Had a few pile up over the past couple weeks.
While lots of attention was on all the football recruits Pitt had at the VT-Pitt game, let’s not forget Coach Jamie Dixon had a couple 4-star recruits of his own visiting. Center BeeJay Anya from James Robinson’s high school was there. As was point guard Josh Newkirk from North Carolina (Newkirk is 4-star on Scout.com, and a 3-star on Rivals and ESPN). Last week Coach Dixon did an in-home visit with Anya — Anya’s first. This week, Coach Dixon is out to visit Newkirk. Besides Pitt, he holds offers from Arizona, Memphis, GT and Indiana.
Interesting tidbit about early workouts and Coach Dixon leaving the door open for all freshmen to see action.
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said upperclassmen Lamar Patterson and Talib Zanna have proven to be leaders early in the first few weeks of workouts. The freshmen — Steven Adams, James Robinson and Chris Jones — have stood out as being physically and mentally mature to contribute at the beginning of the season. Pitt has had a history of developing its players and not getting the maximum from the freshmen. But this program will need, and now it looks like it will get, immediate production from the freshmen class. This is a must that will likely lead to quite a turnaround from a 22-17 CBI champ (5-13 Big East) season.
While Adams and Robinson are no-brainers for seeing action this season, that Chris Jones is getting considered is surprising. Jones may be benefiting from the change in NCAA rules that actually allows more contact with the coaches in terms of practice for players and the team. Giving him a chance to show the coaches earlier what he can do, and getting the coaches to trust him.
Another nice story relating to Steven Adams. This one dealing with how they found him. Yes, an old teammate of Dixon’s let him know about Adams, but he wasn’t the primary target.
A few years ago, Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon sent his assistant Tom Herrion to New Zealand to see if Rob Loe was worth a scholarship offer.
Loe, who eventually landed at Saint Louis, had interest from others, “but Jamie heard about this young kid down in Wellington,” Herrion recalled.
…
So when Herrion got the assignment, he knew this was no junket. He was on the ground for a max of 18 hours, not even long enough to get adjusted to the time zone or rest for jet leg. Herrion walked into a gym in Wellington and knew immediately what to report.
“It was one of the biggest no-brainers,” said Herrion, now the head coach at Marshall. “He reminded me immediately of those older guys at Kansas, players like Raef LaFrentz. He was physical. He had big shoulders. He had a big frame. It was obviously worth the trip. [Due to jet lag] I don’t think I was the same for two weeks after coming back, but it was well worth it.”
“He was a 6-10, 15-year old,” Dixon said. “What more do you need to know?”
Steve Adams is having fun in Pittsburgh. He’s taking classes and is at least making it seem like it is possible he won’t go to the NBA after one season at Pitt.
“Everyone loves him,” Pitt associate athletic director Greg Hotchkiss said. “He’s got a vivacious personality. He’s a big guy. And for three-plus years he’s been dreaming of coming to Pitt.”
He’s there now. And he’s not planning on leaving anytime soon.
“I want to get a ring,” Adams said. “The time will come when [the NBA] will present itself. But I don’t give a crap about that. I’m worried right now about getting to the NCAA tournament and a ring.”
Nice thought.
And relating to the move next year to the ACC. One more reason why the ACC gets things a little better than the Big East.
The ACC-Big Ten Challenge will be even more competitive for teams to get into every season now that the ACC will be 15 teams in either 2013, ’14 or 15 (whenever the Irish can get free from the Big East). The ACC is expected to go with a top 12 format to pick the teams for the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The Big Ten has only 12 teams as compared to the 14 in the ACC and soon 15. So as many as three teams will be left out of the challenge once the ACC gets to 15. But expect Notre Dame to join Pitt and Syracuse as regulars in the event. That means teams at the bottom of the ACC will have to fight their way up to get into the challenge.
You want a good non-con on the ESPN networks? Earn it on the court. Not the silly rotations. Not the politics of making sure all teams get a shot like the Big East does with its SEC bit.
FYI: This needn’t be a negative critique; I’m also quite curious to see which players fellow Blathers thought were stars from the start, whether or not it ever panned out.
I was actually trying to comment on the article and the media. It seems like every year, there is a freshman or two who gets hyped by the team’s beat writers, with articles that talk about how they don’t look like a typical freshman in practice and then speculate on how they’ll fit into the rotation during the season. And then the season actually starts and the guy plays maybe 15 minutes total and then gets red-shirted. It seems like a lot of times, this is just beat writers trying to gin up interest in the beat the covering. Same story, just change the dates and the names.
He’ll be competing with Johnson, Johnson, and Wright for back up minutes. Long term, he projects to be better than those guys. He’s much more complete. We’ll see how quickly he gets there.
I long for the 90’s and seasons of 11-16, 10-17, 13-14 and 10-18. No tournaments, no national rankings, no nothin’!!!
Ahhh, the good ol’ days!!!!!!!
Highlite of his career, the double/double against, let me think, can’t remember, some scrub team.
Oh and of course the infamous skills competition.
Granted, this year may be a bit different because last year’s squad was such a disappointment; but I’d probably still bet against Jamie breaking from his well-established pattern unless this guy Jones is really good. Which I guess we’ll have to wait until those first few non-cons to find out about.