We’ll start with the good. Pitt’s new recruit Trevor Ferguson. His story gets flushed out a bit more, as we learn he had an extra year of high school following breaking both wrists in a freak dunking accident. Prior to the accident, he was heavily recruited.
Pitt won the recruiting battle Monday when Ferguson, a 6-foot-6 combo guard, gave coach Jamie Dixon a verbal commitment. South Florida and Baylor also offered scholarships and others schools, including Kansas, West Virginia and Florida State were coming after Ferguson hard.
“If he didn’t hurt his wrists, it would have been Kansas, Duke and North Carolina,” said Kenny Gillion, one of Ferguson’s AAU coaches. “There aren’t too many guys who do what he can do with the ball. That injury was a blessing for Pittsburgh. He easily would have been one of the top 25 kids in the 2005 [recruiting] class. I coached Adrian Thomas [a University of Miami recruit], who was a top-50 kid. Trevor is more talented than Adrian, and Adrian had offers from Georgia Tech and UCLA.”
Ferguson showed little early interest in Pitt but said assistant coach Joe Lombardi was by far the most persistent recruiter involved with him. Dixon offered a scholarship after seeing Ferguson in person for the first time in an AAU game a few weeks ago.
“For Pitt to get him shows just how bad coach Dixon wanted him,” Gillion said. “Baylor has one of the best classes in the [Big 12], and they wanted Trevor to add to that. And South Florida is 10 or 15 minutes away, right in his own back yard, and they’re moving to the Big East next season.”
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Dixon is going to meet with Ferguson and his father later this week in Florida, and Ferguson will visit Pitt after that. Ferguson said Dixon has spoken of playing more up-tempo next season and believes Ferguson can contribute as a freshman.
“They think I can come in and contribute minutes because of my size and the fact that I can shoot the ball,” he said. “They think I can come in and stretch the defenses. I am real excited about coming up there and being a Panther.”
Ferguson is expected to sign a binding letter of intent during the spring signing period, which begins next week and runs through the middle of May. He has qualified academically.
Levance Fields, another Pitt recruit who hadn’t yet signed his letter of intent is expected to sign next week as well.
Ferguson was also named to the All-Florida high school team yesterday.
This seems to be a great signing for Pitt. At 6’6″ and a guard he presents a match-up issue in Pitt’s favor, and it appears that he has the ability and desire to go inside.
Something else this signing is, a talented recruit not from the NYC metro area. I’m not complaining about recruiting heavily from that area, but I have worried about overreliance (especially now that St. John’s is improving).
On the leaving Pitt front, Chris Taft is quite eager for the NBA. Really nothing interesting, except that it notes that the agent he hired also represents Charlie Villanueva formerly of UConn.
Finally Joe Starkey takes the Pitt basketball program gently to task for its PR screw-ups. Both with the re-seating debacle and Coach Jamie Dixon.
“Give Us More Money and Watch Us Rebuild” probably isn’t a workable slogan.
That’s not to say players leaving early for the NBA is a PR problem. It’s actually a good recruiting tool.
But the new ticket policy mandates that Pitt put a highly successful team on the floor – and there is no telling when that will happen again.
It most likely won’t happen in 2005-06. The Panthers, despite the arrival of some promising recruits, figure to struggle in a strengthened Big East.
Of course, any school would face a rebuilding year upon losing its top three players, two before their senior years. All things equal, the Panthers probably are entitled to a down season after a terrific, four-year run.
But all things are not equal. The new ticket policy, if enacted, will re-seat the majority of the Petersen Events Center each year and cater to the biggest of big spenders in what would amount to a silent auction.
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Meanwhile, another PR concern centers on coach Jamie Dixon, who needs to stop insulting people’s intelligence.
Not only does Dixon continue to say that his team improved during what he continues to label a “great season,” but he has mentioned in various interviews that Taft wasn’t an NBA prospect coming out of high school.
“Two years ago,” Dixon said, “no one thought he’d be in this situation this early.”
Is he kidding? From the moment Taft stepped foot on campus, people were speculating on how long he’d stay.
Next year is shaping up to be quite a test for Dixon, the Pitt basketball program and the fans.
