Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette J.O. Stright speaks with JOTS alumus Ben McCauley, who stopped by practice this week at the Palumbo Center. McCauley just finished his freshman season at North Carolina State. Click photo for larger image. Related information AAU Basketball: They start as early as age 8 and meet the nation's best Hot JOTS: Noteworthy players from the WPIAL on the Pittsburgh JOTS

Polarizing is the perfect way to describe J.O. Stright, the wealthy local businessman and AAU basketball coach. People either like him or dislike him, it seems. A middle ground is hard to find.

Depending upon who is asked, Stright is either a generous benefactor, a patron saint of youths from low-income families, or a villain out to ruin the University of Pittsburgh men's basketball program by distributing local talent to his friends around the country, most notably Bob Huggins at Kansas State.

Stright's influence over Aliquippa's Herb Pope and Jeannette's Terrelle Pryor, two of the top WPIAL prospects of the past 20 years, has divided the Pitt community. Pope and Pryor verbally committed to Pitt within the past year but both have reopened their recruitment. Stright, a Pitt booster and basketball season ticket holder as well as the head coach of the AAU Pittsburgh JOTS, informed Pitt that Pope and Pryor were no longer committed to the Panthers. Pope and Pryor play for the JOTS, as do most of the other top high school players in the region.

Pitt fans are wary of Stright for reasons other than Pope and Pryor. Of the dozens of Division I basketball players who have played for the JOTS since '86 only one, Yuri Demetris, has played for Pitt.

Stright is aware of how he is viewed by his detractors at Pitt. He claims the criticism is unfounded. He said he simply wants his players to make informed, thought-out decisions before committing to a school.

"I just let it roll off my back," Stright said of the way he is viewed by his peers at Pitt. "You have to let these kids make their own decisions. All I tell kids is that I'll answer any questions they have."

An NCAA spokesperson said anyone can be a booster and AAU coach. The spokesperson said it is up to individual institutions to instruct boosters what is permissible and what is not when it comes to recruiting.

Pitt said any booster is not allowed to give a recruiting presentation to prospective student-athletes. A recruiting presentation is defined as anything that can be perceived as an effort to encourage a person to attend a respective institution.

According to the NCAA, Stright is allowed to give recruiting pitches to schools at which he is not a booster.

Pitt has never reported any violations to the NCAA concerning Stright, perhaps because Stright has sent just one player to Pitt in his 20 years as an AAU coach.

Who is J.O. Stright?

John Orville Stright, 58, is the owner of Mechanical Maintenance Parts Corporation, a steel parts business in Etna. In his spare time, he coaches the JOTS, the most recognized local AAU basketball team.

Stright attended Rutgers University and played basketball with the late Jim Valvano, the former coach at Bucknell and North Carolina State. When Valvano was coaching he would visit Stright when recruiting in Pittsburgh and Stright got introduced to other coaches. Over time, Stright became well-known in the local basketball scene.

By 1986, Stright decided to found the JOTS, when his son, Justin, was coming through the AAU program. He did it with the help of former Pitt stars Charles Smith and Demetrius Gore, who coached the team for a few years when they were playing at Pitt and gave the team credence in the local and national AAU scene. The AAU was quickly becoming the place for college coaches to evaluate players because they wanted to judge players against top-caliber competition. AAU -- Amateur Athletic Union -- is an organization that sanctions tournaments for every sport at an amateur level. Boys' basketball is its lifeblood. Teams range in age level from second grade through senior boys' division (senior year in high school).

Stright's relationship with Pitt soured shortly after Paul Evans became the Panthers' coach in 1986. Players complained to Stright about Evans' abrasiveness and the way he treated them. Stright said he had a falling out with Evans and purposely steered players away from Pitt because of it.

That coincided with the rekindling of an old friendship with Huggins, a childhood chum who started to come to Pittsburgh to see the JOTS play. Stright and Huggins got to know each other in the 1960s when their high school teams scrimmaged each other. Stright played for Hickory High School in Mercer County, Huggins for Indian Valley South High in Gnadenhutten, Ohio.

Since rekindling the friendship they have since become best friends.

Matt Freed, Post-Gazette DeJuan Blair will be a senior at Schenley next year. Click photo for larger image.

Stright drew a lot of attention in 1993 when he helped Danny Fortson, a member of the JOTS, transfer to Shaler. Fortson came from a broken home in Altoona, where his father was in jail and his mother could not adequately care for him.

The PIAA ruled Fortson ineligible for a year because it said he transferred for athletic intent. Fortson played for Shaler his senior year and went on to play for Huggins at Cincinnati, where he developed into an All-American.

There are parallels between Fortson and Pope. Pope's family situation is similar to Fortson's, according to those who know Pope.

In AAU basketball, the line between coach, advisor and father figure is often blurred. Many of the top players in the country, including the nation's top recruit, O.J. Mayo of Cincinnati, have very close relationships with their AAU coaches because of unfortunate domestic situations.

Stright cringed when he was asked what he thought when people referred to him as Pope's advisor. Stright said simply that he preferred to be known as his coach.

"J.O. has helped a lot of kids from the inner city get college looks," said Darelle Porter, the former Pitt star and former head coach at Duquesne. "J.O. does this so he can showcase our best talent. He has no personal agenda."

The arrival of Pope signaled a new era in local AAU basketball. Since Fortson played for the JOTS, the team had not been successful on the national level and only sporadically produced a local player who went on to earn a Division I scholarship.

Stright was set to retire, but the arrival of Pope and Pryor and a handful of other Division I prospects such as Schenley's D.J. Kennedy and DeJuan Blair, also potential Pitt recruiting targets, changed his mind. The JOTS are resurgent on the national AAU scene. The team placed second at the national championships last year and are among the favorites this year when the event is held July 26-Aug. 1 in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

"I really like working with this group," Stright said. "I like this team a lot."

The Pitt divide

Porter is an assistant coach with the JOTS. He also is a fixture at Pitt, where he said he recently spent some of his free time working out Pitt players to help ease the burden on head coach Jamie Dixon, who had been operating without two assistant coaches after Barry Rohrssen and Joe Lombardi accepted college head coaching positions.

Porter has known Stright for 20 years and used to coach the JOTS with Sean Miller, now the coach at Xavier. He said the people associated with Pitt who complain about Stright don't know what they're talking about.

Stright finances the JOTS. Most AAU teams that compete on the national level are sponsored by shoe companies that control which tournaments those teams play in. Stright has eschewed deals with shoe companies so he can pick and choose where to showcase his players.

Other than a few small fund-raisers, he foots the bill for their tournament entry fees, travel, hotel and meals. It's an expensive proposition that costs thousands of dollars a year.

"The money doesn't matter. This is the reason I do this," Stright said Tuesday night, pointing at the Palumbo Center court at Duquesne University where many of his former JOTS players now in college were scrimmaging. "That's why I do this. I do it for all these kids who come back."

Porter said he should be praised for his efforts to sustain the local AAU scene, not dragged through the mud because Pope and Pryor have reopened their recruitment under his advisement.

Many of Stright's critics thought he would be out of the local AAU scene after his son Justin earned a scholarship to Duquesne, but Stright has continued the program for more than a decade since.

"All I hear are Pitt people going crazy because of the Pryor and Pope thing," Porter said. "Of course, they're going to respect what J.O. says because J.O. has been so good to them. Because J.O. told them to keep their options open, now he's a bad guy? It's ridiculous."

Sammy D'Agostino is a longtime Pitt basketball booster and fixture at home and away games. He sits across from Stright at the Petersen Events Center and has known Stright for years.

"He doesn't root for Pitt," D'Agostino said. "He may be a Pitt season ticket holder, but he's not a Pitt supporter. He almost roots for us to lose. He is the quietest when we're doing well. I'll look over at him during a game we're winning and he won't have any expression on his face."

D'Agostino said Stright is performing a disservice to basketball in this region by allowing Pope and Pryor to go back on their original commitments to Pitt.

"Every time we get a good player, he wants to send them away," D'Agostino said. "How is he the most influential person in Western Pennsylvania basketball? The best thing for Western Pennsylvania basketball is to keep kids here. And I'm not just talking about Pitt. That goes for Duquesne, Robert Morris and St. Francis, too. You shouldn't be sending the best players away.

"How can he be given credit for telling a kid to go back on his commitment? What kind of message is that sending? The reason he does it is because he wants to send his kids to Huggins. He wants to send guys to Huggins, when Huggins doesn't graduate anyone and his kids get into trouble. I don't understand how that's good for these players."

Stright spiritedly defended Huggins, who was fired by Cincinnati before last season.

"He had that one thing with the assistant coach about seven years ago and he ended up getting rid of him," Stright said of Huggins. "Let me tell you, there's big difference between what goes on at Cincinnati and what goes on at other places. I'm not going to name names, but I've seen the stuff that goes on at other big-name schools, academics-wise, housing-wise, kids driving around in nice cars. That stuff doesn't go on with Bob Huggins. What you get with Bob Huggins is he's going to work your [rear end] off and make you a better player."

Friends but not teammates?

The chances for a Pope-Pryor tandem at Pitt once seemed destined. Now it seems more distant.

Pope is Western Pennsylvania's top basketball talent since Fortson. He is the No. 10 recruit for the class of 2007, according to Rivals.com, a scouting service for high school football and basketball talent. Pryor is considered a top 10 talent in the class of 2008.

Pryor, a 6-foot-6 small forward, said that while he is friends with Pope, he does not foresee playing with Pope at the same college.

"We're good friends, but I don't really want to go to the same school as him," Pryor said. "Herb's gone, man. He's in his own world sometimes. I like him and everything, but I don't know if I'd go to the same school as him."

Even though Pryor recently reopened his recruitment, he said he likely eventually will sign with the Panthers. "I really didn't want to [reopen the recruitment]. It was my advisors. I'll probably still go there. They just told me to reopen it, to rethink my decision."

When Pryor was asked if Stright was one of his advisors, Pryor said: "He's just my coach. He advises all of us. He'll sit down and talk to me about what I want to do. He tells me I can be really good."

Pryor declined to say who his others advisors were.

The Pitt commitment subject is a touchy one with Pryor and it's clear he has little interest in discussing it. When asked if Stright would have influence on where he went, Pryor said: "Where I go, I'll decide. I don't think I'll really listen to anyone."

Stright, who gave between $5,000 and $10,000 to the Pitt athletic department last fiscal year, said he likes Dixon and praised his coaching record, but when asked about the way Dixon recruits, Stright said: "I like Jamie a lot, but Pitt certainly is not a Pittsburgh team. The JOTS are more of a Pittsburgh team than Pitt."

That was a veiled reference to Pitt's player pipeline to New York City. Stright conceded that the JOTS simply have not had many Big East-caliber players in the past 20 years. He said a few that were did not go to Pitt because Pitt did not prioritize them high in their recruiting efforts. Others simply did not wish to go to Pitt.

Dixon did not respond to an interview request last week.

Pope, a 6-foot-8 forward, said his recruitment is wide open. When asked what the chances were of his attending Pitt, Pope said: "I don't want to comment on that. Everyone has an equal chance of getting me."

Pope has been linked to Kansas State from the moment Huggins was hired this year. Huggins has developed a relationship with Pope over the years through Stright, including some coaching sessions this winter.

Huggins was out of college coaching last season for the first time in decades, and once every month he would come to Pittsburgh for a long weekend at Stright's home on Mount Washington. During those visits, Stright arranged for Huggins to give coaching clinics to JOTS players, including Pope and Pryor, on Saturday mornings at local high school gyms.

Because Huggins was out of coaching, it was legal under NCAA rules.

"We weren't trying to hide anything," Stright said of the clinics.

Pope called Stright "a role model" but he refuted the notion that Stright is in charge of his recruitment.

"He doesn't influence what college I'm going to," Pope said. "He doesn't tell me what college to go to. He'll give advice to me, but not about what college. That's my decision."

Pope said he likely will not sign with a school until next year's spring signing period.

"I just want to see how I do," Pope said. "Get my academics taken care of."

Stright said he tires of the talk that he pushed Pope to reopen his recruitment in an effort to steer him toward Kansas State.

"Herb went to the ABCD Camp last summer and one of the first things he told me when he got back was 'You have to get me out of this Pitt thing. I want to keep my options open. I'm top 10 now,' " Stright said. "Herb is no dummy. I just told him that you have to look at the situation when you come out."

When Stright was asked if Kansas State had the inside track on Pope, he replied: "That's not necessarily true. Will Herb consider Kansas State? Yeah. But Bob has watched him grow up, too. The way people perceive things is really different from the way things really are."