So new Duquesne Coach Ron Everhart landed a good JUCO player.

Ron Everhart got his man, a player he has coveted for several years and one he expects to make an immediate impact on Duquesne University’s basketball team next season.

Stuard Baldonado, a 6-foot-7, 225-pound All-American junior-college power forward from Miami-Dade College, signed a national letter of intent yesterday to become Everhart’s second recruit during the spring signing period that ends May 17.
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Baldonado, a native of San Andres, Colombia, also played for the AAU Miami Tropics whose coach, Art Alvarez, is a longtime friend of Everhart.

I’m not sure how big-time the kid really is.

The major-college recruiters poured in. He received at least 25 offers, including Texas-El Paso, Hofstra, Minnesota, Oregon State. Kansas State coach Bob Huggins paid a visit to see Baldonado, who was ranked No. 36 in the JucoJunction Top 100, 17th among forwards.

And he had apparently narrowed his options to Duquesne, UTEP and Hofstra. Dukes, Miners or Pride.

I suspect many Pitt fans are more than a little hesitant with regards to hyping JUCO basketball players following John DeGroat and Doyle Hudson. I know I’m not that impressed. Everhart’s been recruiting this kid for a number of years. It’s not like the kid just got swept off his feet in a quick flurry of activity.

What makes the stories noteworthy is that Luis Colon, the 6′ 10″ Center, Pitt is now pursuing, is also on Everhart’s list. Colon also plays on the Miami Tropics AAU team. He has apparently narrowed his choices to Pitt, Duquesne and Kansas State. Colon takes a trip to K-State today.

K-State has signed two players for the 2006 class, 7-3 high school center Jason Bennett and 6-2 junior college guard Blake Young. The Wildcats have one scholarship to give and are pursuing Luis Colon, a prep forward from Miami, and juco point guard Stefhon Hannah. Colon will visit K-State on Wednesday, while Hannah is scheduled for a trip to Manhattan on May 11.

Couple thoughts on this. Huggins has an assistant he hired away from Charlotte, who used to work for Everhart at Northeastern and is also very tight with Alvarez in Miami. So to some degree, I don’t think Alvarez will be steering Colon to K-State over Duquesne or vice-versa. If anything, it probably keeps things more neutral and helps Pitt’s chances.

Additionally, Pitt offers the opportunity to play for a winning program and Colon would have a chance to compete to become the successor at the starting Center position after Aaron Gray — or even start right away should Gray stay in the draft. No such guarantees on those issues for the other 2 schools.

Now, if the City Game is to have any meaning again, you almost want Duquesne to snatch Colon. In terms of improving Duquesne’s talent level and of course the fact that they would have grabbed a recruit from Pitt. (I’m not actually rooting for this, but it is a subplot to consider.)

There’s 2 weeks in this signing period left. Right now there are 4 scholarships available for next year (Hudson, Kendall, Graves and Gray will all be seniors) plus the one spot Pitt is holding at the moment. If I have the rules correct, there are 13 scholarships available in total, and a school can only give out 7 in a 2-year period. The NCAA recently abolished the 3-4 restriction that prevented teams from giving out more than 4 in any given year. So, Pitt could hold on to the scholarship.

I think they want to use it though, even if it is to take a flyer on a project perhaps. Especially since they could end up with an extra scholarship early should Aaron Gray stay in the draft. There is another chance for signing before the fall semester. In August, there’s another window. Often this is when kids who had academic issues find out if they finally got the minimum qualifications. That is how and when Pitt snagged Antonio Graves.