St. Francis builds big halftime lead, holds on to stun Pitt in season opener
Pitt players confessed they didn’t know much about their opponent in the season opener, other than that St. Francis (Pa.) was a member of the Northeast Conference. That almost always assured the Panthers of a victory, as they had only lost once in 44 previous games against NEC teams. So...
Pitt’s Alex Kessman: ‘Every kick is a game-winning kick’
Alex Kessman is a kicker. By definition, he stops and thinks about everything. “Ninety percent of what I do is between the ears,” he said. The snap, the hold, even the wind. Why should his future get less attention? No one at Pitt has booted more field goals (64) through...
Panthers ready to ‘feed off each other’s energy’ as Pitt opens basketball season in empty arena
The Pitt Panthers are ready to open the basketball season against St. Francis on Wednesday night, even if it’s in an empty arena. Pitt junior swingman Au’Diese Toney said the Panthers have been practicing with “fake fans in the arena” by playing automated crowd noise to simulate the sounds of...
Jimmy Morrissey ventures into Death Valley, hoping to find the missing piece to his Pitt career
When he was asked how he has grown over the past four years, Jimmy Morrissey smiled and rubbed his chin with pride. “I can grow facial here now, as you guys can see,” Pitt’s senior center said Tuesday over a Zoom call with reporters. Of course, there’s more to Morrissey’s...
Pitt women’s basketball team ready to take step forward behind deeper roster
Newcomers made an immediate impact for the Pitt women’s basketball team a year ago. The Panthers hope for more of the same this season. Coach Lance White welcomed a tall and physical recruiting class, as well as New Mexico transfer Jayla Everett. Coupled with a talented group of returning sophomores...
Pitt-Northwestern game will anchor ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Dec. 9
The Pitt men’s basketball team will play at Northwestern at 9:15 p.m. on Dec. 9 in the final game of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The game, to be televised on ESPNU, is the 20th meeting between the schools. Northwestern leads the all-time series, 10-9, but Pitt has won the past...
ACC basketball preview: No. 4 Virginia opens season as favoriteVideo
Tony Bennett was pleased how his Virginia team played in the weeks before the coronavirus pandemic abruptly shut down last season. That’s the foundation he is relying on for the fourth-ranked Cavaliers, the preseason ACC favorite for the first time in nearly four decades in a race featuring No. 9...
Pitt will limit attendance at the Pete to 500 people
The Petersen Events Center will be a relatively quiet place for the foreseeable future. Adhering to new state and local covid-19 restrictions, Pitt will not offer general seating for single game tickets for home basketball games and will limit attendance to 500 people, the university announced Tuesday morning. Total capacity...
Underdog Pitt prepares to face 4th-ranked Clemson, Trevor LawrenceVideo
The topic was quarterbacks and underdogs Monday at Pat Narduzzi’s weekly chat with reporters. It’s Clemson week. What did you expect? Certainly not a discussion of what oddsmakers are saying about Pitt’s game Saturday in Death Valley against No. 4 Clemson. Narduzzi wants no part of that particular conversation. “I...
Pitt’s Jeff Capel shepherds young team into uncertain season
While wading cautiously into his third season as Pitt’s basketball coach, Jeff Capel doesn’t know what to expect. He likes what he has seen at practice. But doesn’t everyone before the games begin? The Panthers expect to improve on last season’s shooting percentage (40.4, the program’s worst in 51 years),...
No. 1 Pitt soccer loses to Clemson in ACC championship match
After sitting on Zoom calls, remaining under quarantine and doing little more than thinking about soccer for three weeks, Pitt’s men’s soccer team found itself one victory from winning the ACC championship. But the No. 1-ranked team in the nation had its seven-game winning streak stopped Sunday in Cary, N.C.,...
Touchdowns, field goals: Pitt gets plenty of both while booting Virginia Tech
Pat Narduzzi likes field goals. Really. Pitt’s coach is pleased, of course, when Alex Kessman boots the football through the uprights, and Kessman has given him plenty of reason to smile over the past four seasons. He holds the school record with 64 field goals, including 18 of 24 attempts...
Pitt’s depleted roster steps up, pounds Virginia Tech
Pitt’s 47-14 victory against Virginia Tech wasn’t official until the clock showed triple zeros at 7:20 p.m. Saturday. But Pat Narduzzi saw it coming four days earlier, and maybe that says something about how Pitt’s senior class hasn’t allowed this grim season to unravel. Quarterback Kenny Pickett stood up in...
Pitt football changes course, won’t require players to wear masks during Saturday’s game
In a reversal of a previous announcement, Pitt and Virginia Tech players won’t need to pull up their masks to cover the nose and mouth during Saturday’s game at Heinz Field. Pitt’s athletic department, which initially announced Friday that all players would wear face coverings while engaged in competition, clarified...
VPI (better known as Virginia Tech) stands in the way of Pitt’s recovery efforts
Before we get started, let’s make something perfectly clear: The team scheduled to play Pitt on Saturday at Heinz Field (and we say “scheduled” because these days you never know) is not technically Virginia Tech. To explain, here’s a bit of history that’s been passed down through the years: In...
Ex-Pitt star Dorin Dickerson ‘can’t wait to start working’ for Penguins on Lower Hill project
Since his NFL playing days ended, Dorin Dickerson has been building a balance between two budding careers that ultimately led to the union of a perfect position for him with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The former Pitt All-American, who has worked as a weekend and pre-game host for the Panthers and...
Pitt’s Jeff Capel knows he must confront challenges on, off the court
Like every coach on every level in every sport, Jeff Capel doesn’t know what to expect. He just knows it won’t be easy navigating through more than 20 basketball games — walking in and out of gyms and on and off airplanes and buses — in the midst of a...
Pitt seniors contemplate stretching their careers into 2021
After chatting with reporters on his usual Thursday conference call, Pat Narduzzi arose from his chair and uttered these hopeful words, “Say your prayers. Hope to see you on Saturday.” For so many reasons, Pitt’s encounter with Virginia Tech, scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday at Heinz Field, is one of...
Pitt men’s soccer makes history, beats Notre Dame to earn first berth in ACC championship game
Ranked No. 1 in the nation, Pitt’s men’s soccer team reached another milestone Wednesday night, earning its first berth in the ACC Championship Final with a 3-1 semifinal victory against Notre Dame. The Panthers will meet Clemson for the championship at noon Sunday at WakeMed Park in Cary, N.C. The...
ACC could benefit from show of force behind 3 ranked teams
There is a growing look of mediocrity in the middle of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s standings. The league appears to have sagged in the middle even as the ACC’s headliners have been quite impressive. There are three Top 25 teams — No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 4 Clemson and No....
Pitt discovers anything’s possible when ‘silent, little killer’ strikes
Perhaps Pitt wide receiver D.J. Turner captured best what it means to play, coach and follow college football this season. “This is the year you have to be flexible because you never know what the next day is going to bring,” he said. By early Wednesday, there were 65 games...
Running backs coach Andre Powell seeks standouts for Pitt’s ground game
In this complicated time when people are fearful of something as simple as a handshake, Andre Powell has learned not to sweat too much. “I control what I can control. The rest I let go,” Pitt’s running backs/special teams coach said Tuesday, minutes after the first practice since covid-19 concerns...
Pat Narduzzi urges Pitt players ‘to keep your guard up’ amid covid-19 surge
For Pat Narduzzi, the most maddening aspect of shepherding Pitt through the covid-19 pandemic is not knowing what’s next. Football coaches are consumed with knowing everything, from the bus schedule to what the opponent’s coach is thinking on fourth-and-3. But Narduzzi doesn’t know something that, in 2020, matters more than...
Pitt men’s soccer prepares for 2nd consecutive trip to ACC semifinals
Jay Vidovich called Pitt’s 2-1 victory against Duke in the ACC Championship tournament “a big step for the program.” The chance to make another even bigger step awaits as the Panthers, the nation’s top-ranked men’s soccer team, advances into the tournament semifinals Wednesday against Notre Dame in Raleigh, N.C. The...
No. 4 Virginia opens season ahead of Duke as ACC favoriteVideo
Tony Bennett was pleased how his Virginia team played in the weeks before the coronavirus pandemic abruptly shut down last season. That’s the foundation he is relying on for the fourth-ranked Cavaliers, the preseason ACC favorite for the first time in nearly four decades in a race featuring No. 9...
