They may never meet, but given that they essentially chose Pitt within a day of the other, they will get linked in my mind for quite some times.

Chase Adams bids farewell to Centenary. Not that the beat writer down in Louisiana can blame him.

The exodus begins.

Senior Chase Adams on Monday became the highest profile athlete to announce he is leaving Centenary College due to the board of trustee’s recent ill-conceived vote to drop the school from Division I to Division III.

Adams, a fan favorite and the team’s second leading scorer from last season, will transfer to the University of Pittsburgh and play for coach Jamie Dixon in his final season.

Also departing the men’s basketball scene is Gary Redus II, who is headed to South Alabama after finishing third on the team in scoring at 12 points a game. With Nick Stallings and Lance Hill graduating, the Gents will be without their top four scorers from last season.

Adams was also the Summit Leagues Defensive Player of the Year. The beat writer covering Centenary has to be bitter. There’s a good chance his job is done and/or he faces reassignment. It’s one thing to cover a lower mid-major. At least there are the games against really good teams as fodder. The rare rising to the NCAA Tournament points. There are the other teams and their moments. It justifies having a beat writer. Now? Pfft. It’s D-III. No one will care. If anything good happens, the copy desk will just rewrite the press release from Centenary’s SID.

Of course, that’s their problem.

Pitt is getting a solid player for a year that can help.

Adams said he thought about transferring to a bigger Division I school after his sophomore season, but was more serious about it this summer because Centenary went on NCAA probation in May and cannot play in any postseason games this season.

“I felt like it was a good decision for me to go to a small Division I school coming out of high school,” Adams said. “But I kept getting better and better. If I play with better players I felt like I would have a better opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament. Looking at Pitt, I like the team chemistry. I felt like it was a good fit for me. I saw them play on TV a lot and I liked the coaching style.”

Adams is a Baltimore native and played on an AAU team with Pitt senior shooting guard Jermaine Dixon during their high school days.

Of course, the day before it became clear that Adams was definitely coming to Pitt, there was the commitment of Cameron Wright to Pitt.

“I like everything about the program,” he said. “The coaching staff was great. They seemed to be real. I got a great vibe and so did my parents. The coaches seemed to be honest, and that’s what we were looking for.”

Considering he feels he wasn’t getting the honesty from the OSU coaches, that would become a major factor. His defensive potential is especially promising.

ESPN.com recruiting coordinator John Stovall describes Wright as a slashing wing.

“He needs to be more assertive because he has a tendency to disappear at times in games. But no one has ever doubted his talent,” Stovall said. “He can be a good rebounder for his position, with his athletic ability being a great asset. Defensively, he should be a lockdown defender with his length, size and athletic ability.”

Chris Dokish had the story on Adams before anyone else did. He expects Adams to fit right in.

Bottom line, Herrion would not go all the way to Shreveport, LA in the middle of very important summer evaluations just to bring in fodder for practice. If Adams commits, and the chances are that will happen, then he has a very legitimate chance of winning the starting job.

He also has info on Pitt looking at the Canadian prep center, Cameron Wright’s potential and Isiah Epps is still a major talent.

A bunch of stories that just need the links, in the wake of Pitt media day and the start of practice beginning today.

Pitt at NC State, 3:30 pm on ESPNU. I will be ticked if the home game next year is at noon.

Aaron Berry is on the Jim Thorpe Award watch list for best defensive back.

The Sporting News preview of Pitt has the Panthers at #28.

Hugh Green missed his ride to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Apparently they are ticked about it and won’t enshrine him now. Green apologized.

Pitt verbal commit, WR/CB Kevin Weatherspoon out of Clairton gets a story. He chose Pitt because of the closeness to home and that Pitt came the hardest after him.

Greg Romeus swears he isn’t even thinking about the NFL as he heads into his junior year. His only focus is on Pitt, this year.  What else do you expect him to say?

It’s expensive and tough trying to schedule 5 non-conference games every year.

Coach Wannstedt’s first recruiting class are seniors. My how time flies.

Still, that class produced nine starters (Byham, Berry, Romeus, Fields, Pinkston, Dickerson, Malecki, cornerback Jovani Chappel and guard/tackle Joe Thomas), and a handful of other players like Nate Nix and Tyler Tkach who have been special-teams starters and/or reserves at their respective positions.

Wannstedt said the fact that this team will not have any big-name superstars is not a negative because it has a lot of good players to complement a few players with superstar potential, like Romeus and Byham.

He said he chose Romeus (a redshirt junior), Byham and Malecki, who was one of the first players to commit to the Panthers that year, to bring to media day because they exemplify the character he believes this team will have.

And to spare Bill Stull repetitive questions about his performance in the Sun Bowl. Not that Stull isn’t aware of it.

“You can’t really help but be aware of it, whether you’re looking at (the Internet) or not,” said Stull, a Poland, Ohio, native who played at Seton-La Salle High School. “I know my hometown, the people in it. I’ve played football here since I moved here in middle school. I’m used to it. I take it. I have no problem with it. It’s not the greatest feeling in the world, but I’m mentally tough enough to put that aside and use it as fuel.

“One minute you’re on top of the world, winning football games left and right. You throw a couple picks, and people are calling for your head. It comes with the territory, the consequences that come with it. You’ve got to put those things aside mentally and worry about what does matter: it comes down to winning football games.”

You know, it wasn’t the picks so much as the arm strength and accuracy.

In case you missed it during Big East Media Days, the Quarterback is the thing.

Only three quarterbacks made the trip here for Big East media day, but you couldn’t go anywhere in the Hotel Viking without hearing talk about the position.

Lingering questions abound throughout this league when it comes to the guys under center, and that’s one reason why the conference race seems so wide open. And it’s why so few teams are being mentioned for the Top 25 this preseason.

“Quarterbacks have a tendency to sway a lot of media and fan attention, and I think rightly so,” Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt. “It’s very difficult to win a championship at the high school, college or NFL level without an outstanding performance from a quarterback.”

…

“Billy’s the guy, and it’s his job to lose,” Wannstedt said. “We have enough talent at quarterback to win, and I think Billy will have a good year. I’m very optimistic about it.”

Pitt fans are decidedly less optimistic, and Wannstedt knows he hasn’t had the greatest track record with quarterbacks.

“It’s been a thorn in my side since I’ve coached, for some reason,” he said. “On my tombstone, my wife’s going to put something about quarterbacks.”

And damned if the Wannstedt’s didn’t use that as they went to other media outlets like in NYC.

Pam always has been the one who could get her rock-jawed husband to loosen up a bit when it comes to football. So as they were discussing the upcoming season and uncertainty the Panthers have at quarterback, Pam said jokingly:

“On your tombstone they’re going to write, ‘Here Lies Dave Wannstedt, Loving Husband, Devoted Father, Never Had Any Luck With Quarterbacks.’ “

Wow. Spontaneity. Noticing a theme?

When Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt finally is planted 6 feet under 35 or 40 years from now, he’s pretty sure what they will engrave on his tombstone:

If Only He Had A Quarterback!

It was a funny line on a gorgeous August morning as Wannstedt sat outside his office overlooking the practice fields at the South Side compound Pitt shares with the Steelers and reflected on the pick of his Panthers as Big East Conference favorites this season.

Use the line this many times and in this many places, and it might become reality. Or Pitt fans might start to roll their eyes at it. Especially if he used it in the canned interviews on media day that gets replayed throughout the season on ESPN. But, he wouldn’t do that, right?

Okay, so I’ve seen the new uniforms. Eh. Can’t say I have strong feelings one way or the other. They aren’t radically different, and that’s probably a good thing, since anything like that would probably make my eyeballs bleed. Unless they went back to the old colors — which we all know is not going to be happening.

They are a bit bland and strike me as generic Nike unis, but that’s about the extent of my negative feelings.

New gear has arrived.

The press release (at least at the moment) has no pictures of the new football uniforms or any of the new unis for any sports.

“We are excited about our new partnership with NIKE,” Pederson said. “Most importantly, our student-athletes are thrilled to be wearing the NIKE brand. We are anxious to have our fans see the new lines of NIKE Pitt products as well.”

“The University of Pittsburgh is an outstanding institution with a rich sports heritage,” NIKE director of college sports marketing Kit Morris said. “NIKE is excited to become the official supplier of athletic footwear, apparel and equipment for the Panthers, and we especially look forward to outfitting all of Pitt’s student-athletes and coaches from its 19 sports programs.”

Given the Pitt store’s propensity to sell old gear forever (really? still selling an “iron bar” Pitt logo hat?) rather than eventually just ship it to a 3d world country to avoid confusion, count on being able to get older Adidas stuff for several more years.

Nike is doing the throwback gear. Just it now has a swoosh right in the front of the shirt rather than on the sleeve as Adidas did. That Nike subtlety.

Family stuff precluded me from getting to the computer all weekend. I’ll try to get to Pitt football media day and plenty of football stuff after lunch (and the kids’ morning activities).

In the meantime, Pitt added a new member to the small and exclusive 2010 basketball recruiting class.

Former Buckeye commit Cameron Wright visited Pittsburgh’s campus on Saturday with his family and high school coach, and after a day of contemplation, Wright has committed to the Panthers.

“I Just talked to Cam and he talked to coach [Jamie] Dixon and he did commit, about 8 p.m.,” said Ron Stircula, Wright’s high school coach at Cleveland Benedictine, in a text message Sunday night.

“It was a good visit,” coach Stircula said Saturday night. “We met with Coach Dixon, Coach Herrion and most of the coaching staff. We took a campus tour, met with an academic advisor and also met with the athletic director.”

Wright is a 3-star shooting guard according to both Rivals.com and Scout.com. That may be upgraded following a very good performance in the summer camps and tournaments. His offers included Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan State.

The ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. review (Insider subs) recently raised his grade to 88 on their scale (which classifies him as a “high-major prospect”).

Wright is a high energy, hard playing wing that excels in the open court. Offensively he is a going to slash to the basket for lay-ups with north/south drives. He was able to push the ball after gathering the defensive rebound and make the right pass with the right touch at full speed to his teammate. Defensively, he will shoot the gaps for steals or get deflections for his team, but only when he is one pass away.

He still needs to work a bit on his defense and is prone to being streaky with his shot due to his form according to the review. Still, he’s a 6-4 to 6-5 guard that can defend bigger guards on the wing. Something that Pitt can definitely use.

He had been committed to OSU since November 2007, but his recruiter there, Jim Groce, left to become the head coach at Ohio U and Thad Motta showed little interest in staying in contact.

Technically, Pitt’s recruiting class for 2010 is now filled but things can change. Most likely if Pitt brings in any other player it will be a center. Hopefully it won’t be too much of a reach, though, it almost certainly will be a project or a JUCO.

Very, very interesting. According to the always plugged in Chris Dokish at NBE Basketball Report, the Pitt coaching staff may pull a rabbit out of their hat for point guard insurance in 2009-10.

Enter Chase Adams. The 5?10? Baltimore native who is currently visiting the Pittsburgh campus with his Mom. Adams has spent the last three seasons at Centenary College in Louisiana where last season he averaged 14.6 ppg, 4.2 rpg, and 4.5 apg, while making 39.8% of his three point shots and 70.3% of his free throws as a junior last season. He was also named Summit League Defensive Player of the Year thanks to his 83 steals (2.7.game). He has averaged 2.3 spg over his three year career.

Despite playing for a very poor team, Adams showed that he could also play against major Division 1-A programs. As a junior, against Mississippi State, Adams had 15 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals, and nailed 4 out of 8 from three point land. Against LSU, he had 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 steals, and against Texas Tech, Adams had 23 points and 6 rebounds, while making 4 out of 5 of his three pointers. For the season, Adams scored 20 or more points eight times, had 5 or more rebounds ten times, and four or more steals nine times.

Adams, who is an excellent student, would be eligible immediately because Centenary is on probation. He will only be eligible to play this season, which would give the Panthers the opportunity to still continue to fill their scholarship limit for the 2010 class.

There will be questions about whether at 5-10, 175 pounds, Chase Adams can handle playing in the Big East for the full year. The thing to remember is that there is no guarantee he would be the starter. He would add some vital depth at the point guard position, and most importantly still allows Pitt to use the scholarship for the 2010 class.

The only risk, if you can call it that, is to the chemistry. If Travon Woodall or Ashton Gibbs take this negatively it could be an impact. Both kids, however, have been team players from HS to college. Woodall volunteered to come off the bench in his senior year of HS. More likely, both would take it as another challenge to be met if they want to get playing time.

Not the full schedule, but at least the non-con has been finalized. Good sign for Pitt to actually have the schedule out in early August. It means they weren’t scrambling to find a couple more games like they have the past few years.

2009-10 PITT MEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE

(as of August 6, 2009; schedule subject to change)

Date Opponent (TV) Location Time

O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic Semifinals and Finals (Kansas City, Mo.)

Jimmy V. Classic (New York, N.Y.)

Note the exhibition game for Pitt against D-II Coker College Cobras from Hartsville, SC. The Cobras’ Head Coach Dan Schmotzer was an assistant at TCU when Coach Dixon was a player. so that might explain this exhibition rather than some other more local D-II team.

Fan Fest is October 3. That does not interfere with a football game as Pitt plays at Louisville on Friday night, October 2.

The lack of “star power” in the conference is noticeable this year. Hard to argue when the top players are George Selvie, Matt Grothe, Mardy Gilyard, Nate Byham and Greg Romeus. Fine players, but not the ones that get much national buzz. When Greg Paulus is the most well-known player…

The Big East prepped for that. They even had a talking points memo for the coaches — as WVU’s Bill Stewart revealed when he pulled it out to talk from it.

When talking about the league this year, West Virginia Coach Bill Stewart pulled out a piece of paper with “talking points” provided by the league.

Among those Stewart and other coaches repeated throughout the day were the league’s victories in three of its past four B.C.S. bowl games, its 12-4 record in bowl games the past three seasons, and its having more players drafted per team than any other league. (The Big East had 27 players drafted, which comes out to 3.4 players per team.)

Way to prepare Stewart. Everyone has the talking points, but it’s bad form to not even bother to memorize and try to paraphrase.

Seeing Pitt picked first in the preseason media poll was also a big topic. Mainly, in the way that it reflects how unsure everyone is as to who will emerge from the conference this year.

The difficulty in predicting the league was seen in the preseason media poll.

Two dozen media members from around the league voted and didn’t find much to agree on at the top.

Pittsburgh and Cincinnati each received eight first-place votes, but Pitt got the nod based on points. Cincinnati was picked for third behind West Virginia, which received five first-place votes.

South Florida was picked fourth with three first-place votes. It was followed by Rutgers, UConn, Louisville and Syracuse.

The point totals highlight the assumed dichotomy between the top and bottom of the league. Just 35 points separated Pitt from Rutgers, but 48 points separated Rutgers from UConn.

“We don’t have one dominant team,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “We beat each other up.”

The Pitt players take some small pride in the pick was there along with awareness as to the downside.

“We’ve worked hard to get back to where Pitt has been in the past,” junior defensive lineman Greg Romeus said. “At the same time, we have a bull’s-eye on our back, so we have to go out and prove it.”

Yeah. Pitt’s going to be a target. And the poll will mean little after the season gets underway.

“Whatever the polls say at the end of the season is really what matters,” Pitt senior offensive lineman John Malecki said. “The Big East is wide open right now. There’s a lot of talent, a lot of good teams and it’s going to take a push to win it all.”

Always trust the cliches. Greg Romeus also admits that even among the players, the Wannstache can be a source of great amusement.

‘Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt has one of the most recognizable mustaches in all of college sports. It appears thinned out on one side and never is neatly trimmed.

Just the mention of it provoked laughter from junior defensive end Greg Romeus. But asked if the players joke with Wannstedt about it, he said, “Not to his face.”

A decent breakdown of the teams in the conference, lightly touching on the pros and cons of each team’s chances.

So, I spent the evening in the dark. How about you? Dug out some candles and resumed reading A Canticle for Leibowitz. I swear, this was without any intended irony.

A couple side notes related to the Big East.

UConn has found some self-respect. They pulled out of a series with ND which would have had all of their “home” games played in Massachusetts or NJ. In no small part because the Huskies got a deal with Michigan to come to the Rent. Wolverines get to screw the Irish.

The Big East bowl picture is still hazy. The Gator Bowl might be out if they insist on splitting things or insisting on being able to get ND twice in the deal period. The BE might also be going for a NY bowl — which new Yankee Stadium wants to host.

I know that this is all about money. Wrigley wants to host the Northwestern-Ill game. ND and Army are playing at new Yankee. They are selling it as nostalgia and something classic. I’m confused, though. Hasn’t there been an all-out war by pro teams against the multi-use facilities? Something about poor sightlines and bad configurations? Now these places want to host games from other sports. Money. Money. Money. At least until some player gets hurt because of no room on the sidelines or endzone and sues over it.

The bowl issue, appears to be the dominate issue. Maybe even more than the perennial debate over a 9th football team in the BE.

With no clear cut favorite in the Big East, the conference coaches have gone to the ACC defense that can be roughly paraphrased as: “There is no dominant team, but the parity of the conference is not mediocrity. It is competitiveness. It is tougher from top to bottom…”

Well, at least there are no more stupid articles about the Big East staying in the BCS… Oh. Sigh.

The Big East TV schedule is not that clearer for Pitt. Lots of TBAs on times. These two games are slated for ABC,ESPN or ESPN2:

Fri., Nov. 27 PITTSBURGH at WEST VIRGINIA    TBD
Sat., Dec. 5     CINCINNATI at PITTSBURGH           TBD

Everything else looks the same or up in the air. The only thing to note is that the Pitt-Buffalo game will be on WTAE in Western PA and SNY in the NY market.

How does Coach Wannstedt feel about being picked to finish 1st in the BE?

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt, whose team was picked to win the league championship this season, said he would have preferred not to have that distinction as the season begins “because I’ve got to talk about it. No coach likes to talk about it because it’s meaningless at this point. I’d like to be talking about it in December.”

The media has correctly picked the top team only once since 2003.

Disturbing portrait of new BE Commish John Marinatto.

That didn’t change Marinatto’s love for Cher. The reason he uses Equal is because Cher endorsed it years ago. His favorite Cher song is “If I Could Turn Back Time,” and has seen 10 of her concerts.

Marinatto also is a “big Trekkie.” He has attended Star Trek conventions, but none in the past 20-30 years.

“Every ‘Star Trek’ episode has a theme, a hidden message,” he said. “I love that show. It makes you think.”

He also prefers ’70s music. His car radio is set on Sirius’ 70s on 7.

There are just some factoids you can’t unlearn.

More later.

The Big East Preseason Media Poll just blew my mind. They picked the team losing their top offensive and defensive player to win the conference. A team with questions regarding the O-line and a QB position that could be considered wide-open at best.

Yes, that’s right, they picked Pitt.

BIG EAST Projections: Pts

1. PITT (8) 161
2. West Virginia (5) 151
3. Cincinnati (8) 144
4. USF (3) 130
5. Rutgers 126
6. Connecticut 74
7. Louisville 51
8. Syracuse 27

First place votes in parentheses

I really don’t know what to say. I had to double check and see that this wasn’t a mistake.

Obviously, the fact that 4 teams received 1st place votes says how wide-open everyone views the conference. What stands out is that it means that more often than not, Pitt was seen as one of the top-3 teams in the conference. It’s really the only explanation as to how they garnered that many points.

I don’t know. Every contending team in the Big East has so many questions and impact players to replace that it is defensible. Still, this is a stunner.

Some more things with no specifics.

Sean at Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician (Syracuse) has the latest Octonion to kick off Big East Media Days.

In a feverish dream, I saw you and your mustachioed leader.  I was bewitched by a prophecy.  It was December.  I saw a football field.  And upon it, the Pitt Panthers did battle.  And that field was in Birmingham Alabama.

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Also rules for writing on Big East Media Days.

Still no word on Bowl deals for the Big East, and Coach Wannstedt expects a few more commits in the next couple of weeks.

The Cinci Enquirer actually bothered to send a beat reporter this year.

Some local Cleveland area stories on Dan Schneider’s verbal.

“I’m excited about everything they have to offer at Pitt,” he said. “It’s been a rollercoaster ride – there’s times that it’s been great and times that weren’t so great. It’s also very time consuming. Once you do the research and get to the bottom of everything, it’s not too difficult to make a decision. But the time I put in was incredible, so I’m glad that’s off my plate.”

Schneider also needed to join a program at a school where he felt like he fit academically. He is one of the top students at Avon Lake, and Dlugosz said his grade-point average is just over 4.4.

“I was looking into all the academic scholarships before the football offers came along,” Schneider said. “It’s something I would have looked into had this not come about, but it’s so hard to get academic scholarships these days I don’t know how that would have gone.

“I’ve always wanted to play football in college though, so this is fulfilling a big dream of mine.”

So at the very least, he will help the team’s GPA numbers.

Just a couple little things.

He never saw the field because he couldn’t get out of bed and did not even get to El Paso, but Ronald Hobby is trying to start fresh at Liberty. Good luck with that.

The countdown clock to the first game is running. Why they don’t have a simple little widget of this for people to grab, post and promote is beyond me.

Panther Rants is back to posting.

The Pitt Consortium section of the blogroll has been updated to add The First Church of Fitzgerald and Eye of a Panther.

Do not confuse recent Pitt verbal Dan Schneider with this Dan Schneider.

The iCarly movie stars Miranda Cosgrove as Carly, Jennette McCurdy as Sam, Nathan Kress as Freddie and Jerry Trainor as Spencer. Victoria Justice guest stars as Shelby Marx and Reed Alexander guest stars as Nevel. “iFight Shelby Marx” is written by Dan Schneider and directed by Steve Hoefer. iCarly is from creator and executive producer Dan Schneider (Zoey 101, Drake & Josh).

There was a Big East Bloggers Pre-Season Poll, and somehow I got left out.  Simply more shenanigans from Rutgers folk.

Coach Wannstedt seems to be catching on to this Twitter thing. He plugged the recruiting BBQ that Pitt had today and then posted a verbal without commiting secondary violation.

Love to get phone calls like the one I just got. Yeah, it’s a good day to join the BLUE & GOLD!

And sure enough a little while later there was the recruiting sites announcing that Dan Schneider a TE out of Avon Lake, OH had verbaled to Pitt. Schneider is a 3-star recruit with plenty of offers including FSU, Colorado and WVU.

ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. sees him as a solid TE that especially excels at blocking (Insider subs.).

He is a tough and productive blocker. He really seems comfortable on the move, in space and blocking second level defenders. He attacks under control and gets hands on. He is able to keep his feet moving and often gets his head in position to block his target. Does a good job of being able to block down and wash a defender. In base-block situations, he delivers a good initial pop and gets hands on, but can tend to lean on the defender and you would like to see him generate more power from his hips. He keeps his feet moving and is able to steer the defender away from the ball.

Sounds like an ideal TE recruit for Coach Wannstedt. He’s also the second TE in the recruiting class — both from the Cleveland suburbs. Pitt now has 4 Ohio verbals — all from NE Ohio.