A bunch of goodies from Andy Katz’s blog at ESPN.com (now, apparently a free blog).

The Big East men will mirror the women in scheduling in 2007-08 when the league will have each team face every other school at least once in conference play.

Up for debate at the conference meetings in Florida in two weeks will be how many home-and-home games will occur.

Will it be one? Will it be three? It all depends on whether or not the Big East wants to go to 18 league games or stay at 16. The conference is locked into continuing the schedule from this past season for next season. That means teams will continue playing 16 league games (13 of the 15 other opponents with three home-and-home games).

I’m hoping the Big East goes to 18 games. From both an increase to the strength of schedule to more home-and-homes with the chance for stronger rivalries, it seems better.

The Big East coaches still want to have all 16 teams in the Big East Tournament, but that seems unlikely. BE Commish Mike Tranghese cites the extra costs and logistics.

This past season, things got nasty in recruiting with St. John’s and UConn when a St. John’s verbal reneged at the last minute after UConn decided they needed him. The two teams and coaches kept some little sniping going for most of the season. So the Big East wants to stop that as well.

Tranghese will also review the way Big East coaches should conduct themselves with each other, starting with recruiting and public comments.

“I don’t expect our coaches to be best friends but I do expect them to adhere to protocol,” Tranghese said. “Our league is a bear right now.”

Meanwhile, the coaches will also discuss a proposal from the SEC to do a mini SEC-Big East challenge. The event would match four teams from the SEC and four from the Big East each season. If this flies, each league would mix up marquee teams with lower profile schools so that there wouldn’t be a year where all of the schools are bottom-feeders. Each Big East school would appear in it once in a four-year period.

Well, I suppose it’s better than no challenge. I’d still rather have more of the teams playing every year. Seems more like an formal agreement between the conferences to schedule some games each year than a “challenge” format.

Last season’s kickoff, ass-kicking to ND had the unfortunate addition of two ND fans in our group — including a complete idiot. A mistake Shawn will be forced to answer for, for years. They were ND Business School grads. This video (warning, incredibly painful to watch all 4:45) explains a lot. It also speaks well to the advantage of urban tailgating and the limited space to prevent abominations like that.

Pitt has a press release with the information.

Three Pitt football players signed free agent contracts with NFL teams this week. Placekicker Josh Cummings signed with the St. Louis Rams, tight end Erik Gill signed with the Dallas Cowboys and receiver Greg Lee inked a deal with the Arizona Cardinals.

Additionally, defensive back Tez Morris will participate in tryout camps this weekend with the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys. Linebacker J.J. Horne will also workout for the Cowboys.

Gill signs with the Cowboys who also drafted ND TE Anthony Fasano. Going into last season, Gill would have been considered as good if not better. Gill had a horrible season and the result was not drafted while Fasano went in the 2nd round. I have to wonder how much of Gill’s drop-off was due to being distracted by his DUI charge. Or was it simply not fitting right in the offense? He never found comfort, and seemed to drop as many passes as Greg Lee. Not to take anything away from Fasano who performed extremely well this past season. Still, signing with Dallas who also has Jason Witten starting at TE means Gill may end up on the practice squad at best.

Lots of opportunities from the Cowboys. Wonder if it’s in part because of the value received last year in drafting Pettiti. Or perhaps, Pettiti offered them a place to stay as well? Or just because.

Joe Starkey discusses the Greg Lee outcome.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt immediately called Lee’s agent, Michael Huyghue, and, according to Huyghue, angrily said, “Are you satisfied?”

Wannstedt declined to detail their conversation but said, “It was not pretty.”

Lee wound up signing a puny free-agent deal with the Arizona Cardinals and will have to buck long odds to make their team.

“I was very shocked,” Lee said Tuesday. “I didn’t expect it to go like that. I just have to make the best of it.”

The knee-jerk reaction among many observers, including this one, was, “Another case of an agent manipulating a kid; how sad.”

Upon further review, it’s really not sad at all, and it’s not the agent’s fault Lee left Pitt. Lee decided near the end of Pitt’s season he wanted to leave school, and he recruited Huyghue, whose company is called Axcess Sports & Entertainment.

“I was just ready to leave,” Lee said.

Starkey doubts that the agent in this case was at fault. Keep in mind the same agent is also representing Josh Lay. Wannstedt, later in the article, seems to concede that it may not have been the agent who was responsible for Lee leaving but thinks someone gave him bad advice.

Wannstedt, who knows his way around the NFL, told them. So did the NFL’s underclassmen advisory committee, which includes general managers.

Oddly, Lee says he can’t imagine why all 32 teams passed.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” he said.

OK, here’s one: He wasn’t very good last season. He also ran a poor 40 (4.64 seconds) at the combine and was injured at his on-campus workout.

Wannstedt wishes he could have prevented this.

“Greg Lee will always be part of the Pitt family,” he said. “And you hate to see family members get hurt.”

Thing is, who’s to say Lee would have played better, run faster or avoided injury next year?

I hope Lee can make it in the NFL. I also hope that Greg Lee will one day take advantage of Pitt’s open policy of letting athletes who leave school school for pro dreams come back and complete their education on scholarship. It’s what allowed Brandin Knight to get his degree this past summer. It’s one of the reasons Sam Clancy moved back to Pittsburgh and is taking classes to finally earn his degree. I think it’s a great program and does much to further the idea of a “Pitt family.”

The other thing to consider if you want to be cynical is that Lee’s early departure opened up one more scholarship late in the game for the 2006 recruiting class (PDF). Considering the late commits — Tamarcus Porter, Elijah Fields, Aaron Berry, Lowell Robinson and McKenzie Mathews. Pitt would have not been able to have one of those players. Right now, which one would we have wanted to turn away?

So new Duquesne Coach Ron Everhart landed a good JUCO player.

Ron Everhart got his man, a player he has coveted for several years and one he expects to make an immediate impact on Duquesne University’s basketball team next season.

Stuard Baldonado, a 6-foot-7, 225-pound All-American junior-college power forward from Miami-Dade College, signed a national letter of intent yesterday to become Everhart’s second recruit during the spring signing period that ends May 17.
…
Baldonado, a native of San Andres, Colombia, also played for the AAU Miami Tropics whose coach, Art Alvarez, is a longtime friend of Everhart.

I’m not sure how big-time the kid really is.

The major-college recruiters poured in. He received at least 25 offers, including Texas-El Paso, Hofstra, Minnesota, Oregon State. Kansas State coach Bob Huggins paid a visit to see Baldonado, who was ranked No. 36 in the JucoJunction Top 100, 17th among forwards.

And he had apparently narrowed his options to Duquesne, UTEP and Hofstra. Dukes, Miners or Pride.

I suspect many Pitt fans are more than a little hesitant with regards to hyping JUCO basketball players following John DeGroat and Doyle Hudson. I know I’m not that impressed. Everhart’s been recruiting this kid for a number of years. It’s not like the kid just got swept off his feet in a quick flurry of activity.

What makes the stories noteworthy is that Luis Colon, the 6′ 10″ Center, Pitt is now pursuing, is also on Everhart’s list. Colon also plays on the Miami Tropics AAU team. He has apparently narrowed his choices to Pitt, Duquesne and Kansas State. Colon takes a trip to K-State today.

K-State has signed two players for the 2006 class, 7-3 high school center Jason Bennett and 6-2 junior college guard Blake Young. The Wildcats have one scholarship to give and are pursuing Luis Colon, a prep forward from Miami, and juco point guard Stefhon Hannah. Colon will visit K-State on Wednesday, while Hannah is scheduled for a trip to Manhattan on May 11.

Couple thoughts on this. Huggins has an assistant he hired away from Charlotte, who used to work for Everhart at Northeastern and is also very tight with Alvarez in Miami. So to some degree, I don’t think Alvarez will be steering Colon to K-State over Duquesne or vice-versa. If anything, it probably keeps things more neutral and helps Pitt’s chances.

Additionally, Pitt offers the opportunity to play for a winning program and Colon would have a chance to compete to become the successor at the starting Center position after Aaron Gray — or even start right away should Gray stay in the draft. No such guarantees on those issues for the other 2 schools.

Now, if the City Game is to have any meaning again, you almost want Duquesne to snatch Colon. In terms of improving Duquesne’s talent level and of course the fact that they would have grabbed a recruit from Pitt. (I’m not actually rooting for this, but it is a subplot to consider.)

There’s 2 weeks in this signing period left. Right now there are 4 scholarships available for next year (Hudson, Kendall, Graves and Gray will all be seniors) plus the one spot Pitt is holding at the moment. If I have the rules correct, there are 13 scholarships available in total, and a school can only give out 7 in a 2-year period. The NCAA recently abolished the 3-4 restriction that prevented teams from giving out more than 4 in any given year. So, Pitt could hold on to the scholarship.

I think they want to use it though, even if it is to take a flyer on a project perhaps. Especially since they could end up with an extra scholarship early should Aaron Gray stay in the draft. There is another chance for signing before the fall semester. In August, there’s another window. Often this is when kids who had academic issues find out if they finally got the minimum qualifications. That is how and when Pitt snagged Antonio Graves.