The page listing Pitt Men’s Basketball Coaching Staff is still rather sparse. Former player, Chris Jones, is still listed as a Graduate Assistant. Jason Richards remains as Director of Basketball Operations. Garry Christopher remains as the Strength and Conditioning Coach. And that is it.
We know Pitt took it’s time before hiring Jeff Capel as head coach, but that doesn’t mean the hiring of assistants has to remain up in the air this long.
If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that the hold-up is waiting for Brandin Knight to make up his mind. The day after Capel’s hiring, he made it openly clear that he would like to have Knight return to Pitt as an assistant.
Knight left Pitt shortly after Jamie Dixon departed for TCU. Knight interviewed for the Pitt head coaching job, but was never a seriously considered candidate by Scott Barnes. There was an attempt to keep him at Pitt as part of Stallings’ staff, but Knight had little interest in that. Instead taking a position as an assistant at Rutgers.
And that is all anyone knows. No one seems to know what Knight wants to do. I’m making assumptions here, but I imagine to get Knight to come back to Pitt he would have to be named the Associate Head Coach/Lead Assistant. That affects the pecking order of the staff and who gets hired.
If Knight were to say, “thanks, but no thanks,” then it becomes a question of how much Capel wants a former Pitt player on the staff. Conceivably he could promote Jason Richards to assistant coach and hire Tray Woodall to be be Director of Basketball Operations. Woodall just completed his first season as DBO at Robert Morris. Mind you, this is pure conjecture and spitballing on my part.
Kevin Sutton, who was an assistant for Kevin Stallings, is widely liked by the players and was the only former assistant to attend Capel’s press conference. Sutton was also on Jeff Capel’s father’s staff at Old Dominion. He still seems like a possibility for the staff. Sutton’s future seems up in the air.
On the player staying or going front, Parker Stewart has made it official that he will transfer out of Pittsburgh. It’s disappointing, but not a surprise. Stewart emerged as Pitt’s best and most consistent player over the course of the season. Once he got his release, he was one of the players that received a lot of high-major interest.
Kham Davis, though, has decided to remain a Panther. That’s a positive thing. The four big ones to get to stay now are Marcus Carr (which I find unlikely), Terrell Brown, Ryan Luther and Malik Ellison.
I have to believe Ellison will stay. He sat out last year as a transfer, and I doubt he wants to do it again.
Terrell Brown is a big question mark. For his development, I hate saying it but a transfer wouldn’t be the worst thing. He really could use a development year and would have that as he would sit for the following season as a transfer. Still hoping he stays, though.