Every other year or so, Pitt’s non-con tournament is something of a dog. A couple years ago it was a Philly thing with LaSalle and Penn. This time it is the Legends Classic in something that is anything but.

The University of Pittsburgh basketball team is slated to compete in the 2013 Legends Classic, November 25 and 26 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Pitt will play two of three opponents: Houston, Stanford and/or Texas Tech. Those two games will be nationally televised on either ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.

In addition, Pitt will host two regional games as part of the Legends Classic at the Petersen Events Center. Those games will be played in Pittsburgh sometime between November 17-21. Game times and matchups will be announced at a later date.

On the plus side, unlike the last time when Pitt was in the “Legends Classic,” these games can actually be watched. In 2008, the thing was aired on HDNet (home of the CBI).

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Sheldon Jeter wanted Pitt to recruit him when he was a senior at Beaver Falls. He wanted to be a Panther. Pitt didn’t have a scholarship in the fall of his senior year. And after Khem Birch left abruptly, Coach Dixon looked long and hard at Jeter before going with Chris Jones. When more scholarship opened after the season, there was some interest in Jeter but it still seemed cool. Ultimately Pitt landed (what seemed like a great transfer at the time Trey Zeigler) and Jeter chose Vanderbilt. Still there was this mix of coy interest from Pitt even after the class was filled (and while Pitt was even pursuing Savon Goodman).

A year later Sheldon Jeter had a solid freshman year for Vandy. Well liked by the coaches and fans. Looked to be a promising player. But Jeter felt that family reasons needed him back home and he opted to transfer. He even appeared to get Vandy Coach Kevin Stallings blessing. By all accounts he still wanted to attend Pitt, and now Pitt wanted him. Even if he would have to sit out the year before being eligible.

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Dammit, I’m going to shoe-horn in the bad puns while I still can.

The formality that was supposed to be DeAndre Kane’s transfer to Pitt for as a graduate transfer, now is not.

However, the 6-foot-4 guard, a Pittsburgh native, did not wind up pulling the trigger, whether it was due to the fact that Panthers coach Jamie Dixon was non-committal about taking him at the time, or whether Kane just wasn’t enamored with the visit.

Now Kane told CBSSports.com that he is still open, with both Pittsburgh still under consideration and Memphis also in pursuit.

From my own perspective, I’m not exactly broken up by the possibility that Kane may not be coming to Pitt.

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So, Steven Adams had a good first day at the NBA Combine in Chicago. There’s speculation — early and idle though it may be — that Adams might be working his way into the 1st Round. Perhaps even the lottery portion.

This is good. Pitt hasn’t had a player go in the first round since Vonteego Cummngs. There hasn’t been a high first round Pitt player selected since Charles Smith.

You would think this would be a good thing. That Pitt is not just turning out good college players, but NBA talent.

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If there was any doubt that J.J. Moore was leaving Pitt, Coach Jamie Dixon took care of that today.

Pitt men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon said Tuesday that he is trying to help forward J.J. Moore find a new school for his final season of eligibility.

Dixon said he doesn’t know if Moore, who turns 22 next week, has filed transfer papers with Pitt.

“We are trying to help him find a school,” Dixon said. “We are trying to help him find the right place.”

Unanswered is not simply where he is heading, but why. The obvious issue would be playing time, but it still doesn’t make sense for a senior to transfer when he has to sit another year. The fact that Moore may or may not have even filed transfer papers adds to the confusion. I have trouble believing Dixon is pushing him out of the program, yet there are so many missing pieces of information to this story that it can’t be considered a possibility.

Dixon also said Cam Wright is taking summer courses — but if you want to read into things, it isn’t exactly saying that Wright isn’t or didn’t think about a transfer. Of course, Wright lost his father this past season. It wouldn’t be outrageous for him to be thinking about transferring to a school like Akron, Kent St. or Cleveland St. if he wanted to be closer to the rest of his family in Cleveland.

This might be the last year for the graduate transfer rule. Or any transfer that would allow players to be immediately eligible to play right away. At least if the college basketball coaches have their way.

But if the members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches board of directors get their way, all transfers will have to sit out a year, regardless of their issue. There was apparently only one dissenting vote when the group met last week to discuss the issue and suggest to the NCAA a change.

The “transfer free agency” that has overrun college basketball is a direct result of waivers and loopholes that were added to the books a few years ago with good intentions but have netted mixed results.

Of the two most controversial waivers, one allows players to play immediately if they have an ill relative within 100 miles of their home. The other — the one being taken advantage of more and more this spring — allows players to graduate early and seek a master’s degree not offered at their present institution.

Working against the college basketball coaches is that the rules they oppose also apply to all other NCAA sports, so it may not be the easiest thing for them to get changed.

But it is nothing new for the NABC to seek to protect their own interests first.

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It’s not that I hate that DeAndre Kane is transferring to Pitt. Afterall, he is intending to be a graduate transfer so it is a one-year deal. Meaning he isn’t tying up the scholarship beyond 2013-14. That is assuming he passes the two courses he has to take, but why worry about academics with Kane. I mean he only needed an extra year of prep school and still wasn’t able to be academically eligible at Marshall (!?) as a freshman. How could anyone be worried?

Well, there are chemistry/personality issues.

It’s just a hunch, but I reckon Kane didn’t receive a letter of recommendation from Herrion after last month’s falling out.

Just in case you felt the statement from Tom Herrion on Kane leaving was nebulous.

Marshall coach Tom Herrion cut loose DeAndre Kane because he was tired of his act.

Now, just because he and Herrion clashed is not enough to say he’s a big risk. Herrion, himself, can be quite prickly. Especially when the team struggles. And Marshall was a big disappointment last year.

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Okay, so as the match-ups for the ACC-Big Ten Challenge were being leaked this morning, it became clear that Pitt wasn’t going to land one of the heavyweights from the B1G. That’s not surprising. Pitt will not be considered in the preseason as one of the top 5 or 6 teams in the ACC. So, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan St., Ohio St. and Indiana weren’t going to be likely opponents. Among the best of the rest there would have been Iowa, Illinois and Purdue. But Iowa and Purdue got leaked and their opponents were not Pitt.

So, more and more likely it was going to be a Pennsylvania battle.

And indeed it will be. Penn State comes to the Pete on Tuesday, December 3.

Now the Nits will be better than they were this past year. They have a bunch of decent players coming back from injury, including Tim Frazier.

But, from helping the overall strength of Pitt’s non-con schedule it won’t do much.  So that’s the bad news. Also John Johnson won’t be eligible to play for Penn State for that game.

I’m still relatively happy with the game. There really was no reason for Pitt and Penn State to stop playing basketball. Other than the fact that Penn State was really tired of being embarrassed. Hopefully this will be the spark to renew this as an annual game.

Remember DeAndre Kane? A one-time teammate of DeJuan Blair and D.J. Kennedy at Schenley? Jamie Dixon always liked Kane. He recruited him despite his academic struggles. Originally Kane was supposed to be part of (someone’s) 2009 class. But he needed prep school so it became 2010 when he actually was a freshman at Marshall.

He’s a graduate transfer. He has one more year of eligibility left, and it came down to USC and Pitt. The 6-4 guard has decided that his years of knowing Dixon and coming home was the pick.

The Marshall transfer, who hails from Pittsburgh, told CBSSports.com that he will commit to Jamie Dixon and the Panthers this weekend on a visit. Kane returned from a trip to USC this past weekend, and also considered Saint Mary’s, but said the chance to play at home and in the ACC was too much to pass up.

“It’s a perfect situation for me,” Kane told CBSSports.com.

Kane averaged 15.1 points and seven assists last season for the Thundering Herd…

He provides offense, but this is still a gamble in my view.

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Pitt had Joseph Uchebo as one of its top targets this off season. Even before Steve Adams decided to go pro, he was someone they were pursuing. They needed to find help in the front court.

I know it has been a rough end of the season and off-season so far for Pitt. It has frazzled and worn many of you down to the point where you can’t recognize an obvious, slightly sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek comment. So, just to clarify: the rehiring of Barry Rohrssen had nothing to do with finally getting a commitment from Uchebo. None. He is a good recruiter, but the idea that within a few days of hiring he could cold-call a kid he never met or recruited and been the one to sway him. I don’t even… You would have to ask how Pitt “only” got the players they did get when Rohrssen was working for Pitt before.

Several teams were after Uchebo. He had gotten it down to Pitt, Minnesota, Nebraska and Oklahoma State. Even NC State seemed to be making a push to once more get him (perhaps because another former NC State recruit and JUCO teammate, Torian Graham is someone they might still be pursuing).

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Clearly this was the immediate impact of rehiring Barry Rohrssen as an assistant. It certainly couldn’t have been anything else involved in recruiting a kid for the last few weeks. Uchebo is going to be coming to Pitt.

So, there is some help on the big man front.

The rumors of Barry Rohrssen’s return have been swirling for a couple of weeks. To be honest, it has been hard to separate fact from wishful thinking that has been put out there. But it seems that Jamie Dixon is indeed bringing back Slice.

Sources confirmed Thursday night that Barry “Slice” Rohrssen will rejoin Dixon’s staff as an assistant coach, replacing Pat Sandle, an original member of Dixon’s staff who spent the past decade with the program.

That detail is surprising. Sandle first started with Pitt in 1999 under Ben Howland. The LA native left for a couple years to be an assistant at UCLA under Lavin. Of course, Lavin was fired by UCLA who hired Howland and Sandle was not retained. And when Dixon became the Pitt head coach, he hired Sandle.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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