We just found a replacement for Mike Rice leaving for Robert Morris and we could be losing our Director of Basketball Operations to a Big East team we know well enough.

The musical chairs at the University of Pittsburgh basketball program may not be done yet. According to a source close to the situation, Pitt’s Director of Basketball Operations, David Cox, is interviewing today for a position with Georgetown.

If Cox leaves, he would be the second member of the staff to leave in the past month, joining Mike Rice, who left to become the head coach at Robert Morris. Like Rice, Cox has only been with the program for a year.

Cox is a native of Washington, DC, and a former coach for the vaunted AAU team, DC Assault. It was those connections that led Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon to hire Cox last year and is also why he is coveted by Georgetown.

You might recall we just hired Cox last July and that he knows what he’s doing down in the DC area. Since Georgetown has been able to retain the local guys so well down there in the short time Cox has been on the job, we haven’t made any pickups but there is at least one player (who would be in the class of 2009) that likes Pitt because of Cox. If Cox goes to the Hoyas, there is no doubt the players will stay close to home.

The article is by Chris Dokish of Pittsburgh Sports Report (via PSI) and he also notes that if Cox is to leave, one possibility to replace him is Brandin Knight.

Obviously no one wants to have their coaches leaving (and remember this is not a done deal yet) but that’s the territory that comes with a very good program lead by great coaches. Howland and Dixon have built a program where good coaches are going to come and go for other (and usually better jobs) quickly.

I have to admit this. Optimistic as I am that Pitt will have a strong season despite the major changes in starters and expected in style, there is a part of me that worries about all that could go wrong. Major injuries, academic issues, chemistry, and all the things that can derail a season. Right in the conference, we saw UConn have a stunningly bad season. Syracuse couldn’t seem to get the team fully together for any extended stretch. Louisville took over half the season before coming together. All three teams coached by three hall-of-fame (or eventual hof) coaches with some major talent. Never forget that things can go horribly wrong.
Yet, even Coach Dixon is apparently excited for next year (Insider subs).

Dixon said he has never been as excited about a recruiting class as he is about the one coming to campus in the summer.

The main piece of this class might be the most improved player in the Class of 2007. DeJuan Blair, a power player out of Pittsburgh, is quite simply blowing up to use an overused recruiting term.

Dixon expects Blair to come in and be an impact player in the absence of Aaron Gray, who finished his eligibility.

“His body has changed and he’s grown to where he’s about 6-8, 250,” Dixon said Monday. “He can play both the four and the five for us. He’s just so skilled and versatile. When we lost our big guys we needed someone to have an impact.”

Blair joins a class of 6-foot-6 Darnell Dodson, 6-foot-4 Bradley Wanamaker, 6-foot-9 Gary McGhee and 6-foot-10 Cassin Diggs.

The Panthers lost Gray and Levon Kendall inside as well as guard Antonio Graves. But a strong nucleus returns led by wing Mike Cook, guards Levance Fields, Ronald Ramon, Keith Benjamin and big men Sam Young and Tyrell Biggs. If Blair is the stud that he is being projected as then the Panthers should have enough balance to be in the thick of the race again.

Blair still has some academic issues to hurdle but the Panthers expect him to be on campus soon to be enrolled in summer school.

I’m mildly surprised that Coach Dixon is willing to talk up the young players. In Dixon’s 4 years of coaching, only one freshman ever earned significant playing time — Chris Taft. That he thinks Blair will break through immediately is worth noting.

No, North Broward Prep doesn’t have a deep football history (though, Pitt QB Dexter Davidson came from the school). Still, we are talking about a prep school in Broward  County, Florida. The odds are good that they will have some good football players coming out of there. When they do, you can bet Pitt will at least have a foot in the door because of the new coach, Jeff Dellenbach.

He joined the Miami Dolphins coaching staff for two seasons under Dave Wannstedt and served as an assistant offensive line and special teams coach.

He spent the past two seasons assisting at Archbishop McCarthy, where his sons Dane and Dax played.

On Monday afternoon, he was introduced as the new football coach at North Broward Prep in a ceremony at the school.

Dellenbach was a veteran offensive lineman with the Dolphins primarily. He also has a business that primarily helps train high school athletes.

Last week the NCAA Rules Committee approved moving the 3-point line back 1 foot starting in the 2008 season. The women’s line will remain at 19’9″, so there will be the unaesthetic sight of two arcs running parallel. That should confuse refs and players periodically. Another early observation was that the moving the line back, would be a hit to the mid-majors that rely more on shooters than players going inside.

The overall consensus in the media and most fans, though, has been overwhelmingly positive. Myself included. It shouldn’t be a shot where teams average over 33%. It should be a much tougher shot, and taken less frequently. Mike DeCourcy gives a good breakdown of what is hoped to be accomplished with it.

Empirical: Of every 10 shots taken in the 2006-07 season, 3.4 were launched from 3-point range, up from about 1.5 of every 10 in 1986-87, the first year of the 3-pointer. Over the past 11 seasons, 3-point accuracy improved from 34.1 percent to 35.0 percent.

Anecdotal: “You’ve got bad shooters taking it — you’ve also got bad shooters making it,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey says.

Teams that set their perimeter players behind the 3-point line on offense will have to move them back. Teams that try to drop from the perimeter to double-team the ball in the post on defense will have more ground to cover. With less congestion in the key area, it likely will be easier for officials to identify the bumping, clutching and grabbing that defenders employ to disrupt offensive flow.

All this is expected to enhance the value of player movement, with and without the basketball. It’s a more beautiful game when the players are in motion.

When the local Pittsburgh college coaches were surveyed on the issue, it seems to reflect the view of major/mid-major biases. Coach Dixon was happy about it.

Pitt’s Jamie Dixon, whose Panthers rank among the nation’s elite programs, takes a different viewpoint than his counterparts at Duquesne and Robert Morris.

“I don’t think it will make too much of a difference,” Dixon said. “It was just a matter of time. We all knew this was coming. When I sent in my survey, I knew it [the line] was getting changed. I thought if they were going to move it, they should take it back to the international line.”

Mike Rice at Robert Morris isn’t a fan of moving it back; and Ron Everhart at Duquesne seems tepid at best. The one thing Dixon and Everhart did agree was that the lane should have been widened as well. Maybe they will take that up later.

There are always unintended consequences of a rule change. Syracuse and teams that play zone, look to be beneficiaries of the move.

One is how the move might encourage more teams to play a zone defense because if a zone is designed to force opponents to shoot 3-pointers, it’s reasonable to think more teams will become favorable of zones considering 3-pointers should now by definition be more difficult to make. Meanwhile, the schools that already predominantly play zone will likely enjoy a larger degree of success.

Advantage: Syracuse.

“Jim Boeheim, right now, is very happy,” UCLA coach Ben Howland told CBS SportsLine.com on Thursday afternoon. “In college basketball, you don’t have the same skill level as you do in the NBA, so you’re going to see a lot more zone.”

Things could really come together for the ‘Cuse in ’08 when you factor in that their ’07 recruiting class is huge in terms of ranking (top-5) and numbers (6 new players). They have a year to learn the zone and get comfortable with each other before the new rule. I’m just making note of that now.

DeCourcy also identified the type of players that will benefit from the move after next season: “The Bomber (Chris Lofton, Tennessee); Mid-range shooters (Jerel McNeal, Marquette); Aggressive wing players (Chris Douglas-Roberts, Memphis); Point guards who can run the fast break (Darren Collison, UCLA); and the Strong low-post players (Darrell Arthur, Kansas).

In the final group he includes DeJuan Blair as a player that will be dominating in the low-post, and will benefit from the change.