Pitt was able to make it to the NCAA Tournament, essentially, without its perceived best player last season.
Now, with John Hugley IV officially committing to Oklahoma and giving himself a fresh start, Jeff Capel and his staff can forge onward, officially, with their own fresh start in this new era of Pitt men's basketball.
And that's not the worst thing for either party.
B⭕️⭕️MER S⭕️⭕️NER!!
— John Hugley IV (@thejohnhugley) April 20, 2023
It is known that Hugley was the focal point of Capel's roster rebuild prior to the start of last season, in which he entered having losing records in each of his four as Pitt's head coach. I can recall associate coach Tim O'Toole telling me about Hugley's "dominant" personality in our conversation at the NCAA Tournament, and about how that was picked up by Blake Hinson, Guillermo and Jorge Diaz Graham, and Federiko Federiko, as far as the frontcourt was concerned, throughout parts of the season.
The same season which, perhaps coincidentally, overlapped a stream of success for Pitt with the falling off of Hugley.
Hugley led Pitt in scoring and rebounding the season prior, and was set to take a leap into his junior season. However, he sprained his knee in the preseason and was limited -- in every sense of the word -- to just eight games before leaving the team in January to rehab the injury and deal with off-the-floor, mental-health matters.
Workout videos posted to social media via Chet Mason, Hugley's coach at Brush High School in Cleveland, then began to trickle over the weeks leading into his announcement of entering the transfer portal March 14:
My little brother is now feeling good mentally and physically @thejohnhugley ❤️💪🏾💪🏾
— chet mason (@ChetMason32) March 9, 2023
was considered a top 10 big in college basketball before the minor setback @JonRothstein @GoodmanHoops pic.twitter.com/Cm188ybzKD
The writing, clearly, was on the wall then, as the above video of Hugley's workout was posted five days before he entered the portal. Also note the tagging of national college basketball reporters Jon Rothstein and Jeff Goodman.
This wasn't done by accident. And, understandably, it left a sour taste in some of the Panthers' fans mouths given the timing of the announcement. That came across the news feed the morning Pitt was set to face Mississippi State in Dayton, Ohio, to tip off the First Four round in the program's return to March Madness for the first time in seven years.
Hugley had the support of Capel and the program, but he still chose to remove himself altogether from the situation which helped put his basketball career on the map in the first place.
With that in mind, let's keep perspective. What ever the mental-health and personal matter Hugley dealt with and/or is still dealing with is, one can only hope for nothing but the best outcome and that he either was able to or can come out of those matters on the positive end. So, if removing himself from Pittsburgh is what he felt was best for himself in that scope, then we can't fault him for it.
From a basketball standpoint, it became more evident based on his knee injury, the shape he was in when he played in those eight games, and with the emerging frontcourt Capel had at his disposal, the avenues became thinner for a thinned-out "Big John" to re-establish himself inside that stacked frontcourt rotation.
The move makes sense for Hugley as his own fresh start, and it frees up more minutes for the already existing members of Capel's frontcourt.
So, from a basketball perspective, it's a win-win on the surface. Capel has seven members to his frontcourt when High Point transfer Zack Austin, the returning Will Jeffress, and incoming true freshman Marlon Barnes are also accounted for.
But more important, only Jeffress remains from those four years of losing within the program, among his frontcourt mates.
The roster overhaul from last season was almost out of necessity, but what Capel and his staff were able to do with regards to molding each of Hinson, the freshmen Diaz Graham twins, Federiko, Nelly Cummings, and Greg Elliott together as newcomers into the already existing Jamarius Burton and Nike Sibande was somewhat unprecedented. They were picked to finish 14th in the ACC for a reason. Nobody gave them a shot for a reason.
The common denominator here, however, is the 2022-'23 newcomers, along with the first-team All-ACC guard Burton, were winning players at their previous stops.
The unfortunate-but-true circumstance surrounding Hugley at Pitt is that, yes, he was their best player, but he was also the best player on a losing club. Pitt went 21-33 overall and 12-24 in ACC play in the two full seasons which Hugley was healthy. When he led Pitt in scoring and rebounding in 2021-'22, Pitt went 11-21 overall and 6-14 within the ACC.
Of course, that isn't all Hugley's fault, but it also stands to reason that he also wasn't able to elevate Pitt to that next level, despite having Burton and forward Mouhamadou Gueye to feed off of in his frontcourt.
Oklahoma hasn't done much winning since former Loyola Chicago Cinderella Man Porter Moser took over the program prior to the start of the 2021-'22 season. He replaced the retired Lon Kruger (who succeeded Capel at Oklahoma) after Kruger took the Sooners to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and achieved an Associated Press ranking as high as No. 7 the season prior.
Since Moser's hiring, Oklahoma is 34-33 overall and 12-24 within the Big 12.
So, is Hugley the missing piece for Moser? Or is he just another ingredient to an underachieving Oklahoma program?
We'll soon find out.
