Hamilton looks for a new role at Pitt

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Jeff Capel has found one answer to his need for forwards and centers who can help this season, and it’s coming Eric Hamilton, who announced on Thursday that he will be attending Pitt as a graduate transfer from UNC Greensboro.

For the last four years, Hamilton’s college career has been defined more by the success of his teams than his own personal success.

The South Carolina native played high school ball in Georgia and went to Wichita State as part of the recruiting class of 2015. What followed was a rather impressive run of success: in his first two seasons, the Shockers won 57 games, won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament once and made the NCAA Tournament twice.

After his second season at Wichita State, Hamilton transferred to UNCG. He sat out the 2017-18 season, but last year, he helped the Spartans to a 29-7 overall record, an appearance in the Southern Conference Tournament championship game and a No. 1 seed in the NIT.

All of that success was very positive, but in each case, Hamilton was a role-player. He averaged less than seven minutes per game in each of his two years at Wichita State, and last year, he averaged 16.1 minutes while making a half-dozen starts.

“The teams I’ve played on didn’t really need my full array of skill sets in order to win at the highest level,” Hamilton told Panther-Lair.com. “But my view has always been that, wherever I go, I want to make sure that we win and we do things that we didn’t do before. Every place I’ve gone, we’ve won 25 games: from high school to post-grad to Wichita State to UNCG where we won a school-record 29 games last year with me doing what the team needed me to do.

“So that was key for me: finding a school that needed my skill sets to win. I want to make sure it’s a mutual benefit and that’s why I chose Pitt.”

Hamilton entered the transfer portal this spring to find a destination for his final year of eligibility, and his contact with Pitt began with assistant coach Jason Capel.

“He started messaging me and letting me know some of the things that they need help with that I could possibly provide, so I looked into it and they did extensive homework on me,” Hamilton said. “They know all of the people who have coached me in the past and trained me in the past. We know a lot of the same people and I felt like it was a really good situation.

“They talked to people from my AAU days with Stackhouse Elite and all of the North Carolina connects that I have just from being here in North Carolina. Jason used to play for UNC and Jeff used to play for Duke. Those guys are connected. They saw I was in the portal and one of the guys that trained me is really close with Jason, so they kept tabs on me and my development and my skills - skills I’ve always had but couldn’t always show.”

Hamilton’s averages of 6.1 points and 4.5 rebounds in 16 minutes per game at UNCG last season compare favorably to those of Terrell Brown, Pitt’s starter at center in 16 of the Panthers’ 33 games. Brown played 19 minutes per game and averaged roughly the same numbers - 5.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.

Pitt’s problem is that there’s not much behind Brown on the 2019-20 roster. Kene Chukwuka started 17 games last year but is out indefinitely after offseason surgery and Samson George appeared in just six games. Karim Coulibaly will arrive this summer as a freshman forward, but Pitt entered this offseason desperately in need of help in the post and Hamilton thinks he can help with that need.

“At the moment, they’re pretty thin in the front court and they need some experience,” he said. “They also need some leadership, and I think can provide that with my experience. This will be my fifth year of competing at the collegiate level and I have the experience of playing with four or five guys who are on NBA rosters, so I understand the grind that it takes, and I’m willing to bring that to my team.

“I have something to prove and I know that Coach Jeff Capel has something to prove as well as far as getting Pitt to be a successful program.”

Hamilton has a point about the Panthers needing experience on the roster: prior to Thursday, Chukwuka was the only scholarship senior expected to play for Pitt this season. But while the roster is young, it is also talented, with star sophomores Xavier Johnson and Trey McGowens leading a group that ran the gauntlet last season.

Hamilton got to know some of those players while he was on campus this week for an official visit.

“X is a really great rising player,” Hamilton said. “Trey is really good as well. TB has proven himself that he’s really, really good, as well as Au’Diese (Toney). Those were the guys that I got the opportunity to meet and talk to. They’re just really great guys and really hungry guys, looking to grind and prove themselves as some of the top players in the ACC. I really enjoyed hanging out with those guys.”

Hamilton also came away with his visit believing that Pitt is better than its 14-19 record showed last season. And he said he didn’t need to hear a sales pitch from the Panthers’ players or coaches to believe it.

“They didn’t have to do any convincing for me; it was everything that I saw and everything that I observed, from the environment to the type of person Coach Capel is, the type of person his brother is, the people on his staff, all the way down the line,” Hamilton said. “That program does not seem like a team that won three games in conference last year. I saw the guys work out and I’ve been around all kinds of levels - I’ve seen low-major guys play and I’ve seen high-major guys play - they’re going to do some big things this upcoming year. I think I can come in and be a part of that.”

As for what role Hamilton will play for Pitt, he’s a 6’9” 240-pounder who will contribute in the post. That will probably mean minutes at both center and power forward, depending on the kind of lineup Capel wants to deploy.

But Hamilton stressed that Capel made no guarantees on playing time.

“I’m not going to say that Coach Capel promised me anything because nothing is promised in life. But I have to make sure that I put myself in a position to where I could provide that type of leadership and grind every single day. If he decides that I’ve earned 25 or 30 minutes per game, then that’s what he decides. Ultimately, that’s going to be up to me and how hard I work.

“He said, ‘We need what you can bring to the table, but it’s up to you to decide whether you can help us.’”

To that end, Hamilton has already decided how he’ll approach this season - and he thinks the rest of the team fits his preferred approach.

“They’re extremely hungry to get better and I thrive in environments like that where I can come in and be myself and bust my ass every single day,” he said. “They’re a lot better than a lot of people give them credit for. Aside from a handful of games, they’ve been in every single game. They just needed something, a little bit of help, a little bit of maybe senior leadership that I think I could bring to this team.”