Blame Canada
An article about how Canadians are taking over the Big East. Well, of course not, but there are more than a few in the conference like UConn’s Denham Brown and Levon Kendall. To read one of the Canadian coaches tell it, you would think Coaches Calhoun and Dixon not only don’t have a clue as coaches but are wasting some of the greatest talent ever.
No one is more surprised with how things have turned out than Leo Rautins, head coach of the Canadian national men’s team.
“The tough part with college basketball in the States right now is that it’s become very role specific,” Rautins said.
“Very few guys are just players,” Rautins said. “Every time I see Levon at Pitt I don’t recognize the player we had this summer. He sets screens, he rebounds, he draws charges and every once in a while they throw him a bone. With us he was part of the offence, hitting [three-point shots]. I just don’t think he’s developing as a player.”
Similarly, Brown hasn’t blossomed into the scorer he was projected to be when he left Toronto after having scored 111 points in a high-school game. Instead, he’s become more of a defender and distributor who is only occasionally relied on for his offence.
Leo Rautins’ son is a freshman playing for Syracuse. The article tries really hard to get Kendall and Brown to complain and whine about their situation. Instead the article does it for them and is unfairly heavy on implication that the players agree.
One Man’s Future
DraftExpress gives some love to Carl Krauser for his play in the previous week.
Krauser is a bruising combo guard, more likely to scrap for a rebound — he averages almost 5 on the season — or pick your pocket than he is to finesse dribble his way into the lane or dazzle with a crossover. Hard-nosed and energetic, the Pitt senior has thus far posted nearly identical numbers to last season, but without the upperclassmen as his supporting cast he enjoyed a year ago. He always seems to come up big in the biggest games, often in the clutch, most recently in a win at home over a ranked Syracuse squad.
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Krauser is a second-round pick at best at this stage, if he’s even drafted. But he’s a winner with upside and a nose for the ball, something that can — and often does — transcend raw skill, athletic ability and size. Look for Krauser to try and prove his worth through summer league or training camp or go to Europe will he teams will love with his flaws and relish his ability to put the ball in the basket.
A Program’s Future
As for long-future verbals to the Pitt b-ball program, cautious in the level of excitement seems to be the view.
I would venture to say that more stock should be put into Jeannette sophomore Terrelle Pryor’s verbal commitment to Pitt than a similar one that Aliquippa junior Herb Pope made during his sophomore season.
While no one knows for sure what either one of the two local phenoms will do when it comes time to put ink to paper on future signing days, if you were going to Las Vegas and there was a line on whether they would ever wear a Pitt uniform, Pryor’s line would be about 2 to 1 while I’d set Pope’s at about 7 to 1.
Pope has his roaming history, not to mention what appears to be his AAU coach, J.O. Stright’s hooks into him.
