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William Jeffress

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He’s the X factor for this team. He’s the one player we have that has difference making talent. He’ll have to take a very big step forward for this group to be any good.
IMO he has the most innate
talent of any Pitt player now
on the team. Now, is he ready
at age 18 to have us take that
"big step forward" that you
mentioned? I don't know, but
I feel sure the talent is there.
 
The best part of the article was that he feels that the new guys have come in and gelled as teammates, something that was obviously lacking last yr .


He didn’t whine or enter the portal he went to work on improving, that’s the kind of guys you build a program with .
 
The best part of the article was that he feels that the new guys have come in and gelled as teammates, something that was obviously lacking last yr .
Just words. What else would you expect him or anyone on the team to say about this patchwork quilt of a roster Capel was forced to throw together after a mass exodus of his own players? The proof will be on the court-and not until the ACC schedule kicks in. Keep expectations reasonable.
 
IMO he has the most innate
talent of any Pitt player now
on the team. Now, is he ready
at age 18 to have us take that
"big step forward" that you
mentioned? I don't know, but
I feel sure the talent is there.


I don't have that confidence in regard to Jeffress "next" year. I think he will be better next year, but I don't think he is going to make a big leap. Well, Ill rephrase that. I think Jeffress can be pretty solid on defense and rebounding next year, but has a ways to go on offense unless he really improves. I think he really needs to develop his shot making more (confidence too) but he has the work ethic and drive to improve. But he is going to need to make substantial improvement to fend off Burton at the 3 and Santos who can be deadly shooting the basketball. Burton is proven on a Top 20 Nationally Ranked Team on offense and on defense, Jeffress is not.

I do think, with 100% confidence, that Femi Odukale will not only be the captain and leader of the program next year, that his statistics are going to make a huge climb. Im on record stating Odukale will be the top breakout player in the entire ACC next year. I also think he is on the Denzel Valentine trajectory as a college player, which is whom I compared him to before he even committed to Pitt. His stats were better than Valentine's in year 1 with a broken arm. They will be better than Valentine's in year 2.

Looking at his body now is like night and day in comparison to Pitt this past year where he was very skinny from the injury where he missed months of strength training and conditioning. He is completely jacked again the way he was jacked when he dominated in Prep school. The severely broken arm, which held him back significantly this year along with his loss of strength and stamina, will not hold him back next year. Big things are ahead for Femi.
 
I don't have that confidence in regard to Jeffress "next" year. I think he will be better next year, but I don't think he is going to make a big leap. Well, Ill rephrase that. I think Jeffress can be pretty solid on defense and rebounding next year, but has a ways to go on offense unless he really improves. I think he really needs to develop his shot making more (confidence too) but he has the work ethic and drive to improve. But he is going to need to make substantial improvement to fend off Burton at the 3 and Santos who can be deadly shooting the basketball. Burton is proven on a Top 20 Nationally Ranked Team on offense and on defense, Jeffress is not.

I do think, with 100% confidence, that Femi Odukale will not only be the captain and leader of the program next year, that his statistics are going to make a huge climb. Im on record stating Odukale will be the top breakout player in the entire ACC next year. I also think he is on the Denzel Valentine trajectory as a college player, which is whom I compared him to before he even committed to Pitt. His stats were better than Valentine's in year 1 with a broken arm. They will be better than Valentine's in year 2.

Looking at his body now is like night and day in comparison to Pitt this past year where he was very skinny from the injury where he missed months of strength training and conditioning. He is completely jacked again the way he was jacked when he dominated in Prep school. The severely broken arm, which held him back significantly this year along with his loss of strength and stamina, will not hold him back next year. Big things are ahead for Femi.
When are you looking at Femi's body?
 
Just words. What else would you expect him or anyone on the team to say about this patchwork quilt of a roster Capel was forced to throw together after a mass exodus of his own players? The proof will be on the court-and not until the ACC schedule kicks in. Keep expectations reasonable.
Team chemistry was a major issue last season hopefully this group will play as a team .

Anyone not approaching next season with some skepticism is being a little to optimistic .
 
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I don't have that confidence in regard to Jeffress "next" year. I think he will be better next year, but I don't think he is going to make a big leap. Well, Ill rephrase that. I think Jeffress can be pretty solid on defense and rebounding next year, but has a ways to go on offense unless he really improves. I think he really needs to develop his shot making more (confidence too) but he has the work ethic and drive to improve. But he is going to need to make substantial improvement to fend off Burton at the 3 and Santos who can be deadly shooting the basketball. Burton is proven on a Top 20 Nationally Ranked Team on offense and on defense, Jeffress is not.

I do think, with 100% confidence, that Femi Odukale will not only be the captain and leader of the program next year, that his statistics are going to make a huge climb. Im on record stating Odukale will be the top breakout player in the entire ACC next year. I also think he is on the Denzel Valentine trajectory as a college player, which is whom I compared him to before he even committed to Pitt. His stats were better than Valentine's in year 1 with a broken arm. They will be better than Valentine's in year 2.

Looking at his body now is like night and day in comparison to Pitt this past year where he was very skinny from the injury where he missed months of strength training and conditioning. He is completely jacked again the way he was jacked when he dominated in Prep school. The severely broken arm, which held him back significantly this year along with his loss of strength and stamina, will not hold him back next year. Big things are ahead for Femi.
Denzel Valentine was National POY, B10 POY, consensus first team AA, and a NBA lottery pick. He was also one of the National leaders in 3pt shooting as a senior. He was a leader, a glue player and an extension soon of Izzo on the floor.

As for Femi’s freshman stats being better than Valentine’s, that might have something to do with the fact that Valentine was on a loaded team that had a stud 2 guard by the name of Gary Harris playing in front of him. Harris was the 19th pick in the NBA draft and had had a very solid NBA career.

You might want to slow your roll there skippy. Femi looks promising but he’s a long way from being another Denzel Valentine. I guess it wouldn’t be you if you weren’t making outrageous predictions without knowing any more about evaluating basketball talent than the next guy with access to the internet.
 
Denzel Valentine was National POY, B10 POY, consensus first team AA, and a NBA lottery pick. He was also one of the National leaders in 3pt shooting as a senior. He was a leader, a glue player and an extension soon of Izzo on the floor.

As for Femi’s freshman stats being better than Valentine’s, that might have something to do with the fact that Valentine was on a loaded team that had a stud 2 guard by the name of Gary Harris playing in front of him. Harris was the 19th pick in the NBA draft and had had a very solid NBA career.

You might want to slow your roll there skippy. Femi looks promising but he’s a long way from being another Denzel Valentine. I guess it wouldn’t be you if you weren’t making outrageous predictions without knowing any more about evaluating basketball talent than the next guy with access to the internet.

We'll see...

Everyone else said he was a 3 star average talent. I said before he even committed to Pitt, when he was the Prep School National Player of the Year runner up, he was a star in the making. 6'5 guard with a 6'11 wingspan, the same as Valentine, as rare as it gets.

Sam Young was pretty good in prep school too. Young was the National Prep school player of the year before he became an All American at Pitt. Femi should have won the award just like Young did at Hargrave Military, he had the best stats by far in Prep school basketball just like Sam Young did.

Again, we will see...
 
Denzel Valentine was National POY, B10 POY, consensus first team AA, and a NBA lottery pick. He was also one of the National leaders in 3pt shooting as a senior. He was a leader, a glue player and an extension soon of Izzo on the floor.

As for Femi’s freshman stats being better than Valentine’s, that might have something to do with the fact that Valentine was on a loaded team that had a stud 2 guard by the name of Gary Harris playing in front of him. Harris was the 19th pick in the NBA draft and had had a very solid NBA career.

You might want to slow your roll there skippy. Femi looks promising but he’s a long way from being another Denzel Valentine. I guess it wouldn’t be you if you weren’t making outrageous predictions without knowing any more about evaluating basketball talent than the next guy with access to the internet.

13 ppg
5 rpg
5 apg
ORTG Offensive Power Rating estimate 105-115

It's in writing what I think Femi is going to break out to next year.

Again, we shall see. But if you are wrong, since you said the team has no talent, you can own up to it.
 
We'll see...

Everyone else said he was a 3 star average talent. I said before he even committed to Pitt, when he was the Prep School National Player of the Year runner up, he was a star in the making. 6'5 guard with a 6'11 wingspan, the same as Valentine, as rare as it gets.

Sam Young was pretty good in prep school too. Young was the National Prep school player of the year before he became an All American at Pitt. Femi should have won the award just like Young did at Hargrave Military, he had the best stats by far in Prep school basketball just like Sam Young did.

Again, we will see...
Kithcart.
 
13 ppg
5 rpg
5 apg
ORTG Offensive Power Rating estimate 105-115

It's in writing what I think Femi is going to break out to next year.

Again, we shall see. But if you are wrong, since you said the team has no talent, you can own up to it.
I hope to be wrong about this Pitt team. If Femi plays 30 mins/game and goes for 13/5/5 but we only win 5-6 ACC games, what exactly does that prove?
 
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Kithcart.

I don't know what that is supposed to mean.

And I don't have a projection on next years record. I'm not even sure who starts yet.

But it proves we have up and rising talent in the pipeline, albeit young underclassmen. And it proves we have a stud point guard, which has been incremental in our past teams success and will be incremental to our success next year and moving forward. With a stud point guard team leader, like with Knight, Krauser, Fields, etc.., its a massive move in the right direction.

I don't view Johnson as a stud point guard and he clearly is no team leader. He currently is above average for a Power 6 player.
 
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I don't know what that is supposed to mean.

And I don't have a projection on next years record. I'm not even sure who starts yet.

But it proves we have up and rising talent in the pipeline, albeit young underclassmen. And it proves we have a stud point guard, which has been incremental in our past teams success and will be incremental to our success next year and moving forward. With a stud point guard team leader, like with Knight, Krauser, Fields, etc.., its a massive move in the right direction.

I don't view Johnson as a stud point guard and he clearly is no team leader. He currently is above average for a Power 6 player.
E. Normus Johnson?
 
Just for fun.

Krauser-NY 6'1- Freshmen- 18.6 mpg, 6ppg, 2.8 rpg, 2.9 apg
Fields- NY- 5'10 Freshmen- 21.7 mpg, 6.8 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 2.2 apg
Knight- NJ 6'0 Freshmen-33.5 mpg, 8.5 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 5.8 apg
Gibbs- NJ 6'2 Freshmen- 10.7 mpg, 4.3ppg, .7rpg, .9 apg
Odukale- NY-6'5 Freshmen- 20.4mpg, 6.6ppg, 2.5 rpg, 2.2 apg

Krauser- Sophomore- 36.1mpg, 15.4ppg, 4.9 rpg, 4.5 apg BE Most Improved Player, 2nd tm All BE
Fields- Sophomore- 29.6mpg, 9.2ppg, 3.6rpg, 4.6 apg, 2nd tm All Big East
Knight- Sophomore 32.2mpg, 9.2ppg, 3.3rpg, 5.5 apg
Gibbs-Sophomore- 34.6mpg 15.7ppg, 2.8 rpg, 1.8 apg,BE Most Improved Player, 2nd tm All BE
Odukale- TBD

If Odukale follows the former 4 players, you can see why he is going to break out in a big way next year. That doesn't factor in Femi is by far the tallest of the 5 players, with by far the longest wingspan of the 5 players, coming off a broken arm in the preseason. I actually enjoyed putting this together.
 
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As a Pitt fan, you learn to stop reading off season puff pieces and then getting your hopes up.
 
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I don't have that confidence in regard to Jeffress "next" year. I think he will be better next year, but I don't think he is going to make a big leap. Well, Ill rephrase that. I think Jeffress can be pretty solid on defense and rebounding next year, but has a ways to go on offense unless he really improves. I think he really needs to develop his shot making more (confidence too) but he has the work ethic and drive to improve. But he is going to need to make substantial improvement to fend off Burton at the 3 and Santos who can be deadly shooting the basketball. Burton is proven on a Top 20 Nationally Ranked Team on offense and on defense, Jeffress is not.

I do think, with 100% confidence, that Femi Odukale will not only be the captain and leader of the program next year, that his statistics are going to make a huge climb. Im on record stating Odukale will be the top breakout player in the entire ACC next year. I also think he is on the Denzel Valentine trajectory as a college player, which is whom I compared him to before he even committed to Pitt. His stats were better than Valentine's in year 1 with a broken arm. They will be better than Valentine's in year 2.

Looking at his body now is like night and day in comparison to Pitt this past year where he was very skinny from the injury where he missed months of strength training and conditioning. He is completely jacked again the way he was jacked when he dominated in Prep school. The severely broken arm, which held him back significantly this year along with his loss of strength and stamina, will not hold him back next year. Big things are ahead for Femi.

So typical of you. The thread
was about Jeffress. You chose
to hijack it and to post your
dissertation on Femi. We all
understand your love fest with
Femi, but do us a favor
and stay with the thought
at hand.

BTW, I like Femi a lot and
expect even better play
for him. The original point
was that "IMO Jeffress has
the most innate talent on
the team." Obviously the
key operative term there
was "innate." It was an
opinion. Of course in your
mind your opinions are
facts.
 
Last edited:
I hope to be wrong about this Pitt team. If Femi plays 30 mins/game and goes for 13/5/5 but we only win 5-6 ACC games, what exactly does that prove?
It will prove Femi will enter the transfer portal and a blueblood like a Louisville or Kansas will snatch him up.
 
So typical of you. The thread
was about Jeffress. You chose
to hijack it and to post your
dissertation on Femi. We all
understand your love fest with
Femi, but do us a favor
and stay with the thought
at hand.

BTW, I like Femi a lot and
expect even better play
for him. The original point
was that "IMO Jeffress has
the most innate talent on
the team." Obviously the
key operative term there
was "innate." It was an
opinion. Of course in your
mind your opinions are
facts.
Vader already has Nate "The Great" Santos slotted in ahead of Jeffress based on......internet snippets about what a good shooter he is and the fact that he was considered a top 100 recruit in his class 3 years ago as a sophomore BEFORE he tore his ACL. A lot of water under the bridge and a pretty light offer sheet since then.

Meanwhile Jeffress was a 17 year old reclassified freshman last year. He would have been an unquestioned top 100 player had he played his extra HS season. He wasn't physically or mentally ready for the ACC but he has a whole lot of basketball left to play at Pitt and the talent, brains and character to be a high level P6 player is there. Of course in Vader Steel's mind after last year Jeffress' best hope for minutes now is to become a defensive stanbdout, and Santos who hasn't played one second of college basketball has already passed him up as an offensive player. What an absolute crock.

Of course we hope Santos pans out, we could certainly use another underrated guy to outplay his offer sheet and become a star ala Champ, but Vader/Steel's track record of player prognostications based solely on his internet deep dives has been less than stellar, to put it generously.
 
Vader already has Nate "The Great" Santos slotted in ahead of Jeffress based on......internet snippets about what a good shooter he is and the fact that he was considered a top 100 recruit in his class 3 years ago as a sophomore BEFORE he tore his ACL. A lot of water under the bridge and a pretty light offer sheet since then.

Meanwhile Jeffress was a 17 year old reclassified freshman last year. He would have been an unquestioned top 100 player had he played his extra HS season. He wasn't physically or mentally ready for the ACC but he has a whole lot of basketball left to play at Pitt and the talent, brains and character to be a high level P6 player is there. Of course in Vader Steel's mind after last year Jeffress' best hope for minutes now is to become a defensive stanbdout, and Santos who hasn't played one second of college basketball has already passed him up as an offensive player. What an absolute crock.

Of course we hope Santos pans out, we could certainly use another underrated guy to outplay his offer sheet and become a star ala Champ, but Vader/Steel's track record of player prognostications based solely on his internet deep dives has been less than stellar, to put it generously.

I never said any of that except that Jeffress needs to make major improvement if he is going to play starter minutes and beat out Burton and fend off Santos. Although Santos is a Nepsac Champion which is a loaded basketball league. And he is a very dangerous shooter. When you make 60+ 3 balls in a season as a sophomore in high school, that is dangerous. The track record is there as a dangerous shooter, just like it was with Ithiel Horton.

I dont care who recruited him. I watched him in the Nepsac, full games.
 
IMO our team will be best served with WJ coming off the bench providing energy on the defensive end and a glue guy on offense. He is still a Fr. with 4 full years left.

I have confidence in Jeffress long term and I think in time he is going to be a very valuable player in time.

But the amount of salt toward Burton and Santos is surprising, and Santos is 20 years old going into the season, not 18.

With no disrespect to William Jeffress, but there is no way Jeffress would have been in Chris Beards rotation last year on a Top 20 Nationally Ranked team like Burton was. He just wasn't ready. Im actually surprised at how little value people are putting on Burton. He is going to play, a lot, as an experienced proven upper classmen as he has already proven he is solid on offense and defense with the stats on both sides to back it up. And this team desperately needs a shooter like Santos to open up the offense.
 
I have confidence in Jeffress long term and I think in time he is going to be a very valuable player in time.

But the amount of salt toward Burton and Santos is surprising, and Santos is 20 years old going into the season, not 18.

With no disrespect to William Jeffress, but there is no way Jeffress would have been in Chris Beards rotation last year on a Top 20 Nationally Ranked team like Burton was. He just wasn't ready. Im actually surprised at how little value people are putting on Burton. He is going to play, a lot, as an experienced proven upper classmen as he has already proven he is solid on offense and defense with the stats on both sides to back it up. And this team desperately needs a shooter like Santos to open up the offense.
Just wondering if Santos is injured or being evaluated because i have not seen him in any videos, but i think I've seen everyone else.
 
Speaking of players in shape. I was at Pete the other day and was told by someone at Pitt that Hugley is in the gym every day playing and working out. He says Hugley looks great and in great shape. Did not discuss his basketball skills, only how he looks.
 
IMO our team will be best served with WJ coming off the bench providing energy on the defensive end and a glue guy on offense. He is still a Fr. with 4 full years left.
I tend to agree he is likely a year off from doing meaningful damage.

I also agree he has the most "innate" skill/talent. But, he is not a big time athlete, sort of averagish, and he really was a like a doe out there last year, physically and emotionally, mentally. I mean, you could see the instincts, just was so darn young.

Maybe he takes huge steps, but for as far off as he was last year, I think reasonable expectations are that he can be a solid top 8 guy this year and ready to start and be a really solid ACC player next season.
 
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I tend to agree he is likely a year off from doing meaningful damage.

I also agree he has the most "innate" skill/talent. But, he is not a big time athlete, sort of averagish, and he really was a like a doe out there last year, physically and emotionally, mentally. I mean, you could see the instincts, just was so darn young.

Maybe he takes huge steps, but for as far off as he was last year, I think reasonable expectations are that he can be a solid top 8 guy this year and ready to start and be a really solid ACC player next season.
He admitted that his biggest thing after last season was learning "how to work". I think he's graduated from Doe to deer.
 
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