From the desk of Jim Snyder
Maintenance outages
Rivals.com will take their system down on Tuesday nights from about 1:00 AM until 5:00 AM for the next few weeks. It should not have much of an effect on most of us unless you are a night owl. These scheduled outages are result of the system migrating to the Yahoo! computers.
Occasionally I have been getting a message which says the system is down outside of this window. It goes away if you simply refresh your screen.
Some hoops talk
The Pitt basketball program has been the model of consistency the past several years. The Panthers have been to the NCAA tournament seven years in a row. They have reached the Big East tournament finals 7 of the last 8 years. The only thing missing from their resume is a deep run into the NCAA tournament.
There are only nine schools in the country that have been in the NCAA tournament the last seven years. Only Arizona, Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, Pitt, Texas and Wisconsin have made it into the tourney every year during this period.
Pitt has enjoyed remarkable success in Madison Square Garden at year’s end. Some believe coaching makes a bigger difference in the conference tournaments because there is a greater familiarity with the other team’s strengths and weaknesses.
It some case it is about matchups in these one and done tournaments. Certainly the minute you saw Michigan State as the probable second round matchup you knew there it would not be easy to advance beyond the second round without a big effort. Michigan State’s Tom Izzo is one of the best coaches in the country along with Jamie Dixon, Ben Howland, Bo Ryan and Mike Krzyzewski.
Pitt was trailing by five with 2-3 minutes remaining. Ronald Ramon had an uncontested three-pointer which clanged off the side of the rim. It was not close. Michigan State rebounded and scored on their next possession to go up seven and it was game over.
This Pitt team was a streaky group of shooters. They ranked 12th in the conference in three-point shooting making only 33.5 % of their attempts. Some nights they shot well and other nights they did not. Often it appeared to be a matter of confidence.
This Pitt team gave us its share of thrills. Last second wins over Duke at Madison Square Garden and West Virginia at the Pete were highlight stuff as was stealing a win from Syracuse at the Carrier Dome.
Beating three nationally ranked teams in New York when they beat Marquette, Louisville and Georgetown on consecutive nights was downright remarkable.
Unfortunately for college basketball fans your team will lose their last game unless they win the NCAA or NIT tournaments. Most college fans will be left wondering if they could have gone a little further if only (fill in the blank).
We will now see if Pitt Athletic Director Steve Pederson will do the right thing and sign Coach Dixon to a new deal or if he will drag his feet while listening to the “take it to a new level” crowd. There are some Pitt fans that always covet their neighbor’s coach.
Many think Pitt will be ranked in the preseason top ten if Sam Young returns next year. Sam has been out of high school four years. I think he would benefit from another year at Pitt but could not fault him for going to the NBA if they can give him comfort he would be drafted in the first round.
One of my colleagues thinks Pitt might be better off defensively if he does go pro. They still could build around Levance Fields, DeJuan Blair and Gilbert Brown. I am not sure if I would go this far but they have an argument.
Agnus Berenato has taken the woman’s program to historic heights. The win over Baylor to reach the Sweet Sixteen was a big step forward for her program.
Who would have guessed what a huge positive foot print interim Athletic Director Mark Boehm would have on the Pitt athletic program? In a very short period he may have made the two best hires in the athletic department in the history of the school.
It has been nice to see at least three of Pitt basketball recruits being honored after their high school season was over. Chester’s Nasir Robinson was named first team all-state for the second year in a row. He helped the Clippers to the state finals the past two years and helped them win it all this year.
Travon Woodall and Ashton Gibbs were both named the MVP’s at all-star games recently.
Nasir Robinson’s team was ranked No. 3 in the country at the end of the year. Travon Woodall’s team was ranked No. 1 in the country in the final poll.
The Awards Banquet for the women’s team is April 11th at Alumni Hall.
The Awards Banquet for the men’s team is April 13th at the Hilton Hotel.
We reported a few weeks ago that forward Andrew Fitzgerald (6’ 9”) from Owings Mills, Maryland was scheduled to visit Pitt the weekend of the DePaul game. We spoke to him this week and he said some personal issues came up and he was not able to visit. He told us this week he now plans to visit Pitt this summer. He plays AAU basketball for Team Melo and apparently they will not play in the Jam Fest next month.
Pitt’s Jam Fest will be held April 18 through April 20th.
New Big East bowl game
The Tampa Tribune and ESPN are reporting that the Big East could play Conference USA in a new bowl in St Petersburg this year. ESPN has agreed to carry it and it would be played on December 21st in Tropicana Field. If it gets the go ahead for this year the Big East could have to fill six bowl slots. If the Panthers fail to grab one of 6 bowl slots in an 8 team league things could get really nasty.
Long-term this bowl may simply be a replacement for the Papa John’s bowl in Birmingham.
I would rather go to St Petersburg, Florida in December than Birmingham, Alabama. If you need to think about this for more than 10 seconds go directly to Jail without passing Go.
The new bowl could end up with either Central Florida or South Florida as a host. Mike Tranghese has indicated the conference needs a bigger bowl presence in Florida. This is part of the answer.
He has also said the Big East needs bowl matchups against the Big Ten and SEC so there is still work to be done.
Nike combines & Five Star Academies continue
The Nike combines and Five Star Academies will continue around the country this weekend. On Saturday Student Sports will hold a Nike Combine in Columbus, Ohio.
They will also hold one in Baltimore in April 19th.
This weekend Rivals.com will also be Five Star Academy in Georgia and Virginia.
Spring camp starts
Pitt has started spring drills. As a general rule the Panthers will practice on Tuesday, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
We enter the spring practice seasons with great hope that Pitt will move up the Big East food chain after being shutout of the bowl picture the past three years. Coach Wannstedt has improved recruiting the past three years and has the Panthers coming off a stunning upset of West Virginia in Morgantown.
The coaching staff has several pieces in place to build on. They have seven starters returning on he can rotate. He has potential stars in defensive end Greg Romeus and All-Big East middle linebacker Scott McKillop.
Elijah Fields or Dom DeCicco should be able to fill in for Mike Phillips who has graduated. Both of the potential to become big time players. The balance of the defense should take care of itself barring injuries.
Offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh starts with one of the more exciting running backs in the country in LeSean McCoy and a pile of wideouts. It would be a big help if senior wideout Derek Kinder makes it all the way back. His experience might help Bill Stull or Pat Bostick develop a little sooner.
Pitt could take a big step forward in part because others in their conference have their own problems. Louisville and Cincinnati must replace veteran quarterbacks. Rutgers loses Ray Rice and West Virginia must see if they can stay at the top under a new head coach.
The biggest question mark is can Tony Wise rebuild an offensive line that lost three starters. He has his work cut out for him. Not only must he come up with an offensive line that can open holes for LeSean McCoy and protect the quarterback but must do it with Pinkston, Davis, Clowser and Jacobson being held out of scrimmages and some spring drills.
It would not surprise me to see Pitt open the season with Joe Thomas and >b>Jason Pinkston at the tackles, C.J. Davis and John Malecki at the guards and John Bachman at center. That does not mean that would be the group that finishes the season upfront. Coach Wannstedt has shown a desire to give upper classman the first shot. He also knows there is not much of a margin for error for his program. If they can find away to beat Iowa at home early his team has a good chance at a 4-0 start. Before the season is over Chris Jacobson, Robb Houser, Jordan Gibbs and Lucas Nix could push this group.
Pitt chased Walt Harris out of town after he took Pitt to five consecutive teams to bowls. If Pitt finishes out of the bowl picture for the fourth consecutive year the taking it to a new level crowd will be hollering in a very loud unified voice. Pitt has five new coaches this year (which is a lot).Unless they can keep the promise going shown at West Virginia it could be a whole lot more at the end of this season.
Quite frankly we think Pitt has the right people in place with Coach Wannstedt, Coach Dixon and Coach Berenato. All three of them represent Pitt very well off the field of play. It is now the football programs turn to join the outstanding success of the men and women’s basketball programs.
The Panthers have become a trendy pick early among some in the national media. Several have them as a team picked to move up this fall. Pitt is picked by some as follows:
No. 22 by CBS Sports Line
No. 22 by ESPN.com
No. 25 by The Sporting News
No. 25 by Sports Illustrated.com
We would like to refrain from any forecasts for next year until we are much further along in spring drills (and maybe fall as well). The football program should be ready to move up if Tony Wise can find the answers up front. The potential is there to compete for the conference championship.
Recruiting recap
We are in a Quiet Period to allow college coaches a chance to teach their teams in spring drills. Once that is complete in less than 30 days the coaches will be allowed to recruit off campus during the Evaluation Period which begins April 15th and runs through the end of May.(I might add the basketball program is also in a Quiet Period to allow the NCAA and NIT tournaments to be played).
This week we reported that quarterback Emmanuel Yeager would visit Pitt to watch spring practice on Saturday. We expect others will join him and Chris will report who he sees prowling the sidelines on Saturday. We should see this process repeated the next few weeks on Saturdays. Pitt will be practicing and recruits do not have school.
Andre Campbell from Steelton Highspire indicated he would watch a Pitt spring practice session next Saturday.
We have spent a lot of time this week cleaning up the database. We had at least four prospects tell reporters they had offers from Pitt when our sources told us they did not. It is not unusual at this time of year. It takes prospects a while to figure out they better have it in writing or they do not have an offer.
For those of you that still do not know your way around the prospect database we have provided a link to the offer list below. Missing from this list is wide receiver Je’Ron Stokes from Philadelphia. He is a Top 100 player that has an offer from Pitt but so far has shown little interest in Pitt.
If you include Stokes there are 36 players that we have identified so far that have offers from Pitt. We think there are one or two more out there with offers that have not yet been reported on. Once we are deeper into the process we will recreate the Big Board to help you follow these players.
In the meantime please see the link below.
This post was edited on 3/29 1:08 PM by Jim Pantherlair
Pitt offer list
Maintenance outages
Rivals.com will take their system down on Tuesday nights from about 1:00 AM until 5:00 AM for the next few weeks. It should not have much of an effect on most of us unless you are a night owl. These scheduled outages are result of the system migrating to the Yahoo! computers.
Occasionally I have been getting a message which says the system is down outside of this window. It goes away if you simply refresh your screen.
Some hoops talk
The Pitt basketball program has been the model of consistency the past several years. The Panthers have been to the NCAA tournament seven years in a row. They have reached the Big East tournament finals 7 of the last 8 years. The only thing missing from their resume is a deep run into the NCAA tournament.
There are only nine schools in the country that have been in the NCAA tournament the last seven years. Only Arizona, Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, Pitt, Texas and Wisconsin have made it into the tourney every year during this period.
Pitt has enjoyed remarkable success in Madison Square Garden at year’s end. Some believe coaching makes a bigger difference in the conference tournaments because there is a greater familiarity with the other team’s strengths and weaknesses.
It some case it is about matchups in these one and done tournaments. Certainly the minute you saw Michigan State as the probable second round matchup you knew there it would not be easy to advance beyond the second round without a big effort. Michigan State’s Tom Izzo is one of the best coaches in the country along with Jamie Dixon, Ben Howland, Bo Ryan and Mike Krzyzewski.
Pitt was trailing by five with 2-3 minutes remaining. Ronald Ramon had an uncontested three-pointer which clanged off the side of the rim. It was not close. Michigan State rebounded and scored on their next possession to go up seven and it was game over.
This Pitt team was a streaky group of shooters. They ranked 12th in the conference in three-point shooting making only 33.5 % of their attempts. Some nights they shot well and other nights they did not. Often it appeared to be a matter of confidence.
This Pitt team gave us its share of thrills. Last second wins over Duke at Madison Square Garden and West Virginia at the Pete were highlight stuff as was stealing a win from Syracuse at the Carrier Dome.
Beating three nationally ranked teams in New York when they beat Marquette, Louisville and Georgetown on consecutive nights was downright remarkable.
Unfortunately for college basketball fans your team will lose their last game unless they win the NCAA or NIT tournaments. Most college fans will be left wondering if they could have gone a little further if only (fill in the blank).
We will now see if Pitt Athletic Director Steve Pederson will do the right thing and sign Coach Dixon to a new deal or if he will drag his feet while listening to the “take it to a new level” crowd. There are some Pitt fans that always covet their neighbor’s coach.
Many think Pitt will be ranked in the preseason top ten if Sam Young returns next year. Sam has been out of high school four years. I think he would benefit from another year at Pitt but could not fault him for going to the NBA if they can give him comfort he would be drafted in the first round.
One of my colleagues thinks Pitt might be better off defensively if he does go pro. They still could build around Levance Fields, DeJuan Blair and Gilbert Brown. I am not sure if I would go this far but they have an argument.
Agnus Berenato has taken the woman’s program to historic heights. The win over Baylor to reach the Sweet Sixteen was a big step forward for her program.
Who would have guessed what a huge positive foot print interim Athletic Director Mark Boehm would have on the Pitt athletic program? In a very short period he may have made the two best hires in the athletic department in the history of the school.
It has been nice to see at least three of Pitt basketball recruits being honored after their high school season was over. Chester’s Nasir Robinson was named first team all-state for the second year in a row. He helped the Clippers to the state finals the past two years and helped them win it all this year.
Travon Woodall and Ashton Gibbs were both named the MVP’s at all-star games recently.
Nasir Robinson’s team was ranked No. 3 in the country at the end of the year. Travon Woodall’s team was ranked No. 1 in the country in the final poll.
The Awards Banquet for the women’s team is April 11th at Alumni Hall.
The Awards Banquet for the men’s team is April 13th at the Hilton Hotel.
We reported a few weeks ago that forward Andrew Fitzgerald (6’ 9”) from Owings Mills, Maryland was scheduled to visit Pitt the weekend of the DePaul game. We spoke to him this week and he said some personal issues came up and he was not able to visit. He told us this week he now plans to visit Pitt this summer. He plays AAU basketball for Team Melo and apparently they will not play in the Jam Fest next month.
Pitt’s Jam Fest will be held April 18 through April 20th.
New Big East bowl game
The Tampa Tribune and ESPN are reporting that the Big East could play Conference USA in a new bowl in St Petersburg this year. ESPN has agreed to carry it and it would be played on December 21st in Tropicana Field. If it gets the go ahead for this year the Big East could have to fill six bowl slots. If the Panthers fail to grab one of 6 bowl slots in an 8 team league things could get really nasty.
Long-term this bowl may simply be a replacement for the Papa John’s bowl in Birmingham.
I would rather go to St Petersburg, Florida in December than Birmingham, Alabama. If you need to think about this for more than 10 seconds go directly to Jail without passing Go.
The new bowl could end up with either Central Florida or South Florida as a host. Mike Tranghese has indicated the conference needs a bigger bowl presence in Florida. This is part of the answer.
He has also said the Big East needs bowl matchups against the Big Ten and SEC so there is still work to be done.
Nike combines & Five Star Academies continue
The Nike combines and Five Star Academies will continue around the country this weekend. On Saturday Student Sports will hold a Nike Combine in Columbus, Ohio.
They will also hold one in Baltimore in April 19th.
This weekend Rivals.com will also be Five Star Academy in Georgia and Virginia.
Spring camp starts
Pitt has started spring drills. As a general rule the Panthers will practice on Tuesday, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
We enter the spring practice seasons with great hope that Pitt will move up the Big East food chain after being shutout of the bowl picture the past three years. Coach Wannstedt has improved recruiting the past three years and has the Panthers coming off a stunning upset of West Virginia in Morgantown.
The coaching staff has several pieces in place to build on. They have seven starters returning on he can rotate. He has potential stars in defensive end Greg Romeus and All-Big East middle linebacker Scott McKillop.
Elijah Fields or Dom DeCicco should be able to fill in for Mike Phillips who has graduated. Both of the potential to become big time players. The balance of the defense should take care of itself barring injuries.
Offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh starts with one of the more exciting running backs in the country in LeSean McCoy and a pile of wideouts. It would be a big help if senior wideout Derek Kinder makes it all the way back. His experience might help Bill Stull or Pat Bostick develop a little sooner.
Pitt could take a big step forward in part because others in their conference have their own problems. Louisville and Cincinnati must replace veteran quarterbacks. Rutgers loses Ray Rice and West Virginia must see if they can stay at the top under a new head coach.
The biggest question mark is can Tony Wise rebuild an offensive line that lost three starters. He has his work cut out for him. Not only must he come up with an offensive line that can open holes for LeSean McCoy and protect the quarterback but must do it with Pinkston, Davis, Clowser and Jacobson being held out of scrimmages and some spring drills.
It would not surprise me to see Pitt open the season with Joe Thomas and >b>Jason Pinkston at the tackles, C.J. Davis and John Malecki at the guards and John Bachman at center. That does not mean that would be the group that finishes the season upfront. Coach Wannstedt has shown a desire to give upper classman the first shot. He also knows there is not much of a margin for error for his program. If they can find away to beat Iowa at home early his team has a good chance at a 4-0 start. Before the season is over Chris Jacobson, Robb Houser, Jordan Gibbs and Lucas Nix could push this group.
Pitt chased Walt Harris out of town after he took Pitt to five consecutive teams to bowls. If Pitt finishes out of the bowl picture for the fourth consecutive year the taking it to a new level crowd will be hollering in a very loud unified voice. Pitt has five new coaches this year (which is a lot).Unless they can keep the promise going shown at West Virginia it could be a whole lot more at the end of this season.
Quite frankly we think Pitt has the right people in place with Coach Wannstedt, Coach Dixon and Coach Berenato. All three of them represent Pitt very well off the field of play. It is now the football programs turn to join the outstanding success of the men and women’s basketball programs.
The Panthers have become a trendy pick early among some in the national media. Several have them as a team picked to move up this fall. Pitt is picked by some as follows:
No. 22 by CBS Sports Line
No. 22 by ESPN.com
No. 25 by The Sporting News
No. 25 by Sports Illustrated.com
We would like to refrain from any forecasts for next year until we are much further along in spring drills (and maybe fall as well). The football program should be ready to move up if Tony Wise can find the answers up front. The potential is there to compete for the conference championship.
Recruiting recap
We are in a Quiet Period to allow college coaches a chance to teach their teams in spring drills. Once that is complete in less than 30 days the coaches will be allowed to recruit off campus during the Evaluation Period which begins April 15th and runs through the end of May.(I might add the basketball program is also in a Quiet Period to allow the NCAA and NIT tournaments to be played).
This week we reported that quarterback Emmanuel Yeager would visit Pitt to watch spring practice on Saturday. We expect others will join him and Chris will report who he sees prowling the sidelines on Saturday. We should see this process repeated the next few weeks on Saturdays. Pitt will be practicing and recruits do not have school.
Andre Campbell from Steelton Highspire indicated he would watch a Pitt spring practice session next Saturday.
We have spent a lot of time this week cleaning up the database. We had at least four prospects tell reporters they had offers from Pitt when our sources told us they did not. It is not unusual at this time of year. It takes prospects a while to figure out they better have it in writing or they do not have an offer.
For those of you that still do not know your way around the prospect database we have provided a link to the offer list below. Missing from this list is wide receiver Je’Ron Stokes from Philadelphia. He is a Top 100 player that has an offer from Pitt but so far has shown little interest in Pitt.
If you include Stokes there are 36 players that we have identified so far that have offers from Pitt. We think there are one or two more out there with offers that have not yet been reported on. Once we are deeper into the process we will recreate the Big Board to help you follow these players.
In the meantime please see the link below.
This post was edited on 3/29 1:08 PM by Jim Pantherlair
Pitt offer list
