You’ve read all the hot takes this week.  This one you’re about to read:  I’m taking it up another notch.  Because here’s the thing:  We can rant about the NCAA, transfer restrictions on scholarship athletes in primarily basketball and football.  I’m sure there’s transfer issues in other college sports, but who cares?  It doesn’t generate the mouse-clicks, retweets, likes, f***s given, etc.  We can also feel bad about the non-scholarship students who have to take out loans and probably pay them for next 20 years depending on how much they have to defer them because they can’t find a decent enough job to pay them off.  Meanwhile, Joe Athlete is upset because he wants to transfer to play basketball at Kentucky where he’ll still have a free ride despite having to sit out a year.

Cam Johnson has graduated.  He should be free to move on. Actually, he is already is.   He has his degree.   He can go find a job somewhere in North Carolina if he likes.  He wants to continue playing college hoops which unfortunately has a different set of rules given the whole amateur thing.  He can actually play almost anywhere he wants and play right away, except for the ACC.  He wants to play at North Carolina.  He still can, but he has to sit a year.  He will still get a free ride.

Ok so enough of the rambling the same stuff over.  How do we solve this?  It’s pretty simple, the NCAA needs to read the tweets of Jay Bilas and realize they need to get involved.   There’s a lot of outrage over this.   I’m sure this happens at other program, but that’s not the point.   The point is Pitt is letting a player transfer to another ACC school, but has to sit out.   So the NCAA needs to ban Kevin Stallings from college coaching and sanction the Pitt Basketball Programs.

Kevin Stallings has a history of putting restrictions on players.  He’s not first coach to do it, but again we’re only focusing on him.  Plus his behavior doesn’t fit with today’s more sensitive culture.  He yells and curses at his players.  You just can’t do that these days.  Pitt players needed their safe space, which is why almost all them left for other programs.  So get him out of here.   The man is pure evil.

Pitt also needs to be put in check.  They poached Heather Lyke from Eastern Michigan which upset people like Jay Bilas.   We can’t have that.  Sure Pitt needed to hire a new AD because Oregon State took Scott Barnes in barely even a year after Pitt was hired.  Again, that’s not important.  Neither is other Big East schools contacting the ACC for membership when Pitt looked out for its own interests and left.   Same with Joe Paterno’s Eastern Conference.  Sure it was probably doomed to fail, but Pitt should’ve joined it even if benefited Penn State the most.   Instead…again, Pitt looked for its own interests.  Typical Pitt.  Evil Pitt.

The NCAA must make this right.  They need to sanction Pitt basketball to send a message to Pitt and ban Kevin Stallings from coaching college basketball.  Sure other schools and coaches do the same things, but Pitt is just evil.  Now if you don’t mind when this Cam Johnson issue passes, I’ll stop caring and just wait until the similar situation occurs to capitalize to tweets, pages clicks, comments, etc.

By the way…..Screw them all.   HAIL TO PITT!!!!!

This is so stupid.

It has been seven weeks since Cam Johnson made it known that he was transferring from Pitt as a grad transfer with two full years of eligibility left. To no one’s surprise the process of finding a new home has been a slow one.

A long-armed, tall guard who shoots better then 40% on 3s. From a Power conference. He was going to be in demand. And he was. Teams like Arizona, Kentucky, Oregon and others all contacted him. He took plenty of visits.

It was clear that Johnson was looking to play at a big name school where he would get plenty of exposure.

(more…)

I don’t know about you, but I needed to do a refresher on Pitt’s scholarship roster before even talking about the remaining recruiting stuff.

Returning players:

Ryan Luther, Forward, Senior

Jonathan Milligan, Guard, Senior

Zach Smith, Guard, Senior

Incoming freshmen:

Marcus Carr, Guard

Khameron Davis, Guard

Shamiel Stevenson, Small Forward

Terrell Brown, Power Forward

Peace Ilegomah, Center

(more…)

A very good piece from Craig Meyer in the Post-Gazette. Talking about Pitt basketball trying to regain more then simply its footing.

In the past three years, going back to its later years under former coach Jamie Dixon, the program has faded from the national relevancy it once relished. In that time, it has posted a win percentage of .560, down significantly from the .763 percentage it posted in its 13-year peak from 2001-14. If anything, its recent mark is a regression to the mean, much closer to the .550 all-time win percentage the program owned prior to the 2001-02 season.

With those numbers come pressing queries. What can this program become? And where does it go from here?

I suspect this will be the sort of topic revisited more then a few times over the summer. There’s no easy answer — regardless of who the coach is or will be.

It strikes me as important not to react like this article is saying Pitt sucks or that the basketball program is a historically poor one. The fair reading of Pitt’s overall basketball history — especially if you look back before the past 15 years or so — is of slightly above average. Not dominant for extended periods, but rarely a perennial basement program.

(more…)

Sure, dump three bits of news on one day. It’s not like this time of year is starved for content or anything.

Pat Narduzzi is not a quick starter on the recruiting trail. We all know it. It is a bit maddening. Yet, even by his standards, this class has been slow to start. Pitt finally added commit number two. A QB from New Jersey.

Nick Patti, a 6-foot-3 quarterback from St. Joseph Regional High School in Montvale, N.J., has committed to Pitt.

Patti announced the news Wednesday afternoon on Twitter, becoming the second verbal pledge in coach Pat Narduzzi’s 2018 recruiting class. He’s rated a two-star prospect by Rivals.com and a three-star by some other scouting sites.

According to Rivals, Patti chose Pitt over offers from Boston College, Cincinnati, Rutgers and others. He’s considered a pro-style passer, and figures to be Narduzzi’s only quarterback in the class of 2018.

(more…)

Just before the weekend, articles were published following a sit-down with basketball head coach Kevin Stallings. A transcript of the interview was also put out on Saturday, to help flesh things a little further.

This is Stallings at his best and worst as far as a public figure. He is candid, open about a lot of things and doesn’t hide behind as much coachspeak. That same honesty, though, can make him come off like an ass, and someone who puts the blame everywhere but on himself.

[Editor note. I had this drafted on Sunday, I swear. But I kept revisiting, and adding to it. SO much to chew on in this.Just posting it at this point before I do more revisions.]

(more…)

So the  two weeks have been close to positive for Pitt basketball and coach Kevin Stallings. Or at least as good as it’s been since the season ended.

No one else left, a couple coaches hired, a NLI signed and now a transfer. Let’s review.

(more…)

Sorry, about the absence. Some family stuff came up last week that had me in-and-out-of-town through the past week plus. Nothing major, but time was at a premium.

Glad to be done with April. Fridays in April have been a month of bad news dropping. Most of it was related to basketball, but football decided to get in on the action with the dismissal of Jeremiah Taleni for disciplinary reasons.

To say this was surprising is being polite. Taleni was going to be a senior and expected to start at Defensive Tackle. He was receiving high praise from the coaches all spring for his leadership off-the-field and and his performance in practices.

(more…)