Marquette Recruiting, Pittsburgh News, Ray Mernagh, Seton Hall Recruiting, St. John's Recruiting, Syracuse News, Syracuse Recruiting, Villanova News, Villanova Recruiting, West Virginia News

BELLY OF THE BE-AST: MIXTAPE EDITION

by RAY MERNAGH

J. Period is providing the soundtrack via iTunes radio today. Now let’s go deep inside the Belly and see what we can find. Is Dev Ebanks in there waiting to get sprung by Hugs or is this a nightmare in the making for WVU fans? No word from anyone other than Hugs and the last thing he said was that Ebanks was still dealing with whatever personal issue has him out in the first place. West Virginia can be very good without Ebanks but they’re only going to be special with him. As one coach put it last night to me on the phone, “Hugs will make sure that gets straightened out whatever it is,” — I tend to agree with that take.
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Pittsburgh’s game last night against Eastern Kentucky was, like their earlier game against Wofford, a good test for the young Panthers. Ashton Gibbs has regained his stroke and played as well as he has in the young season in leading the way in the 71-60 win. Gibbs hit a couple of catch and shoot three’s early to get his rythym then diversified with some buckets off the bounce as the game went on. One particular move that caught my eye was a step-back jumper from about 13-feet off a hard dribble going towards the rim. It came at a time when Pitt needed a bucket and was aesthetically pleasing as a bonus. These games are different than Pitt’s early-season ones in the past for two reasons: The mid-majors they’re playing are very good (Binghampton aside and they should’ve been before all hell broke loose at Tony Kornheiser’s alma mater) and Pitt is obviously very young. Jamie Dixon spoke about how focusing on one or two specific things leading up to games has shown once his charges hit the floor.

“Before the last game it was ball movement,” said Dixon “and we had 24 assists and then coming into this game it was rebounding, particularly long rebounds and we had Travon (Woodall) get six and Brad (Wanamaker) get 8 and Lamar (Patterson) and Chase (Adams) also came up with some. Lamar played really well I thought off the bench, we kind of had him focus on knowing just a couple of sets and he did a good job.” Dixon raved about EKU’s Justin Stommes.

Stommes, a 6-7 junior hybrid forward with megaskills put 24 on Pitt while shooting 9-14 (3-7 from deep) in 36 minutes. “Stommes is a kid who I’ve just watched get better and better on film,” said Dixon, “you’ll be hearing about him because he’s just a really good player.” Dixon talked about EKU and the challenge th ey presented to Pitt, especially with only a day to prepare.

“They’re just a very hard team to play against because Taylor (Pittsburgh native Josh) and Stommes can shoot it so well as bigs,” said Dixon. “We’ve played really unique teams early here and that’s going to benefit us.”

The Panthers now hit the road to Kansas City to face Wichita State (another really tough mid-major opponent for them) then either Texas or Iowa as the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic concludes.
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Pinkston Update

New Heights AD Kimani Young says Jayvaughn Pinkston still has the same list when I asked if Pinkston had eliminated Tennessee in light of the Tobias Harris commitment or opened things up to more schools. “I think he’s happy with his choices right now and we don’t want to make this thing a circus,” said Young, ” so it’s still his same five for now unless there are scholarship issues. They’re all great places.”

Villanova, St. John’s, Marquette, Seton Hall and Tennessee are the five schools.

Harris Announcement

Tobias Harris looked sharp and took the booing from all the Syracuse fans really well during his televised announcement. What a get for Bruce Pearl and his assistant, Detroit native Tony Jones. It’s like a shot of adrenalin for the Vols. Tobias Harris is a special, special player.

Providence at ‘Bama

Early season test for Providence against an angry ‘Bama bunch that’s coming off a loss to Cornell (one of those losses that will look “better” as the year goes on probably). Greedy Peterson has been a monster on the backboards and the Friar staff would be shocked if he doesn’t lead the Big East in offensive rebounding. “He’s a freak of nature,” said a staff member. A big key for the Friars will be keeping Peterson out of foul trouble. Marshawn Brooks has also been outstanding for the Friars thus far. This game can be seen on Alabama’s website for free.

3PM Must See

The game between Villanova and Dayton has all the makings of an early-season classic in Puerto Rico. These two teams will get into each other defensively, run like there’s free diamonds on each baseline, and possibly land an elbow or two (or three). Could be a great game, so get out of work early if you can.

Tonight at the Garden

Was wondering if Ohio State or UNC would get the upper hand last night. Tonight’s match up of the Orange vs Heels will be fascinating. Look for an all new Tale of the Tape in a few days with this game as the subject matter.

Youtube Clip of the Week

Charlie Coles was asked how he let the game against Kentucky slip away by some hack in Lexington. His response was classic. There might not be a better pure basketball coach in the country by the way.

I’ll have a column this weekend on a Brooklyn, New York hoops junkie now plying his trade in Jackson, Michigan.

Enjoy the hoops now folks!

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