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From the Desk of Jim Snyder
A little hoops talk first
Pitt basketball fans cannot be happy with how the recruiting has gone so far. Next year the Panthers will be in one of the toughest if not the toughest basketball conference in the country. If you want to compete for conference championships you better bring in your share of top 150 players. You can be sure of one thing. Jim Boeheim at Syracuse, Jim Calhoun at Connecticut and Rick Patino at Louisville will find a way to get their fair share.
Coach Dixon and his staff have done a very good job getting into the top three or four with a number of very good players. However, Ricky Torres chose St. John’s, John Garcia chose Seton Hall, Jeff Adrian chose UConn, Adrian Thomas chose Miami and Ahmad Nivins chose St Joseph’s. It appears there is a pattern developing. The Pitt staff needs to close the deal on some of these prospects.
There was a report that Vernon Goodridge (6’ 9”) would be visiting Pittsburgh this weekend. We spoke to his coach Darryl Scofield who acknowledges there had been some discussion of a trip but there was a conflict and that he could not make it. Last week Goodridge was to go to Mississippi State but Coach Scofield said he did not go. We told Coach Scofield there was also a report that Goodridge was leaning to Georgetown. Coach Scofield replied, “I would not say that. Things are still wide open right now. Vernon needs to concentrate on his academics.”
Shooting guard Danny Green is scheduled to have a press conference at his school this evening to announce where he was going. This is after he had indicated he would take trips to St John’s and North Carolina. I can’t say we like how this one is going. He has made prior statements that he grew up being a North Carolina fan and he recently had an in-home visit with Roy Williams. This one is starting to remind us of the recruitment of Earl Smith last year. Smith indicated he was going to visit Pittsburgh and Roy Williams called him from Puerto Rico to tell him if his visited Pitt the scholarship offer was off the table. It is possible that Roy Williams made the same threat after hearing Danny might visit St John’s this weekend. We will know soon. For Coach Dixon and his staff, I hope I am wrong but I don’t like the feel of this one at all.
We have been trying to talk to Tyrell Biggs recently but to be honest he has been ducking Harry and I since his “official visit” to Pitt. He has been in his house but not at home if you know what I mean. We spoke to his coach Kevin DiVerio who now tells us he will take three more visits. This news cannot be what Coach Dixon and his staff wanted to hear. Pitt has already had an in-home visit and an official visit. They are limited in their opportunities to make a further impression on Biggs.
Athlon magazine picks Louisville to win the national championship this year while acknowledging the program is still not a finished product from Coach Patino’s point of view. If Athlon is right next year the Big East Conference could have the last three national champions all playing in the same league.
Athlon also has a very good article on Pitt point guard Carl Krauser. Carl is one tough cookie. Pitt has three of the better players in the conference and in the country in Krauser, Taft and Troutman. These three are all fierce competitors. If Ronald Ramon is the shooter everyone thinks he is, Coach Dixon needs only to find a role player to play the small forward position and the Panthers could be very good again this fall. However, if they hope to keep the beat going in future years they will need to catch a break on the recruiting front.
Athlon indicates Chris Taft could be the next Emeka Okafor. I’ll take that any day as long as he does not develop a back problem. Come to think of it UConn won the NCAA tournament despite his back problem.
But I wanted to visit
This week we did an interview with strong safety Chris Rowell from Warrensville Heights, Ohio. He has been very high on Pitt and had indicated in earlier interviews that he intended to attend the Pitt/Nebraska game. When Chris went to make arrangements for tickets he got a recording machine and no one returned his calls. It appears that the Pitt staff has slowed up his recruiting after they got a commitment from Bryan Williams from Akron Buchtel. Williams has been playing running back this year for the Fighting Griffins but most project him as a safety at the college level.
You may recall a similar thing happened to wide receiver Oderick Turner. He was set to visit for the Ohio University game and quite frankly might have committed if he had visited. The staff asked him to hold off on his visit until later this fall. They are both still talking about an official visit but clearly the staff slowed the process until they had a better idea of where they stood with others they were recruiting.
The Pitt football staff has eight (8) verbal commitments so far. By comparison Penn State has only three (3) while Ohio State has eleven (11) and West Virginia has eleven (11) although one of their commitments, Jason Gwaltney, is talking about taking an official visit to Pitt so maybe they only have ten. Pitt is probably right about where they should be at this time of year given the number of scholarships available. Both Pitt and Penn State have a number of players in a holding pattern. Both programs are well advised to start winning and winning now. Pitt hosts Furman this weekend and Penn State travels to Wisconsin. If either team loses it will make things that much tougher because in both cases the schedule gets more difficult down the road as they get deeper into their conference schedule.
The transfer of Luke Getsy certainly means Pitt will want to bring in another quarterback. They apparently are now looking at five or six. We will follow up in this area. As Harry indicated yesterday we think it is very possible that they will tap the JUCO or prep school ranks for one or two offensive lineman. In effect getting an older player that might have a better chance of contributing quickly. Quite frankly this is often a tough area to report on. Many of these players labor in near obscurity with little or no media coverage.
Note to Pantherlair.com Fans: The staff at Pantherlair.com works diligently to bring you the best information on University of Pittsburgh football and basketball recruiting (in addition to game coverage). Thousands of Panther fans visit our site on a daily basis. We have received a tremendous amount of e-mail thanking us for our efforts. If you like our site, please feel free to tell other fans about it. “Spread the word” and let’s add to our online family of Panther fans.
This post was edited on 9/24 8:16 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
This post was edited on 9/24 8:17 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
From the Desk of Jim Snyder
A little hoops talk first
Pitt basketball fans cannot be happy with how the recruiting has gone so far. Next year the Panthers will be in one of the toughest if not the toughest basketball conference in the country. If you want to compete for conference championships you better bring in your share of top 150 players. You can be sure of one thing. Jim Boeheim at Syracuse, Jim Calhoun at Connecticut and Rick Patino at Louisville will find a way to get their fair share.
Coach Dixon and his staff have done a very good job getting into the top three or four with a number of very good players. However, Ricky Torres chose St. John’s, John Garcia chose Seton Hall, Jeff Adrian chose UConn, Adrian Thomas chose Miami and Ahmad Nivins chose St Joseph’s. It appears there is a pattern developing. The Pitt staff needs to close the deal on some of these prospects.
There was a report that Vernon Goodridge (6’ 9”) would be visiting Pittsburgh this weekend. We spoke to his coach Darryl Scofield who acknowledges there had been some discussion of a trip but there was a conflict and that he could not make it. Last week Goodridge was to go to Mississippi State but Coach Scofield said he did not go. We told Coach Scofield there was also a report that Goodridge was leaning to Georgetown. Coach Scofield replied, “I would not say that. Things are still wide open right now. Vernon needs to concentrate on his academics.”
Shooting guard Danny Green is scheduled to have a press conference at his school this evening to announce where he was going. This is after he had indicated he would take trips to St John’s and North Carolina. I can’t say we like how this one is going. He has made prior statements that he grew up being a North Carolina fan and he recently had an in-home visit with Roy Williams. This one is starting to remind us of the recruitment of Earl Smith last year. Smith indicated he was going to visit Pittsburgh and Roy Williams called him from Puerto Rico to tell him if his visited Pitt the scholarship offer was off the table. It is possible that Roy Williams made the same threat after hearing Danny might visit St John’s this weekend. We will know soon. For Coach Dixon and his staff, I hope I am wrong but I don’t like the feel of this one at all.
We have been trying to talk to Tyrell Biggs recently but to be honest he has been ducking Harry and I since his “official visit” to Pitt. He has been in his house but not at home if you know what I mean. We spoke to his coach Kevin DiVerio who now tells us he will take three more visits. This news cannot be what Coach Dixon and his staff wanted to hear. Pitt has already had an in-home visit and an official visit. They are limited in their opportunities to make a further impression on Biggs.
Athlon magazine picks Louisville to win the national championship this year while acknowledging the program is still not a finished product from Coach Patino’s point of view. If Athlon is right next year the Big East Conference could have the last three national champions all playing in the same league.
Athlon also has a very good article on Pitt point guard Carl Krauser. Carl is one tough cookie. Pitt has three of the better players in the conference and in the country in Krauser, Taft and Troutman. These three are all fierce competitors. If Ronald Ramon is the shooter everyone thinks he is, Coach Dixon needs only to find a role player to play the small forward position and the Panthers could be very good again this fall. However, if they hope to keep the beat going in future years they will need to catch a break on the recruiting front.
Athlon indicates Chris Taft could be the next Emeka Okafor. I’ll take that any day as long as he does not develop a back problem. Come to think of it UConn won the NCAA tournament despite his back problem.
But I wanted to visit
This week we did an interview with strong safety Chris Rowell from Warrensville Heights, Ohio. He has been very high on Pitt and had indicated in earlier interviews that he intended to attend the Pitt/Nebraska game. When Chris went to make arrangements for tickets he got a recording machine and no one returned his calls. It appears that the Pitt staff has slowed up his recruiting after they got a commitment from Bryan Williams from Akron Buchtel. Williams has been playing running back this year for the Fighting Griffins but most project him as a safety at the college level.
You may recall a similar thing happened to wide receiver Oderick Turner. He was set to visit for the Ohio University game and quite frankly might have committed if he had visited. The staff asked him to hold off on his visit until later this fall. They are both still talking about an official visit but clearly the staff slowed the process until they had a better idea of where they stood with others they were recruiting.
The Pitt football staff has eight (8) verbal commitments so far. By comparison Penn State has only three (3) while Ohio State has eleven (11) and West Virginia has eleven (11) although one of their commitments, Jason Gwaltney, is talking about taking an official visit to Pitt so maybe they only have ten. Pitt is probably right about where they should be at this time of year given the number of scholarships available. Both Pitt and Penn State have a number of players in a holding pattern. Both programs are well advised to start winning and winning now. Pitt hosts Furman this weekend and Penn State travels to Wisconsin. If either team loses it will make things that much tougher because in both cases the schedule gets more difficult down the road as they get deeper into their conference schedule.
The transfer of Luke Getsy certainly means Pitt will want to bring in another quarterback. They apparently are now looking at five or six. We will follow up in this area. As Harry indicated yesterday we think it is very possible that they will tap the JUCO or prep school ranks for one or two offensive lineman. In effect getting an older player that might have a better chance of contributing quickly. Quite frankly this is often a tough area to report on. Many of these players labor in near obscurity with little or no media coverage.
Note to Pantherlair.com Fans: The staff at Pantherlair.com works diligently to bring you the best information on University of Pittsburgh football and basketball recruiting (in addition to game coverage). Thousands of Panther fans visit our site on a daily basis. We have received a tremendous amount of e-mail thanking us for our efforts. If you like our site, please feel free to tell other fans about it. “Spread the word” and let’s add to our online family of Panther fans.
This post was edited on 9/24 8:16 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
This post was edited on 9/24 8:17 AM by Jim Pantherlairif(GetAdminCookie() != 0) {document.write(' (Revisions[/URL])');}
