I actually joined in the ESPN crew’s shock at Toronto selecting Charlie Villanueva with the #7 pick. They were bothered by the reach and the fact that Chris Bosh, selected last year, already is doing a solid job at the position.

I was stunned because it was the Toronto Raptor’s GM, Rob Babcock, who was the first name to really come out and question Chris Taft’s heart and desire. Then to go and take Villanueva — who has been questioned about the same sort of things — and at least Taft showed something in at least his first year.

Was it just me, or from pick about #13 through the rest of the 1st round, was there at least one guy on the ESPN crew expressing surprise that a non-international player would have gone higher? I mean, last I checked there were only 15 slots in the first 15 picks.

Jason Maxiell of Cinci, an undersized power forward was selected by Detroit with the 26th pick. As discussed by the analysts, he is tough, plays with his back to the hoop and a rebounder. Sounds a lot like Chevon Troutman. You know the difference? Maxiell went to the Portsmouth Invitational for Seniors in April. He competed and dominated, and earned an invite to the Chicago camp and kept performing well. Troutman withdrew at the last minute saying he wanted to focus on getting the Chicago invite and look into some possibilities in the NFL. That didn’t work out too well. He never got the Chicago invite.

Well, with Taft gone, the Center position falls to Aaron Gray, who gets a nice piece from a paper from his hometown region.

But Taft was not a natural center, while Gray is. And this winter, Gray, the only true center Pitt has on the roster, will finally get his chance to prove that he can hold his own as a starter in the rugged Big East.

”He is going to go from playing 11 minutes to 25-27 minutes,” said Greg Hotchkiss, Pittsburgh’s associate director of athletics, who’s in charge of men’s basketball. ”It’s going to be a little bit of a transition. I think he is ready.

”He just didn’t have the chance with Taft here. I think he is going to have a good year. I think he is going to surprise people.”

Gray says he’s ready. He has bulked up and is more confident.

”My attitude has definitely changed,” Gray said from Ocean City, Md., Monday where he was vacationing with friends. ”Even when we are playing pick-up now, I make myself more involved. I always passed a lot. I’m starting to be more selfish because our team is going to need a lot more point production from me next season being that we lost a lot of our main guys.”

No question Pitt will need a lot from Gray. Especially staying out of foul trouble.

Amazing plummet for Chris Taft. Wow. To go #42 to Golden State. That just sucks. Jay Bilas ripped on Taft’s game hard. Said he was unskilled, not good hands, bad footwork, poor shooter. Oof. Of course, he then wondered aloud who these draft experts were that had Taft in the first round. Answer: lots and lots of people.

It also sucks to end up with the Warriors. Not exactly the team you wish to have on the old resume. At best, they are the kind of team you hope to escape eventually.

Yeah, I know, everyone wants to talk recruiting and football. Yet I keep coming back to Taft in the draft. Here’s why.

1) It absolutely fascinates me.

Usually there is a range where you can expect a player to be drafted. Even for Taft that has been true. It’s just that the range has been dropping steadily. I like keeping track to see how the various prognostications finally look compared to reality.

2) Then there’s the reason for Taft’s fall. Everyone is suddenly questioning his work ethic, like it was a revelation, while still conceding his huge potential. Yet at the same time, Charlie Villanueva is consistently listed in the teens, while having the similar work ethic and effort questions — and upside. One mock draft even used the term “airhead” to describe him. Now if you have a choice between similar players with questionable work habits and potential, wouldn’t you slightly favor the one who wasn’t also being questioned for where his head is?

3) Finally, there is the practical aspect. Pitt will have its first player drafted since Vonteego Cummings. Not simply drafted in the 1st round. Drafted, period. And before that? Mark Blount. Kind of spotty, and not exactly names of legend in the NBA.

Pitt needs more exposure of its players making the NBA if it wants to get the talent. That’s part of the selling point for the major programs. “Come here, we produce NBA players. We think you can be that good and can help you get there.”

Here’s the closest thing, I’ve read to something approaching positive towards Taft.

Falling fast are Pittsburgh’s Chris Taft and Alabama’s Kennedy Winston. Taft, a 6-foot-11 talent, was a likely lottery pick last season and didn’t improve. He brings to mind Cliff Robinson freefalling from the lottery to the 36th pick n the 1989 draft. And Robinson just finished his 15th very productive season in the NBA — the first eight in Portland — where he was a steal.

I guess there are worse comparisons. Taft, though, isn’t worried. Onto the remaining Mock Drafts. None have Taft falling out of the 1st round.

Another, Taft falls to the Heat at #29.

The Spurs pick with #28, but this is the first time I’ve seen them mentioned as a possible destination. That doesn’t seem to be a great fit there.

The Rockets at #24 make some more sense, and I think he would fit and thrive with their game and coaching.

Strangely, the idea of Taft going to Sacramento with the 23rd pick seems to be making a resurgence. Even Chad Ford at ESPN.com is back to that (Insider Subs.).

Just a few hours left.

I know, by now many of you have read almost all of the articles I’m about to link. Sorry.

My DSL connection went kablooie this morning and spent an hour plus with a stereotypical India-based outsourced tech support person who kept having me do the same damn thing on my script and maintaining that I was somehow doing it wrong. Then to get me off the phone she lied about there being servers down in my area. I called back a while later, and somehow got connected with someone from real tech support who corrected the problem (mostly). There are some other things, but they are minor compared to not being able to use the net. But I digress, and likely no one really cares.

As to yesterday’s press conference by Jason Pinkston and Justin Hargrove, courtesy of the Pittsburgh Sports Report e-mail (no link, but here’s their archive page if they put it up there later):

Donning Baldwin’s sharp new game-day jerseys, teammates Jason Pinkston and Justin Hargrove stood in front of a packed South Hills Country Club last night and announced to a room full of Baldwin alumni and supporters that they plan to play college football at the University of Pittsburgh. The teammates then pulled off their game jerseys to reveal t-shirts featuring their new team’s not-so-new “Pitt” logo.

Pinkston, a 6’4-½”, 280-pound defensive tackle, and the 6’4″, 240-pound Hargrove, a linebacker/defensive end, are Pitt’s eighth and ninth commitments to the class of 2006.

“It’s just the best fit,” said Pinkston, rated as the fourth best player in the state by Keystone Recruiting. “I’ve been to the campuses at Penn State, South Bend, West Virginia and Akron, and Pitt is the best place for me.” Pinkston was also offered scholarships by Ohio State, Michigan, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida, LSU, Louisville, Iowa, and Wisconsin, in addition the aforementioned programs.

Have I mentioned the domino-thing yet today? Sure seems that way.

Woodland Hills linebacker Greg Webster is expected to give the Panthers a verbal commitment today, and Gateway receiver Aaron Smith and Seneca Valley quarterback Kevan Smith might not be far behind.

“It was real important because when Pitt gets good athletes like (West Allegheny receiver) Dorin Dickerson, Justin and myself, it’s going to make other good players want to come with us,” Pinkston said. “We need to keep Pittsburgh kids in Pittsburgh.”

Then there was the quieter announcement of Tyler Tkach:

Tyler Tkach made sure his dad didn’t have just another birthday on Sunday.

After Jim Tkach, his wife Sandi and their three kids, Tyler, Bo and Tristin, went bowling, the family headed to Ice Cream World in Walnutport per Jim’s request.

While Jim and Tyler were standing in line, Tyler, who’ll be a senior defensive end at Northern Lehigh, turned to his father and nonchalantly spouted out the biggest news of his young life.

”He turned to me and said, ‘So am I supposed to call these other coaches and tell them I’m going to Pitt?”’ Jim recalled. ”I said, ‘So you’re going to Pitt?’ He said, ‘Yes,’ and I just started laughing because that’s Tyler. He doesn’t like to make a big deal out of things.”

Tyler’s commitment to the University of Pittsburgh, coached by Dave Wannstedt, an ex-NFL player and head coach, is only oral. However, Tyler said he definitely won’t change his mind, even though he only visited two other schools (North Carolina State and Penn State).

”I just knew that was the place I wanted to be,” Tyler said. ”I felt comfortable and my dad (Northern Lehigh’s football coach) said, ‘Why go to these other places if you know that’s where you want to be? You may end up getting more confused.”’

The other full scholarship offers made to Tyler came from North Carolina State, Georgia Tech, University of Virginia, University of North Carolina and Rutgers. He also had conversations with coaches from Penn State, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Stanford.

Tkach was really impressed when Wannstedt visited his school in May, and it made a difference.

“The first thing coach Wannstedt said to me was he really wanted to recruit Pennsylvania hard, both Eastern and Western Pennsylvania,” Tkach said. “When the head coach comes to your school, that really says something.”

And Mike Prisuta is going with the domino effect.

“The reason it’s gone better than what I think anybody would have imagined is it’s an easy sell for me,” said Wannstedt, prevented by NCAA regulations from discussing verbal commitments in particular but limited only by his boundless enthusiasm when discussing recruiting in general.

“I couldn’t do this at any other school,” he continued. “How could I sit there and talk to a set of parents or a top prospect and really convince them this is the place he needs to be when I might not believe it in my heart?

“There’s a difference between selling something when you believe it in your heart and when you’re trying to sell something because it’s your job. I think that’s coming through. I think people see that and I think people want to be a part of that.”

Wannstedt’s first recruiting class was respectable, given the limitations of his late start.

His second, already highlighted by the verbals from Dickerson and Pinkston, the equivalent of landing a Tyler Palko and a Steve Breaston in the same class, has a chance to be resplendent.

Particularly if Wannstedt convinces Darrin Walls of Woodland Hills to join the Pitt Parade.

“It doesn’t make any difference if it’s Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State or who it is,” Wannstedt said. “If we’re going to be a Top 10 program, we have to make sure we control Western Pennsylvania.”

Wannstedt’s sincere belief in Pitt and the energy that generates is already winning friends and influencing people. But he’s also ahead of schedule in recruiting because of where he’s coming from most recently, as opposed to where he’s coming from while recounting his vision of what Pitt was and can be again.

Perhaps a bit early on hyperbole of comparing the new recruits to some of the best college players. Seems unfair to both.

Still, heady and exciting. Even more so when it is only the end of June.

That is Chris Taft’s draft status.

But Taft’s status heading into tonight’s draft at Madison Square Garden has been one of the best-kept secrets around the NBA.

The 6-10, 260-pound Taft has worked out for a total of 15 NBA teams — the most recent being Seattle and Houston — and the reviews have been mixed. It’s anybody’s guess as to who will pick him, and it’s equally confounding to determine in which round he’ll be taken.

Most likely, given Taft’s potential, someone will spend a first-round pick on him. But any continued talk of the lottery is on life-support.

There are quotes from players like Hakim Warrick and Sean May about Taft’s ability, and that he shouldn’t be worried about where he is drafted (easy for them to say since they are likely to be drafted ahead of him).

Unless someone is doing a mock draft board, people are just admitting they have no frickin’ clue where Taft will be drafted:

Chris Taft, 6-10, Sophomore, Pittsburgh

Pros: On paper, Taft has all the requisite tools of an NBA power forward. He’s big, he’s strong, he’s athletic, and he played college ball in the conference that — at least in 2005 — boasted the nation’s best frontcourts. Defensively, Taft does an excellent job of blocking and altering shots. Without question, his body is NBA-ready. There’s still a lot of upside.

Cons: Taft’s play was largely lackadaisical, on both sides of the floor, throughout his sophomore season. Many detractors insist he was counting his NBA riches long before the year started.

Summary: The Warriors (No. 9) need a big man, and could make Taft their man. But don’t be surprised if teams are deterred by his questionable attitude and slips deep into the second round.

This still bugs me, how does Taft’s attitude kill him while Villanueva’s is ignored. Correct me if I’m wrong, but has anyone ever used “overachieving” or even “living up to potential” when describing Villanueva?

Rumors of Taft to the Suns appear mostly dead, but could be revived if the Kurt Thomas-Quentin Richardson trade with the Knicks fails to happen.

Houston with the 24th pick is another rumored spot.

As for the Mock Draft boards:

One has him going to Houston. Well more than one. “…the Acie Earl of 2005?” Ouch.

Sean Deveney at The Sporting News, likes Taft going to the Heat.

29. Miami — Chris Taft, PF/C, Pitt. Taft is one of the big droppers in mock-draft history. Not long ago, we were counting him as a sure lottery pick — now, he is looking at the second round. Perhaps Miami will save him, though. Taft has an NBA body and could develop into a solid big man — if he develops a work ethic. Work ethic is a big question with Taft, but when you play alongside Shaquille O’Neal and under Stan Van Gundy, you learn to work pretty quickly. Miami could also go for an experienced player like Luther Head, Lee or Walsh.

This theory seems to be getting more traction.

29. Miami — Chris Taft, 6-8 1/2 , 261, So., Pittsburgh: Big and athletic, but disappointing season was followed by disappointing workouts. Too tempting to pass here for Pat Riley, who excels at motivating players.

How about going to Denver?

22. Denver, Chris Taft, Pittsburgh F Could break into Denver’s top nine as a rookie.

Maybe Seattle at #25. Also liked here.

The ever popular destination of Sacramento.

23. Sacramento: Chris Taft, 6-10, F, Pittsburgh: He is the most talented frontline guy left, though you would not know it by his inconsistent play.

Detroit?

26. Detroit, Chris Taft, PF, Pittsburgh, 6-10, 260 No guarantees with up-and-down big man.

A real optimist in Louisiana has him going #15 to the Nets.

Then there is the last pick of the 1st round belonging to the Knicks.

30. New York Chris Taft PF Pittsburgh Comment: He is falling, but the Knicks might help him up.

I guess it would still be a guaranteed contract.

30. New York Knicks. Chris Taft, Pittsburgh, 6-9 1/2, 261. A preseason top 10 who plummeted in scouts’ eyes. Could he be that bad? They need size and worth a look. Perhaps Kansas’ Wayne Simien, although they have too long a history of undersized forwards.

And of course those that see him just missing/making the cut.

The Taft Vigil begins around 7:30 pm.

Stupid @#$%@$* SBC.

I’m later.