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December 27, 2007

Nasir Robinson Fits Pitt

Filed under: Basketball,Players,Recruiting — Chas @ 7:49 am

A lot of reports have been saying that for a while, that the Pitt commit plays tough gritty defense. That he scraps for balls and will be a perfect fit in the way Pitt plays the game, and the Big East play. What also has become clear is that Pitt found a player who was under the radar a bit and got him before he was fully appreciated by other coaches.

During the City of Palms Tournament in Fort Myers, Florida, the attention was on the top names like Greg Monroe and Samardo Samuels. Robinson still got noticed.

On a night where Pittsburgh basketball fans had plenty to be happy about after a big overtime win over Duke, the Panther faithful would have been elated to see Nasir Robinson in action. The future Pitt player scored 26 points (10-12 FG, 6-8 FT) and grabbed 11 rebounds in an 83-69 win over Scott County (Ky.).

Robinson’s trademark is his grit, motor and tough-as-nails attitude on the floor and it was all present on Thursday night.

Robinson actually helped lead his team into the championship game before falling to Samuels’ St. Benedict team, and was named to the all-tournament team. Robinson is expected to come in to Pitt and back-up Sam Young at power forward next season, but it seems that he has been flashing an ability to be out on the wing at small forward well.

Nasir Robinson 6-foot-6 WF Chester (Pa.) – All-Tourney Performer is one tough customer. He showed range to the arc, but is at his best attacking hoop off the dribble. He led Chester to final in Fort Myers including a 26-point and 11-rebound outburst versus Scott County in the quarters. Look for him to add immediate depth at Pittsburgh next fall.

Versatility like that would be tremendous for Pitt, not to mention help him get into the rotation.





This little recruiting update gave me the itch to check up on a few failed recruits over the past few years. These are guys we were supposedly close on….

Alex Galindo– Lost out to Kansas in his recruiting. He played one year there, then transferred to Florida International, where he’s putting up 12 ish a game, and scored 13.9 last year. Not exactly the world’s toughest schedule though.

Vernon Goodridge — Lost out to Mississippi State, where last year as a Junior he poured in something like 2.3 per game, while starting for 5 games. He transferred to La Salle in May, and will have one year left.

Trevor Ferguson — He showed up at Pitt, for about ten minutes, as I recall. He also committed and decommitted to Florida, and probably West Virginia, since that just seems like the thing to do. He’s at NC State now, barely sniffing the court in this, his sophomore season. 0.8 ppg. A far cry from 26.8 and 28.0 his junior and senior years of high school.

Drew Lavender — Lost out to Oklahoma. Started 31 games for Kelvin Sampson as a Freshman and 28 as a Sophomore before a mutual decision was reached for Drew to transfer. He’s now at Xavier, where he’s the catalyst for Sean Miller’s Muskies and their tournament aspirations.

Brandon Foust — The other half of the Brookhaven (Columbus, OH) tandem that chose Oklahoma over Pitt that year. Two years at OU (4.1 and 2.8 ppg), he averaged 12 ppg and 5.6 rpg last year and is at 11.0 and 5.1 rpg this year for the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks. He was briefly suspended from the school before being reinstated in time to start this season for an altercation in a dormitory. He also pleaded guilty to felony burglary in Columbus in July 2005.

These are all guys that I recall being “down to Pitt and _______” for their decisions. I’m sure there are more. I think we were fairly close in the Palacios sweepstakes as I recall, and probably several others. This does not really relate to Nasir Robinson at all, other than the fact that the entry on him inspired me to look these other chumps up. Interesting that these guys, who all wavered on their decisions in the closing weeks of recruiting, all transferred.

Comment by Maz 12.27.07 @ 2:36 pm

The one recruit that Dixon missed out on that I think hurts most is Paul Harris. He is a perfect fit for this team, and probably would have given them the boost they needed last year to get past the Sweet 16. He rebounds and takes it to the hole from the 3 spot better than just about anybody I’ve seen at the college level in a long time. He would have been a better version of Jaron Brown, in my opinion. He is at 12.3ppg, 9.3rpg, 3.3apg, 1.3spg, and 0.8bpg currently for Syracuse. His outside shot leaves alot to be desired, but his tenacity and defense more than make up for that.

He would look even better now that Cook is down for the year.

As for your list, it looks like Pitt has been kind of lucky on their near misses of top talent, I’m glad that things have turned out as they did. I was never a big fan of Ferguson, and didn’t want Foust here (though I did want Lavender). I recall being upset about Goodridge and Galindo, I thought both would have been very good players at Pitt.

Comment by MVK 12.27.07 @ 4:42 pm

I agree with most of what you say, MVK. I guess I never expected us to beat out Boeheim for Harris.

Also, since I was so nice to Bilas last week, allow me to slap him hard here and now:

Jay’s ballot for this week’s Power 16 has Duke 8 and Pitt 11. Mike Cook or no Mike Cook, the other 9 voters understand that Pitt won the game because of Blair, Fields, Young, and Jamie before Cook, who was at best the fifth-most important person in terms of Pitt personnel…I love Mike Cook, but come on Jay.

Comment by Maz 12.27.07 @ 4:53 pm

Hamady N’Diaye also comes to mind. He would have benefited from playing with Gray for a year. Harris had some issues his freshman year but you could see his talent all over the place. Tyler Smith would have been nice but since his father died, he probably would have transferred back home anyways. Eugene Harvey(Seton Hall) would have been nice to have. Galindo was not very smart in his decision but I guess it worked out for him, kinda.

Comment by Panthoor 12.27.07 @ 5:20 pm

Don’t forget about Jamont Gordon at Mississippi State. He’s doing well, but doesn’t get to play on TV all that much. I bet he wished he was at Pitt during the Duke game. Beasly is doing pretty well at K. State. He would have been outstanding playing next to Blair. In fact, he is so versatile he probably could have played the three. We could have a killer front-line of Beasly, Blair and Young. That would be incredible.

Comment by Omar 12.27.07 @ 5:27 pm

Beasley is definitely the biggest omission from that list. I feel like (and I could be off on this) KSU was always ahead of us on that one, anyone have anything more solid in terms of recollection there?

Comment by Maz 12.27.07 @ 6:56 pm

how about the kid from florida who signed and came up all summer then left the first week of school?

Comment by alcofan 12.27.07 @ 9:39 pm

alcofan, that would be Ferguson. Another kid is Werner who plays for Florida right now.

Comment by Panthoor 12.27.07 @ 9:45 pm

What about Tyler Smith? Wasn’t he down to “Pitt and Iowa” or whomever?

Comment by Jeff 12.27.07 @ 10:54 pm

great submit maz..

Comment by scoocher 12.27.07 @ 10:57 pm

Speaking of lost out recruits, Terrell Pryor and Jeannette played in a game vs. S. Atlanta, featuring the top junior, Derrick Favors. Jeannette, from what my dad said, who was at the game, got killed. Favors is the real deal, and Pryor wasn’t bad either.

Comment by Crackbaldo 12.27.07 @ 11:28 pm

I believe they were pretty close to getting UConn’s Jeff Adrien too.

Comment by ian 12.27.07 @ 11:48 pm

I think they were second on Beasley’s list, but it was a distant second. If I recall, they were alot closer to getting Harris than Beasley.

I was thinking about Jamont Gordon last night, he would look pretty nice playing the 2 spot next to Fields. He was being recruited hard after Taft declared for the draft, I believe.

Tyler Smith was indeed another one they were a close second on, and I thought they were going to get.

Hamady N’diaye would look good getting some minutes at center, he is a defensive presence to be sure.

Like I said above, though, I like this team as its constructed now, and can’t wait to see them at Dayton tomorrow night.

Comment by MVK 12.28.07 @ 8:36 am

Anybody got any info on the prospects for 2009 recruiting? From what I see, they have 4 scholarships to give, and will probably need a PG to backup Woodall. The names that I’ve seen them linked to are:

PG – Jason Calliste – 6’2″, Toronto, Canada (98 on Rivals)
SG – Dominick Cheek – 6’5″, Jersey City St. Anthony (12 on Rivals)
SG – Maurice Creek – 6’4″, Oxon Hill, Maryland (63 on Rivals)
SG – Durand Scott – 6’3″, New York Rice HS (64 on Rivals)
SF – Brian Oliver – 6’7″, New Castle, Delaware (75 on Rivals)
SF – Dane Miller – 6’5″, Rochester, NY (77 on Rivals)
PF – Dante Taylor – 6’7″, Ft. Washington, Maryland (48 on Rivals)
C – Greg Echinique – 6’8″, St. Benedict’s New Jersey (45 on Rivals)

I’ve also seen them recruiting Dan Jennings (PF – 6’8″ from Oak Hill), who has been listed as either a junior or senior, so I’m not sure on that. I also suspect they will be in on Zeke Marshall (C – 6’11” from McKeesport).

I wouldn’t mind a 2009 class that includes Calliste, Creek, Jennings, and Marshall.

Comment by MVK 12.28.07 @ 9:03 am

Water over the Pitt BB recruiting Dam boys, the players you mentioned only matter now in fantasy!

Perhaps we can pick up Dan Jennings for next year, either way things are looking up for Pitt, and I am excited to see continued growth in this year’s team; particularly Blair, Brown, and Wannamaker.

Comment by Kenny 12.28.07 @ 9:25 am

If I am not mistaken, they had Jennings listed as a center in the class of 08.

Comment by Kenny 12.28.07 @ 9:27 am

I’ve seen in a couple of places where Jennings has re-classified as class of 2009:

link to courier-journal.com

Evan Daniels reports that 6-foot-8 Brooklyn forward Dan Jennings said Louisville in the mix for his services. He already has offers from Xavier, Arizona, Pittsburgh, St. John’s Nebraska and Seton Hall. Jennings plans to reclassify into the Class of 2009.

link to bigeastbasketball.blogspot.com

Late last week Dan Jennings made a visit to Pittsburgh and Jennings Says Pitt is No. 1 (zagsblog) after his trip. Jennings is a native of Staten Island and played last season at Bishop Loughlin. The 2009 prospect is not transferring to powerful Oak Hill Academy and holds offers from Rutgers, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Pitt, Xavier, Memphis and South Florida. The 6’9 C played with the NY Gauchos this past AAU season.

Comment by MVK 12.28.07 @ 9:49 am

Scout.com has Lamar Patterson as a Pitt commit, so that is 1 for 2009. Wonder if Dodson will be coming in 2009 as well? That will be 2. Hoping that Jennings will make 3, and would prefer a PG to be in this class, I see Gibbs as more of a Ramon type player – SG who can occasionally move to PG.

Comment by MVK 12.28.07 @ 9:58 am

Actually Chas…Robinson was rated in the top 50 by Scout and around 70 by Rivals heading into his senior year. Hardly under the radar. His stock dropped quite a bit. He went from a 4 star to a 3 according to Rivals.

I watched him play twice against Schenely last year. He is gritty and active…but has a ways to go to bring his game up to a Big East potential level IMO.

Comment by Barry 12.28.07 @ 9:48 pm

[…] 3. Which freshmen will see a lot of playing time next year? The newcomers next year are Ashton Gibbs, Nasir Robinson, Travon Woodall, and Dwight Miller. The guy most likely to see the most action is Robinson, rated as one of the Rivals 150, who could challenge Brad Wanamaker for a bulk of the minutes. An excerpt from what Chas said a few months ago: Nasir Robinson fits Pitt. A lot of reports have been saying that for a while, that the Pitt commit plays tough gritty defense. That he scraps for balls and will be a perfect fit in the way Pitt plays the game, and the Big East play. What also has become clear is that Pitt found a player who was under the radar a bit and got him before he was fully appreciated by other coaches. […]


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