Well, a domino fell Pitt’s way. Damion Lee is a graduate transfer from Drexel, and yesterday he opted to go to Louisville. That was enough for another graduate transfer, Sterling Smith, to rule out the Cards and opt for Pitt.
Smith is a 6-4 guard, though I’ve also seen him listed at 6-2. Love the accuracy of measurements of high school and college players.
As much as Pitt has a desperate need for inside help, better perimeter shooters are nearly as vital to open up the floor. Too often defenses had no real fear of Pitt’s backcourt being a consistent 3-point threat. That allowed them to pack it inside more. Giving Artis and Young little space to work, and taking away any threat of attacking the basket.
Smith’s shooting has improved every year he played at Coppin State. From 32.9% as a freshman to 41.8% last year. A 77% free throw shooter and the ability to attack the basket as well.
He should be able to find plenty of time available with Durand Johnson transferring out and Cam Wright graduating.
On the surface this guy looks to be what Pitt needs, an athletic, 6’4″ guard with a good 3 point stroke. But with Jamie, it’s all about fitting into the system and playing good D.
We’ll see.
If 9 out of 10 people even know where Coppin State is I will buy them all a beer.
I would be more excited if they got the G from Robert Morris that continually drove the lane against Duke in the tournament. He was better than anyone Pitt has at the position.
I doubt there is one graduate transfer that is a bona fide star.
H2P
H2P
Have no idea if Smith can help, but he cannot hurt!
against ND, UCONN, and MICH, Sterling smith averaged 11.7 and was 8-20 from 3.
Pitt needs someone who can shoot it and he obviously can..and was getting looks from lousville.
Not sure of your issue here other than your complaining about essentially everything
This is an upgrade over whatever Durand was going to give us. Through that prism it’s good news. Still lotssss of work ahead of Jamie, though.
2011-2012 season for Trey Zeigler at CMU:
– 31.8 minutes per game
– field goal percentage: 46.2%
– 16 points a game
I will give him 2 more years and then I’ll be calling for his head too.
Can he play PG ?
You are dead on. JD’s track record with transfers is very poor. I think Jermaine Dixon was also a transfer. That worked out okay. Other than that, Mike Cook was the last one that amounted to much that I can clearly remember.
Definitely agree that Pitt needs at least one reliable shooter. Either that or enough streaky ones that somebody has to be on any given night!
Division I Schools Ranked by Number of Players in NBA
No. Players
School In NBA
1 Duke 18
1 Kentucky 18
3 Kansas 17
4 North Carolina 16
5 UCLA 15
6 Arizona 12
6 Florida 12
8 Connecticut 9
9 Texas 8
9 Washington 8
11 Georgia Tech 7
11 Michigan St. 7
13 Georgetown 6
13 LSU 6
13 Memphis 6
13 Michigan 6
13 Southern Cal 6
13 Syracuse 6
19 Marquette 5
19 Wake Forest 5
21 Baylor 4
21 Colorado 4
21 Gonzaga 4
21 Indiana 4
21 New Mexico 4
21 Ohio St. 4
21 Stanford 4
21 UNLV 4
29 Alabama 3
29 Arkansas 3
29 California 3
29 Creighton 3
29 Louisville 3
29 Maryland 3
29 Miami-FL 3
29 Missouri 3
29 Nevada 3
29 Oklahoma St. 3
29 Purdue 3
29 Tennessee 3
29 Texas A&M 3
29 Vanderbilt 3
29 Wichita St. 3
29 Wisconsin 3
45 Arizona St. 2
45 Boston College 2
45 Butler 2
45 BYU 2
45 Cincinnati 2
45 Clemson 2
45 Dayton 2
45 Detroit 2
45 Fresno St. 2
45 Illinois 2
45 Iowa 2
45 N.C. State 2
45 Oregon 2
45 Oregon St. 2
45 Pittsburgh 2
45 San Diego St. 2
45 St. John’s 2
45 St. Mary’s 2
45 Utah 2
45 VCU 2
45 Villanova 2
45 Virginia 2
45 Washington St. 2
45 Western Kentucky 2
69 Belmont 1
69 Bucknell 1
69 Central Michigan 1
69 Cleveland St. 1
69 Colorado St. 1
69 Davidson 1
69 DePaul 1
69 Eastern Wash. 1
69 Georgia 1
69 Harvard 1
69 IUPUI 1
69 Kansas St. 1
69 La Salle 1
69 Lehigh 1
69 Long Beach St. 1
69 Louisiana Tech 1
69 Minnesota 1
69 Morehead St. 1
69 Murray St. 1
69 Norfolk St. 1
69 North Texas 1
69 Oklahoma 1
69 Old Dominion 1
69 Rider 1
69 Saint Joseph’s 1
69 Santa Clara 1
69 Seton Hall 1
69 South Dakota St. 1
69 St. Bonaventure 1
69 Temple 1
69 Towson 1
69 Tulsa 1
69 UL Lafayette 1
69 Utah Valley 1
69 Virginia Tech 1
69 Weber St. 1
69 Western Carolina 1
69 Western Michigan 1
69 Xavier 1
Total Division I 360
Non-Division I 1
High School 23
Foreign 63
Total in NBA 2014-15 447
A couple points, we will never compete with Duke and NC, they are in a very elite group.
When you look at this, Jamie has got pretty amazing results with what he had. Two marginal NBA players and a couple others that got a sniff. Also points out how hard it is to get those elite players. Also, anyone who thinks Sean Miller would ever consider an offer from Pitt is smoking the really, really good stuff.
The only school that is “new” on that list is UConn, everyone else has been established for a very long time with a history that goes pretty far back.
They lost to Oregon by 42 points, Illinois by 58 points, ND by 37 points, UConn by 18, Mich by 16, Hofstra by 41 pts, NCCentral by 38, etc.
So I don’t know what scoring some points against these teams in blowouts means. Basically it seems to be mostly garbage time.
This sounds similar to a few years ago when Dixon brought in Chase Adams of another scrub team(Centenary) from a scrub conference.
His numbers at scrub school very similar to this Coppin State kid.
Adams: Ranked 11th in the league in scoring (14.6 ppg.), third in assists (4.5 apg.), first in steals (2.7 spg.) and second in assist:turnover ratio (2.24)…Also averaged 4.2 rebounds and 34.5 minutes per game, converted 39.8 percent (72-181) of his 3-point field goals and 70.3 percent (97-138) of his free throws.
That didn’t work out too well, Adams was a non-factor for Pitt avg’g less than 2 ppg.
Maybe this kid will work out better….only because we are worse. Much worse.
laugh!!!
