Pitt will have its second transfer of the week
It was clear this year that Pitt was outmatched talent wise in the vast majority of its conference games this year, and spots are opening up quickly for Jeff Capel to find talent.
Pitt announced today that RS Junior Malik Ellison will graduate and transfer elsewhere. This comes two days after it was announced that Khameron Davis would be transferring.
“We appreciate Malik’s efforts with our program this past season and wish him luck as he looks to continue his playing career elsewhere,” said head coach Jeff Capel. Ellison averaged 5.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game in 31 contests (16 starts) for the Panthers. He scored in double figures five times with a season-high 15 points in an early season win over North Alabama. The Voorhees, N.J., native began his collegiate career at St. John’s and has one year of eligibility remaining.
Ellison came in under Kevin Stallings as a transfer from St John’s and sat out Kevin Stalling’s last year. Many of the players and coaches around that time commented that Ellison was likely the best player on the team. Ellison did not quite live up to that same type of billing under Capel and the influx of freshmen on the team. He has decent size at 6’6”, but just was never a consistent help on either the offensive or defensive end. He’ll be able to play immediately elsewhere.
This now leaves Pitt with 4 open scholarships for next year. The transfer market is starting to really heat up, and Pitt is certainly putting itself on the market.
Pittsburgh will be strongly in the mix for @NovaMBB transfer Jahvon Quinerly, per sources.
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) April 3, 2019
Arizona, Utah, Oregon State, Boise State, Northwestern, St John’s, TCU, Montana, Gonzaga and Pitt are among those involved for UC-Irvine guard Max Hazzard. Immediately eligible
— Corey Evans (@coreyevans_10) April 3, 2019
The rumors are that the departures for Pitt are not finished. Samson George wasn’t mentioned at all by Pitt in release about Ellison when they spoke of returning players. Capel will very very quickly have a team full of players that he recruited which is likely a good thing for Pitt. He has a lot of spots to fill though, so it will take a lot of leg work from the staff to fill them with quality players.
