It’s back.

/sigh

This article caught my attention last week. I was hoping to get more follow-up, but no. So it’s a bit of a connect the dots thing.

Villanova is buying up residential property in Delaware County and Montgomery County along County Line Road, adjacent to Villanova Stadium. The Wildcats’ coaching staff has shown increased interest in a number of major Division I recruits—the type of players Villanova may have not gone so strongly after in the past, thinking those players would commit to Division I schools.

The circumstantial signs are there, as Villanova follows a timeline, with further discussions with area residents throughout this month, followed by a meeting in February to update the Villanova Board of Trustees and in March a look at the school’s findings and how feasible a move to the Big East in football would be.

Villanova’s “official” announcement is scheduled for April, and by the way Villanova is moving forward, the school is building a crescendo drum roll to what looks like a decision that the Wildcats could be the 10th member of the Big East Conference for football, effective hopefully for the 2012 season.

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Now, if only there is a line to block for them.

In what borders on Wannstedtian for sheer volume at one spot, Pitt added another running back recruit to its recruiting class. This class stands at ten at the moment, and includes four, count ’em, four running backs. Since the weekend, Pitt has added three RBs.

Let’s meet the latest, Mr. Malcolm Crockett:

This 5-10 (or -11), 180 (or 185) pound tailback is a consensus 3-star recruit out of Washington, D.C. He’s the highest ranked tailback in Pitt’s list of verbals. He had interest from Michigan, so he has some passing acquaintance with a chunk of Pitt’s staff. He also had lots of offers from ACC schools. He is also versatile (Insider subs).

Overall, Crocket is a college ready back with a lot of quality attributes to develop. Looks to be able to fit into a few different offensive schemes. Could grow into a productive every-down back with improved blocking and receiving skills.

As PittScript points out (and has video of Crockett in HS), the former Cinci commit decommitted from the Bearcats after they snagged Pitt decommit Jameel Poteat. He probably felt that his chances of seeing early playing time were lessoned with Poteat coming in at the same time.

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Glad to see in the comments that people are slowly backing away from the apocalypse.  Immediate reactions after a loss vacillated between frustrated to absolute doom and gloom.

I can’t say I am reading too much into this loss other than it was a loss. You will be hard-pressed to find another team that have the shooters, patience and discipline to play that way against Pitt. Even ND doesn’t try to do this very often. This game was so absurd in pace that it strikes me as an outlier. Teams might try it for stretches, but no team is going to be able to play that way for a full game that way. Certainly not young teams. Nash, Martin, Abromaitis, Hansbrough and Scott — ND’s entire starting line-up — are all seniors.

Last week we and the punditry were lauding Pitt for their patience against Syracuse’s zone. Willing to work the ball around to find the best shot, and conversely keeping Syracuse from getting quick baskets, and forcing the Orange deep into the shot clock. A loss like this and everyone is up-in-arms about Pitt not trying to push the pace and force the tempo. That Pitt was too patient and willing to play a slow game.

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