Just joined after years of reading...live on the west coast but grew up in the North Hills...totally pumped for the season and finally being able to see the team.
First Game - Who's pumped
- Thread starter MVPitt
- Start date
Most excited I’ve been for the program since the 07-11 prime Dixon era.
This team has a low floor because of the youth at the guard position and potential lack of depth there, but also a high ceiling because of this newfound culture, and VERY interesting mix of new/returning players. And those new guards could very well be our strength at some point- who knows.
I’ll just say I’m pumped too!
This team has a low floor because of the youth at the guard position and potential lack of depth there, but also a high ceiling because of this newfound culture, and VERY interesting mix of new/returning players. And those new guards could very well be our strength at some point- who knows.
I’ll just say I’m pumped too!
Agreed..forgot to mention that I'm excited to see all the new players...turns out my son's best friend's dad is close with Jaland's dad, they played together at VT I believe...so excited to see what Jaland can do. Excited to see Leggett, Austin, Bub, the growth of the twins and Fede, and just see how the athleticism of this team is displayed. We haven't seen a Pitt team this athletic in a while....
Pretty excited. What's the spread. God, I hate NET so I'm going to have to pay attention to the spread. We have to beat the spread and keep our foot on the gas. Unfortunately, walk-ons cant play anymore.
Total opposites on expectations...
Polar opposites
Pitt players thinking they are competing for a league championship and National championship this year
Media thinking Pitt is worse than Kevin Stallings and our backcourt is junior high school level, complete dogshit to say it nicely... These guys think Pitt's backcourt is getting its doors blown off and is the worst backcourt in the entire P6 in a decade of all of P6 and is the worst backcourt in the country.
There is so much hate toward our backcourt preseason its not even funny. I could post a ton of links, like the one above, ripping this Pitt backcourt and Capel all over the place. 1:03 minute mark
Carrington, Lowe, Leggett, these 3 are on a mission to shut people up. And they will. Pitt by 30+ in the opener.
Freshmen guards don't do what they used to. I was very very skeptical of our backcourt until I saw them play. That said, my expectations are tempered because they are freshman and this isnt 2018. All these P5 teams are really old now. Freshmen dont play much anymore. So we'll see.
FWIW, Andy Katz has Pitt as one of his top 10 underrated teams this year, along with WVU and Clemson. I want to see a healthy Fede again tonight and some depth to limit the late season fatigue.
BballinsiderfromPitt wrote WVU off. But their elite NIL money will have them in the NCAA Tournament.
RJ Davis?
Judah Mintz?
Jalen Hood Schifino?
These are Pitt targets under Capel, and I hyped up the former 2 a ton during EYBL play way before they got ranked appropriately. And Judah Mintz was never ranked appropriately. He was barely a top 100 kid when he was committed to Pitt after he killed it in the EYBL. Now half the people out there have him as a preseason All American.
That link I posted above btw isn't some random people. These guys are pushing 25K followers and run a gambling website. That was just 1 link from guys completely trashing our backcourt in the preseason. And like I said before, its not like these players are unranked nobodies, they are still 4 star players. And people are treating them like complete nobodies that are coming from the middle of nowhere.
While I agree with you all freshmen should be held to some sort of skepticism in the first year... And while I agree there are quite a bit of unknowns still on this team. There is no way anyone should ever say our offense should be ranked close to 250th in the country preseason (Kevin Stallings level) when our entire frontcourt returns from an NCAA Tournament team and 1 of those players is a potential All American.
Are you following them at all?
Perez- Quit the team and transferred to Arizona State
Akok- Collapsed on the court and is out for a while, maybe permanently
Battle- 2nd time transfer, ruled ineligible
Farrakhan- 2nd time transfer, ruled ineligible
Krissa- Serving a 9 game suspension
The way this team is losing players left and right, they might be making a call to Rodney Gallagher. I wouldn't be surprised if they lose tonight.
Those are Top 25ish freshmen. The Pitt guys are not. I think they'll be good but you rarely see players ranked 75-150 be "plus" players as freshmen anymore. The P6s are too old and the 23 year old mid-major transfers are better. I am high on these kids. I think Carrington especially can be really good quickly but I am not ready to be guaranteeing such things. If this were several years ago before mass transfers, I would be more confident.
I'm not sure there is all that much media "hate." Yeah, there's this podcast, but most preseason rankings that I've seen have been around #9 in the ACC which seems pretty fair to me. And even this podcast doesn't seem totally off base. The long and short of it is that they aren't big fans of Ish based on his Rhode Island years.
This podcast said they were more likely to be closer to the 243 level of Kempom of two years ago, as opposed to the 29 level of last year. I just don't see this as a ridiculous take. Capel's first year was #168 offense. His second year was #154. I hope it not the case, but it's not unreasonable to think we could end up at these levels this year. And I haven't seen any mention of the Stallings team.
In this particular interview, one guy said "did you say Pitt's transfer class is headlined by Ish Leggett"? Then he said "that puts Pitt's entire transfer class into perspective" and the other 2 guys start laughing.
Then he goes on to say that our season is going to be "ugly"
His friend came on and said we are going to be closer to 243rd in offense this year in offensive efficiency (Stallings bad)
The 3rd guy projects Jaland Lowe to start and went on to say that our backcourt "is a complete disaster". Then he goes on to predict " this team wont win too many games" , Then he called Ish a high volume chucker.
There is a lot of bulletin board material here in this 5 or so minute clip. Ive seen a good number of predictions with Pitt being 12th or 13th and that's fine. With freshmen point guards I understand some of the concern. However, I have some serious issues with some of those comments made above in this podcast. And there were more podcasts saying similar things to this but I don't want to put a bunch of negative stuff on this board on gameday.
I think Capel should play that clip to our team.
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They’re starting a guy who got run off at St John’s and just lost 2 key transfers for the year with a coaching staff that has 1.5 years of total coaching experience in the best conference in America. They’re gonna be a disaster.
9th preseason is a pretty reasonable assessment based on what they lost, young guards and uncertainty on the wing behind Hinson. Pitt has a ton of guys who haven’t produced at the ACC level being asked to replace a ton of guys who did last year. The only reason they aren’t lower by most is that the ACC isn’t what it used to be and they have a legit POY candidate if he stays true to himself and doesn’t try to do too much
I guess this podcast just doesn't come off as disrespectful to me as it does to you. Still, it's one podcast.
Pitt -24.5.
I think we cover. Pitt played pretty quick against UPJ, we’ll see if that continues.
I’ll go 82-52 Pitt
NCAAT if they get the Montana State kid eligible, which they will. Just needs to say his mental health is better in Morgantown. Really easy to make the NCAAT out of the Big 12. Win a few home games, go 7-11 and you are in.
Ok. Gotta win by 30 then. Actually, NET, now that I understand it more makes these games more interesting knowing we have to cover and we have to extend 20 point leads in the 2nd Half. I hope our staff understands this. I honestly believe most of college basketball doesn't understand they essentially need to cover and blow teams out big time when they can. If we can win by 40 or 50, that would be better for NET than beating an average ACC team by 1.
This is what you are looking for and this is what matters.
Torvik- -27.1
Massey- -17
Warren Nolan- -18
Haslam- -25
A good performance tonight is winning by 35+.
I think our OOC is better than last season. We don’t have too many NET killers. (We also catch a big break in the WVU game with Krissa out).
Anything in the 20-30 point range won’t really hurt us at all, and I think Capel is well aware of the NET rankings. The goal in these early games, I imagine, in to get Bub and Lowe as much run as possible.
I also think this Pitt team is the kind of team which can wax bad teams. We aren’t really a grind it out group. We will shoot. Shoot fast. Should dominate on boards and get to the line.
I’m expecting a 30 point win which will be just fine.
Yeah, WVU is a great opportunity. Even if they’re bad, the strength of the Big 12 will keep their NET pretty high all year. Getting a road win there will be something we’ll be able to point to in March. Then Missouri at home, which might be our toughest game other than a potential matchup with Baylor in Brooklyn.
Unless we play Baylor in Brooklyn, I really think we should run this OOC.
WVU won’t have Krissa, or like 4 other rotation guys they expected as of a month ago.
Mizzou lost a ton from last season, top 4 scorers.
Florida also lost their 2-3 best players. Bubble team at best. Talented, but I think we should be a small favorite.
None of the mid majors we play at home, while most are ok, are really scary. Florida Gulf Coast next Monday might be the best one.
Pat Chambers’ teams are always a pain in the ass to deal with. I think he’s gotten some decent enough talent down there from the northeast, too.
That’s a game where the line is gonna be like Pitt -10 or so, and they better take it seriously.
Gonna be watching their score vs Indiana tomorrow for sure.
They have most of their team back from last season. They weren’t great 17-15 overall, but it’s rare for these mid majors to have their whole team back. I think they are picked 2nd or 3rd in the Atlantic Sun.
I’m glad we have the 2 games this week before them.
I'm looking forward to revisiting this post in January.
I am afraid to report that I just look at ticket sales for this game and my rough guess is that not including the Zoo, 60% of the building is available. And probably only half of season ticket holders will go so you're probably looking at a crowd of around 3000 (but 7500 reported). The website made it look like most season tickets were sold all summer and fall when I looked but that was just them playing games. Unfortunately, season ticket sales are still really bad. I felt I got a good value for my location but obviously, Pitt still priced its seats too high. I just looked up Miami, who plays in a smaller building but are coming off a Final Four and have been good for awhile. You can buy lower corner tickets for $300. Those are $700 at Pitt (including donation). To be fair, Pitt offering upper baseline tickets for $290 with no donation seems like a steal. Can't believe they cant sell any of those. Duke and UNC are basically worth that alone.
They will not get him eligible. Mental health waivers went up 1000 percent this year. They’re not granting them all. 3-15, 4-14 type season. Worse talent than Pitt, worse coaching than Pitt in a much better league
He covered his bases per usual so he can say he was right either way. Only case he didn’t was when he said Hugley was an all American who would get a million dollar NIL deal. He learned his lesson
I would absolutely love you to be right about this. I'd happily take this L. But we both know that typically isnt how this works.
I'm interested to see what Bacot does this year. He's never lived up to the hype, imo. Soft & inconsistent.
This has to be the year for UNC. Bacot, Davis, and I've always really liked Cormac Ryan. They could be really really good.
One of those fringe teams that barely gets in and gets sent home the first weekend?
