Brief aside, sorry for the silence this weekend. My daughter’s 6th birthday. Which meant family visiting and a day full of hyper, sugar-hopped kids. To say nothing of trying to open out of the packaging and then assemble lots of toys. Still, the fact that there were no tears — by the kids or me — was a good thing. Added bonus, the realization of knowing I’m raising my daughter correctly. Sunday she got dressed and put on her Pitt t-shirt before coming out to greet her grandparents — both Penn State grads — that morning. And I had nothing to do with it. Honest.
Camps are the big theme right now. Pitt’s present star players got to go to various top camps.
Seniors Levance Fields and Sam Young and sophomore DeJuan Blair were picked to attend prestigious Nike Skills Academy invitational-only camps at four sites around the nation.
“I’m hyped,” said Fields, who along with many of his teammates, worked Pitt’s team camp for high school-aged players that concluded Sunday at Petersen Events Center. “With the exposure, it’s a great opportunity.”
Fields will be at Steve Nash’s point guard camp in Newark, N.J., and Young will attend Vince Carter’s small forward camp in Orlando, both starting Wednesday.
Blair is scheduled to return today from Amare Stoudemire’s three-day big-men camp in Phoenix.
The camps include between 10 to 14 of the top college players at their respective positions, along with one of the NBA’s best, to work on defined skills. The college players also work as instructors at the skill academy, which includes two dozen of the top prep players at each position.
“It’s reflective of how well-thought of our program is,” said Pitt coach Jamie Dixon, whose Panthers are a consensus top-10 pick in the preseason polls.
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The news about Fields, Young and Blair is all part of a busy week for Pitt basketball. Senior forward Tyrell Biggs and sophomore swingman Gilbert Brown are working at LeBron James’ camp for youngsters in Akron, Ohio. Brown twisted his ankle Saturday, but it was overshadowed by a pick-up game with the NBA great later that night.
“He seems all right,” Dixon said. “He said it was fun.”
Incoming freshmen Travon Woodall, Nasir Robinson and Dwight Miller arrived on campus over the weekend and played in open gym Saturday night. Guard Ashton Gibbs was due in Sunday or today.
As the story pointed out, Pitt players being invited to a Nike camp is extra-impressive since Pitt is an Adidas school.
I’m not sure how much that actually helps with recruiting top high school talent, with interaction with present players. It sure can’t hurt.
Of course there are the camps that are about the high school players and kids Pitt would like to recruit. The NBA Player’s Association Top-100 camp from this past week included Pitt commit Lamar Patterson and several other Pitt targets including Aaric Murray. Though, it seems Murray doesn’t have Pitt on his cut down list.
New Big East Basketball Blog has a report from the camp and how specific players looked. Including Omari Lawrence, Durand Scott and Dante Taylor — all with offers from Pitt. The bit on Scott is definitely worth an excerpt.
Pittsburgh is on this combo guard hard (with the love being reciprocated) and it shows – he’s tough, runs a team, and is vocal. Time and time again, Scott, hailing from New York, NY found open teammates, including several nice dimes in half court traffic during evening play. Of course ACC schools are drooling as well.
To recap on Scott, he’s a 4-star in both Rivals and Scout. Rivals has him #83 overall and the 20th best SG. Scout puts him as the #10 SG. ESPN/Scouts, Inc. has him as the #14 SG and 56th overall in the class (Insiders subs.).
