Jerry DiPaola stories, Page 47

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:...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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,...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...