Mustapha Heron is still a Pitt verbal.
“I’m able to focus on my game, working on my game to fit into Pitt’s system,” Heron said at the NBPA Top 100 camp. “I don’t have to worry about who’s watching me, what type of letters are coming in, what type of calls are coming in. I can just play freely.”
With that said, the departure of assistant coach and ace recruiter Barry “Slice” Rohrssen to Kentucky has had the rumor mill whirling once again. In fact, all six predictions in the 247 Sports Crystal Ball have Heron going somewhere besides Pittsburgh.
In Virginia, Heron addressed the rumors.
“I don’t pay much attention to it,” he said. “Right now I’m just working on building a relationship with coach [Jamie] Dixon, and that’s going really well.”
Is it possible he could decommit at some point?
“That’s just something I would have to talk to my family about,” Heron said. “But as of now, no.”
That’s really all he can say. He could make absolute declarations of fealty and they would still be taken with the same meaning. The fact is he has not decommitted. He has not reopened the decision and he has not gone around on even unofficial visits to other schools.
He’s heading into his junior year of high school. He cannot sign a NLI until November 2015 at the earliest. I’m not saying he won’t change his mind. I’m just not going to spend the next year plus angsting over it.
On the other hand, Shaq Doorson apparently was very, very quietly let out of his NLI to Pitt back in January.
Doorson, a 6-foot-11-inch, 265-pound center from the Netherlands, was rated a four-star player by Rivals.com and was pegged as the No. 20 center of 2014 by ESPN. Doorson only played two years of organized basketball before making his commitment, but he displayed raw interior skill that could have panned out with the prototypical growth curve of a Pitt big man.
“Shaquille is a big body that we’re excited about,” Dixon said during a press conference conducted Dec. 5 after Doorson committed. “There’s not many guys that big. We couldn’t find one nearby or throughout the country. He’s a hard worker, great kid, good student.”
It is unclear if Doorson remained eligible academically but according to a tweet by Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Doorson was “released from his [scholarship] in January.” Additionally, Rothstein of CBS Sports mentioned via Twitter that Doorson visited Rutgers last week.
It is uncertain where Doorson will play in 2014-15 or if he will play at all.
Doorson’s academic issues were a rumor for many months. If they are the primary reason for his release from Pitt, then he may have a hard time getting qualified at Rutgers as well.
Doorson was definitely going to red shirt and was a long-term project. His loss puts even more pressure on the coaches to recruit big men for the 2015 and 2016 classes.
While tangentially touching on the subject of Rutgers basketball, J.J. Moore was not even a possibility for the draft. Even a year ago, I think you would have found few people that would believe that Lamar Patterson be the guy drafted instead of J.J. Moore.
Moore came to Pitt with a much higher ceiling. Physically, he looked the part of a basketball player. Chiseled frame, 6-6. Tremendous athletic ability.
Patterson, however, was always a much better ball handler. Moore was not someone who could be on the perimeter and help other teammates.
The primary problem, though, was with consistency. One game he looked amazing. Playing both ends with passion and ferocity. Message boards would explode with arguments that he should start. Then the next game he would passively jack up corner 3s and be disinterested defensively.
Family issues had him transfer to Rutgers for his final year. A depleted team. Plenty of minutes. A chance to start, and little change.
His scoring increased mainly because of the extra minutes and more shots taken. Yet his rebounds remained unchanged.
Toss him in with Khem Birch as players that have the physical gifts, but only wanted to do it their way. It’s one thing if you are such a talent, that you can walk on the court and do what you want regardless of the opponent — think someone like Michael Beasley in his one year at K-State.
For most others, though, the difference between a low “5-star” or “4-star” player and a high “3-star” player is not that vast. And when you start factoring in things like experience and a willingness to do the little things/fundamentals and the scales start tipping the other way.
Even the best coaches can only do so much with players who don’t think they need to do anything different from high school.
This comes from a tweet I just read on PG site. There is obviously little defense played, but I assume there are live bodies on both sides.
Did Slim (CJ), Artis or Young continue their torrid shooting of 3 point shots? During the two games last week, Slim shot 9 of 17, Artis 5 of 8 and Young 6 of 12.
Are you serious, we might be a ‘choke’ in football the last 30 years but so is Ped State AND they’re a bunch of child molester supporters and enablers.
Football recruiting seems to have slowed down. June is over. Hope we are in the hunt for some impact defenders.
On recruiting … the 1st 2 weeks of July is a dead period where coaches cannot make contact with recruits. I assume this allows coaches to go on vacation with their families. Nonetheless, recruits can still verbally commit if they choose to do so, but it is likely to slow down.
Offical welcome to Louisville, glad you’re back with us.
Disappointed as far as geography to lose Maryland, would have been an easy road trip.
The comparison between Louisville and Maryland’s football and basketball teams, well, it’s a non-starter.
The ACC just got a huge boost, officially.
Plus, those uniforms, the horror, the horror!!!
smartphone, definitely update it!!
Looks fantastic. Hard to really tell with out some games and scores going on, but looks like it went from a 2 star to a 5 star.
The old one was so-so, at best, covering only a couple sports.
It now has every sport, standings, schedule, including mens, womens and Olympic sports.
Now, I pretty much would only look at football and basketball, and that’s pretty much all they had, baseball too maybe.
But, there were times I wondered how Pitt was doing in other sports, just for kicks, would like to see who is on top of all the different sports.
Anyhow, fwiw, the new app looks to be excellent.
Sorry to see them go too, perhaps some sort of a rivalry could have developed.
**ps** The app I mentioned above is not a “new” app. Just update your old one.
For those that didn’t know, or didn’t think about it, just go to your apps place, and type in ACC, you can download.
Would have never recommended it before, but now looks worth having on your phone.
It’s free by the way.
Futile.
link to pittsburghpanthers.com
Good write ups & links to the momenta in time
BTW – Thanks to whoever it was who told me to do just a copy & paste. The things that change from Windows XP to 7 confused me.
Never since I have seen our Pitt cheerleaders get so much coverage from ABC/ESPN, that they get in the 2nd quarter.
And I must be bias but they were really good looking back then, very All-American looking girls.
Dated a few after this squad was pretty much gone. As they were always over our Frat House, what could I do ? 🙂
P.S. If you’re pretty perceptive you’ll notice DW along the sidelines. My how time flys.
Was watching the replay when all of a sudden a commercial for Chevy Vega.
Yes, I owned one way back then. My favorite memory was driving up RTE 17 to Army Reserve summer camp at Fort Drum. Lots of mountains there, and in order to climb ’em I had to turn off the AC!
Back to the game: Those were the days!
I remember later on in the season at Pitt Stadium when Roger Houston (I think) announced to the crowd that Michigan got beat .. and proclaimed ‘Who’s No. 1 now?’
You are right, much air time for those superb looking Pitt Cheerleaders.
Could not find the 2 of 3 videos and the 3 of three was in black and white with different announcers.
How about Ara Parseghian rooting for Notre Dame the whole time.
Had season tickets that year, never thinking National Championship, just wanted to see TD in his senior year. Unbelievable!
Six inch wet grass could not stop the great Tony D. The only thing that would have made it better is if we beat Joe Montana that day, probably lucky for us he was hurt. He may not have thrown those lovely picks.
My rating 1 TD, 2 Hugh Green, 3 Dan Marino. But who else has a trio to match that?
The 303 yard game the year before was the greatest sporting event I ever attended and the most satisfying even better than any of the great Pittsburgh championships of which there have been many.
To crush ND after all the years of agony, sweet!
Offense sells tickets, defense wins game … thus, the the vote for No. 1 can only be … “tackle made by Hugh ………..”
It’s a tough call because I love Hugh Green, the greatest college defender ever. On the best College defensive line ever.
But Arnie Weatherington, Cecil Johnson, Don Parish, Randy Holloway, Al Romano, Ed Wilamowski, Jeff Delaney, Jimbo Cramer, Bob Jury, Mike Balzer, LeRoy Felder (had the pick for almost the TD in the above ND game), Al Chesley and Gary Tyra were all outstanding players in their own right.
We went thru so many QB’s that year it was truly amazing we went undefeated, even a guy who wasn’t on the 3 Deep had to play QB, Tom Yewcic.
PITT won the game linked over #11 Notre Dame, 31-10 in one of our better ass kickings of ND.
That Notre Dame team we spanked in 76 won the national championship the following year, so they obviously weren’t chopped liver.
Bobby Heygood quit the team and Cavanaugh broke his wrist or we would have won back to back in 77.
The closest call the 76 team had was against Syracuse at Pitt Stadium. Many felt we won with the help of a little home cooking on a goal line stand inside the 10 late in the game.
Ricky was better in the NFL or at least played in a better suited defense with the Saints. Although Hugh made All-Pro a couple years as well.
Did Haygood quit the team or just had used up all his eligibility ? Also he had a very bad knee injury, but I do remember him being on the hoops team. Can’t remember if it was after or before the ’76 season. Kid was a great athlete.
Finished that year 9-2-1 and ranked #8. Slaughtered Clemson in the Gator Bowl. 34-3
You are welcome and I guess you had to laugh at that Vega commercial that was touting it’s engine. lol
The first car I drove extensively was a Chevelle Malibu that actually did have some zip with a 350 engine. And had swivel buckets, I think the first car that did. And rear stereo speakers, another biggie in the day ! haha
Was there ever a defensive line where all 5 guys made and stayed in the NFL. Ricky was not far behind Hugh, Hugh may have been a bit more dynamic, but Ricky was as solid as they come.
The middle had Boyarsky (Cookie Monster), Meisner and Neil. Those were the days my friend.
They shut down Hershel Walker!
With a HOF QB on the other side.
Glory Days!
Too bad Noll didn’t draft Ricky, Lewis, OL, etc. His 80’s wouldn’t have sucked.
