On the front page of PittsburghPanthers.com is a link to the 2007 Football Commercial and in it we see what look like the jerseys we’ll be wearing this year. The following are screen shots from that commercial.

A view of the front with the block PITT letters bigger than I ever would have imagined, which I sort of like.

A view of the jersey front from farther back.

Helmets look to be the same as last year. The TV numbers are moved from the top of the shoulder to the side.

Numbers also look like the same as last year. Interesting to note that there are no names on the back. I’m pretty sure we’ll see them there by September 1, though. There was never any talk of names being removed and it’s possible that there simply wasn’t enough time to put names on between getting the jerseys and shooting the commercial.

Again, I’ve been told they would be officially unveiled on August 9th.

Haven’t been home much the past week or two. Went down to Atlanta last week for the USA Volleyball Junior Olympics. Getting recruited by colleges for sports (although smaller [D-III] schools in my own personal case) is quite an experience. Today I just got back from Penn State (gasp!) for another volleyball trip. I spent enough time in Happy Valley to last me until I die. Talk about always looking for something to do, you talk about State College. No wonder they can attract 105,000 a few Saturdays every year for a football game.

Thankfully I didn’t miss anything too important, but we’re beginning to see the light at the end of the offseason tunnel. There are some points that need to be mentioned though.

Firstly, on tonight’s Sportscenter they did a segment on college football. The question: “Which team will have true freshmen making an impact?” The answer: your Pittsburgh Panthers. Most notably the fact that Pat Bostick could be our starting QB and that Dave Wannstedt feels comfortable starting a freshman in the Big East, even more so than he did starting a rookie in his NFL coaching days. Add in McCoy and a handful of others and we’re going to have a solid number of freshmen seeing action.

Wannstedt might have a player leaving him scholarship behind. Rumor has it that tight end Kyle Hubbard wants released from his scholarship and Wanny will allow it. Hubbard is a 3 star recruit from Lakewood, OH.

More football — the Washington Redskins signed H.B. Blades, their 4th 6th round pick. He’ll be set to go for training camp which begin next week. Football season is quickly approaching…

And if you want some very detailed coverage of some summer league hoops, read the comments posted by Stuart here.

The impact for Panther Digest, remains to be seen.

I’m kind of surprised about this. When Fox Interactive Media (FIM) bought Scout.com nearly 2 years ago, I thought it meant Fox was gearing up for more competition with ESPN across platforms on college sports. With deep pockets behind them, they seemed more stable. Especially as Rivals.com seemed to be looking for a buyer or their own media support.

Instead, it seems that things have gotten very strained. Scout.com has suffered a series of embarrassing losses of affiliates in the last couple of weeks and months. Ohio State’s affiliate left, as did Florida, and then USC. Today, Oklahoma left. These are some of the biggest of the fanbases and subscriber groups. Gone.

You can likely add Texas to that list real soon. The Texas, OSU, Oklahoma and Stanford sites filed a suit against Scout.com and FIM (PDF) in May seeking class action status over the accounting and financial practices.

So the problems at Scout.com is not about a new corporate attitude that stifled the freedom and creativity of the publishers, editors and writers of the sites. It’s about the  money. It’s always about the money.

Looking over the suit, the team sites that will most likely be interested in joining and/or head for independent status will be the big sites. Sites that have their own magazine (ex, Michigan, Nebraska, Penn St. and Alabama), since there are some heavy allegations of big accounting irregularities with the allocation between magazine and site.

Scout.com has the financial support to fight and perhaps even successfully defend the lawsuit. The problem is that they will still lose some of their biggest network affiliates. Even as they build new affiliates in their place, they will face increased competition.

More changes a-coming.

We just found a replacement for Mike Rice leaving for Robert Morris and we could be losing our Director of Basketball Operations to a Big East team we know well enough.

The musical chairs at the University of Pittsburgh basketball program may not be done yet. According to a source close to the situation, Pitt’s Director of Basketball Operations, David Cox, is interviewing today for a position with Georgetown.

If Cox leaves, he would be the second member of the staff to leave in the past month, joining Mike Rice, who left to become the head coach at Robert Morris. Like Rice, Cox has only been with the program for a year.

Cox is a native of Washington, DC, and a former coach for the vaunted AAU team, DC Assault. It was those connections that led Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon to hire Cox last year and is also why he is coveted by Georgetown.

You might recall we just hired Cox last July and that he knows what he’s doing down in the DC area. Since Georgetown has been able to retain the local guys so well down there in the short time Cox has been on the job, we haven’t made any pickups but there is at least one player (who would be in the class of 2009) that likes Pitt because of Cox. If Cox goes to the Hoyas, there is no doubt the players will stay close to home.

The article is by Chris Dokish of Pittsburgh Sports Report (via PSI) and he also notes that if Cox is to leave, one possibility to replace him is Brandin Knight.

Obviously no one wants to have their coaches leaving (and remember this is not a done deal yet) but that’s the territory that comes with a very good program lead by great coaches. Howland and Dixon have built a program where good coaches are going to come and go for other (and usually better jobs) quickly.

As previously documented, Danny Hurley declined to interview for the vacant Pitt assistant gig last year. He cited family/lifestyle issues. Looks like, with a second chance at the gig he is reconsidering Hurley has actually interviewed with Coach Dixon for the job (via Big East Basketball Blog).

Hurley, the son of future Hall of Famer Bob Hurley of St. Anthony’s HS in Jersey City, has transformed the Newark, N.J. prep school into a national power and has a blue chip junior in 6-8 center Samardo Samuels, who is a Top 25 prospect nationally.

Samardo Samuels caught a lot of coaches attention, and is a 5-star blue-chipper. Rivals.com lists him as #7 overall and the #3 power forward prospect. Scout.com has Samuels as the #1 Center prospect and #5 overall. While he wouldn’t be a lock to bring Samuels with him, it sure would vault Pitt into the lead for his services.

Pitt has one scholarship open for the 2008 season (barring a transfer). Pitt is also waiting on 5-star guard Power Forward Eloy Vargas out of Miami. How’s that for a choice?

They keep throwing out names, and I’ll keep looking for a little more information about the possibilities. Here’s another bit of information.

Former College of Charleston coach Tommy Herrion and St. Benedict’s (N.J.) coach Danny Hurley appear to be the front-runners for Jamie Dixon’s most recent opening at Pittsburgh.

Dixon lost two assistants a year ago and one this year. Two other coaches who are under consideration are Providence assistant Steve Demeo and South Carolina assistant Ken Potosnak, who hails from Pennsylvania.

Steve DeMeo is considered a very good recruiter for Tim Welsh in the NY area. He’s credited with getting Ryan Gomes, Geoff McDermott and Sharaud Curry. He’s been an assistant for Welsh for 9 years, going back to the Iona days. DeMeo was also in the running for the Iona job this past spring that went to Kevin Willard. I’m really not sure what he would be bringing to Pitt from the recruiting standpoint since Orlando Antigua is supposed to be working the NYC area. Seems like it would be a lot of overlap.

As for Ken Potosnak, yes he is from New Kensington, but his recruiting connections are all elsewhere. He went to school in Virginia and helps run a basketball camp in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with Georgia and more Southern recruiting connections, he has developed a reputation as something of an international recruiter. He has gone on international coaching clinics to Spain, Greece, Turkey and China. It may be a coincidence, but South Carolina’s recruiting has improved since Potosnak joined the Gamecocks in 2005. Before that, he had been an assistant at Furman.

Obviously at this point, there is a real issue of separating rumor and speculation from what is actually happening. What’s worth noting is that Potosnak and previously mentioned Scott Rigot are both assistants with reputations for being able to recruit internationally.

I would have to think Herrion or Hurley still make the most sense among the 6 rumored candidates at this point.

Now that Mike Rice, Jr. is heading out to Robert Morris, Coach Dixon has a plum and crucial assistant coach position to fill. Big East Basketball blog suggests that a couple of the runner-ups to get the RMU job might be considered for the Pitt assistant job: former Kentucky assistant Scott Rigot and Baylor assistant Matt Driscoll.

Rigot, you may recall, was a name being considered last year. Scott Rigot is from Bethel Park — the Pittsburgh area connection that many seem to love — and he was an assistant at Hawaii — where Jamie Dixon was once an assistant. Rigot apparently was not beloved by Kentucky fans who did not seem to think highly of his recruiting skills or thought they weren’t used well — even if no one was sure why he was disliked. He was a graduate assistant at South Carolina under Tubby Smith which apparently helped him land the job at Kentucky. He was also rumored to be one of the staff members who was going to be let go last year and was — according to many rumors — supposed to be one of the reasons Tubby Smith left for Minnesota (the AD wanted a major staff shake-up to improve recruiting which Smith was resisting).

Aside from his local ties and possible ties to Dixon by way of Hawaii, I’m not sure what he would bring to Pitt for recruiting:

Despite a host of message board “insiders” posting how Rigot bungled a recruiting trip here or there, there is no actual proof other than the fact that UK whiffed on a names last fall. That said, Rigot was supposedly brought on board for his skills with getting Juco and Euro players. Apparently, those skills were either oversold or underdeveloped. What Rigot does bring to the table, the average fan cannot truly know, despite the volume of Cats Pause readers who claim to.

So we’ll have to see about that.

As for Driscoll, went to Northgate High, got his degree at Slippery Rock, was a head coach at LaRoche College (Div. III) for a few years before being an assistant under Larry Shyatt at Clemson. He is the top assistant for Scott Drew (even filling in  on a night after Drew had an emergency appendectomy). Baylor fans seem to like the guy. Driscoll has a good rep in recruiting nationally. It makes him seem like the more appealing candidate.

The question would be, does he want to leave Baylor for another assistant job? Especially now. Baylor is on the verge of coming off all the NCAA restrictions, and the Bears have reportedly done well in the last couple years in recruiting. If Baylor finally starts putting it together it would be a heck of a rebuilding job and make Driscoll a hot candidate.

Thank goodness for blind speculation.

About a year and a-half ago, Scout.com was bought by Fox Interactive Media. Now it looks like Rivals.com might be absorbed by Yahoo!. Can’t say I’m shocked by this — well maybe a little by the potential buyer. Rivals.com was doing okay with the subscriptions and as a content supplier to various sports media groups, but they needed someone with deeper pockets behind them with Scout.com, CBS/CSTV/MaxPreps.com and ESPN/Scouts, Inc all in very solid financial positions.

I’m not particularly wild about Dick Groat doing color analysis for Pitt basketball, as he seems at least half-a-step behind on things. Still, congrats on getting into the college basketball hall of fame and I did find his Q&A interesting.

Q: How do you think Pitt senior center Aaron Gray will fare at the next level?

A: Knowing the kind of person he is, I think he will fare well. For no other reason than what he doesn’t do well, he will work and improve and make himself better.

Q: What are your thoughts about Bob Huggins coming to West Virginia?

A: He’s notorious. He gets away with it. The guy is a good coach, and he’s had great success. But he will bring anybody in and do any way to bring a recruit in. I just think there’s a better way to do things. It puts pressure on everybody in the Big East.

Heh.

This may be one of the silliest in a while. The ongoing mess at Arkansas. The number of dominoes falling over for various schools with coach poaching. Now Kentucky fills it’s spot with Gillispie leaving Texas A&M for Kentucky (I called that one a week ago). Andy Katz notes the names initially being bandied about in College Station (Insider subs).

The names already being tossed about in College Station: Pitt’s Jamie Dixon (who is now entrenched in the Steel City but did play in Texas at TCU), Oral Roberts’ Scott Sutton and Nevada’s Mark Fox.

I’m not taking this seriously. This is just the idle list period. Cast eyes about for potential lateral move coaches or up-and-comers with some/any sort of geographic connection and then put their name on a list. Hell, for whatever reason, Dixon’s name was mentioned with regards to the Arkansas job.

I guess, though, from a historic perspective there’s some natural wariness when Texas A&M casts its eye towards a Pitt coach.

The whole meme, by the way, about Pitt needing better players has now gone beyond conventional wisdom. Smizik is now on board with it. I’m really not sure what the point of his column was. This was clearly a filler column as he needs to wait a bit longer to start complaining about the Pirates.

UPDATE: It wasn’t just Katz tossing out the name.  Earlier that day, a columnist in Texas had also made reference to at least some passing interest in Dixon.

I repeat, this is the fun part for the media. Some of it is  trying to get some inside sources to give something useful, but it’s really too early for anything serious. What they are doing are trying to make some reasonable guesses as to who would be on the list and why.