Jerry DiPaola stories, Page 36

For the first time in three seasons, Pitt advanced in the ACC Tournament, adding a 22nd victory to its NCAA Tournament resume and earning a berth in a quarterfinal game Thursday against Duke. The root of Pitt’s 89-81 victory Wednesday against Georgia Tech at Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum was clear: Pitt’s...

Befitting a team that was one victory from winning a conference championship, Pitt enjoyed the appropriate representation when ACC awards were passed out Monday. • There’s Coach of the Year Jeff Capel, only the third Pitt coach so honored — joining Ben Howland (2002) and Jamie Dixon (2004) — and...

For nearly 24 hours from Sunday to Monday night, only two people outside the ACC office knew Pitt’s Jeff Capel was voted conference coach of the year. Capel and his 10-year-old son, Elijah, kept the secret all day before the announcement shortly after 5 p.m. on the ACC Network. “I’m...

Penn State continued its dominance of Big Ten wrestling this season by capturing the conference championship, its seventh and first since 2019. After working through the regular-season schedule with a 16-0 record (8-0 in the Big Ten), Penn State claimed four individual champions and nine NCAA qualifiers Saturday in Ann...

Pitt wrestlers Nino Bonaccorsi and Cole Matthews won ACC championships at 197 and 141 pounds, respectively, Sunday night at the ACC Wrestling Championships inside N.C. State’s Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, N.C. Bonaccorsi, a Bethel Park graduate, joined Jake Wentzel as Pitt’s only three-time ACC champion; Matthews repeated his title-winning performance...

ACC Tournament preparations started early for Jeff Capel, who said he planned to watch Pitt’s 78-76 loss to the Hurricanes on the flight home from Miami. No planned nap for Capel, even though he was still in the midst of a long, disappointing Saturday. He probably could have used some...

Jeff Capel read the room and decided it was best to let his players be by themselves after the 78-76 loss to Miami on Saturday night in Coral Gables, Fla. “They’re in there hurting,” he told reporters inside Watsco Center. “I made the decision just for me to come out...

The fallout from Pitt women’s basketball’s five losing seasons in the past five years landed on coach Lance White on Friday when he was fired. White is the first Pitt coach hired by athletic director Heather Lyke to be fired. Lyke has led the department since 2017. Pitt concluded White’s...

Maybe the quirk Jeff Capel noticed among his players during the Notre Dame game will disappear merely by everyone understanding what’s at stake Saturday night in Coral Gables, Fla. At least, that’s the hope. But in advance of Pitt visiting Miami with the ACC regular-season championship on the line, Capel...

The chief takeaway from Pitt’s 88-81 loss to Notre Dame is the need to avoid the following cliche that now has lost its relevance. Maybe you’ve heard it already: Before the start of the season, Pitt fans eagerly would have accepted the outcome of the first 30 games if they...

Eight years ago, the basketball players at La Roche University — stung by a 1-24 record — met with coach Hermie Carmichael to figure out what went wrong. “They came to us and said, ‘Coach, we don’t have an image,’ ” Carmichael said. “’We don’t have a certain way that...

Micky Phillippi first became addicted at the age of 5. More than 20 years later, the addiction still consumes him. What’s more, he has no plans to fight it or make it disappear. Why should he give up wrestling? “This sport is addicting,” he said. Phillippi, a Derry graduate who...

If Pitt was overwhelmed by the emotion from Notre Dame coach Mike Brey’s final home game, the Panthers picked a bad time for a letdown. Whatever the reason, the result was a damaging — and embarrassing — 88-81 loss to the Irish on Wednesday night in South Bend, Ind. The...

Mike Brey said he’s excited about almost everything that will occur Wednesday night at Joyce Center on the Notre Dame campus. He said 30 of his former players are coming to the game against Pitt, Brey’s last at home after nearly 23 years as Notre Dame’s coach. The night will...

Lance White knew rebuilding the Pitt women’s basketball program wouldn’t be easy. Five years ago, he arrived after 15 seasons at Florida State where he was recognized as one of the country’s top assistants. He carried energy, enthusiasm and a difficult challenge into his first head-coaching opportunity. Pitt had won...

The only part of Pitt’s season more consistent than solid performance on the court was fans’ outcry and indignation over their team’s exclusion from the Associated Press Top 25. That so-called disrespect ended Monday when Pitt (21-8, 14-4) slipped into the AP and USA Today Coaches polls at No. 25...

Sam Clancy works in the same building as Jeff Capel. It’s inevitable that Pitt basketball, past and present, cross paths occasionally. One day this season, in the midst of Pitt’s historic recovery from oblivion, Clancy walked up to the coach and announced, “I’m a proud basketball alumni. I’m walking around...

Perhaps the moment that defined Pitt’s runaway 99-82 victory against Syracuse on Saturday was Nike Sibande’s alley-oop dunk in the second half. The play, initiated by a pinpoint out-of-bounds pass from the baseline by Nelly Cummings, resulted in two points, a 50-40 Pitt lead and a thunderous roar from the...

Jeff Capel has said repeatedly that the NCAA Net rankings, Associated Press Top 25 and the many versions of bracketology that pop up on the internet do not interest him. But don’t let him fool you. Pitt’s coach knows what’s at stake over the final three games of the regular...

After a busy collegiate career on and off the field, former Pitt defensive end Deslin Alexandre was named the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year at a ceremony Thursday night in Frisco, Texas. The honor is annually presented by former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten to the FBS...

There will be smiles and tears, back slaps and hugs and flowers for the ladies Saturday when Pitt honors its five seniors in front of a sold-out crowd at Petersen Events Center. Those extracurricular activities will occur before the ball is tipped to start the game, but unlike many past...

Pitt’s victory against Georgia Tech on Tuesday padded the Panthers’ NCAA Tournament resume and relieved some pressure and perhaps some doubt among the fan base after the loss at Virginia Tech. More importantly, it fortified one important thought in coach Jeff Capel’s mind: It’s time to get tough in practice....

No one can predict how many or to what extent Pitt’s freshman football players will impact the team next season. So much time, so much to learn and so many moving parts stand in the way before the opener Sept. 2 against Wofford. After winter conditioning, spring practice begins next...

By a strict mathematical standard, Pitt’s 76-68 victory Tuesday night against Georgia Tech didn’t qualify as a game the Panthers absolutely needed to win. If Pitt had lost in front of 9,482 at raucous Petersen Events Center, there would have been time to recover. There are three games left in...