Remaing Two Ships

[DC_Area_Panther]

According to Corey Evans today--

He still expects Jeffress to commit to Pitt and expects it will be fairly soon.

He also predicts that unless Capel lands Karim Mane the last ship will be held open for 2021.

No mention of Sanogo as a possibility.

 

[pittchagg]

I think there was also mention of "unless a transfer crops up" in that article. There's still guys entering the portal right now, so there's still plenty of time to lock onto a grad transfer.

Jeffress is definitely the guy, though, and things seem like they continue to look good there.

 

[Elsalvador]

Jeffress or bust, of course. Need some good news on that front and hopefully soon.
Again, I get the, "don't just take a player just to take one/for a body on a team", but if you can get a Grad Transfer for one year and get the scholarship back for 2021 anyways, I say do it. We can do worse, but hopefully better than say Sterling Smith. So many other teams are getting them, why the hell not us? We have 3 guards and one will be a freshmen and the other hasn't played in the ACC before. Give me a ball handler please.

 

[BargeDog]

still need a PG

 

[thirteenNINE]

This drives me up the wall with Capel because in these days of available one-year player movement it is a nearly a dereliction of duty to have open scholarships, let alone two years in a row. It's a complete and utter waste of resources not to fill that spot with someone who can play, even if it's an emergency. We saw that all too clearly this season where sometimes we were dressing 7 or 8 players and just getting run off of the court at the end of the season by fresher teams.

I like Capel but leaving open ships is idiotic.

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

This drives me up the wall with Capel because in these days of available one-year player movement it is a nearly a dereliction of duty to have open scholarships, let alone two years in a row. It's a complete and utter waste of resources not to fill that spot with someone who can play, even if it's an emergency. We saw that all too clearly this season where sometimes we were dressing 7 or 8 players and just getting run off of the court at the end of the season by fresher teams.

I like Capel but leaving open ships is idiotic.

When you’re playing walk ons instead of a grad transfer from any level, it looks really, really dumb.

 

[TWPitt]

This drives me up the wall with Capel because in these days of available one-year player movement it is a nearly a dereliction of duty to have open scholarships, let alone two years in a row. It's a complete and utter waste of resources not to fill that spot with someone who can play, even if it's an emergency. We saw that all too clearly this season where sometimes we were dressing 7 or 8 players and just getting run off of the court at the end of the season by fresher teams.

I like Capel but leaving open ships is idiotic.

Most teams leave ships open now because the rapid player movement to allow the ability to move on someone if need be and the fact that most teams only play 7-8 guys / game.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

This drives me up the wall with Capel because in these days of available one-year player movement it is a nearly a dereliction of duty to have open scholarships, let alone two years in a row. It's a complete and utter waste of resources not to fill that spot with someone who can play, even if it's an emergency. We saw that all too clearly this season where sometimes we were dressing 7 or 8 players and just getting run off of the court at the end of the season by fresher teams.

I like Capel but leaving open ships is idiotic.

I'd use one even a Monty Boykins-level grad transfer than have it go unused but I would NOT use it on a Samson George HS senior or Tyrone Haughton JUCO.

 

[thirteenNINE]

Most teams leave ships open now because the rapid player movement to allow the ability to move on someone if need be and the fact that most teams only play 7-8 guys / game.

A one year rental in the hand with a scholarship that you recycle next year is more than worth the trade off against the off chance that your dream player comes available midseason. Sure, a lot of teams choose to only go with 7 or 8 because that's where their big talent drop off hits (unless you're Tom Izzo, Leonard Hamilton, Kelvin Sampson, or Mark Few and you have a dozen guys who can play and you use that to your advantage) but there's a real big difference between preferring to play 7 or 8 and only having 6 to 7 healthy players available.

That was painfully clear this year with us where we had one empty scholarship, one player on a sit out year, and two raw freshmen who needed a redshirt year and battled injuries. We were a fringe bubble team at one point this season at 15-9 (6-7) with wins over FSU and Rutgers but in that game against Georgia Tech to take us to 15-9 we really only had 6 players available plus Coulibaly. We did not win another game until the ACC tournament and, while there were also locker room factors at play, hitting the physical wall while trying to compete with the likes FSU (who played 11 players at least 12 minutes against us in February) was a major reason why.

 

[PharMorNightStocker]

I don't understand leaving a scholarship open either. It's like turning down a free lawnmower you have plenty of space for because you already have a better one. Ok... but what if yours breaks? Or what if the free one unexpectedly does some things better than yours so there are various roles, however small, you can use it in?

My goodness, even if you just want to bring in a high character guy who can teach the rest of the team that it's probably not a good idea to punch each other in the face in the locker room after a win, then that's better than wasting a scholarship. It just looks insane when a team that has been as bad as we have over the past three years would scoff at the idea of bringing in another warm body. It's like a homeless guy turning down a free scratch-off lottery ticket. The only logic I can think of in defending this is that some guys transfer in December, and teams with an open scholarship can make a run at them then (and then have them available for the second semester of the '21-'22 season) as opposed to waiting until after the season. But that seems unlikely.

 

[wbrpanther]

I don't understand leaving a scholarship open either. It's like turning down a free lawnmower you have plenty of space for because you already have a better one. Ok... but what if yours breaks? Or what if the free one unexpectedly does some things better than yours so there are various roles, however small, you can use it in?

My goodness, even if you just want to bring in a high character guy who can teach the rest of the team that it's probably not a good idea to punch each other in the face in the locker room after a win, then that's better than wasting a scholarship. It just looks insane when a team that has been as bad as we have over the past three years would scoff at the idea of bringing in another warm body. It's like a homeless guy turning down a free scratch-off lottery ticket. The only logic I can think of in defending this is that some guys transfer in December, and teams with an open scholarship can make a run at them then (and then have them available for the second semester of the '21-'22 season) as opposed to waiting until after the season. But that seems unlikely.

As it stands now Pitt will only have one ship available for next year. I know that can change but the only way I see Capel using that last ship is for a one year grad transfer. Other than that why bring in a lesser talent and tie that ship up for 4 years when you don't have to.

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

As it stands now Pitt will only have one ship available for next year. I know that can change but the only way I see Capel using that last ship is for a one year grad transfer. Other than that why bring in a lesser talent and tie that ship up for 4 years when you don't have to.

There’s a 99.9 percent chance that someone slated for the 21-22 season will transfer/leave early. In fact it’s about 99.8 percent MULTIPLE will. Just the nature of the game. We need to stop looking at anyone as a multi year player and think of them ALL as 1 year rentals

 

[wbrpanther]

There’s a 99.9 percent chance that someone slated for the 21-22 season will transfer/leave early. In fact it’s about 99.8 percent MULTIPLE will. Just the nature of the game. We need to stop looking at anyone as a multi year player and think of them ALL as 1 year rentals

Definitely agree. My point was I'd rather leave that 13th ship open for next year than just fill it to fill it.

 

[Fsgolfdr]

Unless you find a kid who wants to further his education at Pitt , Pitt currently isn’t an attractive place for a grad transfer to go to . The guys who truly can make a difference have a pick of any school they want to go to and Pitts not on that list . Pitts in the group of schools that players like a Ryan Murphy or Eric Hamilton might consider . Why would JC want to add this quality of player to his roster at this time ? Last year was different story .
Let’s look at the pg position , X will eat up the majority of those minutes and like it or not Femi will most likely get the rest unless he’s just not capable , which I don’t feel is the case . So whose coming in here to sit and why would you want him ? If X is injured no one they can get at this point in time will make much difference anyway , so why worry about something that’s probably not going to happen ?
If JC gets Jeffress that would put the icing on the cake for the recruiting class and if if he adds anyone else who can contribute then your getting some ice cream too . The future will continue to look bright for Pitt bb .

 

[joeydavid]

A one year rental in the hand with a scholarship that you recycle next year is more than worth the trade off against the off chance that your dream player comes available midseason. Sure, a lot of teams choose to only go with 7 or 8 because that's where their big talent drop off hits (unless you're Tom Izzo, Leonard Hamilton, Kelvin Sampson, or Mark Few and you have a dozen guys who can play and you use that to your advantage) but there's a real big difference between preferring to play 7 or 8 and only having 6 to 7 healthy players available.

That was painfully clear this year with us where we had one empty scholarship, one player on a sit out year, and two raw freshmen who needed a redshirt year and battled injuries. We were a fringe bubble team at one point this season at 15-9 (6-7) with wins over FSU and Rutgers but in that game against Georgia Tech to take us to 15-9 we really only had 6 players available plus Coulibaly. We did not win another game until the ACC tournament and, while there were also locker room factors at play, hitting the physical wall while trying to compete with the likes FSU (who played 11 players at least 12 minutes against us in February) was a major reason why.

Sounds like reach. Pitt had 4-5 ACC level talents on the roster last year.

The primary issue was more players 6-12 than #13.

 

[thirteenNINE]

Definitely agree. My point was I'd rather leave that 13th ship open for next year than just fill it to fill it.

Yeah, no one is saying to take another Samson George reach with that spot for sure.

Sounds like reach. Pitt had 4-5 ACC level talents on the roster last year.

The primary issue was more players 6-12 than #13.

That's exactly my point though. We had 4 pretty good basketball players, two lower tier ACC caliber but frustratingly inconsistent centers, and Ryan Murphy who really was overextended but was okay enough before his concussion. But we didn't have anything behind that and that's what killed us in February. When Hamilton and Murphy got hurt we were suddenly playing with five guys and trying to steal minutes with two freshmen who should have been redshirted.

The rest of our roster was a sit out transfer in Horton, a distinctly useless MAAC caliber player in George, a not ACC caliber injured player in Chukwuka, and an open scholarship. That scholarship isn't helping us at all there and now we're essentially looking to roll it over again. How long can we keep playing 12 man teams against 13 man teams before that becomes a massive cumulative disadvantage?

 

[joeydavid]

Yeah, no one is saying to take another Samson George reach with that spot for sure.



That's exactly my point though. We had 4 pretty good basketball players, two lower tier ACC caliber but frustratingly inconsistent centers, and Ryan Murphy who really was overextended but was okay enough before his concussion. But we didn't have anything behind that and that's what killed us in February. When Hamilton and Murphy got hurt we were suddenly playing with five guys and trying to steal minutes with two freshmen who should have been redshirted.

The rest of our roster was a sit out transfer in Horton, a distinctly useless MAAC caliber player in George, a not ACC caliber injured player in Chukwuka, and an open scholarship. That scholarship isn't helping us at all there and now we're essentially looking to roll it over again. How long can we keep playing 12 man teams against 13 man teams before that becomes a massive cumulative disadvantage?

That point is more on the coach who is no longer here than Capel, imo.

Brick by brick adds of ACC caliber players is what solves that problem more than leaving #13 open.

Pitt's roster is still going to be missing enough ACC level talent with experience next season but they will be closer.

My biggest gripe is Pitt not taking Julian in last year's class.

 

[thirteenNINE]

That point is more on the coach who is no longer here than Capel, imo.

Brick by brick adds of ACC caliber players is what solves that problem more than leaving #13 open.

Pitt's roster is still going to be missing enough ACC level talent with experience next season but they will be closer.

My biggest gripe is Pitt not taking Julian in last year's class.

That would have been a pretty decent use of the open scholarship.

 

[thebadby2]

This drives me up the wall with Capel because in these days of available one-year player movement it is a nearly a dereliction of duty to have open scholarships, let alone two years in a row. It's a complete and utter waste of resources not to fill that spot with someone who can play, even if it's an emergency. We saw that all too clearly this season where sometimes we were dressing 7 or 8 players and just getting run off of the court at the end of the season by fresher teams.

I like Capel but leaving open ships is idiotic.

On the other hand what sense is there in signing some jabroney that can't compete at the ACC level, just to fill a ship?

 

[TWPitt]

That would have been a pretty decent use of the open scholarship.

If you listened to Justin's interviews during the year, they decided they (Justin/Julian) didn't want to compete for the same minutes as the same school and decided to part ways. Julian didn't want to come here after Justin did.

Also that is the thing with open scholarship, if you can't get who you REALLY want why take someone just to have a body. I would rather have 10 guys the coaches really want vs 13 just to have 13.

I don't understand leaving a scholarship open either. It's like turning down a free lawnmower you have plenty of space for because you already have a better one. Ok... but what if yours breaks? Or what if the free one unexpectedly does some things better than yours so there are various roles, however small, you can use it in?

Sounds like you need to clean out your garage.

 

[PharMorNightStocker]

As it stands now Pitt will only have one ship available for next year. I know that can change but the only way I see Capel using that last ship is for a one year grad transfer. Other than that why bring in a lesser talent and tie that ship up for 4 years when you don't have to.

I'm not talking about bringing in a four-year player; I'm talking about bringing in a grad transfer for one year.

 

[wbrpanther]

Because I'm not talking about bringing in a four-year player; I'm talking about bringing in a grad transfer for one year.

Which is exactly what I said in my previous post.

 

[PharMorNightStocker]

Which is exactly what I said in my previous post.

Your reply insinuated that I was in favor of bringing in another Peace Illegomah or Samson George, and I was clarifying that wasn't what I meant.

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

That point is more on the coach who is no longer here than Capel, imo.

Brick by brick adds of ACC caliber players is what solves that problem more than leaving #13 open.

Pitt's roster is still going to be missing enough ACC level talent with experience next season but they will be closer.

My biggest gripe is Pitt not taking Julian in last year's class.

So if we leave the 13th scholarship open for a second straight year that will be on Stallings too? Gtfoh. We had an outside shot at the tourney last year with a historically bad ACC and we blew it by missing on so many 2019 options. That was a wasted year

I mean we wouldn’t have gotten to enjoy a tourney game but we give him a pass on not finding a guard who can fill a 5 minute gap in a pinch now when do we hold their feet to the fire? 2030? Last years roster mismanagement was coaching malpractice. We went into the year knowing we only had 9 scholarship guys when we could’ve had 10.

 

[PharMorNightStocker]

So if we leave the 13th scholarship open for a second straight year that will be on Stallings too? Gtfoh.

Agreed, but it will be funny to see people continue to blame two years of Stallings for the decline of Pitt basketball until like 2075.

 

[joeydavid]

So if we leave the 13th scholarship open for a second straight year that will be on Stallings too? Gtfoh. We had an outside shot at the tourney last year with a historically bad ACC and we blew it by missing on so many 2019 options. That was a wasted year

I mean we wouldn’t have gotten to enjoy a tourney game but we give him a pass on not finding a guard who can fill a 5 minute gap in a pinch now when do we hold their feet to the fire? 2030? Last years roster mismanagement was coaching malpractice. We went into the year knowing we only had 9 scholarship guys when we could’ve had 10.

That's not what I said. Go read it again.

 

[thirteenNINE]

Man, I'd forgotten about Peace Ilegomah. He made Samson George look like an elite recruit.

Ilegomah fun fact: In three years of college basketball his career conference record is 0-36.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

That point is more on the coach who is no longer here than Capel, imo.

Brick by brick adds of ACC caliber players is what solves that problem more than leaving #13 open.

Pitt's roster is still going to be missing enough ACC level talent with experience next season but they will be closer.

My biggest gripe is Pitt not taking Julian in last year's class.

How do you know we didn’t try ?

 

[joeydavid]

How do you know we didn’t try ?

Their comments about their recruitment. It doesn't sound like he was a take for Pitt last year.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

On the other hand what sense is there in signing some jabroney that can't compete at the ACC level, just to fill a ship?

Agreed - with all the transfers nowadays you are better off keeping it open in case you can bring in a good player at the last minute or mid-year. What difference does it make if your 13th guy is a walk-on or scrub Grad Transfer.

 

[pittchagg]

Agreed - with all the transfers nowadays you are better off keeping it open in case you can bring in a good player at the last minute or mid-year. What difference does it make if your 13th guy is a walk-on or scrub Grad Transfer.

It's also still early in the transfer cycle. Eric Hamilton didn't commit until early June, and Sidy committed in mid-May. Murphy wasn't a grad transfer, but he committed in early/mid May, too.

 

[Protes]

The problem last year wasn't so much one open scholarship. The problem was we effectively had 3 open because Samson George and Kene were taking up 2 more.

Right now, we don't know if JC is sitting on a potential grad transfer. We are hopeful one schollie goes to Jeffress. The other *could* go to Mane or Sanogo. If neither of them commits, then JC could pull the trigger on a GT.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

It's also still early in the transfer cycle. Eric Hamilton didn't commit until early June, and Sidy committed in mid-May. Murphy wasn't a grad transfer, but he committed in early/mid May, too.

Antonio Graves and Ontario Lett were fairly late additions as well.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Agreed - with all the transfers nowadays you are better off keeping it open in case you can bring in a good player at the last minute or mid-year. What difference does it make if your 13th guy is a walk-on or scrub Grad Transfer.

The situations aren't exactly the same, but the Pitt women's staff's current philosophy is to always leave one scholarship open because the number of transfers is so high and they want to have options if someone becomes available that they really like.

 

[Drew1208]

The way guys come and go, I'd really like to see them add another quality player with that scholarship much like the rest of this board.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

The way guys come and go, I'd really like to see them add another quality player with that scholarship much like the rest of this board.

Quality is the key word. You always add a Quality Player.

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

I don’t understand what the difference is if he’s any good? If he’s at least Murphy level grab him for a year then tell him he’s not in future plans and ship him out. Injuries etc happen. We can’t play walk ons in year 3. Scottie Pippen ain’t walking thru that door.

 

[Drew1208]

Quality is the key word. You always add a Quality Player.

I'd be happy with a guy who could handle 6-12 minutes a game hit 3's in the the high 30s and doesn't turn the ball over. 1 year of depth. Of course I'd take someone awesome, but I'd rather see what I laid out than no one.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

I'd be happy with a guy who could handle 6-12 minutes a game hit 3's in the the high 30s and doesn't turn the ball over. 1 year of depth. Of course I'd take someone awesome, but I'd rather see what I laid out than no one.

There is a big difference between a guy who could be your 9th man, and someone who is your 13th man and essentially a walk on. I would definitely give it to someone who could be your 9th man.

 

[wbrpanther]

Agreed, but it will be funny to see people continue to blame two years of Stallings for the decline of Pitt basketball until like 2075.

No, I blamed the Stallings years for the slow rebound of Pitt hoops. It was tough to draw real good kids to a program in disarray. But it's time to forget that stuff and move on. We are in a better place now and will be a better program this year.