To the surprise of no one, Joseph Uchebo and Tyrone Haughton are not returning to the basketball team for 2015. Uchebo because he just cannot play because of his injury — though the official word has yet to me made presumably waiting until he graduates. Tyrone Haughton never made it off the bench. The JUCO transfer couldn’t show anything in practice to get playing time over a hobbled Uchebo, the warm body of Derrick Randall and then Aron Philips-Nwankwo even outworked him for playing time.
Pitt remains perilously thin in the front court. Rozelle Nix is coming, but the big fish is still out there. Chieck Diallo has yet to make his decision.
No one knows who he will choose. He is still with his final five. Despite the change of head coach at St. John’s and the lead assistant who was recruiting him at Iowa St. becoming an assistant at the aforementioned St. John’s.
The decision is over a week away (probably two).
Diallo is considering Iowa State, St. John’s, Kentucky, Kansas and Pitt.
He will have in-home visits next week with Kentucky’s John Calipari, Kansas’s Bill Self and St. John’s Chris Mullin and visits with Pitt’s Jamie Dixon and Iowa State’s Fred Holberg after the Jordan Brand Classic on April 17, a source confirmed to SNY.tv after it was reported by Evan Daniels of Scout.
Every school has its appeal. Kansas and Kentucky are two of the biggest name brand programs in college basketball. St. John’s is the local favorite. Pitt has his classmate, teammate and friend already part of the 2015 class has also been trying to recruit him to Pitt.
If you note that Diallo — also a McDonald’s All-American — is playing in the Jordan Brand Classic, then you know that all five of the schools are Nike schools. As is Diallo’s AAU team.
On the Adidas side of things, Maverick Rowan. A once Pitt verbal for 2016 is trying to reclassify for 2015. So he is trying to find a high school to transfer to that will let him complete his remaining courses and be ready for the coming season.
It’s been said, that Rowan reclassifying to 2015 helps the chances that he recommits to Pitt. I don’t see it. He is in on an Adidas AAU team. His dad is now employed by Adidas. He is going to an Adidas school. Few top national players deviate from their sneakers.
Pitt is also trying add one other big man. The primary focus is Mike Thorne, Jr. Thorne will be a graduate transfer from Charlotte. The 6-11 player had more than ten schools immediately on him. He’s whittled the number down to three: Pitt, Kansas and Illinois.
“(Going to) finish my college career at either Pittsburgh, Kansas or Illinois,” Thorne posted on his Instagram account Wednesday. “(Going to) make my decision April 25th. God will lead me in the right direction!”
He visits Pitt today.
The only other big man that remains possible after that is Levi Cook. He’s a 3-4 star center at Huntington (Va.) Prep. Once a WVU commit, he is still out there. But news on him has been sparse. Grades are a concern — which is why his offers look a bit weird. Teams are monitoring him and don’t seem to be willing to make the actual offer until they see how he finishes. As is keeping his weight in check.
I can’t understand why nine McDonald’s All Americans would go to Kentucky knowing that they will share PT vs being “The Guy” at another good school. The Kentucky Boosters or shoe manufacturers must really pay well.
NCAA basketball is a cesspool of corruption bankrolled by the media.
I am not holding my breath about Jamie signing any of these elite players.
Our only shot with Diallo probably is based on how strong his bond is with Damon Wilson.
Hopefully stronger than Anya’s was to Robinson.
In any case those baby blue shoes need to go, not very manly.
Offer Damon Wilson to get Diallo.
I can olny imagine the amount of booze he and the other six drank over that ten day period.
UVa has everyone back as does NC State except for one player. Miami and FSU has many returnees. Duke loses 4 starters but will reload, UNC just loses a couple, and ND loses 2 starters.
Louisville loses Harrell and Rozier, their 2 best, but it is Pitino. I expect Pitt to improve …. and they better!!
@Comment by wbb 04.09.15 @ 1:25 pm
Me too. They’ll be back in the NCAAs next year, and will have a chance to really do some damage the following year.
‘..I hate to say it but our talent level right now is on the bottom of the ACC ocean..’
@Comment by pittman4ever 04.09.15 @ 12:28 pm
That’s a bit much. Young and Artis would start on almost every team in the conference… There’s some talent there. It was just young. Gotta give the pups time to grow up and get better.
Unless you’re a prep All-American, you’re probably going to have to develop your game for a couple years before you can expect to make an impact in the ACC. It’s just a fact.
The problem with the roster last year, is that all the talent was underclassmen… I mean we’ve gone over this time, and time again.
Sadly Duke’s talent was mostly freshman and they are the national champs. Our underclassmen were “1&done” at home in the NIT. It’s a fact, we are short on the overall talent needed to compete in the ACC.
Hopefully maturity will make a difference, but we know what Robinson has to offer, Newkirk is a mystery. You may assume that they will get better but the question still remains, will it be enough without a real big man, an elite point guard, consistent 3 point shooting or any shut down defenders.
A lot of decent parts, but will it be crafted into a winning team? Way to many question marks.
Found a few things very interesting about the article
1) your dad was a professor of business admin but believe you majored in Lit
2) a total of 7 professors are to accompany the team on the Portland trip (including your dad) and seemed very willing to go
3) love the ‘Jungle Cats’ reference .. wish there were more of these style references in today’s papers
4) I see that the Jungle Cats ‘collapsed against Oklahoma’ so I’m afraid it is just part of the Pitt athletic culture and something we have to live with
Shoe manufacturer typically pays coaches $2M per year to the top tier coaches to wear shoes and uniforms. Instead of taking that money the coach winks and says to the shoe manufacturer to donate $200k to the AAU of said 5 star prospect to cover expenses. In addition take an additional $300k and set up a fund, typically a trust for said 5 star that he and his family can access as soon as they leave my school either thru graduation, NBA flunking out or just quitting.
The coaches hands are clean at the university. The NCAA knows about this and can’t stop it because they can’t prove it since it is all verbal. The AAU coach goes along with the deal because he gets rich if he plays along. The player has a nest egg when he is done at the college. End of story. It isn’t illegal. That’s how they work around the rules. I was told this happens with the inner circle of top coaches.
this is significant today because Sean’s son Zach (DE) and nephew Mark (CB), both from NC, are visiting today.
“I could be wrong, but there seems to be more recruits at practice this spring than in previous years. In any case, Narduzzi spends a lot of time with all of his visitors after every practice, prioritizing them over his media responsibilities. (I need to talk to him about that.)”
Wonder how Poteat and any others are doing that are in transition.
I don’t think any of us would dispute Tom Izzo’s credentials as a coach in D1 basketball. His track record probably places him in the top 5 coaches in the country. I don’t know if anyone heard Izzo’s comment after MSU’s Final Four loss regarding what he needs to do in order to contend for national championships. Izzo said that he is going to be looking exclusively for players at every position who can drive to the hoop. We have discussed often here that a big recruiting and philosophy weakness of Jamie Dixon is that his teams always lack players who possess the exact skill Izzo says he is now seeking. I hope Jamie is thinking right along with Izzo.
This is all still just anecdotal at this point. Nard & Co. still need to actually complete a solid recruiting class, then another, then another, etc. But, it appears to me that a better buzz surrounds this program now than we’ve seen in many years.
Burying that SOP curse will be the difference maker in getting recruiting prospects to buy what the Nard Dog is selling.
This year is critical.
Now that is building quite a HOF legacy…
HTP!
Hard not to be positive about the things we are hearing about recruiting.
A good season will go a long way in closing the deal on more elite players like Whitehead.
Wilson should help but we better hope the learning curve of the sophomore class is not near its peak.
Thanks for the link about your dad. I actually took a freshman English class from Dr Laing back in the day… Good memories.
After the practice is over then the media have time to interview the coaching staff and a limited time to interview only the players that the PITT media dept. allow to be interviewed. That last part – the choosing which players can be interviewed and for how long is standard and isn’t new by this staff.
Of course Narduzzi is going to use this time to be with the recruits and the ‘visitors’ who are parents and HS coaches because the time he and his staff has with them is limited by constraints. But this isn’t anything each PITT HC has done in the past. PC did exactly the same thing as did DW and I saw it at every practice I attended.
That “I need to talk to him” was a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ statement by that writer because at this point Narduzzi is still giving them time but the writers, because they need info to make a living, want more and more. But it really isn’t Narduzzi they want, it is access so that they can report info that the fans and readers really want to hear.
He as found his rightful place where he can get to the F4 without cheating …. something he could not likely do here.
Further, there is no doubt in my mind that if he was hired in 03, he would be long gone by now.
Hell – the top three recruits and the only 4* kids in this years class are Chryst guys and not one of Narduzzi’s recruits have even put on a PITT uniform yet save Henderson. All Narduzzi has done is sign three 3*s and three 2* which is EXACTLY the same type of recruiting you and others raked Chryst over the coals for.
I get that people are excited about Narduzzi, he’s a change and a different type of coach then our last HC and people are looking forward to seeing what happens but good God, talk about drinking the “kool-aid’ here… you hitting a heavy dose of the Narduzzi flavored kind.
Realistically, we won’t know anything for sure for a couple of years but there are certainly reasons to be optimistic. We’ll see.
DJ if healthy, is a good spark but some have
him built up as MJ. When he’s on, he hits some three’s. I’ve seen him go on streaks of air balls too.
Will Wilson be great?? Will he get to play??
Or will he be on the 10 year “developing” program??
I see little improvement and absolutely nothing to be excited about.
I see a lot of the realists on her telling the truth, and then getting peppered by
2 or 3 guys that have the Jamie kool aid being fed to them intravenously yelling at us
“to get off Jamie’s back and realize and be thankful for what we have”.
IMHO
It wouldn’t shock me if the offense takes a small step back compared to last year.
The future is in better hands with PN compared to the last two staffs. But its going to take time.
I’ll bite on your poll. Cal is dirty, dirtier than the Mon and he wins national championships. Jamie is as pure as Laural Mountain spring water and hasn’t got to the Final 4. Having only those 2 choices I would choose Jamie.
However….. if Jamie can’t bring in better talent NOW and get out of the bottom portion of the conference the new AD will have no choice but to let him go. Jamie’s had 15 years to recruit.
Whether you like him or not you have to admit players have gotten better under him.
Remember how bad Ramon and Wanamaker and Patterson and gibbs and Mcghee were as fresh and soph. This last team was full of those type of sophomores. With artis and mike young ahead of the curve
With regard to Kentucky losing 7 players to the nba, that is somewhat misleading. 2-3 of those players will not be drafted, particularly the Harrisons. I think that Blatherite City would love to be in a position where 4-5 of our players were leaving for the nba each year. Let’s get real, the reason folks don’t like Calipari is due to jealousy. I could easily get behind a 5 year stretch of Pitt bbal putting players in the draft each year and competing for titles. Jamie just isn’t in the inner circle with the manufacturer’s. He is tier2. Sorry, that is just how it works.
speak for yourself
I did type many “I’s”, so I think I was speaking for myself. Hope your day gets better.
JD isn’t recruiting for a program with a history that almost recruits itself. In no particular order think Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina and UCLA. Pitt has had bursts of success followed by years of drought. Most importantly Pitt has never had a national championship.
It remains nonsense that JD isn’t recruiting better rated talent. His problem has been retaining it (Adams and Birch) and replacing it (Randall, Uchebo and Haughton).
Holtz committed prior to HCPC being on the radar and even though Chryst did pull in Conner, I’m thinking he got lucky on that one considering he actually recruited him as a DE guy and then saw what he had to work with after Shell got his walking papers and pressed Conner into the RB duties initially out of necessity. Surprise jackpot!!
And the only reason Dorian Johnson became a Panther was because of all the drama surrounding penn state/Sandusky sanctions at that time. After those guys all of Chryst’s other recruits were very very vanilla.
HCPC also failed badly in recruiting for the defense and swung and missed on many highly rated QB prospects that this team so dearly needed. Thank God that he got Tom Savage to transfer in or things could have been sink or swim for Chad Voytik well before he was ready to carry the QB responsibilities for the team.
Now when you look at Narduzzi by comparasion, first and foremost the guy and his entire staff run laps around the previous staff regarding their energy level and in all the stuff that really matters to the kids that they are recruiting. This staff totally gets how current students communicate and have hit twitter and other social media hard. They also are talking up Pitt Football like I haven’t seen it for three decades. “Pitt is It” in these coache’s minds and they aren’t shy about selling that idea of winning championships and doing something special here at Pitt to get this institution back into the national mindset again with their football program.
Now of course we’ve seen this before with our high octane, explosive car salesman of a coach who lasted about eleven months, but Narduzzi is perceived as being much more genuine and sincere in his efforts to promote the University and recruit for this program.
The proof will always be in the recruiting classes that are ultimately brought in on LOI signing day. So let’s look at what Narduzzi has done in that very short period of time since January. First and foremost he has successfully recruited areas of EXTREME need. With Chryst stealing away the only QB recruited in his last class of 2015, Nard dog responded by bringing in two new QB recruits, Peterman was an especially good get because not only does he have the maturity of an upperclassman but he has valuable game experience in the SEC alredy too. Heaven forbid that Chad goes down with injury, but if that occurs I expect that Peterman will be much more able to step into battle than an untested Bertke this season.
Narduzzi has also shored up a defense with a slew of highly rated defensive players, all dearly needed due to Chryst’s poor recruiting of the defensive side of the ball and because of the attrition of graduating veterans. You can tell me all all day that Whitehead, McKee, Stocker and Brightwell were already Chryst recruits but you will NEVER get me to believe that one of these kids actually commit to Pitt unless Narduzzi convinced each one of them that their initial interest in Pitt was even now more valid after he took over the reins.
Narduzzi also pulled in Allen Edwards as a JC guy who wasn’t even on Pitt’s radar until the new staff got here and saw how weak the defense was. I hope that Edwards pans out because he just might be another one of those “look what we found” type of player surprises that we so dearly need at the DE position right now.
So yes, I do think that Narduzzi is doing a better job than Chryst ever did in the overall department of recruiting. There is a buzz around the program now that these potential recruits in local high schools are already aware of and the number of verbal commitments that Nard Dog has as well as sincerely interested recruits that are visiting on a regular basis this spring has increased IMO.
Remember, just four months ago I was condemning Narduzzi for not getting on the job ASAP and I was firm in my belief that he had to grab a QB and multiple players for the defense to salvage this 2015 class. You yourself Reed, responded to my rants that I should not expect much if anything from him on such short notice, just to be fair to the new coach. I said BS to that, get to work Narduzzi. Well he did, and he was very successful in that very short period of time and I think that he will prove to blow “previous” Pitt recruiting efforts out of the water if he accomplishes one more thing and that is WINNING this season. That’s not the Koolaid talking that just da facts!
Hail to Pitt!
Don’t know about Haughton but Uchebo was a risk from the get-go. Even Dixon Diehard Dokish published the iffy future for the kid with the bad knee.
It’s funny that the conversations about basketball now are not really about advancing to the Final Four. Who really believes Dixon will ever get there?
The conversations are about just making it in the tournament as a high seed.
Maybe Dixon will put out a team that blows out the opposition next year. But what he has coming back and his woes in recruiting seem to suggest just making it in the NCAA field.
Find a pundit at this early stage of the game who is willing to put Pitt in the field of 64.
Maybe the long list of control freak coaches like Dixon want the game to grind down. Fans don’t.
2. KY is a sham and disgrace. The requirement for being a tutor for their players includes proficiency in remedial studies. The post game comment about Big Frank was emblematic.
3. None of the elites are coming to Pitt. Dixon offers no enhancement to their dream of pro ball. We need a program builder. Its still possible to run an elite program with integrity, win without compromising but that starts with a special guy at the core. They gave Dixon a 10 year deal thinking he was that guy. He’s not. Football is rising, will help ease the sting of few more lacklustre basketball teams before we start looking for the oasis builder.
Narduzzi has the right formula and the results will be wins. Maybe slower than we want.
For the first time in awhile, we know we are moving in the right direction.
When I start thinking about this most recent football downturn, it started with the Sports Illustrated article (during Wannstedt’s tenure) on teams out of control. Pitt was rated as #1.
That article started the dominos falling.
Nordenberg must have second thoughts about his response. I also wonder what his thoughts are now on tearing down PITT stadiun.
I think to get a honest answer, we need to wait at least ten more years. I think the wounds are too fresh for him to be truthful.
I’m still not ready to part with any of my money for our University. My wounds are still too fresh.
The comment on Dorian Johnson is inaccurate. He was in Pitt’s corner throughout the recruiting process because of Joe Rudolph a Belle Vernon native. He attended many Pitt practices during his junior and senior year of high school. His initial verbal to PSU was a surprise by all that knew him. That verbal was pushed upon him by his mother and grandmother after a visit to State College that he didn’t want to make. They felt the countryside was better than the urban setting Pitt provided. Because of the pedo activities that clouded PSU Johnson was able to convince mom and grandmother that Pitt with Joe Rudolph close by was a safe environment to attend college and close by for them to see him play. Coaching staff is why Johnson is a Panther today.
Point is, HCPC just isn’t the kind of recruiter that will go toe to toe with other aggressive recruiting programs to grab what he wants. He got Johnson by default.
Come on. Sam Young, Brad Wannamaker, and Lamar Patterson to name three that improved by leaps and bounds at Pitt. You can beat Jamie up for recruiting — he hasn’t had a guard that can penetrate and finish since Wannamaker graduated — but the guy knows how to coach and make kids better.
Pitt is not a historically great program and typically has zero local recruits, so they’re forced to compete for out of town talent with the other mid-tier programs. Sorry to say, but it’s not a school that’s consistently going to contend for the final four — to think otherwise is foolish. I remain happy making the tournament most years and seeing kids improve over their career. Jamie is a good man, a good coach, and probably the best Pitt can do.
We can agree that the Sandusky tragedy finally put Johnson in a Pitt uniform (where he belongs), but I live in the BVA school district and followed Dorian’s high school career closely. I know that young man was a Panther all along, he would have worked on momma all the way up to letter of intent day to change her mind. Rudolph made the switch a reality.
[blockquote]i think alot of the reason people expect pitt hoops to improve is because of experience under dixon.
Whether you like him or not you have to admit players have gotten better under him.[/blockquote]
Our offense OK year, but our defense was the worst of the Dixon era. I predict that next year’s team will play much better defense.
