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August 25, 2006

Hooray Basketball!

Filed under: Basketball,Recruiting — Keith W. @ 9:31 am
There’s some recruiting notes to pass along from Pittsburgh Sports Report.
Pitt got a verbal commitment from Bradley Wanamaker (love the name). Queue recruiting clichés:

Wannamaker is an excellent ball handler and defensive player who uses his strong body to carve out space on his drives. He also has a high basketball IQ and a relentless work ethic.

Wanamaker (I’m seeing it spelled with one and two “N’s”) is from Philly and is defined as a combo guard. He’s 6-foot-3, 200 pounds. Scout gives him three stars.

Here’s a highlight video I found of Wanamaker. It’s worth checking out. From what I can tell he is comfortable coming off the dribble and finishing close to the rim. He can certainly create his own shots. Unfortunately, I saw very few highlights of him shooting jumpers and only one was from beyond the 3-point line. Maybe it was just the editing.

Or maybe it wasn’t — here is a coach’s analysis of Wanamaker.

We asked Coach Grisham to described the star guard, “He is almost 6-foot-4 inches tall. He is definitely a No. 2 guard. He might remind you of Mitch Richmond in style. He is a big strong guard.”

Coach Grisham went on to say, “He is athletic enough to guard a point guard if he has two but is strong enough to guard a wing player. He is almost unstoppable going to the basket. He is very aggressive on defense. He still needs to work on him jump shot but he has good form so it will come.”

A lot of sites have him listed at 6-foot-4. This short note confirms his strong build:

Wanamaker is simply ripped. He has the shoulders and biceps of an NBA player, and he is really quick getting up and down the floor.

Wannamaker’s verbal may hurt Pitt’s chances of landing another guard they were targeting (this from and earlier report).

Wannamaker would fit the Panthers quota for guards in this class, but 6’1″ CHRIS WRIGHT of St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C. is one of the top five point guards in the 2007 class and would be too hard to pass up. Wright, who knows new Pitt director of basketball operations David Cox very well, is a Georgetown lean at this time but is scheduled to visit Pitt on September 16th.

To Pitt’s credit, you can’t wait on a guy like Wright who is being recruited by all the big schools.

With Pitt’s depth at guard all this guard recruiting may sound crazy (it did to me), but remember that these guys would be joining Pitt when Ramon is a senior and Fields is a junior. Shucks, they grow up so fast!

According to the same PSR article, Pitt is targeting six centers. Unfortunately, the Panthers will already be a year removed from the Aaron Gray era (did you hear he’s going pro after this year?).

Before Wanamaker, Pitt had already received one verbal from 6-foot-7 swingman Darnell Dodson.

Can’t wait until basketball!





Not impressed with this recruit at all….another 3 star not bad not great either recruit….sure our program is now a stable top 20 program….but shouldn’t we be shooting for something more? Wait and hold out for the big boys….and let’s not take the easy quick pick.

Comment by Marco 08.25.06 @ 12:04 pm

I’m impressed with Coach Dixon and his staff, and their ability to recruit and coach quality players. This kid is a plus for us…Nevermind the all-important three point shot. This kid will shoot and make the mid-range jump shot. I’m happy to see that.

Comment by Frank 08.25.06 @ 12:43 pm

The coaches are doing the best they can in respect to recruiting. Pitt needs to break the Sweet 16 Bubble and proceed to the Elite 8 or to the Promised Land. Once that happens they will be more appealing to top 50 recruits.

BW gets his shot on and he is a 4 star with 5 star potential.

Comment by Kenny 08.25.06 @ 12:50 pm

Also I think Jamie has done as good or better than BH. Ben had one top 100 recruit in his tenure as the Panther’s coach. Jamie had 3 alone in last year’s class and he has one coming in this year. Also as I had stated earlier, if BW gets his groove on with his shot he most likely will move into the top 100.

Comment by Kenny 08.25.06 @ 12:56 pm

Quit drinking the Cool-aid folks….you’re setting yourself up for failure, paxal, and zollof this year, this team isn’t a top 5 team, until they win they are top 20 at best….and by the way, basketball doesn’t begin or actually mean anything until after Christmas…so let’s talk football.

Comment by Marco 08.25.06 @ 1:41 pm

Perhaps you may be partaking of some of the kiddy stuff but I think myself and others dabble in reality.

Reality says that Pitt will only get to the next level with some top 50 recruits mixed in with their recruiting classes. Classes which have gotten better with JD and THAT is the reality of it.

Comment by Kenny 08.25.06 @ 2:16 pm

This top-50 madness needs to stop. How many top-50 players did George Mason have last year? WVU almost made it to the Final 4 without any top-50 players. Pitt has more than enough talent to make a deep run this year. The most highly recruited player Pitt has had was Chris Taft and he didn’t take us to the promised land. Remember D-Wade was a three star player that nobody knew about before the NCAA tournament. NBA Players are made in March, not by the meaningless stars that Rivals or Scouts put beside their name.

Comment by Omar 08.25.06 @ 2:51 pm

Omar what you say is true. The point I was alluding to is the fact that the teams who make it to the Elite 8/Final 4 on a consitant basis are teams that consitently recruit the best.

Test case, North Carolina, the won the title in 05 and lost the core of that team. They came right back this year.

George Mason/Marquette were anomolies. Ones who did not win it all and in Marquette’s case were not back there the next year. It would be a safe bet to say that George Mason will not go far in this coming year’s NCAAs if they even make them.

The George Mason/Marquette teams were just that, good teams! They were not blessed with an over abundance of blue chippers. The teams that are there year and year out are blessed with them.

Comment by Kenny 08.25.06 @ 3:12 pm

Ok…if NBA players are made in March….name one that we’ve had since Ben or Jamie got here…don’t get me wrong….I want to believe, but I’m not going to get crazy over a team that has done absolutely nothing to prove they can make it past the first round in any tournament….ps on another topic, anyone notice how PITT has raised ticket prices, campaign contribution requirements and parking passes after last years disgrace?

Comment by Marco 08.25.06 @ 5:02 pm

Marco – do you mean last year’s football team when you say “last year’s disgrace”. If so, a little perspective should be applied. Granted the season was a disappointment – especially with all the pre-season hype surrounding DW’s hiring. But, a 5-6 record is not a disgrace, especially when you have a new coach, new system and the inheritance of core players who were not that talented. It’s no secret that Harris didn’t recruit any highly talented lineman, and that was really where PITT fell apart – on the lines. The fact that the team came together after that terrible start and won four out of the last six games was, to me, admirable and I believe that was a result of good coaching. Other teams have completely fallen apart in those situations.

I’ve said this before, but I believe Harris knew he was out of here in 2004 – and Bill Walsh has stated that he had been in talks with Harris over the two years before that. I suggest that DW’s approach has been a good one, he’s repairing connections to local high schools that had been almost completely ignored by Harris, and we’re getting recruits that would have not given PITT a second look before. So, it’s obvious he is building for the future, we’ll see if it has worked after this year. But even with all that we won five games last year, and were in the position to win two more. It may not have been what we all wanted, but it sure could have been an awful lot worse.

The fact that PITT’s administration has upped prices and set requirements for seats is disheartening though, and like every other sports team nowadays they are taking every advantage of fan’s loyalty when they can.

Comment by Reed Kohberger 08.25.06 @ 5:46 pm

UConn crashed and burned last year with 5 NBA picks on its roster.

Sometimes chemistry is more important than the number of stars a recruit has. Wanamaker seems like a very good fit for the type of basketball we play.

All we need now is 2 big bodies. Hold the last ship for a high quality player, and we’re set for 2007.

Comment by baudolino 08.25.06 @ 6:41 pm

Chas,

Are you still in Pittsburgh, if so drinks are on me tonight….give me a call if you want to hang out and look at some young co-eds….looking at the menu is still legitimate….412.512.8213.

Also for the rest of the gang…I have some extra football tickets that might become available, if anyone is intersted give me a call.

Comment by Marco 08.25.06 @ 6:56 pm

I think they raised prices this year (with a decent home schedule) so they can lower them for next year’s dog schedule and look good.

Comment by geeman2001 08.25.06 @ 7:15 pm

Pitt has not had many March stars in the recent past, but they are at least two legitimate NBA players on the current roster (Young and Gray). Kendall will probably play professional basketball somewhere, perhaps in the NBA with a great year. Patrick O’Bryant made himself a millionare with a strong showing in March. Joakim Noah didn’t even get off the bench his Freshman year, and everyone is saying he is a top-5 pick because of a great March. The fact is there is plenty of talent on the current roster. More than in any of the past 6 years. Fans should be optimistic going into the season.

Comment by Omar 08.26.06 @ 11:15 am

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