Decided to take my nephews to the game tomorrow. Would be looking for 4. Figured I’d ask here before looking into buying via the school or what not. Thanks.

The Athletic released their bracket watch this morning: Pitt is a 10 seed in the West region with 2 Alabama and 7 Creighton. The 1 seed is Arizona and the 3 seed is Gonzaga.

Pitt is in the "Last 4 byes", which are the four teams just beyond the last four in.

"Pittsburgh (4-1 in Quad 1) went from barely on our radar to a No. 10 seed after taking down North Carolina and Virginia"

Buckle up.

Georgia Tech upsets Miami, 76-70

H2P!

I wish I had more time but I am
juggling writing two multi millionaire dollar federal grants and am swamped at work. So I don’t have much time to look at Clemson info before tomorrows game. But he are a few thoughts and maybe more questions than answers or ideas.

1) Clemson averages about 75 points a game. Which is outside the top 100 nationally.
2) They are ranked 16th in 3 pt shooting percentage.
3) But they only shoot about 21 three pointers per game which ranks nationally at 179,
4) They average 15.6 assists per game. We average 15.1 assists per game.
5) Clemson ranks 279 in fast break points.
6) Clemson ranks 336 in offensive rebounding at only 7 per game.

It surprises me how few 3 pters they actually shoot. I wonder do they come mostly in tradition or out of half court sets. I am guessing with their team scoring average and fast break ranking being so poor it is out of half court sets. With the number of points a game being rather low and the assist ranking being considerably higher I am guessing most 3 pt shots come off the pass and not a player creating off the dribble. They also must play a spread out well spaced offense around the perimeter because of that low offensive rebounding number.

I have to actually do my job wotk now. But during my lunch I will throw out a few more thoughts and ideas. I am not a college coach nor do I pretend to be an expert. But with this being such an important game Saturday I thought starting a tread like this could provoke some interesting discussions.

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Imagine thinking this is even remotely close to being true

I understand that Pitt has been looking for a tight end. I will not state names or universities because the information I am about to disclose is third hand information; but I believe it to be truthful because of the line of sources. When this recruit was offered by Pitt, he and his family were extremely pleased, going so far as telling friends that he was going to Pitt. Surprising to me, he then commited to a Big 10 school. He entered the portal recently and had offers from 5 top tier schools, including Pitt. The school who he is transferring to, unfortunately is not Pitt. His reason? He accepted the ”best offer”. A new car, a six figure NIL deal, and a master’s degree throw in for his girlfriend, who is graduating this year from the university they currently attend. Tough to compete with the “ deep pocket ” universities.

This team is so far ahead of where I anticipated. How they have responded after the rough start is incredible to me. This team, compared to the one vs. West Virginia. How can it be in the same year? Completely unrecognizable.

Jeff Capel has deserved criticism and heat. It's not about being a hater or being wrong. I think he would tell you himself that he didn't get it done. The experience has been a disaster. Until now. Now is where he deserves a ton of credit. After this start, after the previous seasons, you know how easy it could have been to go down another lost season. Instead, he kept the group locked in and above the adversity. He is doing this without John Hugley and Dior Johnson as well. It has been an incredible job.

As far as John goes, this is probably the best thing that could have happened. He sees now that the team does not necessarily need him, and that he is just a piece. THat is critical. This is a true team, for the first time. They play hard, they play together, and they have fun. A deficit that would have buried them before is no longer such an obstacle. If John can get himself right and return, it will help give them a 1-2 tandem at center. I don't think this season will be what any of us thought for John, but that is okay. Hopefully he has developed a new perspective and just contributes this season.

Have to start with Jamarius. He is playing at an all ACC first team level. His toughness has rubbed off on this program. I knew this team's floor was higher, but the ceiling is at a whole different level because of Burton. I wasn't sure if they had "that guy." I was wrong, and they have him in JB.

The other kid I want to call out is Nike. Preseason and beginning of the year, I felt for him. He looked like a shell of himself. No confidence, wasn't trusting the body. Similar to this team, he stuck with it and pulled through. This is the player that we knew that he could be. I think he deserves a ton of credit for this team taking another step over the last couple of weeks. He may become the best sixth man in the conference.

Not only finding Hinson, but molding him into this attack has been impressive by Capel. Blake is REALLY talented, but he is also a challenge. Getting him to buy in and play within this team structure stands out to me.

This entire team has kind of taken on this persona overnight. Blake can miss 10 shots in a row, but it doesn't phase him. He is taking the eleventh at any time. Most of the team is this way. It really is incredible. There is tangible culture and leadership now. Teammates playing for each other.

Capel may have this thing really rolling right now. The league is really bad, and you just beat two of the contenders by January 4th. There is no reason this team can't contend for a top 3-4 finish in this conference. When I do these matchups, the talent level is close to the Carolinas, Virginias, and Miamis. Really close, and better than most of the others. When you consider how they play and the style, it adds even more. There is obviously a lot of season left and there is no reason to hand out t shirts and hats right now. But I don't know how you could ask for more than this right now. They are in a prime position to really contend for this thing.

Not only right now, but Capel has this thing rocking for the future as well. I really really like this 2023 class. That is a very nice 1-2-3 moving forward for the future. A strong season can help even more, and most of the recruiting could be done for a few years.


Who knows what happens the rest of the way or what they can accomplish, but once again they have a chance against anyone every single night. It has been too long. Enjoy.

I mentioned in post a couple days ago after being a long-time season ticket holder but having not gone to a game in four years, I'll be making my second game this Saturday. Any suggestions on where to go pregame?

ESPN just reported that instead of announcing the starting lineups before this Sunday’s game, the Buffalo Bills are considering announcing the names of the entire Training staff that was involved in helping Damar Hamlin.

Mike Greenberg said that it would probably the loudest and longest ovation in history and rightly so.

I’d really love to see this happen. It would be such a cool and appropriate honor.

Fun to be relevant again. Let's go Pitt!

Is someone able to help me out?

When do we think we will play @ND next year? I guess it would have to be 10/21 November 11 or 18? Does anyone know? Would like to start looking into accommodations now.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

I use this website to track summer league stats, but here they are talking about some of the best players across the nation in high school basketball in different major high school basketball events.



At the 17:40 mark to the 23 minute mark, you can listen to these guys hype up Jaland Lowe as if he is a future 5 star player. He is going to get a significant recruiting bump in the rankings which is coming, and so is Carrington. Ive been on record saying both are top 60ish nationally.


But its good to see some other people give out the proper recognition they deserve. 247 just did a major hype piece on Carrington with a recruiting bump in the rankings coming, but I did not link it because its a recruiting website and not a stats website like the link below.

Auerbach is typically not a crackpot.
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I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves... but things look pretty damn promising here. There are 16 games to play, but in just 4 conference games we have 3 wins over likely tournament teams, 2 of them in Quad 1 (for whatever that's worth). With how things have been shaking out, I think it is worth thinking about if this team has a shot at a regular season conference title.

My realistic expectation for Pitt is to protect the home floor and take care of the easy ones on the road. With the recent comebacks at home, and the fanbase seeming to fully commit to this year's group, I fully expect The Pete to once again play a factor in these games. Clemson, Wake and Miami are really the only tough home games Pitt has left on its schedule, anyway. I do not think it is unrealistic to finish conference play 9-1, or even 10-0 at home. From there, as I said, as long as they take care of some bad teams on the road, they allow themselves some nice wiggle room in the tough environments like Duke/UNC/VT. With all that said, I thought it would be fun to offer my prediction and hear thoughts:

Clemson: W
@Duke: Hard-fought L
@GT: W
@Louisville: W (might be close given our track record in this arena though)
FSU: W
WF: L (trying to be objective, could see Pitt overlooking this team; not a bad loss, but a game I obviously hope they win)
Miami: W
@UNC: L
Louisville: W
@FSU: W
BC: W
@VT: L
GT: W
Syracuse: W
@ND: W
@Miami: L

22-9 (15-5) with resume wins @NW, @NC St, UNC, UVA, Miami, Clemson. ND finished 2nd last year with the same record... conference title could be in play!

Down goes Miami. And Clemson plays later. So for now…all by ourselves. H2P

Donating to this gave me something tangible to do instead of sit here and sob.

Fundraiser he did in 2020 to give kids in McKees Rocks Christmas presents. Goal was $2,500. No idea how much he got originally, but when I clicked on it, it was at $245k. It's at $390k now.

Have we not beaten them since our first year in the ACC?
I feel like that’s something that’s gone under the radar.

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seems like great news that he is awake!

Two very impressive people...
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