As Jeff Capel works to piece together a roster heading into his first season as Pitt’s men’s basketball coach, he is now down another important piece.
Point guard Marcus Carr, who started 27 of the team’s 32 games last season, told 247 Sports he is definitely transferring from the program.
A Toronto native, Carr had asked for and been granted his release last month following the firing of coach Kevin Stallings. At the time, Carr’s AAU coach said the 6-foot-2 guard would wait for the school to hire a new coach and evaluate his options from there, but that he was leaning toward leaving regardless.
On a freshman-laden team that finished 8-24 and 0-19 against ACC competition, Carr emerged as perhaps the Panthers’ most talented and promising newcomer. He averaged 10 points and a team-high four assists per game, though his scoring dipped in ACC play, down to 8.3 points per game. Regardless, he became the first Pitt freshman since DeJuan Blair in 2007-08 to average double figures in scoring for a season.
In the report, Carr said Michigan, Ohio State, Marquette and Minnesota are the school’s prioritizing him, though he has yet to schedule any official visits.
Carr’s loss stings for Pitt not only because of what it will be losing but what it has at the position without him.
Six players have either announced they will return next season or not sought a release, none of whom play point guard. Only one player of that sextet, guard Khameron Davis, is shorter than 6-foot-5 and as a freshman last season, he only used 11 percent of the team’s offensive possessions when he was on the court, according to data from KenPom.com. Only little-used forward Samson George had a lower mark. At this point, Pitt’s most experienced returning ball-handler would be guard/forward Jared Wilson-Frame, who played point guard in a handful of the team’s lineups last season.
For the Panthers, though, it likely won’t get to that point. Earlier this week, Capel extended an offer to class of 2018 prospect Xavier Johnson, a three-star point guard from Arlington, Va., who recently decommitted from Nebraska after assistant coach Kenya Hunter, his primary recruiter, accepted a similar position at Connecticut. Though it’s unclear whether he could potentially reclassify to the 2018 class, Capel also offered Trey McGowens, a 6-foot-3 guard in the 2019 class who is rated as a four-star recruit and one of the top 100 players in his class.
The unveiling of Carr’s decision comes just two days after forward Ryan Luther committed to Arizona, where he will play as a graduate transfer, meaning Pitt will be without three of its four leading scorers from last season (with the lone exception being Wilson-Frame, the team’s top scorer at 13 points per game).
With Carr off the board, Capel is still awaiting decisions from two players, guard Malik Ellison and forward Kene Chukwuka, both of whom have received their releases. After sitting out last season after transferring from St. John’s, it appears Ellison is unlikely to leave as he would have to sit out next season and lose a year of competitive eligibility if he opted to do so, barring an unexpected waiver being approved by the NCAA.
Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG
First Published: April 20, 2018, 4:52 p.m.
