There’s just been no news on Eloy Vargas, other than the fact that his profile keeps rising and the offers keep coming. So there’s nothing but speculation. Speculation that makes Pitt fans nervous.
Though buzz among AAU coaches is that Plantation American Heritage 6-10 power forward Eloy Vargas — the nation’s 23rd-ranked prospect by rivals.com — might end up at Louisville, his travel team coach said he’s strongly considering UM, along with UF, FSU, Louisville and Pittsburgh.
Keep in mind that this is the dead period of recruiting so it’s not like Antigua or Dixon can be in touch with him. The other nerve inducing thing. He is close with his AAU teammate Kenny Boynton, Jr. Boynton just transferred to Vargas’ school.
Boynton is a top-ten 2009 recruiting prospect. While he has an offer from Pitt — and just about everyone else including Louisville — he doesn’t appear to have much interest in Pitt.
Pittsburgh Sports Report. This rumor, that Vargas is headed to UL, has been around for awhile. Lets just see what pans out.
HAIL TO PITT!!!
That said, I think it’ll all depend on how Randy Shannon’s boys do coming out of the gate. Also, if you’re getting offers from the Big 3 schools and you live in Florida, you would be stupid to go out of state. Say what you will about Bowden (who I think is on the decline, a la Paterno), but you don’t turn down Urban Meyer or an upstart like Randy Shannon.
Go bother dophin fans blogs.
“He should get on the bandwagon…I just repeat what I’m told…Wanny=bad…blah blah blah…”
When you have an original thought, come back. No one wants to hear your whining – especially because its the same shit we’ve had to listen to for the last 2 years. Go get on whatever bandwagon is popular now. Better yet, come back in two years, then you can tell us if you were right or not. Until then, you’re just rehashing the same bullshit.
Like i said, you’re reasoning is blinded by your hate. You didn’t even know what the hell we were talking about here. You have no idea who plays for pitt in what sports or who we’re recruiting except for what you look up at espn/scout after we point out your stupidity. But we all know “wanny = devil.”
Go bother these people: http://www.blackshoediaries.com
Do you see how deep we were last year? Not too many teams in the nation were as deep as PITT (Kansas is the only team to come to mind)
We need a stud to put pitt on ht ebasketball map
Pitt is slowly getting the horses to make a run to the final weekend. Vargas would be a big piece in the puzzle for ’08, but if he slips away Dixon and company will find someone else. They always do. Antigua will be on the hot seat if they can’t land Vargas. He was leading with Vargas and Pitt was on him early. If we don’t land him, then Antigua needs to make a splash for ’09.
I a huge pitt fan but help me see the light. Where is Jaime scratching the surface? Jaime is falling and no one wants to see it since we made it back to the sweet 16. We underachieve the past two years Jaime was our coach. Jaime is doing an admirable job as a stop gap with Ben leaving but Pitt is going no where with him manning the ship.
jaime needs to put additional work into his profession. Come out with his own scheme. Dont mimmick Ben’s because we saw on natioanl tv ben embarass jaime.
We need a point guard. Vargas is not the answer. A point guard and a shooter. RR is not the answer.
Omar- help me see the light. You have very insightful repsonses that I am interested in hearing about Jaime.
Dixon has adapted the offense and defense based on the personel. Our offense the last two years was much different than the one we ran with Chevy, Taft, and Krauser. There was significantly more cutting and movement in the post with those guys. This season we relied heavily on getting Gray in the best position and had much less cutting and motion in the post. Defensively he has been much more willing to use a zone to mask some of Gray’s weaknesses and stopped having him hedge so much in man-to-man. He has also shown an ability to tailor an offense in mid-season for smaller and quicker post players (see the offense in the Seton Hall and the second Georgetown game).
As far as recruiting, we have a great point guard prospect coming in with Woodall. Darnell Dodson is a 6’7″ athlete with a silky smooth jumpshot. He will probably red-shirt this year. We are stacked at the wings right now, a big man is the number 1 priority.
Honestly, I think we underachieved in the NCAA Tournament two years ago when we had Krauser. This past season we just weren’t good enough defensively and Gray was not in the best shape at the end of the year. If he had been in better condition, then I would agree with you, but he was not. He ran out of gas physically and he was a wreck mentally after the Washington game. He was our focal point last year and we got as far as we could with him.
One other point about Dixon, he is excellent at developing players. Every kid that we have had has been better as a senior than they were as a freshman. This is a fact. Each player gets better every year, that is a testament to Dixon. Simply wait until the ceiling is a little higher with the players. As Dixon gets more talent to develop, the ceiling on the team gets higher. We have a lot of athletes now and I think in a few years we will be ready to go, maybe even this season.
Dixon is phenomenal. He is young, loyal, ambitious, smart and talented. Pitt basketball could not be in better hands.
I thank you for your feedback and I was anxiously looking forward to your response.
I guess, I will have to take your word in regards to JD but I still see the cup half empty with a very slow leak. The games I watched I did not see the adjustment you mentioned and I definetly did not see the improvement in skills from players as they marticulate in class (Gray showed glimpse shis junior year but after the tournament game it went down hill). I see more of a regression in skills i.e field, hill, ramon
I want to beleive that JD is directing the ship in the correct direction but I cant see. this year pitt was ranked in the top 10. had one of the deepest in the nation, and underachieved. I understand things happen but they played lackluster for majority of the season. We did not have that fire. Our defesne is getting soft and our offense is not improving to compensate (this is the opposite of the ben howland blueprint jaime follows)
Help me out… what should I look for this year b/c we know the chips will be down. This year I will see if JD can coach and if your assessment is correct or if my assesment in correct.
Without looking at the schedule, here is my prediction- 18-20 (big home wins but poor showing on the road against top teams. We will beat duke!). Semifinals in Big East Torunament and either a first or second round exit from tournament.
Omar, i appreciate your feedback and fervor for pitt sports. what is prognosis for the season.
maybe you can answer this questions- is JD having problems motivaing his team? Sam Hill looked lost. Ramon became a very poor version of Craig hodges and the defense lost it fire and toughenss.
. field’s cant decide if he is a pg,sg or if he wants to paly linebacker for DW.
PS- who can shoot b/c fields can only hit the top of the key jumper and the jay is very sucept and slow
Omar, The sweet 16 is good but you dont get torch by your former coach. We looked bad down the stretch of the year. We had one of thedeepest team in the nation and we looked lost.
Dodson, Wanamaker,Blair will be an average strong players for us but in the end they will be like tafy, shariff and Morgan.
Point Guard play is errattic from from fields. I
sorry… i went off on a tangent at the end and forgot to erase the bottom
Thanks in advance for you insight.
Can jaime close on a stud for the pitt program in the next year or so b/c other teams in the BE are quietly getting stronger with key signing, SU,UCONN, St JOhn, Rutgers, Nova, Depaul, Hall,
This season I think we will struggle a bit in the early portion of the Big East schedule. However, I think we will be an excellent team by the end of the year, make another run in the Big East tournament and make some noise in the NCAAs. I expect a season that is very similar to Louisville’s last year. Not as up/down. Blair is a beast from what I’ve heard and we have a lot coming back. I hope all the kids really work on their conditioning. If we are going to run more, then we need to be in the best shape. I think we will be fine.
Dixon is slowly seperating himself from Howland. I think he is less stubborn and is willing to try new things on offense. The guy is barely 40 years old. He is only going to get better. His teams are always tough and rarely get blown out. When they lose, they always regroup and play much better in the next game. That is the sign of a quality head coach. Dixon needs to pick it up a bit on the recruiting side of things, but college basketball recruiting is so dirty. I don’t think Dixon likes to get mixed up in all of the deceitful things that go on. I can accept that. If we keep having 20 win seasons eventually we are going to get the blue-chip D. Wade type kid. It is just a matter of time.