I think I’ve established that I prefer actual information as opposed to overly broad speculation based on limited information. Now having said that, this could descend to borderline fantasy by the time the post is finished.

I noted that Duquesne made what I thought was at least on its face, a halfway decent hire for head coach. That was going to be the extent of my thoughts. I couldn’t really say that I find Duquesne much of a concern. So, I didn’t bother passing along a contrary view from Greg Doyel at Spotsline.com on the the hire (Mar 29, second entry).

Here’s how bad the Duquesne job has become: The school is about to hire Ron Everhart of Northeastern. Understand two things about Everhart: One, he didn’t start winning at Northeastern until he hired an assistant coach from Miami named Frank Martin, at which point Martin began delivering players like Jose Juan Barea — at which point Northeastern began to win. Martin’s at Kansas State now. And, two, Everhart is in bed with one of the most hotly discussed prep school coaches in New England, Bill Barton of Notre Dame Prep, who is known among mid-majors for steering his players — even players committed elsewhere — to Northeastern. If Everhart was the best Duquesne could do, then Everhart was the best Duquesne could do.

Okay, so Everhart has a sort of connection to a Huggins assistant. Of course, as we learned this week, not just any Huggins assistant. Martin is tight with the AAU Coach Art Alvarez of the Miami Tropics which of course ties back to Arlington County Day School, Rex Morgan and of course J.O. Stright. The Huggins connection is not even hidden by Duquesne:

“I’ve known Ron for a long time. He’s a ‘basketball guy’ who has great respect for the game. He coaches the game with great passion. I think he’s one of the really good younger guys in the business.”

So when there was the formal introduction of Everhart, Stright was there and being quoted.

One of the people in the stands, J. O. Stright, will help Everhart recruit locally. Stright has strong ties to youth basketball in the area and plans to showcase a number of players next week at a local gym. “It’s mainly going to be for Ron,” Stright said. “The kids will be sophomores and juniors with some seniors who haven’t signed yet. Ninety percent will come from the J.O.T.S., and some will be prep school kids.

“Ron is my type of guy. I like the way he does things.”

He also said this.

Shaler’s J.O. Stright, the founder of the Pittsburgh JOTS Junior AAU team, welcomed Everhart. Stright, arguably the most influential person in Western Pennsylvania basketball, is certain Everhart will improve Duquesne’s ability to recruit.

“I don’t think Duquesne could have picked a better guy to rebuild the program,” Stright said. “I think (recruits) will consider Duquesne now. It’s obviously going to rejuvenate the program. It was dead. It was on its heels. But just being around Ronnie, you will see a big difference.”

So there are ties between the two with Huggins and Martin — at a minimum. You have to suspect they have at least some familiarity with each other and perhaps meeting in other settings. Who else can be added to the mix.

A tip-off to what Ron Everhart brings as the men’s basketball coach at Duquesne University came across loud and clear yesterday when he mentioned a number of people who helped him decide to take the job — Rick Pitino, Sonny Vaccaro, Bob Huggins and J.O. Stright, all shakers and movers in the business of college basketball.

Everhart knows how the game works when it comes to finding the players who can turn a losing program into a winner.

“I’m very fortunate to have their support and friendship,” Everhart said of Pitino, the coach at Louisville; Huggins, the new coach at Kansas State; Vaccaro, the godfather of high school all-star basketball games; and Stright, who has ties to the local youth basketball scene as an AAU coach and founder of the J.O.T.S.

We can cross off Pitino, one of Everhart’s assistants at Northeastern happened to be Richard Pitino — Rick’s kid. Of course they’d say nice things about each other.

Sonny Vaccaro, on the other hand, is hard to miss. Vaccaro’s been with Reebok for a few years after leaving Adidas. Vaccaro, a Western PA native, is tight with most AAU coaches and runs the ABCD Camp, set up various others and is widely credited with the AAU, summer programs for high school basketball players and so on — for better or worse.

Vaccaro, while still at Adidas, was a player in helping Howland to UCLA (shoe money for the salary). He also pushed hard for Pitt to hire Bobby Gonzalez from Manhattan — another one of his “up-and-coming coaches” at the time. Funny how Gonzalez’s star seemed to dim without Vaccaro’s backing.

This is all somewhere between a lot of coincidences and a deep dark conspiracy Pitt should be wary of.

Who knows.