Okay, so the win over VT hasn’t yielded any immediate results in football recruiting. But that weekend left an impression on point guard Josh Newkirk. The North Carolina point guard gave a verbal to Pitt today ($) after Coach Jamie Dixon followed up with a trip down to North Carolina.

Josh Newkirk is a 3-/4-star point guard. He’s 6-2, 175. He’s got quickness and loves to attack the basket (Insider subs).

He easily transitions from scorer to playmaker and can do both. He owns a presence at his position and the kind of head strong game you want out of a playmaker. Newkirk uses his quickness to can get into the lane sometimes at will. Newkirk is a good athlete as well. His ball handling and passing are solid and he can hit the open jumper off the catch or dribble with range to the arc. Newkirk is also a good defender that plays with great energy. Pressuring the ball and anticipating in the passing lanes are also strengths of Newkirk.

On the weaknesses, his perimeter game is a work in progress. He also needs to get stronger. He is considered to have a high ceiling that could result in the kind of player who’s performance will outstrip his recruiting ranking.

He has a ceiling that could take him to higher levels which will be predicated on the resume he builds with his high school team. Adding a jumpshot will enhace his PG ranking. Overall Newkirk is a solid all around point guard that has great upside.

This puts two in the 2013 recruiting class. Technically that fills the class as the only seniors are Dante Taylor and Travon Woodall. But the expectations are that Pitt is looking to add one more big man.

Had a few pile up over the past couple weeks.

While lots of attention was on all the football recruits Pitt had at the VT-Pitt game, let’s not forget Coach Jamie Dixon had a couple 4-star recruits of his own visiting. Center BeeJay Anya from James Robinson’s high school was there. As was point guard Josh Newkirk from North Carolina (Newkirk is 4-star on Scout.com, and a 3-star on Rivals and ESPN). Last week Coach Dixon did an in-home visit with Anya — Anya’s first. This week, Coach Dixon is out to visit Newkirk. Besides Pitt, he holds offers from Arizona, Memphis, GT and Indiana.

Interesting tidbit about early workouts and Coach Dixon leaving the door open for all freshmen to see action.

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said upperclassmen Lamar Patterson and Talib Zanna have proven to be leaders early in the first few weeks of workouts. The freshmen — Steven Adams, James Robinson and Chris Jones — have stood out as being physically and mentally mature to contribute at the beginning of the season. Pitt has had a history of developing its players and not getting the maximum from the freshmen. But this program will need, and now it looks like it will get, immediate production from the freshmen class. This is a must that will likely lead to quite a turnaround from a 22-17 CBI champ (5-13 Big East) season.

While Adams and Robinson are no-brainers for seeing action this season, that Chris Jones is getting considered is surprising. Jones may be benefiting from the change in NCAA rules that actually allows more contact with the coaches in terms of practice for players and the team. Giving him a chance to show the coaches earlier what he can do, and getting the coaches to trust him.

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Okay, this is my final post on the VT game. A few links. Leftover notes and what not.

If you want a detailed breakdown of everything that was bad for VT from a VT perspective, this piece from the Key Play is amazing.

There was no Hubie Graham in the game because he has a clavicle injury. J.P. Holtz, though,  had the huge recovery when Rushel Shell lost the football at the end of one of his big second-half runs. Pitt did lose freshman D-back Jahmal Pardner to an ACL injury he suffered trying to block a punt. He was playing on special teams and coming on in certain defensive packages — including a key 3d down stop. The only good news is that he is eligible for a medical redshirt, so no lost eligibility.

Since Coach Paul Chryst won’t give injury reports other than if a player is done for a while or the year, we have to assume Tino Sunseri is indeed, “fine.” Other players were banged up to some unknown extent.

“Mike Shanahan was pretty banged up, too. A couple linemen were pretty banged up. I know that Aaron Donald was playing hurt. I know that Bryan Murphy played hurt. That’s part of the game, and that’s what you respect about the guys that play it, because it is a physically tough game and you have to be mentally tough.”

Presumably all will be fine for Gardner-Webb.

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