From the desk of Tony Greco
For the Class of 2007, one of my “birdies” informed me that Chris Jacobson (6’ 3” 284) from Keystone Oaks is very interested in Pitt, and he will likely be the first junior to commit. He is expected to verbally commit to the Panthers after National Letter of Intent Day. There are a couple factors in this. His coach would like him to announce his decision after NLI day so his story doesn't take attention away from the current seniors who will sign their letter of intent, and on the same token, his name does not get buried under all the other commitments in the area.
From the desk of Jim Snyder
A little hoops talk
This week Tony Greco had a very good article on Herb Pope. Tony went to the Aliquippa-Beaver Falls game last week and then spent about a half hour on the phone with Herb Pope. I hope you caught his article.
When Herb Pope was a sophomore he verbally committed to Pitt. He was very young and it may have been sign of a little immaturity that he committed this early. I remember at the time he could not even recall who he committed to. He wasn’t sure what assistant was in charge of recruiting him. He just knew he loved Pitt basketball. Pope is a frequent visitor to the “Pete”. He would attend every game if it did not conflict with his high school team and if he could get a ride.
Later he made comments to reporters that he will be at Pitt if Jamie Dixon is still the head coach at Pitt. Tony asked him about recruiting but he simply did not want to talk about it. He appears to have gotten some sound advice about talking too much about this subject. I honestly believe at the end of the day he will be a Panther if he gets his academic affairs in order. My biggest concern is that he does not qualify and then heads to some high-powered prep program. At that point he would be eligible for the NBA draft. There is always the slight possibility he will not play for any college. Herb Pope is a top ten recruit right now. He is gaining interest from Louisville and I am sure there will be others but in the end Pitt is in a very good position. Herb is a team player that often seems to like passing as much as he enjoys scoring.
The Pitt basketball team is now 15-0. They have surprised the basketball experts. They are now ranked No. 9 in both polls and No. 4 in the RPI Index. They have won at the Pete and they have now picked up their fourth road win. The core of this team, however, is still very young. Sam Young, Levance Fields and Tyrell Biggs are all freshmen. Guards Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin are both sophomores. Levon Kendall and Aaron Gray are starting for the first time and are still trying to find themselves. They should all gain more confidence as they play more.
Coach Jamie Dixon is now 76-14 as a head coach. His winning percentage of 84.4% is the best of any active college coach in the country. If you are still a skeptic keep in mind he also has the best won-loss percentage of any active coach in Big East Conference play if you only count conference games. Coach Dixon has beaten UConn’s Jim Calhoun on his home floor. He has also beaten Jim Boeheim in the Carrier Dome and he has beaten Rick Pitino in Freedom Hall. All three of these are College Hall of Fame coaches. Last year he beat Memphis’ John Calipari by 19 points at Madison Square Garden. Coach Dixon has beaten four coaches that have taken teams to the Final Four and these wins were not at the “Pete”.
I am assuming that once the season is over Pitt AD Jeff Long will probably extend Coach Dixon contract and if he does there is a pretty good chance Herb Pope will end up at Pitt.
In recent years Pitt has had only one 4-star prospect (Chris Taft). As we all know Taft never lived up to his potential and jumped to the NBA. Pitt now has three 4-star players (Young, Fields and Biggs) in their program and another on the way in Gilbert Brown. You have to like the direction the Pitt basketball program is headed.
I don’t know about you but this has been a fun team to watch. They play hard and are usually down on the floor after every loose ball. Going almost 20 minutes without a turnover at Rutgers was amazing.
Odds and ends
At the Louisville game I spoke to Pitt AD Jeff Long. I knew of a team looking for a football game next year but he indicated he has complete next year’s football schedule. The Big East is still working on dates but you can continue to refer to our Future Schedule on the lower left hand side of this site with some confidence. Pitt has games scheduled at Central Florida and at South Florida. I have already started on the wife about making at least one trip to Florida.
I also asked about the proposed soccer field and Jeff Long told me he thought they were finally making some progress in this area. Getting this done would be a big plus for the University.
The Pitt basketball team did not get back into Pittsburgh until 3:00 AM after the Rutgers game. As a result Jamie Dixon did not appear on Rivals Radio as scheduled. The first time I saw this scheduled I knew it was trouble. The Pitt basketball team is scheduled to leave around 4 PM today for their game with St John’s in New York. They then have to face Syracuse Monday night at the Pete. There is concerning on the Pitt coaching staff about fatigue setting in on this three game stretch.
Bill Hillgrove was on the Rutgers flight. He also plans on doing St John’s in New York on Saturday and the Steelers game on Sunday in Denver. Bill Hillgrove appeared on Rivals Radio earlier this week He is a road warrior this week.
Rivals rankings
Rivals updated their most of their rankings for January on Thursday. This might have been done a few days earlier if they had not experienced computer problems with the conversion to larger hardware.
To be honest I was a little disappointed. They did upgrade John Malecki. Malecki did not attend the Nike Camp and was not well known going into his senior year. Malecki had a monster senior year leading the Franklin Panthers to a state AAA championship. He is now a four-star player.
Since the end of the season they have also upgraded a couple of player that Pitt is still recruiting. Elijah Fields and Geno Atkins have both been upgraded. Atkins jumped to a 4-star player with a big senior year.
I easily could have made cases for Tyler Tkach and Eric Rodemoyer to be upgraded. Both play for smaller schools and as a result may have been penalized.
Rivals.com has not finished grading their JUCO players so we may still see Lowell Robinson upgraded.
Nobody is going to get it correct for three thousand players. It is a thankless job. Compare players from one part of the country against another region makes it tough. At the end of the day when we get to September few will remember how many stars a team has. They will remember did you beat Virginia? Did you beat Michigan State?
The stretch run
The past week Trinity’s Andy Miller committed to Ohio State while Pahokee’s Tamarcus Porter committed to Pitt. Porter also had an offer from Ohio State so I guess we can call this week a draw with the Buckeyes.
Rumors out of Morgantown this week had the Mountaineers making late runs at Johnstown’s Scott Corson and Kennedy Catholic’s Eric Rodemoyer. It appears that good linemen are still hard to find although I think Rich Rod may have more sinister motives.
Rumors have Penn State making a big push for quarterback Pat Devlin who had previously committed to Miami. We will talk to him to see if Pitt has made any progress with him.
I spoke to one Rivals reporter that was familiar with Jovani Chappel. He felt he was a great pickup for Pitt. He said he is a very good athlete and that if he were a couple inches taller he might have been a Top 100 selection. The same might be said of Ricky Gary. This week we had senior video of Jovani Chappel. Hopefully you had a chance to watch it.
Pitt continues their pursuit of two other “athletes” in Aaron Berry and Elijah Fields. Berry visited West Virginia and has now indicated that Pitt and West Virginia are his two finalists. Elijah Fields could also be another Backyard Brawl. Now that Pitt has Tamarcus Porter I would be happy with either one. Both would be icing on the cake.
Pitt continues their battle to bring in another defensive end. Geno Atkins will be visiting Michigan State this weekend and McKenzie Mathews is visiting Boston College. My guess is that both of them will decide sometime next week. That brings us to Audie Augustine from Oakland Park, Florida. Augustine will be visiting Pitt this weekend. Mathews has now told several reporters that Michigan and Pitt are his leaders. After talking to Atkins this week I believe Pitt is still in this hunt. He did not gush about his trip to Auburn or Georgia to me (although he knew he was talking to someone that covered Pitt football). Clearly the staff wants one of these three.
Quarterback Thaddeus Lewis visits South Florida this weekend. If staying close to home is important the Bulls could propose a threat to Pitt.
The Pitt coaches have been out visiting recruits in their homes the past few days. This includes the 22 that have already committed. Poachers are out there so holding on to this group is just as important and may more important that and additions they may make.
This weekend Pitt will host a number of recruits. In addition to Augustine wide receivers Andre Wright from Perry and Lance Jeter from Beaver Falls will visit. Neither have offers while Pitt sorts out where they stand with Berry and Fields. Getting Porter might not have helped these two. They were also trying to get kicker Daniel Hutchins to visit. He is being recruited but Pitt is asking him to walk-on.
Preview of coming attractions
The Pantherlair will have some additional video of Tamarcus Porter today.
We will have an update on Elijah Fields later today.
I finally got a picture of Jeff Otah. We will have it up as soon as Rivals scans it into the system.
Yesterday Chris Peak interviewed Pitt guard Keith Benjamin. He had a breakout game at Rutgers so it is a timely story. Chris has been doing one-on-ones with Aaron Gray. Today Keith Benjamin steps in.
Tony Greco also spent time yesterday interviewing Pitt assistant basketball coach Joe Lombardi so we will have his story in the coming days.
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 1/20 1:04 PM by Chris Peakif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
For the Class of 2007, one of my “birdies” informed me that Chris Jacobson (6’ 3” 284) from Keystone Oaks is very interested in Pitt, and he will likely be the first junior to commit. He is expected to verbally commit to the Panthers after National Letter of Intent Day. There are a couple factors in this. His coach would like him to announce his decision after NLI day so his story doesn't take attention away from the current seniors who will sign their letter of intent, and on the same token, his name does not get buried under all the other commitments in the area.
From the desk of Jim Snyder
A little hoops talk
This week Tony Greco had a very good article on Herb Pope. Tony went to the Aliquippa-Beaver Falls game last week and then spent about a half hour on the phone with Herb Pope. I hope you caught his article.
When Herb Pope was a sophomore he verbally committed to Pitt. He was very young and it may have been sign of a little immaturity that he committed this early. I remember at the time he could not even recall who he committed to. He wasn’t sure what assistant was in charge of recruiting him. He just knew he loved Pitt basketball. Pope is a frequent visitor to the “Pete”. He would attend every game if it did not conflict with his high school team and if he could get a ride.
Later he made comments to reporters that he will be at Pitt if Jamie Dixon is still the head coach at Pitt. Tony asked him about recruiting but he simply did not want to talk about it. He appears to have gotten some sound advice about talking too much about this subject. I honestly believe at the end of the day he will be a Panther if he gets his academic affairs in order. My biggest concern is that he does not qualify and then heads to some high-powered prep program. At that point he would be eligible for the NBA draft. There is always the slight possibility he will not play for any college. Herb Pope is a top ten recruit right now. He is gaining interest from Louisville and I am sure there will be others but in the end Pitt is in a very good position. Herb is a team player that often seems to like passing as much as he enjoys scoring.
The Pitt basketball team is now 15-0. They have surprised the basketball experts. They are now ranked No. 9 in both polls and No. 4 in the RPI Index. They have won at the Pete and they have now picked up their fourth road win. The core of this team, however, is still very young. Sam Young, Levance Fields and Tyrell Biggs are all freshmen. Guards Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin are both sophomores. Levon Kendall and Aaron Gray are starting for the first time and are still trying to find themselves. They should all gain more confidence as they play more.
Coach Jamie Dixon is now 76-14 as a head coach. His winning percentage of 84.4% is the best of any active college coach in the country. If you are still a skeptic keep in mind he also has the best won-loss percentage of any active coach in Big East Conference play if you only count conference games. Coach Dixon has beaten UConn’s Jim Calhoun on his home floor. He has also beaten Jim Boeheim in the Carrier Dome and he has beaten Rick Pitino in Freedom Hall. All three of these are College Hall of Fame coaches. Last year he beat Memphis’ John Calipari by 19 points at Madison Square Garden. Coach Dixon has beaten four coaches that have taken teams to the Final Four and these wins were not at the “Pete”.
I am assuming that once the season is over Pitt AD Jeff Long will probably extend Coach Dixon contract and if he does there is a pretty good chance Herb Pope will end up at Pitt.
In recent years Pitt has had only one 4-star prospect (Chris Taft). As we all know Taft never lived up to his potential and jumped to the NBA. Pitt now has three 4-star players (Young, Fields and Biggs) in their program and another on the way in Gilbert Brown. You have to like the direction the Pitt basketball program is headed.
I don’t know about you but this has been a fun team to watch. They play hard and are usually down on the floor after every loose ball. Going almost 20 minutes without a turnover at Rutgers was amazing.
Odds and ends
At the Louisville game I spoke to Pitt AD Jeff Long. I knew of a team looking for a football game next year but he indicated he has complete next year’s football schedule. The Big East is still working on dates but you can continue to refer to our Future Schedule on the lower left hand side of this site with some confidence. Pitt has games scheduled at Central Florida and at South Florida. I have already started on the wife about making at least one trip to Florida.
I also asked about the proposed soccer field and Jeff Long told me he thought they were finally making some progress in this area. Getting this done would be a big plus for the University.
The Pitt basketball team did not get back into Pittsburgh until 3:00 AM after the Rutgers game. As a result Jamie Dixon did not appear on Rivals Radio as scheduled. The first time I saw this scheduled I knew it was trouble. The Pitt basketball team is scheduled to leave around 4 PM today for their game with St John’s in New York. They then have to face Syracuse Monday night at the Pete. There is concerning on the Pitt coaching staff about fatigue setting in on this three game stretch.
Bill Hillgrove was on the Rutgers flight. He also plans on doing St John’s in New York on Saturday and the Steelers game on Sunday in Denver. Bill Hillgrove appeared on Rivals Radio earlier this week He is a road warrior this week.
Rivals rankings
Rivals updated their most of their rankings for January on Thursday. This might have been done a few days earlier if they had not experienced computer problems with the conversion to larger hardware.
To be honest I was a little disappointed. They did upgrade John Malecki. Malecki did not attend the Nike Camp and was not well known going into his senior year. Malecki had a monster senior year leading the Franklin Panthers to a state AAA championship. He is now a four-star player.
Since the end of the season they have also upgraded a couple of player that Pitt is still recruiting. Elijah Fields and Geno Atkins have both been upgraded. Atkins jumped to a 4-star player with a big senior year.
I easily could have made cases for Tyler Tkach and Eric Rodemoyer to be upgraded. Both play for smaller schools and as a result may have been penalized.
Rivals.com has not finished grading their JUCO players so we may still see Lowell Robinson upgraded.
Nobody is going to get it correct for three thousand players. It is a thankless job. Compare players from one part of the country against another region makes it tough. At the end of the day when we get to September few will remember how many stars a team has. They will remember did you beat Virginia? Did you beat Michigan State?
The stretch run
The past week Trinity’s Andy Miller committed to Ohio State while Pahokee’s Tamarcus Porter committed to Pitt. Porter also had an offer from Ohio State so I guess we can call this week a draw with the Buckeyes.
Rumors out of Morgantown this week had the Mountaineers making late runs at Johnstown’s Scott Corson and Kennedy Catholic’s Eric Rodemoyer. It appears that good linemen are still hard to find although I think Rich Rod may have more sinister motives.
Rumors have Penn State making a big push for quarterback Pat Devlin who had previously committed to Miami. We will talk to him to see if Pitt has made any progress with him.
I spoke to one Rivals reporter that was familiar with Jovani Chappel. He felt he was a great pickup for Pitt. He said he is a very good athlete and that if he were a couple inches taller he might have been a Top 100 selection. The same might be said of Ricky Gary. This week we had senior video of Jovani Chappel. Hopefully you had a chance to watch it.
Pitt continues their pursuit of two other “athletes” in Aaron Berry and Elijah Fields. Berry visited West Virginia and has now indicated that Pitt and West Virginia are his two finalists. Elijah Fields could also be another Backyard Brawl. Now that Pitt has Tamarcus Porter I would be happy with either one. Both would be icing on the cake.
Pitt continues their battle to bring in another defensive end. Geno Atkins will be visiting Michigan State this weekend and McKenzie Mathews is visiting Boston College. My guess is that both of them will decide sometime next week. That brings us to Audie Augustine from Oakland Park, Florida. Augustine will be visiting Pitt this weekend. Mathews has now told several reporters that Michigan and Pitt are his leaders. After talking to Atkins this week I believe Pitt is still in this hunt. He did not gush about his trip to Auburn or Georgia to me (although he knew he was talking to someone that covered Pitt football). Clearly the staff wants one of these three.
Quarterback Thaddeus Lewis visits South Florida this weekend. If staying close to home is important the Bulls could propose a threat to Pitt.
The Pitt coaches have been out visiting recruits in their homes the past few days. This includes the 22 that have already committed. Poachers are out there so holding on to this group is just as important and may more important that and additions they may make.
This weekend Pitt will host a number of recruits. In addition to Augustine wide receivers Andre Wright from Perry and Lance Jeter from Beaver Falls will visit. Neither have offers while Pitt sorts out where they stand with Berry and Fields. Getting Porter might not have helped these two. They were also trying to get kicker Daniel Hutchins to visit. He is being recruited but Pitt is asking him to walk-on.
Preview of coming attractions
The Pantherlair will have some additional video of Tamarcus Porter today.
We will have an update on Elijah Fields later today.
I finally got a picture of Jeff Otah. We will have it up as soon as Rivals scans it into the system.
Yesterday Chris Peak interviewed Pitt guard Keith Benjamin. He had a breakout game at Rutgers so it is a timely story. Chris has been doing one-on-ones with Aaron Gray. Today Keith Benjamin steps in.
Tony Greco also spent time yesterday interviewing Pitt assistant basketball coach Joe Lombardi so we will have his story in the coming days.
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 1/20 1:04 PM by Chris Peakif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
