Donatas Zavacas lives. And for some reason he is playing in Columbus, Ohio.

If you are an Ohio State fan, more specifically, an Ohio State basketball fan, tonight was your night in the Worthington Summer League.

Buckeye Corner squared off with Union Savings Bank in the semi-finals of the league tournament tonight. The combined starting lineups had Tony Stockman, Sylvester Mayes, Ron Lewis, J. J. Sullinger, Scoonie Penn, Brayden Bell, Matt Marinchick, Je’Kell Foster and Terence Dials on the floor. The lone starter without an OSU connection was Donatas Zavacas from Pitt.

Apparently he does this, well I don’t know why he does this, but it isn’t a full-time thing.

Buckeye Corner has played with a total roster of five all season, but baseline player Donatas Zavacas could not be on hand for tonight’s game. Zavacas plays professional ball in Europe and has left the country to join his team. Zavacas, a power forward/center, was replaced on the roster by a guard who has played sparingly this season.

Understand, that these stories were one day apart on datelines — July 20 and 21. Any insight into this would be appreciated.

Yogi Roth went home and spoke at the University of Scranton (who knew?) for the Shamus Foundation (I have no idea).

Former Pitt QB, David Priestley just got married and admits he probably won’t get another job in the NFL. He’s now living in New Jersey.

While not an alumn, he was a graduate assistant for Pitt and Walt Harris and he’s from Mt. Lebanon. Brian Lowe is the guy behind the company that will be providing the replay system used by the Big East and other conferences this fall.

Eventually he landed at Pitt, where he served as a graduate assistant under Walt Harris in 1997. It was in that position, while editing tapes, that he realized most of the technology and videotaping systems available for coaches were not well suited for producing coaching tapes.

“I was at a coaches conference and talked with a rep from Avid Sports, which was the company that was producing the system we were using at Pitt,” Lowe said, “and I gave him some ideas on how I thought it could be made a little more coach-friendly. They must have liked my ideas because I was hired and I worked as a liaison between the company and coaches. That’s really how I got my start.”

Avid Sports became Pinnacle Sports and Lowe continued to work for the company until 2001, when he decided to try to produce his own digital video editing and game analysis software for coaches.

He started DVSport that year and the company has grown since. Today, the company has 10 employees and has its technology being used by Central Catholic and Mt. Lebanon high schools as well as colleges such as Pitt, West Virginia, Westminster, Washington & Jefferson and Thiel.

Interesting.

You know, if you are going to create a whole fantasy of a season complete with the games and everything else, how can you not beat your rival. Apparently it is so if you are WVU fan. Words fail me on this exercise in creative writing.

Meanwhile the Charleston Gazette, profiles Pitt as the last in its series on opponents Marshall and WVU will face this year.

Just can’t bring myself to start discussing teams Pitt will face in October and the outlook, nevermind the end of November. Especially in July.

Yeah, I think Rivals.com and Scout.com should definitely be paranoid about ESPN.com’s foray into recruiting information. While it remains unclear as to whether ESPN.com will be dealing in reports about where recruits could be heading, they have set themselves up to provide information on recruits.

Now Scouts, Inc. will take its expertise and apply it to college football recruiting. It will do everything its college counterparts do, but instead of internalizing this information, it will provide it exclusively for ESPN Insider. Scouts, Inc. is dedicated to serving the hard-core high school and college football fan with thoughtful, in-depth analysis.

Scouts, Inc. will be the authority in recruiting. Unlike other recruiting services, Scouts. Inc. employs football scouts and coaches with many years of professional experience and expertise. It will evaluate talent in games on the football field rather than relying solely on combine numbers. The student athletes will be evaluated in person and on video and not by word of mouth. Every top recruit will be compared to players across the entire United States rather than only players within his region. This will allow Scouts, Inc. to judge college recruits and recruiting classes more thoroughly.

This is an expansion of what Scouts, Inc. was. The information will be put behind the Insider Subscription firewall. Obviously, this only increases the value of an ESPN.com Insider subscription, and undercuts the price of the recruiting sites by a huge amount.

Scouts, Inc./ESPN.com tries to give this the most professional appearance. They have a grading system:

8.0-9.0: Rare Prospect
Player demonstrates rare abilities and can create mismatches that have an obvious impact on the game. Is a player that has all the skills to take over a game and could be an impact player as a true freshman.

7.0-7.9: Outstanding Prospect
Player has the ability to create mismatches against most opponents. He is a player that could be a contributor as a true freshman.

6.0-6.9: Good Prospect
Player does not dominate in every game, especially when matched up against the top players in the country. Could become a good starter at the Division I level.

5.0-5.9: Solid Prospect
This player is overmatched against the better players in the nation. His weaknesses will be exposed against top competition. Has the ability to develop into a solid contributor at the Division I level.

4.0-4.9: Prospect
Player has some redeeming qualities, but is not projected to contribute at the Division I level.

They are planning to release their full grades on their “ESPN 150” recruits on August 8. Likely, that will happen to coincide with ESPN The Magazine’s college football preview.

In advance of that they have some of the recruits grades available as sneak peaks. This includes Pitt commit, Dorin Dickerson. Dickerson was graded at a 7.2.

Strengths: Dickerson is a big, physical galloper that can really cover some ground. He has such a long stride that you don’t realize just how fast he is moving, but he will show a sneaky second gear.

He has excellent size and good speed for his size. He can out-muscle smaller defenders. Has no trouble getting off the line of scrimmage. He has long arms, excellent leaping ability and will win many jump ball competitions. He uses his frame to shield defenders. He is a huge threat in the red zone.

Shows good sideline awareness and body control. He can make the acrobatic catch. He is a long-strider after the catch. Will build speed as he goes and is difficult to bring down because of his size and strength. He has very quick hands, can pluck the ball and get up field in a hurry for his size.

Shows good concentration and focus on the ball and rarely drops passes he should catch. Is a fairly precise route runner and will only improve in this area. he is not very sudden in his movements, but the more you watch him, you realize just how elusive he is in the open field and he will show a nice little burst.

Overall: He is best suited as a wide receiver at the college level, but he has experience as a running back and also a linebacker. He is a rangy, smooth athlete with explosive potential as an outside receiver.

The thing that recruiting sites will have to be wary of, is not just the capitalistic pressures. It is the stuff from the NCAA and legislators. There will be lots of talk in the coming year about how recruiting sites work, gather information, talk to kids and pressure them. I will not be surprised by some nanny-state-esque proposal to “protect” the kids from “predators” amongst the recruiting sites. After all, it’s for the children.

It looks like the Big East is closing in on a deal to play in the Liberty Bowl on New Years Eve starting next year. The Liberty Bowl is played in Memphis, Tennessee. This becomes more likely as the ACC appears close to nailing down the Music City Bowl deal. The foe for the Liberty Bowl would be either a SEC or Mountain West opponent. The Liberty Bowl, not surprisingly favors an SEC team.

A sticking point is that the Liberty Bowl wants the Big East’s #3 team. The Meineke Car Care Bowl (previously the Continental Tire) in Charlotte, North Carolina wants to move up from BE #4 to BE #3 in its deal. Presently the Liberty Bowl has the higher payout — $1.5 million per team vs. $1.27 — but the Charlotte group says it is willing to go higher. It also says that it will open negotiations with other conferences if it doesn’t get the BE #3.

Of course, if the BE places a team in the Liberty Bowl, it means that once again, C-USA gets squeezed by the BE. C-USA used to send its top team to the Liberty Bowl. Food chains are brutal.

With all of the bowls out there, and yet another expected in Toronto, it was never really in doubt that the BE would find enough bowls. The issues really were about payouts and prestige.