As expected Eugene Harvey signed a LOI to Seton Hall yesterday. New Coach Bobby Gonzalez is slightly happy.

“Eugene is a monumental recruit for us,” Gonzalez said. “We desperately needed a point guard, and we got a big-time player and person. In my career I’ve signed a lot of New York City point guards wherever I’ve been, and Eugene is potentially the best point guard I’ve ever recruited, signed or had the ability to coach.”

Harvey is expected to immediately start at Seton Hall.

Pitt will likely have 5 scholarships to offer now for 2007-08. Banking this one plus Seniors Gray, Kendall, Hudson and Graves.

I will posit something on the optimistic side. Pitt has no glaring needs for this year, and Coach Dixon’s main focus is finding the best new assistants to hire. These assistants will be in their first year with Pitt and arguably will be highly, highly motivated to make a big first impression on the recruiting trail.

A good case could be made that this year could be the big recruiting year for Pitt. Especially if Gray returns for his Senior year and Pitt has the season that is expected. No pressure or anything.

The ESPN SportsCenter “Sunday Conversation” will be with Coach Jamie Dixon and deal primarily with the passing of his sister Maggie Dixon. The interview will be with Andy Katz, who has already admitted he considers Dixon a friend. In advance of the interview he has a preview article.

Then there has been the endless inflow of mail and e-mail from friends, colleagues, strangers, even military personnel from around the globe and the repeated attempts to make sense of something that never will make any at all.

Somehow, throughout it all, he is staying stable. In a lengthy interview with ESPN on Thursday, Jamie was able to reflect upon his sister’s life, her legacy and the horrible day when she collapsed.

“I think she’ll be remembered as a person [who] loved life, loved people and being around all types of people,” he said. “She enjoyed every minute of her life. She’ll always be remembered as the coach at West Point, [as] someone [who] seemed to be on top of the world. She impacted a lot of people in such a short amount of time, and why something like this happens will always be asked. Why a person who did everything so right, would have something like this happen so suddenly.

“I’ll remember the special times, and she’ll always be an inspiration to me. [She] always has been and [will] continue to do so for us and our family. She’s in our thoughts always. I’ll never go a day without thinking about her. I never did before.”

There’s a link in the story to the conversation to watch online. It cuts out on me at the 1:38 marker out of 4:24 Looks like I’ll actually sit through a SportsCenter for the first time in ages. There’s an early airing on Sunday morning around 10:30 after the Sports Reporters.

Katz is still a reporter, and he makes some other use of his time with Coach Dixon with some other tidbits in his blog.

Circle Pitt at Wisconsin on Dec. 16 as another big-time nonconference game. Pitt should be picked to win the Big East while Wisconsin likely will be selected as either No. 1 or 2 in the Big Ten.
…
Pitt is looking for a few more games (its series with Penn State is over). The Panthers are going to Auburn as well as the aforementioned game at Wisconsin, and it appears the Panthers will host an exempted tournament on its campus, with Northeastern as one of the teams.

The Panthers wanted to be in one of the high-profile events but had a hard time getting a nod. Look for this to be an ongoing issue in the 16-team Big East as Syracuse, Connecticut and Louisville become the first choice of events like Maui, the NIT and the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic now that teams can play in an event like these every season (just not the same one more than once in a four-year period).

That was the concern and the reason the old rule was in place.

The post also notes that the solid money is on the Big East to go to an 18 game conference schedule after the 2006-07 season. Also, there is a proposal to have the bottom 8 teams in the Big East play on Tuesday of the BE Tournament. Those winners would face the #5-8 seeds on Wednesday. That would get all the teams to NYC for the BET.

I haven’t taken a look at how many scholarships Pitt has to offer this season. I suspect it will be a bit lower than last year. It gets a little confusing with gray-shirts and early enrollments. Bostick if he does do early enrollment as planned, I think counts as a scholarship from the previous season. Of course Pitt probably had a couple open slots with the transfers of Terrell Allen and Rob Agnone that took place after this past signing period.

With Pat Bostick committing to Pitt that means no more QBs will be recruited for this class — other than perhaps a hybrid athlete/QB for conversion to another position. It means a position Pitt won’t have to allocate any more spots for scholarships. I expect that Pitt will be especially focused on finding linemen for both sides. Not exactly a revelation or anything new, but worth mentioning.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt rolled the dice by making Pat Bostick the lone quarterback target in a 2007 class loaded with talent at the position.

The gamble paid off Friday when Bostick, a junior at Manheim Township in Lancaster, announced at a news conference his verbal commitment to Pitt. The news came with a bonus, as Bostick revealed plans to graduate in December and enroll in January to participate in spring drills with the Panthers.

“They’ve been recruiting me since last summer,” Bostick said. “They told me I was their No. 1 guy. I was very humbled by that. It was a no-brainer.”

Well, it didn’t seem like that big a gamble to go after the best QB in the state and who showed obvious interest in Pitt with the number of trips he kept making to Pittsburgh.

[Brief tangent, because it’s been bugging me for a couple days. As the aforementioned article notes that Bostick verballing to Pitt was all but a given; and word had been leaking for over a week before the announcement. The ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. recruiting blog for whatever reason, earlier in the week pretended not to know a thing.

Talked with QB Pat Bostick (Lancaster-Manheim Twp., Pa.), and he said he will be holding a press conference Friday at 9:30 a.m. ET to announce the school to which he will verbally commit.

Bostick will choose between Pittsburgh, Louisville, Georgia and N.C. State.

I’ve been trying to figure out if they were really that unaware (which would also mean not being aware of the multiple reports that Coach Wannstedt would be visiting Bostick the day before) or purposefully pretending not to know to keep the interest and attention of other fans. ]

The story also talks about a couple top receiver prospects who now have more interest.

Scout.com recruiting analyst Bob Lichtenfels believes Bostick’s decision could influence the decision of two of the state’s top receivers, Toney Clemons of Valley and Nick Sukay of Greesnburg Central Catholic.

“You’re talking about a franchise quarterback,” Lichtenfels said. “Bostick, to me, is clear-cut the No. 1 player in the state. You’re going to see an effect with Pat like you saw with Dorin (Dickerson) last year. Those kids gravitate toward each other. Receivers like to play with big-time quarterbacks, and Bostick is a big-time quarterback recruit.”

Clemons and Sukay were each on the receiving end of Bostick’s passes at the Scout.com combine and the Elite College Combine in Randolph, N.J., last week.

“I thought it was good to hear, great for Pitt. It will definitely open up my eyes,” Sukay said. “I’m still pretty wide open, but it definitely raises my interest in them.”

Added Clemons: “To tell the truth, it can sway any receiver’s decision, because Pitt likes to air it out, and Bostick can air it out. He’s fundamentally sound, willing to learn, has dead-on accuracy and can make everybody around him better. He makes an impact on you immediately. I think highly of him. He’s a great player.”

I’m not expecting these kids to make their decisions that quickly, though, there is still a long time until February.

Back to Bostick, it seems he fell in love not just with Pitt but the city itself.

Over the past few years, Bostick has been to Pitt for passing camps, games and practices.

“Pitt’s been my favorite since day one,” Bostick said. “I love the city of Pittsburgh. It has great people, blue-collar type of people who are hard-working with great character. Plus, the football is great. Western Pennsylvania is a hotbed for football and Pitt’s a great program. Overall, it’s just a great situation and a good opportunity for me.”

Although Bostick is impressed with the NFL backgrounds of Wannstedt and Pitt offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh, he said that wasn’t a big factor in his decision.

“That played a role, but not as big as people think,” Bostick said. “They’re just good guys, like everyone else from Pittsburgh.”

Definitely someone who really likes the area as well.