A long, sad story appears to finally be reaching the end — at least as far as the general public is concerned. For the parents and his friends, this is never really over.

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has reached an undisclosed settlement with the family of a 19-year-old University of Pittsburgh football player who died in 2003 after a fatal fall at a Homestead church, where the priest had served alcohol to underage college students.

“A settlement has been reached to the mutual satisfaction of all parties. All of those involved have also mutually agreed not to disclose the terms of the settlement,” said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the diocese.

The settlement, reached during a conference yesterday, will be covered by insurance, he said.

The parents of Billy Gaines, Kimberly and William Gaines of Ijamsville, Md., filed a $75 million federal suit in September 2003.

In the summer of 2003, the Rev. Henry Krawczyk — in violation of diocesan policy — invited Billy Gaines to live in a former convent belonging to St. Maximillian Kolbe parish in Homestead, where he was pastor. Mr. Gaines and several of his Pitt teammates moved into the convent after a fire damaged their Oakland apartment.

On June 17 Father Krawczyk held a cookout, where he served alcohol to the underage Pitt football players. Mr. Gaines had a blood-alcohol level of 0.166 — well above 0.10, the state’s drunken driving threshold at the time — when he entered the attic crawl space of the church and fell through the ceiling to pews 25 feet below.

His roommate and friend David Abdul was up in the crawl space with him and watched him fall. While Krawczyk is still with the Diocese, he is stripped of his duties permanently and may never present himself or serve as a priest again.

During the layoff, Coach Jamie Dixon did see basketball. He went to check on one member of the 2006 recruiting class, Gilbert Brown, but was also able to watch another once-and-possibly-future recruit Mike Davis.

Husky big man Mike Davis (6-ft-9 inches, 250 pounds) verbally committed to the University of Pittsburgh two year ago. He attended Xaverian High School and at one time played alongside former Pitt standout Chris Taft. Davis was considered the top big man in New York City. His teammate, Levance Fields, eventually chose Pitt as well. Due to academic shortcomings, Mike was forced to attend a number of prep schools until he settled at Notre Dame Prep School.

The PantherDigest.com spoke with Notre Dame Prep Head Basketball Coach Bill Barton to receive an update on Davis. “Mike continues to improve on and off the court. He’s a totally different person and player than the one that first came here,” said Coach Barton.

His talent and game have never really been in question. It has been his grades and his willingness to keep after them — as illustrated by being forced out of Xaverian and bouncing through a few prep schools. It is still unclear as to just how well he is actually doing with his grades, but his coach is trying to get Pitt to officially offer once again.

Coach Barton indicated that Davis is still very high on the Panthers but the competition for his services will begin to stiffen the longer they process continues. “I think Pitt could land him if they wanted to. With the pool of great big men dwindling, the competition is only going to get tougher,” he said. Schools from the Big East, Big Ten and ACC have inquired about his services.

Pitt is definitely looking for a Center or Power Forward who can play Center for the 2006 class. Davis’ classroom performance make him a risk. Not just because he could end up academically ineligible at Pitt if he loses interest once he gets to Pitt. There’s been a lot of questioning and slowly increasing focus on prep schools and what they do regarding grades. Teams really have to look carefully at that part now.

Yesterday night, Coach Dixon attended the Beaver Falls-Aliquippa High School match-up. Along with plenty of others.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon was in the capacity crowd. In the first row of bleachers behind Aliquippa’s bench was none other than Louisville coach Rick Pitino. Aliquippa coach Marvin Emerson actually turned to Pitino a few times and asked him if he had any pointers.

Pitt football players Tyler Palko and Darelle Revis were in the house, as well as former Pitt basketball players Brandin Knight and Curtis Aiken. Current Schenley High stars DeJuan Blair and D.J. Kennedy made the trip from the city.

Junior Herb Pope, of course, was the reason Pitino was there, and the primary reason for Dixon. Lance Jeter, the Beaver Falls Senior, was just at Pitt for a football recruiting weekend. Some of the younger talent also was impressive.

As expected, the stories about Pitt started trickling out again today. Not on the opponent, just on Pitt’s upcoming schedule.

Pitt is in a situation in which it must hold serve at home against the Blue Demons because of a quirk in the Big East schedule that has the Panthers playing four games in nine days, three of which are on the road after DePaul.

After the DePaul game, Pitt plays Sunday at Louisville, Wednesday at Rutgers, Jan. 21 at St. John’s and then at home Jan. 23 against Syracuse.

Pitt is the only team in the Big East this season that has to play four games in a nine-day period. Syracuse plays three games in six days next month, but all three are at home. A few other teams play four games in 11 days, but no team must face the gauntlet the Panthers must in the coming weeks.

Big East associate commissioner John Paquette said yesterday that the unusual schedule was a result of television. Television executives dictate when games are played. The DePaul game usually would be scheduled on Wednesday, but the league had the chance to get the game on national television on ESPN, so the game was moved.

That forced the Louisville game to be moved to Sunday, which is a regionally syndicated TV game. And, under usual circumstances, the home game against Syracuse would be played on a Wednesday, but ESPN wanted the game for its Big Monday national television game, so that game was moved as well.

That regionally syndicated game against Louisville will be airing against the Steelers-Colts Playoff game. Nice. (As a personal aside, I have to visit my family this weekend and learned that the UPN affiliate in Lebanon or Harrisburg will be carrying the game so I can catch it.)

Of course, with the layoff, the team has stressed that it has enabled it to get healthy and all that good stuff.

For the Panthers, though, the time off seems beneficial; they last played an exhausting double-overtime affair Jan. 4, outlasting visiting Notre Dame, 100-97.

“We’ve done pretty well,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “It was a concern early on. I wondered how we were going to handle the eight days when we first looked at the schedule. But we’ve had some injuries, so the timing was good for a layoff.”

Kendall, who has battled back spasms, agreed.

“It’s been good,” he said. “A couple of guys, including myself, have had a chance to heal some minor injuries, refocus and get back together as a group. We’ve had a couple of really good practices the past few days. It’s been a chance to kind of get our legs back under us and get ready for this tough stretch coming up.”

The fact that Pitt is one of three remaining unbeatens, but still outside the top-10 is not lost on others.

That’s right. The 12-0 Panthers haven’t broken the Top 10. But Pitt will have time to prove it belongs. The Panthers have yet to face their beefiest Big East foes, including Louisville, Connecticut, Syracuse and West Virginia.

Pitt is celebrating its basketball centennial this winter. It looks as if the 100th season could be memorable.

“Before the season, coach (Jamie Dixon) asked me, ‘Do you believe this team can be one of the best Pitt teams ever?’ ” guard Carl Krauser told reporters after last week’s 100-97 double-overtime win over Notre Dame. “And I said yes. When I said yes, I thought of all the young guys and all the talent we have on this team. We have a deep bench and guys who are ready to play.”

With that extended layoff serving as almost the dividing line, and Pitt’s national TV debut tomorrow, the DePaul game is essentially the start of the second-half. The move from obscurity and doubts of the 1st half to being noticed and expectations to prove it. Not many have seen Pitt play to this point, and it will be up to the team to demonstrate why they belong in the top-10.

In case you hadn’t heard — and lord knows you will Thursday night — this is only the second meeting between Pitt and DePaul. The first was a 41-37 Pitt loss in 1936. That suggests very little value to that past history.

Of a more recent vintage, DePaul’s head coach, Jerry Wainwright, was in charge of Richmond last year. A team Pitt beat. That game may be more remembered because it was the same day Coach Dave Wannstedt was introduced as the Pitt football coach, and made an appearance at the game.

Both Pitt and DePaul have their game notes (PDF).

According to the Pitt notes, there was media time after practice this afternoon, so expect quotes in tomorrow’s stories. This is Pitt’s highest poll rankings in a little over a year — before the loss to Bucknell. Of course the ESPN crew will have their storylines for players that we all know well by now. Krauser coming back to school, being a leader with all the kids, moving to shooting guard, his toughness. Kendall and his 40 for Canada against the US in the U-21 game. Gray taking over inside, averaging a double-double and the leading rebounder for the Big East. Young, Fields and Biggs — the talented freshmen. Especially Young after the recent games and getting his first double-double.

For DePaul it’s a young team with freshmen and sophomores doing most of the scoring. A new head coach, and they are almost at the end of a stretch where they will have had only 2 home games out of 8 in a 39-day period. Also, Coach Dixon’s sister Maggie was an assistant for the DePaul women’s team before taking over as Army’s head coach. Blue Demons’ Freshman Forward Wilson Chandler was this week’s BE Rookie of the week with 38 points and 19 rebounds over 2 games. Chandler is 10th in the BE in rebounds.

Another storyline you can expect, concurrently with the requisite/stock discussion of the supersized Big East will be the fact that the BE has 6 teams in the top 25 polls. Actually there are only 5 in each, but I am surprised the BE didn’t claim 7 since Syracuse is ranked #24 in the Coaches Poll and Cinci is ranked #25 in the AP Writers.

And you thought this was over. I definitely weighted the bowl games and way the teams finished in my voting. I also had a colossal screw-up in my voting with Auburn and Wisconsin. I flipped them in the wrong spots. Strangely, this is the second time this season that I screwed up my vote concerning Wisconsin in the blogpoll. I really can’t explain it. (The dairy state and I’m lactose intolerant?)

Well, the full blogpoll is here, and my sanity is clearly questioned during the extras. The individual ballots are here.

1. Texas — This decision needs justifying?
2. Southern California — Or this?
3. Ohio State — Yes, ahead of 2 other teams with 1 loss, but considering one of the losses was to the national champs, that’s a bit of a neutralizer. Very impressive in the Fiesta Bowl and was the only team aside from USC to give Texas a 4 quarter battle.
4. West Virginia — The biggest bowl shocker, and a complete disruption of the conventional wisdom.
5. Penn State — It took 2 OTs to beat a team with 4 losses at the time? Either took FSU too lightly, played down to their level or real questions about how dominant they really were.
6. Georgia — No excuse for the offense not showing up until the 2nd quarter. The defense never actually arrived. Simply inexcusable as a host.
7. Notre Dame — Okay, so I overestimated their chances against OSU.
8. Louisiana State — Kicked Miami’s ass on and off the field.
9. Auburn Wisconsin — Nice ending to an impressive coaching career.
10. Virginia Tech — I knew they wanted to draw comparisons to Miami and FSU, but I thought they meant by winning more often?
11. Oregon — Is there a hex on the Holiday bowl for Pac 10 teams or is the conference overrated? After the past 2 seasons it is looking like the latter.
12. TCU — Good for them.
13. Florida — Sure it they had to get a lousy call to go their way to hang-on, but who’s fault was it that Iowa’s defense sucked?
14. UCLA — I guess.
15. Miami (Florida) — Pathetic.
16. Louisville — Star QB out and still nearly pulled it off against VT.
17. Alabama — Yes, their defense was impressive in shutting down Texas Tech, but that game was simply unwatchable. I’m deducting style points.
18. Wisconsin Auburn — Again, whoops.
19. Boston College — At least the Mayor of Boise apologized.
20. Toledo — If Iowa loses Ferentz to the NFL, seriously, take a run at getting Amstutz. Toledo hasn’t been this relevant in America since M*A*S*H in its heyday.
21. Clemson — Well, this Bowden survived another year.
22. Oklahoma — Okay.
23. Texas Tech — Which will happen first: TTU gets a defense or they schedule some real teams in the non-con?
24. Nebraska — Great, they beat an underachieving, disappointing, imploding Michigan team. Right now with the odd love they are already getting in the predictions for next season, they are the lead team for the “blown out of proportion bowl win, that makes everyone think that next year will be a big year for them” hype. Last year’s winner: Texas A&M.
25. Florida State — After watching the kickers for FSU, it makes a lot more sense why Janikowski’s drunken antics were tolerated so easily.

Out: Georgia Tech and South Carolina
In: Oklahoma and Nebraska

As Pitt began the season rolling through the cupcakes, there was very little national commentary other than the occasional snark at Pitt’s schedule. Then Pitt hit the difficult stretch and still went through unscathed. That got a boost. Pitt only played one game last week, against a lesser opponent than Wisconsin and barely survived a couple comeback attempts. So Pitt found itself getting a large boost from the top-20 to a couple spots shy of the top-10. The simple explanation is that the voters finally noticed or gave Pitt “respect.” Not so much.

It was that the voters were finally convinced of reality and a lot of other teams ahead of Pitt lost. The voters look at the RPI more, and see a Pitt team up near the top. They also see teams with similar numbers but not the same record higher because of early expectations and need to compensate. A nice factor, though, was Wisconsin dismantling Michigan State. That was an eye-opener. But consider that all of these teams ahead of Pitt lost — Michigan State, Boston College, Louisville, Villanova, Washington, Arizona, Maryland, Oklahoma, Ohio State, NC State, Illinois, Memphis and UConn.

Then consider that the 2 other unbeatens are now #1 and #2 and Florida has a weaker non-con than Pitt. Naturally, Pitt had to get up higher. Of course, whenever Pitt takes its first loss, be prepared for a very quick drop.

The long reported, discussed and dissected have now been addressed by Pitt and Coach Wannstedt. While there is no official press release on the Pitt website (at this time), Coach Wannstedt did discuss transfers, some more recruiting and early starts.

First the good is that Jovani Chappel out of the Dayton, Ohio area has already enrolled and begun taking classes. Chappel is a cornerback who will be eligible for spring drills. He will be one of many competing to take the place of Josh Lay.

Then there are the departures. Again, no surprises, just becoming official. Rashad Jennings is heading to Liberty.

Jennings, the Panthers’ second-leading rusher last season, has enrolled at Liberty, a Division I-AA school in Lynchburg, Va. He will be eligible to play this fall.

“It’s home,” said Jennings, who wanted to go to school closer to his family in Forest, Va. “The campus is 10 minutes away from my house. I took time to pray over it, and I believe I’m fulfilling my calling.”

At Liberty, Jennings will be play for first-year head coach Danny Rocco, a graduate of Fox Chapel High School and Penn State. Rocco replaced Shaler native Ken Karcher, who was fired with one game left in what turned out to be a 1-10 season.

WR Terrell Allen is heading to Coastal Carolina or Gardner-Webb and TE Robbie Agnone is going to Delaware. A fresh start and playing time are the issues.

And, of course, there is Greg Lee entering the NFL Draft.

“I want to recruit potential first-round draft picks every year,” he said. “The more guys that make the NFL, the better for our program and for recruiting. But in Greg’s situation, I’d like to see him stay because I think he could have helped himself with another year. I think it really would have been good for his opportunities. I spoke with his dad and he also wanted him to stay, but sometimes there is more involved than it would seem.

“More time would have certainly helped him, but I wish him the best and hope he succeeds.”

When it first became known that Lee was heading to the NFL, there were reports that Wannstedt had a confrontation with Lee’s agent, Michael Huyghue, about the situation. Wannstedt said that his interaction with Huyghue was not confrontational, but certainly wasn’t cordial either.

“I’m not really going to comment on that stuff,” Wannstedt said. “It was a difference of opinion. I’m going to take care of my guys, the players that committed to Pitt. It is my job to help them achieve their dreams. And I want them all to better themselves, but if I think they need more time, I couldn’t in good conscience sit back and not voice my opinion.

“I know what it takes to play in the NFL and I’ve been around enough to know that I can help my players if they listen to good advice and put themselves in the best situation to succeed.

“Losing Greg and Rashad hurts, but it doesn’t change one thing about our preparation for the season. All it means is that all of the young running backs and receivers are going to get a bigger opportunity this year. They are all one step closer to the field.”

Very interesting.

Pitt still has a couple more recruiting weekends and several more targets.
Pitt’s remaining targets include two WPIAL players — Duquesne wide receiver Elijah Fields and Trinity tackle Andy Miller — defensive back Aaron Berry from Bishop McDevitt in Harrisburg, defensive ends Geno Atkins (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), McKenzie Mathews (Syracuse, N.Y.) and Audie Augustine (Oakland Park, Fla.), wide receiver Tamarcus Porter (Pahokee, Fla.), quarterback Thaddeus Lewis (Hialeah, Fla.) and Perry wide receiver Aundre Wright.

Most of these players have already been to Pitt for official visits. Right now Wright is the only scheduled visitor for this weekend, and Augustine for next.

There’s also a shot taken in the P-G at recruiting sites. Sure it’s 6 months or so behind the stuff from the summer, but this kind of bashing is year-round. The usual stuff about how they aren’t really experts, cheerleaders for the school they cover, etcetera.

Oh, and PantherReport (the Scout.com site) is now PantherDigest.com.

…that mean oh so much. Yesiree Bob, we may love it, we may hate it, but we sure as sugar can’t ignore the ol’ RPI rankings. Sure they’re not perfect, but many an important person, including them what select the NCAA Tournament of 64, er, 5, pour over these numbers as if they were the entrails of some cloven-hoofed beast given up so that the Caeser’s future may be foretold. To that end, I did me some checkin’ and figurin’ so that we all may get a better reckoning of the path that lay before our beloved Panther hoopsters. Plus, I was bored. So, here’s a little back o’ the envelope analysis re: our opponents RPI scores and rankings from now ’til the end o’ January. So, without further ado, here’s my mini-analysis:

Date Opponent RPI Ranking RPI Score
1/12 DePaul 19 0.6249
1/15 Louisville 46 0.5880
1/18 Rutgers 59 0.5769
1/21 St. John’s 158 0.4957
1/23 Syracuse 32 0.6000
1/28 Marquette 64 0.5753
1/31 Uconn 43 0.5905

Mean RPI Ranking: 60.1429

Mean RPI Score: 0.5788

Median RPI Ranking: 46.0000

Median RPI Score: 0.5880

For the record, Pitt’s RPI ranking was 12 and our RPI score was .6419. So poll(s)-wise, we’re actually pretty in line with the RPI calculations. Whether that factors come March is another question.

As for the numbers themselves, one can see that St. John’s, and to a lesser extent, DePaul, are the outliers when calculating the mean. Thus, the median. It’s here that Louisville becomes the ‘center’ of these rankings and scores. Overall, these figures point to the obvious: January’s going to be a tough month for the Panthers. Any winning record, even a record of 4-3, should be enough for us to remain ranked, excepting for a series of blowout losses against the likes of UConn.

Notes: I copied the RPI Rankings and Scores from MSNBC, so blame them if its all wrong. Also, this is current as of January 9th, so the game between Cinci and Uconn doesn’t factor into this. Still, I don’t think it will have a huge effect (I hope). I used Excel to crunch the numbers so if they’re off, blame Bill Gates. Hell, he’s rich, he won’t care. Also, the fomatting’s been giving me fits, so bear with me, as it’s only a Northern song, er, ‘cuz I’m new at this.

Pitt is ranked #11 in the Coaches Poll and #12 in the AP. In a moment of wierdness, UCLA under Ben Howland is #12 in the Coaches and #11 in the AP. Then there is the weekly Big East Power Poll. Showing that a power poll can be just as confusing as any other. Pitt was #3 last week, won their double-OT game with ND, while the 2 teams in front of them lost and Pitt fell to #4. I don’t pretend to fully understand, but here’s how I voted.

1. Pitt — Rose to the top almost by default in my poll. Only undefeated team left in the BE, and I feel like I’m setting them up to fall by doing this. In a fit of what may be considered pure bias, both Keith and I were the only ones to vote Pitt #1.
2. Louisville — Probably too high, but I didn’t really like what happened to the others behind them.
3. UConn — Waxed on the road against Marquette, and then had to squeak past LSU at home? Almost seems like the usual stuff to make Calhoun cranky and watch this team just get better as the season continues.
4. WVU — The big road win against Villanova. I’m not completely buying this team. They will run so hot and cold. See their eaking out a win against USF earlier in the week.
5. Cinci — Dealt with DePaul then went to Marquette and curbed their enthusiasm.
6. Villanova — Home loss to WVU was painful, probably too harsh a drop considering they went to Louisville and handled the Cardinals.
7. Marquette — Young team, tough injury, tough team and you just won’t know each game.
8. Syracuse — Almost lost in the shuffle. Unimpressive win over USF.
9. Georgetown — Once upon a time, beating Providence and St. John’s in the same week would have meant something more.
10. DePaul — Handled ND but not Cinci. Up and down as expected.
11. Rutgers — Oooh. Managed to win at home against Seton Hall by 4.
12. ND — Battled hard, but came up short twice. No inside presence will kill this team most of the year in the BE.
13. Seton Hall — They beat St. John’s
14. Providence — At least played well in losing to Louisville
15. St. John’s — I’m disappointed in this team. I expected better.
16. USF — Injuries and lots of them.

I was dead-on versus the blogpoll from 9-16. Marquette and Syracuse are flipped at 7 and 8. Same for Villanova and Louisville at 2 and 6.

And you thought there were blogs on everything. Here’s an article from the latest issue of Campus Technology magazine. It concerns the issue of delivering more and better cell phone content related to the college sports teams. Since I’ve used this blog to discuss the ringtones before, this was worth passing on. Pitt has more plans.

At the University of Pittsburgh (PA), Lori Burens, assistant director of
Licensing and Advertising, is looking forward to another aspect of mobile
content delivery. While Pitt has offered ring tones for about a year, Burens
explains that the school recently signed a deal with Collegiate Images to offer
a variety of logos and other images for users to install on their phones as
wallpaper. This deal marks the first time Pitt has signed with any aggregator to
distribute images. In addition to variations on the school logo, images include
action shots of football players, basketball players, the Pitt Panther mascot,
and cheerleaders, to name a few.

Once the deal goes live, Pitt students will have the ability to choose
from hundreds of different images and buy as many of them as they’d like for $2
apiece. Burens declines to reveal what percentage of each purchase will go back
to the school, but she says that the university is hoping to earn at least
$10,000 by the end of the school year. Ideally, she notes, students will
purchase five or 10 different images, store them on their phones, and cycle
images in any way they deem appropriate. However the image experiment plays out, the feature will complement the school’s healthy ring tone business, adding to
the number of forms of mobile content Pitt students and alumni can buy.

“If you’re willing to personalize your phone with a ring tone, there’s
no reason you wouldn’t be willing to add some images to the mix, as well,” she
says. “The more creative our [students and alumni] get with all of this, the
more revenue we’ll generate as a result, and that’s something that will make
everyone happy.”

One of the companies they list is called FightTones. I have to concede they have some very high quality ringtones, even if the logos they sell for Pitt are out of date. They only work though for Cingular, T-Mobile and Sprint — which I don’t have. For monophonic, crappy, more expensive ringtones you can get more here. I have Hail to Pitt (2) from Xringer on my Verizon network phone.

Like I said, a late start. That and not a lot of news early in the day.

I’m not sure if the limit on exempted tournaments is part of the reason for Pitt not getting to compete this year. From what I understood, it’s just that Pitt isn’t the most desirable draw of BE teams — teams like UConn, Syracuse, Louisville and even Cinci, G-town, ND and Villanova generate better sales and attention. Still, if it is the reason, then it won’t be for long if the NCAA scraps it as anticipated.

The Big East may be driving more changes in college basketball, including the NCAA setting a universal start date for the season. Why? Because Andy Katz on ESPN.com (Insider Subs.) is saying that the BE is looking very hard at going to an 18 game schedule next year to produce better schedule balance. He also has this:

Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon is a bit peeved at the Big East over his
schedule. The 12-0 Panthers opened league play with a double-OT win over Notre
Dame Tuesday, but don’t play again until Wednesday against DePaul — giving them
an eight-day break. Then he has to make three separate trips within six days at
Louisville (Sunday), at Rutgers (Jan. 18) and at St. John’s (Jan. 21). He said
just when the Panthers were hitting a groove, their routine has been disrupted.

For the record, the DePaul game is on a Thursday. Pitt will be hitting a brutal portion of the schedule. Not just in the teams they play, but the frequency. Add in Syracuse at the Pete on the 23rd before there is a bit of a breather.

…or, Them Hoopies is fer real!!!

Beating Oklahoma earlier this season was impressive, but knocking off no. 3 Villanova certainly implies that West Virginia’s roundballers are ready for Big East play. Both games, it should be noted, were also road wins for the ‘Eers, which, to my mind at least, makes them all the more impressive.

On a larger scale, this win, coupled with Marquette’s victory over UConn last Tuesday, their subsequent loss to Cincinnati and ‘Nova’s victory over Louisville last Thursday, point to the Big East starting to live up to its expectations as being THE basketball conference. No one team, not even pre-season favorites for winning the conference, looks dominant right now. Good. I’d rather have a Pitt team that’s in the running but has to play its collective ass off almost every game than one that can rest on it laurels. Our guys, IMHO, seem to raise their level of play when the pressure’s on. In the long run, any tough conference loss will only make us better come tournament time.

But enough with the Captain Obvious bit. I’ll leave the deeper analysis of this issue to Chas. In the meantime, I’m off to mark my calendar so that I can actually remember the time I posted twice in the same week. Peace, yinz.

I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion that I blog on Cleveland and Ohio politics here. Tomorrow I make my radio debut with another blogger on the local NPR affiliate. They do have live streaming from their site, but no podcasting unfortunately. The segment will be live and around 10 minutes long around 7:45 in the morning.

That, of course, means that I will very likely have a late start on tomorrow’s posts.

It’s everyone’s chance to confirm that my voice is meant for typing not radio.

Anyone remember the Cornerback from Akron who was supposed to commit to Pitt? Brian Williams. Well he’s been at Valley Forge Military College getting his academics fixed, wait that came out wrong. He’s working on his academic situation to qualify for college. He’s going to be there for another season.

The Panthers are still the favorite to retain his services in the fall of 2007, but they might have some competition. Several schools have contacted Williams through Valley Forge and his high school coach, Claude Brown. Notre Dame, Indiana and Maryland have all shown some level of interest.

“I’m quite sure that Pitt is going to come in on him, but I know as schools find out he’s at Valley Forge, some other schools are going to come in after him,” Brown said.

Williams said Wannstedt and assistant head coach Bob Junko stay in touch with him by calling at least twice a week.

“I’m still with Pittsburgh strongly, but if another big school comes, I’m going to weigh my options and go from there,” Williams said.

He’s also been spending time at running back, interestingly enough.

One of the players Pitt hopes to add to its recruiting class for 2007, they have already offered.

The WPIAL in Pennsylvania is always a launching pad for great talent at the college level and next year figures to be no different. One player to watch for is 6-5, 250 pound TE/DE Andrew Devlin out of Pittsburgh Mt. Lebanon.

Devlin made an impact on both sides of the ball for the Blue Devils this fall, who finished the season with an 8-4 record and a loss to eventual state champion McKeesport in the WPIAL AAAA semifinals.

Not surprisingly, Pitt, which dominated Western Pa. recruiting this year, is the first school to tender Devlin a scholarship offer.

“I’m extremely interested in Pitt,” Devlin told Pantherlair.com. “I think coach Wannstedt is doing some great things down there. It’s still really early, but they’re definitely a school I’m looking at.”

Devlin is also getting mail from the likes of Notre Dame, BC, Virginia, West Virginia, Virginia Tech and many more. He figures to be one of the state’s more heavily pursued prospects in the Class of 2007 before all is said and done.

Another player in Western Pennsylvania is likely a Pitt target in both football and basketball for the 2008 class.

Terrelle Pryor stole the pass at mid-court and dashed left, glancing down as he neared the basket to measure whether the defender running stride for stride with him would make a play for the ball.

With his opponent caught flat-footed, the Jeannette star sprung off the floor and flushed a left-handed dunk. Never mind that he’s right-handed. Or that he’s only a sophomore. As quickly as he elevated to the rim on that play, the 6-foot-6, 205-pound Pryor is gaining a reputation as one of the best basketball players in Western Pennsylvania and the country.

Scout.com ranks Pryor the nation’s top small forward and No. 8 player overall in the Class of 2008. Another national recruiting service, HoopScoop, had Pryor No. 33 in the sophomore class in its preseason rankings.
…
Penn State already has offered scholarships in football and basketball. Coaches from Pitt, Penn State, North Carolina State and Xavier have watched Pryor practice, and Louisville and West Virginia are expected to visit Jeannette this week.

“I don’t really think about it,” Pryor said. “I try to work hard and stay humble. You can’t really get excited or your head will get big. I’ve been all around the U.S. I know there are greater players. I know where I have to get to.”

Pryor is leaning towards focusing on basketball. I just find it somewhat amusing that Penn State hasn’t wasted anytime offering him a scholarship. There was a brief appearance of a PSU troll here, trying to mock because Coach Wannstedt had made it known to Kevin Collier’s younger brother (a sophomore) that he too would have a scholarship offer. Just the way things are these days.

Anyone who watched the ND-Pitt game on Wednesday, knows Pitt had some players dinged up. Aaron Gray had an ankle issue. Levon Kendall’s back was flaring and it turns out there are some other aches.

Following an off-day, forward Levon Kendall was held out of practice Friday at Petersen Events Center with back spasms. Forwards John DeGroat (bruised thigh) and Sam Young (hip pointer) also were hobbled, but both players practiced.

While the current layoff represents the longest of the season for Pitt, ranked No. 22 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 20 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ Poll, Dixon isn’t worried about his team becoming complacent.

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” he said. “Frankly, it hasn’t been something we’ve even thought about.”

The next game is on Thursday against DePaul — who, by the way, beat a not-surprisingly tired Notre Dame team last night 72-67. Even more shocking, ND once again showed no interior presence.

Doyle Hudson gets a minor puff piece on his transition to Pitt and still learning to play basketball.

Hudson has aspirations to play a more prominent role with the Panthers. It takes junior-college players some time to get used to the rigors of Pitt’s program. John DeGroat went through it last season, and he is starting this season.

“At first, it was rough,” Hudson said. “It’s much more aggressive, a much faster pace. In JUCO, it’s much more laid back. Here, it’s a good competition every night. I’m just trying to get better. I’m not giving up on this year yet. I still think I can contribute.”

Not sure why, but it was a problem for DeGroat as well last year. Keeping up with the pace. DeGroat often seemed a step slow. I mean with Hudson, it is a little more. Simply put, he needs more bulk and strength. He doesn’t seem strong enough to be out on the floor for long.

Not directly related, but considering the number of ACL and other surgeries he does — and the work on Kicker Josh Cummings knee this past season. A fairly interesting puff piece on Dr. Freddie Fu.