Pitt category, Page 80

Pitt basketball lost another player Thursday when sophomore forward Chris Payton, who spent only one season on the team, entered the NCAA transfer portal. Payton joins former Pitt teammate Noah Collier, who entered the portal earlier this week. Pitt coach Jeff Capel is beginning to reconstruct his roster after a...

Kenny Pickett showed up Tuesday for Pitt’s fourth practice of the spring. Likewise, Damarri Mathis and Lucas Krull were there, scoping out what they left behind while taking a break from preparations for Pitt’s Pro Day next Monday. All three played major roles last season in helping Pitt capture its...

The first move of Pitt basketball’s offseason occurred Tuesday when backup forward Noah Collier entered the NCAA transfer portal. Collier, a sophomore, entered games when center John Hugley was in foul trouble or needed a break. He made only two starts in two seasons, averaging 9.4 minutes, 1.3 points and...

At a watering hole in Pittsburgh’s Greenfield section over the weekend, Guy Fieri’s “Tournament of Champions” was showing on two TVs. At the head of the room on a main screen, The Players Championship PGA Tour event was in plain view until someone changed the channel to ION, which was...

Kaley Simqu helps form the defensive nucleus for the Plum girls soccer team and has been a part of a strong run of success the past three seasons. The junior said she is looking forward to her final season with the Mustangs as they hope to make another run to...

Pitt will give coach Jeff Capel at least one more season to reverse the misfortunes of its men’s basketball program. Not long after athletic director Heather Lyke told CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jon Rothstein that Capel will return next season, Lyke released a statement Friday night declaring Pitt’s commitment...

Pitt started assembling its men’s basketball schedule for the 2022-23 season Friday, announcing plans to return to Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., for the 16th annual Legends Classic Nov. 16-17. Pitt ended its 2021-22 season at Barclays on Tuesday in the ACC Tournament. Pitt is a familiar Legends participant, after...

Ryan Loebig is confident. The Plum graduate and senior defenseman on the Pitt club hockey team likes the way the Panthers are shaping up heading into the 20-team American College Hockey Association Division I national tournament set for Thursday through March 20 in St. Louis. “It’s all about embracing the...

Perhaps the two most difficult jobs in the Pitt athletic department belong to Heather Lyke and Jeff Capel. Lyke must decide what action — if any — she might take to jolt the basketball program back to life. Does she give Capel, who is signed through 2027, a fifth season?...

In the moments after Pitt bowed out of the ACC Tournament and walked away from another miserable season, Jeff Capel didn’t need to be reminded of what is required to shake Pitt basketball out of six years of lethargy. “It takes discipline. It takes commitment. It takes sacrifice,” he said....

Perhaps Jeff Capel’s most difficult task this season will surface Tuesday afternoon in Brooklyn, N.Y., when Pitt opens the 2022 ACC Tournament against Boston College. Tipoff is 2 p.m. on the ACC Network. Pitt’s coach must find a way extract a few more determined efforts from his players, who are...

NEW YORK — The Atlantic Coast Conference returns to Brooklyn this week, not quite the college basketball powerhouse it has historically been. The ACC Tournament starts Tuesday at Barclays Center, with just two teams ranked in the latest AP Top 25. No. 7 Duke is the top seed heading into...

Through performances at their respective conference tournaments, Pitt and Penn State combined to qualify 15 wrestlers for the NCAA championships to be held later this month. Nine Nittany Lions and six Panthers assured themselves participation in the event March 17-19, in Detroit. Among Pitt’s six qualifiers from this past weekend’s...

Monica Wignot, who played four seasons for Pitt volleyball before becoming one of the top all-time shot blockers for the women’s basketball team, died in an automobile crash Friday in Antis Township, near Altoona, in Blair County. She was 29 years old. Wignot, a native of Wilkes-Barre, was a volleyball...

Noise used to sweep Petersen Events Center like a tidal wave. So did great teams and iconic players. Focus was difficult for opponents while the home team fed off the atmosphere. Conversations with the person in the next seat were nearly impossible. The noise was so pervasive, even the screens...

Pitt’s three most recent opponents have shot the basketball at a 56.8% success rate — 160 shots, 91 makes. The past three defeats to Miami, No. 4 Duke and Notre Dame — part of a four-game losing streak the Panthers will drag into the ACC Tournament on Tuesday — occurred...

Pitt players donned their big-boy pads Friday for the first time since the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Dec. 30, and three elements surfaced, according to coach Pat Narduzzi. Intensity. Enthusiasm. A fight. Friendly fire is nothing new to football practices, and Narduzzi was not upset by it. Nonetheless, he declined...

For Bob Junko, the best moments of his 54 years as a football coach and administrator weren’t the Missouri Valley Conference and ACC championships he helped bring to Tulsa and Pitt, respectively. They weren’t his role in recruiting future Pro Football Hall of Famers Steve Largent (to Tulsa) and Jason...

The calendar, finally, has turned to March, and the madness that has been Pitt’s season soon will end. But the remaining games — starting Saturday at Notre Dame and continuing Tuesday with Pitt’s ACC Tournament opener — are not meaningless. Keeping watch over the game will be TV cameras, announcers,...

Nostalgia can be a wonderful thing in sports. Just look at the way Pittsburgh recently basked in the memories of Ben Roethlisberger’s career as he faded into retirement in January. We are also just getting back from our extended trip in the “way back machine” to relive Sidney Crosby’s journey...

In Thursday’s “First Call,” Hollywood star Joe Manganiello channels his Western Pennsylvania roots as narrator of a new Sidney Crosby documentary. Also, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers may not look kindly on Tom Brady going elsewhere if he comes out of retirement. The Buffalo Bills may try to bring Rob Gronkowski...

If you’re a wide receiver and you insist on running past opposing players like they’re fence posts … If you get your kicks wrestling the football from a cornerback, turning and running into the end zone to clinch a championship … If you must make 166 catches at more than...

There were grown men holding back tears on the floor of the Petersen Events Center on Tuesday, but emotions might flow more freely Saturday night in Durham, N.C. Before its 86-56 loss to the Blue Devils, Pitt honored retiring Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski with a ceremony recognizing his 47 years...

There’s plenty to hold Mike Krzyzewski’s attention these days. The ACC regular-season title that the Duke team he coaches just won. The looming end of a 47-year Hall of Fame career. The upcoming conference and NCAA tournaments. An emotional final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium against rival North Carolina on...