Chas:

Check this out:

link to news.enquirer.com

Latest rumor on Pope: He’s going to convert to Judiasm, change his first name to Moishe and play for Yeshiva U.

You heard it hear first, vishtay?

I’d still take him. Dixon certainly doesn’t seem to be in a position at this point in time to be turning away guys with NBA-type potential.

PITT should not turn Pope away. The kid is seventeen and has been pampered since he was 12. Hopefully he’ll mature in the next year and help PITT defend their national title. I can hope right?

And the Bin Laden comparison is ridiculous. A kid that has temper problems and acts up on the basketball court to an alleged murdered of several thousand people. I’m sorry I don’t see it.

Both were/are hard to find — end comparison

To Dokish’s credit, he was very skeptical of Pope being at Country Day. Please be fair. I have no loyalty to anyone, i just know that when he reported that Pope’s aunt said he was at country day, Dokish questioned it from the get go…

The comparison was stupid – end comment.

I’m really with Chas on staying away from Pope and I’d be real surprised if Jamie is going to be willing to take a chance on him. I have to do the hiring (and firing) for a large staff of medical/public health personnel and over the years I’ve learned that if you don’t take into account a person’s social skills you can make a hiring mistake that destroys the morale of your whole staff. Someone can have world-class technical skills, but if he isn’t a team player, doesn’t know how to get along with his colleages, and can’t communicate well with patients, and can’t follow through on things, all that talent and knowledge is wasted……not to mention that the individual becomes more dissatisfied, they usually channels all of their ego into creating dissention just to keep life interesting.

Pope is one of those prospects that has a lot of potential to do both good and evil to a program. Anyone who takes him is going to have to be willing to accept the risk of the considerable damage he could do to team unity and morale. When the likes of Bob Huggins is backing off from the kid, that should tell you something. Huggins in exactly noted for the class acts that he recruits.

[…] Dixon has done a great job managing egos. However, I think that is as much a testament to him as it is to the players – and the quality of characters — he recruits (I think you may know what I am hinting at here). […]

Kind of stupid to say Dokish was wrong. He reported that Pope was going to Florida and he was. Hell, even the Florida coaches and the Aliquippa coaches said he was. But then his aunt told him he wasn’t and Dokish said that before anybody else. The reason he didn’t quote anybody is because he clearly knows people so inside that they refuse to talk on the record. I think his track record proves that as he has been weeks and even months ahead of others sometimes on his scoops. You couldn’t hold Dokish’s jock as a sportswriter so maybe you need more practice more before you write in public son.

I probably shouldn’t be doing this, but I suppose I’ll bite and defend myself – a little.
The original Dokish report said this, with a wording that I think presents it as fact:

“Former Aliquippa High School star forward HERB POPE is now enrolled at Arlington Country Day School in Jacksonville, FL.”

That same report has now been edited and changed to say this:

“Aliquippa High School star forward HERB POPE is back at Aliquippa after another brief flirtation with Arlington Country Day School in Jacksonville, FL.”

And the most recent PG story says this:

“Country Day officials never confirmed Pope’s enrollment, claiming privacy rules.”

The information in the original report is being shown to be wrong – why else would it have been changed (more on this in a second)? The Dokish story gave no source. It obvious the guy has great contacts so I am comfortable assuming he got his information off the record from someone (I said that in my original post). Still, when using info of that nature and presenting it as fact a journalist runs the risk of being wrong.

There is this tidbit from Dokish’s blog (separate from PSR and Keystone recruiting) that helps explain the situation a little:

“Now, you know why when people talk about Pope, they always use the qualifier “as far as I know” and why Stright says he doesn’t tell anybody anything for the record anymore with Pope because it changes daily.”

I’m sure Peter Gammon has been wrong about a trade, or Andy Katz wrong about a recruit. GM’s change their mind; college kids change their mind. That doesn’t make them bad reporters, in fact, their willingness to be wrong (once in awhile) may even make them better reporters.

Because Dokish has inside sources and is willing to go out on a limb, we the fans get timelier, inside and breaking information. Because he has earned such a good reputation (like Gammons or Katz, but on a smaller scale), he has earned the right to be wrong once in awhile. That doesn’t mean we (I) can’t say when he’s wrong. I was by no means intending to knock the guy – at all! I’m not stupid; he used to work as a bodyguard!

The ONLY problem I have with this whole thing is that the original Pittsburgh Sports Report article has been changed. I see that as revisionist history – stand by what you write. I’d prefer and update, keeping the original intact (Dokish did keep the original intact on this blog, using an update instead)

Just one more thing, Dokish was not the first to report the thing about his Aunt. That is credited to the Beaver County Times by Dokish himself. Again from his blog:

“A woman claiming to be Pope’s aunt, and legal guardian, contacted the Beaver County Times and told them that her nephew is in New York and will attend Aliquippa when he comes back instead of going to prep school in Florida.”