It’s been oh so long since one of these occurred that it almost seems stunning. Jeff Knox out of Maryland — though 2 years at Central Catholic and from Pittsburgh so that sort of counts as a local kid. It’s a bit confusing, but he has given a verbal to Pitt.

Knox is a solid 3-star athlete that plays safety on defense and WR on offense. He had plenty of offers including Penn State, Maryland, Michigan, Wake Forest, Illinois and others. Ultimately, he knows Pitt’s coaching staff and wanted to go home.

As for Knox, [DeMatha Coach Bill] McGregor said it was “like a dream” for the Pittsburgh native to go to his hometown school.

“He’s known the coaching staff at Pitt and I think that played a major role in where he wants to go to school,” McGregor said. “From Day One, that was his number one choice.”

That’s nice that some high-schoolers still want to play for Pitt. As Pitt hosts some summer camps in the next few weeks, there is an expecation of some more commits.

The unknown at this point is which side of the ball he will play in college. Scout.com lists him as a Safety. Rivals.com plays it safe with the general “athlete” designation. Scouts, Inc./ESPN.com considers him a better fit as a WR.

Even though he could play either side of the football, Knox is likely to end up on the offensive side of the football where his receiving talents can be maximized. He should also be a very effective special teams player.

Not sure what Knox’s preference is.

Considering the depth at WR versus S, I suspect that he might be tagged for safety. Hopefully, the coaching staff will not engage in too much shifting of the decision next year.

Apparently the NBA Draft version of overthinking is age. Sam Young is 24, you might have heard. That means teams don’t consider his ceiling as high at this point.

My admiration of Miami guard Jack McClinton is no secret, but at his age (24) it’s hard to convince a team that there’s a lot of “potential” left in him. Same thing for 24-year-old Pittsburgh forward Sam Young, who will hear a lot of the same things as we get closer and closer to the draft. While it’s a heck of a lot more likely both those players get selected in the second round for that exact reason, it shouldn’t be overlooked that either one of those guys would be tremendous, NBA-ready additions to any team. Both guys have teams that are very interested, but their age makes it unlikely they go in the first 30 picks.

Others see Young still in the first round, but knocked to the bottom of it by that same limitation.

A two time all-Big East selection, Young possesses a polished all around game with a knack for performing best in his team’s biggest games. The small forward averaged 23.5 points per game in the NCAA Tournament, leading the team to the Elite Eight. Despite all of these accomplishments, however, Young will likely slip out of the draft lottery and into the latter part of the first round largely because of his age.

At 24, Young is older than even most of his classmates which, by NBA Draft standards, is ancient. He might as well be Abe Vigoda. Few players in this draft have the combination of skills, athleticism and experience that Young has yet he still isn’t considered a top prospect in this draft.

“My age is always going to be an issue,” Young said of his draft status. “In this business you always look for youth and because I’m not as young as some of the other guys it is just something that is going to come up.”

Regardless of where Young is picked, or by whom, he is confident that he will be able to help his team because of the experience and maturity he gained during his four years at Pitt.

“(Age works to my advantage) because of my maturity level,” Young said. “I want any team to know that when they recruit me they aren’t going to get a kid. They aren’t going to get a guy who is going go off and act crazy off the court. I’m going to be one of the team leaders as a rookie.”

Confidence, apparently, isn’t an issue either.

The age issue is why it was so surprising Sam Young did not even put his name in the NBA Draft last season as a junior. He had to have been told that after his senior year, he would get the age thing thrown at him.

Yet he never even flirted with putting his name in the draft. He declared right away that he was coming back to Pitt for his senior year and never wavered. Pitt was very lucky to have a player like Young.

Most mock drafts have Young at the end of the first round somewhere at #20 or lower. A couple have dropped him to the second round. SLAM gave real love to Young by pegging him at #16 to the Bulls. It’s a very enthusiastic review.

Sam Young had a workout before the New Orleans Hornets that seems to have gotten mixed reviews.

Sam Young out of Pitt seems like a classic tweener. He has an NBA-ready body and impressed Hornets head coach Byron Scott with his strength during the workout.

“Young is very strong and can get his own shot,” said Scott.

But the 6-foot-6, 220 pounder struggled with his footwork and appeared slow in trying to guard one-on-one during the session. Young also has an unorthodox shot that lacks arc and has a somewhat sideways rotation.

I know I’m biased, but I have trouble seeing Young not taken in the 1st round. Even if it’s with the final pick and may smack of a different bias as the Cavs beat reporter, Brian Windhorst observed in an interview.

AP [Amar Panchmatia]: My favorite in this draft has been Pittsburgh’s Sam Young. Young reminds me of James Posey in that he has a big strong body to deal with small forwards to go with good footwork and quickness to keep up with smaller guards. His length and defensive abilities may be just what the Cavs need to match up with teams like Orlando that have so much size on the perimeter. However, I haven’t seen Young’s name linked to the Cavs in any particular workouts. Do the Cavs have any sort of interest in Young, and do they view him as a guy who could really fit in right away into Mike Brown’s defensive scheme?

BW [Brian Windhorst]: Danny Ferry and Pitt coach Jamie Dixon are very close. The Cavs go to Pitt to watch games as Big East teams come through all season. I’m sure they have tons and tons of information on Young. What I am sure they like about him is that he’s long. The Cavs are going to be looking for long (when I say that I mean wingspan as much as height) players in this draft.

AP: Based on what you know about this team and the players who may be available when the Cavs pick, who would be a good fit with this current squad based on where they are right now and where they want to go?

BW: Let’s consider the last five #30 picks. There was JR Giddens, Petteri Koponen, Joel Freeland, David Lee and David Harrison. That’s a D-leaguer, a Swede not in the NBA, A Brit not in the NBA, a quality big man who is overrated because he puts up mostly hollow numbers for a horrible team in a big market, and a guy who’s career in the NBA is now over.

In general, you can get three things at this point in the draft. 1. Development Europeans. 2. Point guards. 3. Undersized big men (Big Baby and Leon Powe were taken in the mid-30s). The only thing the Cavs really need of those three is a point guard. So that is the direction I could see them going. However, I could see them looking to move up to get a potentially good, long wing.

Sam Young was listed by Windhorst at the top of the list of wing players the Cavs are considering.

Family visiting for a couple days, then visiting other family. It adds up to lots of time not being able to get near a computer.

Today is a big day for the draft. The final withdrawl date. Players like Luke Harangody for Notre Dame and Jodie Meeks of Kentucky have the big decisions.

With all the stuff that came out suddenly on his knees, DeJuan Blair suddenly has his draft position a little in the unknown realm.

Blair has been getting some negative buzz over old knee injuries with teams expressing concern he may have a pre-arthritic condition related to torn ACL’s when he was in high school. Blair says the teams he’s met with have not shown a lot of concern about it, especially after hearing he’s had zero knee issues since the surgery and after watching him move most teams are simply accepting that DeJuan may not be perfect but teams are still eager to see him. The consensus on Blair is split, with some sources saying the knee concerns added to his 6’6 frame make him more likely to go in the 10 to 20 range, where some teams in the top 10 still have Blair high enough on their board that he could go top 10 if teams in front of them go differently than expected.

I can see Blair slipping to just outside of the lottery. This is a weak draft as far as talent that really seems worth a top-14 pick. It’s not a knock on Blair, but the players he draws comparisons to — best case Paul Milsap to Jason Maxiell on down were not drafted that high.

Maxiell was considered a reach by Detroit at the end of the 1st round. Milsap was grabbed #47 — obviously he turned out to be a steal. The point being, that the fact that Blair could go in the top-10 despite his limits in offensive moves, height and potential knee issues says a lot about the quality of the draft.

To be fair, his high draft status also speaks well, though, of how Blair has performed for teams on the court and in interviews.

Not that teams don’t try to find things to complain or at least cite as an excuse.

It’s not just the tangible of measuring 6-5¼ in socks and 6-6½ in shoes that could hurt DeJuan Blair, Pittsburgh’s undersized power forward. There’s also the wonder of why he didn’t get in better shape during the season and waited until draft preparations to lose weight in what strikes some teams as more contract drive than long-term commitment. On the other hand, Kevin Love faced the same conditioning questions a year ago and turned in a productive rookie season with the Timberwolves. “It’s something you’re always concerned about — if you lost the weight, you can put it back on,” one executive said. “But watching him in college, the weight didn’t hurt him a lot. He knocked the crap out of people. He’s strong.” Plus, Blair’s bubbly personality will win fans wherever he lands.

Still the concerns were enough for Chad Ford at ESPN.com to drop Blair to #16 in his mock draft to the Bulls.

And if he were to end up on the Bulls with former Panther Aaron Gray?

“This is what I say about size: Go get the biggest person on your team, let me play one-on-one against him and we’ll see about size,” Blair said.

Told Gray is, in fact, the biggest Bull, Blair smiled.

“Of course I can take him,” he said.

HoopsReport had Blair at #14 to the Suns.

Blair has a workout with the Indiana Pacers today. Other workouts he had last week include the Charlotte Bobcats and the Milwaukee Bucks.

In the Bucks workout he showed some increased range with 15-18 foot jumpers. Apparently abusing former Michigan State big man Goran Suton.

In Charlotte, Coach Larry Brown played coy about what the Bobcats are doing, considering or anything.

That was Brown’s way of saying he isn’t troubled by the height of Pittsburgh’s DeJuan Blair, who measured 6-5 1/4 in his stocking feet at the NBA combine. That seems quite short for a power forward, until you consider Blair’s extraordinary 7-2 wingspan.

Blair’s dimensions are similar to those of former Charlotte Hornet Larry Johnson. Johnson was a tremendous rebounder until he hurt his back, and Blair had three games of 20 or more rebounds in two seasons at Pittsburgh.

“I always look for guys who have no neck and long arms,” Brown said. “So he’ll be a (power forward) and he’ll do well.”

Another 10 days to wait.

Levance Fields has been jetting around a bit to attend team workouts. He does not expect to get drafted, but it will be very likely that he will sign a free agent deal for at least the summer league.

At the end of last week he was out in Sacremento.

Another intriguing player that worked out for the Kings was Pittsburgh point guard Levance Fields.

At 5-foot-10, 190 pounds, Fields looks a lot like a football player. And he’s from Brooklyn, NY and most basketball fans know the swagger that comes with a point guard from New York.

Fields isn’t considered one of the top prospects at the position.

He led a Pitt team that was known for its toughness. So it’s no surprise that’s what Fields touted as one of his strengths.

“I’m just tough nosed,” he said. “Tough mentally, a grind it out type of player. Not really pretty, not fancy. I just get the job done and do whatever my team needs for me to do to win. I think that’s all that matters. As long as my team wins, that’s all I care about.”

No actual word how he performed.

Tomorrow he has a workout with the NY Knicks. The only other guard set to come in that day is Gonzaga senior Micah Downs.

Fields’ agent is expressing the requisite optimism.

“We want to get him in the best shape that he’s been in,” [Keith] Glass said. “He’s not been able to be in great shape because of the injuries. Every team in the league loves the way he plays, but their concern has always been his conditioning and the shape that he’s been in.”

According to the story, Orlando and Chicago have also been interested in him.

We haven’t heard much about Tyrell Biggs except for a brief bit of positive press at the end of May. Well, he also was down at the IMG Academy with Blair to get in shape and improve his game.

Sean Brown, a walk-on with Pitt this past year (and also Biggs’ roommate) has a bit up for SLAM while he is, uh, “trying to breakthrough in a street culture industry (Think Alife Rivington Club and Reed Space) while maintaining my love for the game via the written word.”

The New York native had a mediocre senior season on a quality Pittsburgh team surround by scoring threats, but with a position change and improved aggressiveness Biggs is believed to get some quality looks from NBA scouts. At 6’8” with quality face-up skills, Biggs has proven that his play in college was merely lost in translation. “College was a great experience from a team perspective for me, now I can show off my individual skill.” The little aspects of his shot have made it more consistent crediting his focus and some instruction on bouncing after his release. Outside of his playing ability everyone seems to acknowledge Biggs’s business like attitude towards the game. Thorpe has described Biggs as coming in “fully aware of the obstacles he faces and the daily fight he will endure.” This uphill battle that Biggs will face to land on an NBA roster has been met with his attitude of constant professionalism and a planned purpose throughout all his workouts. Sometimes the ability to be seen in a different setting allows players such as Biggs to surprise and creates opportunity to play at a higher level once not available to them.

Biggs’ obstacle to the NBA is his inability to play good defense, not getting better consistency with his shot.

I wish both Fields and Biggs the best, and hope they have great careers in Europe.

Ralph Willard, a dismal failure as head basketball coach at Pitt. A coach who could recruit, but ignored character while at Pitt.

Well, Willard is leaving his position as head coach of Holy Cross — his alma mater — to resume being Rick Pitino’s manservant lackey assistant.

I only made it to Fitzgerald for two games in the Willard era. Both ended the same way. Pitt blew huge leads and lost when the opposing team shot a gamewinner at the buzzer. The UConn game that sealed his fate and against Rutgers a year or two before.

I wish him nothing but the worst.

Ah, Huggy-bear. Really? Walking into the edge of a bathroom door is the best you could do to explain this?

Ed Pastilong and Bob Huggins

There’s something reassuring to know that Bob Huggins will never change.

So the fallout from USC will echo for a bit. Interesting bit, if true.

The university wasted no time searching for a replacement with Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon the top choice followed by former NBA coaches Jeff Van Gundy and Reggie Theus and Southern Mississippi coach Larry Eustachy.

Sources said last week USC started the process of contacting Dixon, a native of the San Fernando Valley and one of the nation’s top young coaches. But the Pitt coach is believed to have a buyout clause worth more than $1 million. Dixon did not return a message Tuesday night.

Only the timing of Floyd’s decision came as a surprise. Sources close to Floyd said USC was prepared to fire him but not until the completion of an NCAA investigation into whether former guard O.J. Mayo received cash and other benefits from his closest advisor, Rodney Guillory, who helped steer Mayo to the Trojans.

So if this information was to be true, they were pursuing the standard back-channel feelers to see about getting Dixon… eventually. If the other part of the story — that USC would fire Floyd after the NCAA investigation was complete — is true, well that end still does not appear to be near.

The NCAA has combined that investigation with the USC football side with Reggie Bush. Both have been dragging for some time and no one is predicting an imminent conclusion any time soon.

In other words, I’m a little hesitent to believe too much of this. Besides look at that list of potential. It’s apparently pipe dreams in Dixon or Jeff Van Gundy. Then it drops all the way down to Reggie Theus or Larry Eustachy. (Larry Eustachy? Really? They want to follow Floyd with another Iowa State coach that found a unique way to destroy his own career and toils down at Southern Miss?)

Give Andy Katz at ESPN.com credit for trying to put the early kibosh on the rumors of Dixon to USC. He was saying nay on that last night on ESPNews and in his story today.

They could make a play for someone like Pitt’s Jamie Dixon. But through sources, Dixon has said he’s not interested in making a move. He is currently vacationing in Hawaii and will be heading to Colorado Springs and then New Zealand for the next four weeks as head coach of the FIBA U-19 USA team.

As I said last night. There is no way Dixon or any quality coach that has a job right now would leave for USC at this point.The U-19 head coaching gig alone is reason enough. He can’t and wouldn’t pull out now. So he would not be able to actually start the job — recruiting, hiring assistants and all the other stuff until nearly August.

Also, this is not Indiana plucking Tom Crean from Marquette while waiting for the NCAA fallout from Kelvin Sampson. USC will not spend that kind of money for a coach that Indiana did. Nor does USC have the tradition or support for basketball.

There is already speculation that USC is acting to sacrifice the basketball coach and program to the NCAA to spare the football. Not many smart coaches in a good spot are going to jump into that mess without a big-ass payday — regardless of family and local ties.

If I’m correct, Dixon will be making somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.6 million dollars at Pitt. Given cost of living increases — housing allowance alone — plus the length of any deal they’d have to give him to come into this mess. Well, we are probably talking somewhere in the region of a 7-year. $21 million contract.

It would have to be something with a lot of money and a lot of security. USC didn’t even break $1 million with Floyd’s old contract (there is some uncertainty as to whether Floyd and USC finished his new contract before the resignation).

The names that actually make some sense if they want to hire now rather than have a 1-year lame-duck interim coach would be out-of-work coaches like Billy Gillispie or even Bob Knight. Or even Dan Monson at Long Beach State (who came and cleaned up Minnesota after Haskins — albeit without winning).

My first impulse would be that USC would just do the interim route, but they might think long and hard about how poorly that went for Cinci after the late firing of Huggins at Cinci. That would probably be the more comparable situation than the rosy-view of how things worked out at Arizona. Cinci had lots to deal with after Huggins was gone from increased NCAA scrutiny, to lots of talent leaving right away, and less money.

So we can expect the rumors and noise, but not much else.

I had the same reaction that Omar had upon the news that Tim Floyd had submitted his resignation. Here come the Jamie Dixon to USC rumors — again.

“As of 1 p.m. today, I am resigning as head basketball coach at the University of Souithern California. I deeply appreciate the opportunity afforded me by the university, as well as the chance to know and work with some of the finest young men in college athletics. Unfortunately, I no longer feel I can offer the level of enthusiasm to my duties that is deserved by the university, my coaching staff, my players, their families, and the supporters of Southern Cal. I always promised my self and my family that if I ever felt I could no longer give my full enthusiasm to a job, that I should leave it to others who could. I intend to contact my coaching staff and my players in coming days and weeks to tell them how much each of them means to me. I wish the best to USC and to my successor.”

Realistically, those rumors will have no truth. Even if, for the sake of argument, that Coach Jamie Dixon was interested/attracted to the USC job when it appeared Floyd was leaving for Arizona in April. The situation has changed. Beyond the potential sanctions looming over USC Athletics, no coach with the reputation and talent that Coach Dixon has earned would leave for a new job in June.

Especially when you consider that Dixon will also be involved in coaching the USA U19 team next month. He just does not have the time to even consider a move.

Right now, USC is screwed. Most likely they will have to go with promoting one of the assistants as interim coach for this coming season. No coach of any quality will go near the job until the NCAA violations are resolved. Couple in the fact that it is the second week of June, and there just aren’t many candidates out there.

Right now USC basketball is a sinkhole, few coaches would touch.

Summer vacation is underway for the kids. Either them or me will have to be put under heavy sedation by July if the first day was any indication.

I noted that the big difference in how quickly DeJuan Blair shed the pounds after declaring for the draft was primarily diet. Sure enough, Blair confirmed that this was a big factor.

“I stopped eating a lot of bad food,” Blair said. “I don’t know if it’s bad for you, but it was for me. Used the DeJuan Blair diet: high protein, steaks, salmon, lots of water. Disciplined myself what to eat. I feel lighter on my feet, and the strength is still there. That ain’t going anywhere.”

Especially cutting out the fast food.

When Blair was in town for a few days this week, he had dinner with a friend. The friend was shocked to hear him order a grilled chicken salad. He no longer eats bread products and has sworn off the fast food that he enjoyed so frequently during his college days.

“My nutritionist took me to the nutrition store and bought me a bunch of stuff, told me what I could eat and not eat,” Blair said. “I’m not around McDonald’s and Wendy’s down here. Discipline is the biggest thing. You can’t eat certain foods. You have to eat what’s good for you.

“It’s going well. I’m losing weight and I’m changing my body. I feel really good. I took off a lot of fat and put on muscle. Now I’m quicker and lighter.”

It’s hard to resist that stuff. Especially in college — big-time player on a national power or not — Blair was in a completely controlled envrionment at the IMG Academy that forced him to eat one way. The mix of seeing the rapid results, climbing the mock draft boards (which Blair follows closely) and knowing what it means for his future appears to have provided (at least in the short term) a significant incentive to stay in control of his eating habits.

Blair will be hoping to be one of 15 players invited to the NBA Draft. These are the players most likely to go in the first 14 picks of the lottery.  Even if he doesn’t get the invite, I’m hoping he crashes the event. I’d love to see the big guy take the stage. I really, really want to see the suit he picks.

Milwaukee has the 10th pick, and they are bringing him in on Wednesday. Their scouting director spoke glowingly of Blair, as BrewHoop has the transcript.

What I like about him…I’d be here all day. He’s tough, he rebounds, he understands the game. He’s a true power forward, and you look around the NBA and you see so many teams playing with smaller lineups. And here’s a guy that’s not the biggest guy in the world but he plays his position great. He rebounds, he defends, he’ll block shots, he’ll operate out of the low post, he’s a good passer, and he plays the game with a passion.

Perhaps a bit of smoke blowing, and with the knee issue getting played up a bit, it might scare some teams off of Blair. Of course, compared to maybe needing a new liver or an aneurysm still in the brain, knee problems don’t seem that bad.

Coach Dixon coached briefly in Hawaii. He met his wife there. I believe her family still lives there. And when he goes back, he can deduct the cost on taxes with a business related appearance.

Pittsburgh men’s basketball coach and former Hawaii assistant Jamie Dixon will be one of the featured coaches today at the Punahou Summer Camp coaches clinic.

The clinic will be held today and Thursday from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Punahou. Dixon is scheduled to appear only at today’s session.

Like stocks, so too are the status of Sam Young and DeJuan Blair.

DeJuan Blair seemed to be barging his way into the lottery, possibly a top-ten pick. That seems in question with leaked medical stuff (insider subs).

However, the news became much grimmer for Blair when the results of the medical testing came back. Multiple NBA teams are saying Blair’s knees have been red-flagged.

Blair tore both of his ACLs in high school, and the preliminary word from the physicals is that his knees aren’t in great shape.

How bad they are depends on who you talk to, but the range wasn’t good. I heard everything from “devastating” to “troubling.”

Blair’s agent, Happy Walters, doesn’t feel words like “devastating” are accurate in describing the report he saw.

“From what I saw, it’s not that bad,” Walters told Insider. “People tend to get overexcited about this. Some teams will make a big ado about it and draft him anyway. It’s all a game. Some teams want him to slide.”

“He had ACL problems in high school. Everyone knew that. He’s never missed a game in college from his knees. It hasn’t affected his play at all. We’ll look further into it. We’ll check it out and have other specialists look at it, too. But it’s something you can’t do anything about. We’re not hiding anything.”

Whether the concern ends up being a small or large factor in Blair’s draft stock, it’s a shame when you consider the momentum he has had since the season ended. With so few bigs in the draft, he was looking at a potential late lottery pick. That now seems less likely.

Now Blair did miss a game against Belmont last November because of swelling in the right knee. There was nothing wrong according to X-rays and an MRI. By all accounts, he could have played and felt no pain. It’s just that there was no reason to risk Blair in that game.

Of course, it could very well be that the GMs and scouts leaking stuff to Ford are just trying to drive down Blair’s draft value as another account is less hyper.

MRI’s in Chicago revealed some minor concerns about his knees as Blair had both ACL’s repaired in high school. The irony of the concerns is Blair has not had a single knee related issue since the surgery in high school, did not miss a single game or practice at Pitt and has had no soreness or knee related issues. That won’t stop some teams from passing on Blair, or using the chance of future knee issues – which is almost silly considering how common knee tears are these days – as a reason to pass on Blair. One league source commented that if teams were just now hearing about Blair’s ACL’s they apparently did not do their homework on him…

Very true. There has been no secret about his past surgeries. In fact, it was a rather compelling reason for Blair to go pro now. You just never know.

Sam Young, though, has seen his value increase with group workouts where he has shone.

Several league sources say Sam Young was by far the most impressive player coming out of the Oakland and Minnesota group workouts, if any one player seems to have generated positive buzz from the workouts it was Young although several players did well, Young is the name most mention as the best player they saw.

Here are the comments from the Phoenix Suns Senior VP of Basketball Ops, David Griffin on Young.

“Sam played incredibly well. Sam helped himself, showing himself more capable of getting to the rim than you might have expected in that setting. And he did it repeatedly. He made jumpshots from every range and moved well laterally. Sam’s a bit older, so he has a maturity level you wouldn’t expect to find in the younger players. In terms of making a statement, Sam did that. He had a severe injury in Toronto during the workout campaign, where he jumped into the Vertec measuring apparatus and got a screw lodged under his bicep. They removed the screw, and we’re not even 10 days past that and he’s dominating the workout. He’s a very tough kid.”

I’m not saying it was a good thing to have the freak accident in Toronto, but it sure isn’t looking like a negative. People seem genuinely impressed with how he dealt with it and has not let it stop him.

If you are following my Twitter, then you already know that the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) picked up a new sponsor for insoles and socks.

What made me take notice of the absurd press release was the quote from a coach.

“The care, comfort and health of our feet are concerns for coaches and players in all sports, but especially basketball,” said Jamie Dixon, head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. “We need to be proactive in the care and prevention of foot injuries to our players. At the same time, coaches are on their feet for long periods during practices and games and want to be as comfortable as possible.”

I’m just going to assume that when SofSole was preparing the press release they drafted this and then went to the NABC to have them select a coach to credit the quote. Clearly Coach Dixon got the short straw.

Several little things to get out.

A story on incoming freshman Talib Zanna’s journey from Nigeria to the United States. Go figure, it was not an easy thing. Even coming from a well-educated family, Nigeria is a mess and his father passed away this past year.

A nasty mess brewing at the Kiski school where 2010 verbal commit Isiah Epps might prep (unlikely now).

A coach hired to take the basketball program of an Indiana County private school to national prominence sued Monday in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, claiming he was forced out for recruiting too many black players.

Anthony Cheatham, 31, of Edgewood claims administrators at The Kiski School told him they would not tolerate fielding an all-black lineup.

“He was told to recruit scholastic, highly talented basketball players,” said Cheatham’s attorney Sam Cordes.

Cheatham was an assistant at Robert Morris and also trains future and present NBA players including Sam Young. Messed up stuff.

I really don’t think Coach Dixon is sweating his annual NCAA Recruiting exam.

“You can’t recruit until you pass it,” Dixon said hours before the Erie Chapter of the Panthers Club’s annual sports banquet at the Kahkwa Club on Tuesday.

With college basketball coaches being able to start summer recruiting next month, passing the test now is a must for them.

“I’ve never failed the test,” said a smiling Dixon, whose team won a school-record 31 games in reaching the Elite Eight last season before losing to Villanova.

Dixon said the coaches have 90 minutes to take the test and must score 80 percent.

It’s an open book test, but the rules are lengthy and not so easy to figure out.

“Open book” being the key aspect.

To help pass the time of the offseason, one of my colleauges at FanHouse has prepared a list of the top-25 college basketball coaches.

He places Jamie Dixon at #17. I only quibble that Dixon should be about one spot higher, because he has overrated Matt Painter of Purdue. Painter is good and may merit being up there in a few years, but not yet does he rank #14.

By the time the Tim Floyd and the USC mess is finished, the Trojan job will be one of the most unattractive spots out there. Thus making the inevitable rumors that will occur after Floyd is fired regarding Dixon just silly. Really, shedding players and recruits at an epic pace. Floyd just seems clueless to his culpability.

“Kansas has two players who would have been NBA lottery picks, Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins, and they are returning to school,” USC Coach Tim Floyd said late Monday night, only hours after hearing about Johnson. “Good for them.

“Our guys get an offer from Islamabad and they’re gone.”

Let’s see. Collins and Aldrich are at Kansas where they have a shot at winning the national championship in 2010. They are on a stable team with a coach that has won and put players in the NBA.

Floyd and USC recruit hoping the glamor and location will get the kids, and the main promise seems to be that they will be able to get a future paycheck for playing basketball. The team has little shot at even contending for the Pac-10 next year.

Then there is that whole NCAA investigation hanging over the program; a coach that nearly bailed for Arizona — after previously telling a recruit that he wouldn’t like it if the recruit looked at other schools after giving a soft verbal; to say nothing of that the kids that want to bail ASAP were the ones the coach recruited and presumably knew what they were looking for.

Remember LeSean McCoy didn’t just show up at Pitt and start. No, he shared with LaRod Stephens-Howling who was the starter. Of course, Howling got banged up early and opened things for McCoy to take the job.

Now, McCoy is with the Eagles to back-up and eventually take over from Brian Westbrook. Well, maybe not eventually. Westbrook has injury history and even as he was recovering from knee surgery, he has hurt his ankle and will need minor surgery on it. Westbrook will likely be out until at least the start of the regular season.

That has McCoy and Lorenzo Booker taking all the snaps in camp right now. McCoy is saying the right cliche.

“I’m not even thinking about that,” McCoy said. “[Westbrook’s] one of the best backs in the league. I’m here, actually, just to help him. I’m trying to get where he’s at. I’m still learning.”

He is all about the learning.

“I’m like a sponge,” McCoy said. “I want to soak up everything I can.”

Though most of his time in practice has been to work on pass blocking. To say nothing of just learning the playbook.

There is no question, though, that Eagle fans now see McCoy taking a bigger role earlier.

It also suddenly places the selection of McCoy in a different light. The emphasis pre-draft was on finding a complement to No. 36, but instead the rookie could find himself in position to make an immediate contribution, perhaps even as the starter. The two have a very similar skill set, so we can only hope McCoy is able to pick up the playbook and fill in right away if necessary.

Especially since no one has any expectations of usefulness from Lorenzo Booker. Other than Booker’s own delusions.

Everyday, it seems that there is just a lot more stuff on Blair. DraftExpress had a collection of the NBA Combine interviews with the media.

Blair, to what should surprise no one, had the longest interview at nearly 8 minutes. Duke’s Gerald Henderson was the only other to break the 7 minute mark. Most of the other were under 4 minutes. You can bet the beat reporters will be hoping that Blair gets selected by the team they cover.

With all the buzz on the appearance of Blair, here are the numbers.

DeJuan Blair: 12% body fat, 33-inch vert, 18 reps on the 185-lbs. bench, 11.50 agility, 3.50 sprint

The only player with higher body fat was UConn PG A.J. Price. (Sam Young checked in with 4.9% body fat).

As a brief mention about Blair’s conditioning at Pitt versus what it was like at Pitt. Pitt has been very good at improving players conditioning over time. Not overnight. Blair’s conditioning from his freshman to his sophomore year was good, but when compared to the difference of non-stop conditioning and diet control down at the IMG academy it doesn’t compare. One of the big thing is controlling diet. That, no doubt, had a significant impact on Blair’s improved physique. Much, much better controls and little chance to grab a Big Mac or any high fat and big calorie food.

The Milwaukee Bucks blog Brew Hoops has a very interesting analysis of DeJuan Blair and whether he would be worth it for the Bucks to take him at #10. Looking closer at the players to whom he draws comparison makes for good reading when you consider where most of them were drafted. In a way it really points out just how weak this draft is (and why Blair was smart to come out this year).