Sure Pitt had a bunch of high school juniors visiting spring football practice this past weekend, but the information on them is stuck behind paywalls. On the other hand, Pitt will have a couple potential late editions to the basketball recruiting class visiting.

JUCO guard Trency Jackson is visiting Pitt this weekend. Kaza Keane plans on visiting Oakland in two weeks

Both are guards, and it is somewhat curious that Pitt would be looking to get yet more guard help.Wwhile there is technically no available scholarship at the moment, it is presumed that Isiah Epps will not be part of the team going forward. Still the two possibilities are quite opposite in terms of immediate impact.

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If you missed it over the weekend, four years of trying to fix TCU basketball was enough for Jim Christian. He is returning the MAC to take the Ohio University job. (Prior to taking the TCU job, Christian was head coach of Kent State.)

Just as TCU would be moving up to the Big 12 — and a higher profile — Christian would rather take a pay cut and step down in prestige. He wasn’t on the hot seat, by most accounts. The team finished 7-7 in the MWC, 18-15 overall.  And when you consider how bad TCU was, that Christian only went 38-58 in the first 3 seasons, he was making progress.

Well, this post from a Dallas paper details the reasons. Low pay scale for coaches and assistants, outdated facilities with no clear timeline for when they would be upgraded, no real commitment to improving facilities without improvement on the court (which is a chicken or egg situation), and simply not being committed to being a legit basketball program.

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The CBI finished Friday night with a Pitt win. The officiating met the standards of the previous games, but Pitt won anyways.

Lamar Patterson was named CBI MVP. Patterson stepped up to a more central role on the team.

“Lamar was tremendous this tournament,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said.

“He’s been real confident,” point guard Tray Woodall said. “He’s a Brad Wanamaker-type player. He instills confidence in the rest of his teammates. Guys are confident he’ll make the right plays. Coach Dixon calls sets for him knowing he’ll make the right play all the time.”

Patterson earned a starting position as a sophomore, but he did not assert himself the way he did in this tournament. He was often in the background as Ashton Gibbs and Woodall dominated the offensive touches.

But in this tournament, Patterson was the focal point of the offense, and it provided a glimpse of what the Panthers will look like next season.

“I feel like coach trusted me a lot more, depended on me a lot more,” Patterson said. “It feels good going into next year.”

I’ve made the Wanamaker comparisons as well, because that is the closest analog. Both are extremely versatile players. Willing and able to play multiple positions on the team. There are some differences between the two at this point in the development. Not where Wanamaker was as a senior, but comparing to their sophomore seasons and heading into the junior year.

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If you have been reading this site for more than two years, then you may know what time of the year it is. It is time for me to ask for financial help.

This site is a joyous time suck for me. My wife is remarkably understanding about the time and obsession I spend on the site and following Pitt athletics. The one rule is that while it can suck time, it can’t suck the money. Therefore, every two years in April I do a week or two of asking for contributions to keep the site going.

The costs are primarily devoted to site upkeep, server costs and updating/upgrading the computer I use. There has been some discussion of trying to set aside a home football game as a PittBlather tailgating event this year. A chance for many of us to meet. That would be great, and some of the donations would go towards the cost of that.

There are two ways to contribute. You can click the PayPal icon on the right sidebar. The other way is e-mail me at PittBlather-at-gmail-dot-com for my address, and send a check.

There is no set amount to send. It is whatever you feel comfortable .

I’ll be running a reminder post each day this week. Hopefully the need to beg uncomfortably will only have to go for one week.