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May 16, 2018

Okay, maybe not exclusively, but I definitely expect to see it more then once this season. Definitely a ton of 4-guard rotations.

Plus, a Jeff Capel puff piece.

In recent radio interviews, Capel has stressed he won’t just look to add bodies. Which means, despite a glaring need for more in the frontcourt, he’s not going to reach for a player if he can’t help this year. After missing out on traditional transfer Sacha Killeya-Jones (he went with NC State), Pitt didn’t waste much time.

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May 4, 2018

Aiken Stays With Pitt

Filed under: Basketball,Recruiting — Chas @ 7:27 am

Curtis Aiken is one of Pitt basketball’s great players. He is also an color analyst for Pitt. His son, Curtis Aiken, Jr., had been a rising junior. As a junior he was considered a 3-star recuit.

A knee injury hindered his senior year, and he fell off the radar, and isn’t ranked by some sites. That said, he still had offers from TCU (yes, we know) and Tennessee. He had also taken an unofficial visit to Arizona (uh-huh).

 

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April 30, 2018

Capel Remaking Backcourt Quickly

Filed under: Basketball,Recruiting — Chas @ 7:37 am

I was away with my son on his first Boy Scout camping trip this past weekend. End of April, you figure at worst a little damp. Did it rain the first night and all morning? You bet. Did the temperature start plummeting after the rains stopped so that it was mid-30s by the evening and right around 30 by the morning. Of course. How the boy or I aren’t sick (yet), is a mystery. On the plus side, the new cot I got saved my back so I’m not trying to type while hanging from an inversion table.

Being away meant not watching the draft, but more importantly not being able to comment on yet another new commit for the men’s basketball team.

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April 25, 2018

Sorry. One of those weeks where I am everywhere but home.

As much as I wasn’t enamored with Marcus Carr as a true point guard by the end of the year, the fact was he was the only option. And he was just a freshman. And, given the upheaval, he was someone Pitt and Jeff Capel wanted to keep.

But from the moment he got his release, major conference teams came calling. Him not coming back was unsurprising. Just annoying at how long he took to make that decision.

Thankfully, the annoyance was short-lived.

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April 19, 2018

Pitt has hired it’s new Women’s Basketball Coach.

University of Pittsburgh Director of Athletics Heather Lyke announced Wednesday afternoon the hiring of Lance White as head women’s basketball coach.

“When I first met Coach White, his genuine personality, energy and excitement about being at Pitt was evident and contagious,” Lyke said. “He has a tremendous pedigree in coaching and has been an instrumental part of several successful women’s basketball programs that have sustained success at the highest levels. I am confident he is more than prepared to build a program that brings great pride to our University.  We are thrilled to welcome Lance and his wife, Melanie, and their children to Pittsburgh and the Pitt family.”

White comes to Pitt after spending the past 15 years at Florida State, where he helped the Seminoles to a 350-145 (.707) record, including 12 seasons with 20 wins or more. Since White’s arrival at FSU, 10 players were selected in the WNBA Draft, eight Seminoles earned ACC All-Defensive team honors and 37 earned all-conference awards. He helped Florida State reach the NCAA Tournament in 13 of the past 14 years, while the team won at least one NCAA Tournament game in its past 15 appearances. For his standout coaching efforts during the 2016-17 season, White was named the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association National Assistant (WBCA) Coach of the Year.

White was also an assistant coach at Texas Tech before FSU. Texas Tech is also his alma mater.

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February 7, 2018

National Signing Day, 2018: Part 2

Filed under: Football,Recruiting — Chas @ 8:20 am

Not quite the same excitement, but some likely good news today.

I’ve been sick since Sunday. I watched the Eagles win the Superbowl in a non-alcohol induced haze. My wife thought I was just being very restrained during the game. I didn’t tell her until sometime in the 4th quarter. Anytime a member of the family starts to run a fever, my wife immediately starts acting like the black plague is about to descend on the house. Especially this time of the year, as the stories of “worse flu season, ever” hit. I’m better now, thanks for asking.

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February 1, 2018

Been quite a bit of stuff for Pitt football with some coaching changes and the final signing day looming. Not going to get to them all, but I’ll touch on yesterday’s news.

Pitt grabbed a new assistant and a grad transfer from MAC schools yesterday. Both seem like good additions.

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January 8, 2018

Last week was a surprisingly active week for Pitt football. Players left the program and it’s time to find a new coordinator.

After the early signing period, Pitt was over the 85 scholarship player. That meant transfers were on the way. It was just a matter of who and when.

That day came on Friday.

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December 20, 2017

Early Signing Day Is Mostly Done

Filed under: Football,Recruiting — Chas @ 8:10 am

The race  to get those faxes in first is amusing. They started rolling in right away at the 7 am Eastern starting time. A little more then an hour later and over half the verbals have made it official.

Pitt has a page on the website to see videos and pics of all players who have gone beyond verbal.

Hey, it beats thinking about how Pitt almost blew the game against Delaware State last night.

December 18, 2017

It’s been a while, I know.

The first early signing period in college football is only a couple days away. December 20 is the day Pitt and most other programs (that haven’t been through a major spin on the coaching carousel) look to have 90% or so of their recruiting class complete.

The last couple weeks have brought a bit of shake-up to the expected 2018 roster. Some expected. Some not.

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August 25, 2017

A hallmark of a Pat Narduzzi defense is being disruptive upfront. Not simply being able to stop the run, but penetrating in the backfield to keep pressure on the quarterback whether simply dropping back or those running the option or spread. The linebackers are going to play closer to the line, and look for chances to make plays up-front rather then contain.

The risk to his defense is that it also leaves the corners on an island with little help. It’s one of the reasons Pitt was so bad against the pass and led the conference in surrendering passing plays of 20 yards or more. (The other reasons included injuries and issues around talent in the secondary.)

It was a source of frustration for myself and many others that Narduzzi and Defensive Coordinator Josh Conklin refused to change — or even tweak — the system to account for the fact that the D-line simply couldn’t generate the pressure up-front that was needed.

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August 23, 2017

Almost as long as this blog has been around, a familiar question has been about getting the back-up quarterback some game reps. Specifically, when there is a senior starting QB. It essentially became a running joke in Tyler Palko’s senior year, of fans asking when Bill Stull might get a few mop-up snaps.

Which serves for some amusement to see this bit in Kevin Gorman’s column praising the naming of Max Browne as the starter:

DiNucci, by contrast, hasn’t even played a full game. He was 3 of 9 for 16 yards, with a touchdown and two interceptions in late relief of Nathan Peterman in the Pinstripe Bowl.

That should have taught Narduzzi to get his backup more playing time during the season, something DiNucci needs if he’s to eventually succeed Browne at Pitt.

Ah, the classics. They never get old.

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May 22, 2017

This is so stupid.

It has been seven weeks since Cam Johnson made it known that he was transferring from Pitt as a grad transfer with two full years of eligibility left. To no one’s surprise the process of finding a new home has been a slow one.

A long-armed, tall guard who shoots better then 40% on 3s. From a Power conference. He was going to be in demand. And he was. Teams like Arizona, Kentucky, Oregon and others all contacted him. He took plenty of visits.

It was clear that Johnson was looking to play at a big name school where he would get plenty of exposure.

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May 19, 2017

Still Trying to Add Pieces

Filed under: Basketball,Recruiting,Transfer — Chas @ 7:11 am

I don’t know about you, but I needed to do a refresher on Pitt’s scholarship roster before even talking about the remaining recruiting stuff.

Returning players:

Ryan Luther, Forward, Senior

Jonathan Milligan, Guard, Senior

Zach Smith, Guard, Senior

Incoming freshmen:

Marcus Carr, Guard

Khameron Davis, Guard

Shamiel Stevenson, Small Forward

Terrell Brown, Power Forward

Peace Ilegomah, Center

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May 11, 2017

Sure, dump three bits of news on one day. It’s not like this time of year is starved for content or anything.

Pat Narduzzi is not a quick starter on the recruiting trail. We all know it. It is a bit maddening. Yet, even by his standards, this class has been slow to start. Pitt finally added commit number two. A QB from New Jersey.

Nick Patti, a 6-foot-3 quarterback from St. Joseph Regional High School in Montvale, N.J., has committed to Pitt.

Patti announced the news Wednesday afternoon on Twitter, becoming the second verbal pledge in coach Pat Narduzzi’s 2018 recruiting class. He’s rated a two-star prospect by Rivals.com and a three-star by some other scouting sites.

According to Rivals, Patti chose Pitt over offers from Boston College, Cincinnati, Rutgers and others. He’s considered a pro-style passer, and figures to be Narduzzi’s only quarterback in the class of 2018.

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