The latest after another busy weekend of news and rumors:

Here is from one of our national guys:

Ah what could have been - Sean Miller met with Heather Lyke about a week before she hired Jeff Capel.

Heather actually wanted to hire him and he was ready to leave Arizona for obvious reasons. But there were too many in upper administration and a few of the trustees and in the legal department who all said "absolutely not" so it was dead on arrival.

But it was a nice thought while it lasted.

I thought maybe Pitt could hire Miller away from Xavier in a year but that ship has now sailed. The "Sean Miller to Pitt" train will not happen as he has once again reached the top of the profession and landed one of the elite jobs out there. Texas has wasted loads of talent, loads of resources and loads of prospects right in their backyards and is one of the most underachieving programs in the country.

But that doesn't change the fact that Texas should be one of the premier programs in the country because, well, they do have resources, recruiting pipelines and loads of talent.

Miller is obviously an excellent coach but is he an elite coach? That remains to be seen. He would have been perfect at Pitt because he has made a living out of winning with less. And he is obviously a beloved figure in the program history and has all kinds of ties and whatnot.

The thing is, when he was at Arizona he had plenty of elite talent and plenty of opportunities to get that program over the top and never could. And for all of his accolades and all the praise he receives remember this - he has never (not as a player, not as an assistant coach, not as a head coach) been to the Final Four.

I think this is a good hire for Texas, Miller will get them to a Sweet 16 level most years and they will consistently win and be in the tournament. At a place like Pitt, that would be good enough, but at Texas, they aren't hiring him to "win 25 games a year" they are hiring him to get to the Final Four and win a championship.

Figured we could use this as an offseason discussion thread. Any updates on whats expected from your end Paul, Staff Changes, players that may leave and guys they may target? I know theres a good chance Cam leaves, same with Marlon Barnes Jr. Alvaro Folgeuras at RMU a name to watch, has become friends with the twins, and they have been recruiting him to join

Not a bad idea by the decision makers at the football program to engage Gruden and Barstool here.
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I know it’s early in camp but what is the possible starting rotation? Will this be an upgrade over last year?

Here is the latest Redshirt Diaries loaded with information, thoughts and analysis. Hope you enjoy

Karl has notes from the weekend. I am sure today will be a busy day in the portal so stay tuned for updates

@KarlLudwig

I know you’re still probably getting your feet wet, but was curious if you have a sense of where Pitt stands with the local kids in the 2026 class. Matt Sieg has obviously committed to Penn State, but there are still about another 10 prospects or so with P4 interest, making this one of the stronger local classes I can recall in recent memory.

It seems like only Lincoln Hoke and Reston Lehman have official visits setup, so curious what you might be hearing.

Rivals has access to the transfer portal so we will keep you as up to date as possible tomorrow when all hell breaks loose. This one is not a surprise. Here is Karl's story

Here's the full article with quotes on the newest Pitt commit, LB Marcus Jennings.

Not the best played game but very entertaining with a great finish…..what the ncaa’s are all about.

SIAP. Seems like power conference domination in the tournament could be a regular thing with the transfer portal and lower level teams losing top players to bigger programs so easily. The tournament isn’t the same without some Cinderellas.

Pitt is in contact with Bryce Lindsay, a 2022 point guard from out of Baltimore (he better not hang with Marlo). VCU and Georgetown offers stand out.

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Karl has a story on the front page about the happenings this weekend:

Our defense is horrendous and our down low play is awful. Besides that, we are only bad! Watching the ACC and thinking we are decent is a mirage. The conference that was once great is no more. Sadly, Duke is the only ACC team that looks close to the old ACC teams. Where do we go from here is the question? My thoughts, under Capel and his staff, no where.

nm

pitt just never could get this right

Seeing him on my TV after reaching the Round of 32 reminds me of the story that Painter's best friend and roommate at W&J, Dr Michael Speca, told me during one of my annual physicals. Speca is a big time Pitt fan and father of PSU LB Anthony Speca, as you will recall from my past posts on the topic (and his psycho brother was a regular on here).

He told me when Dixon left that Painter wanted to come from Purdue to Pitt...and expressed an interest to Pitt. But Lurch the AD went with his buddy's headhunter firm and brought in Stallings.

Oh what could have been...

From what I've been hearing, the defense came out on top in the scrimmage this morning. It sounds like the defensive backs were particularly impressive and made a lot of plays. Secondary coach Archie Collins highlighted a couple of young defensive backs on social media after practice (R-Fr. Davion Pritchard and Fr. Josh Guerrier).

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I don't have any specifics yet, but I'll share anything else I hear today.

If the offense doesn't turn the ball over, it usually wins the scrimmages, which have roughly 100-125 live plays. I heard the quarterbacks looked pretty good, but turnovers are what win scrimmages for the defense. And just for reference, the defense won all of the spring scrimmages last year.

I'm hearing that Freshman QB Mason Heitnschel is lighting it up in Spring practices and doing really well versus our defense.

Sounds like we may have found a nice diamond in the rough.

With Eli, Julian and him in the QB room, we are sitting pretty well depth-wise.

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Is up next..this league suxx big time

Remember earlier in the season when someone said Lowe is better than Levance? Lolol yeah okay.

I wonder if Jeff Capel was coaching this team how they would have done.

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Kyle Neptune was an assistant under Jay Wright for about 8 years. He was named Villanova's coach three years ago after Wright retired.

He was fired Saturday despite having three seasons in a row with a non-losing record and improving his win total every year.

This is the new world of college athletics, there is so much pressure to win because of the financial side that these guys (well in most places) won't have a long leash to get it right. I have read that Ryan Odom is probably a front runner here but we shall see.

One thing that is clear is this - the Big East returning to its roots as a basketball conference has been the best thing that has happened to it. The collectives, the revenue share - the league is going the opposite way of the ACC.