Seven or eight years ago Pitt would have been on this list.

And this question occurred to me, too: What are the 10 toughest coaching jobs in college basketball?

Not tough like Texas-Pan American, where you get paid like a school teacher and literally can’t win. Tough like N.C. State — great salary, great league, but still brutal.

It’s all from major conferences. Providence and Seton Hall make the list. As does some other PA school.

5. Penn State: Location, location, location. Penn State is in the middle of a basketball graveyard. On one side of the state is Philadelphia, recruited by national powers. On the other side, Pittsburgh and West Virginia dominate. Abandoned in its own state, where is Penn State to turn for recruits? To Indiana? Or Michigan? Those states have their own powerhouses. When people tell you that Texas and Oklahoma are tough basketball jobs because they’re “football” schools, hold up a hand and say two words: Penn State.

Doyel still has K-State on the list noting that the NCAA prohibition on private jets for bringing in recruits is a real blow.

I don’t think any job in a major conference is truly impossible. Some are more difficult than others, but things can change with major effort, getting and keeping the right coach. Ask West Virginia. Ask Texas A&M. Things can change a lot faster than it sometimes appears.

Just an few small Basketball stories. Can we officially call the NC State Wolfpack basketball team, Pitt South? They now have two former Panther players as assistant coaches.

Pete Strickland, a former head coach at Coastal Carolina, has joined Sidney Lowe’s new basketball staff at N.C. State.

Strickland, 48, played prep ball at Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha under Morgan Wootten, and once coached Lowe and Dereck Whittenburg during summer league ball in the Washington, D.C. area.

Strickland began work at State on Friday after a series of telephone conversations with Lowe earlier in the week.

Also on the Lowe staff will be former Herb Sendek aide Larry Harris, former Wolfpack guard Quentin Jackson and Monte Towe, the point guard on State’s 1974 NCAA title team and previously the head coach at the University of New Orleans.

At Coastal Carolina in Conway, S.C., Strickland was 70-127 in seven seasons as head coach. He previously worked at Dayton, Old Dominion and Virginia Military. As a standout guard at Pitt during his college career, he played on the same teams with the high-scoring Harris.

[Emphasis added.]

I would have really liked Pitt to try and get Larry Harris to come back to Pitt. Unfortunately, Harris seems very happy in the Raleigh area. Part of the reason he returned as an assistant to NC State after initially heading to Tempe with Herb Sendek.

Getting to be a very curious thing to see who gets hired to be the next Pitt assistant or associate head coach. Assuming Orlando Antigua gets promoted to an assistant from director of basketball operations and Pat Sandle remains, there is only one opening there and an opening for a new director of basketball operations — which would go to a younger, newer guy trying to climb the coaching ranks. Should Pitt hire a former Panther — like Darrelle Porter as an assistant? Should they look elsewhere? I think it’s smart for Dixon to take his time right now. Chris Dokish has some information on this front.

The NCAA’s academic progress goals has created an interesting thing with regards to transfers.

With the NCAA’s academic reforms pressuring programs to keep players progressing toward degrees, some coaches are declining to release players who want to transfer until they complete spring semester classwork. Marquette’s Tom Crean is among them. He waited to release SG Dameon Mason (now at LSU) last spring and this year required PF Ryan Amoroso to finish up. Unless players who transfer do so in good academic standing, there’s a chance their first schools eventually could lose scholarships.

That seems like something someone should also pass along to the football side of things. Transfers are more prevelant and common in football. Pitt has lost several over the last couple of years. Hopefully the athletic department is on top of this.

DeJuan Blair out of Schenley High still has Pitt high on his list. Have to figure an offer will come soon for him and D.J. Kennedy.

Luis Colon is expected to announce his choice today (tomorrow is the last day of the signing period). Pitt is definitely out of the mix at this point.

According to his AAU team’s Web site, Luis Colon, the 6-foot-10 forward from Miami Krop High, has added an offer. The nearby Miami Hurricanes have jumped in late. Colon, who visited Manhattan over the weekend, is choosing between Duquesne, Massachusetts, K-State and Miami.

Part of what is really driving his decision is early playing time. In that respect, it is not a surprise that Pitt wouldn’t make the cut. I doubt Coach Dixon was willing to make him any promises or assurances at this point. Colon appears to be a good player, but he is not that good a player right now.

Additional, note from the story that is just amusing. K-State has its first player arrest under the Bob Huggins regime.

Senior point guard Mario Taybron was arrested Saturday by Riley County Police at 11:54 p.m. on a municipal warrant for a failure to comply.

He was released on a $179 bond. No other details were available.

Not sure if it’s fair to count Taybron, since whatever he did happened before Huggins. But what the hell.

It’s some reading between the lines, but I’m feeling more confident that Gray will be back (as I had predicted, but found myself waffling). Chad Ford lists Juniors who the whispers say are staying in the draft (Insider Subs.).

We know who has declared for the draft, so NBA executives have changed their focus to a new question: Who’s actually staying in the draft?

We’re still a month away from getting definitive answers, but here is the buzz on some prominent underclassmen that declared, but to preserve their eligibility, didn’t hire agents.

He lists Josh Boone, UConn; Bobby Brown, Cal-Fullerton; Shannon Brown, Mich. St.; Quincy Douby, Rutgers (who has gone and hired an agent); Jordan Farmar, UCLA; Nick Fazekas, Nevada; Daniel Gibson, Texas; Leon Powe, Cal; Cedric Simmons, NC St.; and P.J. Tucker, Texas. Gray is no where to be found on the list.

Then there is this story about how some coaches are taking a more active role in making sure their juniors who are testing the draft waters don’t screw up with their eligibility should they choose to return.

Fox, like a number of other coaches this spring, is taking an interpretation of an NCAA rule on NBA draft workouts and is getting involved in scheduling them.

“I’m doing just about all of it,” Fox said. “I’m the one communicating with the GMs and scouts. It’s a significant amount of time every day. I owe it to Nick and I’m fortunate that he trusts me.”

The rule, NCAA Division I Bylaw 12.2.1.2, was interpreted as recently as last Thursday to clear up any misconception. The rule states that it is permissible for an institution to reserve a facility for its student athlete to work out for a team, as long as the coach is not present for the actual workout. A student’s family and other individuals can attend as long as they are not “agents or acting on behalf of agents.”

For years, underclassmen have been burned by misunderstanding the workout rules and end up sitting games the following season if they return. It happens when players don’t realize they must pay in advance for workouts at NBA facilities. The only exception is the predraft camp, which has moved from Chicago to Orlando this June, and which the NBA pays for.

To combat this possible expense-related headache, coaches such as Fox are being proactive.

Coach Dixon is going with this approach.

Fox said the NCAA has been good to work with as it explains what he can and can’t do.

“For instance, if he went to a workout, can I go? I know I can’t now. Can I go to Orlando? Yes, I can go there. But I know I can’t even watch a workout here,” Fox said. “Nick has been great and so has his family. They’ve been mature and cautious.”

Fox isn’t alone on this path.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon has been calling around for junior center Aaron Gray, looking into the possibility of a workout in Pittsburgh for him. Gray isn’t interested in flying all over the country for workouts and isn’t keen on going to Orlando, either.

[Emphasis added.]

Hmmm.

If Gray is even a little disinterested in doing the workouts right now, it reads like he just wants another year at Pitt.