71 thoughts on “Towson at Pitt Basketball Open Thread”

  2. You just wanted to be first….lol.

    Towson is 2-1 on the season.

    Wins over Albany & Hampton. Don’t know if that is Hampton HS or not !

    The loss is to future Pitt opponent,…..Monmouth. Which is somewhere in the Garden State,
    (so they tell me)

    Strangely Towson’s point totals for these 3 games are 71, 78 & 79.

    So Pitt better score 80, just to be sure.

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  3. Need to get to 2-2.

    With a continuance issued yesterday in Horton’s case, let him start playing next Wednesday versus Vanderbilt. I mean, the great Coach K let his star player start the other night and Mike K is basketball royalty who can do no wrong, why should Pitt be any different?

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  4. This is another Guard oriented team. Which is Pitt’s weakness. Although our forward aren’t great either.

    Towson’s 4 Top Scorers are all Guards. Their big guys are 6’7″ & 240 lbs and 6’8″ & 225 lbs. The former being a Junior and the latter a Senior. So they could cause some problems for our bigs.

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  13. Pitt takes the lead,,,,,on a 7-0 run. I see masks, so it must be in the Commonwealth of Transylvania.

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  14. As noted above Pitt women’s volleyball won three set to one at Georgia Tech. This was payback for Georgia Tech handing Pitt its first defeat earlier in the season. The biggest news about this match was that Pitt did it with out their two time ACC player of the year Kayla Lund. Kayla has not been playing up to her player of the year status this year and today Coach Fisher decided to go without her. Rachel Fairbanks, a freshman setter, played as an outside hitter in the match after Kayla left. Valeria Vazquez Gomez replaced Kayla and had the best match of her career.

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    1. I thought Kayla looked pale when they showed her on the sidelines. Looked like she was under the weather. You don’t bench a player like her for a freshman in a game like this unless there is injury or illness, IMO.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Pitt will need another 6 rotation player next year in addition to Vazquez Gomez. I mentioned Flood before as the only possibility I saw. After tonight’s match I believe that player will be Rachel Fairbanks. When she is in the back row she is the setter. In the front row she is an OH. That means one less substitution needed when running a 6-2 offense.

        Annie: You may be correct about Kayla being under the weather. When she was not playing, she was sitting down. Hopefully they will sit her out against Clemson. Hopefully Jordan Lockwood will play in that match to give her some game experience.

        I hate to say it, but I did not have high hopes of Pitt winning tonight due to the way they had been playing. After Coach Fisher made the personnel adjustments, the team was much more effective. They gained confidence as the match progressed.

        In the fourth set a Georgia Tech fan approached the 1st ref and offered him his glasses. The “fan” was escorted out of the building. He gave the ref the finger as he was being escorted out. That is not something that happens very often at high level matches in D1 volleyball. I thought Georgia Tech fans were better than that!

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  15. Nice to see some normalcy with Pat Skerry and his coaching staff. In the normal Business Suit Attire.

    Capel looks like he’s at the Meadows with the little old ladies.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Pats a very good floor coach. As an AAU Coach I dressed in casual clothes. In HS always a coat and tie.

    Game going about as I suspected. Look for Skerry to speed up the pace second half. That’s Pitt’s Achilles heel. I may have underestimated Santos. Burton still not in game shape.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Santos Traf….Pitt’s leading scorer with 12 points….all 3’s.

    Have we finally found a shooter…over 57% 4 for 7

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  18. Interesting…Hughley in Capel’s Doghouse already. Has the warmup jacket on, on the bench,
    So not expecting to get back in.

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    1. Makes you wonder if Capel is mismanaging players so early in the season. Paul Zeise put it this way: Players can’t wait to get away from Capel.

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    1. Collier surprised as well. Since Capel sat Hughley early in the 2nd half. First significant output from Collier as a Panther !

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Stanley Clarke by far and away the best bassist I have ever seen.
      He was doing an outdoor show at Station Sq when the Pirates started the fireworks
      he played along with them.

      Liked by 2 people

      2. No doubt…and just about every good bass player in the World regardless of music genre agrees with you.
        They all have listened and learned from Stanley. And George Duke was another great musician who will be missed,
        Stanley Clarke with Return to Forever….

        Liked by 1 person

          1. Yes Stanley could also play the Acoustic Bass very well. Being a 5 time Grammy Award winner.
            I have this album on cassette. ikr

            (Mahavishnu) John McLaughin is on acoustic guitar on this song as well.
            Chick Corea on the piano.

            Incredible musicians all !

            Liked by 2 people

        2. The incomparable Chick Corea on the Keyboards and the incomparable Jean-Luc Ponty on the violin, with Lenny White on the drums. Lenny, Stanley & Chick were all original Return to Forever members.

          Unfortunately we lost Chick early this year. RIP Chick !

          As a member of Miles Davis’s band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever.[4] Along with McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, and Keith Jarrett, Corea is considered one of the foremost jazz pianists of the post-John Coltrane era.[6]

          Liked by 2 people

  22. Don’t forget Collier, that was very weird with Hugley on the bench.
    Odukale and Jeffress with some contributions and a three from Odalapo.
    Timely foul shooting from Santos, they picked the wrong guy to foul.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hughley did not take it well either. He sulked as the others on the bench cheered those on the floor.

      Which is why i noted….it was Interesting….in an earlier post.

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      1. Hugley was only shown once on the bench in the second half. Not sure how anyone could decipher that was sulking.

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  23. With that pesky basketball game out of the way, the stage is now set for the Fightin’ Pitt Football Panthers…. Can’t wait (I think…)!

    BTW, looks like Pitt’s Men’s Soccer team is going to have to play in the rain Sunday afternoon. Bummer.

    Go Pitt.

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  24. The Trib and PG both noted the absence of Hugely in the second half as suspicious but offered no explanation. Something is going on, maybe he disrespected a coach?

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  26. Whatever the issue with Hugely, it must have been significant enough for Capel to risk losing the game by keeping him on the bench…

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    1. He obviously didn’t like being taken out of the game, as Dan Bonner noted after he committed a foul and then made a turnover.

      And who knows at that point, what was said, by whom…to even make things worse….as he knew he wasn’t going back into the game.

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  27. For what it’s worth, in his post-game interview Coach Capel said he kept Big John out in the second half because “he wasn’t playing well.”

    Go Pitt.

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  28. This is a ‘just suppose’……. with 4 former HC’s on the bench. you could be getting to many voices being slung
    at the players.

    With normal asst coaches, they all would or should think along the same lines as the HC.
    Basically use the same jargon, the same spiels, etc.

    You might not be getting that, with 3 other guys who have all run their own programs before.
    We they have been the Big Cheese, so to speak.

    Too many chiefs and not enough indians can be a problem. It is often the case in some other
    scenarios as well in all walks of life.

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Just an excuse by Capel. Are we supposed to believe that Capel takes out his top rebounder and scorer, who had two double doubles in his last 3 games because he wasn’t playing well? There are plenty of other players who fit that description.

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    1. Make that top two scorers. Both Hughley & Odukale only played 19 minutes.

      “The body language wasn’t good from those guys. It just wasn’t,” Capel said. “It’s not our standard. We’re not deviating from that no matter who it is.”

      In their absence — Hugley was never subbed back on while Odukale came in with five minutes to go — others stepped up.

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  31. I heard a rumor he drove to the game in a 2004 chevy cavalier and capel was just being proactive, awaiting heather to drop the bomb on him. LOL, just kidding folks. Glad we got a win but remember the opponent.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes sir…..one of the early Return to Forever members and lead Guitarist. From Jersey City.

      He cites as influences jazz guitarists George Benson and Kenny Burrell and bluegrass and country guitarists Clarence White and Doc Watson.[7]

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    1. Thanks Big B, the great part of that story is most of PITT fans already know just how great KP is.

      great quote “HE MADE HIMSELF A LEGEND”

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  34. Great jazz talk …Jean Luc Ponty Egocentric Molecules from a live album 1979 still one of my favorites.

    Football thought:
    As much as I hope Vincent Davis plays well the mantra for today’s game should be
    “BIG BACKS BETTER”
    🤭

    Liked by 4 people

  35. Pitt has a good core of young tall athletic players. Femi 6’5”, Jeffress 6’7”, Collier 6’8”, Santos 6’7”, Hugley 6’9”
    Capel needs to keep them and add to it and Pitt will be fine.

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  37. I will say that the improvement from the last game to this one was noticeable. Still far from competitive in the ACC but a little more cohesive and more guys contributing. Let’s hope the Hugely thing is just a blip, he is far and away their most talented guy with the most upside. A big guy that can shoot fouls.

    Get some of these guys to stay next year and add some more talent and who knows?

    Is there a football game today?

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  38. I would still like to find a PItt highlight film from the ’76 season with the Crusaders doing the music.
    Does anyone else remember that?

    Liked by 1 person

    2. Yes I have every Crusader album or near all. So many, so great.

      Jackie’s & Johnny’s TV highlite show used mostly all Crusader music as background music.

      Images album of the Crusaders was used extensively on Jackie’s show.

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  40. FWIW the first time I saw Jean Luc Ponty, he was with the Mahavisnu Orchestra in mid 70s. Saw him a few years later opening for my favorite fusion band Weather Report

    Oscar Peterson’s long time bassist was Ray Brown who was raised in Pittsburgh. Considered one of the best jazz bassists of all time

    Sent from my iPhone

    >

    Liked by 1 person

  41. Santos seems to be getting a lot of minutes. Capel must like him, and as he plays more we might be seeing the development of a key cog in a future basketball resurgence. Or not!…

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  43. Santos had the hot hand last night. But the best news was that much of the second half, the lineup included Santos, Collier, Jeffress and Okudale. A freshman and 3 sophs.

    Certainly haven’t given up on Hughley, another soph. I think Capel had him on the bench in the 2nd half as long as the team was doing well, which in turn showed the team (including Hughley) that they were not dependent on him. They will certainly need him as the year goes on

    Sent from my iPhone

    >

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    1. He was the last artist to appear live in Charlotte, before the coronacrap started.

      Leader of Special EFX, great guitarist and song writer. Chieli has won several Emmy awards composing and playing music on various daytime soaps. ikr.

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  46. I was glad to see Capel bench Hugley for whatever reason. Capel lost control of his team the last few years putting up with the antics of a few primadonas. I guess he feels if he’s going to take heat for this years losses, he’s going to at least form a “team”!

    Liked by 2 people

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