Here's the thread for tonight's Pitt-Stanford game. We'll use this to discuss the game as it happens, and I'll post news and notes here throughout the night.

Here's some pre-game reading material:

The close game between EKU and Louisville must have helped some - somehow.

Down 0-1 thanks to a Jedi Robinson assist on a beautiful goal.

And now a likely red card against?

Massive.
@Allan McMurray what say you?

Fun to watch even a second time.
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Ish and Dunn spotted shooting ahead of warmups

Duke wins at SMU 89-62 leaving 3 undefeated teams in conference play

This is a general question as I have been watching my son on varsity this season and have coached in the past and may again in the future. Our varsity season isn’t going well.

If you were going to play a certain defense as your primary defense what would it be. You can’t just say man or zone? How would you defend screens, what would your rotations look like, how would you teach team defensive rebounding. Any defensive discussion is welcome.

I am just curious what most posters preferences would be for high school basketball. @StephenGertz @JimHammett

For allowing me to miss 25% of the product I pay 90 dollars a month to watch. Can’t log into your stupid app where you moved the game unless I have Mickey ID. Definetly yours and Minnie’s call. I live in Pittsburgh, but I def want to watch the fatal end of some game in Tennessee. And don’t tell me you don’t know where I live cause blackout pens games all the time

I would gladly give Pitt 90 dollars a month for the ability to watch Pitt sports. I literally don’t give a S about another single thing on TV

Thanks Mickey for ruining the game for me I barely even feel like watching it now

When the schedules are first released, the first thing I always do is check to see how many home Saturday games there are. For me, nothing is better than the big Saturday conference games.

I was excited that we had so many Saturday games this year after only a couple last year. Now I’m noticing that aside from tomorrows game, all the others are noon games (except for the last game of the year vs BC. That’s less than ideal.

What kind of pregaming do you all do prior to a 12pm game?

Had this come across my feed this afternoon and it was nice to see a couple of our former guys square off today and both play well. Santos had 23 and Drumgoole had 21 but GW absolutely cooked Dayton even without their leading scorer and former Vtech recruit Darren Buchanan. Chris Caputo seems as though he might have something going at George Washington.

Pitt overcame another slow start to log another double-digit win over an ACC opponent Saturday night, as the Panthers beat Stanford 83-68 at the Petersen Events Center.

The teams: Pitt (12-2 overall, 3-0 ACC; 23 KenPom, 12 NET) and Stanford (9-5 overall, 1-2 ACC; 96 KenPom, 86 NET)

Top performers:
Ishmael Leggett - 21 points, 9/13 FG, 0/4 3FG, 3/3 FT, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals
Jaland Lowe - 16 points, 5/14 FG, 2/5 3FG, 4/4 FT, 5 assists
Guillermo Diaz Graham - 12 points, 5/8 FG, 2/5 3FG, 5 rebounds
Maxime Raynaud - 21 points, 7/10 FG, 3/5 3FG, 4/4 FT

Storylines

Leggett’s return
Senior guard Ishmael Leggett missed Wednesday’s win over Cal with an ankle injury, but he returned on Saturday, and while he was a bit rusty to start, hitting just two of his first five attempts, he reminded everyone why he’s arguably Pitt’s most important player this season.

When Stanford went on a 9-0 run early in the first half, it was Leggett who put a stop to it with a jump shot. And in the Panthers’ big run to close the first half, he scored 11 points.

After missing three of his first five shots, Leggett made six in a row and seven of his final eight to finish with a team-high 21 points. It was Leggett’s fifth 20-point game of the season and the 18th of his career. He also tied his season high with nine made field goals, and he only needed 13 attempts to get there. Additionally, Leggett shot 9-of-9 from two-point range.

Leggett filled out his stat sheet with six rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Another slow start
On New Year’s Day, Pitt fell behind Cal by 16 points before finishing the first half strong and running away with things in the second half.

On Saturday at the Petersen Events Center, the Panthers didn’t fall behind by 16, but Stanford did have a nine-point lead as late as the 8:05 mark of the first half and seemed to have a chance to take control of the game by keeping Pitt at arm’s length.

But just like the Panthers settled in and took over against Cal, so too did they change the direction of the game against Stanford. First, Zack Austin drained a three; then, Leggett converted an and-1 and Jorge Diaz Graham followed that with a three. Leggett would hit three more jump shots, Jorge would hit another three and Jaland Lowe would add a deep shot of his own before the half ended, giving Pitt an eight-point lead at halftime.

In the second half, it was all Pitt. The Panthers came out of the locker room, rattled off a 10-0 run before Stanford scored and kept the lead between 15 and 21 points throughout the final 17 minutes of the game.

Defending Raynaud
Stanford center Maxime Raynaud is one of the best players in the ACC, and he certainly looked like it on Saturday night, opening the game by hitting his first six shots for 11 points in the first nine minutes. But Pitt’s defense got more aggressive with Raynaud, and the Panthers' use of double teams and traps limited him to just three points in the final 11 minutes of the half . Even more impressively, the Panthers only allowed Raynaud to attempt two shots in that stretch.

The success against Raynaud continued into the second half; he didn’t make his first basket of the half until the 7:11 mark, a field goal drought of nearly 18 game minutes. The Stanford center finished the game with 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting; in the second half, he scored seven points on 1-of-3 shooting from the field.

The Diazes Graham
The midseason bounce-back of Guillermo Diaz Graham continued on Saturday.

After shooting 3-of-29 from three in a seven-game stretch, Guillermo has made 5-of-10 from deep and has scored 26 total points in the last three games.

Meanwhile, Jorge Diaz Graham made just five three-pointers in the first 10 games of the season, and four of those five came in the win over VMI. But in the last four games, Jorge has come off the bench to make 6-of-7 from beyond the arc. That includes 2-of-2 in 15 minutes on Saturday night.

Perhaps the most remarkable stretch for both Diaz Graham twins came in the final seven minutes of the first half, when Jeff Capel put the brothers on together with center Cam Corhen. That lineup - the three bigs plus Jaland Lowe and Ishmael Leggett - went on a 20-5 run.

A looming return for Dunn
Senior guard Damian Dunn has been out since suffering a thumb injury early in Pitt’s loss to Wisconsin in late November, but it appears that a return is imminent as Dunn went through all of the Panthers’ warmups with his teammates prior to Saturday’s game.

The initial projection for Dunn’s recovery was six weeks from surgery; that timeline lands on Monday, Dec. 6 - the day before Pitt’s trip to Duke next week.

After the win over Stanford, Capel said that Dunn wasn’t available to play on Saturday night but requested the opportunity to work in warmups. Capel said that Dunn is “getting close,” which leaves open the possibility of the Houston transfer playing in Durham on Tuesday.

Making history
With the win, Pitt improved to 12-2 overall and 3-0 in the ACC. That’s the Panthers’ best overall record through 14 games since the 2015-16 season, and it’s also their first 3-0 start in conference play since that same season.

Up next
Pitt will take its perfect ACC record on the road Tuesday night for a matchup with Duke. The Blue Devils are 4-0 in the conference after winning at SMU on Saturday.

With the ACC getting stomped in bowl games this year..and watching other bowls and playoff games. It's almost like the teams with injuries and Portal entries have had a harder time in bowl games. The team that had its starting QB play....has won almost every bowl game vs a team playing there 2nd, 3rd, or 4th string guy. It almost seems like the portal has hurt more teams than it helps at this point in the year. It must be a coincidence.

Stephen Thompson of the Post Gazette posted a video of Damian Dunn shooting around just now.

He is wearing game shorts.

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Pitt will have at least three transfers visiting this weekend, with more targets in contact and visits on the horizon.

Here’s the latest intel that we’ve gathered.

Weekend visitors
Chances are, there will be more than three transfers who visit this weekend. For right now, we’ve got three confirmed.

Lawrence Hattar
Hattar was a two-year starter at guard for Ferris State, including this past season when the Bulldogs went 14-1 and won the Division II national championship. A 6’5” 335-pound guard from Livonia (Mich.), Hattar was named a first-team All-American after this past season, and he has been a hot commodity in the transfer portal. More than 20 schools have offered Hattar, and he has visits scheduled to Kansas State and North Carolina. Pitt is up first this weekend, and while offensive tackle has been the priority, I think the staff wants to build out the offensive line any way it can. Hattar would certainly give the coaches more options in what kind of personnel they put together.

Blaine Spires
Spires is a defensive end at Utah State, where he has spent the last two seasons after four years at Bowling Green (2019-22). A native of Youngstown, Spires made three starts in 2023 but was expected to be the Aggies’ top pass-rusher this season. A toe injury took him off the field after four games, though, and he finished 2024 with three tackles for loss and one sack.

Spires has drawn interest from a number of schools since he went into the transfer portal, but the Pitt visit this weekend could be the decider for the 6’3” 230-pound defensive end. For the Panthers, defensive end is a position where a lot is needed - both in quantity and quality - after losing three ends to the transfer portal and one more to graduation.

It seems like Pitt has a good shot of landing Spires.

Rashan Murray
Another Division II All-American, Murray is a local native - he played high school ball in the City League - and he has spent the last three years at Cal (Pa.) after initially committing to Akron as a senior. 2024 was Murray’s breakout year, as he recorded four interceptions and earned DII second-team All-America honors. He has heard from several schools since he entered the portal, but Pitt is the only visit he has scheduled right now.

After the transfer of Ryland Gandy, Pitt could use another corner to fill out the rotation, and Murray seems like he could be a good fit with Rashad Battle, Tamon Lynum and possibly a young player (like Shadarian Harrison).

Other targets to watch
A few other guys to keep an eye on:

Zy Crisler
Crisler is an offensive guard from Mississippi who went to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College after high school and then spent the last three years at Illinois. While playing with the Illini, he started 13 games at right guard in 2022, 11 games total (nine at right guard and two at right tackle) in 2023 and six games at right guard this past season.

That’s 30 starts (and 36 total games played) over the course of three years, with a couple All-Big Ten honorable mentions after the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Crisler is 6’6” and 335 pounds, so size is no issue, and while he seems to have made his two starts at right tackle in a spot-duty role, it’s at least notable to consider as possible option.

Crisler has been talking to Kade Bell and Jeremy Darveau at Pitt, and the coaches have talked to him about visiting next week (possibly Thursday). In the meantime, he also has visits to Colorado, UCLA, Mississippi State, Miami and Nebraska. So he’ll be busy.

Jez Janvier
Janvier is an interesting guy. He’s from Montreal and joined Eastern Michigan in the 2021 recruiting class. He played a bit in his first two years before moving to the defensive line in 2023, where he played a half-dozen games. This past year, he moved back to the offensive line and made five starts at guard.

A 6’5” 300-pound athlete who also played basketball and baseball in high school, Janvier has been in contact with Pitt. He’s another guard, so my guess is that guys like Hattar and Crisler would be a little above him on the priority list, but we’ll see how the coaches approach it.

Like I said, there will probably be more visitors this weekend, but that’s what we have confirmed so far. We’ll post more info as we get it.

Last year, we played a crucial December Sunday game vs Clemson directly opposite the Steelers. At the time, I said if we lose, we won't make the NCAA Tournament and I was widely criticized for that. Turns out, I was right and we missed it by 1 game. We ended up losing to Clemson in front of friends and family only. That doesn't automatically mean that we would have beaten them with a larger crowd but Heather is so enamored with her arena, that she didn't ask/request certain game times from ESPN before the season. As I remember, there were several other ACCN games that day and had she requested it in advance, there is no reason that Pitt couldn't have played later. In fact, ESPN would have probably appreciated the heads-up since there were probably like 14 Yinzers watching Pitt/Clem instead of the Steelers.

This year, she schedules WVU for 8PM in a non-televised game so that volleyball can have their own times lot at 5:30. Pitt fans will use any excuse in the book to stay away. They ain't going to games starting later than 7PM. As it turns out, nobody went but because of that, it was the largest student turnout in history because they gave them the thousands of empty seats.

But that's not all. We play Stanford at 6:30 opposite Steelers/Bengals at 8. She should have requested an afternoon game.

I know many of you will say that Pitt has no say and we play when ESPN tells us. That's only true to a point. These college basketball regular season games are very lowly rated. ESPN will not have any issue of scheduling 1-2 games per year around NFL games as its better for them anyway to not go head to head with the NFL in a home market.

#3 on the list. He chose Pitt over VT.

Just saw he was out this Sunday and put in the Non-Football injury list. Prayers up for a great Pitt Man!

Sorry if this was already posted.

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They have the #2 and #3 pick in this summer's draft and are 8-6. NET of 84 and not close to the NCAAT. They can still go on a run and get there but please explain this.

I have 3 in 102 you can have. I’m going to be freezing at the Steeler game.

They’re gone

I'm sorry but this is becoming a joke

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...3985/ncaa-talks-expanding-hoops-tourney-72-76