In light of the way, Pitt absolutely shut down Auburn and the absence of a dominate scorer, the theme today on Pitt is the defense. Both papers go with that as the story.
“That’s the best we’ve played defense all year, and it really showed how that carried over to the rest of our game,” Pitt forward Levon Kendall said. “It was fun to be out there. Everybody enjoyed doing it. Things were clicking, and it was good to see.”
Kendall, who grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds to go with nine points in only 15 minutes of work against Auburn, recalled a scene at halftime in the Panthers’ locker room, when senior Carl Krauser told his teammates: “You know, this is really fun. We’re all having a good time.”
Kendall paused to reflect on Pitt’s continuing dominance of Auburn, even after rolling to a 24-point halftime lead.
“You know, I kind of agreed with Carl,” he said. “It wasn’t that we were really focusing on doing everything the same way. We just said, ‘Why bother letting up? We’re having a good time.’ “
That has to be one of the more laid back ways of saying, “We have to play hard for 40 minutes.”
Coach Dixon has been stressing it and the players are embracing playing defense.
“Coach has been stressing [defense],” senior guard Carl Krauser said. “That’s what we’re known for. We’re known for playing good hard-nosed defense, [being] a blue-collar-type team. We need to get back to that. That’s what we tried to do last night.”
Through five games, Pitt is giving up 55.6 points per game. That record-setting pace isn’t likely to continue when the competition gets stiffer. But with new starters at four positions and three freshmen playing an average of 15 minutes per game, the Panthers’ prowess on defense has been a pleasant surprise for Dixon.
“We’re further ahead than where I thought we would be,” Dixon said. “Especially the younger guys. They’ve done a good job of picking things up.”
Part of the reason, apparently Dixon hasn’t just been stressing it. He’s been making it clear that is how players will get on the court.
“A lot of times last year we lacked defense and that’s why we let teams back into games and maybe lost a few games,” Gray said. “It’s definitely been what coach Dixon has been stressing. With everyone fighting for playing time, the way you’re going to play is by rebounding and playing defense. It’s been our main stress point.”
This team is too young and inexperienced to rival Pitt’s defensive teams from two and three seasons ago. The 2003-04 team set the school record by giving up 56.4 points per game. But Krauser believes that this group of players, with their newfound attention to defensive detail, is capable of playing better defense than last season’s squad that gave up 63.5 points per game.
“We’re playing 11 guys out there, so there’s no reason why anyone should be slacking on defense,” Krauser said. “The younger guys are doing a good job of coming in and picking things up, and the older guys are doing a great job of helping them through.”
Teamwork. Go figure.
