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Pittsburgh Guard Jaland Lowe Enters Transfer Portal, Has Connections To Lucas Family

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Trinton Breeze

Trinton Breeze

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Productive ACC point guard Jaland Lowe from Pittsburgh is now in the transfer portal, and Miami is a team to watch as he considers his options.

Lowe has ties to the Hurricanes. His godfather is John Lucas, the father of new head coach Jai Lucas.

Lowe has been a key player for Pitt basketball over the last two years, starting 31 games as a sophomore and 19 as a freshman, after moving from a bench role due to an injury, and he averaged 12.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game in...

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Gables Canes said:
I have to do more scouting on him, but I like his assist numbers a lot. What I do not like is that he's a career 30% shooter from 3, including under 27% this year on an average of FIVE 3 point attempts per game. That's abysmal shooting.
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A guard who can't shoot. No thank you
 
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Reminds me of Isaiah Wong early in his Miami career before he really found his 3 ball.

Seeing Lowe looking very likely, Reneau being a key target, seemingly keeping Ugo, and likely pursuing multiple bigs... That is a lot of guys that aren't strong shooters with range. It will be very important to hit on a few sharp shooters to pair in that lineup or we'll be dreadful on offense. Zrno would be a good start but really needing 3-4 with 2-3 being ACC starting caliber.

A starting rotation with a big, Reneau at the 4, Lowe at G, and then Ugo as either the 6th or 7th man would struggle to score and win games without 2 absolute elite shooters playing the 2 and 3 and AJ Staton-McCray likely being a 6th man.. and he would need to get back to his 40% from 3 type of season. I would think Zrno could fit that mold as a starting 3 since he is older than most "freshmen" but its hard to evaluate him.
 
JayCane20 said:
Reminds me of Isaiah Wong early in his Miami career before he really found his 3 ball.

Seeing Lowe looking very likely, Reneau being a key target, seemingly keeping Ugo, and likely pursuing multiple bigs... That is a lot of guys that aren't strong shooters with range. It will be very important to hit on a few sharp shooters to pair in that lineup or we'll be dreadful on offense. Zrno would be a good start but really needing 3-4 with 2-3 being ACC starting caliber.

A starting rotation with a big, Reneau at the 4, Lowe at G, and then Ugo as either the 6th or 7th man would struggle to score and win games without 2 absolute elite shooters playing the 2 and 3 and AJ Staton-McCray likely being a 6th man.. and he would need to get back to his 40% from 3 type of season. I would think Zrno could fit that mold as a starting 3 since he is older than most "freshmen" but its hard to evaluate him.
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Id let Bethea walk in this scenario. Go get a 2 that can stretch the floor.
 
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JZCane0825 said:
Id let Bethea walk in this scenario. Go get a 2 that can stretch the floor.
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Agree with that but hesitantly. I didn't watch many games beyond December when he actually started playing more.. I can't decide if I think he was just drastically overrated or if he's a candidate to explode in year 2. L's last 3 classes of signees/evals would definitely point to the bust category.

If Bethea was what I thought he would be when we signed him, he'd be a perfect fit. Feel like it just wasn't in his bag to be a go to scorer at this level with higher level athletes. Couldn't create enough on his own and the effort and demeaner isn't there to make me feel like he's going to take the next step anyway.
 
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JayCane20 said:
Reminds me of Isaiah Wong early in his Miami career before he really found his 3 ball.

Seeing Lowe looking very likely, Reneau being a key target, seemingly keeping Ugo, and likely pursuing multiple bigs... That is a lot of guys that aren't strong shooters with range. It will be very important to hit on a few sharp shooters to pair in that lineup or we'll be dreadful on offense. Zrno would be a good start but really needing 3-4 with 2-3 being ACC starting caliber.

A starting rotation with a big, Reneau at the 4, Lowe at G, and then Ugo as either the 6th or 7th man would struggle to score and win games without 2 absolute elite shooters playing the 2 and 3 and AJ Staton-McCray likely being a 6th man.. and he would need to get back to his 40% from 3 type of season. I would think Zrno could fit that mold as a starting 3 since he is older than most "freshmen" but its hard to evaluate him.
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I'm not sure Ugo will be retained and if he is, prolly won't be in the top 8 rotation.

Trey Green prolly fits that backup PG role more. I posted this in another thread

PG: Lowe, Trey Green
SG: Bethea, Dante Allen
SF: Hrzo, Shelton Henderson
PF: Reneau, ?
C: Udoh Jr, ?

Green and Hrzo would be very good shooters.

Bethea and Lowe have the potential to shoot, but as of now inconsistent.
 
Da Jumbo Mutombo said:
I'm not sure Ugo will be retained and if he is, prolly won't be in the top 8 rotation.

Trey Green prolly fits that backup PG role more. I posted this in another thread

PG: Lowe, Trey Green
SG: Bethea, Dante Allen
SF: Hrzo, Shelton Henderson
PF: Reneau, ?
C: Udoh Jr, ?

Green and Hrzo would be very good shooters.

Bethea and Lowe have the potential to shoot, but as of now inconsistent.
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Thinking Staton-McCray and Ugo will still be here just because they're the only ones here working with Jai right now. They would be in the portal if they were leaving. I'd be fine with it because he's a solid ball handler and he can get to the basket. Just don't think his shot will ever be where it needs to be. Staton-McCray is a solid 6th man option if he can improve his 3 back to where he was in 2023/24 at Samford. He's a + perimeter defender and has been ++ in his last year at Samford. Lowe was not a bad defender and keeps getting better year over year, and Udeh is a good defender. No idea on Reneau defense.. but overall, that would be a formidable unit from that perspective.

I like Green as a role player and think Kaleb Glenn from FAU would be a great add. 40+% on the 3 ball at 6'7. That lineup is probably 15-18 win team - better or worse depending on what Zrno and Henderson actually turn out to be and depending on how big of a step Bethea can take under Lucas. Replace Bethea with someone proven like Adante Hoilman at PG and push Lowe to the 2 and I'd be closer to the 20 win prediction.

Really hoping for Shelton Henderson because he's the physical 2/3 that can really be a pest on defense and take over a game offensively if he gets going.
 
Da Jumbo Mutombo said:
I'm not sure Ugo will be retained and if he is, prolly won't be in the top 8 rotation.

Trey Green prolly fits that backup PG role more. I posted this in another thread

PG: Lowe, Trey Green
SG: Bethea, Dante Allen
SF: Hrzo, Shelton Henderson
PF: Reneau, ?
C: Udoh Jr, ?

Green and Hrzo would be very good shooters.

Bethea and Lowe have the potential to shoot, but as of now inconsistent.
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The spacing of that potential roster makes me sick. Lowe is a sub 30% shooter, he’s not inconsistent, at this point he’s just been a bad shooter.

What makes you say Green would be a “very good” shooter? He’s like 33% for his career. Yes, he was better this past year but it was in 9 games on a tiny sample size.
 
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