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December 31, 2007

Not sure what the point of a recap is other than to record the misery. So, here are the local stories.

Then there’s the Dayton stories. Foul trouble for Blair. Brian Roberts was so hot, they didn’t even miss Chris Wright. Roberts had a night to shine.

Pittsburgh’s Sam Young spoke for everyone — the sell-out UD Arena crowd, the national TV audience, the NBA scouts sitting courtside, the players and coaches on both teams — when he sought Brian Roberts out after Saturday night’s game.

The Panthers’ junior forward reached down and hugged the Dayton Flyers guard in the hand-shake line afterward and whispered: “You’re one helluva player.”

He sure was Saturday night.

The loss of Fields was the bigger story not just for Pitt fans.

Metatarsal injuries occur frequently with soccer players, perhaps most famously when England forward Wayne Rooney broke his fourth metatarsal playing for Manchester United not long before the 2006 World Cup. Rooney was able to make a quick recovery and played in a Cup game just six weeks after his foot was broken.

On the other hand, the NBAʼs Pau Gasol fractured his fifth metatarsal playing for Spain in the semifinals of the 2006 FIBA World Championships. He did not play his first game of the 2006-07 season for the Memphis Grizzlies until three months later.

Pitt’s goals and hopes for this season, have obviously been downsized.

“We’ll be OK,” Dixon said. “We’ve got guys to replace them.”

That may be true, but now Pittsburgh goes from a team that could compete for the Big East championship to a team that more realistically can hope to finish above the .500 mark in conference play.

Before the extent of the Fields injury was known Pitt was still in flux, Mike DeCourcy noted the way Pitt was going to have to change with Brown in place of Cook.

The Panthers can’t help but be a radically different team, though, because the two players have such disparate skills. Cook was a fifth-year senior who brought a point guard’s creativity to the small forward spot. His lack of athleticism kept him from being a great defender, but he understood how to make himself a nuisance.

Brown demonstrated how much different a player he is with a flying tip-slam of a missed turnaround jumper by Young — one of the few Panthers highlights. But Brown managed to take seven other shots in the game without providing any hint of what sort of shots he might make. He now is hitting 41 percent from the field, 26 percent from 3-point range.

Dixon said Brown should prove to be a fine replacement, despite his uncertain play Saturday. The coach admitted there might be some different plays called in the short term but insisted major changes would not be necessary because “the other nine guys are still the same.”

With Brown in the lineup, Pitt goes from a team lacking quickness at the point guard, shooting guard and small forward spots to one that is exceptionally dynamic at small forward (Brown), power forward (Young) and center (Blair). That eventually should improve the Panthers’ defense. But until the offense regains its equilibrium, they’ll be an imperfect team.





Chas,

In evaluating the metatarsal foot injury, I really feel that Fields will be out a minimum of 2 months but the healing/rehab process might not be complete until the 3rd month.

Sadly I don’t think you will see him until the 2008-2009 season.

He was having an all-american year, his injury has put a damper on a fine season to date.

Comment by dr jimmy 12.31.07 @ 8:37 am

the Pitt curse strikes again. coming off what is arguably one of the biggest wins in school history – we lose the team leader. The loss is not a big deal, it was a non con against a tough opponent on the road after a holiday break but losing fields is a killer. We are in serious trouble when the BE schedule starts.

Comment by Rex 12.31.07 @ 10:54 am

This may have been mentioned already, but did anybody feel like you were watching the Dayton game from a blimp?

Everything that could have went wrong in that game went wrong…

1. We had to watch WVU/Oklahoma and miss the entire first half.
2. We lost Fields.
3. We lost the game.
4. PSU won the Alamo Bowl.

JoePa is on his death-bed. Let’s carry him off the field in a coffin! Anyone else find those comments awesome?

Comment by Todd Gack 12.31.07 @ 11:36 am

Todd, that camera angle from 130 feet up was the first thing I noticed when they finally switched over to the game.

Comment by Dennis 12.31.07 @ 12:38 pm

Its crazy, how we went from such a euphoria after the Duke win to the complete opposite after the Dayton game. I have a feeling its going to be a long season, especially if Ramon is running the show.

Comment by Ira 12.31.07 @ 12:45 pm

Ira, it could be worse. We could be WVU!!

Dr Jimmy are you suggesting you have specific knowledge of the Fields foot injury or is this supposition based on what you have read?

Comment by TMGPanther 12.31.07 @ 1:42 pm

Losing Fields was devasting. That was the one position where there was the biggest drop-off. Whether he comes back may very well have more to do with them getting into the NCAA than even how many games they win–the committee considers player injuries (they hold them against you when a guy goes down, and give credit when he comes back) so if Fields get’s back for the BE tourny and shows he can play a bit, .500 in the BE will likely get them to the tourny. But getting to that .500 will be very tough.

Comment by fred 12.31.07 @ 1:59 pm

We are done, I am a season ticket holder and will have to watch this mess, It is going to be ugly and we dont have anyone to replace Feilds and our bench is so limited that if we get into any foul trouble we will not have a lineup to compete in the BE. IM SICK

Comment by Buzz 12.31.07 @ 2:27 pm

It’s time to go to a big lineup and just try to pound the shit out of teams with Blair, Biggs and Young. Call me optimistic, but Jamie Dixon will not let them roll over and they will come back with a vengence. We will still have one loss when we play G’Town and we will still challenge for the Big East Title. These guys have worked to hard and they will not give up. We have good freshmen and I believe that they will start to shine.

Comment by Rob 12.31.07 @ 2:39 pm

Amen to the going big notion. I talked about it on another thread and to Ray Fittipaldo in his weekly chat on post-gazette.com, but why can’t we put the three big dogs Rob mentions on the floor, with Gil/Keith and Brad/Ronald? Although honestly, Ramon sucks at the point. I’m willing to try Keith “Out of Control” Benjamin there before I’d go back to Ramon. Blair and Young, and even Biggs, are athletic enough that we could have a pretty interesting lineup pairing that trio with Gil Brown and one of those other three.

Comment by Maz 12.31.07 @ 2:47 pm

Maybe we can get Lou Holtz to give the hoops team a pep talk this time. I’m sure he’s still got some old newspapers laying around.

Comment by jason 12.31.07 @ 4:05 pm

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