TPN predicts Pitt men’s basketball
By The Pitt News Staff
November 5, 2014
Here are some of our staff's predictions for the upcoming Pitt men's basketball season:Dan Sostek, Assistant Sports EditorThe Panthers face one of their tougher non-conference schedules in recent memory, traveling to Bloomington to take on Indiana, while a potential matchup with either BYU or San Diego S...
Taking charge: Mike Young taking leadership role for Pitt
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
November 2, 2014
During the summer of 2013, the Pitt men’s basketball team faced a glaring hole at the center position after losing three key players. Steven Adams went to the NBA, reserve center Dante Taylor graduated and third-stringer Malcolm Gilbert transferred to Fairfield.But head coach Jamie Dixon didn’t fre...
Defense and special teams struggles push Pitt to overtime loss
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
November 1, 2014
Pitt played its way into an offensive flexing battle against Duke Saturday, and in the end, it was a battle the Panthers couldn’t keep up with.Led by James Conner’s career-best 263 rushing yards, the Panthers combated Duke’s high-powered offensive attack from the start. But a combination of pe...
Dixon experiments with lineup in exhibition win
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
November 1, 2014
College basketball exhibition games are generally played before sub-1,000 crowds, and they don’t entail much excitement. One attraction to exhibition games, however, is that teams will reveal some type of their starting lineup.In Pitt’s 72-58 win over IUP Friday at the Petersen Events Center, coa...
Panthers look to rebound against first place Blue Devils
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
October 30, 2014
The Pitt football team has now lost four of its last five games, and head coach Paul Chryst can’t help but address areas where his team must improve — and must improve soon.Nonetheless, third-year coach Chryst often points out a few “nice things” that he saw from his team after a bad loss.One o...
Notebook: Offense works on limiting turnovers with Duke on deck
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
October 28, 2014
Last September, Pitt football fans expected a walk in the park when their 1-1 team traveled to Durham, N.C., for the Panthers’ first-ever conference game against what used to be a lowly Duke team.The Panthers did pull out a 58-55 win over the Blue Devils in a shootout, and, on paper, it ended up being their marque...
Pitt should stay away from WVU in non-conference
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
October 27, 2014
Last Tuesday, the University of Notre Dame announced its football games against ACC opponents through the next decade. The Fighting Irish will now play Pitt in the century-old rivalry just five times over the next 11 years, even though they appeared on Pitt’s schedule all but three times the last ...
Early fumbles down Panthers in homecoming game
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
October 25, 2014
It was the script coming out party that few saw coming.Sporting new script “Pitt” logos on their helmets in their homecoming game against Georgia Tech (6-2, 3-2 ACC) Saturday, the Panthers (4-4, 2-2 ACC) couldn’t recover from a historically poor offensive start in an embarrassing 56-28 loss.To st...
Father and son share longtime connection to Pitt football
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
October 24, 2014
When Elijah Zeise was eight years old, his parents took him to see a Pitt football game at Heinz Field.It was 2003. The Panthers upset No. 5 Virginia Tech 31-28 beneath a visible eclipse that lit up the faces of some 66,207 fans in attendance almost as much as Pitt’s last-minute, game-winning touchdown...
Bugging out: Panthers, Yellow Jackets clash with ACC Coastal Division on the mind
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
October 24, 2014
On Pitt’s scout team, many underclassmen and walk-ons simulate the opponents’ offenses to give the defense a better understanding of what to prepare for in the weekend’s matchup.This week, Pitt’s scout team might have more impact on the team’s game day execution than it did during any other we...
Notebook: Young Pitt team benefiting from experience
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
October 21, 2014
Regardless of its win and loss total, a football team can only grow over the course of a season.Players begin to master a coach’s system and, by January, they’ve learned more about their personal tendencies, as well as those of their teammates’.A team with more underclassmen than any other in Division...
Randall sprains ankle during scrimmage
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
October 19, 2014
Pitt senior center Derrick Randall sprained his left ankle during the first half of Pitt’s Blue-Gold Scrimmage Sunday afternoon at the Petersen Events Center.While running down the court during a change in possession, Randall collided with point guard James Robinson and fell to the ground, where he...
Running wild: Chad Voytik, James Conner combine for 203 rushing yards in Pitt win
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
October 17, 2014
History would suggest that the Pitt students swaying in Thursday’s overcast weather singing “Sweet Caroline” would leave shortly after the song. But running back James Conner burst into the end zone just minutes after the sing-along ended to give Pitt a 21-9 lead over Virginia Tech, ensuring that the...
Pitt looks to get on track against hurting Hokies
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
October 15, 2014
When head coach Paul Chryst arrived at Pitt in 2012, he brought with him plans to develop a Midwest-style football team, meaning that, in some cases, he’d choose to sacrifice speed for size among his players.Chryst has now cultivated three recruiting classes, and his Panthers are finally gaining recognition for being a grind-it-...
Panthers must beat Virginia to stop two-game skid
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Photographer
October 2, 2014
The Pitt football team jumped out to a 3-0 start by piecing together near-perfect performances that were highlighted by the national emergence of running back James Conner and a swarming defensive presence.But the Panthers’ on-field identity has changed for the worse in recent weeks. Teams have thinned Conner’s producti...
Notebook: Chryst talks Akron loss, explains Garner’s comment
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
September 29, 2014
After Pitt’s all-around dismal performance in a 21-10 loss to Akron Saturday, wide receiver Manasseh Garner confidently told reporters something that turned heads and enraged many members of Pitt’s fanbase.“We don’t play for the fans,” Garner said. “We play for each other and for our families. That...
Football drops second straight game, splits non-conference schedule
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
September 27, 2014
Five weeks have passed since the start of the college football season, and it’s safe to say that all Division I teams are now in mid-season form.With that, Pitt has learned a lot about itself as a team, and, after dropping its game to Iowa last week 24-20 and bowing to Akron Saturday 21-10, the Pa...
Pitt to face pass-happy Akron after losing its first game
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
September 26, 2014
Broken by separate calamities years ago, Pitt’s and Penn State’s football programs may have stopped the bleeding. Both teams now appear to be on the winning track, and Pitt fans finally get an opportunity to see how their Panthers (3-1, 1-0 ACC) might match up against the 4-0 Nittany Lions when mut...
Conner big again, while defense manages youth
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
September 16, 2014
Conner carries the teamComing into the season, football fans knew that Pitt had two dangerous offensive threats: running back James Conner and receiver Tyler Boyd.It’s now week four, and one of those threats, Conner, has more carries (81) than any other player from a Power 5 conference, while Boyd has just 11 catches.P...
Chryst, Pitt try to stay focused on FIU Saturday
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
September 12, 2014
It’s no secret that Florida International — Pitt’s opponent this Saturday — was a bad football team last year, and it only projects to finish this season as another bad football team.It’s interesting, too. The program has gained almost as much national recognition in recent years for being so, we...
Pitt and Boston College share Big East history
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
September 4, 2014
The last — and only — time Paul Chryst and Steve Addazio matched up against each other as head coaches, Chryst led his Pitt team to a 47-17 win in 2012.Addazio was with Temple at the time. He’s now in his second season leading the Boston College football team, and can’t wait to get another cra...
Column: Recent big-profile hires by Penn State now worrisome
By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
May 7, 2014
James Franklin is the anti-Paul Chryst.This is the exact phrase that went through my mind when Franklin took the podium at Penn State after being announced as the university’s 17th football coach in January. He’s awesome, I thought. A legend in the making.He’ll recruit the heck out of the mid-Atlanti...