I’m not ready, yet, but there are some vague prognostications about the bloated Big East.

April is known for its attrition — both planned and unplanned — but in the Big East it has been ridiculous. Here’s an alphabetical look at the upheaval:
…
Pittsburgh

Early departures: Center Chris Taft is gone for good to the NBA, and point guard Carl Krauser might not be far behind.

Graduating contributors: Without Chevy Troutman, the Panthers will lose their top three scorers if Krauser stays in the draft. Mark McCarroll is replaceable.

Staff turnover: None.

Immediate outlook: If you’ve got stock in Pitt basketball, now’s the time to sell.

Coach Jamie Dixon is going to be in a tough situation. Realistically, there should be less pressure on Dixon and Pitt in 2005-06 with the losses of Troutman and Taft (and maybe Krauser), and none of the returning players really inspiring confidence that they can pick up the slack. At the same time, there is a fairly talented incoming recruiting class with reasonably high expectations.

This will really be considered Dixon’s team. Even if Krauser returns — considering how much he wanted Dixon to get the job — it will no longer be considered Dixon coaching Howland’s players. For good and bad.

Now as for the future, a couple of those 2005 recruits were playing in some HS all-star games last night.

Levance Fields who turned his whole HS team’s season around, had a nice game in a defensive struggle in the Jordan Classic.

Levance Fields spoke this week about the pressure of playing on the Garden floor and of being the only player from the city in last night’s Jordan Classic All-Star game.

But he admitted that it wasn’t all that bad.

“I know that even if I go 0-for-12 and play terribly, I’ll still be going to Pitt,” said the Xaverian star, who scored 18 in his Gray team’s 127-126 win over the White squad that was sealed when Emanuel Mayben missed a pair of free throws with three seconds left in front of an announced crowd of 6436. “So I’m set regardless.”

Fields hasn’t signed his letter of intent yet, but is expected to do so in the next couple of weeks.

The article also notes that there is one other potential Pitt signee from the NYC area, Saiquon Stone. Stone, a 6′ 5″ shooting guard, is not as highly ranked as Fields and others in the Pitt recruiting class, but was ranked #10 in Rivals top-10 in NY. More intriguing is this snippet quote from his AAU coach, “Saiquon is my best defensive player. He gets into the best offensive player on the other team and locks down on him. He’s a defensive gem.” He apparently has interest of teams ranging from Villanova, Oklahoma and Notre Dame to Marist and Fairfield.

Fields also gets some hometown love in the NY Times for the aggressive way he played.

In exhibitions like the Jordan Classic, hustle and defense are as unfamiliar as the two-handed set shot, but Fields threw his body around as if a title was at stake. “Just to be selected to this game is special,” he said.

Out in the Windy City, the NY kids once more proved where the better ball is played.

New York used a 21-5 second-half run to coast to victory.

Only two of the 11 players on New York’s roster have committed to major-conference schools.

“We underestimated them,” Acker said. “A lot of us were talking about what schools they were going to — but they were a really good team.”

Chicago’s roster consisted of 10 players headed to top Division I schools, including Robeson’s Jeremy Pargo, a Gonzaga recruit who led Chicago with 15 points.

“We didn’t even look at Chicago’s roster,” Team New York coach Bob Cimmino said. “If they were surprised by how good we were, then so be it.”

NY won 102-84. Funny thing about the Chicago paper’s coverage of the game there, they didn’t even mention who was the MVP.

Tyrell Biggs became the third Pitt basketball recruit in as many years to be named most outstanding player for the New York team at the Windy City Classic all-star game in Chicago.

Biggs, a 6-foot-8 forward from Don Bosco (N.J.) Prep, who has signed a binding letter of intent to attend Pitt next season, follows NBA draft-bound Chris Taft, the 6-10 center who was named most outstanding player for New York in 2003, and current guard Ronald Ramon, who won the award in 2004.

Biggs scored 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds Saturday for the New York team.

And to give Pitt fans hope, Biggs did his work inside.

…Tyrell Biggs, added 12 points and eight rebounds. The Don Bosco Prep (N.J.) product, headed to Pittsburgh, also was solid defensively.
…
Chicago led 43-39 at the half thanks to some streaky outside shooting. It hit 8 of 16 3-pointers and went up by as many as nine. Jeremy Pargo, the brother of Chicago Bulls guard Jannero Pargo, led Chicago with 15 points including three 3-pointers.

In the second half New York took away the outside by essentially ignoring the interior. Lowe, McDermott and Austin all played superb perimeter defense while the burly Biggs took control of the paint.

There’s the double edged sword for Dixon. He’s got a young team, for sure next year. But there is a lot of talent coming in to the program. Because of underachieving this year, he won’t have as much time as might be considered fair to show that he is getting them going the right way.

Wow.

I think the Pitt Athletic Department has every right to come into their offices tomorrow feeling really good.

With Heinz Field unavailable while new grass is being grown, Wannstedt moved Pittsburgh’s scrimmage to suburban Gateway High School and was greeted by an overflow crowd of 8,007. It was a bigger turnout than those during Walt Harris’ eight seasons as coach, when the 2001 spring game was held sans crowd at the school’s practice complex.

“We had a lot more fans, obviously, than we had room,” said Wannstedt, the former Bears and Dolphins coach who is still adjusting to his first college head coaching job. “It’s a nice problem to have when you don’t have enough room.”

Some fans couldn’t get close enough to the stadium to park and went home, while others braved a miles-long traffic jam to arrive nearly an hour after the scrimmage started.

Sure this wasn’t a Steelers’ training camp workout and not a Pitt scrimmage?

Sure, Nebraska had some 60,000+ last year, and Florida packed in some 50,000+ this year, but for Pitt this was huge. I think it’s safe to say, that but for the lack of space and traffic problems it would have broken 10,000 for a spring practice. A scrimmage in the days leading up, was being severely downplayed as far as action.

There is an energy, buzz, heavy interest that I have severely underestimated about the team and Wannstedt taking over.

I don’t think I am the only one a little surprised by the level of interest.

As for the on-the-field action of the scrimmage, Coach Wannstedt was happy. Stats, for what they are worth, are here (PDF). The offensive line looked really good. The moves and competition seem to be working. The issue for the o-line is the lack of depth. The drop-off after the starters is the concern. Injuries will be a major thing to watch.

While the scrimmage may have started off with a flea-flicker, the star on offense was RB Rashad Jennings. Kirkley and Murphy both sat out the scrimmage with minor injuries. Jennings appears to be passing Brandon Mason on the depth chart. The starter job will still be up in the air come training camp because of the other freshmen RBs, including Conredge Collins. Still, it’s nice to have some hope for the running game right now.