Pitt Restrictions On Cameron Johnson Transfer About To Backfire?

Historically, transfers within the ACC have been discouraged. In fact, we really can’t think of any.

Duke’s Michael Gbinijie transferred to Syracuse but before Syracuse competed in the ACC (Syracuse was in the conference by the time he was eligible).

Who else? We can’t think of a single one.

Cameron Johnson might like to though.

The former Pitt player wants to consider UNC but the university has resisted. Making this more interesting is that he’s a graduate transfer, meaning he’d be immediately eligible.

A couple of more layers of complexity make this really interesting: first, Pitt’s Kevin Stallings used to work for Carolina’s Roy Williams, and the two are still close friends.

Second is that Stallings has been here before: at Vanderbilt he created a huge uproar when he refused to allow Sheldon Jeter to transfer to Pitt (this year of course, in one of the most ticklish situations imaginable, Stallings became his coach again - at Pitt)

And the third unspoken rail if you will is whatever might happen with the NCAA as UNC’s consequences for the massive academic fraud scandal are still unknown.

And fourth of course is that the episode with Jeter really damaged Stallings. The current situation starting to crank up in the media and Stallings and Pitt are adjusting accordingly: Johnson is being allowed to contact ACC schools, but clearly the university would like prevent things from going any further.