Pitt’s Jeff Capel shepherds young team into uncertain season
While wading cautiously into his third season as Pitt’s basketball coach, Jeff Capel doesn’t know what to expect. He likes what he has seen at practice. But doesn’t everyone before the games begin? The Panthers expect to improve on last season’s shooting percentage (40.4, the program’s worst in 51 years),...
No. 1 Pitt soccer loses to Clemson in ACC championship match
After sitting on Zoom calls, remaining under quarantine and doing little more than thinking about soccer for three weeks, Pitt’s men’s soccer team found itself one victory from winning the ACC championship. But the No. 1-ranked team in the nation had its seven-game winning streak stopped Sunday in Cary, N.C.,...
Touchdowns, field goals: Pitt gets plenty of both while booting Virginia Tech
Pat Narduzzi likes field goals. Really. Pitt’s coach is pleased, of course, when Alex Kessman boots the football through the uprights, and Kessman has given him plenty of reason to smile over the past four seasons. He holds the school record with 64 field goals, including 18 of 24 attempts...
Pitt’s depleted roster steps up, pounds Virginia Tech
Pitt’s 47-14 victory against Virginia Tech wasn’t official until the clock showed triple zeros at 7:20 p.m. Saturday. But Pat Narduzzi saw it coming four days earlier, and maybe that says something about how Pitt’s senior class hasn’t allowed this grim season to unravel. Quarterback Kenny Pickett stood up in...
Pitt football changes course, won’t require players to wear masks during Saturday’s game
In a reversal of a previous announcement, Pitt and Virginia Tech players won’t need to pull up their masks to cover the nose and mouth during Saturday’s game at Heinz Field. Pitt’s athletic department, which initially announced Friday that all players would wear face coverings while engaged in competition, clarified...
VPI (better known as Virginia Tech) stands in the way of Pitt’s recovery efforts
Before we get started, let’s make something perfectly clear: The team scheduled to play Pitt on Saturday at Heinz Field (and we say “scheduled” because these days you never know) is not technically Virginia Tech. To explain, here’s a bit of history that’s been passed down through the years: In...
Ex-Pitt star Dorin Dickerson ‘can’t wait to start working’ for Penguins on Lower Hill project
Since his NFL playing days ended, Dorin Dickerson has been building a balance between two budding careers that ultimately led to the union of a perfect position for him with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The former Pitt All-American, who has worked as a weekend and pre-game host for the Panthers and...
Pitt’s Jeff Capel knows he must confront challenges on, off the court
Like every coach on every level in every sport, Jeff Capel doesn’t know what to expect. He just knows it won’t be easy navigating through more than 20 basketball games — walking in and out of gyms and on and off airplanes and buses — in the midst of a...
Pitt seniors contemplate stretching their careers into 2021
After chatting with reporters on his usual Thursday conference call, Pat Narduzzi arose from his chair and uttered these hopeful words, “Say your prayers. Hope to see you on Saturday.” For so many reasons, Pitt’s encounter with Virginia Tech, scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday at Heinz Field, is one of...
Pitt men’s soccer makes history, beats Notre Dame to earn first berth in ACC championship game
Ranked No. 1 in the nation, Pitt’s men’s soccer team reached another milestone Wednesday night, earning its first berth in the ACC Championship Final with a 3-1 semifinal victory against Notre Dame. The Panthers will meet Clemson for the championship at noon Sunday at WakeMed Park in Cary, N.C. The...
ACC could benefit from show of force behind 3 ranked teams
There is a growing look of mediocrity in the middle of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s standings. The league appears to have sagged in the middle even as the ACC’s headliners have been quite impressive. There are three Top 25 teams — No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 4 Clemson and No....
Pitt discovers anything’s possible when ‘silent, little killer’ strikes
Perhaps Pitt wide receiver D.J. Turner captured best what it means to play, coach and follow college football this season. “This is the year you have to be flexible because you never know what the next day is going to bring,” he said. By early Wednesday, there were 65 games...
Running backs coach Andre Powell seeks standouts for Pitt’s ground game
In this complicated time when people are fearful of something as simple as a handshake, Andre Powell has learned not to sweat too much. “I control what I can control. The rest I let go,” Pitt’s running backs/special teams coach said Tuesday, minutes after the first practice since covid-19 concerns...
Pat Narduzzi urges Pitt players ‘to keep your guard up’ amid covid-19 surge
For Pat Narduzzi, the most maddening aspect of shepherding Pitt through the covid-19 pandemic is not knowing what’s next. Football coaches are consumed with knowing everything, from the bus schedule to what the opponent’s coach is thinking on fourth-and-3. But Narduzzi doesn’t know something that, in 2020, matters more than...
Pitt men’s soccer prepares for 2nd consecutive trip to ACC semifinals
Jay Vidovich called Pitt’s 2-1 victory against Duke in the ACC Championship tournament “a big step for the program.” The chance to make another even bigger step awaits as the Panthers, the nation’s top-ranked men’s soccer team, advances into the tournament semifinals Wednesday against Notre Dame in Raleigh, N.C. The...
No. 4 Virginia opens season ahead of Duke as ACC favoriteVideo
Tony Bennett was pleased how his Virginia team played in the weeks before the coronavirus pandemic abruptly shut down last season. That’s the foundation he is relying on for the fourth-ranked Cavaliers, the preseason ACC favorite for the first time in nearly four decades in a race featuring No. 9...
Pitt basketball will open Nov. 25 against St. Francis (Pa.) at The Pete
Pitt’s men’s basketball team will open its season Nov. 25 against St. Francis (Pa.) in the first of at least three nonconference games at Petersen Events Center. Tip-off for the opener is 7 p.m. The Panthers also will play Drexel on Nov. 28 and Gardner-Webb on Dec. 12, and are...
Pitt’s good fortune runs out in abnormal season
Pat Narduzzi prayed. But he now knows the awful truth: The opponent, inevitably, was too strong. Pitt played eight games over two months before Saturday’s game at Georgia Tech was postponed out of respect for covid-19 concerns. Considering what has happened across college football all season — 59 games have...
Pitt women’s basketball to play George Mason, Hofstra, Delaware in nonconference games
The Pitt women’s basketball team will open the season when it hosts George Mason on Nov. 25 at Petersen Events Center, the first of three nonconference games in a 23-game schedule. The Panthers also will host Hofstra on Nov. 29 and Delaware on Dec. 6. The Hofstra game will involve...
Pitt-Georgia Tech game postponed because of covid protocols
After playing most of this season uninterrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, Pitt postponed its game Saturday at Georgia Tech because of covid-related issues on both teams. Football injuries at Georgia Tech also were cited by its athletic director, Todd Stansbury. The ACC said in a statement the game was postponed...
Paris Ford explains decision to leave Pitt
Ten days after he opted out of the final four games of Pitt’s season, All-ACC safety Paris Ford explained his decision and declared for the NFL Draft on Thursday in a message on Twitter. Forever, Thankful. ??#H2P— 12OUT. pic.twitter.com/XpRCud4NHb— Pᴀʀɪs Fᴏʀᴅ (@DiddyBop12_) November 12, 2020 Ford was one of the...
Norwin’s Lacey Bernick, Katelyn Kauffman among those to sign with Pitt soccer
Lacey Bernick and Katelyn Kauffman were a dynamic one-two punch for the Norwin girls soccer team. Fast on the outside, nimble on possessions and often marked, the forward/midfielders drew college attention early in their careers as they helped the Knights remain a top-end team in WPIAL Class AAAA. The All-WPIAL...
Pitt’s Australian-born punter Kirk Christodoulou enjoys life in ‘his second home’
If Kirk Christodoulou thought it was traumatic to have Notre Dame’s 257-pound Isaiah Foskey bear down upon him to block a punt, imagine how he felt the day he walked into his first class in Pitt’s Katz Graduate School of Business. Yes, two different levels of trauma, but Christodoulou handled...
Pitt women’s basketball will open 20-game ACC schedule Dec. 10 at Virginia Tech
The Pitt women’s basketball team will open a 20-game ACC schedule Dec. 10 at Virginia Tech, with the Panthers playing their home opener three days later against Clemson at Petersen Events Center. The ACC announced its 20-game schedule Wednesday, a two-game increase from last year because of the coronavirus pandemic....
Pitt picked to finish 13th in ACC preseason basketball poll
Pitt will enter the 2020-21 basketball season with something to prove after the Panthers were picked in the ACC preseason media poll to finish 13th in the 15-team league. Since Jamie Dixon left after the 2015-16 season, the Panthers have a 13-61 ACC record. They have finished tied for 13th...