Over the weekend, Trey Zeigler, one of the nation’s most sought-after transfers, announced his intentions to to enroll at Pitt.
Zeigler surprised many across the country when he signed with his dad’s Central Michigan program as a top 75 recruit, but with Ernie’s firing back in March, Trey decided to leave the school. Do you blame him? I sure don’t, and the Zeiglers are hoping that the NCAA won’t, either:Transfers must sit out one season when transferring from one Division I school to another, but Zeigler has applied to the NCAA for a special waiver. He is asking the NCAA to allow him to play next season because he played for his father, Ernie, at Central Michigan, and Ernie was fired last month.
“You hear so many different opinions on it,” said Ernie Zeigler, who was an assistant coach under Ben Howland at Pitt from 1999-2002. “We’re hopeful because of the circumstances that played out with my situation that he was going to be in a peculiar and awkward situation [at Central Michigan]. He’s back home now.”
Zeigler went to a school well below the level that he was getting recruited at because he wanted to play for his dad. That’s something the NCAA should support. They should also support the fact that Trey is not going to want to remain at the university that just gave his father the axe. No one would.
If the NCAA does grant Zeigler this waiver, it would give Pitt one of the best back courts in the Big East as he would team with a healthy Tray Woodall. That’s before you include sophomores-to-be John Johnson and Cameron Wright and incoming freshman James Robinson. Throw in the addition of top ten recruit Steven Adams along a front line that already includes Lamar Patterson, Talib Zanna and Dante Taylor, and Jamie Dixon has the pieces in place to erase the memories of last season’s trip to the CBI.
Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.