Today the Post-Gazette follows the Tribune-Review‘s lead and does their article on Page’s offensive problems this year. I have to say, and this is probably a perception/subjective thing more than actual proof, that the Trib has been superior in their coverage, analysis and columns on Pitt sports. Both tend to use similar themes, but the Trib publishes the stories faster. The P-G is slower, giving less priority.

The Trib does a story on Notre Dame’s own star player with shooting problems. Point guard Chris Thomas, who last time torched Pitt for 29 points. Right now he’s in a major slump going a combined 8-36 in their last two games, 2-15 from 3-point land. Not surprisingly, ND lost those two games. As the Chicago Sun-Times points out, his poor play has been the reason that ND has fallen far short of pre-season expectations and why they are fighting for their tournament life.

Of course, Chris Quinn has really stepped up this year for Notre Dame — another Quinn bailing out an ND team.

The struggles of Thomas, though point out the risk/reward of relying or being carried by one player. It’s why Pitt has only lost once this season. No one player is the only option at crunch time. With this team, the ball could easily be in Krauser, Troutman, Taft, Page or Brown’s hands and you would like the chances.

Of course the reward is when that one key guy is on, he’s unstoppable (see, Wade, Dwayne, Marquette 2002-2003; also, Nelson, Jameer, St. Joe’s 2003-2004), and he can carry the entire team on his back. The thought of Pitt running into a team like Marquette with their best player on fire in the tournament again, gives me cold sweats.

Last month, Pitt came from behind and then held on to beat Notre Dame. Tomorrow, 7 pm on ESPN2, they play in South Bend.

Pitt is still hot, while Notre Dame has lost 3 out of 4. They are desperate for a win. They are at home, which is one of the few places Pitt hasn’t won in recent years.

Notre Dame has played well against good teams, but has fallen short. Most recently was last week’s loss to Kentucky.

Pitt’s game notes are here (big PDF file).

If you want to look for something disturbing, check the box on page 4, “WHERE PITTSBURGH RANKS NATIONALLY
IN THE 2003-04 NCAA STATISTICS.” Pitt is ranked 297 out of 321 at 62.4% in free throws. The team can keep spinning the lines about how they make ’em when they have to (as Dixon said after the last ND game), but this will cost them; and as the season gets later the time it when it costs could be huge.

If you want to have a weird sort of fun listening to the game tomorrow, listen for these game themes as promoted by the Pitt athletic department.

At 7-1, Pittsburgh is off to best all-time start in Big East play.

Pittsburgh enters the contest with a nation-leading 21 wins. The program reached the 20 win plateau for a school record third consecutive season.

Pittsburgh’s seniors Jaron Brown, Toree Morris and Julius Page are 0-3 all-time at Notre Dame. Notre Dame has claimed each of the last five games against Pittsburgh in the Joyce Center.

Pittsburgh’s defense leads the way as it has held 15 of 22 opponents under 60 points and 19 of 22 under 70 points.

National Coach of the Year candidate Jamie Dixon is the first rookie head coach since Bill Hodges (1978-79) to begin a season with 18 consecutive wins. The national record is 33 consecutive wins by Hodges’ Larry Bird-led ISU team.

One of the things that has been a bit troublesome for Pitt, though it too, hasn’t cost them a game yet, has been the struggling Julius Page. It seems as if he hasn’t been in rythm all year. As if that ankle has never fully healed and has deprived him of a lot of his explosiveness.

Julius Page played only 22 minutes against St. John’s because of foul trouble and because he “tweaked” his troublesome left ankle, which he injured in the preseason.

Though, no one has used it as an excuse. His continual struggles have been noticed. I recommend the article, if for no other reason, it was something I was actually getting ready to write on considering Page’s 4-point, 1-6 shooting against St. Johns.

Finally, I don’t have much to say on the incident with St. John’s players and an over-the-hill stripper (I’d put 38, at way past the prime in terms of stripping) who was at Club Erotica in McKees Rocks outside of Pittsburgh (partial disclosure, I’ve been there for a bachelor party). The only reason I mention it is that on “Pardon the Interruption” on ESPN this evening, they were brought it up with Digger Phelps. Phelps said that St. John’s needed to hire Pitt assistant coach Barry Rohrssen. This is the sort of thing I’ve been worrying about. Give him a big raise now.

Pitt vs. Georgia in the 1982 Sugar Bowl is on ESPN Classic tonight at 9. It will be shown a couple more times in the wee hours. Not so surprisingly, this depresses me.

In today’s edition, the Centre Daily Times — which is State College’s newspaper, for those of you who don’t know Central PA — finally weighed in on Anthony Morelli’s dumping Pitt for Penn State. In a surprisingly balanced piece given the euphoria gripping Happy Valley over Morelli, CDT sports columnist Heather Dinich splashes a little cold water on Lion Fan.

But first, Dinich sets the scene in State College this week.

At 77, Penn State football coach Joe Paterno can still sell snow to an Eskimo. Even more impressive, he can still sell a 3-9 program to a nationally-ranked quarterback.

Still a teenager, Penn Hills senior Anthony Morelli is already being hailed by some as the player to turn around a team that recently finished its worst season in the program’s 116-year history.

“See everyone? No need to worry!” read one post on the Blue White Illustrated Internet message board Wednesday, when players signed binding contracts to their respective schools.

“Now I can get to sleep!” read another.

“Welcome Anthony the Great!” yet another.

Less than two months ago, the cry of “Joe must go” rang out through the valley. Now Paterno is the “closer,” the man who’s “still got it.” A top-notch class of 25 recruits, none of whom have decommitted, proves he never lost it.

But then Heather points out that recruiting has hardly been the problem at Penn State since that pivotal loss to Minnesota in 1999.

It’s how that talent develops on the field that has become questionable… Keep in mind the class of 2000 was ranked third in the nation. Junior Zack Mills, part of that signing class, has had the misfortune of hearing the expectations turn to boos as quickly as the next hero arrives. He knows how tough it is to be a Penn State quarterback in a town where fans turn quicker than a Porsche.

Exactly. Penn State’s stellar showing in last year’s NFL draft was proof enough for me that talent isn’t the problem up the road. It’s player development. And Jay Paterno, Penn State’s Quarterbacks Coach, is held by myself and many others to be the weakest link in PSU’s player development system. Seriously, when was the last time that a quarterback left Penn State any better than he was when he showed up there? Exactly. Just before Daddy hired Jay.

Dinich then makes the same mistake that Blue White Illustrated made yesterday.

The headline in Thursday’s Harrisburg Patriot-News deemed Morelli a “face saver.” All of a sudden, with his commitment, Penn State has one of the top 10 recruiting classes in the nation, according to some.

According to who, exactly? In the teens doesn’t quite equal top ten, dear. But that small quibble aside, Dinich finishes up with a good question for the next loudmouthed Nittany Lion fan that you meet.

Who is Morelli going to throw to? [And] over his four-year high school career, Morelli’s completion percentage was just 45 percent. [brackets mine]

The few half-assed, ball-dropping receivers that Penn State did have last season have either graduated (e.g., the drunk driving Tony Johnson) or been tossed off the team for whichever crime is popular this week in a small town with nothing else to do (e.g., the thug Maurice Humphries). And they didn’t get squat for receivers in their “top ten” recruiting class. So either the old guy who can sell snow to an Eskimo has got to quickly convince some hot prospects that Penn State is suddenly “Wide Receiver U” or Morelli’s completion percentage ain’t going nowhere but down.

And just wait until this allegedly slow kid gets his first look at some of the defenses that he’ll face in the Big Ten — some of the most complex in college football. Ohio State (even without Mark Dantonio), Michigan, and Iowa, in particular, are gonna score more picks on this poor schmoe than a banjo player on crack.

…unless, that is, JoePa and Little JayPa can pull off a trick that they haven’t pulled off in years. Legitimate quarterback development.

Hail to my wife not finding any more of my Nittany Lion bashing on this site. Jeez, did I get a nasty look last night…

(Come to think of it, I don’t learn very well, do I?)

Maybe I wasn’t paying attention, but I just noticed this little event for today on the Pitt calendar

Team Pittsburgh – National Letter of Intent Day – Football
Start Date: Thursday, February 05, 2004
Start Time: 07:00 PM
End Date: Thursday, February 05, 2004
Location: Petersen Events Center

This annual event is exclusive to TEAM PITTSBURGH members, and will take place the day immediately following the signing period for football recruits – National Letter of Intent Day. For more information on how to join TEAM PITTSBURGH and support the Panther Athletic Scholarship Fund – and how to get an invitation for this event, hosted by Head Football Coach Walt Harris – please call the TEAM PITTSBURGH office at 412-648-8889.

I’ll bet this will be an interesting night. I’m guessing Walt’s steeling himself for this one. It would be nice if someone who was a Team Pittsburgh Member attended and provided a report. If only we knew someone. Isn’t that right, Pat?

First, I think it’s cute that BlueWhite Illustrated and its editor — Phil Grosz — state in today’s top story that “there is no denying the fact that the Nittany Lions will have one of the top 10 recruiting classes in the country” when every recruiting analyst that I’ve seen — including their own freakin’ website — has them ranked in the teens.

Second, anybody who thinks that Penn State somehow has better “academics” than the University of Pittsburgh should read this post from last August (and more importantly, the accompanying article from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review). I bring this up only because Anthony Morelli cited “academics” as a reason for eschewing Pitt for Penn State.

Finally, how sad do these other posts from last August seem now?

This is obviously going to be a long and kind of painful post. So let me start off with a positive note. We sure looked good against St. Johns last night, didn’t we?

OK, let’s start off with Rivals.com, which seems to be everyone’s favorite recruiting analysis organization. And why not? Because Rivals is composed of analysts representing practically every major university (including Pitt), it tends to cancel out its own biases. Furthermore, it is the only network that I’ve seen which ranks the recruiting classes all the way up to #124. This is important for fans of schools like Pitt, which will obviously be out of the top 25 this year (@#%*@#! Morelli & Johnson). So here’s Rivals.com’s final ranking of the 2004 football recruiting classes.

1 Southern California
2 LSU
3 Florida State
4 Miami-FL
5 Michigan
6 Georgia
7 Florida
8 Oklahoma
9 Ohio State
10 Texas
11 Tennessee
12 Oregon
13 Texas A&M
14 Penn State
15 Alabama
16 Michigan State
17 Maryland
18 Kansas State
19 Washington
20 Purdue
21 Auburn
22 Arkansas
23 California
24 Boston College
25 Washington State…

32 Notre Dame
40 Virginia
41 Virginia Tech
43 South Florida
47 West Virginia
48 PITTSBURGH
52 Rutgers
54 Syracuse
64 Louisville
80 Cincinnati
124 Georgetown (I knew that somebody would want to know who came in dead last)

(I highlighted Miami, Penn State, and Ohio State because (1) I wanted to show how much Johnson’s commitment would help the Hurricanes (four spaces since Tuesday), (2) I wanted to show how much Morelli’s commitment would help the Nittany Lions (two spaces since Tuesday), and (3) if this crap keeps up, Ohio State will be my only alma mater that can @#%*@#! play big time football. How depressing is that, given Pitt’s prestige at certain points this past fall [when we were admittedly overrated]?)

So how bad does that suck? In December, our football recruiting class was competing with Penn State’s. Now we’ve fallen behind both the Hoopies and (gulp!) the South Florida Bulls.

For those of you who are only interested in Pitt football recruiting, you can pretty much skip the rest of this post. Like I said above, none of the other recruiting services go beyond the top 25.

On SportsCenter last night, ESPN’s Tom Lemming gave his top ten recruiting classes as follows: 1. USC, 2. LSU, 3. Michigan, 4. Ohio State, 5. Miami, 6. Oklahoma, 7. Florida State, 8. Texas A&M, 9. Texas, and 10. Tennessee.

TheInsiders.com‘s top 25 football recruiting classes (via Fox Sports) goes like this: 1. USC, 2. LSU, 3. Miami, 4. FSU, 5. Michigan, 6. Georgia, 7. Oklahoma, 8. Florida, 9. Tennessee, 10. Texas, 11. Ohio State, 12. Penn State, 13. Michigan State, 14. Texas A&M, 15. Oregon, 16. Maryland, 17. Texas Tech, 18. UNC, 19. Alabama, 20. N.C. State, 21. Washington State, 22. Washington, 23. Arizona State, 24. UCLA, and 25. Virginia. Since TheInsiders.com never listed Pitt’s recruiting class in its top 25 at any point this year (even when we actually deserved it), I could care less about this outfit.

Finally, we have the Official College Sports Network‘s top 25 football recruiting classes by ESPN’s Bill Hodge. Hodge’s ranking is always the first to come out, and was by far the kindest to Pitt throughout most of this season. Before Christmas, Pitt was ranked as high as #14. But we fell to #18 by January 4, #22 by January 16, and #25 by January 28. Now, of course, we’re unranked.

No. 1 Southern California
No. 2 LSU
No. 3 Florida State
No. 4 Miami-Florida
No. 5 Michigan
No. 6 Oklahoma
No. 7 Georgia
No. 8 Florida
No. 9 Ohio State
No. 10 Texas
Tie No. 10 Tennessee
No. 12 Texas A&M
No. 13 Oregon
No. 14 Penn State
No. 15 Michigan State
No. 16 Alabama
No. 17 Maryland
No. 18 Washington
No. 19 California
No. 20 Purdue
No. 21 Missouri
No. 22 Washington State
No. 23 Kansas State
No. 24 Nebraska
No. 25 Notre Dame

OK, enough of the minutia and the kicking ourselves. I’m through with recruiting class rankings for this year. I’m gonna grab a cup of coffee, brace myself, grab today’s copy of the Altoona Mirror, and see what that idiot Neil Rudel has to say about Pitt’s latest humiliation at the hands of the mighty Nittany Lions.

God, I hate Penn State.

That was the 2004 National Letter of Intent day for college football.

Lots of material in both the Post-Gazette and the Tribune-Review (by the way, don’t you think it’s time both papers gave up the hyphenated titles and choose just one part?).

First the straight news. Coach Walt Harris was somewhat defensive and trying to spin the recruiting class and all the last minute losses. Actually, most of the discussion centered on lost recruits

Harris lost his prized WPIAL recruits, as Penn Hills quarterback Anthony Morelli signed with Penn State and North Hills tailback Andrew Johnson with Miami.

Reading All-American linebacker James Bryant, who had indicated to Pitt coaches in June that he was coming, signed instead with Miami. And receiver Johnny Peyton (South Florida) and cornerback Alphonso Smith (Wake Forest) made stunning last-minute decisions at news conferences.

“We were excited about those young men,” Harris said, “but if they feel like someplace else they’ll get coached better or like the university better, we wish them well and hope they accomplish their dreams.

“We’re going to move on with our group.”

Harris appeared to want to put the blame on other schools and their recruiting methods.

Neither Johnson nor Morelli, once believed to be the cornerstones of the class, informed Pitt coaches of their decision. While Johnson picked his childhood favorite — calling Miami his “best chance to the NFL” — Morelli expressed concern over Harris’ job status.

“I really like coach Harris and believed he could get me to the NFL,” Morelli said, “but you can’t make a decision on the coach because he might leave.”

That caused Harris to use the platform to berate his peers for their “negative recruiting” and call for an early signing period. Harris said opposing recruiters used rumors regarding his job status, as well as the departures of several assistants and the changing makeup of the Big East Conference, to influence Panthers recruits to reconsider their decisions.

“Our kids that have committed have been totally abused by other schools,” Harris said. “We try to take the high road in every situation and not get into negative recruiting.”

Two things. One, how sad is it that Morelli claims (not believes, but claims) that a 77-year old coach who was the subject of national questions as to how much longer he can stay around as head coach of PSU was more stable in his position than Harris? Is he truly that stupid or was that all he had to work with in spinning the decision?

Two, I don’t buy it for a minute that Harris and Pitt recruiting doesn’t use “negative recruiting.” If it was actually true, I want Harris gone now because he truly would be an idiot. That said, the fact that Pitt couldn’t see the negative whisperings coming and counter it really bothers me. Of course people were going to keep wooing these kids. Pitt helped open the door with its on the field performance.

In the analysis of Pitt’s class, well…

“I think Pitt’s class would have to go down as one of the most disappointing classes of the year, along with Notre Dame, Colorado and Auburn,” said Allen Wallace of Super Prep magazine. “I know some college coaches who question how good Morelli is, but it’s still a big blow to lose those two.”

Bobby Burton of Rivals100.com said, “I think what hurts Pitt more than anything is just the mentality and the perception, no matter how good Johnson and Morelli really are.”

Burton and Wallace said Pitt’s class doesn’t appear to be as good as the past few Harris has put together.

“We’d probably rank them somewhere between 40 and 50 nationally,” Wallace said. “For Pitt, I’d say it’s a below-average class.”

As was also pointed out in an article. The status of the reconfiguring Big East had mixed results. The teams that will be joining did very, very well; while the old guard seemed to be hurt.

In the commentaries there was a very incoherent piece from Smizik. He knew it was a bad day for Pitt, but he couldn’t bring himself to put his finger on why — other than the flux in the Big East.

The same can’t be said for Starkey’s caustic piece. He puts the blame squarely on Coach Walt Harris.

A better title for a movie reflecting the state of Pitt’s football program might be one Brando already starred in: “Apocalypse Now.”

Spin it any way you like, Pitt lost arguably the top five players on its recruiting list, all of whom had indicated to the coaching staff they were headed this way.

Losing them has to fall on the boss.
…
Morelli might have delivered the knockout blow on Harris, because he didn’t just choose another school. He chose Dear Old State.

He chose Joe Paterno.

Essentially, Harris sat and watched while a 77-year-old man broke into his house and stole the keys to his brand-new Mazerati.

Can’t you just see JoePa — not exactly the picture of stability himself these days — driving that thing back to State College, cackling madly all the way?

Oh, the horror.

2003-2004 has to be one of Harris’ worst years. Pitt had high expectations that crashed. His in game coaching was exposed all season — again. His supposed real strength — recruiting — took a major blow. And I think it is safe to say that most of the local media has just about had it with him and his constant position of “Not my fault.”

Oh, and he lost another coach from his staff.

Pitt assistant Bob Ligashesky left his position as special teams/tight ends coach to become the assistant special teams coach for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. His departure comes on the heels of the hiring of Mike Kent as the Panthers’ new strength coach.

Ligashesky is the fourth Panthers assistant to leave coach Walt Harris’ staff since the end of the season. Offensive coordinator J.D. Brookhart became the head coach at Akron, running backs coach Dino Babers moved to UCLA, and strength coach Dave Kennedy accepted the same position at Nebraska.

Think that kind of turnover might have hurt in keeping recruits?

Here is Pitt’s official commitment list.

Two themes were reported about Pitt’s 71-51 beating of St. Johns. First was the NYC flavor of Pitt with Krauser, Taft and McCarroll — but especially Krauser. The other theme was that St. Johns gave up, didn’t seem to want to play.

The most eye-opening stretch occurred during the final 9:43 of the first half, when St. John’s was outscored 20-3 for a 19-point deficit. The Red Storm never got closer than 17 points.

“I guess we took it for granted,” Elijah Ingram said. “I guess we thought since we won one game we could slack off.”

It didn’t help that three Panthers who were critical to the win are from New York City. Brooklyn’s Chris Taft (Xaverian) had 15 points; The Bronx’s Carl Krauser (Notre Dame Academy) had 9 points, 9 assists and 7 rebounds; and Queens’ Mark McCarroll (Christ the King) scored eight points in 13 minutes.

Even they were surprised St. John’s didn’t put up a fight.

“I was real shocked because New York City guards and New York City players in general are like the toughest players out of all cities,” said Krauser, a sophomore point guard. “We never quit. We’re really competitive. I was definitely surprised to see those guys back down and not play a full 40-minute game.”

Pitt played a completely dominating game; and, despite having a week off between games, Coach Dixon used his bench liberally. No starter, except for Jaron Brown, exceeded 30 minutes of playing time. I mean Demetrius was actually in the game for 13 minutes. Torree Morris was in for 11. Unbelievable.

Pitt is confident, poised and making no secret of their goals this year. Conversely, some see another dangerous set of games for Pitt. They are approaching another tough stretch of games: at Notre Dame, at Seton Hall and the UConn rematch. Should be another good week of b-ball.

What makes losing Morelli and Johnson so galling is not just that they were lost to Penn State and Miami. It’s that they were lost to teams that recruited with serious numbers at that position. For Penn State, via Tom Lemming on ESPN

The first big news on Signing Day is QB Anthony Morelli’s switch from Pittsburgh to Penn State. This has been rumored for a while and is a huge get for the Nittany Lions, who had been struggling after a fast start. The strong-armed QB will combine with LB Dan Connor will be the cornerstones of Penn State’s class, which will be moving up my top 25. One other interesting note is that the Nittany Lions have six QBs in the class, which is something I’ve never heard of. It leaves me wondering if any of the others have time to change.

[Emphasis added.]

From what I understand, 2 of the QBs will be changing positions. Still.

And Miami, though. Check out their commit list.

Not only do they have 3 other RBs on the list. Two of them were ranked higher than Johnson.

What that says about Pitt’s desirability. That kids would choose to go to a school where it will be even harder to break the depth chart than come to Pitt. Not good for recruiting perception. Or reality, period.

It wouldn’t be right not to Let Morelli ride off into the sunset with his dreams of being the latest in the great line of Penn State QBs like Kerry Collins, and, um, uh, Todd Blackledge, and … well I’m sure the numbers are legion. Anyways, the point is, Morelli did have something to say about his decision. I mean, he is a serious student with dreams of academic achievement.

“There were a lot of things Penn State had to offer as far as academics,” said Morelli who plans to major in kinesiology. “It was about more than football. It opened my eyes. I thought that this was the place I needed to be.”

Uh, kinesiology? He wants to study to be a phys. ed. teacher? Well, I guess Penn State is the place.

I guess it just came down to the coaching. Right?

“I liked Pitt alot,” Morelli said. “I like coach Harris. He’s a great coach and I believe he can get me to the NFL. But you can’t base your decision on a coach.”

So it’s the institution, not the coach? Well, actually that kind of makes sense in this case.

Confirming what was expected, James Bryant a blue-chip linebacker from Reading, PA, signed his LOI with Miami despite his brother Sam playing for Pitt. He also would have had an immediate impact at Pitt. Here is a list of players who are or have signed with Pitt.

I’m confused because Darrell Strong, who by all accounts was going to Auburn because they promised him a chance to play QB (rather than TE), but he is listed on Pitt and with a signed LOI checkmark. This could be an error. Hmmm. He’s not listed on Auburn’s LOI list.

Blue-White Illustrated is finally reporting what most of us already knew was a foregone conclusion: former Panther recruiting class headliner Penn Hills Quarterback Anthony Morelli has reneged on his commitment and will instead sign with the Penn State Nittany Lions. ESPN just confirmed it. Ouch.

I had been holding out a faint glimmer of hope.

I know that losing fellow former Panther blue chip recruit, North Hills star running back, and seventeenth President of the United States Andrew Johnson to the Miami Hurricanes will technically hurt Pitt football more than losing Morelli to Penn State. But still, living in Central Pennsylvania and being married to a Nittany Lion alumnus, employee, and proud fan, losing Morelli will hurt me more.

Well, good luck Tony. Since Kerry Collins graduated a decade ago, your new alma mater has destroyed quarterback talent far more often than it has ever developed that talent into anything greater than it was when it left high school. Other blue chip signal callers have committed to Penn State before you. And from Rashard Casey to Zack Mills, they’ve all gone practically nowhere. Perhaps Penn State Quarterback Coach Jay Paterno — obviously hired for his coaching acumen and not for any other self-apparent reasons — will finally turn the corner with you.

But you won’t get any help from your new offensive line or wide receivers. Penn State is practically bereft at those positions.

In closing, I look forward to my other alma mater blitzing your sorry ass deep into the turf of Ohio Stadium.

Looks like Pitt has whiffed in the end on Morelli and Johnson from Penn Hills (no link).

Now, Pitt has lost a wide receiver to the University of South Florida Bulls. Johnny Peyton is staying local.

I came across this article about how Penn State will most likely be starting several of their incoming recruits next year

Toward the end of another troubled season, Penn State coach Joe Paterno spoke excitedly about the Nittany Lions’ incoming freshman class of football recruits.

To longtime Paterno observers, that was somewhat astonishing because the 77-year-old legend had long held to a tenet: If you depend on freshmen, you have problems.

Of course Paterno once believed that if you blame refs for a loss then you didn’t deserve to win.

Times change.

Of course, I guess that means JoePa won’t be putting his support behind another coaching legend (who had the good sense to retire) who seeks to make freshmen ineligible.

Former ACC coaches Terry Holland and Dean Smith expressed serious concern Monday over the state of college athletics and renewed their push to make freshmen ineligible.
…
Smith, longtime North Carolina coach and the all-time leader in NCAA coaching victories, said freshman recruits should play only for freshmen-only teams. He also suggested that junior college transfers be forced to sit out a year before playing with the varsity.

“You have to show you’re a student first before you have the privilege of playing intercollegiate basketball,” Smith said.

Whether any of the proposals will get far beyond the meeting room is uncertain.

Oh, I’m certain. No.

Dean has no clue. This is just the latest stupidity. I’m sure he thinks this will keep more kids in school longer. All it will do is convince more kids to try to get to the NBA in basketball; and in both football and basketball it is yet another way to try and keep the established powers entrenched by erecting more barriers for other programs with restraint on JUCOs and potentially sensational recruits.

Dean had previously testified before Congress to get a ban on college betting. Never mind that lines on games by professional gamblers has been more effective at providing leads and tips for point shaving and throwing games.

Just to get back to the original article, there was an interesting bit about Morelli

Tom Lemming of ESPN.com has Morelli ranked No. 8 in the country on his list of top quarterback prospects. Wallace doesn’t regard the strong-armed Morelli quite as highly, ranking him No. 14.

“He has a lot of physical tools, but he’s going to have to get a lot smarter at the game,” [Allen] Wallace[, publisher of California-based SuperPrep,] said. “We ranked Anthony farther down from where people thought he might end up at the beginning of the year. He really needs to show a better understanding of the game. You could see that when he was out here at the Elite 11 quarterback camp. He couldn’t grasp the overall game as well as the other kids.”

This echos some thing John Beard cited. Interesting.