Vukovcan: Pitt, GM Kuntz Crafting Impressive Portal Class
The truth of the matter is that one month ago, the Pitt men’s basketball program was a disaster and in a place that rivaled the embarrassing days of Kevin Stallings.
When it was mentioned at all, nothing but negative talk followed and worse yet, zero interest and apathy was forming. The last part is a place that any sports team never wants to be in.
Fast forward to today and Pitt’s immediate future has taken a 360-degree turn.
I’ll be honest, I hate the transfer portal and believe it’s not a good thing for college sports. However, it does allow teams to fix themselves quick if they have some resources and a talented general manager.
Fortunately for Pitt, although it’s still not in a great spot, their salary budget did increase noticeably this offseason and equally as important, they have a man in charge of player acquisitions that knows what he’s doing.
I wrote this last season and got scoffed at, but I’ll repeat because it’s the truth. Considering the current climate of college athletics, the most consequential move that the University of Pittsburgh made was the hiring of Jay Kuntz as Pitt men’s basketball’s general manager.
This is meant as a positive when I say that Kuntz is a maniac and is obsessed with returning Pitt basketball to the glory days of Jamie Dixon.
Is he going to be able to accomplish that? Time will tell but I can tell you that it won’t be because of a lack of effort and desire.
After taking over midway through the opening of the portal, Kuntz essentially had to wait a year before truly being able to get involved in college basketball free agency. So, for this past season, he sat back, evaluated Pitt’s roster for an entire season and built a data base of potential targets in the 2026 transfer portal.
At the end of the season and after having attended team practices and all games, Kuntz made the easy evaluation that last year’s roster wasn’t nearly good enough and didn’t have nearly enough pieces to win. They weren’t tough enough, athletic enough and didn’t have enough “dogs” and “dudes.”
Not surprisingly, Kuntz and head coach Jeff Capel made the easy decision to hit the reset button and bring in an entirely new roster for the upcoming season. While that decision was easy, the only way it could possibly work is if they had enough resources to be able to attract those “dogs” and “dudes” to Pitt.
While the 2026 payroll isn’t in the $10-12 million, a number that was necessary to truly compete last season, Pitt did get an injection of funds that allowed Kuntz to go talent hunting and that’s exactly what he’s done.
Thanks to an aggressive approach and tremendous value shopping, Pitt has had an eye-opening week in the portal, one in which the fan base rightly so feels excited about. Currently, On3 rates Pitt No. 7 in the current transfer portal rankings.
In just a few days, Pitt has flipped their roster and added players that were nearly all high 4-star recruits coming out of high school. The way Kuntz and Capel went about this was masterful as they were able to acquire a combination of players that were productive at previous schools, along with others that have high side but didn’t show it for one reason or another.
Here’s what I’m talking about and a look at Pitt’s potential lineup:
PG: Nait George (senior, produced at Syracuse)
SG: Jalil Bethea (former McDonalds All-American, highest upside on team)
SF: Jonathan Powell (their best 3-point shooter, produced at NC and WV)
PF: Baye Ndongo (possibly their best player, solid production at Ga. Tech)
C: Armani Mighty (defensive force, big/athletic, best center they’ve had in years)
Take a look at this video of Mighty and name me a Pitt center in the last handful of years that looked like this.
The icing on the cake came last night with the commitment from scoring guard A’lahn Sumler from Charleston Southern.
This was a key win for a couple of reasons: 1.) Pitt had to contend with major programs to land him. 2.) They had to spend money to get him, he wasn’t coming with a discount.
While some would assume Sumler would be an instant starter, I don’t look at it that way. I look for him to be the first person off the bench as someone that can play at either the 1, 2 or 3 spots. Because of that, Sumler will total up as many minutes as the starters. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him as a contender for the ACC 6th Man of the Year.
Those are Pitt’s top six players, and we haven’t even mentioned their two incoming 4-star high school recruits, Chase Foster and Jermal Jones, Jr.
Because of the talent around them, Foster and Jones won’t be asked or expected to come in immediately needing to produce. These two talents won’t be buried on the bench and will get their minutes, but they won’t have to feel instant pressure.
Kuntz isn’t finished as he’ll still be adding a couple more pieces to the roster, including another big man but for the most part, the heavy lifting is done.
It’s hard to believe, but the outlook surrounding this upcoming Pitt basketball season has completely changed in just a week. After having zero expectations and hope, Pitt will now field one of their best rosters in years and making the NCAA Tournament isn’t a crazy thought.
In fact, assuming all things stay the same and no major injuries, there’s no reason this team shouldn’t be in contention for a bid to March Madness.
And if that would happen, Pitt fans can thank the work done by Kuntz, who is slowly but surely, turning into the face of Pitt men’s basketball. While it’s still too early to say this as a definite, it sure feels as though Pitt men’s basketball is back.
