2023 in Pittsburgh college sports: Pitt men’s basketball ended 5-year NCAA Tournament drought
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To fully and fairly assess the 2023 sports year at Pitt, you need to go back to the end of 2022.
The metamorphosis of coach Jeff Capel’s men’s basketball program began to take shape Dec. 30, 2022, when Pitt upset No. 25 North Carolina, 76-74, at Petersen Events Center. The Panthers took the momentum from that game and turned it on Virginia, then the No. 11 team in the nation, on Jan. 3, 2023. Pitt rallied from 13- and 12-point deficits to defeat the Cavaliers, 68-65.
That night at the Pete was packed with emotion when the crowd gave a standing ovation in honor of former Pitt football player Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills, whose heart stopped while he was making a tackle in a game against the Cincinnati Bengals the night before. Hamlin recovered and resumed his career this season.
From that point, Pitt basketball went on to play 13 more games decided by eight or fewer points to finish with a 24-12 record and carve out its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2016, the last of the Jamie Dixon years. It also was the first winning season in Capel’s (at the time) five-year tenure.
“You never stop believing,” athletic director Heather Lyke said after Pitt bowed out of the tournament in an 84-73 Round of 32 loss to Xavier, coached by former Pitt player Sean Miller. “Jeff worked at it, and the whole coaching staff did, and this team did. Nothing gets turned, in my opinion, overnight if you’re doing it the right way. It takes some time. The foundation he had laid is coming out.”
The team found success in large part because Capel was able to mix several transfers and freshmen, who had never met before the previous summer, into a cohesive unit. Unlike some Pitt teams of the recent past, these players got along with each other.
“The teamwork thing isn’t just a gimmick,” junior forward Blake Hinson said. “Loving your teammate isn’t just something coaches say. It’s real, and it helps you win, for sure.”
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Twelve games into the 2023-24 season, Pitt took a 9-3 record (0-1 ACC) into Syracuse on Saturday for the second of 20 conference games that will decide its fate.
Hinson was third in the ACC in scoring (20.3 points per game) while freshman point guard Bub Carrington was second in assists (5.3). Carrington made history in his debut game Nov. 6, recording a triple-double (18 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists) in an 100-52 victory against North Carolina A&T. He is only the fourth all-time Pitt player to reach that milestone.
• Men’s basketball was a big story, sure, but the most successful program on campus is run by women’s volleyball coach Dan Fisher. Whatever program is No. 2 isn’t close.
Pitt reached the NCAA Final Four for the third consecutive season, compiling a record of 29-5 (16-2 ACC). The women lost to Nebraska in straight sets, 3-0, in the national semifinals Dec. 14. Nebraska also eliminated Pitt in the 2021 Final Four.
In defeat, Fisher was nonetheless heartened by his players’ accomplishments and encouraged for the future.
“It’s really hard to keep getting better every year, especially when you’ve already been to two Final Fours,” Fisher said. “But I think we’re as good as we’ve ever been. We have the best fan support we’ve ever had, so I think it was another step forward as a program.”
Olivia Babcock was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association freshman of the year and was joined as an AVCA first-team All-American by junior Rachel Fairbanks.
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• Pitt women also made history in soccer, advancing to the NCAA Elite 8 for the first time and finishing 17-6-1, with a school-record number of victories and goals (64). Pitt defeated Ohio State, No. 2 seed Arkansas and Memphis in the NCAA Tournament before losing to No. 1 Florida State, 3-0.
• Pitt football entered training camp in August with high hopes, based mainly on Boston College transfer Phil Jurkovec, who was one of the nation’s most highly coveted quarterbacks when he matriculated from Pine-Richland to Notre Dame in 2018.
But Jurkovec struggled, lost his starting job after five games and was replaced by Penn State transfer Christian Veilleux. Nate Yarnell finished up behind center in the last two games, with Pitt using three different starting quarterbacks for the second consecutive season.
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The result was a 3-9 record, the program’s worst since 1998, forcing coach Pat Narduzzi to step out of his comfort zone and make changes as he prepares to enter his 10th season in 2024.
The day after season ended, Narduzzi fired 58-year-old offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr., who had worked with Jurkovec at Boston College, and replaced him with 30-year-old Kade Bell, who ran some of the most productive units in the FCS at Western Carolina. Bell is, by far, the youngest OC Narduzzi has employed at Pitt.
Bell’s offense features mixtures of the pro-style design Narduzzi has favored in the past with spread and quick-snap concepts that he hates to face as a defensive coordinator.
The team also will have a different look in personnel. Narduzzi made frequent use of the transfer portal in the latter days of 2023, getting verbal commitments from nine players, including former Clemson defensive end David Ojiegbe and two Western Carolina imports, wide receiver Censere Reed and running back Desmond Reid.
Pitt also lost three players who likely would have started for Pitt next season: defensive end Sam Okunlola, defensive tackle DeAndre Jules and linebacker Bangally Kamara, who are among eight who revealed their plans to transfer.
• Pitt’s national champion was wrestler Nino Bonaccorsi, who won in the 197-pound weight class in Tulsa, Okla., the night before the basketball team lost to Xavier. Bonaccorsi, a Bethel Park graduate, defeated South Dakota State’s Tanner Sloan, 5-3, in the final, overcoming a 3-0 deficit to become Pitt’s 17th wrestling champion. “This is so surreal,” he said. “I’ve been dreaming of this moment since I was a kid.”
Bonaccorsi is Pitt’s first national wrestling champion since Keith Gavin in 2008. Gavin is now Pitt’s coach.
“I told Keith that I was tired of saying you were the last NCAA champion at Pitt,” Lyke said. “Nino took care of that.”
Gavin led Pitt to a 7-3 record to start the 2023-24 season.
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• Pitt men’s soccer advanced to the NCAA Tournament, losing to James Madison, 3-2, and finishing with a 6-7-4 record.
Congrats to our two from @Pitt_WSOC for being named to the @UnitedCoaches Scholar All-American Second Team!
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???? Sarah Schupansky pic.twitter.com/2wIMkrfA8r— Pitt Panthers (@Pitt_ATHLETICS) December 18, 2023
• In a span of a little more than two months in the spring, Lyke hired new coaches for four sports: Tory Verdi (women’s basketball), Casey Jo MacPherson (gymnastics), Chase Kreitler (swimming and diving) and National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Famer Jenny Allard (softball).
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• Meanwhile, construction continued next door to the Pete on Victory Heights, a $290 million facility that represents Lyke’s vision for the future of Pitt athletics. It will include a performance center for 16 of Pitt’s 19 sports and a 3,000-seat arena for gymnastics, volleyball and wrestling. Its tentative opening is 2025.
Penn State selected for Peach Bowl
The Penn State football team was awarded a spot in the Peach Bowl after finishing 10-2 in the regular season.
Big Ten losses to rivals Ohio State and Michigan kept the Nittany Lions out of College Football Playoff consideration, but convincing wins in their other games drew a matchup with Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl.
Penn State led the nation in total defense at 223.2 yards per game and allowed just 11.42 points per game.
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Duquesne men upset in A-10 tournament
A season full of surprise and highlights ended in disappointment for the Duquesne men’s basketball team in its first game of the Atlantic 10 Tournament on March 8 as No. 11 La Salle surged past the sixth-seeded Dukes, 81-70.
After being picked last in the 15-team league in a preseason poll, Duquesne finished the season 20-12.
The Dukes opened the 2023-24 season 8-3.
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RMU heads back to NEC
Robert Morris football is leaving the Big South-OVC and returning to the Northeast Conference where it achieved its greatest success.
The school accepted an invitation from the NEC Council of Presidents to rejoin the conference as a football associate member in late November. It will become eligible to secure the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA FCS Playoffs in 2024.
RMU football won six NEC championships after helping launch the conference in 1996.
Huggins let go at WVU
Bob Huggins resigned as West Virginia’s men’s basketball coach a day after his arrest on suspicion of drunken driving in the latest incident in a Hall of Fame career that imploded quickly.
It came a month after the university suspended him for three games for using an anti-gay slur while also denigrating Catholics during a radio interview.
The 69-year-old Huggins was the third-winningest coach all-time in Division I with 935 career victories, behind Mike Krzyzewski of Duke (1,202) and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse (1,015).
Huggins was charged with driving under the influence June 16 after his SUV had stopped in the middle of traffic on Pittsburgh’s North Side with a shredded tire and the driver’s-side door open at about 8:30 p.m. According to a criminal complaint, a breath test determined Huggins’ blood alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit.
Huggins later denied he wrote a statement released by the university announcing his resignation.
WVU named long-time assistant coach Josh Eilert to replace Huggins.
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