While incoming freshman point guard Isaiah Epps isn't the key to Pitt's 2010-11 basketball season, it's still a mild relief to know that he has qualified academically.  And even though Epps didn't participate in the famed Greentree Summer League games or in the scrimmages in Ireland, he doesn't feel like he missed all that much:

Epps might not see it as a big deal, and it really isn't. But I'd beg to differ on his stance that says he didn't miss that much. While Epps was working on his academic situation, fellow incoming freshmen J.J. Moore and Cameron Wright were suiting up against other college and professional players. Both participated in about a dozen games and several practices - probably somewhere around the equivalent of about 1/2 of a full season's worth of games (minus practice time). To say that's not missing much is a little off point.

Will it matter in the long run? Not likely. But the fact that he's been out of the loop for so long could lead to a redshirt, something that was in the article and something I mentioned before as a possibility.  When he first committed, he was so highly touted, that a redshirt would have seemed unlikely.  But the fact is that Pitt can very easily go in that direction. They can either start Gibbs at PG and use Wright as a backup or start Woodall and use Gibbs as a backup. I think the latter is probably more likely. Based on the reports in the scrimmages, it seemed Wright had a good deal of work to do.

Epps could still surprise and do enough to get in the rotation, but it will take a lot of catching up.