Tuesdays are a bad day right now. The schedule has me away from a computer from the time I take the kids to school until sometime after I get the kids to bed.

Seems I missed a few things.

The unsurprising first. A couple players dismissed from the team in light of recent activities at their apartment.

Juniors Drew Carswell and Eric Williams are now gone from the team. The third player suspended in the incident, Khaynin Mosley-Smith, remains suspended indefinitely.

“We have strict and clear standards regarding these types of behaviors,” Chryst said in a statement released on Friday afternoon. “What has occurred with these three young men does not represent the standards of our program or university.”

I don’t know why Mosley-Smith was not dismissed from the team. It doesn’t mean he won’t be, but his status may be a little more gray. I have a speculation, but I don’t know if it is so.

(more…)

Things really can change in a year. Last year Pitt basketball had its worst season in over a decade. Yet, the spring brought high optimism. A big-time Kiwi to man the middle. Depth all over the roster. Oh, and Pitt beat out the likes of Duke, UCLA and Michigan State for a transfer.

Now, after a good season (yes, with bitter disappointment in the Tourney) Pitt has a lot of playing time available — especially in the frontcourt — following transfers and an early draft declaration. Yet, they can’t give away a scholarship.

Last night power forward Lennard Freeman opted to go to NC State. Freeman attended Oak Hill Academy in North Carolina this past year, and choosing NC State wasn’t a huge shock. Still, Pitt could use anyone to help inside.

(more…)

Following the decommitment of Chandler Kincade, Pitt’s 2014 football recruiting class stood at zero for the last week-and-a-half. That all changed today. It’s back to having one name on the commit list.

The long-term reconstruction of the Pitt offensive line continued Monday when Connor Hayes of Traverse City, Mich., said he will enroll next year.

Hayes, a 6-foot-4, 300-pound guard, is the only recruit in Pitt’s Class of 2014 after Blackhawk quarterback Chandler Kincaide decommitted last month.
…
“He’s the most physical player I have ever coached,” Traverse City West coach Tim Wooer said of Hayes. “He will fit in perfectly into everything Pittsburgh wants to do.

“If you look up the definition of the word mauler in the dictionary, you would probably find a picture of Connor. He is a physical, nasty kid. He is going to try to embarrass you.”

Hayes is a consensus 3-star recruit per Rivals.com, Scout.com and 247 (ESPN.com has no evaluation at this time).

(more…)

Kind of depressing, but it sure puts the back-to-back 6-7 records into context. No Pitt players heard their name called in the NFL Draft this weekend. This was not terribly surprising.

There have been, and are good players on this team. But a lack of excellent ones. Factor in the crushing injuries, and there weren’t been any surefire NFL prospects wearing the Blue and Gold the last couple of years.

I am not sure how much of that has been missing in recruiting, and the constant churn in coaches that may have stagnated/crushed the development of some players. Likely some mixture of both, but I have no idea on the percentages.

That said, Ray Graham will get his shot to show how healthy his knee is with the Houston Texans.

Mike Shanahan will have his chance to transition to TE in the pros with the New York Jets (sans a Tebow presence).

Ryan Turnley will try to make it with the Buffalo Bills. While on the small side, his versatility on the offensive line can only help his chances of sticking around.

Tight end Hubie Graham and his many injuries will get a chance with Tampa Bay. Just speculation, but I’m thinking that TB HC Greg Schiano remembers the potential Graham once had before injuries and transfers made him entirely forgotten.

It’s also been reported that Jarred Holley will get a tryout with the Pittsburgh Steelers at their first undrafted free agent camp next week.

Darrell Strong:

I told my mother 7yrs ago I would come back and get my degree prior to leaving school early to chase… instagram.com/p/YqEbMnGMIK/

— Darrell Strong (@DarrellStrong82) April 28, 2013

Congratulations.

Lets go pitt!!!! instagram.com/p/YqQ7gGGMNL/

— Darrell Strong (@DarrellStrong82) April 28, 2013

Since the season ended there have been rumors that J.J. Moore would transfer. On its face it made little sense. Moore just finished his junior year. He did not graduate early so he couldn’t be a graduate transfer. If he left, he would have to sit out a year which seems flat-out odd for a kid heading into his senior year and only a year of eligibility left.

Yet the rumors and reports are getting stronger.

A report surfaced Sunday night that Pitt junior forward J.J. Moore has decided to transfer, but there was no official confirmation from the university.

An athletic department spokesperson said Moore has not yet asked for his release, and as of Sunday night, had not informed coach Jamie Dixon of a decision.

Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports Network reported via his Twitter account that Moore had decided to transfer per a source.

Nothing before or after that tweet. No follow up.

(more…)

The situation with Khaynin Mosley-Smith, Eric Williams and Drew Carswell, is not as bad as it could be. But it really isn’t good. I won’t be surprised if all three never play again for Pitt. I also won’t be shocked if two of the three get reinstated by the start of camp in August.

To say they made some bad choices is putting it mildly.

Police had been conducting an ongoing investigation in South Oakland and bought 20 stamp bags of heroin for $185 on Thursday night outside a house on Juliet Street from a man identified as Darnell Reed-Young, 22, according to a criminal complaint.

Police obtained a search warrant for the house, and as they prepared to enter, a man identified as Khaynin Mosley-Smith, 21, left the house.

Mosley-Smith, a member of the Pitt football team, told police that he lived there.

When police searched the home early Friday, they found drug packaging material and paraphernalia. Also inside were Pitt players Eric Williams, 20, and Andrew Carswell, 21. Police found a digital scale with white residue in Carswell’s bedroom.

Police charged the three football players by summons with prohibited acts.

Reed-Young admitted selling the heroin to a detective, police said, and all three Pitt players live in the home. He was taken to the Allegheny County Jail and faces several drug-related charges, including possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.

Do I think the three were shooting up or dealing? No. Do I think they were knowingly allowing someone who was dealing, do it from their place? Yes.

(more…)

Here’s the story.

The three players are  linebacker Eric Williams, tight end Andrew Carswell, and defensive linemen Khanyin Moslesy-Smith. They were arrested for possession/usage and in the same room as them were 20-bags of heroin, a marijuana bong, and a copper grinder. While they are innocent until proven guilty, I expect swift action from Chryst and the Athletic Department.

Please don’t be too disrespectful to the coaches. Keep in mind a lot of these problems were inherited, especially Drew Carswell. Feel free to extrapolate what you want when I single out Carswell. I’ll never post second hand knowledge, but with what I know about Drew…it doesn’t surprise me at all.

*edit*

Update: All 3 have been suspended indefinitely from the football team.

The Severe post yesterday came from my phone, because I was in the midst of work. Just wanted to get the news out so I didn’t have time to get into it.

As I wrote back in March, late in the game recruiting, is a bit of a strange things. Kids like Severe who are borderline recruits between high mid-major to fringe-major get elevated as coaches have open scholarships to fill and limited choices.

That was the situation with Severe. A good, but undersized shooting guard at 6-2 (officially). He doesn’t play great defense. And he went from most of his offers being from the lower-half of the A-10 to getting offers from Pitt, K-State, Wake Forest and WVU. Yes, he was named Mr. Basketball for New York, but the runner-ups were not exactly 4-star recruits. His game didn’t get that much better from November, just the supply of available players went down.

(more…)

Since I’ve been analyzing the NFL Draft for 7 or 8 years now, I figured this would be a good time to go over what Pitt seniors can expect. Forewarning, my answers are going to be a bit less optimistic than you’re reading elsewhere. I know I’ve been an optimist on here for a lot of things, so don’t take my opinion as a negative thought on our seniors. This is my realistic opinion as to what will happen.

(more…)

In the end it wasn’t Pitt. It wasn’t Wake Forest. It wasn’t West Virginia or Rutgers. Fordham and their coach Tom Pecora landed the NYC shooting guard.

Severe cited playing time but especially the chance to stay local.

Just have to wonder why he couldn’t have figured it out a bit sooner.

In the aftermath of the ACC Grant of Rights, it has been a lot of fun to take potshots at the numerous Hoopie message boarders and Twitiots who have spent the better part of a year flogging their sources for the imminent demise of the ACC.

The rumors and whispers of an ACC grant-of-rights have no basis in fact.

The beleaguered conference is not close to signing a grant-of-rights and discussions about one have been met with stiff internal resistance.

Internal resistance that my sources say could only be overcome by a significant increase in television money that puts the ACC on par with the Big 10, Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC.

Money like that could only come from a 24-hour ACC branded sports channel much like the Big 10 Network or the upcoming SEC Network and that doesn’t seem likely. Why not? Why shouldn’t the ACC, with perhaps the largest media footprint of any conference, be able to launch its own network?

It’s simple economics — ESPN won’t let them. ESPN owns the ACC’s tier 3 television rights (along with Raycom) and doesn’t want the ACC competing (in much the same markets) with the SEC channel set to debut in 2014.

I don’t think there was an ACC-based blog or twitter account that didn’t either get directly hit with this stuff or had to address it in some form from a reader for the past year.

(more…)

The Grant of Rights put in place by the ACC does not stop expansiopocolypse. It does, however, severely slow it down and minimize it. The movement in the next five to ten years will almost entirely be by conferences and programs below the Big Five.

Oh, sure, it’s possible at some point that the Big 12 feels it has no choice but to actually go to 12, at which time it goes for Cinci and BYU or some other team from the Mountain West (Boise St.). And it is conceivable that the Big Ten could go to Mizzou and say, yeah, come into our playground — since the SEC does not have any exit fees or penalties.

And, yes, there is always a chance that some program locked into a Grant of Rights might mount a legal challenge. But unlike a challenge to an exit fee like Maryland is engaged, losing the challenge to a Grant of Rights contract is much bigger. Even if a challenge to the ACC Grant of Rights came with five years left (2023), the potential loss by the school challenging is $100 million. Not many schools are going to make that gamble.

But that is about it. Things are relatively locked in right now. There will be no easy way for the major conferences to poach teams from each other while the Grant of Rights (GoR) are in place. The Big 12 is at 10. The Big Ten will be 14.

As usual there is more to the story than mere stability.

(more…)

That’s been a big part of my summer posting for the last few years. How? How? How do they expect me to fill that gap if this is happening? What’s left?

The ACC is expected to announce a Grant of Rights agreement among its 15 members as early to today, CBSSports.com has learned.

ACC presidents are in the process of clearing this with their departments. The agreement will go to 2026-27, the duration of the league’s contract with ESPN. The deal is not official just yet but, barring an unforseen snag, will be completed.

Unless a league member decides to go to litigation to escape this down the road, the ACC believes a Grant of Rights will protect it from conference realignment poachers.

The North Carolina-based David Glenn Show reported the news Monday afternoon.

And all news outlets are saying their sources are saying the same thing. And unlike the raised exit fee issue from last year — where FSU and Maryland voted against it — this one is unanimous in the ACC.

(more…)

Sorry. Last week, well, last week was not one of the better ones. With the Boston Marathon bombing, the fertilizer plant in West Texas among other things; it just seemed the best thing to do was to sit back and just listen a little more. What do you say, that everyone else hasn’t said? Is it better to just repeat what others have said, and likely more eloquently? Or just maintain a respectful silence as you listen? This time, I opted to just listen.

But, now to awkwardly transition to other things.

Lots to catch-up on in the news.

Clear some story links first.

(more…)