As the only Big East player taken in the First Round of the NFL Draft, Jon Baldwin allowed the Big East to save some face. Not much, but some. As befits the present state of the conference, it should be expected that a lot of players will be taken from here on out. The players reflect the league. Not particularly strong at the top, but solid and mediocre all around. “Big East football. ACC-esque parity with fewer calories.”

So congrats to Jon Baldwin, the third Pitt Panther drafted in the 1st round in the last 5 years. He is Pitt’s 20th 1st round pick in the last 31 years. Baldwin was home with family when the call came.

“I felt blessed,” Baldwin said of his reaction upon receiving the telephone call from Chiefs coach Todd Haley. “I have been working toward this my whole life, and now I get the opportunity.”

After speaking at length to Haley, Baldwin said he turned to his father, Jeff, for a hug.

“He said, ‘Congratulations. This is something you have worked hard for. Now, go do what you do,’ ” Baldwin said.

The first thing…

(more…)

The NCAA released 2010 attendance figures this week (PDF). Pitt was 36th nationally in attendance with an average attendance of 10,843 per game.

As far as the Big East goes here’s how the schools ranked:

Syracuse (#2) — 22,312

Louisville (#3) — 21,832

Marquette (#11) — 15,586

Georgetown (#25) — 12,675

Connecticut (#32) — 11,569

West Virginia (#33) — 11,529

Pitt (#36) — 10,843

Villanova (#38) — 10,511

St. John’s (#57) — 8431

Seton Hall (#62) — 7937

Notre Dame (#64) — 7785

DePaul (#67) — 7676

Cincinnati (#71) — 7344

Providence (#76) — 7043

Rutgers  (#97) — 5602

USF — 4230

(more…)

Do Jabaal Sheard or Jon Baldwin make it into the end of the first round tonight? I have no idea. Odds are that if they don’t get picked, then the Big East gets shut out of the first round of the NFL draft.

Plenty of Pitt players could go in the later rounds over the next couple days, so there is incentive to keep watching.

Here’s your handy Pitt player checklist.

Draft starts about 8pm on ESPN or NFL Network.

After yesterday’s list post, Rivals.com released their top-150 final rankings for 2011 class. Khem Birch cracked their top-10 by being ranked number 9 overall. Durand Johnson was ranked at #120 and Malcolm Gilbert was #133. Scout.com had Birch 14th, Gilbert 83d and Johnson 88th. So the real differences were in how they viewed Gilbert and D. Johnson. Gilbert, especially, was viewed very differently.

Some insight with the disparity on Gilbert can actually be explained from a piece from one of Scout.com’s basketball guys.

(more…)

Barely paid any attention to it. Between the lockout stuff, basketball season, and the fact that the NFL is starting this thing on a Thursday night. The Thursday night thing seems to really have me thrown off. The all-day Saturday couch potatoing was a personal favorite for me. Now that’s all gone.

Still, Pitt should have several players drafted this year. Whether Sheard or Baldwin crack the first round is anyone’s guess. That and where Greg Romeus, Dion Lewis and Henry Hynoski get drafted. Plus questions about whether Jason Pinkston and Dom DeCicco get snagged near the end or sign undrafted free agent deals.

Guess at least a rundown on some of the stories. I’ll skip the mock drafts that multiply and come from so many different places these days.

(more…)

I made the semi-conscious decision* not to do rundown of the way too premature top-25 predictions for college basketball until after the May 8 withdraw deadline for the NBA Draft.

Luke Winn includes Pitt in his list of teams with the biggest interest in the May 8 withdrawal date.

The Panthers can be a top-four team in the Big East if they keep junior combo guard Ashton Gibbs, who’s one of the league’s most efficient scorers. Conflicting information has been floating around about him; he reportedly told one agent he was “100 percent certain” about staying in the draft after declaring, but NBA sources seem to think that’s just posturing, and Gibbs’ father has since said that his son’s future is still TBD.

That’s a good thing for Gibbs, because leaving now would be unwise; multiple scouts I spoke with predicted he’d go undrafted in June. “Very good college player,” one scout said, “but not prepared [for the NBA] on a number of levels.” A season as Pitt’s primary scorer and playmaker off the dribble (which was more of what Brad Wanamaker did last year) could enhance Gibbs’ preparedness for the pros.

No guarantees, but it could only help if he can show more ball handling and improve his ability to drive to the basket.

(more…)

Obviously this year is a big questionmark. What with the question of whether the new schemes on defense help the secondary, or greatly put it at risk for exploitation. A lot depends on the corner positions. Can Buddy Jackson finally put it together in the fall, rather than just every spring? Will Antwuan Reed be better? Will guys like K’Wuan Williams, and/or Saheed Imoru move up? Does Lafayette Pitts get out there as a true freshman?

Come 2012, though, there’s more optimism. Pitts and Williams alone would provide that optimism. But the addition of Cullen Christian to the depth chart is a big plus.

(more…)

The bad news, there is no good news.

The good news, that’s all the bad news there is.

Really that is all that is going on at the moment.

Everything else is just opinion.

(more…)

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend and holiday. Tried to get started on the long, long list of outdoor projects around the house, but the rain has been so frequent that not much was really accomplished. Well, aside from a lot more crap in the garage that needs to get out of there. Not sure if there has been two consecutive dry days in the Cleveland area for the past few weeks — well without the temperature dipping below 40. The lack of a spring this year has been worse than normal. That or I’m just old and cranky, and less tolerant of the weather.

So, for nearly a month, the links have been accumulating related to football. I’ve been lazy. The writing of Reed has let me slack off on this stuff. Now it’s time to clear it out — even if it’s a little dated.

Starting with the newest news, though, another Michigan transfer (paywall). Cullen Christian asked for and received his release from Michigan last week. Since Christian went to Penn Hills and several of his coaches at Michigan are now at Pitt — well, the math seemed obvious. This is a really good get, though. Christian was one of the top recruits in Pennsylvania in 2010. One of the top CB recruits in the country. He was a 4-star recruit and an US Army All-American. Injuries and attrition at Michigan forced him to play a lot more than he should have — 10 games. Look forward to seeing him out there in 2012.

(more…)

Adding to the intrigue of Big East expansion and the Villanova situation, the Big East media rights will be available after the 2013 football season. It’s one of the reasons the Big East invited TCU last fall and Villanova decided to pursue the idea of expansion. The Big East needs to make itself as pretty — and as stable — as possible if it wants to get a deal even close to what the other 5 BCS conferences are (or are going to be) pulling in their latest deals.

Still with more than a year to go, ESPN and the Big East are already talking.

Typically, with a deal expiring at the end of 2013, talks wouldn’t have started until next year.

ESPN currently pays the Big East an average of $36 million annually as part of a six-year contract for all of its sports. While initial numbers being floated may not be as rich as the ESPN/ACC deal that was struck last spring, it would still mark a major boost for the 16-team conference.

Sources indicate the early numbers range from $110 million to $130 million annually, but conference sources describe those figures as a starting point for any negotiation. The initial offer would fall short of the $155 million annual payout the ACC will receive from ESPN in a deal that kicks in this summer. But the bold push by ESPN shows the network wants to lock down college rights in the face of increasing competition.

The ACC deal, which is the closest analog for the Big East will pay each school some $12 million/year in the new deal.

(more…)

Assuming Ashton Gibbs comes back or Pitt doesn’t add another player to the 2011 recruiting class with the open spot, Pitt presently has two available scholarships for the 2012 class. Odds are, though, that at least one other scholarship will open. But it is hard to see Pitt’s class being larger than 3 for 2012

One is going to be filled by Steve Adams from New Zealand. Pitt is pursuing such top-ranked players like Andre Drummond, Amile Jefferson and Omar Calhoun.

Calhoun is obviously the top target for Pitt at the shooting guard position. The other player on the list for a while has been Myles Davis from Notre Dame Prep (Mass.) — a place new Pitt assistant Bill Barton has connections as the former head coach.

(more…)

So I’m at work this evening, and I decide to run through some messages and check the twitter feed for any news of interest. And what do I find but Villanova fans freaking out and blaming Pitt. Betrayal! Backstabbing! Such scum!

Over what you ask. Well, it seems that a Temple message board thread claimed that Pitt was trying to get Temple back in the Big East for football instead of Villanova. Not just for football, but as a full Big East member. Not UCF. Not Houston. Temple.

Let me repeat the salient part again, so it can fully sink in:

Temple message board.

Wow.

(more…)

I hate the trend especially in football to control information. Usually in the Parcells/Belichek “one voice” mantra that has increasingly spilled into college football. The stated reason is that it prevents mixed messages to the media/fans and keeps the assistants focused on their jobs. The reality is it chokes off a lot of information fans crave and makes programs and franchises joyless operations creating unnecessary tensions.

That said, maybe the Gibbs family should at least conference call to coordinate what the hell the plan actually is. Really. Temple and his son Ashton Gibbs keeps putting conflicting/unclarified information out to whoever gets in touch with them. I will say, though, they have created more buzz and conversation for a borderline, possible 2d round pick than you would expect.

(more…)

As we continue our look at the past spring practice and at our team’s future, let’s discuss the offseason and what to look for from now until the team is in summer camp…

How did the offseason go?

This is crucial IMO.  First off, let’s hope Coach Graham doesn’t have to deal with any disciplinary issues at all, but if he does, how he applies his decision making is going to be critical.  It’s no secret that I believe this exact issue was a major contributing factor in the team’s lackluster play and Dave Wannstedt’s removal last year.  What I do know is that there was a strong mandate from PITT to Graham as a condition of his hire that the program get straightened out.  How he handles any infractions from now on will set the tone for his tenure at PITT.

We have seen some of his application of discipline in action already.  Diaz stepped over the line and was gone before he sobered up.  While no one has uttered the words “Zero Tolerance” that is what it has been so far.  That may be hard to sustain and unrealistic given the nature of the organization, but fairness and consistency has to be the goal.

Where there any transfers after spring camp? We have gone over this in numerous articles but it may be a big issue.  Some kids may go solely on the strength of not seeing themselves fitting into Graham’s new systems.  That would be understandable.  If we see kids leaving for other reasons that may indicate there were cracks in the façade, but I don’t think we’ll see that happen.  At least I really hope not.  IMO whoever may have been thinking about leaving before spring camp also may have a different point of view after it finished.

How did the players take care of themselves? As far as actual football goes, it will be important for the players to get into the shape they need to be to execute the No-Huddle offense.  It takes a different level of stamina than they needed under Wannstedt.  Believe me, if any players do nothing but drink beer and gain weight from now until August they will drop in the depth chart like a rock.  Graham isn’t going to allow anyone to treat summer camp as a time to diet.  It looked like the kids adapted mentally and emotionally to the changes required; will they have and apply the discipline to do the same physically”?

(more…)

Yeah, it looks like this stuff will linger for a while. There’s a bit to cover.

First up, the latest on Big East non-expansion. WVU AD Ollie Luck offered comments that are being parsed carefully among Big East partisans.

“There are two sort of questions I think that people have,” Luck said.  “One is really what are the facilities that Villanova is able to use and how do those fit into the Big East with what we have now with our football schools.  Are those really at a level that are BCS, automatic qualifier appropriate for a conference like ours?  I think that’s the first question and obviously the conference didn’t feel quite comfortable with all the information regarding what I would call the infrastructure question.”

“When we talk about adding a 10th member, the question is what does that 10th member bring and what are the other options, quite honestly,” Luck continued. “It’s sort of like buying a car, you don’t go and just look at one model.  You look around and say what are the different options, what are the different prices, and what are the plusses and minuses?  I think a lot of schools were interested in having a better sense of what other possibilities would be out there.”

Now it depends on what you focus on from there.

(more…)