Chris Taft hurt his back during a summer league game when he threw down a reverse dunk. He suffered back spasms, and missed one game and is likely to miss another.

Taft had been impressing people in the summer league, and definitely has played with determination.

Taft’s potential is clear after just three summer league games. There’s no doubt why he once was considered one of the top post player in last month’s NBA draft, why the Warriors happily jumped on him when he was available at No. 42. Just 20 years old and at 6-foot-10 and 261 pounds, he certainly has the makings of a solid, if not dominant, post player.

What has to make the Warriors happy, even more than his obvious promise, is that he’s been playing with purpose. The most common knock on Taft, a University of Pittsburgh product, is that he doesn’t play hard unless he’s motivated. But he’s clearly driven this summer league, mostly by slipping so far in the draft.

He’s still raw and doesn’t go all out every play; on occasion he trots to the defensive end. But his play has been marked by spurts of assertiveness and physicality.

He isn’t dominating games or embarrassing opponents, but he’s showing the Warriors some of what they need to see.

“He’s really explosive and he plays hard,” fellow Warriors rookie power forward Ike Diogu said. “He’s going to be really good. … He’s pretty strong. He can hold his own down low. He’s a big body and he has some nice moves down low.”

His averages of 7.3 points and 5.3 rebounds in 15.3 minutes are good numbers, but they don’t convey the passion he has shown.

His GM speaks well of him and a story was recounted of their meeting at their old high school.

A little game of 2-on-2 ensued with Mullin and Taft matched against each other. It was a Brooklyn schooling Taft has not forgotten.

“He shot my lights off that game,” Taft recalled. “He was just shooting and shooting and I couldn’t defend him.”

Keep in mind that Taft was only a sophomore at the time, and not nearly as big and tall.

Meanwhile, present Pitt player Levon Kendall has been playing and practicing with the Canadian national team as they prepare to play in the world qualification tournament next month. He has gotten raves from his coach.

Rautins expects to have more than 20 players start a camp at Toronto’s Humber College that will run until Tuesday, among the most prominent being Vancouver’s Levon Kendall, coming off a solid season at the University of Pittsburgh.

“He’s a really good player, 6-10 with small-forward skills,” said Rautins. “If he was European, all the NBA guys would be saying we’ve got to get him over here.”

Hopefully Kendall’s confidence is being rebuilt. He showed flashes for a few games, then he just seemed to lose confidence, playing time and then was gone from the rotation.

The change to the Big East bowl relationship with the Gator and agreement with the Sun Bowl is discussed here.

This is the first time two bowls have gotten together to share conference ties.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that if this is successful, it’s absolutely the wave of the future,” Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett said. “It’s important to us to have flexibility to create favorable matchups.”

Under the plan, each bowl may select either a Big East team or Notre Dame twice in the four-year span.

The rotation between the Big East/Notre Dame and the Big 12 is up to the bowls.

“We can select them any way we want to,” Catlett said. “Obviously, if we select a Big East team two years in a row, then we’d be in a position where we’d have to select a Big 12 team the last two years. But we could do 1-1-1-1 or 1-2-1 or 2-2.”

In all four years of the plan, the Atlantic Coast Conference will provide the opponent in the Gator Bowl and the Pacific-10 will play in the Sun.

When selecting a Big East team, both bowls will have the first pick after the league’s representative in the Bowl Championship Series is named. It is not yet determined where the Gator and Sun stand in the Big 12’s pecking order.

The setup is important because it allows the Big East to hang onto a New Year’s Day bowl berth. The Gator Bowl will be played Jan. 1, and the Sun is set for New Year’s Eve.

“The Big East has a consistent and successful history of being unique and entrepreneurial,” Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said.

Tranghese said the two leagues, bowls and Notre Dame “had the foresight to realize that we could accomplish more collectively than we could as individual entities, a trend that I clearly think is good for the future of college athletics.”

Catlett first proposed a sharing plan eight years ago during a meeting with conference commissioners in Atlanta. He said the Big East was interested from the start.

Part of the reason for the agreement is that the bowls were starting to see the same teams over and over in the bowls.

“Texas just finished playing in the Holiday Bowl for the third time in four years and we had West Virginia back-to-back, and it’s just nuts to do that,” Catlett said. “It’s an attempt to put new teams in and to create matchups beneficial to the games and for the fans.”

With this agreement, the Sun Bowl is upping the amount it pays out from around $1.575 million per team to $1.85 million. CBS has also renewed its TV contract to carry the bowl.

The Big East isn’t done working on the time share bowl plans. Afterall, there is still the loss of the relationship with the Insight.com Bowl to address.

Or will it? Tranghese said he’s continuing to work on ““three additional deals” and that “an announcement will be made shortly.”

Sources tell yours truly the Big East is negotiating with the Autozone Liberty Bowl in Memphis as well as the Gaylord Hotels Music Bowl in Nashville, Motor City Bowl in Detroit and, a long shot, the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla.

If Tranghese could swing a shared deal with, say, Memphis and Charlotte, the Big East would be in fine shape. Word is the Liberty could land a deal with the Southeastern Conference.

There may an initial stigma or vagabond-esque complaint about this, but I actually kind of like the plan. If the point of continuing the bowl system was to create some match-ups not seen too often because of geography and conferences, then the system wasn’t working. This adds some real variety to it. The fact that the Big XII and some of the other BCS conferences are apparently interested and involved helps.

On Sunday I noted that Syracuse might do a package deal offer for Paul Harris to get him to commit, by also offering his teammate Jonathan Flynn. It seems, that is exactly what they did, and it worked (via BE B-Ball).

Also, in response to Mark who disagreed with me about whether Harris is could end up going to prep school, college for a year and then the NBA or prep school and then directly to the NBA. I had been unaware about Harris having academic issues, but as for the prep school that apparently is still up in the air:

Harris, meanwhile, is the first player in the Class of 2006 to commit to the Orange. He will attend a prep school during the 2005-06 academic year and has narrowed his choices to Laurinburg (N.C.) Institute, Notre Dame (Mass.) Prep and South Kent (Conn.) Prep.

Harris will turn 19 in October. There has been some question whether he would be classified as a fourth-year senior or a postgraduate student at prep school next year. If he was a postgrad, he would meet the NBA’s requirements for entering the draft.

Either way, I guess it won’t be Pitt’s worry.

Yesterday, ESPN.com and Blue Ribbon Yearbook put out the conference predictions and all-conference teams (hat tip to Jamie for the e-mail).

Big East
1. Louisville
2. Pittsburgh
3. Syracuse
4. West Virginia
5. Rutgers
6. Connecticut
7. USF
8. Cincinnati

All-Big East Team

Offense
WR: Tres Moses, Rutgers
WR: Greg Lee, Pittsburgh
OL: Dan Mozes, West Virginia
OL: Travis Leffew, Louisville
OL: Jason Spitz, Louisville
OL: John Glass, Rutgers
OL: Charles Spencer, Pittsburgh
QB: Tyler Palko, Pittsburgh
RB: Andre Hall, USF
RB: Cornell Brockington, UConn
TE: Clark Harris, Rutgers

Defense
DL: Ryan Neill, Rutgers
DL: James Wyche, Syracuse
DL: Elvis Dumervil, Louisville
DL: Shawn Mayne, UConn
LB: Brandon Johnson, Louisville
LB: H.B. Blades, Pittsburgh
LB: Jerry Mackey, Syracuse
DB: Jahmile Addae, West Virginia
DB: Mike Lorello, West Virginia
DB: Josh Lay, Pittsburgh
DB: Anthony Smith, Syracuse

Specialists
K: Josh Cummings, Pittsburgh
KR: Larry Taylor, UConn
P: Adam Graessle, Pittsburgh
PR: Montrell Jones, Louisville

Offensive Player of the Year
Andre Hall, RB, USF

Defensive Player of the Year
Ryan Neill, DL, Rutgers

Newcomer of the Year
Rashad Jennings, RB, Pittsburgh

None of this is exactly shocking. There might be a little too much hype on Jennings just based on spring practice. I realize he looked very good, but there is going to be a lot of competition for the starting tailback job come August. Hopefully I’m wrong, I just don’t like to see that much pressure put on a freshman.

BRY has Pitt at #18 in its preseason rankings.

CollegeFootballNews.com also has its BE preview. It’s 1st team all Big East is virtually the same with only a couple players swapped out on defense and, putting UConn’s kicker, Nuzie, ahead of Josh Cummings.

In CFN’s BE Top 5s, Pitt is well represented under breakout players (Rashad Jennings and Mike Phillips) and top 5 pro prospects (Palko, Lee, Blades). They also warn Pitt against looking past the Ohio game to the Nebraska match-up. It’s a fair warning. The game will be the Bobcat’s season opener under new coach Frank Solich, a Friday night game, a short week for Pitt after Notre Dame.

They also rank the units. Pitt ranks 1st on defense and 2nd on offense. Pitt’s lowest rank is #5 at running back unit.

Another incentive for a Big East team to earn the BCS bid. It’s a hell of a lot less confusing than figuring out what bowl you go to after that. The BE and Notre Dame are essentially going into a sharing agreement with the Big XII over the Gator and Sun Bowls.

Very strange.

One of the worst things I’ve found about the offseason for college basketball is not nearly enough from Ken Pomeroy. He has to be the top of the heap stats/numbers blogger.

This latest looks at the myth of the intensity of the home crowd as affecting the outcome of games. He takes the conventional wisdom and calmly beats it down with reality.

Okay, this set comes from another Michigan blog, Straight Bangin’.

Which unheralded player on your team will be the hardest to replace? Which seemingly inconsequential player could make the biggest impact?

Right. Pitt didn’t lose that many starters or key role players that stand out. Rob Petitti and Tyrone Gilliard were not unheralded players who graduated. The field is kind of limited so I’d say the hardest player to replace for Pitt that hasn’t gotten much attention is Center Justin Belarski. Replacing a center is always worrisome. I know the line last year wasn’t that good, but Belarski was very solid and was very reliable in protecting Palko up the middle.

Joe Flacco, back-up QB. At this point we still don’t know if he’s transferring or not. If he goes, Pitt will only have true freshmen backing up Palko. I realize as Palko goes, so goes Pitt this year, but if it is just for a game, series, quarter or whatever you would like to have someone go in there with some real familiarity with the players and who has had more than just the training camp to learn the system — even if it’s a new one. Also, the potential risk of moving Tight End Darrell Strong back to QB to provide some depth. Strong is a great athlete and the last thing anyone should want to see is it wasted the way Penn State has wasted and jerked around Michael Robinson.

Which regular-season game that won’t feature your team would you pay the most money to see this season? Why?

Well now that they won’t be selling beer in the Coliseum for USC games, I’ve kind of lost interest in attending those games.

I was thinking about the South Carolina-Tennessee game. Pro, not hearing TV announcers go on ad nauseum about the history between Spurrier and Fulmer. Con, missing the continual cut-away shots to the facial expressions on both coaches during the game. I’ll stick with TV, I can always go to mute.

I guess I have to go with the Oklahoma-Texas game. A bitter rivalry game, expected to be big, lots of drinking and trash talking by the fans before, during and after. When there is a continual threat of violence between factions at any moment, I want to be there. Added bonus, the chance to start rumors about the coaches to see what happens.

To Texas fans: “Hey, I heard that Mack Brown was treated by the team doctor last night for a major panic attack. He was hypervenilating, getting the dry heaves. It was brutal.”

To Oklahoma fans: “I understand that the Seahawks and Paul Allen are prepared to give Stoops all the money and power he wants to take the Seattle job.”

If your team were a rapper, who would it be and why?

#$@%$@#$*&*^$!

Look, I’m in my mid-30s, white, grew up in a rural part of Pennsylvania, and missed the whole hip-hop thing. I have as much street cred as Joe Biden at a rave. I’ll leave it to my readers to pick that one.

For a band analogy just to have an answer, I’ll say the Kinks. Everyone always talks about the Stones, Beatles and the Who. The Kinks have this great history, library of fantastic songs, and are totally underappreciated when discussing the British Invasion.

Greg Doyel at Sportsline, has notes from the Nike Camp and on the best dunks, observes that “Pittsburgh recruit Gilbert Johnson looked to be walking on air as he finished off a two-handed reverse.” Um, it’s Brown, not Johnson.

Now as for Paul Harris, the kid who is down to either Pitt or Syracuse, might choose neither for a year — prep school. It’s a shame, because he was doing something at the ABCD Camp that few others were doing. Playing defense.

While most of the players at the ABCD Camp senior game in Hackensack were content with allowing fast breaks and alley-oops, the 6-5 senior from Niagara Falls, N.Y., was the most energized and determined defensive player on the court. Oh, yeah. He also led all scorers with 34 points, winning co-MVP for the Blue team.

“He works extra hard out there,” said St. Patrick’s of Elizabeth star Derrick Caracter, who played against Harris yesterday and earned co-MVP of the White team. “That’s what makes him so rugged.”

Harris said he would likely attend prep school, but is considering Syracuse and Pittsburgh.

“A lot of people can score,” Harris said. “Not everyone can defend. To be different (in an all-star game) you have to lock some guys up.”

Imagine that. A top high schooler in the country who wants to play some defense.

At SI.com, Stewart Mandel is impressed with the way Coach Wannstedt has worked quickly.

So, looking ahead two to three years from now, where do you think Pittsburgh’s Dave Wannstedt will fall?
–Josh, Columbus, Ohio

If the early returns are any indication, Wannstedt could ultimately wind up being one of the best hires of any school this offseason. Wannstedt, a Pitt alum and Steel City native, has wasted no time flexing his muscle on the local recruiting scene, already securing 12 commitments for next year, 11 of them in-state. Not coincidentally, Penn State, which has made a common practice in the past of loading up early, has just two verbals, neither of them from Pennsylvania. The Panthers’ commitments are no slouches, either. One of them, Dorin Dickerson, is rated as the fifth-best receiver in the country by Scout.com. Another, Jason Pinkston, is ranked No. 11 at defensive tackle.

I still think Walt Harris got a raw deal when he was basically shoved out the door last year despite significantly boosting the program — which was 15-41 in the five years before his arrival, 39-23 in his last five years there — but at the same time, he had pretty much maxed out his capabilities. Many Pitt fans still cling to the belief the program can return to its mid-’70s level, when it won a national championship, and while I’ve always felt that was largely unrealistic, Wannstedt may be the one guy who can do it. He wasn’t exactly an overwhelming success as an NFL head coach, but neither was Carroll or Groh. He’s always been considered a solid defensive mind, was a major part of Jimmy Johnson‘s success at Oklahoma State, Miami and with the Dallas Cowboys, and it may be that his background and personality are better-suited for the college game, particularly his alma mater.

We are ready to drink the kool-aid.

Now, notice that Mandel noted that Penn State has been slow out of the box in getting early commitments as opposed to their historic practices. So this article, ostensibly about Penn State’s latest recruit, engages in a little revisionism.

Penn State’s only three verbals by mid-July is not particularly out of the ordinary for Paterno-style recruiting, but it does raise eyebrows when examined in the context of intrastate recruiting rival Pittsburgh. First-year coach Dave Wannstedt has already locked up 12 solid verbals, including Rivals.com four-star athlete Dorin Dickerson of West Allegheny High School.

[Emphasis added.]

Now, I’m just trying to figure out the context of this.

“I don’t really want to rag on Pitt, but they kind of were all about western Pennsylvania,” McEowen said. “I don’t know if they got the best players from PA that they could have. They got 12 guys, but I don’t know if those are going to be as good as those seven or eight guys that Penn State might get.”

McEowen stressed that he “can’t say anything bad about any of the schools that recruited me” — he chose Penn State over Boston College, Florida, Georgia, Louisville, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia — before he shared his thoughts on why Pitt has raked up more early recruits than his new school.

For the record, 10 of the 12 Pitt recruits are from Western Pennsylvania.

I don’t really want to rag on McEowen, but I suspect the question he was responding to was about whether Pitt tried to recruit him. It would appear Pitt did not seriously pursue him and he almost seems hurt by that. It just doesn’t seem that he would just volunteer those thoughts. As for the other part, what? Would you expect him to say that Pitt is going to outrecruit Penn State?

Still, interesting to suddenly have Penn State recruits being asked how Pitt fit in their decisionmaking.

Pitt Athletic Dept. press release says that AD Jeff Long will be Fox Sports-Pittsburgh tonight. He’ll be the guest on Stan Savran’s show. It airs at 6:30 pm. He will be talking about the new non-con football games scheduled.

I hope Carl Krauser finishes his school work and gets his degree. I really do. Not so he comes back to Pitt to play at this point, just so he earns his degree and doesn’t stay a few credits shy of graduating forever. Krauser is apparently still agonizing over his choices.

“I’ve been wondering if I should come back and be a part of the team once more,” Krauser said.

Coming out of the Chicago pre-draft camp last month, Krauser was determined to make a run at the NBA. But he had a change-of-heart just before the deadline and removed his name from NBA draft consideration.

Since then, he’s considered returning to Pitt, and he conceded last night that it’s not an easy decision to make.

His other options include trying to latch on to an NBA team as a free agent, or playing professionally in a league such as the Continental Basketball Association or the National Basketball Developmental League or one outside of the United States.

You can cross the first option off of the list. No NBA team is going to sign him right now. They already have their summer leagues underway with the rosters set with rookies, some second year players and free agents. No one is going to try and work Krauser in to their rotation now. Not with all the undrafted point guards that were still available.

I hope that the primary reason Coach Jamie Dixon has not imposed a deadline on Krauser to decide is to encourage him to finish his schoolwork. I’m quite cynical about college athletics at the D-1 level, but having a degree still counts for something.

The money is in the foreign leagues for him. If he is determined to get to the NBA, he should probably stay in the US — either in the CBA, NBDL or go back to Pitt. As I have said, though, it is so clear that he wants to start playing professionally. That all he wants to do is focus on and play basketball, that he should not come back to Pitt this season.

As something of an alumni update, Chevon Troutman went down to the Dominican Republic to play on the CDP Domingo Paulino Santiago team in the Santiago Regional Tournament. CDP lost in the final game, but Troutman led CDP with 26 points.

As for the upcoming season, the new kids are looking contribute early and often this year. The piece focuses on Tyrell Biggs and Levance Fields and their chances to step into the starting roles for Chevon Troutman and Carl Krauser.

Fields, 6-8 Tyrell Biggs, from Ramsey (N.J.) Don Bosco Prep High School, and 6-5 Trevor Ferguson, from Odessa (Fla.) Oldsmar Christian Academy — all incoming freshmen at Pitt — figure to be key contributors to next year’s team. The trio has been playing in pickup games at Petersen Events Center.

Pitt also has signed Doyle Hudson, a 6-8 transfer from Roane State (Tenn.) Junior College, and 6-6 Sam Young, from Hargrave Military Academy.

“We’re all anxious. We have a lot of energy and we’re going to take the attitude that we have nothing to lose,” said the 260-pound Biggs, who was named MVP of the Windy City Classic all-star game in Chicago and also scored 20 points at the Capital Classic in Washington, both times in April.

“I came in here thinking that I was going to play a lot of minutes, so when I was at home, I trained a lot more,” Biggs said. “I knew I’d have to train like that here. I came in focused for the month, and before the season starts, I want to be in better shape.”

I think he’s going to get that opportunity.

CollegeFootballNews.com has gone way out on a limb to start projecting bowl bids — and I mean all of the bowl bids — now (hat tip to Chris for the e-mail). I guess, what’s the fun of speculation if you don’t go really far out. They put Pitt in the Sugar Bowl against Tennessee. This means, as of July, they have expectations for Pitt to win the Big East over Louisville.

While on the subject of the BCS, they have a new poll put together by Harris Interactive.

Called the Harris Interactive College Football Poll, it will rank the top 25 teams on a weekly basis, starting Sept. 25, the BCS said Monday. Plans call for 114 voters.

The BCS has said it wanted to eliminate preseason polls, which some believe give highly touted teams an unfair headstart in the rankings.

The poll doesn’t actually start coming out until a month or so after the season begins.

I guess now would be a good time to state that I have been a long-time participant in Harris Interactive polls. I now have enough points to get the first season of the Simpsons on DVD (or better yet, Dawson’s Creek). Should tell everyone, all they need to know about the poll.

In case you missed it over the weekend, there was another entertaining recruiting update Q&A from Rob Lichtenfels at PantherReport.

I don’t do video games. It’s one of my character flaws. Just don’t have the patience. But I love the alternate covers (via Fanblogs):

Genius. Pure genius.

Of a slightly less interesting visual attraction, the college football helmet map of the US (also via Fanblogs).

A nice Q&A with Pitt football and basketball (and, oh yeah, Steelers) radio play-by-play guy Bill Hillgrove.

Who is the best Pitt basketball player you have covered?

Hillgrove: I would have to say Billy Knight and for a lot of reasons. First of all, I’m prejudiced because he’s a local kid. And he had that performance at UCLA when he scored 37 points against that benchmark UCLA team. The old man [John Wooden] came over and shook his hand after the game. I don’t think he did that for a lot of players. He took that program to heights that maybe Buzz Ridl didn’t even envision. Plus, he played 11 years of pro ball.

Pitt has not been to a Final Four since 1941. Which recent team had the best chance of going?

Hillgrove: The Charles Smith team that lost to Vanderbilt was a Final Four team. They just didn’t take care of business.
…
Can the Pitt football team win the Big East again this season?

Hillgrove: I think the schedule is favorable. I think Tyler Palko will win two games by himself. It’s up to Wannstedt and the rest of the team to win those six or seven other games.

In Guy Junker’s weekly briefs column, he commends Pitt’s football scheduling sort of.

In an era where the nonconference schedules of a lot of college football teams are a joke, Pitt should be commended for adding games against teams like Iowa, Virginia Tech, Miami and even N.C. State. Who knows what kind of progams Pitt and Iowa will have when the Panthers travel to Iowa City in 2015? But scheduling has to be done in advance, and athletic director Jeff Long has added a lot of quality games over the next decade.

Miami and Virginia Tech are included there, but personally, they can go pound salt, for all I care for their defections from the Big East.

While some of those games were part of the agreement to settle lawsuits over those defections, I would rather Pitt move on without them.

Uh, actually of the defectors, only the Miami game was from the settlement. The VT games were negotiated separately, and are so far off; that even someone like me who has more distaste for VT’s actions than Miami’s is willing to let it go.

I know it’s early, but I had to point this out. Over at the Unofficial Home of Notre Dame, they already have their Pitt game preview going.

In it, they recap last year’s fantastic game. Here’s a snippet:

Despite all this, Notre Dame had a chance in the end after tying the score at 38 with a little over a minute to go. Poor pass coverage and poor officiating let Pitt march down the field and kick the winning field goal with 1 second remaining.

I’m trying to figure out what the poor officiating was on the final drive, since no penalties were called. Last year, after the game, Domers were whining about the officiating (among other things). Apparently they aren’t going to let go of that.

I’m hoping when the boys at Blue-Gray Sky get to their Pitt preview, they are a little more honest.

Worth noting, that Pitt hasn’t beaten Notre Dame in back-to-back games since 1986 and 1987 — Lou Holtz’s first 2 years.