2024 in Pittsburgh college sports: Newsworthy year for teams at Pitt, Duquesne, Penn State

The steady rebuild of men’s basketball, a seven-game winning streak to start the football season and a fourth consecutive Final Four appearance by women’s volleyball make 2024 sound like a nice year for Pitt athletics.

Yet none of those events come close to challenging for the biggest story of the year.

There was monumental change inside Pitt’s athletics department when Chancellor Joan Gabel fired athletic director Heather Lyke in September, a not totally unexpected development but a jolt nonetheless. When contacted by TribLive after her dismissal, Lyke said she had little comment “about the place I poured my heart, soul, time and energy into for the past 7¹⁄₂ years.”

Lyke’s vision for the athletics department was not met by her efforts to raise enough money through donations to fund Victory Heights, a $240 million, 240,000-square-foot facility currently under construction next to Petersen Events Center. Victory Heights will be a training facility for most sports (with the exception of football and men’s and women’s basketball) and will be the home venue for the non-revenue sports of volleyball, wrestling and gymnastics.

Meanwhile, Gabel believed new leadership was necessary while Pitt steps cautiously into the new age of college athletics, where, for the first time, recruitment of athletes is tied to how much money they demand to enroll.

The new athletic director is Allen Greene, who has kept a low profile through his first two months on the job while contemplating the issues confronting him. Upon hiring Greene, 47, Gabel referred to a “transformational moment in Pitt athletics.”

He has served as athletic director at Auburn and Buffalo and held key administrative positions with Notre Dame (his alma mater), Ole Miss and Tennessee.

“I’ve sat in the chair,” he said. “I’ve done it before at a pretty high level. Nothing rocks me.”

Greene has stable coaching situations across the board, but he will keep a careful eye on Pat Narduzzi’s football program in 2025. Like basketball coach Jeff Capel, Narduzzi has a contract through 2030, but football has won a total of only 10 games in the past two seasons, an abrupt fall from 2021 and 2022 when Pitt won 20. Couple that trend with the current unique era in college athletics where replenishing a roster never has been so difficult, and the football program will be watched closely throughout the new year — by administrators and fans.

• Speaking of football’s nosedive, Pitt looked like two different teams — good in the first seven, bad in the next five (0-5) and lacking a killer instinct in the six-overtime loss to Toledo in the GameAbove Sports Bowl. Pitt’s problems can be blamed on injuries to quarterback Eli Holstein and offensive left tackle Branson Taylor and the lack of quality depth in those two areas. Part of it can be traced to tackling issues on defense and the failure of anyone to step up and make a big play in crucial moments of close losses to Virginia, Clemson and Toledo.

Part of it is simply that Pitt was not as talented as at least three of its final five opponents. Two of them — SMU and Clemson — were chosen for the College Football Playoff. A third, Louisville, finished 8-4, with a victory at Clemson.

Assuming Holstein returns to full health and freshman quarterback Julian Dugger continues to build off his impressive debut effort in the bowl game, there is hope. But two of the top four pass catchers (Konata Mumpfield and Gavin Bartholomew) are headed to the NFL, wide receiver Daejon Reynolds is in the portal and wide receiver Censere Lee will be rehabbing a season-ending injury.

That leaves Kenny Johnson and Poppi Williams and running back Desmond Reid leading a group of pass catchers that appears thin, at least for the moment. Bottom line: Narduzzi must win most of his portal battles.

• Over the past 22 months, Capel’s basketball program has thrived in this tough environment. Pitt was 24-12 and 22-11 in 2022-23 and 2023-24, the first time Pitt has gone back-to-back with 20-victory seasons in 10 years.

Bub Carrington was a first-round draft choice of the Washington Wizards, who were 4-21 through the first three months of the NBA season.

But he has been an important piece for the Wizards, standing third on the team in minutes (29.3) while averaging 8.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.

During the season, a highlight no one will forget is Blake Hinson climbing atop a scorer’s table Jan. 20 at Duke to trade taunts with fans after Pitt’s 80-76 victory. He also ended up in the NBA — he plays for the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League — after finishing third in scoring in the ACC (18.5). Hinson’s scoring average was the highest at Pitt since Michael Young averaged 19.6 in 2016-17.

The current season is an important one for Capel, whose Pitt teams have been to the NCAA Tournament only once in six years and were left out last season. For the first time in eight years, however, Pitt is 10-2, with its next game New Year’s Day against California at Petersen Events Center.

• The other big story encompassing college basketball — and college athletics in general — is the inevitable march toward professionalism, thanks to NIL and proposed revenue sharing payments to players.

“It’s going to continue to go that way, anytime money is involved, especially a lot of money,” Capel said. “You’re seeing some of the young people feeling the pressure (to perform). That’s the thing that a lot of people fail to discuss, or realize or talk about as we just opened the floodgates, really, without any guardrails on this.”

Capel said NIL could create “way higher” transfer portal numbers throughout college basketball than a year ago. As it applies to Pitt, Capel said Greene’s SEC background helps.

“I think he understands the need for all sports, but especially football and men’s basketball,” Capel said. “I think he has a plan to try to help fund raise and, hopefully, get assistance and help from the university when this thing switches and you go to true revenue sharing. That’s his plan and I think we all have full confidence that he’ll be able to execute it.”

• Perhaps the saddest Pitt story of 2024 was the women’s volleyball team, the overwhelming No. 1 team in the nation for most of the season, losing in the NCAA Tournament Final Four for the fourth consecutive time. In each of the four tournaments, Pitt failed to reach the title match.

Dan Fisher was national coach of the year, and Olivia Babcock was the AVCA National Player of the Year, but the Panthers (33-2) lost in four sets to Louisville on Dec. 19 after defeating the Cardinals twice during the season. Pitt also defeated eventual national champion Penn State during the regular season.

Fisher called the outcome “one of the tougher losses of my career.”

Sophomore All-American Torrey Stafford was near tears talking about her senior teammates Valeria Vazquez Gomez and Rachel Fairbanks, who pulled on a Pitt jersey for the last time.

“They put their entire heart on the court,” said Stafford, who has entered the transfer portal.

The team’s performance was uncharacteristic in two areas. Pitt led the nation in opponent hitting percentage (.127), but Louisville hit .320. The Panthers averaged 1.9 aces per set during the season, but managed a total of only two for the entire match.

• Pitt men’s soccer also met deep disappointment in the NCAA Tournament, losing in the quarterfinals to eventual national champion Vermont, 2-0, on campus at Ambrose Urbanic Field.

Pitt, the No. 2 overall seed, won the ACC regular-season championship for the first time and reached the national quarterfinals for the fourth time in the past five seasons. The Panthers (14-6, 6-2 ACC) were undefeated against five nationally ranked opponents, outscoring them 11-2.

Duquesne makes history

Duquesne’s men’s basketball team ended a drought of nearly five decades in earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in March.

The Dukes defeated VCU, 57-51, to win the Atlantic 10 Tournament at Barclays Center in New York and qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 47 years.

The 11th-seeded Dukes kept the magic going by upsetting BYU, 71-67, in a first-round game in Omaha.

In the second round, however, Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 30 points as No. 3 Illinois ended Duquesne’s season with an 89-63 win.

The loss marked the final game of Dukes coach Keith Dambrot’s career, as the 65-year old retired with a career record of 529-305, including 116-96 in seven seasons at Duquesne. Assistant coach Dru Joyce III soon was named as Dambrot’s replacement.

• Duquesne also served as a host team for the tournament’s first- and second- round games at PPG Paints Arena.

Penn State rolls into CFP

The first year of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff was a welcomed sight for the Penn State Nittany Lions, who were awarded the No. 5 seed for the tournament.

Penn State went 12-1 in the regular season after losing to Ohio State, 20-13, and then lost to Oregon, 45-37, in the Big Ten championship game.

The Nittany Lions scored a 38-10 victory over No. 11 SMU in the CFP first round to earn a spot in the Fiesta Bowl and a meeting with No. 3 Boise State on New Year’s Eve.