DePaul hired Jerry Wainwright away from Richmond to be their new b-ball coach.

Is he a good hire? I dunno. It depends on who you ask.

This is what Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News said.

So this next statement might be hard to accept, but I firmly believe it to be the truth: Jerry Wainwright is the best pure basketball coach to work at DePaul during the NCAA tournament era.
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Wainwright was an ideal choice for DePaul because of his deep Chicago background, his ability to deal with, accommodate and entertain the media, his track record as a recruiter at Xavier and Wake Forest and his accomplishments as a head coach at UNC Wilmington and Richmond. He took both those programs to the NCAA tournament. Wilmington had never been there before. Richmond had been there only once in the previous 12 years.

But more important than what his record says is what his opponents say. However shocking it might be, there have been coaches in the NCAA tournament who weren’t really all that capable. They got the right players in the right circumstances and managed not to foul it up. And some of those guys are pretty well known.

Privately, when coaches talk about those in their business that earn respect, Wainwright is someone whose name comes up frequently. Wainright’s admire how he deals with his players. They envy his eye for talent. They respect his ability to teach and coach defense.

Sounds glowing. But wait. How about Greg Doyel at Sportsline.

Wainwright to Leitao’s old office? That’s a fast hire. That’s a frugal hire. But a great hire? No, not a great hire.

Bearing down on Wainwright, who went 50-41 in three seasons at Richmond, is like sitting down at a nice restaurant and ordering the first thing on the menu. Maybe it’ll taste good. It better, because this place costs too much to do it again next week.

The spin coming out of Chicago — did you know Wainwright’s from Chicago? — is that DePaul has hired a coach with a track record of winning seasons and postseason appearances. Those are nice words, but the numbers aren’t quite so nice. Black and white, here goes:

DePaul has hired a coach who has never failed to lose at least 10 games in a season. DePaul has hired a coach whose career record in 11 years is 186-144, which means a typical season for a Jerry Wainwright team has been 17-13. And those seasons happened in the Colonial Athletic Association and Atlantic 10.

DePaul knows about those numbers, obviously, but doesn’t care. This hire wasn’t about finding the best possible coach to lead DePaul into the best possible conference, the 16-team Big East. If DePaul wanted the best possible coach, it would have taken more than four days to zero in on someone coming off a 14-15 season at Richmond.

This hire wasn’t even about Jerry Wainwright. It was about Leitao. DePaul went for greatness when it hired Leitao three years ago off Jim Calhoun’s bench at Connecticut, and greatness — or the hint of greatness — is what Leitao delivered. He won 58 games in three seasons at DePaul, recruited better than a Conference USA school with such shoddy facilities deserved, and then bolted for Virginia.

It was a smart move for Leitao, but a stick in the eye to DePaul. Being jilted hurts, and DePaul responded like so many jilted lovers — by vowing not to love again. DePaul will like Jerry Wainwright, but it will never love him. He’ll win between 13 and 18 games a season at DePaul for as long as DePaul will have him, he’ll steer clear of NCAA problems, and then he’ll retire. You don’t fall in love with a coach like that. You esteem a coach like that.

No matter what the truth is, Wainwright and DePaul are in for one hell of a baptism this season.

Pitt might be in the running to secure an experienced successor to Tyler Palko for the 2007 season.

Tennessee Tech Coach Mike Hennigan said yesterday that he was unaware of anyone from his staff inquiring about the possibility of recruiting former University of Tennessee quarterback Brent Schaeffer.

There were two radio reports Tuesday, one on WLAC-AM 1510’s PrimeTime Sports, saying Tennessee Tech was one of three schools that had asked UT officials for permission to contact Schaeffer. The other two schools were Kansas and Pitt.

Schaeffer actually started the 2004 season as the starter, but found himself co-starter with the other freshman QB Eric Ainge. Schaeffer broke his collarbone in the 8th game. He was considered the better athlete of the two. Ainge, though, looks to be the starter this year, and Schaeffer is looking to transfer. If he transferred to Pitt, he’d have to sit for a year.

The problem is, Schaeffer may have to resolve his legal issues first.

Tennessee quarterback Brent Schaeffer and receiver Bret Smith were suspended indefinitely from the team Monday, a day after they were charged with hitting a student who was arguing with Schaeffer’s girlfriend in a dormitory.

The players were arrested at a dorm where many athletes live. They were charged with misdemeanor assault and released on their own recognizance Sunday after the early morning fight at another dorm. Their arraignments are set for April 18.
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Part of Schaeffer’s actions was caught on tape by a video camera in the dorm lobby, University of Tennessee police said.

According to an affidavit campus police filed in court, student Quantavios Emerson was arguing with Schaeffer’s girlfriend about her cell phone Sunday when Schaeffer hit Emerson in the neck.

The affidavit also said Schaeffer and Emerson grabbed bats but dropped them before hitting anyone and Schaeffer then picked up Emerson from behind and threw him down. Emerson struck his head on the floor and was then hit by Smith, the report said. Emerson needed four staples to close a cut on his head, authorities said.

Yes, Schaeffer is one of the many players from the wild Tennessee team in trouble with the law.

I’m having some very mixed feelings right now.

Keeping options open. That’s the best way to describe Chevon Troutman’s latest move.

Former Pitt power forward Chevon Troutman will put on a helmet and shoulder pads for the first time in six years tomorrow when he goes through a tryout with the Washington Redskins.

Troutman, who has not played football since his junior year at Williamsport High School, will participate in a minicamp at Redskins Park with Washington’s draft choices and rookie free agents. Troutman will be tried at tight end at the three-day camp.
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If he impresses, he could get a free-agent contract offer and an invitation to training camp.

Troutman is still trying to attend the Chicago pre-draft camp for the NBA. This does not seem like pursuing basketball first, then football. This seems like a dual track, which just seems dumb. The conditioning for each sport is so different, it just seems he is going to hurt his chances for both.

The other thought, as an Eagles fan, is not the Redskins.

Over at the Sporting News, Mike DeCourcy thinks that Pitt isn’t losing that much in Chris Taft.

Once again there are some early entrants who won’t be sorely missed next season.
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Chris Taft, C, Pittsburgh. The Panthers can replace the 13.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game Taft produced as a sophomore. It’ll be tougher to find someone who can manage more than 11 field-goal attempts for every one assist. Pitt’s concerns mostly are on the perimeter. It will be just fine with 7-0 Aaron Gray in the middle. Gray has better post moves than Taft and is unselfish. Gray does not move as well, but Taft was so unsound defensively that his athleticism rarely made a difference.

He may slightly overstate the lack of drop-off from Taft to Gray, but it seems that most Pitt fans are more down on losing Troutman and the possibility of Krauser than seeing Taft go pro.

At the 22nd annual Mon Valley Panther Club Chapter Banquet the other day, the key speaker was of course Football Coach Dave Wannstedt. He spoke of high expectations for the team. Coach Jamie Dixon also spoke at the event.

“I like the group we have coming in,” he said. “We have some big, strong talented kids. This is the best recruiting class in my six years here.”

According to Dixon, the futures of graduating Chevy Troutman and junior Carl Krauser — who made himself available for the NBA draft but retained the option to withdraw since he won’t sign with an agent — are still up in the air.

“Chevy is going back and forth with football while Carl could be coming back. He’ll be going to Chicago for a pre-draft camp to go against foreign and high school players to see where he stands. Sixty players have already committed for the NBA draft and there’s still three more weeks to go. It’s almost an epidemic.”

Dixon looks for sophomore Chris Taft to go in the first round of the draft.

“It’s a good situation for him and his family,” said Dixon. “We had him for only 18 months but we’re real proud of him.”

Wish they had more on what Dixon said. I doubt he said much of any consequence, but I’d love to know if he said anything even approaching disappointment regarding the past season.

A few pieces on the national sites. Over at SI.com Stewart Mandel lists his very early top-25. He puts Pitt at #21

Spring star: RB Rashad Jennings. The freshman wasted no time establishing himself as the Panthers’ feature back.

Lowdown: Dave Wannstedt spent his first spring installing a power-running mentality that should make the Panthers more balanced and, in turn, more dangerous offensively. Similarly, the defense will have more of a “pro” look, but it may lack enough impact players along the line to be dominant.

Louisville was ranked #12.

And he had this to say in his review of spring practices:

Pittsburgh: Though he has at his disposal one of the nation’s most promising quarterbacks in Tyler Palko, coach Dave Wannstedt spent much of the spring trying to convert the Panthers from the finesse style of predecessor Walt Harris into more of a power running team. In doing so, he found a potential star-in-the-making in freshman RB Rashad Jennings, who carried 19 times for 119 yards in the spring game and likely will be the opening-day starter.

Expectations keep rising.

Over at ESPN.com, Bruce Feldman lists his hot 100 players.

The college football season is still a few months away, but it’s time to take a preseason look at the Hot 100 list for 2005. As always, this isn’t a projection in regards to draft prospects, but simply a run-through of who will be the biggest impact/value guys to their programs in the ’05 season.
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51. Tyler Palko, Pitt, QB: Should be even better now that he’s working with Matt Cavanaugh.
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75. Greg Lee, Pittsburgh, WR: A combination of Larry Fitzgerald and Antonio Bryant and he gets to work with a better QB than they had.

H.B. Blades was ignored.