Mainly speculative stuff.

This story on the action at the Adidas Super 64 Tournament in Las Vegas has a note on a top player Pitt has only recently gotten involved in recruiting.

Julian Vaughn said he is drawing closer to making a decision. The Oak Hill bound big man said he could make his decision by late August, early September. Florida State, Pitt, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Kentucky are looking like players in his recruitment.

The early signing period for basketball is in November.

Closer to Pittsburgh, Moon Township’s Brian Walsh, a shooting guard has seen his stock rise in the camps this year.

Thanks to an impressive performance against some of the top players in the nation, Walsh himself is now considered one of the elite players in the Class of 2008. Walsh was selected to play in the underclassman all star game at the ABCD camp and came away ranked as the No. 16 shooting guard in the nation by Hoop Scoop.

“I really didn’t know what my potential was,” said Walsh, who will be entering his junior season for the Tigers, who move up to Quad-A this season. “It was crazy. I had a good camp and everything swung for me.”

But there were more benefits to his impressive performance. Less than 24 hours after his return, he was offered a scholarship from St. Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli. Within the week, he got offers from Akron, Duquesne, Penn State, Xavier and Memphis.
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Ackermann has also received inquiries from Pitt, Maryland and Clemson about Walsh. As a sophomore, Walsh was Moon’s leading scorer with 15 points per game.
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Aliquippa’s Jonathan Baldwin also received an invitation to the ABCD camp and came away ranked by Hoop Scoop as the 17th-ranked wing-forward. Baldwin has received inquiries from West Virginia, St. Joseph’s, Marquette and Tennessee.

Just something to watch.

Finally this tidbit from Mike DeCourcy.

Although not all the dates are firm yet, Pittsburgh has received enough interest from ESPN about arranging big games that the Panthers expect to play their most difficult nonleague schedule in years. Playing a lot at home, with only a few major challenges, is a formula that had worked since the program’s renaissance began early this decade. But the coaches believe this team wants the challenge of playing more tough games. One test that’s certain: a return visit to Big Ten contender Wisconsin.

I don’t think it has hurt that the fans themselves seem to be getting restless about all the patsies on the non-con. At least as far as getting people to pony up the money for those tickets and actually attend.

Honestly, I don’t care what the reason is. I’m just happy Pitt is making more efforts to schedule real opponents.