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September 1, 2015

Last Minute Guard Happens

Filed under: Basketball,Injury,Recruiting — Chas @ 2:20 pm

Busy day.

The Jonathan Milligan transfer is real.

The University of Pittsburgh men’s basketball team has added JUCO guard Jonathan Milligan for the 2015-16 season head coach Jamie Dixon announced Tuesday.

“We are fortunate to be able to add a guard of Jonathan’s caliber at this point in the year,” said Dixon. “He is a promising combo guard who received a lot of high major interest out of high school and while he was at Kilgore College. He has the ability to score from a variety of spots on the floor and break down defense by getting into the lane. He also has the quickness and instincts to be an outstanding defender in our program.

Milligan averaged 14.3 points, 2.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game last season while leading the Kilgore College to a 21-9 record and a Region XIV Tournament appearance. He increased his scoring to 17.5 points per game in conference play en route to claiming first team all-region and Region XIV all-conference accolades.

I love that the press release manages not to mention that he had to be released from his NLI with FGCU.

How did Milligan get into Pitt, but not FGCU? The ambivalence appeared at first blush to be related to the NCAA Clearinghouse. That was not the case. It was a matter of which JUCO credits were approved by each school.

Milligan had the 2.5 grade-point average required by the NCAA for a junior college player to transfer to a four-year school, FGCU Director of Compliance Alex Masse confirmed. Junior college transfers also much have a high school or Associate of Arts degree. Milligan also was good there.

The current eligibility GPA for Division I athletes not transferring from a junior college is 2.0, but that will move to 2.3 next year.

But Milligan didn’t have enough credits that FGCU would accept from Kilgore College. Pitt apparently accepted more of those.

“That’s basically it,” Masse said. “Each institution in the country determines what’s transferable. That’s not the athletics department. That’s the institution, either the Registrar or (Dept. of) Admissions. And in our case with athletics, Admissions.”

FGCU athletic director Ken Kavanagh declined to comment on Milligan’s situation Tuesday morning, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which protects the privacy of student education records.

Third-year FGCU coach Joe Dooley also declined to comment on specifics, but was happy to talk about Milligan’s second chance.

“This is good timing for him, and I hope for Jonathan’s sake he has a good experience and a good career,” Dooley said. “And I’m a big Jamie Dixon (Pitt coach) fan, and I hope it works out for both of them.”

Coming out of high school in 2012, ESPN called the Word of God Christian Academy product the 25th-best point guard in the nation.

Suddenly Pitt has some major depth in the backcourt as the team gets healthy from an offseason filled with surgeries.

Pitt junior guard Chris Jones, who underwent offseason toe surgery, is expected to participate in workouts beginning Tuesday.

Senior guard James Robinson, who had foot surgery in May, will join workouts next week, Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said.

Another guard, graduate transfer Sterling Smith, had offseason ankle surgery.

“We think Chris will be able to go full speed, full contact,” Dixon said. “James may be another week away, but I feel good about him.

“They’re all going to be 100 percent, cleared to go.”

Another Pitt player who had surgery, 6-foot-8 guard Cameron Johnson, has recovered from a shoulder injury that limited him to eight games last season. Johnson was redshirted.

“He’s interesting,” Dixon said. “He was our third leading scorer in the Bahamas (tournament) last year, and we were excited about him. He surprised a lot of people how he played in the summer. The shoulder surgery was a setback for us and for him. But it’s a new year, he’s healthy and ready to go.

“He’s put on 30 pounds since he started with us, and he’s up to 6-8. But we’ve got to see him play live. We haven’t seen that.”

How well Milligan and Smith play overall as they step up in competition remains to be seen. The key thing, though, is that both are good shooters. If that remains close to the same, that is a big deal for Pitt. It opens things up even more inside and takes some of the pressure off of Mike Young and Jamel Artis.

As an aside on the Josh Newkirk abrupt change from going “closer to home” to Indiana. The reason Indiana and Tom Crean made that call speaks to their own situation with recruiting screw-ups.

The news came Monday afternoon, via a release from Indiana’s sports information department, and it was hardly a surprise. Emmitt Holt’s time as a Hoosier is over — the result of an incident last weekend in which he was cited for illegal possession of alcohol.

Simply put, Indiana had to do this.

The school didn’t have any choice, all things considered.

Indiana athletic director Fred Glass basically said as much Monday.

“In Emmitt’s case, he had a situation … [where he hit] Devin Davis [with a vehicle last year after] … he had been drinking. It wouldn’t have been a violation if he was 21, but he wasn’t and he was cited,” Glass told Peegs.com, a website dedicated to covering IU sports. “It probably wasn’t his fault he hit Devin, but the fact remains that he ran into his best friend, splatted blood all across the asphalt. If that doesn’t scare a guy straight, what does?”

Fair question.

Regardless, fast-forward roughly 10 months, and …

“There he is with two freshmen with booze in a car, teaching them the wrong way to be an Indiana basketball player,” Glass continued. “He’s a veteran. Not only was he a part of [the incident last year], he heard me talk to him about it. He heard [IU coach] Tom [Crean] talk to him about it — that we weren’t messing around, that there would be serious consequences if something happened again.”

The school had also dismissed two other players in the spring for off-the-court problems. Crean needed to bring in another guard for next year, preferably an older player who isn’t a screw-up. Newkirk is a good fit for them. He was not a problem at Pitt off-the-court. The surgery does make him a question mark for the future, but the guy he’s replacing [Holt] hardly was an impact guard. He averaged 3.6 points and 3 boards per game last year.





Can anyone make sense of the Newkirk story?

Wish him well in his rehab, but wonder what the real story is? Why would Indiana want damaged goods with little apparent upside?

Comment by gc 09.01.15 @ 2:50 pm

Let’s hope Milligan is a player.

Welcome to the Zoo.

Comment by gc 09.01.15 @ 2:52 pm

This kid is essentially replacing Newkirk. Can play either guard position and has 2 years of eligibility. I will absolutely take it. 40% from three and 80% from the line. I don’t care what level you’re playing at, you can stroke it.

Newkirk could never get close to those numbers. One of the worst free throw shooting guards I ever seen. He could get to the hoop, not always with any real plan and would end up out of control at times, but he was athletic. The ACC is a lot different than Kilgore, but this kid had a nice offer sheet out of high school. With the addition of him and Smith, and hopefully Wilson, I really like our guards and forwards. If 2 of the 3 incoming Centers can give quality minutes, this is a tournament team.

Good for Jamie going out of his comfort zone with all these transfers. He’s had transfers before, but not like this. Some is bad luck, some of it is bad recruiting, but this is where he is. He still has 3 starters that have grown up in his system, as he would prefer. Especially if Wilson is eligible, I’ll be feeling a lot better about this coming year…

Comment by Pap76 09.01.15 @ 3:16 pm

Come on Upitt, blast this signing buddy. You know you wanna, lol…

Comment by Pap76 09.01.15 @ 3:18 pm

@@@@@@

Newkirk had a tough soph season. If not
injured expected him to greatly improve.
Remember he played well as a frosh.

Always skeptical re: JC players. Nice to
add depth at guard….also always nice
to add a guy who can shoot 3s.

Comment by JR 09.01.15 @ 3:43 pm

In today’s ACC BB everyone on the floor needs to be able to shoot. ESPECIALLY the point guard. Hence, this still makes JR a weak link.

Comment by pittman4ever 09.01.15 @ 4:56 pm

Good pick-up. Just hope Coach allows him to play.

Comment by TX Panther 09.01.15 @ 5:51 pm

based on the way Newk played this past year, it appears to be a good trade-off. But I wonder if New was hampered this past season since he seemed to regress.

Comment by wbb 09.01.15 @ 6:00 pm

Pap, since Kilgore College is in Texas, I’m guessing UPitt is good with this signing.

Comment by Iron Duke 09.01.15 @ 7:25 pm

I can’t think Basketball right now.
From the Title I thought that Artie was getting the start at center.
H2P

Comment by Tackle made by Hugh 09.01.15 @ 7:37 pm

This is a big deal, IMO, for the team this year…if all of these transfers can gel early enough to matter.

H2P

Comment by panther94 09.01.15 @ 9:13 pm

Pap76 – Dixon could. Get Shaq to have eligabilty and it wont help Dixon. Kilgore College if you have ever seen isn’t exactly a basketball powerhouse. LOL. A whataburger and Mr. Chicken is all there is.

Comment by Upittbaseball 09.01.15 @ 10:09 pm

Sorry to spoil a basketball post but I thought most would be interested to know the Saskatchewan Roughriders released Tino today – actually the second time they let him go this season.

Comment by Mill 09.01.15 @ 10:24 pm

Kilgore College in Texas …mascot The Rangers!

That’s about as much as you’ll need to know that’s positive about this signing. Utter desperation by a stubborn overrated coach and incompetent staff.

Comment by Dan 72 09.01.15 @ 10:24 pm

Dixon still needs to mold and have ready to play a true CENTER.

We need to rebound to win. That’s it. That simple.

Comment by Old Pitt Grad 09.01.15 @ 10:32 pm

@Dan 72…so what do you know about this kid that no one else does? Back up your negativity with substance.

H2P

Comment by panther94 09.01.15 @ 10:37 pm

good signing but the last sentence in the Post Gazette is a pathetic statement on recruiting:

“Pitt now has six players in this year’s recruiting class, and five of them are transfers.”

Comment by Pitt it IS 09.02.15 @ 6:36 am

@ Dan 72, CV gets the start against YSU but Narduzzi expects Peterman to play on Saturday which should give you hope. My expectations are that Nate plays against Akron too if the score allows just so that the coaching staff can see what the have with Peterman in real game situations.

Still hope for you though, a lot can go wrong between now and the Iowa game that could see Nate get that start at QB.

Comment by Dr. Tom 09.02.15 @ 6:55 am

Dan72- We all make dumb comments I suppose from time to time, and your comment above regarding Milligan is dumb. I’ll assume you’re better than that. This is a message board, not twitter.

Comment by 1618mt 09.02.15 @ 7:38 am

Happy to get this guy, but Manigault is still the only verbal for next year. We are not going to compete with the elite in the ACC with a bunch of JUCO transfers. Recruiting needs to improve by leaps and bounds.

Comment by gc 09.02.15 @ 10:09 am

GC – Ah, yah, I think recruiting has to improve quite a bit. I don’t think there’s anyone left that feels otherwise. That has nothing to do with the signing of Milligan though; Milligan is an outstanding last minute replacement for Newkirk.

Comment by 1618mt 09.02.15 @ 1:18 pm

In a system guys can get away with doing one or two things above average. If he can shoot, then he’s a big addition.

Comment by ShorePitt 09.02.15 @ 9:10 pm

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