From the desk of Jim Snyder
Pitt ranked No. 2 in basketball
Hopefully you saw the latest basketball rankings from Rivals.com this week. The good news is Pitt was ranked No. 2 in the country. The bad news is UConn was ranked ahead of them which in theory would make the Huskies the favorite to win the Big East Conference.
We won’t really have a good fix on the college landscape until June and we know who is staying in the NBA draft and who has pulled their name out of the draft pool. The rankings will be updated again at that time.
Later this summer we will know which freshmen have qualified and which ones will have to go the junior college route. In Pitt’s case we also need to know if Mike Cook is given an extra year of eligibility. It still looks like a long shot but with the NCAA you never know. Pitt would certainly have more experienced depth if Mike is back and is healthy but I wonder what that does to their rotation?
Now that Sam Young has decided to return to Pitt it appears the Panthers should return to the NCAA tournament for a school record eighth consecutive year. However before making them a No. 1 seed I would like to know who is going to play the No. 2 guard potion and can they make the three-point shot? This year the NCAA will move the 3-point line back. Does that help or hurt a team like Pitt that might not be loaded with pure three-point shooters?
I would also like to see backup center Gary McGhee show improvement in his second year at Pitt. He showed some flashes at times and particularly in the game at South Florida last year but he also looked like a freshman at times. Big men get into foul trouble and DeJuan Blair figures to have difficulties in some games. It would be a big boost if McGhee stepped up his game in his sophomore year so he contributes more than just eating up minutes.
Rivals.com had seven Big East teams in their top 15 and three more that were ranked or received votes. With ten teams jocking to be ranked the Big East could grind each other down or they once again could be the Beast of the East.
Hoops recruiting
In our last War Room we led you through how Pitt might have only one scholarship to give in 2009 and we indicated it should be given to a big man and we gave you a list of candidates. If a second scholarship opens up I would not be averse to giving scholarships to two big men.
McKeesport’s Zeke Marshall has often been looked at as work in progress. He often impressed folks on the defensive end with his shot blocking ability but had not shown a lot of offense. He might have had a breakout game on offense in Akron this past weekend at the King James Classic. Rivals.com named him one of the top five performers at this event. He will be an interesting prospect to follow through the balance of the AAU season.
The Rivals basketball recruiting analysts will take a week off before covering tournaments in Georgia and Arizona next weekend.
New bowl game added
Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has been quoted as saying the Big East wanted another bowl slot in the state Florida and a game against a SEC or Big Ten opponent (and ideally both). He has accomplished one of these goals with the announcement that the NCAA has approved a bowl game in St Petersburg, Florida between the Big East Conference and Conference USA. The Big East will give up its bowl slot in the Papa John Bowl in Birmingham with their berth being filled by the SEC.
More good works by Dan Marino
The Dan Marino Foundation has partnered with Vanderbilt University and Miami University to do research into autism. Dan’s foundation has pledged $1.2 million over three years for research. As most of you know one of his sons has autism.
Shady is honored
This week Rivals.com put LeSean McCoy on a list on ten players that could win the Heisman Trophy this year. It probably will take a big year by the Panthers to pull this off but it is certainly possible if they can hammer together an offensive lineman this fall.
Rivals.com took it one step further and made McCoy the No. 5 pick overall in next year’s NFL draft. If he has a big year that is also possible. It is our understanding his is eligible for the NFL draft.
Recruiting roundup
The Nike tour continues with camps in North Carolina and Alabama this weekend. Pennsbury’s Steve Mark told Mike Farrell who would attend the camp in Chapel Hill. Could be he wants to check out the North Carolina campus while he is there.
Next week there will be an Elite Camp in New Jersey on Thursday, a Nike Camp at Columbus, Ohio on Friday and a Nike Camp at State College on Saturday. So we should get plenty of recruiting info from these events. These events should also give us almost a thousand new photos.
There will also be an Adidas Elite Camp at the UPMC complex on the Southside on May 18th.
The spring Evaluation Period is underway. Schools can recruit off campus in a 4 week window which runs from April 15th to May 31st. The head coach is not allowed to recruit off campus this year but as you saw in Chris Peak’s article on Peter White they are allowed one phone call and then they are not allowed to call again until September 1st. After that the coaches can make weekly calls.
As of this writing Pitt has not received a verbal commitment. Most high school coaches will advise their players to now wait until after the May Evaluation Period is over so they have a better indication of the interest level of various schools.
It is possible Pitt might not have verbal commitments until their June summer camp. As reported several weeks ago we still like their chances with Brock DeCicco of Thomas Jefferson and Juantez Hollins and Terry Patrick from Aliquippa although these three may wait until the spring Evaluation Period is over and commit at Pitt’s June camp. Yesterday we reported on Juantez Hollins. We also reported on Jack Lippert who is not being as highly recruited as one might have thought after being injured in his junior year.
This week we reported on several new players with Pitt offers. Florida running back Jason Douglas from Cypress Bay HS joins our list as does Naples defensive tackle Josh Elizondo. We also had reports on wide receiver Bryan Underwood from Cleveland Heights, Ohio and defensive back Abdul Smith from the Perkiomen School in Eastern PA. Based on our conversations with them I would say Pitt could be in the hunt with Smith, Elizondo and Douglas.
In addition a fourth Naples player Greg Pratt also now claims an offer from Pitt as does Shane Gordon from Chaminade-Madonna in Florida, Derrick Thomas from Greenbelt, Maryland and Tavon Austin from Baltimore, Maryland.
Pitt has offered four players from Naples state championship team in Florida. Offensive tackle Nick Alajajian, defensive tackle Josh Elizondo, running back Carlos Hyde and running back Greg Pratt all have offers. One of the assistant coaches at Naples told us Pratt just ran an electronically timed 4.39 in the 40. Pratt will be participating in the state track championships this weekend.
We have been told Coach Wannstedt knows the father of Alajajia. Apparently he owns an expensive steakhouse in the area. One of the coaches said the steaks are about $50 each. “Several of us ate there this past year and walked out of there with a $700 bill.” Dave Wannstedt still owns a home in that area and certainly can afford to eat there so maybe that is the relationship.
The Penn State site reported on Beaver Falls Todd Thomas yesterday. They e-mailed us off line to say they think Michigan is his leader. They tried to tone down the article but said he was talking down about Pitt and went down the attendance road at Heinz Field. He also said he thought Michigan would take care of him academically if he got injured and apparently didn’t feel that would be the case at Pitt. Keep in mind he knew who he was talking to so he could have been telling them what he thought they wanted to hear but he has made similar statements in the past. See the Ticker if you missed this article.
Pitt will have five quarterbacks on scholarship this fall. That is usually all college teams carry and is in fact the optimum number. Given the scholarship limitations this year I would expect them to pass on a quarterback unless one of the five looks to transfer. As we have discussed recently the big question is do they redshirt Pat Bostick, Tino Sunseri and/or Greg Cross? Does this keep them all happy? I think they will recruit quarterbacks but be cautious about signing one. None of the five will be a senior in terms of eligibility so they could all be back next year.
Offensive guard Khalil Wilkes from St Peter’s advised us last night that he now has 10 offers. The latest to offer were Tennessee, Rutgers, Stanford and Vanderbilt. He is the player that left Penn State’s spring game at halftime so he could come to Pittsburgh and spend the night with his old teammate Pitt running back Shariff Harris. He liked Pitt a lot but the competition level just went up.
We have provided a link at the bottom of this article to the offer list in the Rivals.com database. Chris Peak is also preparing the Big Board feature again this year to help you follow who has offers. It will be up on this message board this afternoon.
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.
Pitt offer list
Pitt ranked No. 2 in basketball
Hopefully you saw the latest basketball rankings from Rivals.com this week. The good news is Pitt was ranked No. 2 in the country. The bad news is UConn was ranked ahead of them which in theory would make the Huskies the favorite to win the Big East Conference.
We won’t really have a good fix on the college landscape until June and we know who is staying in the NBA draft and who has pulled their name out of the draft pool. The rankings will be updated again at that time.
Later this summer we will know which freshmen have qualified and which ones will have to go the junior college route. In Pitt’s case we also need to know if Mike Cook is given an extra year of eligibility. It still looks like a long shot but with the NCAA you never know. Pitt would certainly have more experienced depth if Mike is back and is healthy but I wonder what that does to their rotation?
Now that Sam Young has decided to return to Pitt it appears the Panthers should return to the NCAA tournament for a school record eighth consecutive year. However before making them a No. 1 seed I would like to know who is going to play the No. 2 guard potion and can they make the three-point shot? This year the NCAA will move the 3-point line back. Does that help or hurt a team like Pitt that might not be loaded with pure three-point shooters?
I would also like to see backup center Gary McGhee show improvement in his second year at Pitt. He showed some flashes at times and particularly in the game at South Florida last year but he also looked like a freshman at times. Big men get into foul trouble and DeJuan Blair figures to have difficulties in some games. It would be a big boost if McGhee stepped up his game in his sophomore year so he contributes more than just eating up minutes.
Rivals.com had seven Big East teams in their top 15 and three more that were ranked or received votes. With ten teams jocking to be ranked the Big East could grind each other down or they once again could be the Beast of the East.
Hoops recruiting
In our last War Room we led you through how Pitt might have only one scholarship to give in 2009 and we indicated it should be given to a big man and we gave you a list of candidates. If a second scholarship opens up I would not be averse to giving scholarships to two big men.
McKeesport’s Zeke Marshall has often been looked at as work in progress. He often impressed folks on the defensive end with his shot blocking ability but had not shown a lot of offense. He might have had a breakout game on offense in Akron this past weekend at the King James Classic. Rivals.com named him one of the top five performers at this event. He will be an interesting prospect to follow through the balance of the AAU season.
The Rivals basketball recruiting analysts will take a week off before covering tournaments in Georgia and Arizona next weekend.
New bowl game added
Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has been quoted as saying the Big East wanted another bowl slot in the state Florida and a game against a SEC or Big Ten opponent (and ideally both). He has accomplished one of these goals with the announcement that the NCAA has approved a bowl game in St Petersburg, Florida between the Big East Conference and Conference USA. The Big East will give up its bowl slot in the Papa John Bowl in Birmingham with their berth being filled by the SEC.
More good works by Dan Marino
The Dan Marino Foundation has partnered with Vanderbilt University and Miami University to do research into autism. Dan’s foundation has pledged $1.2 million over three years for research. As most of you know one of his sons has autism.
Shady is honored
This week Rivals.com put LeSean McCoy on a list on ten players that could win the Heisman Trophy this year. It probably will take a big year by the Panthers to pull this off but it is certainly possible if they can hammer together an offensive lineman this fall.
Rivals.com took it one step further and made McCoy the No. 5 pick overall in next year’s NFL draft. If he has a big year that is also possible. It is our understanding his is eligible for the NFL draft.
Recruiting roundup
The Nike tour continues with camps in North Carolina and Alabama this weekend. Pennsbury’s Steve Mark told Mike Farrell who would attend the camp in Chapel Hill. Could be he wants to check out the North Carolina campus while he is there.
Next week there will be an Elite Camp in New Jersey on Thursday, a Nike Camp at Columbus, Ohio on Friday and a Nike Camp at State College on Saturday. So we should get plenty of recruiting info from these events. These events should also give us almost a thousand new photos.
There will also be an Adidas Elite Camp at the UPMC complex on the Southside on May 18th.
The spring Evaluation Period is underway. Schools can recruit off campus in a 4 week window which runs from April 15th to May 31st. The head coach is not allowed to recruit off campus this year but as you saw in Chris Peak’s article on Peter White they are allowed one phone call and then they are not allowed to call again until September 1st. After that the coaches can make weekly calls.
As of this writing Pitt has not received a verbal commitment. Most high school coaches will advise their players to now wait until after the May Evaluation Period is over so they have a better indication of the interest level of various schools.
It is possible Pitt might not have verbal commitments until their June summer camp. As reported several weeks ago we still like their chances with Brock DeCicco of Thomas Jefferson and Juantez Hollins and Terry Patrick from Aliquippa although these three may wait until the spring Evaluation Period is over and commit at Pitt’s June camp. Yesterday we reported on Juantez Hollins. We also reported on Jack Lippert who is not being as highly recruited as one might have thought after being injured in his junior year.
This week we reported on several new players with Pitt offers. Florida running back Jason Douglas from Cypress Bay HS joins our list as does Naples defensive tackle Josh Elizondo. We also had reports on wide receiver Bryan Underwood from Cleveland Heights, Ohio and defensive back Abdul Smith from the Perkiomen School in Eastern PA. Based on our conversations with them I would say Pitt could be in the hunt with Smith, Elizondo and Douglas.
In addition a fourth Naples player Greg Pratt also now claims an offer from Pitt as does Shane Gordon from Chaminade-Madonna in Florida, Derrick Thomas from Greenbelt, Maryland and Tavon Austin from Baltimore, Maryland.
Pitt has offered four players from Naples state championship team in Florida. Offensive tackle Nick Alajajian, defensive tackle Josh Elizondo, running back Carlos Hyde and running back Greg Pratt all have offers. One of the assistant coaches at Naples told us Pratt just ran an electronically timed 4.39 in the 40. Pratt will be participating in the state track championships this weekend.
We have been told Coach Wannstedt knows the father of Alajajia. Apparently he owns an expensive steakhouse in the area. One of the coaches said the steaks are about $50 each. “Several of us ate there this past year and walked out of there with a $700 bill.” Dave Wannstedt still owns a home in that area and certainly can afford to eat there so maybe that is the relationship.
The Penn State site reported on Beaver Falls Todd Thomas yesterday. They e-mailed us off line to say they think Michigan is his leader. They tried to tone down the article but said he was talking down about Pitt and went down the attendance road at Heinz Field. He also said he thought Michigan would take care of him academically if he got injured and apparently didn’t feel that would be the case at Pitt. Keep in mind he knew who he was talking to so he could have been telling them what he thought they wanted to hear but he has made similar statements in the past. See the Ticker if you missed this article.
Pitt will have five quarterbacks on scholarship this fall. That is usually all college teams carry and is in fact the optimum number. Given the scholarship limitations this year I would expect them to pass on a quarterback unless one of the five looks to transfer. As we have discussed recently the big question is do they redshirt Pat Bostick, Tino Sunseri and/or Greg Cross? Does this keep them all happy? I think they will recruit quarterbacks but be cautious about signing one. None of the five will be a senior in terms of eligibility so they could all be back next year.
Offensive guard Khalil Wilkes from St Peter’s advised us last night that he now has 10 offers. The latest to offer were Tennessee, Rutgers, Stanford and Vanderbilt. He is the player that left Penn State’s spring game at halftime so he could come to Pittsburgh and spend the night with his old teammate Pitt running back Shariff Harris. He liked Pitt a lot but the competition level just went up.
We have provided a link at the bottom of this article to the offer list in the Rivals.com database. Chris Peak is also preparing the Big Board feature again this year to help you follow who has offers. It will be up on this message board this afternoon.
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.
Pitt offer list
