UPDATE (11:58): Worth tossing to the top. Starting lineup will exclude Artis and Young. Milligan and Luther starting in their place.
12 pm, ACC Network Syndication or ACCN Extra/Watch ESPN.
Last regular season game and then an opening round game in Brooklyn for the ACC Tournament. Sadly, with the effort and outcomes in prior games, it is hard to believe Pitt will make any noise at the ACC Tournament.
Pitt goes into Charlottesville looking to lock down that 13th seed and meeting Clemson in the opening game. A loss would put them in a tie for 14th with NC State, and presumably because they lost in head to head against the Wolfpack drop them to the 14th seed. That would mean playing either Georgia Tech or Wake Forest.
I know, high drama.
Speaking of high drama…
Justice Kithcart being dismissed from the team at this point. No reason given beyond the always popular catch-all of, “conduct detrimental to the team.”
“It is a privilege to play basketball at the University of Pittsburgh and with that privilege comes the responsibility to conduct oneself in the appropriate manner,” said Stallings. “Unfortunately, Justice has been unable to uphold that standard. We wish him the best of luck in the future.”
That Kithcart might leave/be pushed out after this season would not have been a surprise. His playing time was limited. And aside from the Boston College game and a couple early games against bad teams, he looked completely overmatched.
But to be kicked off the team with essentially two games left. That’s eyebrow raising.
You don’t have to be a fan of Coach Kevin Stallings to think that this is not what Stallings wanted to do. Not this close to the season being over. Letting Kithcart quietly transfer out and get a fresh start without any cloud over him after the season. That would obviously be preferred by all parties.
Yet, the need to get rid of him now. Fuel speculation for the reasons. Project an image of a program in complete disarray. It seems that Kithcart may have crossed some line.
Truly, we are experiencing some interesting times in Pitt basketball not seen since the 90s.
Stories made up to justify hiring a guy who Barnes was planning to hire along.
Hello to next year, a clean slate!!!
His aged mother probably can’t stand him either.
And again stallings isn’t the long term answer, but I’m excited to see what an entire roster of new players respond to him and not be defiant
I’m actually surprised that ppl are ok with these tantrum like players that we have..but hey..it’s pitt fans
One more point about his hiring …. Pitt hasd built a recent reputation of being a good BB school, and is in a great BB conference. Yet, the AD held only one interview. Just more evidence how fixed KS’s hiring was.
Something smells “fishy”.
I want a congressional investigation…
On the other hand if they go all in, doubling down on the hand they have they would be in essence casting their lot with a captain who stood on the helm of a sinking ship, all the while blaming the crew for its plight and calculated every move to ensure his own survival.
Given the pecuniary minded proclivities of this administration, they will no doubt choose the latter.
Clearly a business case of gross incompetence. And the man who sold them down the river left town with all the money and none of the blame. Pure genius. When will they learn?
Other than volume, I still don’t get the enthusiasm for next year’s class. They are all consensus 3 stars with Thompson being a borderline 4. Only Thompson has an impressive offer list, but it isn’t any more impressive than Damon Wilson’s was. The only reputed shooter in the group is Brown (same weight as Cam Johnson but 2 inches taller). The two jucos (Wilson-Frame and Simons) that seem to really excite some aren’t exactly posting great stats in their conference games. The recently published (PGH Sports Now) list of schools interested in Simons are: Memphis, Utah, Middle Tennessee State, Chattanooga, Dayton, New Mexico State and Portland State. Simons graduated from HS in 2014 and was in HS for five years. I am therefore surmising he will be 22 by the start of next season.
It will be interesting to see how much two junior juco transfers will WANT to listen and WANT to do whatever it takes for the TEAM to win.
I am not sold on the recruiting class either. Stallings missed on all the elite players he was after and very doubtful these guys will be ACC ready. Especially playing without coaching.
It remains to be seen (1) how good they are and (2) if the coach can make them winners, which IMO is as big a question mark as if they are talented.
On the effectiveness of benching Young and Artis:
“It was not the first time that this has happened. I have no way of knowing, and honestly do not care, but my job is to uphold the integrity of the team and do things right by them. We struggled to score at the beginning of the game, and it is not like we closed it down once they came into the game. We didn’t. We didn’t all of a sudden threaten them because we had other players in the game.”
The “do not care” comment stuck out to me…
I will say, however, I get to see a lot of upper echelon high school basketball in my area. Thompson has ACC starting talent. I don’t think he should be starting year 1 but he may be thrust into that position. You won’t get the deer in the headlights looks that you get from Damon Wilson though or early Chris Jones. Thompson is part of a legit HS program that feeds D1 rosters. He’s the schools all-time wins holder and plays hard at both ends of the court. He’s a great leader and a kid who doesn’t care too much about the stat sheet … only what the scoreboard says. He has the clutch gene too.
I’m bummed Mannigault is leaving too because I also got to see him in HS. He was always going to be a project though and I was shocked he didn’t red shirt this season.
I harp on the two top 50 recruits because the one of constants with the Final 4 is that teams generally have at least two top 50 recruits. You don’t need five 5 stars to be good. Team chemistry and two players in the 26-50 range that will stay at the school for 3 years is formula.
I don’t want to think about Loser, Pitt or the BoT the rest of the night.
I’ve sort of become numb with the goings on at Pitt lately.
Hope everyone has a good nite…cheers !