Well, I don’t know when he will make up his mind, but one of the top recruits in the country, Paul Harris, would appear to have his choices narrowed down to Pitt or Syracuse. Mike DeCourcy puts him in the top 5 definitely heading to college and gets some opinions.

Not every top prospect in high school basketball will head to college as the result of the NBA’s new draft entry regulations. But some of the best probably will wear Division I uniforms.

Top talent scouts Dave Telep of Scout.com and Van Coleman of Hoopmasters.com assess the elite from the class of 2006.
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5. PAUL HARRIS

Details: 6-4, SG, Niagara Falls (N.Y.) High.
College: Syracuse and Pitt are his top choices.

Telep’s take: “I call him the nuclear weapon. You don’t exactly know what he is, but you don’t want anybody else to get their hands on him. He’s a beast, a man, maybe the best 6-4 rebounder I’ve seen.”

Coleman’s take: “The jump shot is the major concern. You get a 6-5 guy on him, he’ll destroy him on the low block. He does have the ballhandling skills. He really has to be a guy who works at 300 to 500 shots a day until he’s ready for the draft.”

He would be a huge score for Pitt. Not to mention keeping him from a conference rival.

Meanwhile Luke Winn at SI.com looks at some of the best at the ABCD Camp for the high school class of 2007.

Herb Pope, 6-8 PF, Alquippa (Pa.) H.S.
(Ranked No. 15 in Class of ’07)

Pittsburgh has the right to be salivating over the impending arrival of Pope, a local junior who committed to the Panthers back in March. “He’s going to make a huge impact in the Big East,” [Justin] Young[, a Rivals.com recruiting analyst,] said. Pope should not be labeled the next Chevy Troutman or Chris Taft; he is a highly versatile, smooth player who was one of ABCD’s top rebounders but also displayed skill at handling the ball and stepping out to shoot the 3. Besides, Pope said on Thursday, “I don’t plan on being a post forward [at Pitt] — I do everything. I figure by the time I get there, they’ll get another legit big man.” Pope looked like the kind of player the Panthers can build their future around — so they’d be wise to take his advice.

There’s probably going to be a lot of hand-holding, and fighting off plenty of other teams that will still try to pry him away, to get him to that first signing period in 2006.

Meanwhile Andy Katz at ESPN.com has plenty of juicy tidbits (Insider Subs.).

Where was New Mexico coach Ritchie McKay on the first day of the July evaluation period Wednesday? Was he in Indianapolis at the Nike camp, in New Jersey at the ABCD camp or in Atlanta at the Adidas camp? Not quite. McKay was in Oklahoma City watching former Kansas wing J.R. Giddens shoot 10 3s, hoping to lure Giddens to New Mexico.

He was obviously successful enough to get the first and possibly only visit for Giddens, who was essentially told to leave by Kansas after his role in a spring bar room brawl that left him with a severed vein in his calf from a knife wound. He required surgery and isn’t expected back playing until September at the earliest.

Giddens was scheduled to visit the Lobos Friday and Saturday, according to multiple sources. The Albuquerque Journal also quoted Giddens saying he would make the visit. McKay is treating this seriously enough that he went off the road recruiting to be with Giddens and will return on the campaign Monday. He’s hoping to lock up Giddens before he makes a visit to Tennessee next week. Arizona State is also trying to secure a visit for Giddens, who would have two seasons of eligibility once he sits out a year. UTEP, Florida, Washington and Pittsburgh have also expressed interest. McKay can’t be quoted on Giddens since he is a recruitable athlete.

So far, when these players have looked to transfer, Pitt is on the list but it hasn’t happened yet.

He’s also got a lot of interesting stuff regarding the Big East scheduling and what the super-sized Big East means for the NCAA tournament system.

Under the Big East’s television agreement, CBS has the first choice of a game but then ESPN has the right to pick the same matchup, essentially forcing a home-and-home series. Odjakjian said CBS chose West Virginia-Connecticut and West Virginia-Louisville but ESPN decided against choosing those two games and creating home-and-homes.

Odjakjian said the Big East assured the networks that the top six teams would definitely play each other at least once.

That didn’t help the league avoid missing Cincinnati-Notre Dame, Louisville-Georgetown, Syracuse-Providence and Villanova-Pittsburgh this season.

Pittsburgh and Notre Dame had been two of designated premier teams last season, but both are in a rebuilding phase. The Panthers’ home-and-home games are against Marquette, Providence and West Virginia while they miss Syracuse in addition to Villanova. Notre Dame plays home-and-home games against DePaul, Marquette and Providence and doesn’t play Cincinnati or St. John’s.

Still, not being designated a premier team doesn’t mean that team won’t compete for the title.

“Every year there is a team that comes out of nowhere and is a contender,” Odjakjian said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case again.”

Last year, BC, West Virginia and Georgetown, which narrowly missed the NCAAs, were surprise teams in the league.

Selection committee helping out Big East?
The NCAA announced late Wednesday a potential tweak to the bracketing process for the NCAA Tournament.

If the selection committee has exhausted all of its options and still can’t fit in all of the teams from one conference (i.e. the Big East) without having two of them potentially meeting before the regional finals, the committee now has the option to place them in the same region for possible second-round and Sweet 16 matchups.

The sheer size of the 16-team Big East made this possible. If the Big East puts eight or nine teams in the field, it could prove too difficult to avoid having these teams play before the Elite Eight. Now, the committee has more flexibility with the bracket.

Additionally, because of the “no-plays,” it’s possible there could be a matchup in the second round or Sweet 16 between two Big East teams that didn’t play during the season.

Pitt has the type of schedule that is right around the middle of the pack, and can only help them if they are on the bubble. Provided, of course, Pitt plays the kind of non-con schedule that helps the overall strength of schedule.

Big East Basketball blog ranks Pitt’s BE schedule at #9. Right around the middle. I would switch USF and Pitt, but otherwise it is a pretty good ranking.

Last week or so I wrote about the ESPN The Magazine article regarding Myron Rolle and the recruiting sites that follow him and other blue-chip recruits. I ended with the following thought:

A real paranoid thought. No evidence, proof or even particularly well thought out. Just kind of tossing it out. If I were Rivals or Scout, I’d be watching ESPN very closely right now. This could be an opening shot. My guess is they would love to get into the same area if there is sufficient money to be made from a subscriber base. TWWLS has not only the cross-marketing advantage, but also the ability to weaken the eventual competition with articles like this. They could then swoop in and claim the moral high road with their recruiting-team site, and with their 800-pound gorilla status in sports dominate in the field.

Apparently someone at Scout.com is seeing it that way (via mgoblog, who also links to a great article about the business of the recruiting sites).

The problem with the piece is that it is more incoherent rant than actual allegations. Lots of bitterness and sputtering. While complaining that the piece was unfair, the writer doesn’t actually go after Feldman or the actual truth in the article. Instead it pushes the idea further and further that ESPN is plotting a takeover. Screaming from the rafters that ESPN is planning to go negative on recruiting sites while pumping up their own offerings isn’t going to help.

Now, I do think Scout and Rivals have some reason to cast a wary eye towards ESPN. No question. They likely did, prior to the story. If it involves sports and making money, you know ESPN will get there sooner or later. As I said it was a paranoid thought requring some more careful observations. I said nothing about announcing that war has begun, and firing a bullet into your foot. The worst thing to do when you are feeling paranoid is to lash out blindly and just give people reason to dismiss it as the thoughts of a deranged mind.

How about someone find out something more about Scouts, Inc.

Scouts, Inc., founded by 20-year scouting veteran Gary Horton, breaks down film of every NFL game, numerous college games and individual footage of college prospects, and our experts attend NFL training camps and both NFL and college games in person. They do everything their NFL counterparts do, but instead of internalizing this information, they write it exclusively for ESPN. Scouts, Inc., is dedicated to serving the hard-core football fan with thoughtful, in-depth analysis of NFL and college players, coaches and teams.

That just tells us who the founder is. Not whether ESPN is a financial backer or owner. Before Scouts, Inc., Horton was a former NFL Scout and wrote a regular draft guide called the War Room. He supplied content to The Sporting News and Sports Illustrated. Is this just the natural growth or something else? This issue would actually be something worth investigating a little deeper. What exactly is the financial relationship between Scouts, Inc. and ESPN?

This was one of those matters where some subtlety and doing more to strengthen those alliances with other sports sites and portals would serve the interests far more than screaming.

Okay, so Pat Devlin is going to Miami (hat tip, Jamie). At the risk of coming off as bitter or something, I never got a sense that Pitt was seriously one of his top picks.

Pitt doesn’t have a lot of slots left so I think they will only take one more QB recruit. If I had to guess, I’d say they would go with Dexter Davidson, from Florida, who has also been getting help from Dan Marino. He has an official visit to Pitt scheduled for the Notre Dame game.

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Joe Thomas’ verbal to Pitt.

Thomas, who will be entering his senior season at the Catholic school in Lakewood, was recruited by Pittsburgh as a guard. However, after playing right guard alongside Boone last year, Thomas said he will probably move to left tackle to help the overall structure of the Eagles’ line.

“The coaching staff at Pittsburgh was incredibly down to earth,” Thomas said. “They made me feel right at home.”

The comfort zone he developed with Panthers new head coach Dave Wannstedt and his staff is why Thomas passed on his original plan to wait until the end of his senior season before making his choice.

Among the other major-college programs pursuing him were Boston College, Michigan State, Cincinnati, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Bowling Green and Miami of Ohio.

Rated by Ohio High Magazine this spring among the top 75 senior prospects in the state, Thomas said he would like to major in studio art or communications.

What encourages me about that list of other schools is that most of those schools have been doing a very good job at identifying talent on the lines.

That seems to be the gist of this article on Pitt’s announcement regarding future non-con games for the football program.

“As our program got stronger, we wanted to shift our scheduling philosophy to meet our strength,” Pitt athletic director Jeff Long said. “We’re a strong program, and we believe we’ll get stronger and should be playing stronger non-conference opponents.”
…
“We’re pleased we have some top-level Big Ten teams on our schedule.”

At the end of the article the future non-con games through 2010 are set out. It would appear that Bowling Green was pushed from 2006 to 2008. Not exactly sure what happened to the Navy game in 2006, but Navy doesn’t have Pitt on their 2006 schedule either.

Here’s the Iowa press release on the announced series.

“We’re extremely pleased to announce this series with Pittsburgh, a respected University with a strong and rich collegiate football history,” said Bowlsby. “There’s no question this is a series that will excite fans from both schools.”

Iowa’s Head Football Coach Kirk Ferentz was also pleased with the four-game series.

“I spent a great deal of my early years in Pittsburgh and still have many family members in the area,” said Ferentz. “I look forward to playing Pittsburgh and the challenge they’ll present.”

Is the glass half-full or half-empty? The headlines from the Pittsburgh dailies sum it up:

Big East lightens Pitt’s conference schedule

Panthers taken away from Big East limelight

It depends on how you look at the meaning of the schedule.

From the half-full article:

The Pitt basketball team, which is likely to be without its top three scorers from last season, appears to have received a break on its 2005-06 Big East Conference schedule.
…
It marks the third consecutive year that ESPN, CBS and the Big East have agreed on which Big East teams will play each other twice. In the past two years, Pitt was deemed a so-called “first-tier” Big East team and, thus, played home-and-home games against Connecticut, Syracuse and Notre Dame. The remaining conference teams were not required to play those teams twice.

For Pitt and other top-tier schools, the tradeoff for a difficult schedule reasulted in more national TV exposure.

Big East associate commissioner Tom Odjakjian, who assembled the schedule, said Connecticut, Syracuse, Villanova, West Virginia and Cincinnati were “highest on television’s interest list” for next season.

However, Odjakjian said, “ESPN will be doing a lot more of our games this year, so a team like Pitt could get just as much as exposure. Maybe (instead of) a second Pitt-UConn game, Pitt against Cincinnati will be televised.”

The actual dates and TV selections will be announced in the next month or two.

And then, the half-empty:

For the past two seasons, Pitt had to play conference powers Connecticut, Notre Dame and Syracuse in home-and-home series because Big East officials deemed the Panthers one of the league’s best teams and wanted to showcase them in national television games.

Since the Big East began arranging its schedule around television before the 2001-02 season, Pitt has played on national television 50 times, including a record 15 appearances last season. Although the Big East did not release the league’s national television schedule yesterday — it will be announced in a month or two — Pitt is not is expected to be on nearly as much this season because of the departure of Chevon Troutman and Chris Taft and the likely departure of point guard Carl Krauser, who is strongly considering a professional career in Europe.
…
It’s a trade-off for the top teams. They get the more difficult schedule in return for national exposure and the recruiting benefits that go along with it. The other teams are given a more manageable schedule, if there is such a thing in the newly configured super conference, which placed seven teams in the NCAA tournament last season: Pitt, Connecticut, Syracuse, Villanova and West Virginia from the old guard and Cincinnati and Louisville as Conference USA members.

The article also notes that Pitt’s non-conference schedule will be announced sometime in August. Pitt won’t have the excuse of the last few years that its conference schedule justifies going easy on the non-con. Instead, if it is a patsy-filled non-con once more, the excuse will be based on the rebuilding aspect.

Up in Wisconsin, the paper there, calls the Marquette schedule a “stern test.” That’s a bit of a stretch.