Jerry DiPaola stories, Page 4

Most everyone playing major-college basketball can shoot reasonably well, and most have the requisite strength and size to compete for rebounds and loose balls. And everyone on both sides wants to win. So, what can set Pitt apart from its opponents, especially now in the final two weeks of the...

For most of this season, Pitt sat just outside the group of four or five elite teams in the ACC. Eighth place in the 18-team conference — which is where the Panthers (16-10, 7-8) stand at the moment — feels about right. But that’s not the goal, and now that...

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro sat courtside Tuesday night and provided analysis during the broadcast of the Syracuse/Pitt game at Petersen Events Center. But it was no mere political stunt. Shapiro came to play, said longtime Pitt play-by-play man Bill Hillgrove. The governor joined Hillgrove and Curtis Aiken for the first...

No one inside Petersen Events Center is talking about it, but Pitt can’t afford more than one regular-season loss (maybe not even one) if it wants to keep its NCAA Tournament hopes alive. The Panthers continued to walk that tightrope Tuesday night, fighting back to defeat Syracuse, 80-69, before a...

Robert Morris’ 2025 football schedule, released Tuesday by coach Bernard Clark and the Northeast Conference, will include five Saturday home games at Joe Walton Stadium. The opener is Aug. 30 at West Virginia, a first-time opponent and the Colonials’ first game against a Big 12 team. Before the home opener...

After Duquesne football turns back the clock and plays Pitt for the first time since 1939 on Aug. 30, the Dukes will confront a second FBS opponent when they travel to Akron of the Mid-American Conference on Sept. 20. The Dukes and Zips never have met. The game against Pitt...

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who threw out the first pitch at the Pittsburgh Pirates’ home opener in 2023, will be back in town Tuesday night, taking another swing in the sports world. Shapiro will sit courtside with longtime Pitt broadcasters Bill Hillgrove and Curtis Aiken at Petersen Events Center and...

Two days after the fact, Jeff Capel was pleased Monday to point out many of the positive aspects of Pitt’s 74-65 victory against Miami. “We guarded the ball. We didn’t get blown by (on defense). I thought we had good close-outs, and we understood who the shooters were,” he said....

Pat Narduzzi did not holler or raise any kind of celebratory racket when quarterback Eli Holstein announced he was returning to Pitt for the 2025 season. “I never really told him I was coming back,” Holstein told TribLive on Sunday when he was a guest server at the Beth Shalom...

Amsal Delalic recognizes the difference between basketball in the ACC and basketball in Europe. “It’s very different,” he said after scoring a season-high 14 points in Pitt’s 74-65 victory against Miami. “It’s a lot more contact, a lot more speed. It’s just all-around — I’m not going to say madness...

Jeff Capel was pleased with Pitt’s 74-65 victory Saturday against Miami, but he also recognizes the reality of his team’s situation. He was happy to see the four-game losing streak end in front of a Petersen Events Center crowd of 8,578. But he also told reporters after the game, “We...

Only two years ago, then-Miami coach Jim Larranaga climbed a ladder inside the Watsco Center in Coral Gables, Fla., tore the last cord from the basket’s rim and held it in the air joyously. His team had defeated Pitt, 78-76, to claim the No. 1 seed in the 2023 ACC...

Panthers coach Jeff Capel said Thursday that Pitt point guard Jaland Lowe “most likely” won’t play Saturday against Miami after experiencing concussion symptoms Tuesday night during the game at SMU. Capel made his remarks during his radio show on 93.7 FM. In the second half of Pitt’s 83-63 loss, Lowe...

The only perk missing from Mason Heintschel’s first two months at Pitt was a microphone for the headset he wore while standing on the sideline during the Panthers’ appearance in the GameAbove Sports Bowl. Did Pitt’s freshman quarterback offer coaches any suggestions? “I wish. Boy, that would have been a...

The hard truth Pitt’s players and coaches must face after six days of travel — from Pittsburgh to North Carolina to Texas and back home — is that they are a beaten team in more ways than one. The Panthers (14-10, 5-8 ACC) have lost four in a row for...

Pitt’s misery surfaced in various ways Tuesday night in Dallas, Texas, resulting in another blowout loss — the second in eight days for the staggering Panthers. The scars from SMU’s 83-63 victory — the most decisive Pitt defeat since the Duke game Jan. 7 — were as evident as they...

SMU coach Andy Enfield doesn’t keep track of stats from across the country, but those who do report that the Mustangs are unique among college basketball teams. “I was told we’re the only program in the country to have six players averaging double figures,” he said. “That means we’re sharing...

Jeff Capel has confronted many difficult situations in his seven seasons leading the Pitt program. • He inherited a team that was winless in the ACC the season before he arrived. • Trying to recruit from that baseline, he ended up with three players who showed promise but ended up...

Considered by itself — if it had not been preceded by six losses in eight games — Pitt’s 67-66 defeat at North Carolina would have been far easier to accept. “We fought for 40 minutes,” coach Jeff Capel said. “Really proud of my team with how we fought and how...

In what will be many painful moments of reflection while dissecting a 67-66 loss to North Carolina, Pitt’s players and coaches will see why they deserved to lose a game in which they squandered a real chance to win. The result was Pitt’s seventh loss in the past nine games...

If Pitt/North Carolina looks like an elimination game, that’s because the loser is in serious trouble. Each team will have more than a month to recover, but a loss Saturday at Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill would be North Carolina’s 11th and Pitt’s ninth. What’s left of the...

Questions ranged from girlfriends to youth wrestling, but Donovan McMillon answered them all with his ultimate goal in mind: to one day cash an NFL paycheck. McMillon, a Peters Township graduate and former Pitt safety, spent the past month training in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and traveling between Florida and Texas...

Pat Narduzzi isn’t one to worry about losses in the transfer portal, at least not publicly. But he does acknowledge roster ramifications of those losses, and he is trying to do something about it. After the portal claimed three Pitt defensive ends this offseason, including likely 2025 contributors Sincere Edwards...

West Virginia and the Big 12 released the Mountaineers’ 2025 football schedule Tuesday — the first in Rich Rodriguez’s second term as coach — and it includes two visits from Pittsburgh-area schools Robert Morris and Pitt. There are six home dates at Milan Puskar Stadium, starting with Robert Morris in...

Jeff Capel’s most impressive accomplishment Monday night after Pitt’s embarrassing loss to Virginia was self-restraint. There were comments about his team and its effort that he wanted to say out loud, but he held back. Perhaps saving them for Wednesday when the Panthers next get together for practice. “I try...