DeAndre Kane has apparently, perhaps, maybe committed to Seton Hall.

Or maybe he just had a nice time.

“He did say he liked it very much but he said he didn’t commit,” Patterson (NC) SChool coach Chris Chaney just told me by phone.

Seton Hall and Bobby Gonzalez has had a run of this lately. Leaking or someone just plain jumping the gun on a commit. It is making people a little gun-shy.

I’ve also read news of a new Patterson School player’s verbal to the Pirates, but after the reneged/renounced verbals of Cliff Dixon, Chris Turner and Charles Okwandu, I’m going to hold off naming names and making assessments until I get some evidence that this is more solid.

I admit, with other reliable sources saying it, it might be so. And if Kane wants to be assured of early playing time he would be better off at somewhere like Seton Hall that is completely undermanned. To say nothing of  a program definitely having plenty of open scholarships. At the same time, the one thing I haven’t read is any quote attributed to Kane himself saying that he committed.

So, we’ll see.

Sorry, in my mind I had no choice.

A former City League player, Ed Tinker has decided to commit to Pitt. Tinker has spent the year in prep school in North Carolina. As a 2008 recruit he was a 3-star prospect. The evaluations are still from that time (Insider subs).

Tinker is a monster of a physical specimen, and while he is raw and rough around the edges, he has the tools to develop into a very good college wide receiver. He is tall with a thick, sturdy build. He has long arms. He has a wide catch radius and flashes the ability to snatch the ball outside his frame. He does not show blazing speed, but he is a long strider who can get vertical. He shows very good leaping ability to go up to play that ball at its highest point. He has the potential to develop into a very good red-zone target because of his height and arm length.

That’s right a project. And if we go back to the 2008 evaluations, Chris Dokish put him as #30 in the Commonwealth last year and someone who might be of use on the defense.

The top prospect in Pittsburgh’s City League. Solid at 6’1” and 190 pounds. Decent speed and good athleticism. Excellent hands. Can also project at safety or even grow into a linebacker down the road. Strong, fluid runner on offense and a rangy hitter on defense.

Last year, Pitt wasn’t one of his schools. He was looking at WVU, L-ville, MSU and Colorado.

On it’s face, in a year where Pitt only has a limited scholarships and a glut at WR this seemed like a head scratcher. Especially with the gaps especially at safety and linebacker. Thankfully few things truly disappear on the internet and the possibility that Tinker might be on defense at those need positions suddenly makes a bit more sense.

Not to make excuses for a tough win, but a road game just before the holiday break is not the easiest thing for focus and concentration. Thinking about going to see family. Gift giving and receiving. Travel plans. Distractions galore. Marquette and Oklahoma might have similar issues tonight, and Texas traveling to Wisconsin on Wednesday especially seems at risk.

Welcome hyperbole from Andy Katz at ESPN.com about the win.

With a minute left, Florida State was tied 48-48 with Pittsburgh. The Seminoles didn’t score again, as Pitt rolled off the game’s final eight points. The Panthers proved Sunday night that they are one of the nation’s elite teams. Pitt took the game over when it mattered most and shook off a horrible night of shooting, especially from Levance Fields, who was 1-of-10.

In case you hadn’t noticed, it was a defensive struggle.

Florida State entered the game allowing opponents to shoot just 37.2 percent from the floor. The Panthers allowed opponents to shoot just 36.6 percent from the floor.

Either team would have loved to shoot that well Sunday night. Pitt ended the game shooting just 33.3 percent, while FSU shot just 29.8 percent. Neither team shot 30 percent in the first half, and the Seminoles made just four of their first 17 shots.

It was Pitt’s worst shooting night of the season. Coach Dixon gave some of that credit to FSU’s defense. Just as FSU’s Leonard Hamilton credited Pitt’s win.

“That’s what experienced veteran teams, with well-coached talent, will do,” Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said. “They finished their plays and we didn’t. I can’t fault our players’ effort; I thought we gave tremendous effort. I think we could still execute a little better.”

Pitt started out strong and ended in similar fashion.

But while the Seminoles (11-2) missed their last seven shots, Pitt (12-0) connected on its last four.

Sam Young helped break their backs in the end.

Pitt stemmed the tide on its next possession with a big play from its best player. Young, who led all scorers with 21 points, flew in down the key and tipped in a missed shot by Levance Fields for a 50-48 lead with 1:52 remaining.

“I got it with these two fingers,” Young said pointing to his middle and ring fingers. “They got a big team. There were a couple of them up there with me and I just got it up over them. I had great timing on it, I guess.”

“I got the bucket, and they put their head down a little bit,” Young said. “They got out of it after that.”

DeJuan Blair got in foul trouble and was limited to 24 minutes, but still notched another double-double. Jermaine Dixon ended up having a successful visit to his old stomping grounds.

On his homecoming, Jermaine Dixon didn’t want to let anyone down.

Dixon, mired in a season-long shooting slump, hit his biggest buckets since arriving at Pitt in a critical second-half stretch, and the No. 3 Panthers rallied to escape Florida State with a 56-48 victory Sunday at Tucker Center.

“(They) told me ‘keep shooting,’ ” Dixon said. “It felt good.”

…

Dixon, who starred at nearby Tallahassee Junior College the past two seasons, hit two 3 pointers in a 61-second span to key the second-half run and Pitt never trailed the rest of the way.

“If he wouldn’t have hit those 3s,” said Young, who also hit a couple of huge second-half buckets, “I don’t think we would have won the game.”

Dixon, the team’s starting shooting guard, had made only five of 30 3-point attempts (16.7 percent) entering Sunday’s game. He missed two more long-range shots in the first half to drop to 3 for 25 from behind the arc in the past month. So, when Florida State opened the second half with a 10-0 run to take a 34-26 lead with 15:31 to play, Dixon figured to be a little gun-shy.

But the younger brother of former Maryland star Juan Dixon figured if you don’t shoot, you can’t even miss.

“We have a lot of confidence in him,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “He’s a big-game player.”

The first Dixon 3-pointer ended Pitt’s second-half drought and cut FSU’s lead to 34-29 with 15:16 to play. After a DeJuan Blair put-back dunk, Dixon hit another 3-pointer to tie the score, 34-34. By the time the run was over, Pitt led 43-34.

“After that first one, I knew I was going to hit the second one,” said Dixon, who finished with 11 points. “I knew it was going down.”

The way the shots weren’t falling in that game, I was never sure what would actually go down.