Jerry DiPaola stories, Page 25
Blake Hinson’s shots, speeches get equal credit for leading Pitt to 2nd season of 20-plus victories
When Pitt ventures into Washington, D.C., on Thursday for its ACC Tournament quarterfinal, the Panthers’ hope of advancing to even greater heights rests in large part with Blake Hinson and how accurately the basketball flies off his fingertips. Pardon us for stating the obvious. Pitt coach Jeff Capel has put...
Metrics aside, Pitt’s Jeff Capel likes makeup of his team as it approaches the postseason
Jeff Capel appears weary of the debate. Pitt’s coach is a busy man, and he has more pressing issues on his mind than metrics, quads and what outsiders think of his team. Most important at the moment is the fact that after 10 previous ACC Tournament appearances, the No. 4-seeded...
Pitt holds off late N.C. State rally, earns double bye in ACC Tournament
Before he left the Petersen Events Center on Saturday night — stepping through piles of confetti to reach the Pitt locker room and, finally, home — Jeff Capel stopped to talk about something more important to him than a single victory. Perhaps more important than even Pitt earning the double...
Pitt notebook: Pat Narduzzi says Ryland Gandy has put in solid claim as starting cornerback
With the exception of quarterback, no position on the field will get greater scrutiny during Pitt’s spring drills than cornerback. All three cornerbacks who played the most significant minutes last season — M.J. Devonshire, A.J. Woods and Marquis Williams — are gone. In their place has stepped redshirt sophomore Ryland...
Pitt Take 5: Panthers can finish as high as 3rd, as low as 7th in the ACC
For the moment, let’s set aside talk and speculation about Pitt’s NCAA Tournament hopes and dreams and concentrate on four hours coming up Saturday night. Three ACC games will be contested between 6 and 10 p.m. The results will impact where Pitt lands in the ACC’s final standings and whether...
Pitt’s 3 guards hold key to team’s late-season surge
Basketball is a game of ball control. Maintaining and maximizing possessions are critical to a team’s success, and guards often control the offense’s flow. No wonder that nine of the past 10 players who were named Most Outstanding Player in the Final Four are guards. Miami rode guards Jordan Miller,...
Pitt football players look to restore program’s 4 pillars this season
Nailed to the wall at the back of the players’ meeting room are four words coaches and players believe are “pillars” of the Pitt football program. Attitude. Effort. Toughness. Knowledge. Two members of the defense said Wednesday those pillars were missing last season, and one of the goals of spring...
Pitt’s ‘controlled freedom’ catches Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton’s eye
Jaland Lowe called it “controlled freedom.” Leonard Hamilton, whose Florida State team was crushed by Pitt’s wave of 3-point shots, was impressed with “the uniqueness” coach Jeff Capel put on display Tuesday night and for the past two months. How impressed? “This team is capable of beating anybody in our...
Pitt hits 20-win mark with victory over Florida State
There were four distinct storylines that explained Pitt’s 88-73 victory Tuesday night against Florida State, what the game meant to the program and what coach Jeff Capel and his players are trying to accomplish in the latter stages of the season. • First, Blake Hinson wrote his name into the...
West Virginia rewards football coach Neal Brown with 1-year contract extension through 2027
West Virginia and coach Neal Brown agreed to terms on a one-year contract extension aimed to keep him at the school through 2027. WVU athletic director Wren Baker announced the extension Tuesday morning. WVU gave Brown the extension after the Mountaineers finished 9-4 last season, including a 6-3 record in...
On 1st day of spring drills, Pitt QB Nate Yarnell says ‘there’s no room for complacency anymore’
After the first day of Pitt’s spring practice, no one knows if offensive coordinator Kade Bell’s system will work any better than Frank Cignetti’s did. Sure, players and coaches have ideas and high hopes, but this fast-paced, no-huddle offense is on the other side of anything Pat Narduzzi has implemented...
Duquesne women prepare for A-10 tournament, hope to set aside late-season losses
Dan Burt’s patience and determination were tested in 2017 when he finished the Pittsburgh Marathon in less than seven hours. Perhaps that prepared him for the upcoming week when he must wait four days — and sit with the memory of two tough losses — to send his Duquesne women’s...
Difficult to miss the 7-man class of quarterbacks on 1st day of Pitt’s spring drills
Add about 20 degrees to the morning temperature and you’d have a difficult time believing Pitt didn’t start summer drills Monday morning on the South Side. The sun was shining, the grass was green and coaches’ sharp words filled the air. Coach Pat Narduzzi brought his 110-man team outside Monday...
You can debate whether Pitt deserves an NCAA bid, but there’s no questioning Bub Carrington’s freshman season
The numbers connected to Pitt’s quest to land an NCAA Tournament berth paint hopeful and discouraging scenarios at the same time. 7: That’s good. Pitt has seven victories on an opponent’s home floor, as many as No. 4 Tennessee, No. 9 North Carolina, No. 12 Creighton and No. 18 South...
Pitt hits 16 3-pointers in 90-65 rout of Boston College
Coaches in any sport demand that their players stay in the moment and forget about the past no matter how good or bad it looks in the rearview mirror. After Pitt’s 90-65 victory against Boston College on Saturday night, assistant coach Milan Brown allowed his thoughts to drift a bit...
Change, higher learning are keys for Pat Narduzzi while Pitt’s offseason shifts toward spring drills
Pat Narduzzi turns 58 nine days after Pitt’s Blue-Gold Spring game next month, steeped in the dogged stubbornness that comes from growing up with an old-school coach as a dad, a decade or more as a linebacker and 34 years as a coach at six institutions of higher learning. Those...
Pitt Take 5: Final 3 games before ACC Tournament should not be overlooked
Interest in Pitt’s final three regular-season games isn’t the same as it would have been if the Panthers had defeated either Wake Forest or Clemson. At this point, no one wants to hear the initials N-I-T when N-C-A-A are the only letters that really matter in March. Nonetheless, Pitt has...
Pitt’s Jeff Capel says ‘smarter’ nonconference scheduling could clear smoother path to NCAA Tournament
Before the start of the season, Jeff Capel felt good about Pitt’s nonconference schedule. There was a trip to Morgantown, W.Va., where the Mountaineers are usually tough to beat. Plus, Capel scheduled a home date with a Missouri team from the SEC that was in the NCAA Tournament last season....
Second-half surge leads Duquesne to 75-63 victory against La Salle
After Duquesne’s 75-63 victory Wednesday night against La Salle, coach Keith Dambrot opened the door to his team’s locker room. Not literally, but his postgame remarks offered insight into how the Dukes rallied from a three-point halftime deficit to begin the second half on a game-deciding 17-4 run. Was there...
Analysis: Pitt must set sights on strong finish, even if it includes a berth in the NIT
Pitt is in the grip of a slump, if that’s the correct term for losing two of three games at a point in the season that matters most. The Panthers’ NCAA Tournament hopes, already slim before the 69-62 loss at Clemson on Tuesday night, have all but disappeared. Blame Pitt’s...
Pitt’s NCAA Tournament hopes take big hit in loss to Clemson
There’s no doubting the reality that confronts the Pitt basketball team, game after game. Without Blake Hinson’s points, Pitt is a different team and victory is nearly impossible against the best opponents. That was proven in Littlejohn Coliseum on Tuesday night when Clemson’s Jack Clark followed Hinson anywhere he went...
Old friends, Pitt’s Jeff Capel and Clemson’s Brad Brownell prepare for crucial ACC clash
There was a time more than two decades ago when Jeff Capel and Brad Brownell matched their teams and their wits against each other with a different prize at stake than what will go to the winner Tuesday night at Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, S.C. Capel was the coach at...
Pitt’s Jeff Capel, ACC coaches look for court-storming controls before fans get even more physical
Just as terrifying for Duke coach Jon Scheyer as seeing his All-ACC center Kyle Filipowski hobble off the floor because of an injury inflicted by a fan from the opposing team was another scene Saturday that hasn’t received the same amount of attention. Truth be told, it could have had...
Pitt hopes Zack Austin can continue disruptive play in season’s final weeks
With the decisive 79-64 victory against Virginia Tech, Pitt knocked down the first of five or six (perhaps seven) obstacles standing between the team and a second consecutive NCAA Tournament bid. There is a lot of work to do, and the odds are against the Panthers. But the heaviest lifting...
Oakland Zoo president can’t envision fans ever storming the floor at the Pete
The scene Saturday at Wake Forest’s LJV Memorial Coliseum — when students rushed the court without regard to their own or others’ safety after the Demon Deacons defeated No. 8 Duke — brought up a question among Pitt fans: Why doesn’t such an uncontrollable, dangerous event happen at Petersen Events...
