 carries in a scrimmage but he can’t gain a yard. That about tells you where they are right now.
We had Get to Know You articles of Greg Cross and Ronald Hobby this week. This series is normally done before the player arrives on campus. Tony did a good job on both of them. We hoped you got a chance to read them.
The Pitt-Navy game this fall will be televised by the College Sports Network. This channel is owned by CBS and is their version of ESPNU. If you have trouble picking up ESPNU you will have trouble finding this channel too.
Former Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko is hosting a golf outing on June 20th to benefit the TC House Foundation. This organization is trying to build a home in Imperial for those with Down Syndrome. To register please go to www.tchouse.org.
The NCAA will meet on April 29th in Weston, Florida to consider three new bowls. One of those bowls would match the Big East with Conference USA. The proposed bowl would be played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Last year there were seven bowl eligible teams that did not play in bowls.
The War Room is targeted towards our premium customers. We ask that all information reported in the War Room MUST stay right here! That’s the way this deal works. When this information is repeated outside of the Between Fifth and Forbes forum it only cheapens the price of yours and every other die-hard who have purchased premium services. The War Room is one of our more popular features...thank you all for keeping the information on this board.
This post was edited on 4/18 9:08 AM by Jim Pantherlair
This post was edited on 4/18 12:19 PM by Jim Pantherlair
This post was edited on 4/18 12:19 PM by Jim Pantherlair
Jam Fest
