Guard Ryan Murphy will transfer from Pitt after one season
Ryan Murphy’s time with the Pitt basketball team will last one season. Murphy, who transferred from New Mexico Junior College last year after spending the previous season at Charlotte, entered the NCAA transfer portal. Murphy will have a year of eligibility remaining as a graduate transfer. “We appreciate Ryan’s efforts...
North Allegheny grads make impact at ACC swimming championships
North Allegheny graduates Jack Wright and Jerry Chen were top contributors to their teams at the ACC men’s swimming championship meet Feb. 26-29 in Greensboro, N.C. Wright, a Virginia freshman, made the A final of the 200-yard freestyle, the only freshman in the 12-team field to do so. He placed...
Pitt postpones Pro Day after NFL bans visits with draft-eligible players
Pitt postponed its annual Pro Day for seniors wishing to work out for NFL scouts after the league banned in-person visits with draft-eligible players. The session, which typically attracts scouts and executives from most NFL teams, was scheduled for Wednesday at the South Side practice facility Pitt shares with the...
Mixed results for Pitt basketball, but things looking up
It was always Jeff Capel’s intention and the hope of Pitt fans for the Panthers to play on the last day of the ACC Tournament. Just not this way. After Pitt was eliminated Wednesday in a 73-58 second-round loss to N.C. State, the ACC canceled the remaining three days of...
NCAA cancels men’s, women’s basketball tournaments
March Madness came to a screeching halt before a bracket could even be filled out. The NCAA canceled its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments Thursday because of the spread of coronavirus, putting an abrupt end to the season less than a month before champions were to be crowned. The unprecedented...
ACC suspension of all spring athletic activities will impact Pitt athletes
The ACC has decided to suspend all athletic activities, which will significantly impact Pitt teams on several fronts, including participation in the NCAA Wrestling Tournament, which was subsequently canceled by the NCAA. Also, spring football practice, games and recruiting will be discontinued for the duration of the spring. The ban...
Pitt’s athletics teams plan to maintain their normal schedule
While in-person classes at the University of Pittsburgh will transition to online and “alternative learning options” in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Pitt’s athletics teams will continue their previously scheduled regimen of practices and home games, university officials announced. That includes the resumption of football’s spring drills Tuesday at...
Pitt loses to N.C. State in 2nd round of ACC TournamentVideo
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Devon Daniels and his N.C. State teammates know their chances of securing an NCAA Tournament bid could come down to how they play in this week’s ACC Tournament. “We know we can’t go where we want to go, like unless we take care of the game at...
Slighted Justin Champagnie takes it out on Wake Forest; Pitt advances in ACC tourney
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Justin Champagnie felt snubbed after being left off the ACC’s All-Freshman team. So he decided to take it out on Wake Forest in the opening round of the conference tournament Tuesday, scoring a career-high 31 points to lead Pitt to a 81-72 victory over the Demon Deacons....
Pitt carries little hope into ACC Tournament, but even that’s something
Since the middle of the previous decade, there’s been a common thread to the latter stages of Pitt’s basketball seasons: The team has staggered to the finish line every year since 2015. No matter the coach. Jamie Dixon ended his final two seasons 0-5 and 1-4, including NIT and NCAA...
Pitt’s Micky Phillippi, Jake Wentzel, Demetrius Thomas win ACC wrestling championshipsVideo
After all the numbers were counted, Pitt finished second to N.C. State in the team standings Sunday night at the ACC Wrestling Championship in front of a crowd of 1,714 at Petersen Events Center. But the 81-77 loss to defending champion N.C. State in the six-team tournament meant far less...
Pitt will open ACC Tournament on Tuesday against Wake Forest
Pitt will be the No. 13 seed and open the 14-team ACC Tournament at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday against No. 12 Wake Forest at the Greensboro Coliseum. It’s officially #ACCTourney Time! Here's the bracket ↓↓ pic.twitter.com/JNRl6siTQx— ACC Men's Basketball (@accmbb) March 8, 2020 Pitt (15-16, 6-14) will attempt to stop a...
Pitt defensive coordinator Randy Bates pushes players, himself with equal vigor
Every week, Randy Bates adds another pushup to his daily regimen, another milestone. Bates is up to 36, representing the number of weeks since doctors cleared him for activity after cancer surgery on his tonsils 12 months ago. “It just reminds me of where I was,” Pitt’s defensive coordinator said....
Pitt freshman running back Izzy Abanikanda puts on pads, makes an impactVideo
When the hole opened in the middle of Pitt’s defense, Izzy Abanikanda zigged and zagged through traffic. All of sudden, the freshman running back, only three months removed from high school, was in the open. That’s when he turned on his speed and outran sophomore A.J. Woods, one of the...
Pitt’s Rashad Weaver recovered from knee injury, ready to take next step
Rashad Weaver retweeted the slight against his teammates without comment, which says something about Pitt’s senior defensive end. It merely was a listing of someone’s ranking of the top 10 defensive lines in college football. Clemson’s line is No. 1 on the list for 2020. Pitt’s Coastal division rival Miami...
Pitt puts on pads, produces two long scoring plays in spring drillsVideo
Real football returned to the South Side on Friday. On the third day of Pitt’s spring drills, the team strapped on pads and started hitting each other on the indoor practice field at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. The team also lined up in regular offensive and defensive formations and...
Pitt women’s ACC tourney run ends in 2nd round with loss to Georgia TechVideo
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Francesca Pan scored 12 of her 26 points in the fourth quarter, and seventh-seeded Georgia Tech pulled away from 15th-seeded Pitt on Thursday night for a 68-58 win in the second round of the ACC tournament. Dayshanette Harris scored 21 points for Pitt (5-26), which was coming...
U mad, bro? Readers blast Big Ben, Bud, Benz. Jeff Capel and the NFL, too.
It may be March. But it’s a football-heavy “U mad, bro?” this week. Readers throw elbows at Ben Roethlisberger and his… well… throwing elbow. I take one in the chops, too, for questioning how well Roethlisberger’s recovery will go. Bud Dupree, Jeff Capel and the entire NFL machine get roasted...
Pitt stretches losing streak to 7 with defeat vs. Georgia Tech
ATLANTA — Jose Alvarado scored 23 points, Michael Devoe added 13 and Georgia Tech won its third straight game with a 73-57 victory over Pitt on Wednesday night. Eric Hamilton finished with 12 points to pace Pitt (15-16, 6-14 ACC). Xavier Johnson connected from 3, and Hamilton hit two free...
Pitt women’s basketball upsets Notre Dame in ACC TournamentVideo
Lance White’s second season as Pitt’s women’s basketball coach has been a tough one. Junior guard Kyla Nelson missed all but four games because of a bout with cancer, and the Panthers suffered through a 1-17 mark in the ACC (4-25 overall). The team had something to celebrate Wednesday. Dayshanette...
New Castle native Lorri Johnson, leading scorer in Pitt basketball history, dies
Lorri Johnson, who scored more points than any male or female basketball player in Pitt history, has died, the school confirmed. She was 51. Johnson scored 2,312 points (20.5 per game) and recorded 908 rebounds while playing in 113 games from 1987-1991. Kirk Bruce, who was Johnson’s coach at Pitt,...
Pitt’s Narduzzi rips NCAA transfer portal, hopes players use it properlyVideo
Pat Narduzzi again raised objections to the NCAA transfer portal Wednesday after the second day of Pitt’s spring drills. On Monday, he said, “The portal’s a bad thing, in my opinion, as far as how people are using it. Kids need to have their options, but you hope the options...
Pitt’s Tre Tipton granted 6th year of eligibilityVideo
When Tre Tipton came to Pat Narduzzi to talk about playing a sixth season at wide receiver, Pitt’s coach was honest about the future. “We had long talks,” Narduzzi said. “I just told him when you become 40 years old, and you can’t kneel down to play with the kids,...
Pitt, Georgia Tech trending in opposite directions
Even on the day Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner’s program withdrew its appeal of NCAA penalties that assured it won’t be playing beyond this week, he was in a gregarious mood Monday. During the final weekly ACC coaches conference call of the season, Pastner cracked jokes, complimented inquiring reporters and...
3 Pitt wrestlers earn No. 1 seeds for ACC Tournament
Pitt wrestlers Micky Phillippi (133 pounds), Gregg Harvey (174) and Demetrius Thomas (285) are seeded No. 1 in their weight classes for the ACC Wrestling Championships that begin at 11 a.m. Sunday at Petersen Events Center. This season marks the first time since 2015 that three Pitt wrestlers earned top...
