Richard Pitino spoke to a media corps even lighter on cameras than usual with the Marlins managerial announcement of Mike Redmond a couple of hours later tractor beaming media to Little Havana.
Much of what Pitino said appeared in The Herald last week or will appear in The Herald Tuesday in our FIU college preview story. He said he and his father, Louisville coach Rick Pitino, actually talk (or text) more now, asking each other how practice is and such. "I think he's like most fathers -- not worried, but he wants to kjnow what's going on with his son, how he's doing, making sure he's checking up on me. Their program has always been my life. And certainly FIU's become almost his life a little bit."
Pitino said about the 30-pound slimmer Joey De La Rosa, who is also down to 11 percent bodyfat from 18 percent, "Thing I love about Joey is he's got heart, he's a dreamer. Joey thinks one day he's going to be playing at the highest highest level. He's going to work extremely hard, listen to everything you say. He's still got a ways to go, but from when I took the job until now, he's improved tremendously."
I'll have another post later from De La Rosa on why he stayed and some of the transfers on why they came to FIU.
The other Sun Belt men's hoop coaches might know the FIU coach's name -- at least his last one -- but they don't know his players. Or, they do and they don't think much of them.
Whichever, FIU was picked last in the Sun Belt's East Division in the preseason coaches poll and had no players on the preseason All-Sun Belt teams.
P'raps his cohorts think Richard Pitino's in this situation...
The Jan. 12 FIU men's and women's basketball doubleheader at Arkansas-Little Rock will be on the Sun Belt Network, starting at 2 p.m.
Junior guard Jerica Coley, predictably, got the Sun Belt's Preseason Player of the Year honor in a conference coaches poll. Coley was an Honorable Mention All-America selection last year.
FIU was picked second behind Middle Tennessee State, which had three preseason First Team selections, in the East Division and got the one first place vote Middle didn't get.
Forward Finda Mansare was named a Second Team All-Sun Belt selection.
This blog will be updated erratically the next few days -- as it has been the last few days -- because of family business. The normal pregame blog, if there is one, for FIU-Arkansas State will be as abbreviated as last week's.
Some Camp Mitch sources confirm the verbal committment of Daquein McNeil, a 6-3 guard out of Baltimore and Vermont Academy. Rivals ranks McNeil at three stars. According to ESPN, FIU beat out Louisville and Oklahoma, among others, for McNeil.
Expect to see De'Andre Jasper on offense this week in addition to kickoff returns. Punt returns? True freshmen often make coaches nervous. With the problems FIU's had putting drama into the punt return, don't expect FIU coaches to feel more secure handing the job over to a kid four months out of high school.
Click the link below to check out highlights of Bradenton Manatee defensive back Willie Smith, who verbally committed last week to FIU. ESPN's and Scout.com have him at two stars. He led Manatee in interceptions last season.
Louisiana-Lafayette opened a 6-point favorite and is up to 6.5 at most sports books.
In answer to your questions about DeMarkus Perkins and James Louis: Perkins has played in each game this season on special teams and taken some defensive snaps.
Louis has off-the-field issues, not all of them have to do with Camp Mitch. Remember what I said on another blog about recruits? You never know what might kneecap their careers.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Expect the FIU-Louisville game on Dec. 19 to be a 7 p.m. game. Television isn't set yet.
Senior goalkeeper Kaitlyn Savage won Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Week after getting her fourth shutout of the season at South Alabama, then making three saves in FIU's 2-1 overtime win at Troy.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
FIU men's basketball's Sunday, Nov. 11 season opener at Boston College will be get the ESPN3 treatment, at 2 p.m.
And that's all I'm going to say about that for a while.
DIAMOND DINNER
The big fundraiser for baseball and softball snagged Milwaukee Brewers manager Ron Roenicke to be guest speaker at the Feb. 9 event.
If you want to get a table, get a ticket, get something to do with the Diamond Dinner, call the Panther Club's Antoni Fernandez, 305-348-4697.
A day off from Camp Mitch. I'll be back out there tomorrow, scheduled to be guest on The Andy Slater Show, 640AM's noon to 3 p.m. programming. The station will be live from FIU throughout Friday.
A quick thought before I get to the women's basketball schedule that somehow wound up in my spam filter yesterday (as did the men's, for some reason): overall, if you're kvetching about the offense, go sit on the bench with the kid crying over his iPod because he doesn't have the latest Temple Run.
First game against Duke, 14 points (with two blown field goals) and almost 300 yards of offense before the special teams and defense helped goose Duke to a 30-point lead one drive into the second half. Game over.
What, you're not happy they ran off a bunch of three-and-outs on Akron after the first two drives? They still wound up with 14 points by halftime, 31 for the game. Most teams get stopped once in a while or have stretches they look like Boss Hogg and Roscoe P. Coltrane chasing them Dukes, them Dukes. I've seen FIU's offensive two-deep. Nowhere did I see Mike Rozier, Irving Fryer, Turner Gill and Dean Steinkuhler.
The offense demonstrated what happens when you get bad execution of a poor game plan in the first half against UCF. When they got back to themselves in the second half, they rolled to three touchdowns. Here's the offense In FIU's six halves of football this season: one bad half, one half you can't grade because the rest of the team let the game get out of hand and four halves of production most college coaches working east of the Rockies would happily accept.
FIU's passing game doesn't have room for improvement, it's got a concert hall. They aren't as explosive as the last two years. Then again, they came into the season with a quarterback who had played in three college games and without T.Y. Hilton. Is either development a surprise?
The offense is what was expected. It's the defense and the special teams, those George Allen standbys, that have dropped the biggest CLUNK during the first three games and need to get it together before Louisville drops some embarrassment on FIU.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Highlights of the women's basketball schedule:
At The Branch: North Florida, Nov. 11 (season opener); Thanksgiving Classic vs Iowa, with LSU and West Virginia in the other game, Nov. 23-25 (they were all good last year); Sun & Fun Classic with Georgia Tech, Quinnipac and Northeastern (Tech made the NCAA Sweet Sixteen last year); FAU, Feb. 6.
Away from The Branch: Florida Gulf Coast, Nov. 14 (relatively close); Western Kentucky, Nov. 19 (first conference game); FAU, Mar. 2 (season closer and it's FAU).
Highlights from the men's basketball schedule released this afternoon:
Home games you might find interesting: Stephen F. Austin (first home game), Nov. 17; Arkansas State (first Sun Belt game), Nov. 29; Florida A&M, Jan. 2; Bethune-Cookman, Jan. 7; FAU, Feb. 7
Road games you might find interesting: Boston College (season opener), Nov. 11; Florida Gulf Coast (it's close), Dec. 13; Louisville (The Oedipus Shootout, Pitino vs. Pitino), Dec. 19; FAU, Mar. 2.
So, there you go. Oh, as an observation, one that could be made by anyone seeing Joey De La Rosa around campus, he's slimmed down quite a bit. It'll be interesting to see how much nimbler he is without the bulk.
Upon my official return today from vacation, it's time to start work on special section stuff and prepare for the daily practice grind, which begins at 8 a.m. Friday at FIU Stadium. Unofficially, I started working on section stuff Saturday night with the game-by-game preseason prediction. Last season, I was one game off on the record, predicting 9-3 (6-2) before an 8-4 (5-3) season, but correctly nailing the Louisville upset.
This season, the game-by-game came out 10-2. What say you all out there in the webworld?
Some video of Tampa Bay Tech's Hakim Henderson. FIU's had some success recruiting there and can always use more tight ends who can create matchup problems, especially in the red zone.
For those who feel I should've updated the blog more from my family vacation than each of the first three days -- bringing it at that point to five blog updates in the last six family vacation days, going back to the Isiah Thomas firing -- to paraphrase Eddie imitating Richard, have a Coke and a smile.
I didn't feel it was worth breaking from my Parkinson's-limited father-in-law's first day at the beach in years -- and on his 86th birthday -- to blog about 6-3 guard Dennis Mavin announcing via Twitter that he's transferring to FIU from FAU (he'll have to sit out this season). Nor did I think my daughter, niece and nephew needed to be told "idle for a bit" while I blogged about the swimming and diving team's 3.39 spring GPA earning them a Scholar All-America honor by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America. Nice job by the water women, though.
By APR, FIU's female student-athletes found the time to address both sides of that hyphenated term in 2010-11: tennis, softball, golf and basketball each had an APR of 1,000 for that academic year. Tennis had a 1,000 multiyear APR, of course.
Pending both Pitinos stay where they are, traditional college basketball power Louisville (coached by Rick Pitino) and FIU (coached by Richard Pitino, Jr.) will face each other once each of the next three seasons.
FIU goes to Louisville the first two seasons, including Dec. 19 this year. Louisville, a Final Four team in 2011-12, comes to FIU in 2014-15.
This comes a day after Louisville announced 6-7 forward Rakeem Buckles, who the Cardinals got out of Pace High after an excellent high school career under current FIU assistant coach Mark Lieberman, would be transferring to FIU. Buckles suffered a second torn ACL this past season so he'll be recovering during most of the season he'd be sitting out as a transfer anyway.
The NCAA released its overall reports on four-year Academic Progress Rates for scholarship athletes on Wednesday. I was on furlough -- day off, no pay, no contact allowed with any parts of The Herald -- on Wednesday. So, I'm blogging from the balcony about this stuff today.
Overall, FIU showed well, especially the women's teams. The women's tennis team, recognized by the NCAA for its excellence (see a few posts ago), led the way with a 1,000 APR and the lowest women's team, cross country, rolled in with a 958. That beat the best men's team, baseball, which pitched a 952. All programs have their full complement of scholarships.
The only deficient FIU team was men's basketball: 909, well below the target 925.
It gets worse. That number, while lowest among FIU's athletic programs, isn't horrid when looked at the previous four-year totals, going backwards chronologically: 910, 886, 874, 854, 870. Still, the 909, being below 925, might earn FIU some finger-wagging and a slap from the NCAA.
But the single-year APR, according to college academics sources, was 833 in 2010-11. That followed a single-year APR for 2009-10 of 900, according to Isiah Thomas' 2011 yearly evaluation (there's always a year lag in APR reporting to account for summer classes, etc.). And that could earn a little more nasty attention from the four-letter organization in downtown Indianapolis, especially for a school that doesn't bring much history or cash.
833, eight wins in one year, 26 wins over three years...there you go.
FOOTBALL RECRUITING
Also, Wednesday, Collins Hill (Ga.) quarterback Brett Sheehan, who threw to FIU freshman wide receiver Nick England often enough for England to make honorable mention All-State, announced a verbal commitment to FIU for 2013.
560WQAM was the only bidder on this season's radio rights for FIU football. The proposal was opened Thursday afternoon after being postponed from April an again from last week. It's a bid for this season with a school renewal option for two years.
Accepting whatever QAM bid would put FIU on an actual sports radio station. But how often? QAM has University of Miami football and, in any case of overlap, good business says FIU's the one getting lateraled to some sister station. So if UM's season opener, against Boston College 3:30 Sept. 1 runs long, FIU kicks off its season against Duke at 7 p.m. somewhere else.
Central Florida just announced the Sept. 15 game against FIU, UCF's home opener, will kick off at noon. The game will be televised regionally on Comcast Sports Southeast. That kickoff hinders those considering driving up the day of the game and/or those considering actually enjoying Friday night in either Orlando (heh) or South Florida. It also would hinder QAM -- UM plays Bethune-Cookman at noon.
There's potential conflicts on the other three September Saturdays and Oct. 20 (FIU at Troy, 3:30 kick, UM Homecoming against Florida State, kickoff still not set).That's half of FIU's season.
Then again, nobody else bid on the rights and it's getting awfully late in the game to reopen the process for anybody to bid with an eye toward profitability.
WOMEN'S TENNIS
FIU's women's tennis team got big ups from the NCAA for having an Academic Progress Rate in the top 10 percent of all college-affiliated sports teams from 2007-11. Salut to the women of those four academic years: Liset Brito, Priscilla Castillo, Marijana Cutuk, Maria Dolores Pazo, Egle Petrauskaite, Maria Spenceley, Alonya Tsutskova, Maria Jose Vallaciani, Mariana Muci Torres, Magali Holt, Christine Seredni, Giulietta Boha, Lisa Johnson and Rita Maisak.
Now, I'm the last one to frown on academic achievement, especially if it's connected to athletics. Add up the time I've spent railing about the hypocrisy and fraud of college sports as it relates to the classroom and it'll make Law & Order's run look like a miniseries.
Looking over the rosters of the tennis team for the relevant academic years we find (in chronological order) two Americans of eight players, four from players Eastern Europe; two Americans of six players, one player from Eastern Europe; three Americans of eight players, one player from Eastern Europe; three Americans of seven players, two players from Eastern Europe.
So, the FIU team that's nationally recognized for classroom work has a high percentage of players hailing from other countries, a few of which don't even use the same alphabet. And, they're working in a foreign country and culture, an ocean and half a continent away from familial support.
Fist pumps, high fives, low fives, chest bumps, butt bumps and dap for them. But what's that say about the student-athletes (or athlete-students, as the case may be) on FIU's teams that are stocked with a greater portion of Americans?
Before you say it's a factor of tennis being played by those in the upper middle to upper economic classes, which tend to have better educated parents that bring their kids up in better school systems, it's not necessarily that way in other countries. One of the reason Europeans dominate tennis now is it's been a sport of the masses over there for at least a generation.
So, is it a commentary on the time they have to devote to the books, their use of that time or their want-to when it comes to higher education? Or, is it that on larger teams, the roster dips more into the hoi polloi of high school students, thus exposing the weaknesses of our educational system, especially in this state?
Just wondering...
MEN'S BASKETBALL
DeJuan Wright, now finishing up his degree during the summer sessions, will make the NBA workout rounds, then possibly head to hoop in France if he doesn't catch on over here.
On break from Dolphinland and the Dolphins in Depth blog...
Turns out the answer to the question I asked in a post last week is "Kimani Young." Young comes from Queens, worked at New Heights in the Bronx and at St. John's. In summary: FIU gets a foot in the New York area well-versed in that area's basketball scene.
Don't be surprised if that's reflected in Richard Pitino's first two recruiting classes while he builds trust down here.
Note I couldn't bring you yesterday because it was a Furlough Friday...
The men's basketball home opener is still up in the air, but FIU's non-conference road schedule will include trips to Louisville, Boston College, Florida Gulf Coast, Stetson and Coastal Carolina.
The only question that remains about Richard Pitino's men's basketball coaching staff is who the African-American assistant will be.
Pitino's already hired former longtime Pace High coach Mark Lieberman and Mike Balado of FIU, UM and Miami-Dade Community College. But trying to recruit in basketball without a black coach is like going into a WWF Battle Royale and tossing your competitors all your foreign objects. It'll be used against you at every turn, in ways you never expect. Then, there's the whole can-relate-to-the-player thing.
Barry University assistant coach Michael Bradley, who knows the South Florida recruiting scene well, is a possibility. And Bradley certainly would strengthen FIU's pull in South Florida, which has always been wispy at best.
Expect that decision before summer basketball practices start.
FOOTBALL RECRUITING
FIU offered defensive end Tevin Jones of Locust Grove (Ga.) Luella High.
Georgia's like Louisiana, where FIU's gotten some mid-level ranked talent away from the local schools: not densely populated, but what there is runs dense with good players, enough to feed many programs. Don't be surprised if FIU goes Harlan County there as well as Louisiana.
As expected, we'll get a psychologist's dream, a Freud Shootout (or is it Oedipus Throwdown) this season in men's basketball: son Richard Pitino, Jr.'s FIU team trying to slay father Rick Pitino's Louisville bunch.
But don't be surprised if it's not just a one-shot deal, but a home-and-home series lasting at least the first two years of The Pitino Era at FIU.
FOOTBALL
Season tickets go on sale for men's football at midnight tonight at http://www.fiusports.com.The first 500 new season ticket buyers who buy two tickets in the sideline sections get a limited edition replica of Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium. Limit one replica per account.
I should've blog posted about T.Y. Hilton's 4-year deal when I found out about it Thursday evening. But, I lollygagged a bit, then fell asleep watching the Thunder swat the Spurs and, well...
Good for T.Y.
GOLF OUTING
Friday's FIU Athletics Golf Outing on Doral's Red Course got drenched. So you know the names that follow are almost as serious about their golf as Bishop Pickering.
Andrew Vargas, Eric Kaplin and Juan Cueto shot a 52 in the scramble scoring. Six shots back were the foursomes, Tom Shull, Brad Randall, Blake St. Clair and Chuck Beurman; and Frank Gonzalez, Daniel Chavez, Carlos Arboleda and Robert Shafer.
FIU officially announced the signings of forward Jerome Frink, guard Malik Smith and center Ivan Jurkovic Wednesday.
Frink and Smith were covered in a previous post on this blog. Jurkovic is a 7-0, 265-pound hoops nomad from Croatia. He did a season at Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Missouri ("SAL-LOOT!"), then one season at Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas. During the latter season, he averaged 4.9 points and 3.2 rebounds per game.
BASEBALL
Outfielder Pablo Bermudez got named National Hitter of the Week by CollegeBaseballInsider.com after hitting .588 last week with two homers and 7 RBI.
A few things from the perusal of Isiah Thomas' file and Richard Pitino's contract for the above story:
1. Under "Termination by University for Just Cause" there are nine ways this can happen that are spelled out in Thomas' contract. There are 19 in Pitino's. The phrase "win-loss record is not considered "just cause"" appears in subsection (a) of Thomas' deal. It doesn't appear at all in Pitino's, although his (a) is otherwise identical to Thomas': "failure to perform Head Basketball Coach's duties as set forth in this Agreement or refusal or unwillingness to perform such duties as set forth in this Agreement."
2. The performance bonuses show Thomas' people knew they were negotiating from strength. Pitino gets only $10,000 for winning the conference tournament or getting an at-large NCAA bid while Thomas would've gotten $20,000. Conference Coach of the Year and each NCAA round bonuses each had the same 10-20 disparity. Thomas also would've gotten $10,000 for each postseeason NIT win. Pitino gets a handshake and another road trip. But Pitino does get $100,000 should FIU make the Final Four and $250,000 for winning the national title. Thomas got nothing for the Final Four and $100,000 for winning the title. Pitino gets roster bonuses. Thomas didn't.
3. In an amazing coincidence, FIU's individual game ticket sales were identical in 2009-10 and 2010-11. According to sales reports in Thomas' file (he got half the ticket revenue over $1,000), in each season, FIU sold 16 of the $60 Floor Seats; 846 of the $10 reserved seats; 353 of the Upper Bowl Adult tickets; and 187 of the $5 Upper Bowl Junior or Senior tickets. They also sold 36 season tickets for the Floor Seats each season and 65 Family Plan season tickets.
Most remarkable numeric coincidence since Rams NFL title game appearances after the 1951, 1979 and 1999 seasons all ended with the NFL's No. 1 offense getting the winning touchdown on a 73-yard pass. Or Henry Aaron, No. 44, hitting his 715th career home run in the fourth inning of the fourth game of the 1974 season, in the fourth month of the year, in a game that had seen four runs scored already.
VOLLEYBALL
The volleyball team announced four signees Tuesday.
Lucia Castro, 6-1, is a member of Puerto Rico's National Team
Maryna Samoday, a 6-1 outside hitter from the Ukraine by way of Seminole State College, will play both regular and sand volleyball.
Kimberly Smith, a 6-3 middle blocker from Zionsville, Indiana (a now-bustling suburb just on the other side of the northern county line from Indianapolis), spent two seasons at Robert Morris University-Illinois. Last season, she was in the NAIA's top 35 in hitting percentage, blocks and blocks per game.
Brittany Spencer, a 6-2 middle blocker, did one year at Miami-Dade and comes from Chesterfield, Virginia.
FOOTBALL
A Hallandale High coach announced that FIU offered linebacker Jeremy Derrick Tuesday. An FIU coach also was at Tallahassee Godby High visiting defensive back Lester Thomas and wide receiver Earl Calloway.
The Sun Belt announced the addition of Texas State for July 1, 2013 Wednesday. That's the same date FIU and North Texas are expected to become Conference USA members.
"If we were to lose two current members, replacing them with Georgia State and Texas State gets us back to 10 football schools with Arkansas-Little Rock as a non-football member," Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson said in a Wednesday afternoon conference call. "The goal is to get to 12 members to create some geographical efficiency with members in the West vs. the East."
Benson said they hadn't been notified by North Texas or FIU that they were leaving. That's true -- officially. While all the papers haven't been signed, know that FIU is engaged to be engaged to C-USA (sort of like Otter said he was to the late Fawn Liebowitz).
In contrast to his predecessor, Wright Waters, Benson said they didn't want to get to 12 schools just for a football championship game and wasn't sure such an event was in the Sun Belt's best interest. Benson said the Sun Belt would search for FBS schools within the Sun Belt's "geographic footprint" and had been confacted by four to six FCS (what we used to call Division I-AA) schools within that footprint. If they wanted a large Florida market, they could look at Jacksonville.
Anyway, FIU's got one more season in The Belt before doing a little George-and-Weezy to C-USA. Count those players on the field or court...
MEN'S BASKETBALL
The school announced the signing of guard Tymell Murphy out of Brooklyn by way of South Plains College and Mohawk Valley Community College. South Plains won the NJCAA championship this season. Murphy averaged 9.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.6 blocks. He shot 57 percent from the field, 43 percent from three-point range and 71 percent from the line.
The nomadic Murphy averaged 16.6 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.3 steals per game for Mohawk Valley in 2010-11. He shot 52 percent from the field, 33 percent from beyond the arc and 60 percent from the line.
FOOTBALL
FIU freshman-to-be Dieugot Joseph, a 6-6 defensive end, noted on Twitter that the move to Conference USA means he'll be playing games against his brother, 6-3, 289-pound Marshall freshman offensive lineman Josue Joseph.
The Brothers Joseph recalls music from other brothers J...
Freshman Gilles Dierickx, the 7-0 Belgian-by-way-of-LA center, got his partial scholarship release and will leave FIU. So will sophomore forward Dominique Ferguson, who never got his scholarship release and will declare for the NBA Draft.
Ferguson said even if he isn't drafted -- the likely result, in my opinion, after what even his supporters on the coaching staff felt was a disappointing season -- he believes he can find a place to play for pay overseas. He insisted he wants to finish school. He told the committee reviewing his scholarship release rejection he wanted to go to a smaller school where he could get more one-on-one tutoring.
Meanwhile, FIU recently was checking out Boca Ciega High guard Dallas Moore and Coral Springs Christian 6-7 forward Nura Zanna recently, both class of 2013.
