Interesting. I was reading over the list of underclassmen who Andy Katz said, made the “right” choice to stay another year after flirting with the idea of entering the draft. He included Pitt’s Chris Taft.

Taft could have been a lottery pick this season. Yes, his breakout freshman season was that good. And NBA teams love his potential. So, it’ll be hard for Jamie Dixon to keep Taft in a Pittsburgh uniform for four seasons … let alone three. But Taft understood he wasn’t ready to make the jump and returned for his sophomore season. He’s the anchor inside for Dixon and next to point Carl Krauser is the key to the Panthers staying atop the Big East. Taft’s ability to score in the post has NBA teams interested. NBA scouts don’t expect Taft to fall out of lottery favor … whenever he declares.

I wonder if Taft had reconsidered declaring despite his early statements saying he wasn’t even considering going pro. I knew that NBA scouts like his potential, but I didn’t know they view him as a potential lottery pick whenever he declares. If true, then we get Taft in a Pitt uniform for just one more year.

Well Pitt didn’t land Galdino, the blue-chipper forward from New Jersey who had Pitt among his final choices. Ultimately, Galdino chose the highest profile program on his list — Kansas.

This can’t be too shocking. It was something of a ripple effet with another recruit. Kansas really came hard in its recruiting of Galdino in the last week when they failed to land Malik Hairston — considered the #7 player in the country. Hairston chose Oregon, which really pulled out all the stops to land the kid from Detroit. We’re talking the charter private jet to fly him from Detroit to Eugene for an overnight trip, at a cost of around $21,000 dollars.

Coach Dixon said he may just hold on to the scholarship for 2005 or not.

I can’t get too bent out of shape at losing this recruit. He only recently became available, and would have simply been a bonus.