Many of you know I’m a big fan of the more advanced numbers and statistics that are starting to permeate basketball. Especially those involving tempo and efficiency. Ken Pomeroy has been a guy I regularly cite and his stuff is often used by me during the season. He and John Gasaway formerly of Big Ten Wonk blog have gone to work for the people who do Baseball Prospectus to produce work stat-driven work in college basketball this season. The geek in me is very excited about this for this year and going forward.
Of course, just two of them trying to cover 340 teams means the previews ran right into the season. They only got to the Big East this week. Interesting to see that Pitt is 10th in the Big East in % of returning minutes — something that speaks to the experience of a team. Marquette, Louisville and G-town are 1, 3 and 5 in that.

As for the look at Pitt. There’s plenty, but here’s a snippet.

As mentioned above, 6’1″ senior Ronald Ramon has functioned as a highly efficient supporting player up to this point. While he turns the ball over a hair more often than you’d like from your spot-up shooter, uncanny accuracy from the floor has more than made up for that. With Gray gone, more possessions will now come Ramon’s way. The test will be how well he can sustain his efficiency while playing a more prominent role in the offense. Also available is Keith Benjamin, a 6’2″ senior.

There’s been talk this year about how a new-look no-Gray Panther team is going to run the floor and increase the tempo. It could happen, sure, but don’t bet the farm just yet. Dixon may let his foot off the brake enough for the pace to creep up a little from last year’s mark of 62 possessions per 40 minutes in-conference. (The were the slowest non-Georgetown team in the Big East.) Even so, this team isn’t going to look like North Carolina or Kansas any time soon.

Pitt this year could have the makings of an interesting test for its coach. The Howland/Dixon preference, doubtless, would be to continue life as an old-school pound-it-down-low kind of team. The makeup of this year’s personnel, however, would seem to suggest that a more perimeter-oriented approach may be in order. Coaches often talk about modifying their styles year-to-year, depending on the players on hand. Dixon will have to decide if this is one of those years.

I think Ramon’s numbers are going to suffer a bit as teams are less likely to play off of him this season.

Pitt, of course, is feeling a bit confident about its ability to play different styles in response to what defenses give them after the weekend.

The Panthers showed off their new transition game against Houston Baptist, which employs full-court pressure defense and a fastbreak offense. The Panthers won, 103-62, the most points scored by a Pitt team since a December 1995 game against Long Island.

The following day against North Carolina A&T, Pitt had to win the game with outside shooting. Aggies coach Jerry Eaves, noticing Pitt shot only 29 percent from 3-point range against Houston Baptist, packed it down against the Panthers’ post players and forced their 3-point shooters to win the game.

The Panthers responded by making 12 of 27 shots from behind the arc and won easily, 88-61.

Then came Saint Louis, which played at a completely different pace. The Billikens gave the Panthers all they could handle for 30 minutes before Pitt finally pulled away. Not only did Dixon get to see his team excel in a low-possession game with a defensive posture, he got to see how they performed in a close game under pressure.

“That’s why the coaches scheduled like this,” point guard Levance Fields said. “[Saint Louis] was a great opponent for this game. We weren’t able to get up and down like we would like, but it was something we knew we’d have to deal with throughout the season. We think we did very well doing it. We didn’t lose our heads or get mad. We knew we wouldn’t be able to get as many points as we did the first two games, so we had to settle down, execute plays better and step it up on defense. And that’s what we did.”

There’s still a lot of work to go on this, but it’s a good start. That could also apply to DeJuan Blair who keeps getting positive pub.

There are those who feel Blair’s combination of skill and toughness are reminiscent of forward Brian Shorter, one of the most ferocious scorers and rebounders in Pitt history. Others believe Blair compares favorably to Charles Smith, the Panthers’ all-time leading scorer and shot blocker.

…

“He’s gotten better each game and he’s continued to improve in every area,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “On defense, he’s has a way to go but he can score in the paint, he’s bright and he understands things.”

Memphis coach, John Calipari, was on Mike&Mike on ESPN radio this morning. He was being asked about the impact and effect on the game with freshmen players. Specifically his own in Derrick Rose. He made an interesting — and it is was as much about plugging the rest of his players as anything else I know — point about how it is as much about the media fascination. That all the stories after Memphis’ opening week were about Rose despite the outstanding play of players like Douglas-Roberts and Taggart.

There’s a bit of that going on right now with Blair. Young is getting a decent share as well, but there’s a lot going on with the team right now that should be noted. Wanamaker has come in and created 11 assists in only 3 games (and he only played a couple minutes on Sunday) to spelll and compliment Fields. Not to mention 4 steals. Mike Cook is quietly doing a lot of things early with some scoring, a 3-1 A/TO ratio and rebounding.

It will be curious to see how Benjamin actually fits into the rotation as the season progresses. In the faster tempo, attacking style I could actually see him getting minutes at the expense of Ramon.

Definite bemusement by a Duquesne fan looking for optimism.

I love it. A Duquesne fan looking a few games ahead to Pitt. In seasons past this would have been bad form because the Dukes would go out and lose at home to Lafayette or some team like that before Pitt. But now that Ron Everhart actually has some talented players, it’s kind of fun to take a peek ahead to this game.

Haven’t really thought much about it since it doesn’t happen until early December. The Dukes will be better, but not even better than St. Louis at this point.