In all honesty, this is rebuilding year for Pitt. I’m not saying Pitt can’t get to the Tournament, but it is a bigger question mark than in the past few years. Auburn is rebuilding, period. Expectations are not high for this game:
The trip to Pittsburgh was timed perfectly for the Lebo family. The ceremony took place before the tip-off of a preseason high school tournament in Carlisle, giving the Lebos enough time to get back to Pittsburgh for tonight’s game.
Unlike those dominant years in Carlisle, Auburn (3-1) is likely to be overmatched against the Panthers, who have won their first four games of the season with one of the nation’s most intriguing guards on their roster.
Senior guard Carl Krauser, a John Wooden award candidate, leads Pitt in scoring (15.8 points), while 7-foot junior center Aaron Gray (14.5 points, 10.5 rebounds) is not far behind.
“Pitt is a very big, physical team,” Jeff Lebo said. “They have a terrific player in Carl Krauser. They have had extra time to get ready for us. They are by far the best defensive team that we will have faced.”
Tonight’s game is Auburn’s second road game of the season (the Tigers lost at Colorado State on Monday), but Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center is likely to be the loudest venue Auburn will face until SEC season.
Actually, not much is expected from Auburn for the season.
Auburn is rebuilding under second-year coach Jeff Lebo, the former high school basketball star at Carlisle High School and later at North Carolina. Lebo is trying to resurrect a program that hasn’t had a winning record in conference play since the 1999-2000 season.
In his first season, Lebo was 14-17 and 4-12 in the SEC. Not much is expected from Lebo this season either. The Tigers were a consensus pick to finish last in the SEC West Division in a preseason media poll.
Like Jamie Dixon at Pitt, Lebo is coaching a young team. He has five freshmen, three sophomores, three juniors and one senior on his roster. Two of his top three scorers are freshmen. Three freshmen are starters and another is a sophomore.
As a young team and their head coach is from the Dean Smith/UNC coaching tree, they will try to run and push the ball when they can. On defense:
“They do a lot of that North Carolina stuff, the 2-3, the 1-3-1 trap, man-to-man,” Dixon said. “They’ll mix it up, use all three. It’s strictly out of that North Carolina family.”
Pitt has been very good at solving zone defenses the past couple of years. The Panthers have been dominant at times against Syracuse’s zone and had success against West Virginia’s 1-3-1 zone last season. The problem in those games against the Mountaineers was perimeter defense.
In this puff piece on Aaron Gray, the article notes that Auburn has already had problem against size inside.
If the performance of Colorado State’s Jason Smith, another 7-footer, is an indication, Auburn might have no answer for Gray. Smith recorded 21 points and 11 rebounds in the Rams’ 77-67 victory Monday.
“Colorado State’s size is tremendous. Not only are they big, they are good,” said Auburn’s second-year coach, Jeff Lebo, the former Carlisle High School star who played at North Carolina.
Auburn will be facing another big team tonight in Pitt. Gray is the centerpiece of that size.
“I want to be a big impact player in the Big East,” he said. “To be able to put up the numbers I’m putting up, I need to be out on the floor. I need to be giving good minutes and I’ve been doing that consistently so far and that’s why coach Dixon has had a lot of confidence leaving me out on the floor.”
The article adds at the end that Doyle Hudson and Antonio Graves are both questionable for the game with ankle injuries.
As previously mentioned, Auburn Senior Guard Ronny LeMelle, is from Harrisburg. He is scrounging to get tickets for family and friends. The same goes for the Lebo family and Auburn’s point guard, Quantez Robertson, who is from Cinci.
For Auburn to win, they need the production they have been getting from the freshmen, but also need to start getting something from sophomore guard Frank Tolbert. Tolbert was the only starter from last year and was the leading scorer. Now he is only averaging 7 points/game and had 11 turnovers in the last 2 games.
Auburn is not a particularly big team, especially inside, but LeMelle could be a match-up problem as a guard since he is around 6’5″. Pitt doesn’t have the size on the outside, and LeMelle might be too fast for forwards like Kendall or Young to guard.
This game could be a very important one for Coach Jamie Dixon in terms of helping shape the perception of his job with the team early in the season. Pitt has the advantages in talent, overall size and home court. The Panthers are a 12 1/2 point favorite. Let’s face it, the biggest question mark is the coaching. Which team looks more prepared, composed and not as sloppy will be considered a direct reflection on the coaching and preparation.
