This is always a dicey time. With the basketball season coming up in the Fall, it's the time of year to start worrying about compliance and making sure all players are eligible. No one wants to think about it, but it's a factor nonetheless. We should find out by Monday if all of Pitt's players are eligible.
That's because that is the day the Greentree Summer League kicks off and all of the freshman are scheduled to play in it. However, if someone is ineligible, they can't participate.
Head coach Jamie Dixon doesn't sound too concerned, though.
Dixon doesn't think there will be any issues:
McDonald's All-American Khem Birch and Pitt's three other freshmen recruits are scheduled to play in the Pittsburgh Basketball Club Pro-Am that begins Monday night at the Greentree Sportsplex in Green Tree.
If there are any issues with the NCAA Clearinghouse, they will be not be able to enroll in summer school or play in the summer league, but coach Jamie Dixon is hopeful that all four will be eligible and will participate in games Monday.
"We think everything is fine," Dixon said. "We don't anticipate any problems."
Birch is the big fish (he's due in town on Sunday, by the way), obviously, and while Malcolm Gilbert could see time this season, the Johnsons (Durand and John) may be headed for redshirts. If either of the latter two are ineligible, it wouldn't necessarily throw a monkey wrench in Pitt's 2011-12 season, but if Birch or Gilbert is ...
Well, let's just say that wouldn't be a good thing.
