A couple stories on Pitt basketball recruits for 2011 and 2012, both via NBE Blog.

Ray Mearngh has a story on watching John Johnson at a small tournament in Indiana, he caught the action and did a brief interview.

Afterwards Johnson told me he was really “focusing on playing good D, passing the ball and getting my midrange game going.” I asked him about Pittsburgh and told him that a lot of folks are eager to see him play there and he smiled shyly.

“When I went on my visit there it was like a family,” Johnson said, “the coaches can be like father figures to me and that’s important because I don’t want to go to college just for basketball…I want to become a good man too.”

Johnson is a shy kid, preferring to talk to me away from his teammates because he seemed embarrassed by the attention, but he’s all baller when on the court. He’s a talent offensively that Pitt hasn’t seen at the guard spot in quite some time, very quick. Almost a quicker Scottie Reynolds type. He’ll need some coaching but he’ll get it. His upside is very high.

Meanwhile Chris Dokish tracked down the coach of the mysterious Kiwi known as Steven Adams.

At this point, one may wonder why such a talent has gone unnoticed. According to [Kenny] McFadden, that is easily explained.

“In our part of the country you have to pay to be at the top level and his financial situation wasn’t the best. He was the best big man in the country at 15 and should have played in the Under 19 World Championships, but he just couldn’t. But now that he’s older he will be able to play in them.”

McFadden says that Adams, whose mother is Tongan and father is English, has never been to the U.S. but that will change tomorrow when the New Zealand team will play for two weeks in Las Vegas.

“We did fundraising for a year so that we can make the trip and get our kids noticed.”

That may explain why Dixon made the push for Adams now, before the rest of college basketball becomes more aware of the Kiwi behemoth. And for that Dixon can thank McFadden.

“We played professionally in New Zealand together many years ago,” says McFadden, who played for George Raveling at Washington State. “And we have been friends ever since. When Jamie was down here for the World Championships, we sat down and I told him about my players. He was interested in Rob Loe (6?11? center) at the time, but he went to play at St. Louis. And I told him about Steve, and I told him that he was even better. He is bigger and more skilled than Rob was.”

And to show the range of the eighteen member Adams household, McFadden adds, “Both Jamie and I played with one of Steve’s older brothers. He was in his forties and Steve is just sixteen.”

One of 18 siblings. That’s, um, a fertile family. The potential downside. When working with the “pro” players in New Zealand. It includes Eric Devendorf. Let’s hope not too much of the Devo-tude rubs off on him.

It will be interesting after playing in Vegas for a couple weeks what recruiting sites and people who see him say. I expect “raw” and “upside” to be slightly overused. Perhaps a smattering of “sleeper.”