Jerry DiPaola stories, Page 69
Pitt gets commitment from former Ole Miss power forward Blake Hinson
Jeff Capel added a second piece in his quest to rebuild Pitt’s basketball program Monday when 6-foot-7 forward Blake Hinson made a verbal commitment to the Panthers. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Blake Hinson (@b2_smooth) Hinson, who lives in Deltona, Fla., hasn’t played since the 2019-20...
Duquesne freshman guard Primo Spears plans to transfer
Duquesne lost another guard Monday when Primo Spears, only the fifth freshman in school history to lead the team in scoring, entered his name in the NCAA transfer portal. Three other guards — Jackie Johnson III, Tyson Acuff and Toby Okani — previously announced plans to transfer. Spears, who came...
Pirates utility player Michael Chavis learns to harness his diverse skills in quest for playing time
Michael Chavis can do so much on a baseball field that he needs to be careful: Sometimes, he ends up trying to do too much. That was his dilemma with the Pittsburgh Pirates in spring training while competing for playing time. He settled down in the final days before the...
Workload doesn’t bother David Bednar in Pirates’ victory against Nationals
David Bednar stands 6-foot-1, 250 pounds, with a muscular upper body and the look of a guy who believes he can do almost anything. So it was no surprise when — several hours before the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 5-3 victory against the Washington Nationals on Sunday at PNC Park — the...
Duquesne bowler Olivia Farwell makes history as Dukes’ 1st national player of the year
In its long history of athletics, Duquesne never could boast of a national player of the year — until Olivia Farwell enrolled and picked up a bowling bowl. Farwell, a graduate student from Elizabethtown, was named National Tenpin Coaches Association Player of the Year this season after posting a nation’s-best...
Pitt tight end Kaymar Mimes decides to transfer
Tight end Kaymar Mimes, who was approaching his fifth season in the Pitt program, has placed his name in the NCAA transfer portal. Mimes, 6-foot-5, 260 pounds, has been a member of the team since 2018. He appeared in 24 games, mostly on special teams, with one reception for 4...
Atlantic Hockey Association welcomes back Robert Morris’ men’s program
Robert Morris men’s hockey reached a major milestone Friday in its return to competition when it was welcomed back into the Atlantic Hockey Association by a vote of the AHA Board of Directors. Robert Morris will put a team back on the ice in time for the 2023-24 season. The...
Formerly a prized Yankees prospect, Miguel Yajure looks for new life with Pirates
The eventual winners in the two trades the Pittsburgh Pirates made with the New York Yankees in 2021 won’t be determined for several years. Will Hoy Park or Diego Castillo — acquired in July for relief pitcher Clay Holmes — one day turn into valuable infielders who could help the...
Pirates-Cardinals series finale rained out
The four-game series finale between the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium was called off Monday due to rain. It will be made up as part of a split doubleheader June 14 in St. Louis. The game would have been the Pirates’ first regular-season look at starting...
Duquesne secures commitments from former VCU guard, Slovakian forward
Keith Dambrot took the first major steps in rebuilding Duquesne’s men’s basketball team, securing commitments from two players Monday. Tre Clark, who played two years in the Atlantic 10 at VCU before spending last season at Northwest Florida State College, and 6-foot-8 forward Matus Hronsky of Slovakia verbally committed to...
Pirates break out bats, gloves, arms in victory against Cardinals
The Pittsburgh Pirates assembled the three elements necessary to achieve winning baseball — hitting, pitching, fielding — and the result was their first victory of the season, 9-4 against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday in front of 40,027 in Busch Stadium. First, the bats emerged when the Pirates scored...
Gold beats Blue, but Pitt players, coach know there’s plenty of work to do
There was a winner and a loser, and, of course, “Sweet Caroline” flowing through the Heinz Field speakers after the third quarter. Just like an autumn Saturday on the North Shore. But the rest of Pitt’s Blue Gold spring game had little resemblance to what you’ll see — or hope...
RB Daniel Carter, LB Bangally Kamara named most improved players in Pitt spring drills
In advance of Pitt’s Blue-Gold game Saturday at Heinz Field, coach Pat Narduzzi announced that redshirt junior running back Daniel Carter and junior outside linebacker Bangally Kamara have been named winners of the Ed Conway Award for most improved players during spring drills. Carter, a big back at 5-foot-10, 240...
Pitt Take 5: Panthers hope to put some spring in their 1st steps of 2022
Pitt will take its first public (baby) steps of the 2022 season Saturday in the Blue-Gold spring game at Heinz Field. The goalposts have moved since Pitt won the ACC championship last season. Prevailing in the conference used to be the goal, but players say that no longer is enough....
Here’s what to see — and what you may not see — in Pitt’s Blue-Gold game Saturday
The news emanating from Pitt’s Blue-Gold Game on Saturday will split into two areas: Plays and players seen and unseen. There will be plenty of both. Coaches are eager to see how players carry what they learned in 14 practices — with hardly anyone watching — into Heinz Field under...
Stakes set for Pitt spring game: Steak for the winners, ‘dirty-water’ hot dogs for the losers
If you think there’s nothing at stake Saturday at Heinz Field in Pitt’s intra-squad Blue-Gold Game, let defensive line coach Charlie Partridge set you straight. “Steaks or hot dogs,” said Partridge, who will coach the Gold team against offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti’s Blue squad. “Winner goes to one part of...
Pat Narduzzi short on details while Kedon Slovis, Nick Patti compete for Pitt QB job
If Jordan Addison eludes defensive backs as effectively as Pat Narduzzi deflects questions about his quarterbacks, Pitt will have a back-to-back winner of the Biletnikoff Trophy. Reporters tried different variations of queries Tuesday, hoping to get an idea of how the competition between Kedon Slovis and Nick Patti is evolving....
Julius Pegues, first Black basketball player at Pitt, dies of cancer
Julius Pegues, the first Black varsity basketball player at Pitt who went to serve the U.S. Air Force as a weather forecaster and later was an advisor to the Federal Aviation Administration, died Tuesday at the age of 85 after a long battle with cancer, the university announced. Pegues died...
Duquesne’s Tyson Acuff enters transfer portal
Tyson Acuff, a second-year guard who was one of only four holdovers from the 2020-2021 Duquesne men’s basketball team, put his name in the NCAA transfer portal Friday. Acuff joins Toby Okani and freshman guard Jackie Johnson III as players who have announced plans to transfer from Duquesne. After scoring...
Pitt loses 2 more to transfer portal, including starting point guard Femi Odukale
Pitt lost a starting point, gained his replacement and said goodbye to a little-used big man Friday when Femi Odukale and Max Amadasun entered their names in the transfer portal. The news came hours after Pitt received a verbal commitment from point guard Nelly Cummings, formerly of Colgate, who led...
From Memphis to Oklahoma City to the Final Four and back, Cam Johnson ready for a busy weekend
Cam Johnson is contractually obligated to be in Memphis on Friday night and Oklahoma City on Sunday as a member of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. He plans to add a third destination Saturday. Thanks in part to a contact his father, Gil, made while playing basketball at Pitt in the...
Veteran coaches tasked with assembling Pitt’s offensive ‘smorgasbord’
To steal tight ends coach Tim Salem’s word describing Pitt’s offense, spring football has offered a “smorgasbord” of experiences for players and staff on that side of the ball. What else would you expect from a unit that includes four veteran assistants who total 146 years of blowing a whistle,...
West Virginia hires South Dakota coach Dawn Plitzuweit to lead women’s basketball
Dawn Plitzuweit, who led South Dakota to within one game of the NCAA Tournament Elite 8, has been named women’s basketball coach at West Virginia. Athletic director Shane Lyons said Plitzuweit received a five-year, $3 million contract, with a starting salary of $550,000, plus incentives. Plitzuweit replaces Mike Carey, who...
Without a doubt, former OLSH, Moon star Puff Johnson ready to confront Duke, Final Four
When he was a freshman at Our Lady of Sacred Heart, Puff Johnson made 11 consecutive 3-point shots. A year later, he was named second-team all-state six months before his 18th birthday. Then, as a junior, he averaged 22.1 points and 9.4 rebounds per game while leading Moon to a...
Back to work with a new contract, Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi demands consistent effort
The ink was barely dry on Pat Narduzzi’s new nine-year contract Tuesday when he decided to blame himself for his players’ subpar effort at Pitt’s 10th practice of the spring. “I wasn’t as excited about it, compared to what we did Saturday (in a scrimmage, won by the defense),” he...
