I admit to being completely fascinated with the Missouri-Matt Painter-Purdue triangle. Not simply because it strikes me almost as eerily similar to the Arizona State pursuit of Jamie Dixon a few years back, but also because of what it reveals about how the best coaches look beyond a mere cash grab.

On its face, Matt Painter even considering the Missouri job made no sense. Painter is a Purdue alum. He played for Gene Keady. Keady hand-picked Painter to be his successor. Heck, Painter even left his successful head coaching job at Sothern Illinois to be an assistant at Purdue in Keady’s final year to get started recruiting. He’s loved by the fans and students for revitalizing the Purdue basketball program. The student section at the games are called “The Paint Crew.” Recruiting is fertile in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky — even if it is competitive. Plus it is the Big Ten. The conference awash in money and exposure.

Missouri on the other hand, is an inconsistent basketball program. It has aspirations/delusions that it is one of the big boys. Yet it keeps getting slapped. Whether it is seeing itself skipped over for Big 10/11/12 membership despite the geographic logic (dude, totally sympathize). Skipped over by bowls because of fan travel. Seeing it’s coach bolt for Arkansas. Stuck in the Big 12/10 and bending over to take it from Texas. In basketball, if Texas or Kansas aren’t playing the games rarely get much attention. How could they possibly be serious about snagging Painter?

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Zeise reports Chris Jacobson has slid over and is trying his hand at the Center position.  This is nervous making as we have now had four, no… five, players in that position.  For some indigestion with your coffee read this:

Jacobson is one of the Panthers’ most aggressive and physical linemen. Interestingly, he did not get onto the field as a starter until his fourth year in the program. One of the reasons given by the former staff was that he made too many mental mistakes.

That would seem to be contrary to what a team would want from the center, but Jacobson believes he has matured as a player and won’t have any trouble at all picking up the finer points of his new position.

Jacobson admits he could struggle with toning down his aggression when playing center. “It was fourth grade, the last time I played center,” Jacobson said.

No Lumpy, let’s not tone down the aggression one bit…you go right on ahead with that. Be yourself.  He is a senior so we can assume he’s being honest when he says he’s matured and confident. He’s a good OL, acquitted himself well last season so here’s wishing him the best in his new position.  Regardless of where he ends up he’ll be a starter on the OL somewhere.

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Take a running start from about 40 feet away from something above your head. When you get close, jump up to slap it. Now, go back and try that again with an eyepatch over one eye. See how fast you are willing to go to and how accurate you are. That’s kind of what Khem Birch was trying for Monday night’s dunk contest at the McDonald’s All-American game festivities.

Khem Birch, a 6-9 F who is originally from Canada but played his HS ball in Massachusetts and is committed to play at Pittsburgh next year, took an inadvertent shot to the eye which caused some bleeding and swelling. He was scheduled to be in the dunk contest and was thought to be a late scratch but still managed to gut it out with a bandage above his left eye.

I was surprised when the announcers failed to mention his injury, but really disappointed by the number of readers on the site who decided to pass judgment on Birch based on the dunk attempts and not the slightest bit aware of what happened to him during team practices earlier that day.

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Well, there has been speculation since Pitt’s recruiting class for 2011 went to five with only three open spots that at least one of the recruits would have to attend prep school. That has now happened with Jaylen Bond announcing that he will do a year of prep and something else.

“While I look forward to playing basketball at the D-I level, I feel that, as someone who is 17 years of age, an additional year of development will allow me to enter my freshman year of college better prepared to contribute at a high level from the start,” Bond said in a statement released by PW coach Jim Donofrio.

“I have great respect and appreciation for the University of Pittsburgh, the coaching staff, and the players, and thank them for their belief in me,” Bond said. “This decision was made after a lot of thought by both myself and my family, and I am confident it is the correct one.”

In announcing that he is attending prep school, Bond has de-committed from Pitt.

This can be taken to mean one of many things:

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