In the USA Today final rankings of the top-100 high school seniors, two are Pitt commits. DeJuan Blair was ranked 18th and Darnell Dodson pushed into the rankings at #71, after not being ranked until this point. Blair, especially, was noticed.
Elsewhere in the top 100, many of the elite players held steady throughout their season seasons. Perhaps the most notable exception was DeJuan Blair, a powerful big man who had ranked in the top 75 range prior to the season, only to blow up at several national events and arguably deserve All-American recognition by the end of the season.
Players who broke into the top 100 were No. 65 Mike Holmes, No. 67 Jeremy Hazell, No. 71 Darnell Dodson, No. 75 Justin Burrell, No. 76 Malcolm Grant, No. 83 Jason Henry, No. 88 Malcolm Delaney, No. 89 Sam Muldrow, No. 95 Mike Scott, No. 96 Julian Gamble, No. 99 Alvin Mitchell and No. 100 Cameron Tatum.
The most difficult player to place was No. 30 Herb Pope. A potential star out of Pennsylvania, Pope was shot four times earlier this spring, suffering severe damage to his left (non-shooting) wrist. He’s expected to make a full recovery, but obviously any wrist injury is a concern.
Assuming no injuries to the freshmen and redshirt freshmen (always a tough assumption), Tyrell Biggs, Keith Benjamin and Sam Young are going to find their minutes squeezed. I only feel certain about Levance Fields, Ronald Ramon and Mike Cook for next year. Gilbert Brown (RS Fr, g/sf), Austin Wallace (RS Fr, c), Cassin Diggs (Jr. Transfer, c/pf), Gary McGhee (Fr, c), Darnell Dodson (Fr, sf), DeJuan Blair (Fr, pf) and Bradley Wanamaker (Fr, sg) are going to push to start or be coming off the bench first.
Wanamaker and McGhee will be likely candidates to redshirt, even if McGhee was one of the top players out of Indiana. McGhee’s position is just too deep, and he could stand to put on more muscle for the Big East. Wanamaker, unless he shows ability to create his own shot at guard, is also likely to take a redshirt simply because of keeping the rotation just a little closer to manageable. Even so, that’s likely 5 players pushing for playing time.
Young, especially, will be feeling some pressure. He was unable to handle playing small forward — limiting where he can play on the court — and was battling the tendinitis in his knees all year. While he came on late in the season, it’s hard to shake the feeling that his game actually took a step backwards as consistency was also an issue. His progress will be watched closely.
Benjamin is an energy guy that comes in for around 10 minutes a game. I don’t see that changing. His shooting is too inconsistent, he’s not a great defender and he doesn’t shoot free throws well. Other than that, he’s fine.
Biggs, and this may surprise some, I think he still has a good chance for real minutes in the rotation. He’s still improving his physical conditioning and has something of a scoring touch. He needs to go at the rim, though, and not act like he’s a guard taking jumpers and shots falling away from the basket. It nearly goes without saying that his defense, however, really needs to improve. He has the advantage of knowing the system better than the newcomers.
I think you’ve got a better chance of seeing Dodson get red-shirted and Wanamaker get some actual floor time. With Cook and Brown splitting time at the 3-man, it will be an uphill battle for Dodson. Wanamaker, however, could be a useful sub at the 2, giving Pitt more strength and size on defense at the guard position…..something they have been sorely lacking with the twin munchkins Fields and Ramon. Wanamaker also should bring more scoring penetration potential……something else that Pitt didn’t get from Fields and Ramon, who are too small (and slow) to do any damage on the drive.
I heard Curtin Aiken say a bunch of positive things about how Biggs was going to contribute in a major way before the season began last year — he’d been watching practice and thought Biggs was ready to explode. I laughed, but figured I’d be hopeful. Obviously Curtis was nuts, and Biggs isn’t ever going to hold his own in the BE. There’s no room for a 6’5″ PF in that league, especially one as weak as Biggs. He’s got a decent perimeter shot and that’s about the extent of it. I hope he doesn’t steal time the next 2 yrs from players that could really contribute for Dixon. I do think he’d be pretty tough inside at Clarion or IUP.
Dodson is too thin to really contribute in the Big East as a freshman. However, college kids can physically mature quickly and basketball season doesn’t start for another six months. It’s possible that he gets stronger and is able to contribute.
His minutes will probably fall the most, I’d think, unless he figures out how to play in the post.