Jabaal Sheard’s preliminary court appearance is set for July 28. That means at least a week before we can expect any initial plea and if any additional information is revealed.

Details at this point are entirely from the police report and officer’s affidavit. The motives and reasons for Sheard going Barkley on the guy are unknown at this point.

Sheard’s high school coach is at a loss for the actions.

[Al] Lang believes Sheard’s actions are not indicative of his character.

“He had every opportunity to get into trouble down here, and he kept his nose clean,” Lang said. “He did a great job, and I think this is a one-time thing.”

At the moment the charges are aggravated assault, resisting arrest, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. It remains to be seen what other charges might be added or subtracted.

Bob Smizik posts about the issue of punishment from Pitt and Coach Wannstedt. He rightly points out that there is no clear answer at the moment.

I doubt Sheard will get off that easy, although his case sounds no more serious than [Penn State QB Rahsard] Casey’s was.

I’m opposed to suspending Sheard for the season, as some have suggested. He made a big mistake. That’s no reason to possibly ruin his life.

Still, a serious suspension would appear to be in order. Two of Pitt’s most difficult games are among the first three — Utah and Miami. A suitable punishment would be for Sheard to miss those first three games and then be returned to the team.

If Wannstedt chooses less or more that’s his choice. Although Sheard faces possible punishment from the criminal justice system, as far as Pitt is concerned Wannstedt is judge and jury.

Clearly more information is still needed. We don’t know anything beyond the police report and there is a broken door.

I expect that Sheard will have to be suspended for the season opener. Beyond that, I don’t know.

Well, that’s something isn’t it?

Garrett Brown, a city officer working an off-duty detail, said Mr. [Jabaal] Sheard, listed at 6-feet-4 and 260 pounds, ignored his commands to stop fighting Edward Parker, 27, of Stanton Heights.

Officer Brown said Mr. Sheard kept punching Mr. Parker as the officer and other city officers tried to break up the fight. After absorbing several of Officer Brown’s baton blows to the body, Mr. Sheard picked up Mr. Parker by his clothing and threw him through the glass door of the gallery, then continued to punch him in the face as he lay bleeding on the floor inside the business, according to an affidavit.

Officers finally subdued both men with OC spray.

Not surprisingly, Sheard has been immediately and indefinitely suspended from the team.

Congrats on disrupting what had been a quiet boring summer off-the-field for Pitt football. All by his lonesome, Sheard has tallied 7 Fulmer Cup points for Pitt. Not enough to make the top-10 programs at this point, but just on the outside. There’s more work to be done.

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I know. Missing the whole weekend once more. On top of that, the likelihood is strong that posting will be spotty the rest of the week.

What was supposed to be some minor work in the bathroom has mushroomed with unforeseen issues and expenses. Needless to say, it’s a mess and I’m reminded why renting was not the worst thing.

Briefly, because I have been out all morning and then lots of other things to do the rest of the day and evening.

Pitt has the most talent in the Big East. There can be quibbles at certain spots as to which player is better, but in terms of overall talent and depth there isn’t much disagreement.

Will that translate into winning the Big East and a BCS bowl? That’s the big question.

DawgSports believes it, and has Pitt as one of the teams he thinks will actually exceed expectations.

As for gamblers, well that is different. BetUS.com actually makes the odds of winning the Big East a 3-way tie with WVU and UConn at +250.

Pitt welcomes back the most explosive offensive player in this league in running back Dion Lewis. As a freshman last year, Lewis burst onto the scene with 1799 yards and 17 touchdowns. He is joined on this offense by Jonathan Baldwin, a naturally gifted receiver who hauled in a team high 57 catches last year, and Mike Shanahan, who like Baldwin is a matchup nightmare at 6’5. The defense is anchored by Greg Romeus, a defensive end who is all but a certainty to lock up All-Big East, if not All-American honors.

The one concern with Pitt is the uncertainty at quarterback, where sophomore quarterback Tino Sunseri takes over for graduated senior Bill Stull.

If Sunseri can somehow shake off his inexperience there’s reason to like the Pitt Panthers. They are no doubt the favorite in the football expert picks.

As for winning the entire BCS? Well, then Pitt is one of their darkhorse picks at +5000. Alabama is the big favorite at +450 followed by Ohio State at +600. Boise is actually close at +1000.

The AC in our house went last night. It’s a balmy 84 in the house at the moment. I’d be doing this in just my boxers but the kids have been traumatized enough by my parenting to this point.

In case you have ever forgotten that as much as the Big East is a basketball conference, the ACC is still a basketball first conference. The ACC Sports Journal has been bothered by the overall mediocrity (or worse) of the ACC since they expanded. Yes, the conference can claim 3 national titles (2 for UNC, 1 for Duke) since expansion but the overall depth of the conference has been rather meh.

Even with back-to-back national champions, the ACC’s NCAA tournament winning percentage has fallen to 59.67 percent; the Big East is now essentially even with the ACC in that category, with a 59.34 winning percentage during that time span. The ACC’s average seed has dropped to 5.21, while the Big East’s has risen to 4.6. And the two leagues have gotten teams into the tournament at an identical 46-percent rate.

Furthermore, just three ACC teams have advanced to the Final Four over the last five years, while four Big East teams have turned the trick. True, the ACC holds a 2-0 edge in national championships. But consider this: Only seven ACC teams – and only one (2006 Boston College) not named North Carolina or Duke – have made it as far as the Sweet 16 over the last four seasons. A whopping 16 Big East teams have advanced that far.

In fact, if you take UNC and Duke out of the mix, the ACC’s post-expansion tournament record is an unsightly 12-18. That’s Atlantic 10 or Mountain West territory.

Interestingly, they do not put the blame on the newcomers.

(more…)

As one of three seniors on the Pitt basketball team, but the only one who has gone camping this summer, it figures that Gary McGhee would be the subject of a few pieces on him. Naturally all the pieces came out within 24 hours of each other.

McGhee was a  last minute invite to the camp. Having to skip out on a trip home to spend time with family.

As most people do when they travel, McGhee reached for his phone the second the plane landed, to let his folks know he was on his way to meet them. He noticed a voice mail message from a number that he didn’t recognize. He listened to the message, and that’s when his weekend plans changed. McGhee found out he was one of 23 collegiate players invited to the Lebron James Skills Academy.

“My mom and dad picked me up at the airport, and they didn’t know I was talking to somebody (on the phone),” McGhee said. “As soon as I got out of the car, I told them I was going. They were excited for me. I spent two days with the family, hung out with them a little bit, then headed down to Akron.”

And don’t think he didn’t sacrifice to make it there.

After riding a Greyhound bus from his hometown of Anderson, Ind., to Akron, McGhee began working to improve his game amongst players such as Florida’s Vernon Macklin (whom McGhee said was his toughest competition), Duke’s Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith and Georgetown’s Chris Wright.

A 6-11 big man riding a Grayhound. Yow. That’s a 4-5 hour drive by car. He earned that trip.

But he learned more things at both camps.

He participated in a lot of four-on-four and transition drills and learned from people such as Jay Bilas and Fran Fraschilla, while also playing in a lot of scrimmages mixed in as well. But what he focused on the most was his footwork and offensive skills.

“I tried to work on a lot of footwork stuff, working on moves, a lot of hook shots,” McGhee said. “It was a good experience to learn some things.”

He’s now put himself in consideration for the NBA.

McGhee revealed some of his new moves when he scored 11 points on 5 of 9 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds Monday in the Pittsburgh Basketball Club summer league in his first game since returning from the James camp.

“He’s absolutely a pro prospect,” Bilas said. “He does a lot of valuable things very well. He has a big, strong body and he understands how to use it. He has soft hands and he catches the ball and he’s willing to throw his body around.”

Maybe in the draft. Maybe as a free agent but he is in a position no one saw coming a few years ago. Fran Fraschilla concurs (Insider subs).

Because McGhee plays within himself and has the size to defend NBA centers, he helped himself with NBA people last week. He is a poster child for Pittsburgh work ethic and toughness and could even give the Panthers some offense inside this year, as well.

Just realized I missed a few tabs in the browsers and a couple other things I came across to toss into the mix.

The Austin American Statesman is doing its own top-25 and put Pitt at #21.

Pitt is an experienced team, but it has only nine seniors on scholarship. Pinkston is the only senior who starts on offense. Romeus is one of three seniors starting on defense.

Well, the only seniors who are set at the positions. Alex Karabin is a 5th year senior that could be the starting Center by the time of the Utah game.

Karabin worked with quarterback Tino Sunseri last year on the second team and has a natural chemistry with this year’s starting signal-caller.

“We kind of know what the other one’s going to say before he says it,” he said.

And Karabin is the team’s greybeard, thanks to his year in prep school and a redshirt season. He’ll turn 24 this fall.

“I’m pretty sure I’m the oldest guy on the team,” he said. “I’m always telling the freshmen and the young guys on the line what they have to do and what’s expected.”

Karabin is expected to make all the calls and anchor an O-line that was arguably the best in the Big East last year. And to do so while still paying his own tuition. He said earning a scholarship would be great “but that it’s more important to win games.”

Odds are if Pitt has an available scholarship, Karabin will get it.

Speaking of seniors, SI.com published some of TFYDraft.com’s grades for top seniors. Greg Romeus graded out 6th and Jabaal Sheard also placed among top seniors.

Greg Romeus/DE/Pittbugh/6.8: Romeus has been a force for the Panthers defense since his freshman season. He’s a terrific athlete with an NFL body (6-5, 267).

…

Jabaal Sheard/DE/Pittsburgh/6.2: Sheard is a terrific player and a solid pass rushing end yet can be overlooked playing on the same line as Greg Romeus.

As has become seemingly common — especially at the skill positions — the juniors (not graded in that list) are going to be high on the actual draft list next winter.

The low grades for senior wide receivers won’t matter next April since the elite pass-catchers have been leaving early for the NFL. Georgia’s A.J. Green, Alabama’s Julio Jones, Notre Dame’s Michael Floyd and Pittsburgh’s Jon Baldwin, all juniors, should make a splash in next year’s draft.

Not sure which is really the best WR of the bunch. Should be quite a debate.

Brandon Ifill — incoming freshman defensive back — was named the male athlete of the year by the Post-Gazette for the East region.

“He’s a high-character young man, the type of kid who held the team together through adversity,” [Penn Hills Head Coach Ron] Graham said. “Some of the things that came as far as what we faced this year, he was the one who held it all together.”

In addition to his football skills, Ifill is also a standout in track and field, winning the WPIAL 200-meter dash title.

For his leadership as much as for his 4.4 speed in the 40-yard dash, Ifill has been selected as the PG East Male High School Athlete of the Year.

A Pitt football recruit, Ifill was chosen over candidates at high schools throughout the PG East circulation area.

“When things changed or became challenging for us, he was one of the kids who maintained discipline,” Graham said. “He just was a real leader on and off the field.

“He’s a good student who was well-respected on the team and within the school. He’s just one of those kids you like to have in your program. He’s really just an excellent student-athlete.”

Nicely done.

Summer time. Summer camps. Some mornings go better than others to get them moving. No children died today, but emotional scarring may have taken place.

Chris McKillop, the older brother of Scott McKillop and a good player in his own right at Pitt, has been looking at getting into coaching.

The 25-year-old was brought aboard as a graduate assistant to coach the defensive line at Duquesne this year. Last season, he served as a football intern, assisting with linebackers, special teams, strength and conditioning and equipment management at Division II West Virginia Wesleyan.

“At a smaller, Division II school like that, every coach has a bunch of responsibilities,” McKillop said. “It was a good experience. I got to see what it’s like. Now, I see things from a different perspective.”

He’s also taking a graduate program in sports leadership. Something that can aid for the administrative side of things.

Relating to a McKillop, Scott has been in town to help out at some of the  camps Coach Wannstedt has been running this year. He was in for the 7-on-7 passing camps. As was D.J. Dinkins — who despite being a journeyman NFL player making the minimum — continues to work in whatever community he is based to help kids.

Current and former players were also involved with the youth camp, including D.J. Dinkins, backup tight end for the Super Bowl-winning New Orleans Saints and a former Panther.

“I think it’s great that these boys can come out and just run around and have fun,” Dinkins said. “Through all the publicity and hype that football gets, it’s still just a game.”

Scott McKillop, a more recent Pitt alumnus, also made an appearance at the camp. McKillop is now a reserve/special teams linebacker with the San Francisco 49ers.

“I think it’s awesome,” he said of the camp. “Anytime you can start kids at a young age and get them exposed to football, and show them how fun it is, when they get older they’ll be a step ahead of other kids.”

Very, very interesting about these camps.

That’s why the Pitt coaching staff has changed its philosophy on the prospect camps this year. At a time when many college camps are seeing a decline in attendance because of the economy, the Panthers had almost 300 more players attend their June prospect camps this year than last.

The fix was simple. Wannstedt invited 65 to 70 coaches from more than 40 universities — from the Mid-American Conference, Division I-AA, Division II and Division III schools — to work with and scout players at the camp. As a result, more high school players had an opportunity to get recruited.

“We’d get 100 or 200 kids here [in camp] and, really, we might only be interested in four or five and maybe one we’d offer a scholarship,” Wannstedt said. “That just didn’t sit right with me. I thought we could make the experience better for the players and really make the camps something that could help more kids play college football.

“We can only take 15 to 25 kids every year but there are an awful lot of really good football players out there who we’d bring to our camps and I felt like we could do a better job to make the camps something that would be helpful to them and help them get a shot that maybe they wouldn’t get otherwise.”

Now, beyond the cool thing of simply making more kids available to be evaluated to other programs, this is a brilliant goodwill program in the area.

You not only make the camp more than just learning for the kids, and an opportunity to be seen. You have them going back to their high schools talking about it. How Pitt and the coaches gave them opportunities.

Then there is the goodwill with the lower 1-A schools that get to take part. They know Pitt and Coach Wannstedt are helping them, and saving them some vital recruiting budget money. They can get a chance to evaluate and review more possible kids without having to go out as much on the recruiting trail. They can hone in on others. That goodwill can only help Pitt when it comes to getting the non-con games on the schedule later.

Also have to love how Coach Wannstedt puts all the money to the assistants rather than his own pocket.

Finally, congrats to Nate Byham for signing a deal with the 49ers.

The San Francisco 49ers have signed rookie tight end Nate Byham to a four-year deal.

The team announced the deal with its sixth-round pick Monday. Byham is the fourth of San Francisco’s eight draft picks to sign a contract.

DeJuan Blair was back in Pittsburgh for a few days while his basketball camp was happening.  Blair lends his name to the camp and makes appearances, but leaves to operations to those that know what they are doing. That said, he was there each day and had fun.

“It was pretty cool,” said Anthony Pettko, 10, of Mt. Lebanon, wearing the No. 45 San Antonio Spurs jersey of his favorite NBA player. “A couple of my friends got to play him one-on-one. He took it easy on them.”

Blair, the former Pitt star who just finished his rookie season with the Spurs, is hosting his own youth basketball camp at Robert Morris University.

The four-day camp, run by Five-Star Basketball, opened Tuesday for boys and girls ages 9 through 18.

“It was amazing,” Blair said. “They couldn’t believe I was playing with them and interacting with them like I was. It was as fun for me as it was for them.”

Then it was time to head back to San Antonio briefly before heading to Vegas for NBA summer league — which starts today.

The only Spur to play in all 82 regular-season games last season, Blair was given a summer assignment by head coach Gregg Popovich: Develop a jumper, and learn how Spurs power forwards defend.

Summer league will seem a lot like summer school.

“Pop told me he wanted me to learn the four, and that’s what I want to do,” Blair said. “It’s all about developing, so the more I can play, the more I can get better.”

Not long after the Spurs were swept from the second round of the playoffs by the Suns, Blair was back in the gym working with Spurs shooting coach Chip Engelland.

“I’ve put a lot of time in, almost every day in the summer,” Blair said. “I’m just trying to get a shot to add on to my game and try to get quicker and try to get my body down.”

Blair had the option of going easier. Staying in San Antonio and just working with the coaches on developing his game. Instead Blair insisted on going to summer league.

Initially, the Spurs were leaning toward keeping Blair home to focus on individual workouts. Blair, an NBA All-Rookie selection last season, had other plans.

“He wanted to play,” said Dell Demps, the Spurs’ director of player personnel and de facto GM of the summer league team. “The one good thing about DeJuan is he wants to get better. For him to want to come play in this, I think it says a lot about his commitment to getting better.”

It’s not just a credit to Blair’s work ethic, but a smart move on his part to make sure he doesn’t find himself crowded out of the Spurs’ frontcourt. Tiago Splitter is finally joining the Spurs. That is addition to Tim Duncan, Antonio McDyess, Matt Bonner and Blair. Minutes could be tougher this year.

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.”

As far as predictions go. Not so good.

That was Tweeted a little before 6 pm last night. Coach Dixon was in Cleveland for the King James Classic. Want me to make a reach to spin that positively for Pitt? Okay. Try this.

It is a reflection on Coach Dixon’s sense of loyalty to Pitt, that he would think that LeBron James was going to stay with the Cavs. That LeBron wanted to stay with the team where he started and has not finished reaching the goals.

Or something like that.

Or Coach Dixon, because of his past close ties to former GM Danny Ferry was hoping James would stay in Cleveland.

I’ve had this tab open for well over a week, yet it still isn’t resolved. The long expected move for Pitt football and basketball to 93.7 The Fan as the team’s flagship station has yet to occur.

The long negotiating process involving the broadcasting rights to Pitt football and basketball has hit a snag.

The deal was almost done between Pitt and The Fan 93.7 (KDKA-FM) and was in the hands of the lawyers for a final look. But it appears the issue of  woman‘s basketball is holding up a finalization.

When Pitt was carried by Clear Channel, as it has in recent years, football and men’s basketball were heart first on 104.7 (WPGB) and more recently on 94.5 (WWSW), both on the FM dial. Women’s basketball was heard on Fox Sports Radio 970, an AM station that Clear Channel uses for auxiliary sports program such as the Altoona Curve, coaches shows and various insider programming.

Is there a lot of interest or listening for Pitt women’s basketball? No. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t important for Pitt to have a home for it.

It needs a place for broadcasts. The women’s basketball team has been growing and becoming better than simply respectable. Pitt has to show recruits its commitment, and have a home for the broadcasts so they can be streamed.

The problem is that KDKA-FM has no other minor station to put the broadcasts. As such it puts both sides in a bad spot.

93.7 has not taken off quite as expected. They need Pitt football this fall to get bring in new listeners and then try to retain them. Same with basketball later.

For Pitt, they need a place for their sports. While it appears Clear Channel is still willing to have them, it has gotten more crowded as Clear Channel has already made a move to carry WVU games as well.

Both sides want the move to The Fan. Pitt wants more attention that being the primary live programming on the station would bring locally. The Fan wants to have signature live programming to fill time slots.

The longer this draws out, the worse it is for promoting Pitt football for the upcoming season. 93.7 won’t devote as much resources and energy to training camp and the upcoming season if it doesn’t know that it will be the flagship.

Ultimately, it seems that it has to be resolved. I wonder if they could at least reach a short-term agreement to have women’s basketball games streamed over 93.7’s website.

Lists. An essential part of getting through an offseason — for readers and writers. Especially if you can spread it out over a few weeks.

ESPN.com’s Big East writer, Brian Bennett put together his top-25 Big East players for 2010. He has been revealing them for the past several weeks counting down to #1, Dion Lewis. The debate is over whether it should have been Lewis or WVU’s Noel Devine. Cardiac Hill has his take on it which is very solid. Devine has the higher yards per carry but Lewis has more total yards and TDs.

For me, beyond the simple homerism, the reason I go with Lewis over Devine is consistency. Devine is a potential homerun threat with the ball, but also it means there are a lot of strikeouts. In 8 of 13 games, he accumulated at least 30% off his total yardage for the game from one run. Lewis did that in only 3 games. You know Lewis is going to move the ball forward.

Pitt, really, to noone’s surprise placed the most players on the list with 6. Jonathan Baldwin, #3; Greg Romeus, #4;  Jason Pinkston, #14; Jabaal Sheard, #19; and Tino Sunseri, #24. Sunseri seems like the biggest guess on the list since no one really knows what he will do.

The folks at Football Outsiders are putting together a historical list of the 100 greatest college football teams. They aren’t even half-way there yet, but Pitt has a few entries. At #81 is the 1936 team.

There’s a lot of love for the Pitt teams of Jock Sutherland so far. Placing the 1933 squad at #75 and the 1937 team at #67. Football Outsiders refers to Sutherland as being at the top of the “list of underrated and somewhat forgotten coaches from the first half of the twentieth century.” This seams accurate.  Interesting little addition regarding the eventual end of the Sutherland era, for those of you unfamiliar with it.

Almost as interesting as Pittsburgh’s performance was what was happening to the university behind the scenes. Pittsburgh chancellor John Gabbert Bowman was bound and determined to improve academic perceptions of his university at all costs. He initiated the construction of Pitt’s famous Cathedral of Learning and worked to deemphasize the role athletics played at the school. He dissolved the school’s Alumni Athletic Council and placed the athletic department under faculty control. He instituted the strictest recruiting standards in the country. This had a rather predictable effect — Sutherland resigned after the 1938 season (he ended up coaching two pro teams, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers), the university’s academic reputation grew, and the football program fell apart, winning no more than six games (rarely more than four) from 1940 to 1955.

It does seem to be a pattern at Pitt where the school administration seems to swing manically at times between embracing and rejecting college athletics.

The basketball program also struggled mightily as those controls came into place. Under Doc Carlson, the Pitt basketball team had some of its best years in the late 20s and 30s. Between 1927 and 1937 there was only one sub.-500 season. Seasons that included 21-0, 23-2, 20-4, 17-5. Eastern Intercollegiate Championships and two mythical Helms Foundation National Championships.

Bowman came to Pitt in 1921 and right away started planning the Cathedral. He was there for years of the football program’s success, and dismantling. I can’t be the only one thinking of Wesley Posvar’s time at Pitt.

Right now Pitt seems to have finally comprehended that both can be embraced and compliment the other. Kind of sad it took this long to get the hang of it.

It’s camp season for coaches and players.

Gary McGhee is in Akron for the LeBron James Skills Academy. That makes him one of the “counselors” to work with the high school prospects. For McGhee, the benefit isn’t just a chance to meet-and-greet with LeBron James while James is being stretched.

(Phil Long, AP Photo)

It also means playing against some of the best college players in games after the skills camp part.

It is McGhee’s second camp of the summer. He performed well in the Amare Stoudemire camp earlier.

Gary McGhee, 6-10 senior post, Pittsburgh: Coming out of high school–and even earlier in his Pitt career — McGhee didn’t look like much of a prospect, but thanks to continued development, he’s now a solid low-post scorer, a beast on the glass, a tough defender and a hustle guy that doesn’t require touches, all of which has the makings of a second-round pick in 2011 and eventually a solid pro, particularly due to his rugged frame.

Of course, while he is counseling, he might want to whisper in the ear of potential Pitt prospect Khem Birch about developing as a player.

Birch has seven big-time NCAA Division-1 programs who have already offered him a scholarship for the 2012-13 school year -Ohio State, West Virginia, Iowa, Pitt, Texas, Arizona and Providence -with more undoubtedly to come.

He spoke to The Gazette yesterday during a break at the exclusive LeBron James Skills Academy in Akron, Ohio; a dream week that came just after he helped lead Canada’s junior national team to a bronze medal at the FIBA Americas U-18 Championships in Texas.

But in spite of all the accolades and accomplishments, Birch can’t understand how he could be regarded so highly.

“I’m still shocked,” Birch said of his ESPN ranking. “I never thought I was that good.”

Birch was a shot blocking machine at the FIBA Americas tournament, averaging better than four a game while pulling down nearly eight rebounds a contest.

“I don’t know, I could have done better at the offensive end,” Birch said of his 5.8 points per game average. “To represent my country and come back with a medal, I’m really happy right now. But I learned that I need to get way better, I need to develop a more well-rounded game.”

I’m sure Coach Dixon will make an appearance at the LeBron camp at some point. Just like all the coaches do to be seen. Yesterday, though, he was in Indy to be seen with other coaches for an Adidas camp.

He also has to find a new video coordinator, as Rasheen Davis took an assistant coaching job at Xavier.

He has worked Louisville under Rick Pitino and for Jamie Dixon at Pitt, so I asked if he comes to XU with any particular lessons they imparted.

“With Pitino, it’s all about working extremely hard and improving every single day in whatever facet you’re doing. With Coach Dixon it’s about family about being there for one another. He stresses working hard but also having each other’s back,” Davis said.

Yet another Pitt assistant moving up the coaching ladder.

Want a puff piece to hype Talib Zanna? Here you go.

“The redshirt’s going to help me a lot,” Zanna said. “It’s going to make me learn a lot from offense and defense and get ready for next year.”

It seems to be paying off already, as he has been one of the top players in this summer’s Pro-Am league in Greentree. Through four games he’s averaging 12.8 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.

While that might be a surprise to some, the people who watched Zanna in practice last season saw this coming.

Former Pitt guard Jermaine Dixon compared Zanna’s natural abilities to a recent Panther great, saying, “If he works on his ball handling I think he can be as good as Sam Young. His rebounding is great, and he can shoot the ball.”

“I think that kid’s just going to be a pro,” Woodall said. “That kid’s unbelievable.”

Maybe in time. I’ll settle for serviceable with flashes of possibilities this year.

This is the poster for some of Pitt’s upcoming games in Ireland (hattip to Asst. AD Hotchkiss Twitter).

I realize that Pitt is not a team that has stars, per se, but why is Brad Wanamaker shown twice in one montage?

Do they think it is Brad and his twin brother Brian? They do know that Brian doesn’t play at Pitt.

And yes, the Jamie Dixon picture with the word bubble is amusing.