Bad craziness, man. It starts with Chris Taft.

DraftCity is saying that Chris Taft’s stock in the draft is falling. Right now, they put him at #14 (Minnesota), but think he could slop further.

Chris Taft has been holding numerous private workouts over the past week in a gym in New York City, taking advantage of the fact that many of the NBA decision makers were in town for the draft lottery. DraftCity has spoken to a couple of people who watched him in those workouts, and the feedback has been almost unanimous: he’s incredibly overrated.

A few select comments:

“I can’t believe how lazy he looked out there. Does he not get it?”
…
“Taft has some of the worst body language I have ever seen from a player his age.”

“Teams are calling up his coach at Pitt, Jamie Dixon, and they are not really liking what they’re hearing about his work ethic and basketball IQ.”

Teams generally do not like to share information with top prospects with each other, but in this case when they are all watching the disaster unfold in front of their eyes, it’s hard not to. Isiah Thomas was reportedly one of the spectators and all he could do was “shake his head in disgust.”

Hard to believe he is blowing it this bad.

But wait, it gets better. A couple days ago I noted a fairly moderate review of Taft’s workout by ESPN.com’s Chad Ford. Apparently it was too negative for Taft’s agent (Insider Subs.).

Banned. That was the word from Chris Taft’s agent, Billy Ceisler, after Insider’s lukewarm blog report from Taft’s workout for several NBA teams.

I was scheduled to be back in the gym again on Wednesday to watch two of Ceisler’s other clients, Antoine Wright and Charlie Villanueva, but got a call late Tuesday night from an agitated Ceisler, who said I was uninvited because of my review of Taft (see below).

There are three problems with that.

First, the review of Taft wasn’t negative. He worked out in a gym by himself. Taft looked fine, but because of the structure of the workout, he wasn’t able to really show off what he is capable of doing well – dominating in the paint. No one wants to see big guys like that shoot jumpers or hook shots over a 6-foot trainer.

I said I didn’t think he helped or hurt himself. I’ve talked to three other NBA scouts who’ve been in the same gym over the last three days and they’ve all said the same thing.

Second, I don’t believe that hiding players – or, in this case, shielding them from criticism – really helps them in the long run.

Ceisler is just trying to do his job – protect the interests of his clients. However, experienced agents know that limiting access only to people who will write positive reviews is a bad idea, because it diminishes the credibility of any positive reviews a player may receive.

This is not looking good for Taft’s future. He’s not showing much, and his agent is an idiot. Someone close to Taft better do something to get him to start socking away a chunk of that signing bonus.

It’s a love-hate thing with recruiting news in late spring. You want any news you can get, but it is hard to put too much stock in anything this early.

Apparently Bob Lichtenfels at PantherReport.com has been very busy this week. While Coach Dave Wannstedt was doing his Eastern Pennsylvania swing, he dipped into Delaware.

Another gem I have found while studying film is Middletown (Del.) defensive end Eric Latimore, 6-6 and 240 pounds. Latimore is a very explosive player off the edge. He has a great frame and a tremendous wing span. He possesses the size and athleticism that college coaches crave. That could explain why a number of programs have been in to visit him this month.

“Pittsburgh, Miami, Marshall, Maryland, Penn State, Virginia, Western Michigan, and West Virginia have been among the one’s who have come to the school,” Latimore said.
…
“Dave Wannstedt came here, I knew he was coming but I was kind of in shock that he was here,” Latimore said. “He was telling me about the DE’s he’s coached like Jason Taylor and how they could use a big DE like me at Pittsburgh.”
…
“I have offers from Delaware, Western Michigan, and Tennessee State right now,” Latimore said. “I think Marshall and Pitt may offer, maybe a few more.”

And down in Florida, a speedy corner has Pitt among his top choices.

Florida was just one of the schools that came into the school to see Gary, others included Wisconsin, Ohio State, Boston College, NC State, Marshall, Bowling Green, and Western Michigan.

Gary picked up a few more offers this week.

“Minnesota, Iowa State, Louisiana-Lafayette, and Wisconsin offered,” Gary said. “They all on paper except Wisconsin.

The standout corner now holds offers from Pittsburgh, South Florida, Akron, Middle Tennessee, Wake Forest, Kansas, Ole Miss, and North Carolina.

“Right now my favorites are probably Florida, Pittsburgh, and Minnesota,” Gary said. “Florida has always been my favorite, but Pittsburgh has a very good shot.”

It’s nice to read, but right now you just need to take it with a grain of salt.

Pitt technically is listed to play at Ohio U on Saturday, September 10. Then it looked like it would be moved to Friday night, September 9, so it could be an ESPN game. Now, probably because of the curiosity of having Frank Solich as the Bobcat’s head guy, the game may be moved to Thursday, September 8 for ESPN.

I’m actually annoyed by this for purely selfish reasons. My in-laws are actually OU fans and go to the games. We were going to go to the game and it would have been my chance to finally get my daughter to her first Pitt game. Even on Friday night, it looked to be doable. Not on Thursday, though. Right now it looks like it will have to wait. There is an official ban in our group on bringing spouses and children to the games (which I support). That likely will not be changing for a few more years, at least until one other in the group has a kid (Lee). Then a tipping point might take place.

A puff piece on Pitt recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach Greg Gattuso. While all of the other new coaches on the staff have gotten 0-2 pieces, Gattuso keeps getting attention. A lot of this is because of the writers’ familiarity and relationship to Gattuso. As the former head coach at Duquesne for 12 years, he is probably the easiest guy for them to talk to and interview.

According the SI.com mock draft, Chris Taft does not get drafted in the top 14 lottery picks. They have the Knicks at #8 picking Center, Channing Frye of Arizona. They rank Taft as the 16th best player in the draft, and hedge.

Taft, one of the few true centers on the board, is ranked low on this list because he did not make much progress between his freshman and sophomore seasons at Pitt. He showed a few flashes of stardom but never developed into a real star or expanded his offensive game. Still, Taft could go in the top 10 if an NBA team is convinced he will break through in the right atmosphere.

[Emphasis added.]

Please note that ESPN.com listed him as a Power Forward in the NBA, and #1 in that group.

As for Krauser’s hopes, he can at least take a little encouragement from the fact that he appears to be on the short list of underclassmen to get the much sought invite to the Chicago pre-draft camp (Insider Subs.).

In addition to Krauser, the other underclassmen from the Big East on the list includes: Torin Francis, ND; Brandon Bowman, G-town; and Amir Johnson, Louisville signee.

The list is not finalized and this was not dealing with Senior players. So Troutman’s status for Chicago is still quite unknown.

Rob Lichtenfels at Scout.com has his Pennsylvania Top 50 posted (this is different from whatever Scout.com lists as its “PA Top 50”).

A few things stand out to me. First, I can’t believe someone from my high school is listed as the #2 prospect. That just doesn’t happen. Not since the days Sam Bowie was a senior at Lebanon High was there this much attention for a LHS athlete.

The second thing is how important Dave Wannstedt’s Eastern Pennsylvania roadie was. 6 of the top 10 and 9 of the 15 kids are from the Eastern part of the state.

The final item is that Pitt has verbals from 3 of the 50 already.