It’s not the same, I know.
Tyrone Haughton signed his letter of intent today, to become a member of the Pitt’s 2014 recruiting class. Haughton is a 6-9 C-F who came from the JUCO ranks.
Originally he was a 3-4 star recruit who signed to play with South Carolina. After Darrin Horn was fired and Frank Martin came in, things changed. Martin had a verbal from another big man at K-State. The player switched to South Carolina. Suddenly, the scholarship numbers weren’t right and it seems that South Carolina suddenly had a problem with Haughton’s grades.
Oh, but SC and Martin didn’t want Haughton to completely go away. Just go to prep school for a year and see how things look next year. Haughton said no thanks and went to junior college. Isn’t recruiting just a lovely thing?
Here’s some of his old scouting report from ESPN.com (Insider subs):
We should all be so fortunate to be this athletic and own the kind of wingspan he does. Haughton throws down what he can in the lane and with his length, extension is easy. Runs the floor and rejects shots. Best attribute is his ability to strong for rebounds and get high on the glass in traffic. Definitely a prospect with long term possibilities.
His biggest issues come on the offensive end, but raw potential is apparent. Tennessee, Memphis and Wichita State also pursued him this past year.
The other news is still unofficial, but Barry Rohrssen is going to Kentucky as an assistant. Again, this was a no-brainer for him.
Chris Dokish has an interesting breakdown on recruiting gets from Dixon and the other assistants in the past 10 plus years. Looking it over the first thing I think is, how is Bill Barton still on the bench? Best guess is that Dixon really doesn’t want to change more than one assistant in a year if he can avoid it. If so, that would bode well for Barton surviving another year. But he better get moving soon. Letting go of Pat Sandle last year should have put him on notice that he has to do something on the recruiting trail.
Again, there are plenty of good assistants available that could do a great job of recruiting. Not simply Tom Herrion. David Cox was at Pitt for a brief spell before going to Georgetown and then Rutgers. He has strong ties in the DC area and is considered an excellent recruiter. Rasheen Davis is another name of note that has been mentioned.
As a side note, Orlando Antigua added his brother, Oliver, as an assistant at USF and made Jerry McCullough Director of Basketball Operations. Quite the Pitt flavor to that staff. I guess two more reasons to pay attention to USF.
Colorado’s head coach still isn’t ready to watch tape of the the game against Pitt.
A look at coaching salaries in the ACC. If you want about Dixon’s contract in terms of money or length, it looks rather reasonable based on production and accomplishments.