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Bayonne, N.J, guard is eligible this season

Tuesday, July 24, 2001

By Phil Axelrod, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Pitt basketball coach Ben Howland has signed Tony Tate, a 6-foot point guard from New Jersey who will be eligible this season.

Tate, who averaged 19 points as a senior at Marist High School in Bayonne, will receive a scholarship when he enrolls this fall.

A number of schools, including Maryland, Tennessee, Providence and Georgia Tech, displayed a lot of interest in Tate until he was expelled from school for fighting shortly after the end of last season. He received his diploma at St. Patrick's High in Elizabeth, N.J.

He spent his first two years of high school at St. Anthony's High in Jersey City before transferring to Marist. He started as a freshman and sophomore at St. Anthony's, but he sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in his first game at Marist and missed his junior season after undergoing surgery.

Tate will be the only incoming freshman eligible to play for Pitt next season. Playmaker Carl Krauser, who signed in November, will be a partial qualifier under NCAA academic standards and will be allowed to practice and travel with the Panthers but won't play in games. He will have at least three seasons of eligibility and could receive a fourth if he earns an undergraduate degree in four years.

The arrival of Tate will give Pitt 10 eligible scholarship players, including six returnees from the 19-14 team that reached the championship game of the Big East tournament for the first time in school history and advanced to the second round of the NIT.

The roster also will include three players who were redshirted -- 6-7 forward Chevy Troutman, 6-4 Yuri Demetris and 6-10 center/forward Mark McCarroll.