When arguably a team’s best player and a huge building block for the following season leaves, normally, that’s not something positive or looked at as good news.
However, that’s exactly how Pitt fans should be feeling about what took place today at the Petersen Events Center.
In an afternoon press conference, freshman guard Bub Carrington announced his intentions to leave Pitt after one season to enter the 2024 NBA Draft. The 6’5″ guard from Baltimore, Maryland started 33 games this season and averaged 13.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game. Carrington really caught fire at the end of the season as he averaged 19 points over the final 6 games of the Panthers season.
Regardless of if you feel he’s making the wrong decision, that doesn’t really matter because Carrington and Jeff Capel are being told by NBA teams that he’ll go somewhere in the first round.
If that’s the case, he’d be crazy to pass up the guaranteed millions of dollars that go along with being a first-round pick.
Students go to college in order to get an education that will allow them to earn as much money as they can in the field of their choosing. Carrington’s working profession is basketball and in just one year in college, he did enough to become a millionaire.
Mission accomplished!
For reference, the 30th overall pick in last year’s NBA Draft was Kobe Brown (Missouri). Shortly after being selected, Brown signed a four-year deal with the LA Clippers worth $12,394,179 with an average annual salary of $3,098,545 (per Spotrac).
Part of me understands the portion of Pitt fans that are disappointed with today’s news. After what he displayed this past season, having Carrington return along with Jaland Lowe, Ish Leggett, Zack Austin, Gullermo Diaz Graham and the additions of Papa Kante and Brandon Cummings would’ve set Pitt up to have another exciting season. That’s not to mention what Capel is able to add through the transfer portal, where he has hit home runs the last two seasons.
That’s not going to happen, but to be upset about this is being shortsighted.
Pitt fans want nothing more than to qualify for the NCAA Tournament and to make a deep run in the big dance. In order to do that, you need talent — and NBA talent — to be a serious contender.
To get elite talent, most times, a program has to show high school players that they have a history of developing players and turning them into first round picks.
Capel and his staff accomplished that with Carrington, which is great news for future recruiting.
“I think it’s great for our program,” Capel said about Carrington’s decision. “Obviously, we would love to have him back. But when you have an opportunity like this, all of these kids dream of being a pro. When I was his age, I dreamed of being a pro. When you have an opportunity to do it, and, it’s the right opportunity to do it right now, you have to take advantage of it. Throughout the season, we had more pro scouts at our practices this year than we have in my first five years combined. That’s when I knew, okay, this has a chance, this is real.”
I have no doubt that immediately following today’s press conference, Capel was on the phone with 4 and 5-star players showing them what they did with Carrington in just one season and that they could be next. A certain 5-star guard from Western Pennsylvania that Pitt desperately wants, certainly fits that description.
When Capel was hired, the expectation from the fan base was that Pitt would immediately start recruiting and producing NBA talent because of his resume while at Duke.
While it may have taken longer than anticipated, that time has arrived and it’s a good thing.
To be known as a big-time program, Pitt fans should have big-time expectations. It should be celebrated, not mourned, when a player leaves early to turn pro.
Unlike with Pitt football, the basketball program isn’t able to brag about putting players in the league.
Hopefully for Capel and Pitt, Carrington is just the first of many players that over the upcoming years that hear their name called during the NBA Draft.
Congratulations Bub for your success and for helping to put Pitt back on the college basketball map.
It’s a great day for Pitt and they’ve come a long way from the Kevin Stallings days.
Amen! Go be great Bub. He has all the skills to do so. Needs to continue to grow, but he cannot pass up this opportunity
Good point. Gotta take the long view.
Not to be cynical,but Im gonna be.They said the same thing when Steven Adams left after one year and that didnt pan out to well..Just sayin…But I do wish Bub well and all the success in the world and I do hope that Capel is able to use this as a springboard for some big time recruits and or transfers
10 yrs in the nba and 165 million in earnings. Either you didn’t do your homework or you must be a billionaire to consider him a failure.
They’re talking about recruiting going up after Adams and how that didn’t pan out as expected. Not Adams’ own success. Recruiting for Pitt didn’t get better after Adams went to the NBA.
Difference in this case is Adams was expected to be a one and done. Carrington wasn’t. So they can say, “look at what we did with a 100ish ranked recruit… in one year he made the league. That can happen here like anywhere else.”
That’s because Dixon didn’t recruit NBA talent. He liked the pass first, defend, rebound players, especially at guard. They had some good guards, but never elite level talent because that wasn’t his style, which is why Pitt had so much trouble for the most part in the tournament. Can you imagine if Dixon was coaching Carrington, he would have played 20-24 minutes a game and Dixon wouldn’t have liked that he went one on one and shot so much. Adams should have been the featured player all year, but Dixon refused to build the offense around him. It wasn’t until… Read more »
I don’t necessarily disagree with any of this. Just pointing out the misreading of the previous posters comment.
Haven’t seen an NBA game since Jordan retired. Never see Bub again so I’m sad to hear this
Steve Adams has been in the NBA for 11 years! It panned out for him.
So this is better than him having another great year at Pitt? Or, are we saying “by this time next year they will realize he isn’t worthy of a first round pick?” I kinda think winning alot of games matters more than we got lucky with one guy, who incidentally left as fast as he could.
In today’s game, you are always going to have players leaving early. The question is why are they leaving and can they be replaced? This speaks well of the program going forward and hopefully the pipeline of talent continues. With that said, I do think another year of development and taking over as team leader would have been good. I think Lowe will show that next year.
He left because GMs and scouts assured him he would go in the first round. That is a multi million dollar contract. He did not leave quickly for any other reason. Kentucky loses 3-5 players yearly to the NBA draft that need immediately replaced. It is how the basketball world operates. Good for Bub and glad he announce early. Now Capel has time to hit the transfer portal. There are a ton of good guards there that can be his replacement.
Good for him! I think he made the right decision for him, even though I’m sad for what could have been next year at Pitt – with him.
*** I’d Much rather him go to NBA then another college team for NIL money!!!
H2P!
That is how I felt. Rather he go pro vs another college team.
Big mistake. Anyone who watched Bub this year knows that. He’s close but one more year would have made a big difference. He will be riding the bench at best. I wish him well and thank you for the year we had.
Well apparently plenty of NBA scouts watched him and thought differently. He may not play in the league for a couple of years but there seems to be legitimate opportunity for him to play depending on who drafts him.
lol. Howie the super scout. Clown
Robbie RatDick spouting off again, adding zero value to these boards.
Would wholeheartedly agree if we had been in the dance this year… not even being invited was a shot to the chops and one more year could have been the best for both Bub and the program
It’s only great if he can
It’s only great if he can replace him
Well at least Pitt isn’t such a sumpsterfire now that they have a resemblance of a basketball program. Can’t say that about it’s football program.
These opinion pieces are some funny stuff
Ok RaDICK your saying the program is right where Stallings left it ? Get serious ! This is why you’re just a little troll ……….. go away loser