That was my first thought when I saw the basic physical attributes of Pitt’s newest commit, Dion Lewis.

Pitt football received a second verbal commitment for its 2009 recruiting class from Blair Academy running back Dion Lewis, who will be a senior this fall at the Blairstown, N.J. school.

Lewis, 5 feet 7, 180 pounds, chose Pitt over Stanford, Syracuse, Wake Forest, Connecticut and Boston College and Cincinnati.

“I had a great visit this past weekend,” said Lewis, who rushed for 12.3 per carry as a junior at Blair Academy and plans to graduate from high school in December and enroll at Pitt in January.

Granted, LSH was a little lighter as a freshman, but the basic size seems similar.

Pitt loses tailback LaRod Stephens-Howling and fullback Conredge Collins to graduation, and the academic status of fullback Shane Brooks is a concern. The backfield could be further depleted if star tailback LeSean McCoy declares for the NFL Draft after his sophomore season.

“That was one of the reasons,” said Lewis, who was recruited by new secondary coach Jeff Hafley. “LeSean McCoy is a great back, but he might go to the NFL. (The coaches) said if he has another year like he had this past one, he’s probably going to go.

“I have a chance to compete, and that’s all you want. I know (McCoy is) a great back. Even if he stays, I’ll probably just redshirt and compete for the job the next year.”

Lewis is a 3-star recruit in both sites. ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. (Insider subs) is cautiously optimistic about his potential.

He is short but not little. Thickly-built, compact body allows him to absorb hits and continue forward progress. Hits the hole quickly but with good vision and patience. Shows the versatility to bounce it outside or pick and slide his way through the in-line traffic. Accelerates to full speed quickly generating good power through traffic. Consistently keeps his legs churning on contact and can be slippery to wrap up…While he flashes good speed in the open field his shorter stride limits acceleration. Will not separate from Division 1 defensive backs with his current top-end speed. Yards after contact will diminish against bigger and stronger defenders…

And of course, his size automatically raises concerns of durability.

Pitt didn’t have much to worry about yesterday, but it was a busy day regarding the final decisions of lots of underclassmen regarding the NBA Draft. Kept me busy over at FanHouse. Something I’ve learned after yesterday is that the one-and-done rule hardly stemmed the flow of freshmen and sophomores to the NBA as optimistically thought last year. Last year there were 8 freshmen and 5 sophomores in the NBA Draft. This year, it is 14 and 10. A couple late returns to college kept it from being higher. This includes a rather old freshman from Lincoln University — JuJuan Robinson who is 24 and was with Providence back in 2004.

What that means is it triggers the latest in pre-pre-season polls. Just the thing to fill in the blanks. Almost universally, you can expect UNC to be given advanced #1 billing.

Andy Katz got things going with his latest, he keeps Pitt at #2.

he hint of Mike Cook coming back for a sixth year (after tearing his ACL in December) makes the Panthers even more formidable. Sam Young and DeJuan Blair are big-time bigs, and Levance Fields might be as good a floor leader as anyone in the country. This Pitt team could win the national title.

Of course, getting through the Big East will be a big challenge this coming season. Katz has ND and Louisville at Nos. 4 and 5. That’s 3 Big East teams in his top-5. All with legit claims on the top of the Big East. Then there’s UConn, WVU, and even Villanova and Marquette. Syracuse, Georgetown and Cinci will all be tough teams. All told, he put 7 BE teams in the top-20.

That said, with UNC as the top pre-pre-season team and arguably the ACC not losing a lot of underclassmen (like the Big East) there will be plenty of East Coast arguing over which conference is superior in the coming year. Look at just the freshmen and sophomore entry lists. It’s predominantly from the Big 12 (5 players) and Pac-10 (8 players).