So the two weeks have been close to positive for Pitt basketball and coach Kevin Stallings. Or at least as good as it’s been since the season ended.
No one else left, a couple coaches hired, a NLI signed and now a transfer. Let’s review.
May 5, 2017
April 26, 2017
No one else has left Pitt’s basketball program. One of the late verbals even made it official by signing his Letter of Intent.
Pitt has added to its 2017 recruiting class with the official signing of a national letter of intent by 6-10 center Peace Ilegomah. The talented big man joins a solid three-man class of Rivals Top 100 point guard Marcus Carr, big man Terrell Brown and junior college standout Jared Wilson-Frame.
“We are excited about our incoming class,” said head coach Kevin Stallings. “We are going to build around players committed to one another, the community and the university and this is a talented group of players that will help form the foundation of this program.”
Ilegomah averaged a double-double with 14.0 points and 12.0 rebounds per game along with 3.0 blocks per game to help guide the CBD Montverde [Fla.] postgrad team to a 25-7 record and a runner-up finish in the National Prep Championship. The native of Lagos, Nigeria played two seasons at Roselle Catholic [N.J.] prior to doing a postgrad year at Montverde Academy. He is listed as the No. 27 center in the class by 247Sports.
It is expected that small forward Shamiel Stevenson will sign his LOI this weekend.
April 22, 2017
Is Pitt basketball coach Kevin Stallings trying to test the conventional wisdom of colleges coaches being reasonably expected to get three years, or is he just that bad that no one could fault Pitt for pulling the plug after two years — crap, still 11 months to go?
That someone who has been (at least by the fringe) called a Stallings apologist — for not demanding his firing within 12 months of his hiring — needs to think aloud if all conventional wisdom and logic needs to be tossed out the window. That Pitt just needs to make the break in the midst of the late signing period and while grad transfers are considering their futures. That’s just not a good sign.
In case you missed the late news on Friday, the best incoming freshman guard in Pitt’s class was released from his National Letter of Intent (NLI) to Pitt.
Now, that list of past Panthers includes his very first recruit.
Guard Aaron Thompson, regarded as one of the top players in Pitt’s 2017 recruiting class, was granted a release from his national letter of intent, the school announced Friday. Thompson committed to the Panthers in May 2016, about five weeks after Stallings was introduced as the program’s new coach.
Rated as a three-star prospect by Rivals, Thompson (6 feet 2) averaged 10.9 points per game for a talented squad at Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, Va. His performance earned him a spot on The Washington Post’s All-Met first team.
Thompson had had a great senior season and had been elevated in recruiting rankings to a 4-star and in some instances a top-150 national recruit.
He was also a high school teammate of Cory Manigault– formerly a freshman at Pitt and now a kid in search of a new school. How much that had an impact is unknown.
On my list of things to do since March is a post on where Pitt basketball stands, overall. Keep having to trash posts because the basic tentpoles of the team keep leaving.
In addition, Pitt just lost out on Longwood University graduate transfer Khris Lane to VCU. This is where you wonder. I mean, wonder with concern and a touch of panic even if you are the guy talking poeple off the ledge.
Jeremy Ballard, who had been a VCU assistant before moving to Illinois St for a year, and then hired at Pitt. But after only one season, jumped (down/back?) to VCU at the same position as he was at Pitt. Now, Pitt loses Thompson from the DC area and a grad transfer Pitt pursued with the ardor of a hop head for an Alchemist Heady Topper… well, there are concerns issues fuck it, panic.
April 17, 2017
Hope everyone had a good Easter weekend. My son and I went to the Spring Game on Saturday — I’ll get to that subject a bit later this week.
On late Friday evening it leaked out that Pitt was no longer the destination of guard Troy Simons. Simons was the leading scorer in all of junior college and a native of Pittsburgh. He had committed to Pitt back in March.
Simons is now looking hard at New Mexico.
April 13, 2017
Sorry about the gap in posting. As usual, I put off doing the taxes until the final week. And naturally, that coincided with a crunch week of 12-hour work days.
There’s not much to really write about what is happening in Pitt basketball at the moment. Pitt is pursuing transfers — grad and regular — visits are on the table. Yet, it doesn’t seem like anything is happening. Even as it also feels like a period of total chaos and a desperate need for something. Anything to happen.
The team for next year will not have one returning starter. A recruiting class that is seven–deep, and it still isn’t enough. There are still rumors of at least one more possible transfer out of the program. I mean, at least it isn’t Memphis, but this is still a mess (or as Pat Forde put it as an aside in a column about this year’s coaching hire — “blooming disaster”).
April 1, 2017
Well, so much for an impromptu vacation.
You know it’s bad news when a press release is e-mailed out at 5:30 on a Saturday morning:
Redshirt sophomore Cameron Johnson will graduate and transfer following the spring semester school officials announced Saturday morning. The Moon Township, Pa., native will earn his degree in three years at Pitt and have two season of eligibility remaining after receiving a medical redshirt for the 2014-15 season
Johnson averaged 11.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game a year ago as the Panthers finished 16-17 overall and 4-14 in ACC play. A two-time All-ACC Academic Team and a 2017 CoSIDA Academic All-District selection, Johnson finished fifth in the ACC in three-point percentage (.415) and eighth in three-point field goals (2.36 3pg.).
Pitt currently has a seven-player recruiting class featuring highly-touted junior college prospects Jared Wilson-Frame and Troy Simons and high school standouts Aaron Thompson, Marcus Carr, Terrell Brown, Peace Ilegomah and Shamiel Stevenson. The Panthers have additional scholarships available and will look to reshape the 2017-18 roster with graduate transfers, traditional transfers and late signees. Johnson will become the fourth player to transfer out of the program since the close of the 2016-17 season.
Man, I hadn’t even gotten the coffee made when I saw this. Probably a good thing, when you don’t want to do a spit-take on your phone.
March 14, 2017
That will be the question Cam Johnson, Ryan Luther and Pitt fans will be asking. The Pitt basketball roster continues to, um, evolve.
Freshman Corey Manigault and sophomore Crisshawn Clark will transfer out of the University of Pittsburgh basketball program school officials announced Tuesday. Both players are expected to finish the spring semester and leave the school in good academic standing.
“We wish Corey and Crisshawn the best of luck as they look to continue their collegiate careers elsewhere,” said head coach Kevin Stallings. “We will continue to support both of them through their impending transfers.”
Neither one is a shock.
February 1, 2017
Signing day is done for Pitt. I mean there is still the outside possibility of one other kid joining the class at the end of the week (Kane Taylor), but for all intents and purposes the dust is mostly settled.
That means it is time to see what the recruiting rankings say about the class.
I know. I know. Recruiting rankings are meaningless. It’s about the grit and determination. It’s about uncovering those diamond-in-the-roughs and coaching them up. Aaron Donald was only a marginal 3-star recruit with not many major offers. Yada, yada, yada.
Yeah, no. The recruiting rankings do matter. No one claims they are perfect. No metric would be when it comes to evaluating how teenagers project out in — well… anything in life. Still they do a pretty good job compared to anything else.
Yeah, it’s really more than half over. Isn’t it?
With four kids already enrolled and taking classes, this isn’t a huge volume of signatories for National Signing Day.
Over half the 18 expected signees have their National Letter of Intent faxed over to Pitt by this point. Including Kenny Picket, Todd Sibley, Gabe Houy.
There are a couple other possible guys announcing today who might join the class.
It almost sees low key.
Almost.
Pitt has the thing going on with the ACC Digital Network to show behind the scenes stuff all day.
The media — including recruiting sites were invited to attend the whole day at the South Side Facilities. To be there when the kids faxes came through.
January 19, 2017
Pitt got three more verbals in a roughly 24 hour period. Only two are known, though.
The first, was Jason Pinnock. A cornerback from Connecticut. Pinnock was a Boston College commit, but after a senior year that saw interest in him rise he decommitted. Pitt offered him and both Syracuse and Notre Dame were showing interest. Pinnock was supposed to to take a visit to South Bend, next week but has since cancelled his remaining visits.
His star rating is not high. Rivals.com has him updated to a 3-star, but the other recruiting sites say 2-star. At 6-0, 180 pounds, he is along the physical lines of what Coach Pat Narduzzi wants in his corners. Obviously, he is not going to see the field right away.
December 15, 2016
Hey, maybe Pitt should lose an OC more often.
/remembers that this will be OC #4 in 4 years
Oh, yeah. Pitt already has that down pat.
Despite the departure of the offensive coordinator, Pitt picked up two recruits on the offensive side of the ball. It’s been a while since there has been a Pat Signal.
September 13, 2016
There was just no way I was doing any basketball posting last week. Wasn’t sure I would squeeze anything out this week, but it’s got to happen.
The ACC finally released the men’s basketball schedule, which means Pitt’s basketball schedule is finally complete.
June 19, 2016
PA won the annual Big 33 football game yesterday – forgive the PSU slant with the link but apparently this is the best coverage I can find… (neither of the two major PGH papers had a word on it at the time I wrote this)… even though it looks like Pitt recruits contributed also. But with three TDs (in only 67 yards) he gets the lion’s share of the publicity.
Our DB Damar Hamlin did well also. Pitt had six on the roster compared to PSU’s two.
This is an interesting bit about SYR recruit Joel-El Shaw… apparently he thinks coaching staff’s words don’t carry much weight:
At first, Jo-El Shaw almost balked at the opportunity to represent Pennsylvania in the annual Big 33 Football Classic. It was at the first team-wide practice in April and the Pennsylvania coaches figured Shaw would play fullback since that’s how he’s listed on the roster.
“I told them I was going to go home,” said Shaw, now a Woodland Hills High School alumnus. “I told them, ‘You can go find somebody else, because I ain’t playing fullback.’ ”
To what ought to be no one’s surprise James Conner is still giving back more than he receives…
Conner was honored at a dinner hosted by his oncologist, Dr. Stanley Marks, on Friday night at the Field Club in Fox Chapel.
Not only was Conner honored with the award, which is given annually for the past 30 years to a cancer patient, it was re-named the James Conner Courage Award, Marks said.
“James is the first recipient,” Marks said.
June 12, 2016
Surfing the message boards I saw the following on Rivals.com. It is an interesting article put out by SB Nation’s Football Study Hall regarding HC Pat Narduzzi’s defensive schemes at Pitt.
This is the lead into the article and I think he hits the nail right on the head regarding our pass defense:
“The most difficult positions to fill in the Narduzzi secondary are probably the boundary corner, free safety, field corner, strong safety, and star LB (space-backer) in that order.
The latter two positions of strong safety and star are the tip of the spear for this defense, these guys are set to up make plays and put pressure on the offense, which is what defines this scheme. Their aggression and freedom isn’t possible without the play of the former three defenders who have to establish the “no-fly zone” so that the strong safety and star can spend their time hunting down running backs.
As it happens, the Panthers are returning their boundary corner Avonte Maddox, free safety Terrish Webb, and strong safety Jordan Whitehead but are looking for players to step up at field corner and space-backer.”
Well, most likely that field cornerback will be true FR Damar Hamlin after the dust settles during fall camp. At least that is what the pundits (and myself I suppose) think. He’s highly rated at 4*s and had offers from across the country. If we are looking for another, or different, newcomer to take that spot then 4* FR George Hill could fit the bill also. We discuss him a lot on here, our mysterious commenter Pitt of Dreams can’t envision him anywhere but at running back. However, needs must and if the staff wants him there they will put him there.
June 11, 2016
Here is another installment of our Saturday Podcasts Series.
There really hasn’t been much going on with Pitt football lately – a couple of recruits verballed (Chris Peak’s recruiting podcast covers those and BB’s recruiting also) but mostly we have had to generate some subjects to talk about.
Today I’ll talk a bit about the recruiting articles we just had up on here and some other things, then historical subjects about what the Pitt program was like years ago and how things can make or break a team.
The reading here is from a Sport Illustrated article published Nov. 21, 193 titled “ANY OF US MIGHT HAVE DONE IT.”
After that 1982 regular season, when we were 9-2 and Becker death happened, we lost the Cotton bowl to SMU by a score of 7-3. After averaging 27 ppg in the regular season we put up three. That, I believe was a hangover from the preceding week.
We went 8-3-1 the next season then tanked to 3-7-1 the year after. If you look closely you’ll see that our recruiting suffered a lot after that Becker incident also. So many different things can affect a football program…
Note: Just as a heads up – I am zeroing in, with my daughter’s help, on figuring out how to do a conference call-in recording so that we can start a “Pitt Blather Round Table” where I would moderate and select some subject matters for two or three Blather readers to discuss and then post as a podcast.
My feelers out to Pitt fans about doing this have been well received and I think it would be nice to hear some other opinions on Pitt football other than mine. Our written comments are great on here and generate some fantastic discussions but maybe a bit of a different forum to give and take on issues will be fun to do also.
I’ll keep all informed as to the details but keep your eyes open and I’ll be asking for test dummies soon.
