I admit, it feels kind of odd that college basketball recruiting for 2005 is now underway with the 3 shoe company basketball camps happening. (Read this Gregg Doyel article on them.)

Pitt is active though. The coaches are on the road, at the camps and taking in the players. Pitt looks to be active for many top recruits from the NY/NJ area again. Very encouraging stuff, mostly.

I don’t want to complain, but I worry. I guess, I’d like to see Pitt geographically expand a little more in their recruiting. This NY pipeline thing is awesome, but it makes me feel the program is a little too dependent on one area and if Assistant Coach Barry Rohrssen is the main guy as it has appeared in charming the kids to come to Pitt — then it would be real easy to tumble when he leaves for his own coaching gig in a couple years. Not to mention if St. John’s rebounds and Rutgers ever really gets it together. A little more diversity would be nice.

Have to give credit to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Joe Bendel for actually covering the summer camps and recruiting. (Not to mention a decent piece on Carl Krauser playing in the Rucker league games.)Aside from the pay-to-view recruiting sites , the Trib has been the only media outlet to provide info on the Pitt basketball team this summer. They seem to have figured out that people are still interested in what is happening with Pitt basketball even in the offseason.

Looking over the referrer logs always yields some interesting things. A few of the searches that have gotten people to Pitt Sports Blather:

pitt panthers fan websites football on Yahoo! has us at #1

Simply looking for pitt panthers on Yahoo! puts us #5 on the list

EA Sports NCAA 2005 Rutgers Ratings through Google put us in at #9

Someone looking for more info about the Ohio State scandal, specifically searching for the Kim Roslovic affair found us on MSN at #3

We don’t have the information, but we were #1 in a search for pitt football cheerleaders names from 1978

And finally…

We didn’t actually come up on the list when I checked, but it was in the logs and I’d love to know the story behind the search for virginia tech hokie girls santa outfits.

It was noted here back in April. Now, the warrants have been issued.

The University of Pittsburgh said yesterday that four football players face aggravated assault charges in connection with a fight in April during a party at a fraternity house.

The charges relate to an incident that occurred about 11 p.m. April 16 at the Pi Kappa Alpha house on University Drive. Following the incident, two men were treated at a hospital for minor injuries.

Assistant Athletic Director E.J. Borghetti said the players facing charges are Clint Session of Pompano Beach, Fla., a sophomore next season who is expected to be the starting middle linebacker, and three redshirt freshmen. They are Dan Pickens, a tight end from Bridgeville; Chris McKillop, a linebacker from Export; and Lance Asbee, a fullback from Fox Chapel.

Coach Harris has said that internal discipline was already initiated. Further punishment may be given when the matter is resolved by the legal system.

Look either suspend them for a game or don’t. Just none of that 1st quarter suspension BS like last year. I guess it’s kind of a shame that the Furman game wasn’t the opener, then it would be an easy call.

At the Pitt audio section, there is a link to hear “Hail to Pitt.” A ringtone service called ringster offers a version as a ringtone. Maybe I just don’t hear it well, but it sounds nothing like the real thing. I think part of the problem is that they speed up the tune to an unrecognizable song. What does anyone else think?

Pitt has received a verbal from tailback Irvan Brown from Central Square, NY, in part to escape the brutal upstate/central NY winters — which would explain why he has turned down offers from Syracuse and Wisconsin. According to the story, he is considered a top 10 player from New York, and as we learned last week, that is different from being on the Insiders top 100 players at the National or in the East lists. At 6′ 0″ and only 180-190 pounds, it strikes me that the kid will need a season in the weight room to be an every down sort of back.

That is now 2 RBs that have made verbals to Pitt. Considering that depth was an issue last year, and the position is a question mark this season, choices for running backs is a good thing. After getting this verbal, Pitt pulled a scholarship offer to Eugene Jarvis of Central Catholic.

Is former Pitt point guard, Sean Miller. The press conference was this afternoon. He replaces Thad Matta, who left for the Ohio State job.

It’s not terribly surprising. Miller had been considered one of the hot young assistants at the start of last season. Xavier’s Elite Eight run, only made it surprising that he wasn’t interviewed for a head job over the summer.

Xavier has become the place for young coaches to be raided. Makes it hard to feel bitter about Ben Howland being plucked by UCLA when you think that Xavier has had Matta, Skip Prosser and Pete Gillen harvested in the last 10 years.

Sean Miller now gets a chance to prove himself. As the old scoreboard at Fitzgerald Fieldhouse would unoriginally display after a Miller 3-pointer, “It’s Miller time!”

This is where kids who didn’t get drafted can be given a chance to make a team. Or at least get some more experience. So where are the Pitt players?

Ontario Lett, who graduated in 2003 and spent last year overseas playing for Aras ITU (Turkey) is playing with the LA Clippers.

And right now, that is all I know. Only 12 teams have their summer league rosters up right now. I only saw Lett listed. When the rosters are updated, if other players (Page and Brown) are on the roster, I’ll post it.

Pitt has announced its Big East home and away plans. Not the actual times and dates yet, but who it will play and where. Of the 16 BE games, there are 5 home/away games with UConn, ‘Cuse, ND, WVU and St. John’s. There are 3 home and 3 away games playing a team only once. Home: Georgetown, Providence and Seton Hall. Away: Rutgers, BC and ‘Nova.

Unlike WVU, Pitt has yet to announce its non-conference schedule. I will be very curious to see what kind of schedule it will be. I was very critical of last year’s non-con cupcake schedule (justifiably in my opinion), so I am hoping they are delaying the announced schedule because they are trying to get some real opponents this year. I’m not looking for them to go out and schedule like Michigan State last year. I just want them to be facing some quality opponents and at least one pre-season top 25 team.