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May 3, 2016

Basketball Notes, 5/3

Filed under: Basketball,Players,Prognostications — Chas @ 7:45 am

It’s the time for recruiting. Coach Kevin Stallings have put out plenty of offers. For transfers, grad transfers, still deciding kids in the 2016 class, and especially kids for the 2017 recruiting class.  Big men, guards, shooters, forwards. They have been all over the place. Nothing close to concrete. Makes it kind of difficult to get a handle on what they are looking for — other than players. Now it just comes down to landing some.

On media related news, Paul Zeise is leaving the Pitt basketball beat for the Post-Gazette. He’s been moved up to sports columnist/opinionator. Zeise was a very good beat writer first for Pitt football and then basketball. He’s been grinding for years on that side and has raised his profile on the general sports side for the last few years via radio work. It’s a well-earned promotion.

The new Pitt basketball beat writer for the P-G is Craig Meyer. He has worked his way up on the basketball beats. First covering Robert Morris and then Duquesne. He also did time covering the Hoopie football team.

His first piece in his new position discusses the decisionmaking of incoming freshmen Justice Kithcart and Corey Manigault to stick with Pitt after Jamie Dixon’s departure.

For the players, as taxing as it was to make such an important decision in a week, the Panthers’ new coach played a major part in reselling them to the program.

“When I talked to him, he seemed like a straight shooter,” Kithcart said. “I felt like he had a good mindset for the team, a good mindset for me and I could tell he really wanted me. He liked the type of player I was and felt like I could fit in his system. That was great, getting that from him.”

Kithcart, a 6-foot-1 point guard from Durham, N.C., and Manigault, a 6-foot-8 forward from Suitland, Md., committed to the Panthers last year.

On March 28, the day Stallings was presented as coach, both opted to reopen their recruitment. It was a move, they explained, that had less to do with Pitt and more with an uncertain and evolving situation. Each wanted to take time, talk with their families and evaluate whether their chosen destination was still the right fit.

He was straight up with me,” Kithcart said. “He didn’t try to sell me a dream. He didn’t try to do too much. He told me how it was going to be. I feel like I can fit into his playing style. He’s a coach who lets his players play and that’s something I really like.”

Upon hearing from Stallings, Manigault watched films of his Vanderbilt teams. What he saw were forwards who were allowed to play to their strengths, including big men who could stretch the floor in the same way he believes he can.

At a fragile point in his life, Manigault didn’t feel suffocated by Stallings, either, something that proved to be important.

“He didn’t want to force me to do anything,” he said. “He just kind of left it up to me. I really liked that. He just had that good vibe from the start.”

Both players said they plan on arriving on campus in May or June. Once there, they will be joined by fellow signee Crisshawn Clark, a junior college transfer, and the yet-to-be-determined final member of Pitt’s 2016 recruiting class.

Both had a lot of teams pursuing them. It will be interesting to see how their first year plays out given the actual depth in front of them as freshmen. Despite Kithcart being the more highly touted recruit, Manigault may have a better chance at seeing more action. The backcourt is packed.

Damon Wilson is one of those players in the backcourt. He struggled to get playing time last year and with his shot — which is part of why his playing time was a struggle.

“Last season wasn’t my greatest, the way I played.”

Wilson said his shooting woes can be attributed to fundamentals. He didn’t have time to address them after recovering from a shoulder injury prior to the start of his first college season and never caught up.

He is thankful Stallings made him aware and more grateful he decided to remain at Pitt.

“I had a couple glitches in my shot,” said Wilson, who also credits assistant Tom Richardson for his turnaround. “Where I placed the ball, what fingers, simple stuff like my footwork. It wasn’t a lot to work on, but when he fixed it, my shot was good. The first week, I was already feeling the difference. I wasn’t missing as much.”

Stallings, who praised Wilson’s ability to utilize his quickness and size to drive to the basket, said: “Sometimes guys have to come to grips with what they do well or what they don’t do well. When that self-realization truly takes place, that’s when they begin to understand how effective they can be within how we play.”

Wilson only shot 33% from behind the arc (9-27) and a not-much-better 20-57 (35%) from everywhere else last year. New assistant coach Tom Richardson is supposed to work wonders for shooting, so this should be an area of major improvement for Wilson.

As I have written before. Stallings is coming into a good situation. At least for year one as far as talent and what this team can do. ESPN’s analytics guy,  John Gasaway put Pitt as the team with the best shot at success with a new coach for 2016 (Insider subs).

When Pittsburgh athletic director Scott Barnes hired Stallings away from Vanderbilt, the initial reactions ranged from surprise to outright bewilderment. Be that as it may, the new hire now finds himself in a pretty good position. In effect, Stallings inherits four starters from an NCAA tournament team, losing only pass-first point guard James Robinson. (Rafael Maia was also a starter, though the Brown transfer was used sparingly after the opening tip by former coach Jamie Dixon. Maia averaged less than eight minutes per contest over Pitt’s final five games.) Stallings’ primary challenge in Year 1 will be finding the best way for Michael Young, Jamel Artis and the rest of this veteran rotationto make shots. Last season the Panthers ranked No. 14 in the 15-team ACC in accuracy from the field during conference play.

Arguably it reactions from Pitt fans actually began at “outright bewilderment” and ranged out from there.





When I was in my “angry phase” about the Stallings hire I posted that we will know really quickly what he is made of, given what you say above…coming into a “good situation”….the team should be, at worst, as good as last year. So hopefully Stallings will succeed, which would mean, 3-4 more wins than last year. We will see!

Comment by DD 05.03.16 @ 7:58 am

with Young, Artis, Jones and Jeter entering their final year of eligibility, there will be at least 4 openings for the incoming 2017 class.

It appears at least that HCKS has hired a couple of recruiters with a lot of ties with the ACC network …it will be interesting, to say the least, what the next 6 months bring in terms of commits

Comment by wbb 05.03.16 @ 8:21 am

Congratulations to Paul Zeise! Let’s hope he is being groomed to take the place of Ron Cook; the shelf life on Cook expired a long time ago.

Comment by PetePitt73 05.03.16 @ 8:26 am

Re: Meyer – – – “He has worked his way up on the basketball beats. First covering Robert Morris and then Duquesne. He also did time covering the Hoopie football team.”

Makes it sound like spending time in Morgantown is a prison sentence. Pretty accurate imo.

Comment by CalvinHobbes 05.03.16 @ 8:30 am

Here is something nice about the other sport:

Legendary Pitt quarterback Dan Marino will host a lunch at the Robinson Township Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza on Wednesday, May 4, beginning at noon.

A check presentation will be made to the Panther Club Scholarship Fund. Marino will be available for interviews in the early portion of the noon hour to discuss his own Pitt experience as well as the current Panthers under Coach Pat Narduzzi.

Maybe there will be video coverage or an article…

Comment by Reed 05.03.16 @ 8:45 am

Let’s hope Stallings knows how to coach guards with all new personnel except for Jones, it should be interesting. Going to be the key to success or failure.

Comment by gc 05.03.16 @ 8:55 am

I like Zeise, he is one of the few good ones.

Comment by gc 05.03.16 @ 8:58 am

Stallings has to perform this year on the court and with the most important recruiting class in a long time. If he is to succeed both have to turn out well.

Comment by gc 05.03.16 @ 9:00 am

Stallings must find some big strong guys to replace Young and Jeter.

Comment by gc 05.03.16 @ 9:09 am

Agreed, Zeise is excellent. In a way that is, if you like it, like you are talking to him at a bar having a beer with him.

If you’re looking for some polished ESPN talking head, not the guy you’d like.

Would love him to be on in the am or afternoon so I could have him on at work. The others, not so much.

Actually, I like Josh Miller too, but I have to much going on a work in the am to listen.

Comment by Dan 05.03.16 @ 9:52 am

agree Dan, would love to have Zeise during the workday

Comment by wbb 05.03.16 @ 10:12 am

Zeiss is the best the PG has ! Congrats to him and his son. Hope they both have a big year!

Comment by Dan 72 05.03.16 @ 10:15 am

If Stallings is going to be successful, he’s only to need to address his weaknesses, whatever they are. Still its unlikely he’s a very good defense coach, then that would mean having a strong assistant or two that knows how to coach defense and delegating that aspect of the game. He’s also going to need help recruiting, so hopefully his staff is up to the task.

One thing Dixon was unable to do is address his glaring weakness, recruiting; he didn’t surround himself with a staff that could compensate and fill the void, for whatever reason. In the same way, Chryst, an offensive head coach, failed to hire a good defensive defensive coordinator to compensate for the other side of the ball. Maybe both Dixon and Chryst, quality people, suffered from a loyalty problem? I don’t know…

Comment by 1618mt 05.03.16 @ 11:11 am

Sorry, “going”, not “only”…. sheesh…

Comment by 1618mt 05.03.16 @ 11:12 am

Kiwi Stevie had a great game last night … And a great story today. Little mention of Pitt but a good read none the less … link to espn.go.com

Comment by Tossing Thabeets 05.03.16 @ 11:52 am

Pre-season ACC QB ratings

link to espn.go.com

Peterman in middle of the pack ..just like we always are

Comment by wbb 05.03.16 @ 12:14 pm

Absolutely in agreement on Zeise. His Tweets are actually worth reading.

And today a timely article on the Murray vs Fleury situation with the Pens.

Comment by PittofDreams 05.03.16 @ 12:16 pm

Don’t know about Dixon, but, yes… Paul Chryst’s Achilles was the extreme value he placed on being loyal.

As I posted back when he was still here, “loyal to a fault.”

We saw this play out with his promotion of House to DC… and also with his insistence on sticking with Voytik regardless of the results.

Comment by PittofDreams 05.03.16 @ 12:21 pm

Call me crazy but looking at our schedule. I see 5 wins, maybe 6. If Narduzzi wins 7 or 8 sign him till 2050.

Comment by Upittbaseball 05.03.16 @ 12:33 pm

wbb – I think some of that #7 QB ranking is due to absolutely no backup QBs who have taken a snap in anger in a Pitt uniform. Also no Boyd and Conner which last year’s review took into account.. Here is 2016’s text:

7. Pitt. Nate Peterman unseated Chad Voytik a year ago and returns as the incumbent (2,287 yards passing, 20 touchdown passes, eight interceptions). Now he has a new offensive coordinator and no safety blanket in Tyler Boyd. Behind him, Pitt has no proven backup.

Here is the text for 2015’s Voytik at the same #7 position… and he had more going for him as far as his surrounding cast:

7. Chad Voytik, Pittsburgh

2015 Year of Eligibility: Junior

Voytik was steady in his first year as Pittsburgh starter, throwing for 2,233 yards and 16 touchdowns. The Tennessee native played better as the season progressed and threw only one interception over the final six games. Voytik has two of the ACC’s top skill players at his disposal in running back James Conner and receiver Tyler Boyd and one of the league’s best offensive lines. Voytik should take another step forward in his development under new coordinator Jim Chaney.

– See more at: link to athlonsports.com

Comment by Reed 05.03.16 @ 12:52 pm

Upitt,
It wouldn’t matter if he was signed until 2100…Barnes would “relax the buyout” if Narduzzi wanted to leave.

Comment by panther94 05.03.16 @ 1:07 pm

Craig Meyer is a great add to Coverage of Pitt. His
work with RMU and the Dukes was as good
as Zeise and exceeded anything done by
Werner on FB b

Comment by JR 05.03.16 @ 2:15 pm

Or Peterman’s #7 ranking is due to his poor play against top 25 compition and Miami.

Comment by Steve h 05.03.16 @ 3:17 pm

I’m with Upitt on this one a 5 or 6 win season is very possible, especially if injuries to key guys are an issue.

Comment by gc 05.03.16 @ 5:07 pm

If Conner returns to form, possible 9 or 10 win season.

Comment by gc 05.03.16 @ 5:09 pm

gc – if we win 5 or 6 games I’ll be in a long line of disgruntled fans cancelling next season’s tickets. Are you kidding me?

If the pedos are on the win side, I’ll be ok and overlook the other poor performances for another year. Heck, it’s only been 32 years since Pitt was really relavent on a national level. What’s one more year…

Comment by Erie Express 05.03.16 @ 6:22 pm

EE, the schedule is tough, worse case scenario Peterman, Whitehead, or other key players go down, wins will be hard to come by. Best case, Conner is healthy, Peterman is better, and the D improves, 8 or 9 wins.

Comment by gc 05.03.16 @ 6:36 pm

Now, we’re talking about Players getting hurt?

Man, the Season can’t start soon enough.

Comment by PittofDreams 05.03.16 @ 7:10 pm

Me, personally… I’m looking ahead to Summer.

Comment by PittofDreams 05.03.16 @ 7:11 pm

It’s actually pretty simple.

Narduzzi’s HONEYMOON ends Sept 10.

Comment by PittofDreams 05.03.16 @ 7:12 pm

And I mean… one way or another.

Comment by PittofDreams 05.03.16 @ 7:14 pm

We have gone eight years without having a QB miss an extended period due to injury. That really defies the odds. Injuries are a big part of success or failure in football. When Big Ben goes down, Steelers chances of winning are reduced by half, it was the same with Polamalu in his prime. Pitt still lacks depth at many key positions. QB being number 1.

Besides, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot to talk about this time of year.

Has Conner had his last treatment yet? His fast and strong recovery could make all the difference, especially against PSU and OkieSt.

Comment by gc 05.03.16 @ 7:29 pm

Conner’s skill that no one comes close to is getting into the endzone. Nobody does it better.

Comment by gc 05.03.16 @ 7:31 pm

Narduzzi is making offers like crazy. Wonder what the total number of kids is that have Pitt offers?

Be nice to get a Pat Signal on an elite player or two.

Comment by gc 05.03.16 @ 7:56 pm

Conner’s last Chemo is next week.

Believe me, I worry about that Kid all of the time.

He’s SPECIAL in more ways than one.

Comment by PittofDreams 05.03.16 @ 7:56 pm

Be even better if Stallings were to get a real ACC competitive center for this year or next.

Comment by gc 05.03.16 @ 7:57 pm

I am sure he will be very happy to be done with that part of his treatment.

Comment by gc 05.03.16 @ 8:01 pm

Pitt sneaks into the ACC title game by a string of very fortunate circumstances. I wont tip you off on how the title games ends though.

Comment by TX Panther 05.03.16 @ 8:01 pm

Everything comes down to what I believe will be an MRI a couple of weeks from now.

If clear, Conner is good to go.

Hoping for the VERY best.

Comment by PittofDreams 05.03.16 @ 8:43 pm

I have us beating PSU. The rest other than Nova and UVA arent gimmees. Hell they even have Bronco! VT with Fuente will win ACC soon as will Bronco. Marshall could even turn to a L.

Comment by Upittbaseball 05.03.16 @ 9:36 pm

Here here on Conner @PODreams.

@GC. According to Rivals we have offers out to 143 players. Interestingly, only a handful of them are less than 3*. Almost 80 of them are 5/4* players. Confidence is high.

Comment by cnorwoodaz 05.03.16 @ 9:49 pm

No sense in being afraid of our own shadow guys. Sometimes after reading posts on here I want to drink heavily. Fear of what others will do dominates the thought process. It is as if everyone else is Snydly Whiplash and we are some bound damsel in distress. Peterman isn’t as good as, our backers are too slow, we are due to have lightning strike our bus.
We have smart coaches, good players and even better players on the way. We are collectively in the best position we have been in years. STOP with the negative waves Moriarty!!!
Hell….I personally think people are afraid of us. They should be. Who has us penciled in as a win?

Comment by Sfpitt 05.04.16 @ 3:50 am

SFPitt – Sorry to say but I have a feeling that a lot of our 2016 opponents have us ‘penciled in as a win’. Whether or not they get that win is a whole different story.

No one is afraid of playing PITT – not at this point. Regardless of what we fans feel the reality is that last season was an average at best season for the Top 40+ team in the US.

Our final ranking was around #49 or so and there were teams that had worse records rated higher than us and teams like Toledo and Akron that were ranked higher than us even though we beat them in the last couple of years.

The reality is that Pitt is just not (yet!) seen as a good football program either in number of wins and certainly not in strength of the program. Hell, even UCLA and USC – with programs much more highly visible than Pitt’s ranked above us with the same record or even worse.

In conference play we only beat one team that had a winning record in Louisville. Other than that we lost to every tough opponent on our schedule. Hell, some may say our ‘signature win’ was against GT who was 1-7 in conf play. Future opponents look at those results, against a pretty weak ACC schedule, and they aren’t thinking they are going to lose against Pitt.

link to espn.go.com

We Pitt fans get excited when we see an article written about Narduzzi being a great hire or Pitt ‘on the verge’ or whatever, but we don’t take time to realize that is one person’s opinion and he’s paid to put out X amount or articles per week with X amount of words in them.

Believe me – I know how that works. I have gotten emails and phone calls from national media outlets asking my views and opinions on Pitt and what goes on with them and I always refuse to comment because I believe I am not qualified to say Pitt is going to do this or be that… but that is how these national writers get their material.

All that said, I think we are in for a string of nice seasons and exciting play – but if we are hanging our hat, or Narduzzi’s contract, on the W-L record of 2016 then we are making a big mistake. Hell, he hasn’t even gotten 1/3 of the roster as his own players yet.

What I’m hoping to happen is that our ’16 opponents, especially in our out of conference games, will cop that underestimating attitude and look past us to their next opponent and we’ll pull out 2-3 OOC wins which will be vert tough to do otherwise.

Comment by Reed 05.04.16 @ 6:11 am

Co sign Reed.

Comment by alcofan 05.04.16 @ 7:13 am

Pitt only has one game I’d call not winnable. Tough schedule? Sure. But let’s not get crazy. Pitt players and coaches are expecting to win the Coastal. They’ll have to win at least 10 games to do that. That’s my expectation again.

Comment by Tossing Thabeets 05.04.16 @ 8:47 am

Agree wholeheartedly with Reed. It simply takes time for any coach to bring in their own players and Narduzzi’s haven’t hit the field in anger yet. Over the past 30 years we lost the ‘name’ we had under Majors/Sherrill. Here’s hoping we get back there, at 61 I am not getting any younger. HAIL TO PITT.

Comment by rkb 05.04.16 @ 8:48 am

Agree Reed, this team has the potential to be better, but a lot is riding on Canada and the offense. Peterman finished with two poor performances, can Canada get him back on track? Conner is the wild card, if he is healthy, he will make a difference.

The O-line should be the best in years, these are the best guys Chryst recruited and they are mature. There is O-line depth. Boyd is gone but as a group the receivers should be good. There is running back depth. Orndorf is very good and Parrish is a great blocker.

Will it all gel?

The defense should be better as well. We should finally have a pass rush from both sides. Defensive backs should be much better, especially with a pass rush. The middle of the D-line is a question and the linebackers have much experience but little speed. Overall depth is much stronger and some of the young guys could help a lot.

The schedule is much more difficult, PSU is a rival and Franklin has been recruiting well.

Okie St has the kind of offense that could blow us out. Clemson is Clemson. Marshall will be competitive. The rest are all division rivals. This is the toughest schedule we have faced in years.

Our key players must stay healthy.

Comment by gc 05.04.16 @ 8:49 am

The other very positive thing is that Narduzzi and Co. really know how to coach special teams and we have two good kickers. This should only get better with bigger, stronger faster young guys trying to prove their worth.

Last years special teams were the far best in recent memory.

Comment by gc 05.04.16 @ 9:03 am

I don’t disagree with any of you guys, but you always assume the worst from Pitt and the best from our foes.
PSU has a new starting QB. What is their depth at QB?
Okla State will have played two cupcakes before us. They step up in class a bit late, have Baylor the week after us and will start a new QB.
Yes…Clemson is tough and ” in ink.
But Marshall has us penciled for a “W”? My left nut.
VTech has us penciled for a “W”. Reed’s left nut.
G’Tech has us penciled for “W”. GC’s left nut?
Duke has us penciled for a “W”? reed’s right nut.
UVA have anyone penciled in as “W”? GC’s right nut.
Does the ‘cuse have Jim own in the backfield this year?
Get serious guys. Only two teams can legitimately lay claim to penciling us in as a W. For many, it is a big win.
You guys depress me.

Comment by sfpitt 05.04.16 @ 9:12 am

I’ll add as a post script that under your assessments, every Pitt win is diminished in some way. We only beat one team with a winning record in October…blah, blah, blah…but our foes…well they beat everyone 90-0 with their second team in late in the 2nd quarter and 3rd team played the entire 4th Q.
Pitt goes 8-4 in 2016 is dog bites man. Can’t wait to see you guys putting your money down in vegas on Marshall winning the NC, PSU actually beating someone with a winning record and UVA go from the outhouse to the penthouse in a season.

Comment by sfpitt 05.04.16 @ 9:20 am

GC – I though Blewitt was average or below average last year. Hope the new kid starts.

Comment by Upittbaseball 05.04.16 @ 9:27 am

sfpitt, please leave my nuts out of it, lol.

While I agree that all of those mentioned with our nuts are winnable, they are also loseable.

I didn’t and wouldn’t say any other than Clemson can pencil us in. But Villanova is the only game we can pencil in.

As a Pitt fan, I never expect things to go our way and am usually surprised when they do.

Comment by gc 05.04.16 @ 9:56 am

link to pittsburghpanthers.com

As usual UPitt you are not an easy man to satisfy.
As was Boyd, Blewitt will be an all-time statistical best at Pitt. Plenty good, but not up to UPitt’s standards.

Comment by gc 05.04.16 @ 10:01 am

I’m sorry, he was 15 for 23. .667 It was his worst Season since he was at Pitt % wise.

50+ 2 for 4
40+ 4 for 6
30+ 3 for 4
20+ 5 for 6

In Bowl missed from 20 something.

Comment by Upittbaseball 05.04.16 @ 11:23 am

Sounds like sfpitt is going “nuts” over predictions with our schedule’s W-L record! But I do like the way he thinks. Someone earlier used the term “best case scenario” when predicting his 8 or 9 wins for Pitt this season, but I say best is BEST. So the best case scenario is actually 12 regular season wins!
Go out there expecting to win every game. I’m planning on going to the Clemson game and I’ll tell you right now, I’m not going there to watch the Panthers lose. H2P!

Comment by Dr. Tom 05.04.16 @ 12:53 pm

I would put the over/under at seven wins. So if the best case is 12 wins is the worst case 0 wins?

Tom, I think you are confusing expecting wins with hoping for wins.

So SFPitt what is your predicted number of wins?

Comment by gc 05.04.16 @ 1:23 pm

I think we go undefeated

Comment by TX Panther 05.04.16 @ 6:34 pm

1-0

Comment by dhuffdaddy 05.04.16 @ 9:49 pm

I’m going 8-4.
Bowl game is crapshoot.

Comment by Sfpitt 05.05.16 @ 11:41 am

GC…took me awhile to post. Had to make sure some Squirrel didn’t run off with my nuts. Went to see the Dr. Dr. Tom.
He says atrophy from lack of use is a possibility, otherwise safe.

Comment by Sfpitt 05.05.16 @ 12:33 pm

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