It’s the time for recruiting. Coach Kevin Stallings have put out plenty of offers. For transfers, grad transfers, still deciding kids in the 2016 class, and especially kids for the 2017 recruiting class. Big men, guards, shooters, forwards. They have been all over the place. Nothing close to concrete. Makes it kind of difficult to get a handle on what they are looking for — other than players. Now it just comes down to landing some.
On media related news, Paul Zeise is leaving the Pitt basketball beat for the Post-Gazette. He’s been moved up to sports columnist/opinionator. Zeise was a very good beat writer first for Pitt football and then basketball. He’s been grinding for years on that side and has raised his profile on the general sports side for the last few years via radio work. It’s a well-earned promotion.
The new Pitt basketball beat writer for the P-G is Craig Meyer. He has worked his way up on the basketball beats. First covering Robert Morris and then Duquesne. He also did time covering the Hoopie football team.
His first piece in his new position discusses the decisionmaking of incoming freshmen Justice Kithcart and Corey Manigault to stick with Pitt after Jamie Dixon’s departure.
For the players, as taxing as it was to make such an important decision in a week, the Panthers’ new coach played a major part in reselling them to the program.
“When I talked to him, he seemed like a straight shooter,” Kithcart said. “I felt like he had a good mindset for the team, a good mindset for me and I could tell he really wanted me. He liked the type of player I was and felt like I could fit in his system. That was great, getting that from him.”
Kithcart, a 6-foot-1 point guard from Durham, N.C., and Manigault, a 6-foot-8 forward from Suitland, Md., committed to the Panthers last year.
On March 28, the day Stallings was presented as coach, both opted to reopen their recruitment. It was a move, they explained, that had less to do with Pitt and more with an uncertain and evolving situation. Each wanted to take time, talk with their families and evaluate whether their chosen destination was still the right fit.
…
He was straight up with me,” Kithcart said. “He didn’t try to sell me a dream. He didn’t try to do too much. He told me how it was going to be. I feel like I can fit into his playing style. He’s a coach who lets his players play and that’s something I really like.”
Upon hearing from Stallings, Manigault watched films of his Vanderbilt teams. What he saw were forwards who were allowed to play to their strengths, including big men who could stretch the floor in the same way he believes he can.
At a fragile point in his life, Manigault didn’t feel suffocated by Stallings, either, something that proved to be important.
“He didn’t want to force me to do anything,” he said. “He just kind of left it up to me. I really liked that. He just had that good vibe from the start.”
Both players said they plan on arriving on campus in May or June. Once there, they will be joined by fellow signee Crisshawn Clark, a junior college transfer, and the yet-to-be-determined final member of Pitt’s 2016 recruiting class.
Both had a lot of teams pursuing them. It will be interesting to see how their first year plays out given the actual depth in front of them as freshmen. Despite Kithcart being the more highly touted recruit, Manigault may have a better chance at seeing more action. The backcourt is packed.
Damon Wilson is one of those players in the backcourt. He struggled to get playing time last year and with his shot — which is part of why his playing time was a struggle.
“Last season wasn’t my greatest, the way I played.”
Wilson said his shooting woes can be attributed to fundamentals. He didn’t have time to address them after recovering from a shoulder injury prior to the start of his first college season and never caught up.
He is thankful Stallings made him aware and more grateful he decided to remain at Pitt.
“I had a couple glitches in my shot,” said Wilson, who also credits assistant Tom Richardson for his turnaround. “Where I placed the ball, what fingers, simple stuff like my footwork. It wasn’t a lot to work on, but when he fixed it, my shot was good. The first week, I was already feeling the difference. I wasn’t missing as much.”
Stallings, who praised Wilson’s ability to utilize his quickness and size to drive to the basket, said: “Sometimes guys have to come to grips with what they do well or what they don’t do well. When that self-realization truly takes place, that’s when they begin to understand how effective they can be within how we play.”
Wilson only shot 33% from behind the arc (9-27) and a not-much-better 20-57 (35%) from everywhere else last year. New assistant coach Tom Richardson is supposed to work wonders for shooting, so this should be an area of major improvement for Wilson.
As I have written before. Stallings is coming into a good situation. At least for year one as far as talent and what this team can do. ESPN’s analytics guy, John Gasaway put Pitt as the team with the best shot at success with a new coach for 2016 (Insider subs).
When Pittsburgh athletic director Scott Barnes hired Stallings away from Vanderbilt, the initial reactions ranged from surprise to outright bewilderment. Be that as it may, the new hire now finds himself in a pretty good position. In effect, Stallings inherits four starters from an NCAA tournament team, losing only pass-first point guard James Robinson. (Rafael Maia was also a starter, though the Brown transfer was used sparingly after the opening tip by former coach Jamie Dixon. Maia averaged less than eight minutes per contest over Pitt’s final five games.) Stallings’ primary challenge in Year 1 will be finding the best way for Michael Young, Jamel Artis and the rest of this veteran rotationto make shots. Last season the Panthers ranked No. 14 in the 15-team ACC in accuracy from the field during conference play.
Arguably it reactions from Pitt fans actually began at “outright bewilderment” and ranged out from there.
It appears at least that HCKS has hired a couple of recruiters with a lot of ties with the ACC network …it will be interesting, to say the least, what the next 6 months bring in terms of commits
Makes it sound like spending time in Morgantown is a prison sentence. Pretty accurate imo.
Legendary Pitt quarterback Dan Marino will host a lunch at the Robinson Township Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza on Wednesday, May 4, beginning at noon.
A check presentation will be made to the Panther Club Scholarship Fund. Marino will be available for interviews in the early portion of the noon hour to discuss his own Pitt experience as well as the current Panthers under Coach Pat Narduzzi.
Maybe there will be video coverage or an article…
If you’re looking for some polished ESPN talking head, not the guy you’d like.
Would love him to be on in the am or afternoon so I could have him on at work. The others, not so much.
Actually, I like Josh Miller too, but I have to much going on a work in the am to listen.
One thing Dixon was unable to do is address his glaring weakness, recruiting; he didn’t surround himself with a staff that could compensate and fill the void, for whatever reason. In the same way, Chryst, an offensive head coach, failed to hire a good defensive defensive coordinator to compensate for the other side of the ball. Maybe both Dixon and Chryst, quality people, suffered from a loyalty problem? I don’t know…
Peterman in middle of the pack ..just like we always are
And today a timely article on the Murray vs Fleury situation with the Pens.
As I posted back when he was still here, “loyal to a fault.”
We saw this play out with his promotion of House to DC… and also with his insistence on sticking with Voytik regardless of the results.
7. Pitt. Nate Peterman unseated Chad Voytik a year ago and returns as the incumbent (2,287 yards passing, 20 touchdown passes, eight interceptions). Now he has a new offensive coordinator and no safety blanket in Tyler Boyd. Behind him, Pitt has no proven backup.
Here is the text for 2015’s Voytik at the same #7 position… and he had more going for him as far as his surrounding cast:
7. Chad Voytik, Pittsburgh
2015 Year of Eligibility: Junior
Voytik was steady in his first year as Pittsburgh starter, throwing for 2,233 yards and 16 touchdowns. The Tennessee native played better as the season progressed and threw only one interception over the final six games. Voytik has two of the ACC’s top skill players at his disposal in running back James Conner and receiver Tyler Boyd and one of the league’s best offensive lines. Voytik should take another step forward in his development under new coordinator Jim Chaney.
– See more at: link to athlonsports.com
It wouldn’t matter if he was signed until 2100…Barnes would “relax the buyout” if Narduzzi wanted to leave.
work with RMU and the Dukes was as good
as Zeise and exceeded anything done by
Werner on FB b
If the pedos are on the win side, I’ll be ok and overlook the other poor performances for another year. Heck, it’s only been 32 years since Pitt was really relavent on a national level. What’s one more year…
Man, the Season can’t start soon enough.
Narduzzi’s HONEYMOON ends Sept 10.
Besides, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot to talk about this time of year.
Has Conner had his last treatment yet? His fast and strong recovery could make all the difference, especially against PSU and OkieSt.
Be nice to get a Pat Signal on an elite player or two.
Believe me, I worry about that Kid all of the time.
He’s SPECIAL in more ways than one.
If clear, Conner is good to go.
Hoping for the VERY best.
@GC. According to Rivals we have offers out to 143 players. Interestingly, only a handful of them are less than 3*. Almost 80 of them are 5/4* players. Confidence is high.
We have smart coaches, good players and even better players on the way. We are collectively in the best position we have been in years. STOP with the negative waves Moriarty!!!
Hell….I personally think people are afraid of us. They should be. Who has us penciled in as a win?
No one is afraid of playing PITT – not at this point. Regardless of what we fans feel the reality is that last season was an average at best season for the Top 40+ team in the US.
Our final ranking was around #49 or so and there were teams that had worse records rated higher than us and teams like Toledo and Akron that were ranked higher than us even though we beat them in the last couple of years.
The reality is that Pitt is just not (yet!) seen as a good football program either in number of wins and certainly not in strength of the program. Hell, even UCLA and USC – with programs much more highly visible than Pitt’s ranked above us with the same record or even worse.
In conference play we only beat one team that had a winning record in Louisville. Other than that we lost to every tough opponent on our schedule. Hell, some may say our ‘signature win’ was against GT who was 1-7 in conf play. Future opponents look at those results, against a pretty weak ACC schedule, and they aren’t thinking they are going to lose against Pitt.
We Pitt fans get excited when we see an article written about Narduzzi being a great hire or Pitt ‘on the verge’ or whatever, but we don’t take time to realize that is one person’s opinion and he’s paid to put out X amount or articles per week with X amount of words in them.
Believe me – I know how that works. I have gotten emails and phone calls from national media outlets asking my views and opinions on Pitt and what goes on with them and I always refuse to comment because I believe I am not qualified to say Pitt is going to do this or be that… but that is how these national writers get their material.
All that said, I think we are in for a string of nice seasons and exciting play – but if we are hanging our hat, or Narduzzi’s contract, on the W-L record of 2016 then we are making a big mistake. Hell, he hasn’t even gotten 1/3 of the roster as his own players yet.
What I’m hoping to happen is that our ’16 opponents, especially in our out of conference games, will cop that underestimating attitude and look past us to their next opponent and we’ll pull out 2-3 OOC wins which will be vert tough to do otherwise.
The O-line should be the best in years, these are the best guys Chryst recruited and they are mature. There is O-line depth. Boyd is gone but as a group the receivers should be good. There is running back depth. Orndorf is very good and Parrish is a great blocker.
Will it all gel?
The defense should be better as well. We should finally have a pass rush from both sides. Defensive backs should be much better, especially with a pass rush. The middle of the D-line is a question and the linebackers have much experience but little speed. Overall depth is much stronger and some of the young guys could help a lot.
The schedule is much more difficult, PSU is a rival and Franklin has been recruiting well.
Okie St has the kind of offense that could blow us out. Clemson is Clemson. Marshall will be competitive. The rest are all division rivals. This is the toughest schedule we have faced in years.
Our key players must stay healthy.
Last years special teams were the far best in recent memory.
PSU has a new starting QB. What is their depth at QB?
Okla State will have played two cupcakes before us. They step up in class a bit late, have Baylor the week after us and will start a new QB.
Yes…Clemson is tough and ” in ink.
But Marshall has us penciled for a “W”? My left nut.
VTech has us penciled for a “W”. Reed’s left nut.
G’Tech has us penciled for “W”. GC’s left nut?
Duke has us penciled for a “W”? reed’s right nut.
UVA have anyone penciled in as “W”? GC’s right nut.
Does the ‘cuse have Jim own in the backfield this year?
Get serious guys. Only two teams can legitimately lay claim to penciling us in as a W. For many, it is a big win.
You guys depress me.
Pitt goes 8-4 in 2016 is dog bites man. Can’t wait to see you guys putting your money down in vegas on Marshall winning the NC, PSU actually beating someone with a winning record and UVA go from the outhouse to the penthouse in a season.
While I agree that all of those mentioned with our nuts are winnable, they are also loseable.
I didn’t and wouldn’t say any other than Clemson can pencil us in. But Villanova is the only game we can pencil in.
As a Pitt fan, I never expect things to go our way and am usually surprised when they do.
As usual UPitt you are not an easy man to satisfy.
As was Boyd, Blewitt will be an all-time statistical best at Pitt. Plenty good, but not up to UPitt’s standards.
50+ 2 for 4
40+ 4 for 6
30+ 3 for 4
20+ 5 for 6
In Bowl missed from 20 something.
Go out there expecting to win every game. I’m planning on going to the Clemson game and I’ll tell you right now, I’m not going there to watch the Panthers lose. H2P!
Tom, I think you are confusing expecting wins with hoping for wins.
So SFPitt what is your predicted number of wins?
Bowl game is crapshoot.
He says atrophy from lack of use is a possibility, otherwise safe.
