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June 5, 2007

I look forward to this story in the next alumni e-mail.

A former defensive lineman for the Los Angeles Raiders and the Cleveland Browns pleaded guilty yesterday to helping his live-in girlfriend run a high-end prostitution ring out of his parents’ Monroeville home.

Three other defendants face charges this month in connection with the prostitution and drug ring investigators say was run by the ball player’s girlfriend, Amy Schifano.

After kissing his mother and hustling his parents out of the courtroom, a subdued John Robert “Buck” Buczkowski, 43, stepped forward and pleaded to two counts of promoting prostitution, six counts of possessing and dealing cocaine, and one count each of participating in a corrupt organization, conspiracy, dealing in the proceeds of an illegal activity and illegal use of a cell phone.

He faced a sentence of 431/2 to 87 years had he gone to trial. Instead, he agreed to testify against his co-defendants if they proceed to trial.

After a short-lived career in the NFL, the former Gateway and University of Pittsburgh football star bought the Gold Rush restaurant and bar in Monroeville and ran it with his parents.

The girlfriend seems to have been a real go-getter. She seemed to be the brains and facing the most charges. Buck apparently was the muscle.

I didn’t believe it then, or now. No, not the charges, the claim that this was a high-end prostitution ring. Out of Monroeville? For around $200/appointment? Talk about the affordable prices in Pittsburgh.

The Pitt Athletic Department is out trying to do extra promotions for Pitt. They have apparently put together a “summer tour.” I don’t want to mock this. I’m sure there’s some benefits to this. I want Pitt promoted in the community.

That said, I have to mock this. All because of this one bit.

Take photos with Roc the Panther and Pitt player cut-outs

This isn’t serious, right? People still do this? Take pictures with cardboard images?

You know, even in jest. Just for fun, if you actually do this sort of thing I don’t want to know you.

This came as no shock to me. I fully expected Pitt to want to fight any attempts to change the Commonwealth’s open records law to include Pitt, Penn State and Temple. Penn State may be out on point on this, and getting the most attention. Pitt is in there as well fighting against it.

In written testimony submitted for Pitt, Paul Supowitz, vice chancellor for governmental relations, said “the public is entitled to know how the university makes use of the funds provided by the commonwealth. However, inclusion in the broadly mandated disclosure requirements of a full open records provision will have very unnecessary and detrimental results for the University of Pittsburgh.”

Pitt and Penn State emphasized concern about their status as competitive research universities. Spanier said Pileggi’s bill would make Pennsylvania’s public research universities less attractive for company partnerships and deals surrounding licensing technology.

Oh, bull-effing-crap. Can they please cite the state that can claim the competitive advantage from a lack of open records that aided university research partnerships with companies? Pennsylvania has one of the weakest and worst open records laws — to go with the historically lack of transparency of government — amongst the 50 states. Lack of state government transparency should not be a competitive advantage.

You know what’s depressing about the hearing, only 3 of the 11 state senators on the committee bothered to show up for it.

The bill falls short of a similar proposal advocated by Mr. Rendell, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association and others.

True open records law reform must include language that presumes government records are open to the public, testified Teri Henning, chief counsel for the newspaper association.

Senate Bill 1 does not change the presumption that records are closed unless the requester proves otherwise.

“Most state laws, and the federal Freedom of Information Act, begin with the presumption that records in the possession of agencies that relate to public business are public records,” she said.

It’s not even that strong a bill, though, the sponsor of the bill, State Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi is interested in amending the bill to change the presumption.

“Since introducing Senate Bill 1, I’ve heard from many people who believe that the legal presumption should be that a government record is public unless it meets an exception specifically listed in law. That position was also advocated by several of those who testified at today’s public hearing.

“I am now convinced that we should reverse the presumption in Pennsylvania’s law, despite concerns that doing so could lead to an increase in litigation and delay the benefit from strengthening our Open Records Act.

“Reversing the presumption is a major change, and we need to carefully balance the right of citizens to review records with the need for appropriate exceptions to protect legitimate interests. Developing the list of exceptions should involve input from a wide spectrum of interested parties.

“My goal is to work with Sen. Piccola and other members of the Senate, members of the House, Gov. Rendell, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association and other organizations. I hope to prepare an amendment to Senate Bill 1 which can be offered in the State Government Committee as soon as possible.”

Sorry if this seems off-topic, but the sad fact is that Pitt is just as eager as Penn State to keep the status quo. Pitt may have made the base salaries of its highest paid coaches publicly known, but they are happy to keep Paterno’s and the situation the same. That doesn’t make Pitt better on the issue. It just makes the school a little more savvy about staying directly out of the argument.

Good news during the slow news time. College football previews are getting released. In the last two weeks, Lindy’s and Athlon have been released. This week could be the big one. Phil Steele’s college preview might hit the newsstands.

So far, Pitt has been “ranked” at #60 and 55 in the two pubs that have been released. In other words, lower half of the BCS teams and middle of college football overall. Not too surprising there.

Pitt is being picked for 6th in the Big East behind Cinci. Now that just hurts.

June 4, 2007

GrayWatch: Semi-Post Orlando

Filed under: Alumni,Basketball,Draft,Good,NBA — Chas @ 11:52 am

Overall, Aaron Gray was one of the most consistent performers at the Orlando camp, and that as much as anything else probably solidified his status.

While it is important to remember that Aaron Gray will have limitations in the NBA, he has a great chance at carving out a long career as a rotation big man at the next level, particularly if he continues to shed weight the way he has nicely over the past two months.

The physical limitations of Gray were also displayed this week in Orlando, and were especially apparent on the defensive end of the floor. The 7-footer lacks the speed to get up and down the floor quickly, and will be much better off in a half-court oriented system in the NBA. Gray lacks the reaction time to be an active defensive player, and at times will stand flat-footed on the ground as a rebound sails by him in his area. He isn’t afraid to use his body against players down on the block, but this can only take you so far in the NBA.

Today Gray will be taking part in a workout session with about 20 other players.

As a result, a large number of other teams also are expected to be present when approximately 20 players take the floor today, including Boston College’s Jared Dudley and Florida point guard Taurean Green.

Jason Smith, a 240-pound 7-footer from Colorado State whose stock reportedly has risen, also is expected to be part of the group along with Daequan Cook – a gifted freshman shooter who played with Greg Oden and Mike Conley Jr. at Ohio State – Pittsburgh center Aaron Gray, Nevada forward Nick Fazekas and North Carolina swingman Reyshawn Terry. Arizona’s LaMarcus Williams and UCLA’s Arron Afflalo, two players who didn’t participate last week, may work out today or tomorrow.

Four teams tried to share the cost of this workout and keep it to themselves, but the NBA rules about when the “private” workouts could take place prohibited it from being closed. Instead they had to open it up to all the other teams or having to cancel it.

A Trip To Dallas in June

Filed under: Basketball,Players — Chas @ 11:34 am

All for the opportunity to go to Serbia in July. I’m sure things are lovely that time of year.

Incoming freshman guard Bradley Wanamaker has been invited to try out for the US under-19 basketball squad. The tryouts are in Dallas at the end of June, and those that make the team head to Serbia for the competition.

Canadian Football Updates

Filed under: Alumni,Football — Chas @ 1:17 am

Well, we’re not quite that desperate yet. Still, Charlie Taaffe spent a year as an assistant with Pitt before taking the head coaching job for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Former Pitt player Malcolm Postell is trying to win a starting middle linebacker job with the team.

Really the article is great fun, to see some of the names from the NFL and college football trying to make the team. Shaun King (remember when he was with Tampa Bay?)  is trying to be the starting QB and battling former Hawaii QB Timmy Chang.

June 3, 2007

Not sure how I missed this the first time I scanned through, but this is a nice little gem.

Strong allegedly broke Sappleton’s two cell phones and Sappleton was pushed to the ground. Medics checked Sappleton and found no abrasions, contusions or swelling relative to the incident.

Strong’s lady friend had two cell phones? For some reason this made me laugh. And yes, this is in fact the most Pitt related news we’ve seen this weekend.

Only 89 days until kickoff.

June 1, 2007

[Editor Note: My mistake, it’s been a long, long day in the real world. I’m more than a little wiped, and on little sleep after watching the Cavs-Pistons Double-OT last night. I somehow read “Indiana” rather than “Illinois” at the start of the story and the rest of the way the references to ISU… Well, it’s just a compounded mistake.]
Never like the state. Didn’t even need ND to have a dislike. Nothing against the people. I even am friendly with some people from there. Just don’t like Indiana.

So, my condolences to former Pitt players WR Kelvin Chandler and DL Nick Williams for transferring to Indiana Illinois State.

ISU is I-AA so they will be eligible to play this year and will have 2 years of eligibility remaining. Good luck to them.

Surprised, though, that they went to Illinois when both are from Florida. You’d think they’d look to play back in the warmer climates.

After seeing some reports killing Gray early in the week, it seems he has been among the most consistent performers at Orlando.

Pittsburgh center Aaron Gray is the only player in Orlando who is averaging more than six rebounds and 14 points per game. Gray has posted averages of 15.5 points and seven rebounds in his two games to date, with another game this afternoon.

That naturally has the revisions going on how Gray has looked at the camp and his draft status. At the very least, the concession is that he hasn’t slid in the draft projections.

Aaron Gray had yet another solid performance here today, following up on his good performance yesterday, and he’s thus far succeeded in not hurting his stock here at the camp, though not really improving it much either. Gray got all his scores coming off post-ups and pick-and-rolls, getting to the basket and hitting a lay-up or going to the line, or by settling for a turnaround jumper from about five feet away from the basket.

Gray had two very nice back-to-the-basket plays on the game, one coming on a turnaround jumper off the glass from five feet out, and the other coming on a fake spin one way into a spin back the other, where he laid the ball perfectly in the basket after spending just a second with his eye on the hoop, showing good awareness of where he was with the ball.

Gray scored 16 points of 5-9 shooting and a stunning 6-7 of FTs.

Apparently, a lot of teams and people watching this are still most impressed that Gray has slimmed down further (Insider subs.)

Gray probably will move up a few spots in the draft just by showing up to camp in great shape. His body is clearly more chiseled, his abs ripped and his stamina better than at Pittsburgh.

He put up a very solid performance on both ends of the floor — though he was lacking much in the way of competition.

Again, being in such great shape, in preparation for the NBA draft camp goes a ways to showing NBA scouts and people how serious and willing to work hard Gray is.

Pittsburgh center Aaron Gray continued to show off his streamlined physique and bulked-up offensive game. After delivering 15 points and nine rebounds Wednesday, Gray returned with a 16-point, five-rebound effort Thursday. Gray has shown scouts that he has a traditional big man’s power game, muscling up shots close to the basket while also being active on both backboards. Gray has been a bigger presence in the lane than he was when I saw him during the season for the Panthers.

Over at Hoopsworld, they have several writers offering takes and reporting on players.

One current NBA assistant coach had this to say: “Everyone wants to talk about what he can’t do, but he’s an NBA player.” The scout noted that he will likely be a late first round or early second round selection which was right about where most people had him slotted before he came to camp.

At 7’ 270 pounds, Gray provides the presence in the middle that so many teams are after. But don’t look for Gray on a running team. He isn’t the fastest big man out there — “He is what he is,” said one scout — but another assistant coach contends that he can succeed with the right guards getting him the ball inside.

You know, I know I mentioned Eastern Conference teams would likely grab him, but I could also see him working in the Spurs system.

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