Well, the various AAU and shoe camps are getting underway for the summer. First up, the ABCD camp sponsored by Reebok.
Everywhere you looked, there was greatness, coaches and players alike.
Florida coach Billy Donovan was seen standing near an entrance to the gymnasium, with Seton Hall’s Louis Orr, Louisville’s Rick Pitino and Bill Self of Kansas also in clear view. Later on came Thad Matta of Ohio State and Paul Hewitt of Georgia Tech, among others.
There were head coaches, assistant coaches and volunteer coaches.
And there were many, many college prospects just waiting to show what they could do.
Meanwhile, Rohrssen, the Pitt assistant who has been a recruiting machine in recent years for the Panthers, waited patiently for a chance to watch the list of Pitt recruits on hand, including Aliquippa High School star Herb Pope, who will enter next season as one of the top juniors in the country.
Pope already had given Pitt a verbal commitment near the conclusion of his sophomore season, and it only stood to reason that Rohrssen was doing his best babysitting routine, all the while being careful not to come in contact with any player.
The NCAA would have something to say about that.
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Things are different, perhaps for the worse, where coaches are concerned. The NCAA in recent years has made changes which include prohibiting coaches from having contact with high school recruits for all but a very short period of time. Long gone are the days of attending a player’s high school game.“This is a major evaluation time of the year,” Orr said. “You spend more time on the go now than during the rest of the year. It’s definitely not a vacation.”
The work continues this week, and the coaches will be shuttling between the Reebok event and Nike- and addidas-sponsored camps in Indianapolis and Suwanee, Ga., doing their best impersonation of a babysitter.
The whole thing is such a farce. Coaches aren’t allowed to talk to or discuss the kids or their coaches. They can, though, sit in the stands and be seen. Not sure if miming is permitted.
Herb Pope isn’t the only reason for Associate Head Coach Barry Rohrssen to be at the ABCD Camp.
Among the other campers included on Pitt’s recruiting wish list are are 6-9 Mike Davis , from Notre Dame Academy in Brooklyn, N.Y.; 6-10, 285-pound Casiem Drummond , from Bloomfield Tech in West Orange, N.J.; 6-5, 225-pound Paul Harris , from Niagara Falls (N.Y.); 6-0, 160-pound Eugene Harvey , from St. Benedict’s Prep School in Brooklyn; 6-4, 190-pound DJ Kennedy , from Schenley; 6-3, 190-pound Brian McKenzie, from Xaverian in Brooklyn; and 6-6, 220-pound Rob Thomas , from South Kent in New York.
Former Panther, now Golden State Warrior, Chris Taft will be playing in the Reebok Vegas Summer League in Las Vegas. Play begins on Friday.
Jay Bilas, gets a little defensive about his own performance on ESPN’s draft night coverage (Insider Subs.).
After reading Bill Simmons, I must have used the term “long” too much. Well, I like that term. It really is a great descriptive basketball term, and it really means something in the evaluation of a player.
I really don’t care how tall a player is — it is how tall the player plays. What difference does it make how long a guy’s neck is? Unless he blocks shots with his ears, it is much better to be “long” than tall. Guys who play long can cover more ground with their wingspans and cause more problems.
Sadly for you readers, Bill Simmons is not particularly “long” as a writer. He’ll never be a first-round pick without length, but does have upside potential. By the way, does he still live with his dad, or do they just get together to bust my chops during the draft?
Kind of sad. Here’s the problem with Bilas and “long.” It was too vague and meaningless. Of course, Bilas was also ranking the “intangibles” of prospects on a scale of 1-5. Think about it.
The term, “long” started getting tossed around a little last summer when Tayshaun Prince emerged for Detroit in the playoffs. Everyone started describing his defense and shot-blocking in terms of the length of his arms — hence “long.” In that respect it was a decent descriptor of Prince’s unique physical characteristic — his disturbingly long arms — that allowed him to keep a shooter in front of him while still making it hard to get a shock. It is a unique characteristic — that Prince utilizes effectively. Therefore, continually calling nearly every draftee “long” devalues it.
I actually think Bilas is a solid college basketball analyst and color guy. He sucked, though, on draft night.
Returning to Bilas’s strange defensiveness over his draft night performance, he now hedges on Villanueva — writing that he merely thought Toronto drafting him at #7 was “too high.” Uh, yeah. He also addresses the way he killed Chris Taft.
I like Chris Taft, the “should-be rising junior” from Pittsburgh. Taft is a fine athlete with good potential (and he’s really “long”), but he never was a first-round pick.
If Taft wanted to leave school to be a pro, irrespective of whether he would be drafted, and made his decision with his eyes open and with complete information, I support his decision. If he left because of the promise of being a first-round pick, he was misled and misinformed and took an unnecessary risk with his career.
Taft is a good prospect, but he is unskilled and immature as a player. He needs time and focused work on his game to be a productive NBA pro. That does not mean he cannot make it in the league — far from it.
The draft is not about whether a player can play in the NBA. A lot of guys are good enough to stick in the league, whether drafted or not. The draft is about whether a player will be selected to play in the NBA and whether a team will make a commitment to that player.
Taft, Matt Walsh, Anthony Roberson, Randolph Morris, Louis Williams, Monta Ellis, Amir Johnson, Andray Blatche and many others made major miscalculations in thinking they were first-round picks. All might make it anyway, but they paid a high price by throwing in early. What a mess.
Dude, you need a thicker skin.
