Jerry DiPaola stories, Page 47
Pitt Take 5: Win or lose, Panthers can celebrate this season, look to the future and the return of Will Jeffress
DAYTON, Ohio — No matter what happens to Pitt on Tuesday night against Mississippi State, the season should not be judged by one 40-minute period of basketball. A loss would be Pitt’s fifth in the final eight games of the season, probably tied to each one of the following reasons:...
Pitt’s big challenge in NCAA First Four: Contain Mississippi State’s 6-11 Tolu Smith
DAYTON, Ohio — The game will hit the TV sets in the Canary Islands at 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, an hour later on the Spanish mainland. “My dad will be watching,” Pitt freshman Jorge Diaz Graham said. “My friends, maybe.” But, Jorge, don’t they have to get up and go...
Duquesne joins 16-team CBI field, will play Rice in 1st round
The basketball season will continue for Duquesne after the Dukes received an invitation Sunday night to the 16-team College Basketball Invitational. The Dukes (20-12) are seeded No. 5 and will play No. 12 Rice (18-15) at 1 p.m. next Sunday. All games in the single-elimination tournament will be played at...
Pitt receives 1st NCAA Tournament bid since 2016, will meet Mississippi State in First Four
Jamarius Burton talked about how Pitt’s players are “grateful and blessed” to be a part of the NCAA Tournament. He also noted that his and his teammates’ reaction ranged from “joy to hunger” when they heard the news that Pitt (22-11) will play the SEC’s Mississippi State (21-12) on Tuesday...
Tribune-Review’s NCAA Tournament Bracketology: Pitt among 1st on the dance floor
For the past six seasons, the NCAA Tournament was an event Pitt fans followed because it’s what you do in March. They rooted only for their brackets, hoping to have a reason to brag to their buddies. Now, Pitt fans actually can have a specific rooting interest in the tournament,...
Tribune-Review’s NCAA Tournament Bracketology: Pitt among 1st on the dance floor
For the past six seasons, the NCAA Tournament was an event Pitt fans followed because it’s what you do in March. They rooted only for their brackets, hoping to have a reason to brag to their buddies. Now, Pitt fans actually can have a specific rooting interest in the tournament,...
Analysis: On the brink of Selection Sunday, is Pitt starting to wear down?
A fair and accurate appraisal of Pitt’s first 33 games — and where it might land next week when the postseason takes shape — needs to include the team’s roster issues. After losing three scholarship players, did Pitt get worn down? The Panthers were 8-1 from mid-January to mid-February, but...
Duke crushes Pitt in ACC Tournament quarterfinal
Jeff Capel’s hand has been on the heartbeat of his team all season. He knew how his players would react to success and failure, and they seldom disappointed or surprised him. For a two-hour period Thursday in Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum, Pitt was not that team Capel had been guiding and...
Pitt wrestler Nino Bonaccorsi seeded No. 1 at 197 pounds for NCAA Wrestling Championships
Pitt wrestler Nino Bonaccorsi is seeded No. 1 in the NCAA Wrestling Championships’ 197-pound division, leading a team of six Panthers who will compete, starting March 16, in Tulsa, Okla. Bonaccorsi, a Bethel Park graduate who compiled a 16-0 record this season, is Pitt’s first top seed since coach Keith...
Next up for Pitt: No. 21 Duke in ACC Tournament quarterfinal
There may be some factions of the Pitt fan base excited for the Panthers’ next game in the ACC Tournament just because it’s Duke, one of the blue bloods of college basketball. It matters to Pitt forward Blake Hinson, too, but for another, simpler reason: It just happens to be...
Pitt holds off Georgia Tech in ACC Tournament, makes strong case for NCAA bid
For the first time in three seasons, Pitt advanced in the ACC Tournament, adding a 22nd victory to its NCAA Tournament resume and earning a berth in a quarterfinal game Thursday against Duke. The root of Pitt’s 89-81 victory Wednesday against Georgia Tech at Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum was clear: Pitt’s...
Pitt shoots for 3rd win vs. Georgia Tech in 2nd round of ACC tourneyVideo
For much of Tuesday afternoon, Pitt might have been expecting to play Florida State in its first ACC Tournament game. But the situation changed dramatically at the Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum, and Georgia Tech rallied to defeat the Seminoles, 61-60, in the tournament’s first game. After its first-round bye, Pitt will...
Jamarius Burton called players-only meeting to prime Pitt players for ACC Tournament
Befitting a team that was one victory from winning a conference championship, Pitt enjoyed the appropriate representation when ACC awards were passed out Monday. • There’s Coach of the Year Jeff Capel, only the third Pitt coach so honored — joining Ben Howland (2002) and Jamie Dixon (2004) — and...
ACC Coach of the Year Jeff Capel, 10-year-old son Elijah kept dad’s secret for an entire day
For nearly 24 hours from Sunday to Monday night, only two people outside the ACC office knew Pitt’s Jeff Capel was voted conference coach of the year. Capel and his 10-year-old son, Elijah, kept the secret all day before the announcement shortly after 5 p.m. on the ACC Network. “I’m...
Penn State captures 7th all-time Big Ten wrestling championship
Penn State continued its dominance of Big Ten wrestling this season by capturing the conference championship, its seventh and first since 2019. After working through the regular-season schedule with a 16-0 record (8-0 in the Big Ten), Penn State claimed four individual champions and nine NCAA qualifiers Saturday in Ann...
Pitt wrestlers Nino Bonaccorsi, Cole Matthews win ACC championships
Pitt wrestlers Nino Bonaccorsi and Cole Matthews won ACC championships at 197 and 141 pounds, respectively, Sunday night at the ACC Wrestling Championships inside N.C. State’s Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, N.C. Bonaccorsi, a Bethel Park graduate, joined Jake Wentzel as Pitt’s only three-time ACC champion; Matthews repeated his title-winning performance...
Analysis: ACC Tournament gives Pitt the chance to rediscover its formula for success
ACC Tournament preparations started early for Jeff Capel, who said he planned to watch Pitt’s 78-76 loss to the Hurricanes on the flight home from Miami. No planned nap for Capel, even though he was still in the midst of a long, disappointing Saturday. He probably could have used some...
Pitt rallies late, but settles for loss to Miami in ACC championship showdown
Jeff Capel read the room and decided it was best to let his players be by themselves after the 78-76 loss to Miami on Saturday night in Coral Gables, Fla. “They’re in there hurting,” he told reporters inside Watsco Center. “I made the decision just for me to come out...
Pitt fires women’s basketball coach Lance White
The fallout from Pitt women’s basketball’s five losing seasons in the past five years landed on coach Lance White on Friday when he was fired. White is the first Pitt coach hired by athletic director Heather Lyke to be fired. Lyke has led the department since 2017. Pitt concluded White’s...
Pitt Take 5: Jeff Capel tells his team not to panic, ‘Let’s go have fun’ in South Beach
Maybe the quirk Jeff Capel noticed among his players during the Notre Dame game will disappear merely by everyone understanding what’s at stake Saturday night in Coral Gables, Fla. At least, that’s the hope. But in advance of Pitt visiting Miami with the ACC regular-season championship on the line, Capel...
Analysis: With ACC championship hopes still alive, Pitt carries heavy expectations into final game
The chief takeaway from Pitt’s 88-81 loss to Notre Dame is the need to avoid the following cliche that now has lost its relevance. Maybe you’ve heard it already: Before the start of the season, Pitt fans eagerly would have accepted the outcome of the first 30 games if they...
La Roche finds 5 words to live — and win — by on its way to NCAA Division III Tournament
Eight years ago, the basketball players at La Roche University — stung by a 1-24 record — met with coach Hermie Carmichael to figure out what went wrong. “They came to us and said, ‘Coach, we don’t have an image,’ ” Carmichael said. “’We don’t have a certain way that...
Pitt’s Micky Phillippi flourishes in the midst of wrestling ‘addiction’
Micky Phillippi first became addicted at the age of 5. More than 20 years later, the addiction still consumes him. What’s more, he has no plans to fight it or make it disappear. Why should he give up wrestling? “This sport is addicting,” he said. Phillippi, a Derry graduate who...
Pitt falls flat in 88-81 loss to Notre Dame in Irish coach Mike Brey’s final home game
If Pitt was overwhelmed by the emotion from Notre Dame coach Mike Brey’s final home game, the Panthers picked a bad time for a letdown. Whatever the reason, the result was a damaging — and embarrassing — 88-81 loss to the Irish on Wednesday night in South Bend, Ind. The...
Pitt invited to coach Mike Brey’s going-away party at Notre Dame
Mike Brey said he’s excited about almost everything that will occur Wednesday night at Joyce Center on the Notre Dame campus. He said 30 of his former players are coming to the game against Pitt, Brey’s last at home after nearly 23 years as Notre Dame’s coach. The night will...
