Here’s a blast from the past as there’s a piece on one of the few bright spots from the Ralph Willard era — Vonteego Cummings back home in Georgia.
The 32-year-old Cummings returned to his childhood playground last Saturday to kick off the Vonteego Cummings First Annual Community Day. The event was attended by more than 150 people – many of them youth and teens – who celebrated the occasion with games, including shooting hoops and eating hamburgers, hot dogs, and enjoying cold drinks.
“This was their day – a day of celebrating with them and giving back a little of what this community has given so much to me through the years,” said Cummings, a 1995 graduate of Thomson High School, where he was a star basketball player. After graduation, Cummings, the son of John David and Carri Mae Cummings, of Thomson, went on to become an outstanding basketball player at the University of Pittsburgh.
At Pitt, Cummings, who played point guard, averaged 17 points per game during his four-year career.
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Today, Cummings plays for the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team in the European League. The team is the second-best in the European League.
It’s still a rough go, however for another Pitt alum. Clyde Vaughan appeared poised to finally land an assistant coaching job with New Mexico State — where Herb Pope still plays (Insider subs.). But, no.
New Mexico State has decided against hiring former Connecticut, South Florida, and Long Beach State assistant and one-time Pitt forward Clyde Vaughan as an assistant coach. Vaughan resigned from his position at UConn after he was arrested in 2004 on a solicitation charge. That arrest continues to haunt him. Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg has long been a proponent of giving Vaughan a second chance, but Greenberg said he hasn’t had a recent opening on his staff for Vaughan.
Of course, Greenberg was the one who recruited Vaughan to Pitt when he was an assistant.
I feel bad for Vaughan. I really do. On the scale of crimes, it’s pretty low. Guys with DUIs get more chances.
There are two things working against Vaughan, though, in this instance.
It’s not the severity of the crime, but the type that drags him down. It’s not easy to picture Vaughan going to a recruit’s family and telling them how he will be looking out for the kid, helping him to grow. All the while he’s got to answer questions about his solicitation charges — and the fact that it means he betrayed his wife. Something, I don’t think Vaughan has ever grasped.
The other thing, and this is probably worse for his chances, is that it wasn’t his first offense. He has a history of this.
According to the report, Vaughan was arrested and charged in July 1992 in Long Beach, Calif., just prior to joining the staff at Cal State Long Beach. He also was arrested, charged and convicted in Tampa of approaching an undercover police officer and offering her $20 for sex while he was an assistant at the University of South Florida in 1999. The Long Beach charges, details of which were not available, eventually were dismissed, according to the paper.
You can’t be worrying what your assistant coaches will be doing in their spare time, on top of worrying about the players.
DeAndre Kane out of Schenley is headed to prep school in New Hampshire. I wonder whether he’ll ever make it into a college uniform. I also can’t help but wonder if he’s got a learning disability. No one questions that he has talent, but no one can commit a scholarship until they can see that he will be able to survive the academic side. It’s too big of a risk, especially with the Academic Progress Rate and potential penalties.
This reads like it is just a matter of when for Tom Droney to commit to Pitt. Droney is only junior, and will be part of the 2010 recruiting class.
Droney, from Sewickley Academy, just twelve miles northwest of Pittsburgh, has not even begun his junior season yet, but he already knows he has had enough of the recruiting process.
“I plan on committing in September,†says the highly mature Droney. “I want to make sure that there is a spot open for me at the school I want to go to. I talked to (Pitt assistant coach) Tom Herrion and he said they were recruiting a lot of guards in my class and that it was best not to wait. I love Pitt. I’m not saying I’m going to go there, but if that’s my choice then I have to do it now. My high school coach and AAU coach agree with me.â€
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While you won’t see Droney yet on many top 50 lists that will change when more people see him. He has played in obscurity somewhat this summer, playing offsite in Las Vegas and playing in the 16 and under league in West Virginia. But one out of state college coach who saw Droney play in West Virginia had no doubts about Droney’s talent, saying, â€He’s definitely top 50 and could be higher when he becomes a more consistent three point shooterâ€.
The other school he is considering is Wake Forest.
Another guard for the 2010 class that Pitt has been after for some time is Isaiah Epps.
Currently, Maryland and Pitt are in the lead to land the talented Garden State star. Saturday night at the Summer Shootout at Allentown (NJ) High School, Epps actually wore Pitt basketball shorts.
“My cousin goes to that school, Travon Woodall,†said Epps when asked if wearing Panthers’ gear indicated anything in particular. Does Jamie Dixon’s squad have an advantage over Maryland and others because Woodall is already in the fold?
“Oh no, I just like the school,†Epps told Alex Schwartz. Isaiah is high on Pitt “because they [are in the] Big East and I want to start. They told me I can start as a freshman.â€
Epps, who is being recruited by former Pitt star and NJ Playaz alum Brandin Knight for the Panthers, would likely be fine coming in and starting right away, as he is older than his grade would indicate.
Epps is already 18. Right now, the combo guard is 6’2″, but apparently there are expectations of another growth spurt to put him closer to 6’4″ in a year or two.
Pitt wants to add another big man for the 2009 class, and apparently this one has been getting a lot of attention.
Talk about a kid whose stock has risen in the last month or two. Jordan Williams, a 6-foot-8 power forward/center from Torrington High (Conn.), has offers from Villanova, Marquette, Maryland, Georgetown, Providence, Pittsburgh and Penn State. Wake Forest is also in the mix.
It must have. WIlliams is only a 1-star PF on Scout.com. Rivals.com has 3-stars by him. ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. (Insider subs.) hasn’t updated their point score for him but does seem to note that he has a lot of potential.
Williams has good size and strength, which he uses to wreak havoc in the post on both ends of the court. He uses his size to carve out deep position in the post for rebounding and scoring close to the basket. Williams, despite his size, runs the floor reasonably well and will finish in transition, keeping up with the smaller, quicker guards. He rebounds in traffic very well, and extra contact does not seem to bother him most of the time.
They say he needs to work on his conditioning and footwork. His size is listed anywhere from 6-8 to 6-10 and his weight is around 240-250.
I started a huge thread on tickets over at the scout site…i live in allegheny county too, and haven’t gotten mine. I asked, and it turns out we’re not alone. There are tons of people in allegheny county (and elsewhere) that still haven’t gotten theirs.
At the same time, there are people in as far away as north carolina that HAVE gotten theirs. I’m pretty sure they didn’t mail all the tickets on thursday, they probably just “started” mailing them then.
I usually get my basketball tickets in one day too.
I even called today, and they assured me everything was fine.
And i know they didn’t mail them “best to worst” cause my seats are in 109, 10-15 rows back. Who knows what they’re doing.
Who is your friend who is so good? Maybe if you give him some pub on here Pitt will look at him.
Your friend must be unreal because I’ve seen Droney play a number of times in both AAU and high school and have seen no one anywhere near his level of all around ability. He has every tool you need to be a quality player and the mentality to take the next leap.
But you are entitled to your opinion… I guess he’s your next Dapper; “high-D1” to not seeing the field at Cal.
People from KO are always pissed and jealous because the best athletes in their district play at Seton or another Catholic or private school. Look at Bruce and Gino Gradkowski, or Droney’s older brothers. KO always disappoints in sports and kids who want a better education and to play more competitive high school sports go elsewhere. Seton has had numerous Division 1 players, especially in football and baseball. What has KO had?
And, since you failed to answer any of the questions I posed before, when have you seen Droney play? Do you go to AAU tourneys? Or are you basing this off a playground game?
Issue number 2. To say that seton is a superior school to KO is abusrd in any aspect academically or athletically. We will start with academics. Seton is an underfunded private school that doesnt have the funds to create an academic program that can even be compared to Ko’s. Keystone oaks has more Ap classes than seton and just because there are a lot more f*** ups in the KO district than in the seton “bubble” doesnt indicate that their education is better. Education is what you make of it and KO definetly provides that oppurtunity to its students and it does so more of an extent than seton does. Setons students have parnts that will shell out 10k a year for their hs education and therefore would shell out the money for a college degree too where as the ko students do not all have that luxury and sadly college isnt an option. Enough about academics tho. Seton played AA football and dominated by recruiting athletes that should have been going to ko so they got aaa talent and played in aa. To say ko athletics are an embarssement is also rediculous. As someone stated earlier about Ko’s football team being teribly out numbered but still beat on teams is amazing. ANY aa football team that played aaa would get smoked like ko did, even your beaver falls and aliquippas because football is dictated by your line. In aa the lines are smaller and the depth is not as deep as aaa but when you get to aaa the size of the lineman and the number of lineman are what seperate the two classifactions. Everyone has skilled players, but the great teams have a line. Ko is finally in their rightful classifcation and are murdering teams. Seton had 7 good players. bill stull, carmen connoly, anthony doria, and joe and ralph delsardo and the gradkowkis. Out of those players only 3 of them were truely d1 and this is shown by the impacts that had at the colleigiate level. Carmen has yet to see the field and was over hyped and joe delsardo got lucky at pitt b/c there was no one else. Ko has produced their share of big time football players as well. The dapper issue has been discussed but also Chris jacobson was an all american. Seton does not have one of those. Myles caragein, Kane waller, Nick Bradway, Mike Cosnatnzo, and even brad francus at navy. its ko’s turn now and everyone will finally b forced to give them the credit they deserve because they are playing on an even playing field with teams of the same size. Kamberis is also a great coach. I give him all the credit in the world for hanging in there through all of the losses. Not many coaches would do that but he runs a class program and his teams are always ready play and this is finally they hear that are physicaly capable to carry out the plan and finsih. Other ko athletics programs dominate seton. Look at the basketball team. Ever since they began playing in ’05 seton has gotten their asses handded to them every year. Setons “hay day” is over and everyone will see where they stand when compared to ko….second rate.
