Obviously, these are subject to lots of alterations, especially once Terrelle Pryor makes his decision. There are still kids out there who haven’t signed and might still make moves up and down the rankings. Even for Pitt as players like DeVoe Torrence and Dominick Britt are still out there.

Brief aside. Pryor is not going to Pitt. I wish otherwise, but I’m not going to rip on a high school kid simply because he won’t go to my school (until it becomes time for my kids to pick a college). I also think there is no reason for any kid to sign his NLI on the very first day. With a talent like Pryor, why should he sign at all? Think any school would stand on some principle if he told them, “Yes I’m coming but I won’t sign the NLI.” Hell, no. They’d hold the scholarship regardless.

It sounded good when Pryor told everyone at his high school and ESPN-U that he was waiting to take more time. Saying that he just hasn’t had the time to digest everything from all the schools with his HS work, the football and now basketball season. Sounded very mature, and everyone praised the maturity. Dismissing out of hand any thought that he was doing this to keep the attention on him. That said, isn’t it a little remarkable that he didn’t have time for really considering all of the schools, but has had no problem with every interview. Every publicity moment? Every extra appearance? Showing up on TV to say he hadn’t made up his mind? I mean, don’t you have to wonder a little if it isn’t a bit about milking extra attention?

Moving on.

The defections of A.J. Alexander and Zack Stoudt knocked Pitt out of the top-20 recruiting class in the major recruiting rankings.

Rivals.com has Pitt the lowest at #29

Scout.com puts Pitt at #25

ESPN/Scouts, Inc. the highest with #21

Good for Pitt, and bad for the Big East as a whole, though, that Pitt is the highest ranked Big East team in all of the national rankings:

Team —— Scout.com —– Rivals.com

WVU ——— 37 —————- 44
Rutgers ——– 44 ————– 46

USF ———- 46 ————— 56
Louisville —— 54 ————— 55
Syracuse —— 49 ————- 48
Cinci ———- 55 ————– 68
UConn ——– 70 ————– 72

ESPN.com only goes top-25.

USF and Cinci have the widest disparity in the rankings. Louisville is clearly the most disappointing. Arguably, UConn could be considered more disappointing, but recruiting for football in their geographic base is much like Pitt recruiting basketball in Western PA.

Syracuse, all things considered, didn’t do too badly. WVU could be considered a disappointment, given their season, but all the crap that happened after the Backyard Brawl makes it somewhat stunning how well they recovered.

As close to reality as the information from Rivals.com is on who has signed their NLI and such, it really doesn’t become official until Pitt can mention the recruits by name. So, that first press release announcing the signed class matters.

Boasting a recruiting class considered one of the finest in the country and the best in the Big East, Pitt head coach Dave Wannstedt announced today the signing of 19 prospects to National Letters of Intent.

Wannstedt made the announcement from the Panthers’ locker room at Heinz Field, which was adorned with the jerseys of members of Pitt’s recent recruiting classes, including All-America linebacker Scott McKillop and tailback LeSean McCoy, this past season’s Big East Rookie of the Year.

“We felt it was appropriate to introduce our 2008 recruiting class in the place where they will spend their Saturdays over the next four years,” Wannstedt said. “Looking at the jerseys in these lockers, we have been fortunate to recruit some outstanding young men to the University of Pittsburgh. We believe this year’s class fits that same exceptional mold.

“We recruited with specific positional needs in mind and I’m very pleased with the end result. This was a total team effort by our coaching staff, players and campus community. They all do a great job when it comes to recruiting student-athletes to Pitt and our 2008 class is a prime example.”

The press release has nuggets on each of the recruits for perusal.

The Scout.com and Rivals.com commit lists are always the place to go to see who they have gotten ahold of who has said they signed.

Rivals.com already has a ton listed as signing as of 9:24 am:

Chris Burns

Shayne Hale

Ronald Hobby

Jared Holley

Antwuan Reed

Cameron Saddler

Mike Shanahan

Ryan Turnley

Justin Virbitsky

Manny Williams

This in addition to Greg Cross and Rob Housers who are JUCOs that have already signed.

UPDATE (10:35): Scouts.com still has no checks under signed LOIs. Not good for the reputation.

Rivals.com has Kevin Harper and Tino Sunseri now on the signed list.

UPDATE (11:22): Looks like the two biggest ones have signed along with a couple others:

Lucas Nix

Jonathan Baldwin

Mike Cruz

Andrew Taglianetti (wonder if he will become a regular commit now that Stoudt is off to Louisville)

That just leaves Joe Trebitz from the list. That is, of course, assuming there are no late surprises. Really haven’t heard much of anything on that front, so it seems this will go down as an excellent but not particularly exciting NLI day for Pitt. Not that I’m complaining. Just relatively peaceful and almost anti-climatic.

UPDATE (11:49): And now Joe Trebitz has his name listed in signed.

No more to await from the verbal commits. Unless there are other surprises that means Pitt’s signing day is over before noon.

Don’t worry, basketball hasn’t been forgotten. Just shunted to the side for the day.

There was a question about the kind of offense Pitt runs. Which Ray Fittipaldo called a basic motion offense.

The offense is your basic motion offense that many other teams in college basketball run. The stagnancy you’re seeing the past few games has more to do with the personnel running it than the philosophy behind the offense. When this offense is run well — as it was earlier in the season — it is very effective. The Panthers have routinely shot 50 percent or more in games with this offense. Even though the Panthers found a way to win three of their first four Big East games, they do not have enough talent on offense to overcome the loss of two starters.

This is essentially true and plays into something I have been meaning to link for a week or so. The Basketball X’s&O’s blog looks at the game ending play Pitt ran against Duke and Villanova. The five-up screen.

Definitely click over to see the diagramming and breaking down of the play. I’m skipping to his concluding comments.

The play works because in late-game situations, traditional thinking defensively is to switch on all picks. We do it, everyone does it, you always switch all picks late in games. So here, the “5 up” is designed to get a switch and the guard should be able to take the slower forward 1v1. Also, you have a mismatch down low for the offensive rebound with a bigger forward being guarded by a smaller guard.

…

In analyzing the plays, it’s clear what the message here is. Players win games. You can have the best game winning play ever designed, but in the end, it’s the guy that swishes the net that takes the glory if he hits it and the heat if he misses.

For the truly obsessed, you can actually buy Jamie Dixon instructional DVDs. Including one on the Spread Motion: 4-in, 1-out Offense. Or you can see another example/variance on the 4-in, 1-out as he there is a break down of San Diego’s (I really can get lost in time looking through this site).

Hoopsworld.com looks at some of the best small forward prospects in the NCAA. Sam Young is listed as third.

Sam Young has been able to step up on the offensive side of the ball this season. Pitt needed some more scoring from the junior forward and Young responded by increasing his scoring average by 11 points from a year ago. At over 18 points a game, Young is currently the fourth leading scorer in one of the toughest conferences (Big East). Young’s awkward form causes some inconsistencies with his outside shot. His shooting percentages (49 fg% and 40 3pt%) are pretty good however. Young allows the game to come to him. He moves without the ball well and can knock down the spot up jumper.

At 6’6, Young will be undersized at the small forward position in the NBA. He has a well developed muscular frame that allows him to body up defenders well in the post. He fights hard on the glass pulling down 7 rebounds a game, which lets you know that he has no problem getting physical in the paint. With some developed skill sets on the perimeter, Young will be able to get some burn at the 2 guard position.

Let’s not presume Levance Fields will be back by the Marquette game.

“I would say [Feb. 15] is on the aggressive side based on what we know [now],” [Athletic Trainer Tony] Salesi said. “Even if we get a good report on Thursday and we can start doing a few more things that doesn’t leave you much time to get ready for a game. You’re talking about getting back into running, shooting and practice. A lot of it will be what Levance can handle. I think when he said that it was an overly optimistic time frame.”

Salesi allowed that athletes heal faster than most people and that there is always a chance that Fields could come back earlier than he expects.

Pitt originally set a timetable of 8 to 12 weeks after surgery. Yesterday was five weeks from the date of his surgery. If Fields comes back at eight weeks, he would be able to play in the final three regular-season games and the postseason tournaments.

That would be the games at Syracuse, at WVU and DePaul.