Miscellaneous Notes

Found a fairly long, but inconsequential interview with Charles Smith by CollegeHoopsNet.com the other day. There's a few good things in here, but like half of it is dedicated to a game-by-game breakdown of international competition. Kind of a slow read. I did find this interesting, however:

JT: In 1987 you said you were "80% sure" that you would turn pro, but you chose to return to school. Why were you going to turn pro, and why did you end up changing your mind?

CS: My academic advisor asked me what I was going to do, and when I told her I was thinking about going pro, she told me to come in and talk to her. We talked about the opportunity to graduate and enjoy my senior year. My major was Communications, and she said it made sense for me to get my degree; she was a deciding factor. It worked out well for me, as I was the 1st one in my family to graduate from college.

Man, I wonder what the chances are now that an academic advisor could talk a kid out of going pro. I'm guessing somewhere in between slim and none.

DeJuan Blair was back in town. And oh, what a difference a year makes:

"My favorite part of my first season was just making it," Blair said. "I didn't think I was going to make it at all. I went through all of that stuff, my name not being called [in the first round]. I had some doubts. I definitely had some doubts."

Last year, those doubts didn't seem to surface - at least in public. I'll admit I was one who thought he would be better served coming back to college and working on a jumpshot I thought he would need against taller players.

In the immortal words of Fred Savage in Wonder Years, wrongo.

Little did I know he would simply outwork everyone on the next level. I've got nothing but praise for him.

And Shady was back in his hometown for the first ever "Shady's Community Day." Far from me to knock a charity event (especially for a worthy cause, which this one is) but if ever something were in need of a name change, this might be it.

Mel Kiper has some sort of top five list for college football juniors (must be an Insider to view) out there. It's a top five list, but not really a top five list. Color me confused. At any rate, he's got several Pitt players in there.

And Brian Bennett at ESPN.com has several updates out there including his Big East rankings for defensive line (Pitt is first) and offensive line (Pitt is 4th). He also gives a video preview of sorts for Pitt in 2010.