Jan 14, 2019 3 min read

Whipple named Pitt’s OC

Pittsburgh is turning to former Massachusetts head coach Mark Whipple to rejuvenate its offense.

The Panthers hired Whipple as offensive coordinator on Monday. Whipple replaces Shawn Watson, who was fired earlier this month after the Panthers finished near the bottom of the Atlantic Coast Conference in nearly every major offensive category. Pitt finished 97th in the country in total offense, 93rd in scoring offense and 120th in passing offense.

Whipple stepped down as head coach of the Minutemen last November after UMass went 4-8 in his fifth season. The 61-year-old is no stranger to Pittsburgh. He spent three years as the quarterbacks coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2004-06, where he mentored Ben Roethlisberger during Roethlisberger’s first seasons in the NFL.

Whipple previously coached in the ACC at Miami. He was the Hurricanes’ offensive coordinator from 2009-10.

WVU hires coaches

New West Virginia coach Neal Brown has added several assistant coaches to his staff.

Brown announced the hiring Monday of defensive assistant Jordan Lesley and offensive assistant Sean Reagan.

Lesley was the defensive line coach with Brown at Troy last season and was the team’s defensive tackles coach for two years before that. Reagan was the co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Troy in 2018.

Brown announced the hiring of offensive assistant Chad Scott on Saturday. Scott has been the tight ends and hybrids coach at North Carolina since 2016. Scott was the running backs coach when he and Brown previously were assistants at Kentucky, Texas Tech and Troy.

Brown says he will announce staff assignments later.

Other hirings by Brown include defensive coordinator Vic Koenning and offensive line coach Matt Moore. Both also were with Brown at Troy.

In college basketball

Tyus Battle scored a season-high 32 points, and Syracuse used its 2-3 zone defense to rattle No. 1 Duke in overtime as the Orange pulled off the upset, 95-91 Monday night.

Paschal Chukwu added 10 points and a career-high 18 rebounds while Elijah Hughes added 20 points, Frank Howard finished with 16 and Oshae Brissett had 14 for the Orange (12-5, 3-1 Atlantic Coast Conference).

Syracuse held Duke to 2-of-8 shooting in overtime and to just 21 percent shooting from 3-point range while earning its second victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium in three years.

In the NHL

Vince Dunn scored his first goal since October, David Perron extended his point streak and the St. Louis Blues turned the tables with three goals in five minutes to beat the Washington Capitals 4-1 Monday night for their first three-game winning streak of the season.

Dunn banked the puck in on a double deflection for his first goal in 33 games and assisted on Perron’s goal with a no-look backhanded pass. Goals by Ivan Barbashev, Dunn and Perron came in a span of 4:42 in the second period, and Vladimir Tarasenko scored on the power play in the third.

• James van Riemsdyk recorded a hat trick, and Nolan Patrick had two goals and an assist to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 7-4 victory over the Minnesota Wild.

Wayne Simmonds also had two goals for the Flyers. It was just the second win in the last 11 games for Philadelphia, which began Monday with the fewest points in the league.

Jason Zucker, Marcus Foligno, Joel Eriksson Ek and Ryan Suter scored for Minnesota. The Wild dropped to 0-5-1 against Metropolitan Division teams.