Over 2 years ago, I made the following observation regarding a certain sports talk shock radio host:

…does anyone really believe Mark Madden has “reliable sources” anywhere in college sports? Really? The Pens, sure. Maybe even the Steelers. But at Pitt? In basketball? He barely acknowledges the existence of the sport.

This came after Madden cribbed a piece from The Big Lead over the open Oregon job, only he repackaged it to claim he had “sources” telling him that Dixon was heading to Oregon after the Final Four.

So you would think everyone would learn a lesson from this. Mark Madden, however, would hope you would forget it when he teased this on Twitter yesterday.

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Anyone else figure it out yet? I mean aside from the whole size thing.

If you recall, back in February Head Coach Paul Chyrst had a general press conference. One of the topics discussed was his approach to recruiting. The emphasis was on doing it smarter and better. Not having cattle call junior days. More advanced study of players by the coaching staff as to who they should recruit before they make offers. Not revolutionary, but a change from the now traditional approach that most programs use.

That seemed to explain the slow start to Pitt’s recruiting. Not simply in terms of the number of commits to this point, but the reports of the slow pace by which the staff was making contact and putting out offers to kids in the 2013 class. Chryst and the staff were being thorough in their research before extending offers willy-nilly. They were going to find guys who not only had talent and/or potential, but guys who wanted to be taught football and were legitimately interested in Pitt.

Plus, like it or not, there’s going to be a little caution from recruits about Pitt. When you have had more head coaches than Antonio Cromartie has fathered children in the same 12 month period, it doesn’t exactly promote an image of stability.

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