Pitt survives scare from Canisius, escapes with 82-71 victory
Pitt’s struggles Saturday night in an 82-71 victory against Canisius led Blake Hinson to think about something totally unrelated to basketball: Final exams start next week. Pitt trailed the Golden Griffins, 54-47, with 13 minutes left in the game before waking up midway through the second half and ironing out...
Pitt volleyball team reaches NCAA Final Four by beating Louisville
In the past six seasons, Dan Fisher’s teams at Pitt have won more women’s volleyball matches than any other Division I school in the country. Trouble is Fisher’s Panthers haven’t won the big prize of an NCAA championship. Perhaps that trend is about to end. For the second time this...
Analysis: Quarterback stands above many roster issues confronting Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi
Pat Narduzzi has a quarterback problem, and this time there is no one left to blame. After at least two swings and misses in the transfer portal, where Pitt’s 10-year head coach found Kedon Slovis and Phil Jurkovec not to his liking, he has waded into this offseason burdened by...
Rivals Pitt, Louisville meet again with berth in NCAA volleyball Final Four on line
This is turning into something special. Two ACC opponents, both quite familiar with each other, will be playing for another chance at a Final Four appearance. Ah, the Pitt-Louisville women’s volleyball series. No, please, call it a rivalry. “They talk about Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, and David and Goliath....
Pitt Take 5: Jeff Capel’s recruiting efforts put shooters on roster, points on scoreboard
After a five-game stretch against power conference teams, Pitt coach Jeff Capel said he has stockpiled plenty of information about his team. He knows his players like to shoot and are good at it, and he also knows they work hard on defense. He said recent recruiting efforts were intentionally...
Pitt volleyball rolls past Washington State, advances to NCAA Elite Eight for 4th straight season
There were times Thursday when the Pitt women’s volleyball team appeared to be running on automatic pilot while methodically handling Washington State in straight sets 3-0 in the NCAA Sweet 16 at Fitzgerald Field House. Even coach Dan Fisher seemed a bit surprised by the Panthers’ dominance after a tightly...
Blake Hinson’s points often come 3 at a time for Pitt, but his contributions stretch beyond scoreboards
Jeff Capel gladly accepts the numbers Blake Hinson adds to Pitt’s score sheet, three at a time. Even when they’re accompanied by Hinson’s fearlessness when shooting the basketball — covered or not, from anywhere on the court. In his second season with the Panthers and after only nine games (6-3),...
Blake Hinson, Will Jeffress lead Pitt to 1st Backyard Brawl victory since 2012
MORGANTOWN, W.Va — Many players were catalysts behind Pitt’s 80-63 victory Wednesday night against West Virginia in the 190th version of the basketball Backyard Brawl. • Blake Hinson scored a career-high 29 points, breaking his personal best (27) set only three days ago. He also broke a Pitt record with...
WVU’s Akok Akok cleared by physicians, will play against Pitt
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia received some good news for its depleted roster hours before its game against Pitt on Wednesday night when fifth-year forward Akok Akok was cleared for play. Akok, a 6-foot-10 transfer who previously played at UConn and Georgetown, collapsed Oct. 27 during a charity exhibition game...
Pitt volleyball coach Dan Fisher enjoying the ride during latest trip to Sweet 16
Pitt women’s volleyball coach Dan Fisher has spent the past 11 years transforming the Panthers into a national power. With Pitt preparing to play in the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight year, the Panthers coach is working to appreciate every step of the journey. “I think I’ve gotten better...
Pitt offensive tackle Matt Goncalves says he’s entering NFL Draft
Pitt lost another senior Wednesday when offensive tackle Matt Goncalves declared for the 2024 NFL Draft. In his announcement over X (formerly Twitter), Goncalves wrote that seeking an NFL career is “a lifelong dream.” He also said that his five years at Pitt have been “the greatest years of my...
NCAA transfer portal, NIL make redshirting athletes risky business
Back in ancient times — otherwise known as the 1990s in terms of college athletics — Pitt coach Jeff Capel thought about transferring from Duke. “I thought about it one time,” he said, “but my dad talked some sense into me.” The NCAA transfer portal opened Monday, and more than...
WVU coach Josh Eilert makes sure players feel ‘passion’ generated by Backyard Brawl with Pitt
Josh Eilert’s plans to prepare his Mountaineers for Pitt’s intrusion into the West Virginia Coliseum on Wednesday night didn’t start with the first day of basketball practice in October. Go back another month. Eilert, the WVU interim head coach, demanded that every player attend the Pitt football game at Milan...
Pitt’s M.J. Devonshire named second-team All-ACC
Senior cornerback M.J. Devonshire, whose ball skills led him to record eight interceptions in the past three seasons, is Pitt’s lone representative on The Associated Press 2023 All-ACC first or second teams. Devonshire, an Aliquippa graduate, transferred from Kentucky before the 2021 season and was named second-team All-ACC as a...
Pitt opens 2nd location of Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology at the Pete
Patrons of Pitt’s Petersen Events Center will now have an AI-powered market for snacks and beverages and can skip the sometimes lengthy concession lines. The university announced Monday a second location for Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, “Pitt on the Go,” located at the Pete. The initiative, a collaboration with...
Improved defense, more help from the bench will benefit Pitt on its trip to WVU
When Jeff Capel was asked where Pitt must improve on defense, he covered every aspect of good defensive play, short of building a wall at the free-throw line. “We have to get back to being really good defensive rebounding,” he said. “Our post defense has to be better. We have...
Pitt loses defensive end Sam Okunlola, running back T.J. Harvison to transfer portal
The number of Pitt football players who have opted to enter the transfer portal increased to 12 Monday when two young players — defensive end Sam Okunlola and running back T.J. Harvison — decided to take their talents elsewhere. Okunlola, a redshirt freshman, is a significant loss after he was...
First Call: James Conner had vision of big return to Pittsburgh; Jim Leyland moments
Monday’s “First Call” captures James Conner’s successful return to Pittsburgh as his Cardinals upset the Steelers 24-10 on Sunday afternoon. Another former Steeler had a big game in the NFC South. And we look ahead to what could be an ugly game between the Patriots and Steelers on Thursday night....
Pitt can’t handle Clemson in ACC opener, loses 79-70 decision
In the moments before Pitt’s 79-70 loss to Clemson went final, most people in the announced crowd of 7,713 at Petersen Events Center were in an uproar. Many were looking for the Panthers to complete what would have been an improbable comeback Sunday afternoon. When a team is down by...
Homegrown Pitt men won 22 games in a row 50 years ago
While others were sleeping and the doors to Fitzgerald Field House were locked, they came out and ran up and down the streets of Oakland. Sometimes, they climbed the steps of the Towers — the on-campus dormitory complex whose tallest building rises 224 feet above Fifth Avenue — building endurance...
Pitt volleyball onto Sweet 16 for 4th consecutive season after defeating USC
Stifling the attack of USC outside hitter Skylar Fields was likely never an option for the Pitt women’s volleyball team. But putting up an aggressive and consistent block helped make Fields, a first-team All-American hitter, work for opportunities to score. Fields finished with 10 attack errors for the first time...
Pitt wide receiver Bub Means says he plans to enter 2024 NFL Draft
A day after Pitt tight end Gavin Bartholomew said he will return for his senior season and almost simultaneously as running back Rodney Hammond said he’s coming back, wide receiver Bub Means took the opposite route and announced Saturday his plans to enter the 2024 NFL Draft. Means has been...
Pitt Take 5: No easy road for Panthers on way to ACC opener against undefeated Clemson
When the ACC decided four years ago to boost each team’s conference schedule from 18 to 20, it created some quirks in the calendar. That’s why Pitt plays its ACC opener Sunday at Petersen Events Center against Clemson in the midst of a difficult stretch of nonconference games. In that...
Pitt volleyball recovers from slow start, advances past Coppin State in NCAA Tournament
Rachel Fairbanks doesn’t know what changed. Or even when the momentum shifted. But Fairbanks, the junior setter for the Pitt women’s volleyball team, doesn’t want to see the Panthers start another match slowly. Pitt fell behind first-time NCAA Tournament participant Coppin State by four points in the first set before...
Pitt women’s volleyball coach Dan Fisher makes sure players’ bodies, minds ready for NCAA Tournament
Pitt’s Dan Fisher works diligently in an attempt to recruit elite volleyball players, female athletes who can jump as high as the nation’s best players and dig out balls inches from the floor. But Fisher has been coaching long enough — 11 seasons at Pitt — to understand that athletic...
