Carrington’s exit leaves another piece to replace

While Bub Carrington’s decision to enter the NBA draft brought fanfare and excitement at Petersen Events Center on Wednesday, the departure of the Panthers’ star freshman guard leaves an obvious void for Jeff Capel and his staff to fill in the transfer portal before next season.

One player his staff doesn’t have to worry about is Pitt’s other star freshman guard from the past season, Jaland Lowe. The four-star recruit from Missouri City, Texas, made that decision with a Thursday afternoon post on X.

That’s certainly good news for Pitt’s 2024-2025 roster, as Lowe emerged as a talented scorer and facilitator in the Panthers’ offense across 33 game appearances and 19 starts. His 9.6 points per game was fourth-best on the team, and his plus-2.4 assist-turnover ratio led the Panthers while also being the fourthbest rate in the conference. All that came after Lowe suffered a preseason injury that limited his production early in the season before he became a consistent starter in mid-January.

But the 6-foot-3 lefty’s return doesn’t change the fact that Pitt must find a way to add to its backcourt with Carrington’s departure for the NBA. Carrington was the team’s second-leading scorer and rebounder with 13.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, while he also led the team with 136 assists and was a defensive asset with his 6-foot-5 size.

Replacing him with a player who brought all those factors isn’t likely for the Panthers, as Capel remarked during Carrington’s press conference.

“We have some really good guards returning we’re really excited about,” Capel said about Pitt’s plans moving forward. “But we’ll need another really good guard. We know we won’t get anyone like [Carrington]. But we’ll get someone really good who can fit in with the guys we have returning.”

One addition guaranteed to be part of the Panthers’ backcourt is three- star guard Brandin Cummings of Lincoln Park, who comes off winning back-to-back PIAA 4A state championships.

While Cummings will have familiarity with the program his older brother, Nelly, helped get back into the NCAA tournament in 2023 for the first time since 2014, he projects to be a player who will need to develop before becoming a consistent starter.

That sets the stage for the Panthers’ need to find a talented guard in the transfer portal who can bring their own strengths to best support a roster that should be led by Lowe, guard Ishmael Leggett along with forwards Zack Austin and Guillermo Diaz Graham.

We already knew from past recruitment reports that assistant coach Tim O’Toole had reached out to senior Cornell guard Chris Manon, who still has two years of eligibility. Manon earned first team All-Ivy League honors this past season, as the 6-foot-5 guard from New Milford, N.J., averaged 12.5 points, 2.2 steals and 3.0 assists per game last season.

But in the past weeks, reports continue to rise of the Panthers’ other transfer portal recruitment efforts.

First reported by 247HSHoops, the Panthers contacted Saint Louis transfer guard Gibson Jimerson over the past week. Jimerson, a 6-foot-5 former three-star recruit from Richmond, Va., just completed his redshirt junior season with the Billikens, where he averaged 15.8 points per game and made 35.9% of his 3-pointers after shooting better than 40% from deep in each of his two previous seasons.

After starting all 33 contests for Saint Louis, Jimerson earned third team All-Atlantic 10 conference honors, while also making the conference’s All-Academic team. His skillset most likely wouldn’t challenge Lowe or Leggett for starting time, but he could serve as a potential sharpshooter to help space the floor and replace some of the 3-point shooting talent lost.

Blake Hinson — whose eligibility ran out this past season — and Carrington made the most 3-pointers for the Panthers, with Hinson setting a school record with 110 on the season. If Jimerson could serve as a platoon to replace that shooting prowess, it would be an important role for the Panthers to retain their ability to shoot from deep and spread the floor.

Another scorer whom Pitt reportedly contacted is Darlinstone Dubar, a 6-foot8 transfer who just completed his junior season with Hofstra. Dubar was a three-star recruit native to Charlotte, N.C., who originally committed to Iowa State as part of the 2020 recruitment class but transferred to Hofstra in 2021 and played for the Pride for the past three seasons.

Dubar — who finished his high school basketball career with Scotland Campus Sports in Scotland, Pa. — projects as a potential wing option who can help as a scoring threat with an average of 17.8 points per game and a good shooting rate of 53.9% from the field and 39.9% on 3-point shooting last season. Though listed as a guard for Hoftra, his size shows he’d be more of a replacement for Hinson than a facilitator like Carrington.

While not a guard, another big name Pitt has reportedly — first reported by PortalUpdates — contacted in the transfer portal is Maryland small forward Jaime Kaiser Jr. A 6-foot-6 former four-star prospect, Kaiser finished his freshman season in 2024 with just five starts for the Terrapins, averaging 4.4 points and 2.0 rebounds per game.

Kaiser wouldn’t be an answer in the backcourt, but he projects similarly to Kentucky transfer Adou Thiero — whom Pitt also contacted — and Dubar as potential small forward scoring options to replace Hinson’s scoring.

As players continue to enter the transfer portal, Pitt’s options for its backcourt will expand. But it’s clear that the Panthers’ primary efforts leading up to Carrington’s announcement were focused on finding high-scoring wings and potential bigs to replace center Fede Federiko.

Targets gone

As detailed in last week’s recruitment report, the Panthers only had a limited number of reported targets in the transfer portal who would fit a traditional center role for the Panthers.

But one of those few targets — Louisville transfer 6foot-10 Brandon HuntleyHatfield — announced Thursday he was committed to ACC rival N.C. State. That leaves the Panthers still looking for a potential center to pair with Papa Kante, the four-star freshman who sat out the 20232024 season with an injury.

Another one of Pitt’s targets who is off the board is East Carolina transfer forward Brandon Johnson, who committed to Miami on Wednesday. Johnson, a 6-foot-8 forward/wing, was projected to be another potential replacement for Hinson’s role as a scorer.