A little bit of tab clearance and related items.

Gary McGhee has slowly earned a lot of respect. Not just from Pitt fans. To some degree, I think Pitt fans can be almost dismissive of the way he developed because it was chalked up to McGhee being 6-10, 6-11 and Coach Jamie Dixon and Pat Sandle having had so much success developing project big men further than any expected.

The day of the Syracuse game, Seth Davis at SI.com made this comment in his notes story.

I’ll say it again: Pitt center Gary McGhee needs more love. He had a team-high 13 points and 10 boards in the Panthers’ win over Seton Hall on Saturday. It’s easy to dismiss McGhee because he seems to do everything in super-slow-motion, but not many teams are that big, strong and experienced at the center position.

Gary Parrish at CBS Sports points out that few “projects” work out, and it has a lot to do with the player as much as the coaching.

McGhee did, after all, play on the same summer team as Robbie Hummel, E’Twaun Moore and Scott Martin, and I can’t imagine anybody watched that team more than [Purdue Coach Matt] Painter because Hummel, Moore and Martin all committed to Purdue that July. Everywhere they went, Painter went. Which means everywhere McGhee went, Painter went, too. So Painter saw McGhee at least 50 times and still never offered the in-state product a scholarship because — and these are my words, not Painter’s, and almost everybody would agree with me — the big kid just wasn’t very good.

“Matt and I joke about it all the time,” Jamie Dixon said.

…

Big man projects don’t typically work.

Let’s not even have that debate.

Coaches gamble on size all the time and lose most times. There’s an example on just about every college bench, and for a while it looked like McGhee and Ezeli would join the long list of disappointments. Instead, each has developed into an important piece on a nationally relevant team, and nobody should be surprised if one or both end up in the NBA collecting big paychecks that seemed far from realistic when they began their college careers.

The development was slow, but the article relates how hard McGhee was willing to work. To improve his footwork, his knowledge, everything.

And that, as Parrish puts it is the key.

The lesson: Don’t give up on big guys who love the game and work.

Big guys who don’t love the game and work?

To hell with them.

They’re a total waste of time, and they’ll disappointment you every time. But size combined with focus combined with hard work gives almost anybody a chance to succeed in basketball, and McGhee and Ezeli serve as good examples. Once upon a time, the two projects didn’t look comfortable or like they belong on a college court at all. But they kept working, kept pushing, and both are now success stories in a book that doesn’t feature enough of them.

You look at the big men who did develop at Pitt. McGhee, Gray, Ontario Lett and even Toree Morris. They were guys that were willing to work hard and commit.

That, as much as anything has been a major staple of Pitt under Coach Dixon. Not finding guys that were “blue-collar” or defense first. Not finding the overlooked guys, projects or the volume of guys staying four years.

It has been getting the guys that are committed to improving. Not sure how he figures it out, but when you look at the players on the roster in the past, present and even the future they all seem to have that drive.

One example coming in is Malcolm Gilbert. During his recruitment, he has been seen of something of a project big man. Yet another one. Good defense, but work needed with him. (I thought I had posted this previously, but I can’t find it so at the risk of repeating…) Well, he seems to have that drive (Insider subs.), as reflected by those who grade recruits.

We’ve been out in full force all season long and it’s time to update our rankings in three classes. Sometime after the Hoop Hall Classic, we’ll introduce Otto Porter (Sikestown, Mo./Scott County Central) and Malcolm Gilbert (Philadelphia, Pa./Acad. of New Church) to our ESPNU 100; they’ve earned it and we’ve witnessed their growth.

Take rankings for what they are worth, but a guy making a move this late in the rankings is worth noting.

McGhee, Gil Brown and Brad Wanamaker have taken their role as seniors and leaders to heart.

“That’s something we take pride in,” Wanamaker said. “We know what we are capable of and what we have to do to lead this team.”

Wanamaker, Brown and McGhee are the main reasons why No. 5 Pitt (18-1, 6-0) is off to its best-ever start in Big East play heading into Saturday’s game at last-place DePaul (6-12, 0-6).

“They are doing a great job,” junior Ashton Gibbs said. “Everything is paying off right now.”

Brown is setting career bests in everything from points and rebounds to assists and free-throw shooting while playing shut-down man-to-man defense.

Wanamaker is on pace to become the second player in school history to amass 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 400 assists for his career. Carl Krauser is the other.

McGhee has equaled or surpassed his career high in points or rebounds six times this season.

But it’s the effort they give behind closed doors — in practice, in film study and in the weight room — that has Dixon so proud of his seniors. The eighth-year coach takes every chance to note the steady strides and unflinching leadership of the trio.

“Our seniors have done incredible work to improve, and their play has been so inspirational to our guys,” Dixon said after Pitt’s 74-66 victory against No. 3 Syracuse on Monday. “If you can tell your team that seniors can get better, you know your freshmen, sophomores and juniors can get better.”

There’s a buddy movie in this somewhere. The high flying athlete constantly betrayed by his body (and his own fears); the gritty street-balling player; and the big man with the soft heart all coming together… Anyways…

Back to recruiting notes, on talent alone, Khem Birch should be McDonald’s All-American. His reclassifying so late to this year, though, may be a problem in getting enough votes.

Over the summer, Birch went from prospect to player. It began when he elected to be a part of Canada’s U18 team and continued at the LeBron James Skills Academy.

There’s llittle doubt that he stacks up in the top dozen prospects in the Class of 2011. Voting for postseason all-star games is upon us and Birch merits strong consideration, especially given the weak class of big men nationally. He’s fighting an indentity crisis because its hard to just insert yourself into another class for your final season; your identity was forged in 2012. Regardless, Birch is on the ballot, worthy of a vote and for Pittsburgh he will help the Panthers next season.

Getting to be named a McDonald’s All-American seems to be a goal for Birch. If he had done one additional year at prep school, he would not have been eligible.

“There’s no point” in waiting until 2012, Birch said. “I didn’t need it. Right now I’m trying to be a McDonald’s All-American, Jordan Brand, all that. So they said, ‘You might as well just leave.’ And I thought it was the right decision, too.”

Really that’s just a footnote to the main story of Birch being in a car accident on the way to a tournament, rolling his ankle in warm-ups. And still finishing with 18 points and 12 boards.

One other Pitt commit in the 2011 class, Jaylen Bond had one sick dunk back in December. Think VT’s Deron Washington over Duke’s Paulus four years ago — tough not quite that humiliating. Enjoy.

Jaylen Bond had a Q&A with Slam Magazine.

SLAM: So I see that you play above the rim a lot, when did you start going up top on defenders with no remorse?

JB: Basically, when I moved from middle to high school – that’s when I really started jumping high. So I just kept building on that by working out my legs and stuff.

SLAM: Would you say you’re a three or four? Or a more in between kind of player?

JB: Well, I’m more like a mixture between the two – the three and the four.  But I’m transitioning to play more so at the three.

SLAM: Yeah, I heard about that. Pitt usually has some true big guys down low…

JB: Yeah, for my high school team I play power forward, but at Pitt I’m looking to play at small forward. I’ve been working on making the transition.

The interviewer asked him what he planned to study at Pitt and he essentially stunned the guy buy saying mechanical engineering. If so, I don’t think Bond has many worries about academic issues keeping him from Pitt.