Recruiting info can be nebulous, confusing and contradictory at the best of times. How about around midnight on a Saturday night?
Pittsburgh picked up a really talented PG in JUCO star Jonathan Milligan (@MiLli2uP). Will have 2 years of eligibility. Reports Tuesday.
— Jason Jordan (@JayJayUSATODAY) August 30, 2015
Jason Jordan is a sportswriter for USA Today covering high school sports.
The report seemingly confirmed by Johnathan Milligan on his own twitter feed.
Now, aside from the confusion of such a late move and it coming out around midnight — and those are big asides — Milligan had signed with Florida Gulf Coast University back in April.
Jonathan Milligan, a 6-1 guard from Orlando and Kilgore College in Texas, has signed with FGCU to fill one of two scholarships opened up this week.
Milligan, who played at Word of God Christian Academy in high school, had offers from Tennessee and Creighton and interest from Marquette and N.C. State, according to jucorecruiting.com.
Milligan, eligible immediately, spent two seasons with the Kilgore, a two-time junior college national champion that saw two former players participate in this year’s NCAA tournament: Mississippi’s Stefan Moody and Wichita State’s Bush Wamukota. The Rangers were 21-9 in 2014-15.
Milligan can shoot. He averaged 14.3 ppg and 3.7 apg. His overall shooting was 48.3% and was a robust 40.2% on 3s.
So what happened to keep him out of FGCU? Well, this is where the flags start to rise.
Florida Gulf Coast University men’s basketball officials announced Wednesday that 6-foot-2 Jonathan Milligan of Kilgore (Texas) College did not qualify academically.
Milligan would’ve been eligible to play right away and was considered a contender to start and definitely was being counted on to stabilize the point guard position, which Brett Comer anchored the previous four seasons.
Milligan’s academic status came down to the buzzer, FGCU third-year coach Joe Dooley said.
FGCU started classes on August 19. The qualification issues seems to have been on the NCAA Clearinghouse side, not on FGCU clearing him academically.
Still it begs questions such as what has changed with his academic situation, and can he really qualify at Pitt? That seems to be more of a hang-up.
Re: Jonathan Milligan to Pitt, I would pump the brakes a bit. Someone from Pitt just told me "no, not true." Still possible but not done
— Matthew Steinbrink (@MattSteinbrink) August 30, 2015
Taking the news at face value, it can be looked at one of two ways (or more realistically a combination of both).
Half-full: Josh Newkirk leaving the program — and his abrupt decision to go to Indiana rather than “closer to home” — opened up a scholarship. Jamie Dixon sees a chance with a talented player that suddenly became available and is willing to at least try to have him join the team. If the academic stuff can be resolved, Pitt not only gets a player similar to Newkirk, but has him available for this year.
Half-empty: A bit of desperation, as the status of freshman point guard Damon Wilson is still undecided. The heralded point guard is in NCAA limbo with several of his high school teammates.
[Cheick] Diallo attended Our Savior New American (New York), which is currently under NCAA review. Pitt freshman Damon Wilson, another member of the Class of 2015, is still waiting to be cleared as well. On Sunday, Kassoum Yakwe reclassified and enrolled at St. John’s. His eligibility for the upcoming season is being called a “work in progress”.
Bill Self, the head coach of Kansas — where Diallo committed — indicated that it could be sometime in September before the NCAA makes a decision. Diallo was cleared by Kansas. Wilson has been cleared by Pitt, academically, and will begin taking classes this week. It’s whether the NCAA clears them.
The NCAA issue is whether the courses taken at OSNA will be certified by the NCAA. No one seems to know what the outcome will be. The cynical part of me, says that at the very least they will clear the kids for this year. Simply because there are too many higher profile programs involved. But…
I do see this as a combination. My first instinct when I saw the news, and a quick reading of Milligan’s status, made me lean towards the concerns with Damon Wilson’s status. Everyone knew Newkirk was out for the year, even before the transfer. Pitt appeared to have sufficient depth in the backcourt to not be a big issue. But losing Wilson for 2015-16 as well would trash that perspective.
On the other hand, Jamie Dixon has hardly been one to bank scholarships. He got handed an open slot late. There is a kid out there that is a short-term risk (2 years) with a decent potential for good returns. If he doesn’t qualify academically, there is no great loss overall. That seems exactly the kind of thing he would do.
I don’t know if Milligan ends up at Pitt. It’s hard to argue that he wouldn’t help for this year and next. It’s also hard to know if this is really going to happen.
We are going to become the transfer-in destination of the ACC. Sorry guys, I am NOT a snob, however, our recruiting for basketball is a DIDSASTER.
The fact Dixon is taking chances to be competitive immediately is a good sign. Dixon is trying to win now.
Give him a year with Barnes to see what happens. It may end up both Dixon and Pitt need a change of scenery but a competent AD may do wonders for Dixon too.
Barnes will see through any smoke and mirrors with easy schedules and padded results. He will quickly assess the strengths and weaknesses of his bball programs. He obviously sees a strength in our womens coach. Hopefully, he sees quality with Jamie and everything remains good, with a few tweaks at improving the program and the brand. Up tempo offense with an ability to defend the tin is a much needed tweak. ASAP Please!
sweetheart contract.
Much rather be talkin fooseball today!! lol
The core will continue to be the four juniors (Young, Artis, Jones and Jeter) and our point guard senior Robinson. The five have played lots of minutes together and will all play lots of minutes this year.
On August 25, Dokish tweeted (and I agree):
“Pitt basketball will be in the top 20 this year and Dixon will be named national coach of the year.”
Granted what we have seen the last few yrs. from Pitt has been sub par. No excuse about changing conference Syracuse, Louisville, and ND are doing fine.
Dixon, just didn’t recruit or couldn’t recruit the talent needed.
You will see a major change the next couple of yrs. It may be a lot of JC’s or transfers, but there will be better players. More players will leavde the program also.
This is “BIG” Business and they will run it that way. Lots of money involved.
Academics? That’s not a factor with any major program since the 60’s. Who are we kidding.
The other thing to think about is PItt does not have a chance to be pretty good. I t has a really good core of returnees … the question marks IMO are how the center by committee will performance as well as the back-up PG (whoever that is)
That’s where Jamie is right now. Utter desperation followed by
” deals with the devil”. Sad to watch how far this program has dropped.
The point I’m getting at is that Milligan passes the NCAA clearinghouse, then we shouldn’t question him as a viable student. I see ho reason why Pitt shouldn’t take a shot considering the unclear situation of D Wilson.
This team will surprise. It’s going to be pretty good. I’ve said before it matches up very well to past successful Pitt teams.
SP did Dixon no favors. SP was why Dixon couldn’t play a better schedule. SP was the reason why Dixon couldn’t spend more on assistants. SP was the reason Dixon didn’t have a very good recruiting budget.
Give Dixon a chance with Barnes to see what direction this goes. Like I said before, it may be time for a change of scenery for both parties … but something tells me that Dixon comes out of this pretty well.
When conditions are in constant flux, with variables changing all over the place, all of this historical pontificating used to predict the future is analogous to fortune telling with tarot cards.
Look it. The only relative constants from just last year is the bulk of Pitt’s current roster, our ACC schedule and our home field venue. The changes are a new Chancellor, now fully acclimated to his position and initiating his directives, a new athletic director, still just settling in, a new coaching staff, once again, and finally, something I haven’t felt for more than 40 years here at Pitt, that being the overtly communicated mandate by all of the above powers to be that the University is now committed and ready to do that which is required to make athletics here at Pitt a priority again. That is the current 800 lb gorilla in the room that invalidates all of this historical analysis of the three previous coaching regimes that have preceded Narduzzi’s.
Currently the University is locked and loaded, preparing to enter into a football program renaissance that will produce a new era of Pitt football not seen since the 1980s.This is not me alone just romanticising down memory lane aimlessly dreaming of the bygone glory days of when Pitt was a national powerhouse. This is what the people in power at Pitt want to see happen and apparently they are willing to do whatever it takes to make it reality.
That is why Narduzzi is going to be immediately successful here at Pitt, maybe not 10-2 successful that TT is demanding but 8-4 type middle of the road successful for this season. This will happen because of destiny. Sometimes things just come together and the magic spontaneously occurs. Those conditions currently exist. ACC $$$ flowing in, a stabilized program thanks to HCPC that has left a pretty potent offense in place that contains two All Americans and a seasoned veteran QB, a new AD that has something to prove and a energetic chancellor ready to orchestrate the entire production.
The weak link in this necessary immediate on the field success is the DEFENSE. Narduzzi is the right guy for that job. And I disagree with Reed here, because I feel that DC Conklin is playing the role of Narduzzi’s protégé currently and that this defense will bear Narduzzi’s stamp with Conklin’s approval.
This is why I took umbrage with Reed’s comments yesterday about the apprehensions that he has with Pitt’s opening opponent, YSU. I feel there is almost nothing that similar to the previous meeting between these two from three years ago other than we are indoctrinating a new coach once again and it’s our home opener. The suspensions of Boyd and Blair have been known about for weeks and we have the troops, although inexperienced, on this roster to provide the next man up necessary to defeat this weakest opponent on our schedule.
I have no idea who we will beat to get to 8-4 this season, but I do know that to start this campaign off on the right foot that we MUST beat YSU. And everybody else in the Pitt program from the ball boy to Chancellor Gallagher fully comprehend this as well. That is why the Penquins get Pitt’s full attention this Saturday, as well as a full dose of dearly deserved payback for Pitt’s historic fail from three years ago.
Hail to Pitt! Let the new Era begin.
I’m confused!!
H2PN! 1-0!!
