How is it, that when my kids actually have some camps this week I have less time?
Okay, a few dated stories to clear from the tabs and one delay.
Myles Davis is one of Pitt’s targets for its remaining scholarship in 2012. At this time, Pitt has two spots after Gibbs and Nas graduate. One is going to the New Zealand center, Steven Adams. While Pitt is open to the best available player (Amile Jefferson), Davis has long been a Pitt target. The shooting guard is also the cousin to Pitt assistant Brandin Knight.
Davis has indicated that his final choices are Pitt, Georgetown, West Virginia and Xavier. He had stated that he would make his announcement today — if his AAU team, the N.J. Playaz win the Peach Jam. Instead, they lost yesterday in the semis. Now he will make a choice (probably) in August.
I wish Jaylen Bond well, the almost Pitt player seems to be much less likely to re-commit to Pitt everytime someone asks him his plans. He’s not closing the door, but it seems likely that the way he envisions the way he should play would be markedly different from what Pitt and Coach Dixon would expect from him. So, yeah, he’s not coming back.
“I want to work on my perimeter skills,” said Bond, who was named a first-team all-Southeastern Pennsylvania post player last season by The Inquirer.
“I need to work on that and my ballhandling because I’m playing the three [small forward] at St. Thomas More,” Bond added. “They said they are going to put the ball in my hands.”
Bond will have to work very hard to develop as a small forward. For Bond, who is somewhere between 6-6 and 6-8 depending on what you read, he is probably right if he envisions any sort of pro career. That was not what Pitt was recruiting him to play, and he is simply not a threat right now on the perimeter.
So with Bond’s de-commitment, and if Gibbs had stayed in the draft, would Pitt have found someone else to give the scholarship to, or held it for next season?
Apparently, Pitt was looking at some possibilities in 2011. From an interview with Pat Skerry on a recruiting coup he scored at Towson.
Amayo was a pretty big-name guy who seems like a potential centerpiece. Who did you beat for him and what did you like about him?
The New Jersey, Philadelphia area should be good for us. It’s only a three-hour ride, it’s close to home but no distractions. I actually recruited [Amayo] at Pittsburgh in case Ashton Gibbs left his name in the draft. We were fortunate to get him down here. Luke Murray has done a terrific job with him. He had a good visit here, he visited Seton Hall, and he came down and visited College of Charleston, which had a terrific year. But we were able to sign Kelvin and are really excited about it. He’s a combo guard that can make plays for himself and for others with the ball. He’s very strong at 212 pounds, about 6-4.
Kevin Amayo, was a good get — for Towson. They beat out Seton Hall and Providence. Amayo had interest from a bunch of teams as a 3-star shooting guard. Presumably, like Pitt they were keeping tabs on him in case they had an opening and decided he would be worth taking a flyer.
Again, do not make too much from this league where many times guards dominate and little defense is played. Also beware of freshmen who are usually very inconsistent but eventually become more consistent with age (Glibert Brown notwithstanding.)
Johnson seems to play with intelligence (mostly) and looks like he has a nice all around game. Looks like somebody who could be a solid contributor, probably not next year, but the season after.
To me losing PA recruits to silly RU is unconscionable.
Gibbs, Fields, Krauser, Ramon…great players but don’t/didn’t provide that important drive-both-left-and-right threat. Jamie’s answer was to be methodical.
Again just based on what I’ve watched, we now have kids who are sppedier and can drive left as well as right. So if they can meet Jamie’s defensive standards we’ll see more running this coming year.
He is definitely faster and more polished than prior Pitt guards, that’s for sure.
That said, D Johnson slashed to the rim nicely a few times and has a nice looking shot most of the time. Looked to me like his form broke down on occasion, particularly when he was taking deeper shots, which were, in my view, unnecessary.
Again echoing steve, his game, like J Johnson, seems more polished than some of the other incoming freshman I’ve seen in the past.
Definitely impressed by John Johnson. You can tell that he enjoys playing D, he hustles and works, and seems to see the floor pretty well. Shot isn’t bad either.
I know it’s only glorified street ball, but I certainly get no sense from J.J. Moore that he’s interested in working on his passing or defense. That’s disappointing. He was also fond of crying to the refs. I agree with earlier assessments that Moore needs to change his mentality if he’s ever going to be a major contributor. I know there isn’t much you can really take away from this kind of event, but you either have a certain type of mentality or you don’t, regardless of the setting in which the game is being played.
Durand Johnson shows flashes of being a good player. Like Moore, a little bit too in love with his own shot, but like his size and athleticism.
Watching Gil Brown is still difficult for me. He was at the FT line a few times, and all I could see was that missed FT in the big dance and what happened after…
Highlight for me, actually, was this PG from Youngstown State who can jump through the roof. On a breakaway went one on one with J.J. and he was undoubtedly as high in the air as Moore was, and he’s a good 6 inches shorter. Wow.