Come on, you knew I’d be coming back to this well. I’m going to start with some of the draft grades handed out to Golden State. Generally speaking, the Warriors earned a “B.” From Chad Ford at ESPN.com (Insider Subs.)

We’ve been tough on Taft most of the year, but in the second round he’s a steal. If he plays with a chip on his shoulder, he could end up being the best pick the Warriors made on Tuesday.

No one had been this hard on Taft, the worst written was that he might fall to the start of the 2nd round, not the middle. Chad Ford saved most of his abuse for Taft’s agent:

It’s a good thing Taft’s agent, Billy Ceisler, barred me from the gym before I got a longer look at Taft. At the start of the season, most had him as a top five pick. After seeing his lackluster workout, I was going to drop him only a few spots, into the mid- to-late first round. Now he’s swimming in the second round with Von Wafer and Travis Diener. This is a fantastic pick for Golden State in the second round. Taft has the potential to be a great player. He has great size and athleticism. He just doesn’t have much of a motor and conditioning is a big issue.

Taft’s agent was an idiot. Right now Ceisler is just breathing a sigh of relief that Villanueva (another of his clients) got a lottery draft.

Marty Burns at SI.com:

They got three athletic specimens in Ike Diogu, Monta Ellis and Chris Taft. Unfortunately, Ellis is a high school kid who’s going to need a lot of time to develop, and Taft is known for a poor work ethic and a lack of conditioning. But if Diogu lives up to billing and turns out to be even a poor man’s Elton Brand, and one of the other two pans out, team president Chris Mullin will be happy. Other than maybe going the international route in the second round with an Andriuskevicius or Mile Ilic, it’s hard to argue with these picks.

So, he wasn’t wild about them but they are reasonable decisions. Does this even reach a tepid endorsement?

From FoxSports/DIME Magazine:

Golden State was clearly looking for front line rebounding help and they got it in Ike Diogu. Diogu is a monster in the paint, attacking the glass like his life depends on it. Couple that with his improving offensive game and the Warriors have themselves a solid post player to go to work with Troy Murphy under the hoop. High schooler Monta Ellis is an intriguing talent and could be molded into an NBA point guard in time. Golden State’s third pick, Chris Taft at No. 42, is well worth the gamble. If he ever figures it out, he could be a steal.

The NY Post has comments from Taft’s high school coach.

During his sophomore year at Pitt, there was talk that Chris Taft could be a lottery pick or even a top-five selection in the NBA Draft.

But as the actual draft grew closer, concerns mounted that the former Xaverian star had made a mistake by leaving school and hiring an agent.

Those concerns became a reality last night when the 6-10 forward fell all the way to the middle of the second round and the Warriors with the 42nd overall pick.

“It’s disappointing,” said Xaverian head coach Jack Alesi. “Anybody who cares about Chris hoped he would stay another year. I’m convinced he has the ability to be a good player, but I think teams had questions about his heart.”

Alesi, however, does not.

“His emotional ability might need some work, but I think he can be a good player,” Alesi said. “I just wish he was going to develop in school. Somebody just sold him a bill of goods.”

The person who rescued Taft from falling further was another Xaverian grad, Golden State’s Chris Mullin.

“I’m glad someone like Chris took him,” Alesi said. “He’ll look after him. Hopefully he proves himself. I still believe in the kid.”

Selling kids a bill of goods is another theme after the draft.

The guilty should be exposed. They are fathers and agents, summer coaches and leaches, handlers and enablers. They are anyone and everyone responsible for what happened Tuesday night — the most humiliating NBA Draft in history.

Every year, a player or two is stunned to slip on NBA Draft night. Rashard Lewis thought he was a first-rounder in 1998. Marcus Taylor thought he would be drafted by someone — anyone — in 2002. It’s sad, but it happens. It’s routine.

What happened Tuesday night was not routine. This was obscene. Multiple players with promise — some collegians, some high school seniors — were shocked not to be drafted in the first round. Or any round.

Players made these decisions, but the people around them deserve scrutiny, too.
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Today is humiliating for all of those players … and for draft rejects like Alabama junior Kennedy Winston and Kentucky freshman Randolph Morris … and for second-round surprises like high school senior Andray Blatche and Pittsburgh sophomore Chris Taft.

The players should be humiliated. They did this to themselves.

But let’s not fool ourselves. They had help.

The sub-theme is that if you thought the SEC was down in basketball last year, this coming season will be even worse with the talent lost but not drafted.

Tuesday night, a looming lose-lose proposition came home to roost on the Southeastern Conference. And in the end, it was worse than even the most devout pessimists could have envisioned.

On the whole, it was a validating night for the stay-in-school activists. Eleven seniors were picked in the first round, and 14 of the first 38 picks were throwback players who actually embraced the quaint notion of a four-year, expenses-paid education and on-the-job basketball training. Eighteen of the 30 first-rounders were college seniors or juniors, continuing a trend that says three years of college is a sensible minimum for all but the most gifted players.

It was significantly less validating for guys like Chris Taft, who left Pittsburgh early and was exposed as under-skilled and under-motivated in NBA workouts, subsequently plummeting to No. 42. It definitely wasn’t good for the six high school players who slipped into the second round — a development none of the sweet-talkers who counseled them on making the jump ever mentioned.

And it was a night that left nobody from the gutted SEC happy.

No league had more underclassmen declare. When the NBA scouts yawned in their direction, when the mock drafts ignored them, when the analysts predicted draft-night humiliation — most of them stubbornly stayed in anyway. And then Tuesday night was a disaster for the deluded.

Exactly one SEC player was drafted in the first round — a senior at that. Florida’s David Lee was the 30th and last pick in the guaranteed-money zone. After that came LSU sophomore Brandon Bass at No. 33, Mississippi State signee Monta Ellis at No. 40, Georgia signee Louis Williams at No. 45 and Mississippi State senior Lawrence Roberts at No. 55.

The SEC had 6 underclassmen declare and not get drafted.

A couple other notable undrafted players, John Gilchrist of Maryland and Chris Thomas of ND. Both are point guards considered better prospects than Carl Krauser. In the Chicago predraft camp, Thomas started ahead of Krauser on the workout squads and Gilchrist dominated him in a game. Krauser better be thinking long and hard about where he wants to play basketball this year.

On a much more amusing note, the Bill Simmons Draft Diary. Oh, what the heck, one more gratuitous shot at Villanueva:

8:14 :– Remember my running joke about Charlie Villanueva looking like the lead singer of Midnight Oil? Well, Charlie has a new claim to fame — he just became one of the top-five worst picks in the history of the NBA draft. Toronto took him seventh. Seventh! Seventh! Rob Babcock just drafted Rafael Araujo and Charlie Villanueva with back-to-back top-10 picks when he already had Chris Bosh! And he just left Green and Danny Granger on the board! Throw in the Carter trade and are we absolutely sure that Babcock isn’t Scott Layden using a fake Canadian passport? You’re lucky I didn’t start out as the Toronto Sports Guy, I would have been capable of 25 to 30 straight Babcock columns this summer.

8:16 : After listening to Bilas and the crew killing his selection for 90 seconds, a shell-shocked Charlie gets interviewed by Stu, who wraps up his interview by singing, “It’s Brooklyn in — it’s Brooklyn in — it’s Brooklyn in da house!” Who else is waiting for Charlie to jump up brandishing a pistol and screaming, “All right, who’s the bust now? Huh? Huh?”

I’m not sure, but Taft vs. Villanueva on the stat sheet could be a running post on this blog starting in the fall.

I missed Round 1. You can find links to all the blogpollers responses at Every Day Should Be Saturday. If you are curious as to the blogpoll, go here.

1. What’s THE critical game of the season on the national scene? We’re looking for the one that will influence the most outcomes in a single span of sixty minutes. Please try to diversify your answers and think of something other than Ohio State-Texas, for example.

Okay, I really don’t think the OSU-Texas game would be it. The way I interpret this, it would mean a game later in the season that really will effect the possibility of making a BCS bowl or winning the conference, or some other factors.

Once upon a time, you could invariably say Miami-FSU and be right 90% of the time. Both teams usually in national contention, the game was middle to late in the season, and the loser was essentially out unless a lot of other things happened. No more. The ACC, in its pursuit of maximizing BCS possibilities makes this an opening weekend game. It no longer takes on the importance. It loses the national appeal. It may still matter in Florida, and those trying to choose their bandwagon, but it is otherwise meaningless.

The Iowa at Ohio State game on September 24 could be huge. Both teams, along with Michigan, are expected to be in some order at the top rungs of the Big 11. The problem is the game is too early. It might be looked back upon as having greater importance come November, but that week it will just be a really good match-up.

Runner-up: Georgia at Tennessee on October 8. I think that could be the game to decide who wins the SEC East. Problem is, that is all it decides. It’s the trade-off of those championship games.

Winner: Texas vs. Oklahoma. It’s got a lot of the elements of the other games mentioned, plus it has the added element of whether Texas and Mack Brown finally break through. That just looms larger every year. Texas keeps getting all the talent (not that Oklahoma is really pulling dregs), but they are still second fiddle to Oklahoma and Bob Stoops.

2. What’s the most critical matchup for your team? Again, we know we’ll hear OSU-Michigan from you Wolverines, but we ask you to think in terms of multiple scenarios here.

Okay, the obvious and optimistic answer is Pitt at Louisville on November 3. Everyone is predicting Pitt and Louisville will battle then and there for the Big East and its BCS bid. My thought is that the games still have to be played to get there.

For Pitt, the biggest game will be its first. September 3, hosting Notre Dame. Both teams with new coaches — alumni — that are shaking things up. Coach Dave Wannstedt has provided huge energy to the Pitt fans. The recruiting scores of the last week have us sky high with hope and anticipation. Last year, Pitt won a barn burner in South Bend. This game is nationally televised at night. Pitt hasn’t beaten ND in Heinz Field yet. The last win at home was in 1999 to close out old Pitt Stadium. This game will tell us right at the start, whether Pitt deserves the hype this year, or whether expectations need to be tempered.

3. What’s your wingnut upset prediction of year? No hedging here; we know everyone has a paint-chip eating, lunatic pick lurking somewhere in their brain. Go ahead and tell us what it is.

Wyoming over Florida in the Swamp on September 3. Why not? If there is a time for Florida to struggle in game conditions with a totally new system, it’s in the beginning of the season. Wyoming is as close to up as it gets, so this one almost makes sense.

Bonus additions: Upsets that don’t reach wingnut proportions.

September 3, Bowling Green over Wisconsin in Madison. Early in the season is the best chance for this sort of thing, and BGSU is pretty good while the Badgers will be down.

October 20, Maryland, at home, over Virginia Tech. High expectations for VT, along with the time of the year where VT has hit their swoon makes this one look like a sure bet.

Feel free to share your thoughts on the questions in the comments.

Pitt’s second game of the season, at Ohio U, has been moved to Friday night at 8 pm on September 9. This will piss off the area high schools, but it serves the TV interests of ESPN2.

So much for the road trip down to Athens.

This means that all of Pitt’s road games will be nationally televised.

The Pitt Athletic Department has a video hype of the football team available (Windows Media). It’s about 6 minutes long mixing clips from scrimmage and highlights from last year, along with a clip from the introductory Wannstedt press conference, and interspersed with commentary from Coach Wannstedt about the program and fan support.

I can’t judge it fairly because the last week has been nothing but good news for Pitt on recruiting that I was already feeling enthusiastic. Let me at least say that it did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm.

And it already feels dated. Things happening fast.

A couple more commits yesterday and probably one more today.

Seneca Valley quarterback Kevan Smith and offensive lineman Eric Rodemoyer, a Sharon native who attends Kennedy Catholic, made pledges to attend Pitt.
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The decisions by Smith and Rodemoyer raised Pitt’s class of 2006 commitment list to 10, with seven players from WPIAL schools and five prospects deciding since Sunday.

The stranglehold on local prospects is expected to continue today, as Woodland Hills linebacker Greg Webster is believed to have settled on the Panthers and has a news conference scheduled for 9 a.m. at Woodland Hills High School.

Greg Webster is a top-20 player in Pennsylvania. Rivals.com lists him at #18 for the state, and PantherLair puts him at #16.

The recruiting profiles for Kevan Smith are limited because of his injury last year. Still Rivals.com and PantherLair have him in their top-50 for Pennsylvania, at #46 and #45 respectively.

Eric Rodemoyer is having, by today’s recruiting and evaluating standards, a late surge.

The latest commitment is from 6’2″, 305 offensive lineman Eric Rodemoyer from Kennedy Christian High School in Sharon, PA. Rodemoyer, who combines great technique with great feet, is looked at as either an offensive guard or a center. He camped at West Virginia last week, and according to BlueGoldNews.com, Rodemoyer “perhaps had the best camp of all the offensive linemen.”

Basically for both these kids, Pitt was the first BCS school to offer and they decided not to wait as Pitt has now (in all likelihood) hit around the 50%-full level for verbally accepted scholarships. Pressure starts to mount on how long you want to wait for what might be a better one and risk losing the offer on the table. This, of course, does not apply to the blue-chip recruits.

Kevin Gorman makes this sort of point with respect to Kevan Smith

Smith addresses a primary need for the Panthers, who are expected to take two quarterbacks in this class. They also are recruiting Downingtown East’s Pat Devlin, Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt’s Jeremy Ricker and Dexter Davidson of North Broward Prep in Coconut Creek, Fla.

If that’s the case (though I doubt Pitt would pull their offer to Devlin even if Davidson or Ricker accepted tomorrow), then Smith’s acceptance put some more pressure on those guys to not wait as long. More dominoes.

Pitt is now focusing its attention on landing Gateway receiver Aaron Smith and Woodland Hills cornerback Darrin Walls to complete its WPIAL recruiting.

Walls counts Notre Dame, Michigan, Florida, Pitt and Penn State among his top five, but also is receiving strong interest from Oklahoma and Southern Cal. Smith is considering Pitt, Penn State and Maryland.

Aaron Smith is also taking a trip to UVA this week. As for Walls, has it been mentioned in the last 5 minutes that Greg Webster is his teammate?

We can hope.

Obviously there isn’t going to be a lot of pixels wasted on a 2nd round pick a few hours after the draft. Still there are some things.

Apparently Knicks fans at the Garden were screaming for Taft when the Knicks picked at #30. So, I’m guessing, was Taft’s agent.

The weird things about Taft being drafted by Golden State. The GM and him shared the same high school. Add in the fact that the Warriors took Ike Diogu at #9. Diogu was part of the reason for Taft’s tumble — dominating him during a private workout for teams.

Right now, some see Taft providing Golden State with a little extra defensive help.

Here’s a recap of some of the comments Jay Bilas made about Taft when he was finally picked.

Frank Burlison has an excellent draft recap of the bad night for many draft hopefuls.

Kennedy Winston (Alabama) and Anthony Roberson and Matt Walsh (both of Florida), three of the SEC’s 10 best players last season, and Randolph Morris (Kentucky), one of the conference’s most promising post players, were all blanked Tuesday night.

And each left NCAA eligibility on the table, the first three a year apiece and Morris three seasons’ worth.

They learned a very painful lesson and one that, unfortunately, too few players — and whoever happens to be advising them — are going to heed in the future:

If you’re not going to exhaust your college eligibility — and the free education and room and board that come along with it — you’d better have as much of a guarantee that someone is going to pick you as is possible in a business in which promises can sometimes be taken with a whole box of salt.

Do you think each of those four would like to be back on campus in the fall, helping their teams compete for an SEC title and deep runs into the NCAA tournament and the opportunity to enhance their stock for what should be a very thin — thanks to the ban on high school players — 2006 draft, talent wise?

That’s not a difficult question.
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Add Chris Taft to the list — very near the top of the list — of college guys’ who made decisions to depart school that were proven to be ill-advised. Many Internet sites hyped the Pittsburgh sophomore as a sure-fire lottery selection — and possible No. 1 overall selection — for much of the season, even when it became apparent that he was a long way, effort- and skill-wise, from being the kind of prospect anyone was going to invest a early- or mid-first round selection on. Tuesday night, he lasted until 12 picks deep into the second round before Golden State stopped his freefall.

And he too was shocked over the Villanueva pick by Toronto.

Still, for Golden State, it was seen as a good…

In the second round, the Warriors went for low-risk, high-reward picks in Mississippi prep guard Monta Ellis and Pittsburgh big man Chris Taft. Both were considered first-rounders by many; now that their egos were checked, we’ll see whether they have the fortitude to respond. This is the franchise that once took a flier on Gilbert Arenas, and might have similar success with at least one of these guys.

to potentially great pick.

But what might end up being the coup of the draft was Golden State snaring Chris Taft at #42. The same Chris Taft was projected to be a top 5 pick before the season. Taft already has a prototype body for playing power forward as well as excellent strength and athleticism. He still is very raw in the skill department, but has the potential to become an absolute force on both ends of the court. Unfortunately, he also is widely reported to have no motivation at all (which is what sunk him to #42). I can only hope that falling so far in the draft will serve as a wake up call for Taft. Of course, his precipitous plummet could also be the final nail in his NBA-coffin if he takes it the wrong way.

Maybe a little too optimistic there.

As for Pitt’s history of players in the draft, well it’s a little thin, though Coach Jamie Dixon still feels positive.

Taft, the former Pitt center, would have become the Panthers’ seventh NBA/ABA first-round pick and the first Pitt player taken in the draft since guard Vonteego Cummings was chosen in 1999 by the Indiana Pacers, before being traded to the Warriors later in the same draft.

Pitt has had 25 players drafted in school history.

“We’re excited for Chris, and we’re excited for our program,” Dixon said. “This is the first draft pick we’ve had (in six years).”

Relentlessly upbeat.

“I don’t think anyone can make a decision for anyone else,” Dixon said. “That just isn’t fair. Everybody has their own situation to think about, and only that person knows what the right decision is. We’re proud of Chris; we’d obviously have liked all of our guys to go as high as possible, but only he knows what his situation is and what is best for him and his family.

“I don’t know how anyone who isn’t in another person’s shoes can decide what is best for him.”

One silver lining for Taft was that he at least will find a familiar face in Golden State. The Warriors’ vice president of basketball operations is Chris Mullin, who, like Taft, attended Xaverian High School in Brooklyn. Dixon said that should not be overlooked.

“I think it is great that he is going somewhere where he already knows somebody who can help him continue to develop as a player,” Dixon said. “That’s a great thing for Chris, and I am happy for him.”

I’m guessing Carl Krauser might be breathing a sigh of relief that he didn’t keep his name in the draft.

July1. That is the official joining date. Not to mention the official day, BC bails.

Both Marquette and Louisville have countdown clocks. As does the Marquette blog, which also notes that the new/old/whatever logo will be announced today (by the way guys, congrats on Diener going #38 to Orlando)

DePaul previews what its teams will be facing in all sports.

The Bulls of South Florida football team are already “proud members” of the BE.

Cinci is going all out with Big East day. Lots of free hats being given away. Of slightly lesser value, free football tickets. The festivities will go on all day with concerts, fireworks, Mike Tranghese, but — and this really casts a pall over things — no alcohol.

Finally, and a new addition to the blogroll, the Big East Basketball Blog. Someone else to help track things in the New BE.