Just a couple things to pass along.

Apparently the Sports Editor in the Mon Valley doesn’t even read his own parent company paper.

What’s going on with the Pitt football program?

Anyone else find it surprising that freshman tailback Rashad Jennings is considering transferring and junior wide receiver Greg Lee is leaning to the next NFL draft instead of return for his senior campaign.

Not really, and if you read anything other than wire reports, you might want to rethink that — especially regarding Jennings.

At SI.com, Stewart Mandel lists the 10 best recruiters in college. Making the list:

Dave Wannstedt, head coach, Pittsburgh: Known as a relentless recruiter in the ’80s at Pitt, Oklahoma State, USC and Miami, Wannstedt has picked up right where he left off, assembling what is currently considered a national top-five class. By reconnecting with Western Pennsylvania high schools, he had 17 commitments by the end of summer, including national top-100 prospects Dorin Dickerson, Nate Byham and Kevin Collier. Now, let’s see if he can coach them.

When you have a bad season, and end up not in a bowl, the best you can do is look to the future. With all the various all-star high school teams being announced it’s been nice to see each one contain a significant number of Pitt commits.

Keith Benjamin may be the player most in need of a few days off to clear his head. Right now he is shooting his way to less playing time. Not because he is missing so much — and he is — but because he is shooting so much. I’ve only seen one game, and it seemed he was shooting too much then, regardless of the quality of the opportunity, and not passing.

Through 9 games, Pitt has 10 players with more than 100 minutes:

TOTALS ——– MIN —- FG-FGA —– FG% — Shot Freq.
—————————————————————–
Krauser, Carl……. 271 —– 53-111 —— .477 —– 2.44
Gray, Aaron……… 224 —– 41-76 ——- .539 —– 2.95
Kendall, Levon…… 213 —– 24-50 —— .480 —– 4.26
Ramon, Ronald…….184 —— 18-45 —— .400 —– 4.09
Young, Sam………. 146 —— 21-36 —— .583 —– 4.06
Fields, Levance….. 178 —— 18-36 —— .500 —– 4.94
Graves, Antonio….. 156 —— 15-40 —— .375 —– 3.90
DeGroat, John……. 121 —— 18-41 —— .439 —– 2.95
Benjamin, Keith…150 —– 16-46 ——- .348 —— 3.26
Biggs, Tyrell……. 116 —— 12-24 —— .500 —– 4.83

Benjamin is 4th on the team in total shots taken, last in the group in shooting percentage and 7th in total minutes played.

That last number gives a rough outline of the frequency with which a player shoots when on the court (Minutes/Field Goal Attempts). The smaller the number, the more frequent the player shoots when on the court. No surprise that Krauser and Gray shoot the most frequently. Surprised that DeGroat is tied for 2nd, but he is at least making a decent percentage. Kendall may have taken the 3rd most shots on the team, but his frequency is only ahead of Biggs and Fields.

Benjamin is the worst shooter and also 4th in shot frequency per minutes played. I don’t know what the coaches are telling him in practice, but the shot frequency has only increased in recent games — not to mention his poor shooting.

Opponent —- FG-FGA — MIN
——————————–
St. Peter —— 1-3 —— 16
RMU ———- 1-3 —— 18
Maine ——— 4-5 —— 17
St. Francis —– 2-4 ——- 24
Auburn ——– 3-9 ——- 16
Duquesne —— 2-6 ——- 17
Penn St. ——– 2-7 ——- 17
Vermont ——– 1-5 ——- 12
Coppin St. ——- 0-4 ——- 13

His hoisting it would appear, is costing him minutes. Like I said, I’ve only seen him play once, but the numbers seem to suggest that what I saw has been the way he has played over the last 5 games. He is not looking to pass. He only has 13 assists. In the first 3 games he had 7. In the last 3 games: 2.

Keith Benjamin is going to have to get his game under control, or it looks like he will get buried on the bench come Big East play.

Pitt had no real problem with Coppin State. Pitt let them hang around for a while in the second half, and that wasn’t unexpected. In the end, though, Pitt put them away with a solid game and gave everyone a chance to play. Marcus Bowman hit his first basket of the year at the end of the game.

Pitt took advantage of the smallish and slender Eagles on the inside, with efficient performances from 7-foot center Aaron Gray and 6-10 power forward Levon Kendall.

Gray had 14 points and seven rebounds; Kendall 11 points and five rebounds. It was the third consecutive game Kendall has reached double figures after not doing so in the first six games.

Gray scored nine of Pitt’s first 14 points to give the Panthers an early double-digit lead. Coach Jamie Dixon said it was important to establish the inside early because Coppin State predominantly played a zone and wanted Pitt to shoot 3-pointers.

“We really did talk about getting it inside,” Dixon said. “Carl made two great passes to open the game to Aaron. Then John [DeGroat] got an open three off an inside touch.”

Krauser did not have his typical scoring game but played one of his most complete and unselfish games this season. He finished with 12 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals and 1 turnover. He was 4 for 9 from 3-point range.

Ronald Ramon also added 10 points to give Pitt 4 players with double-digit scoring. Sam Young added 9 and Levance Fields had 8 points.

Coppin State’s Coach Fang Mitchell was once again asked to talk about the 1997 NCAA Tournament game in Pittsburgh where his team upset #2 seeded South Carolina in the first round. Probably an easier topic then discussing how his team is now off to an 0-9 start.