So, yes, at long last, Pitt fell out of the top-25 in both polls. A week of doom to be sure as it’s the first time in 43 consecutive weeks that Pitt wasn’t ranked. Oh, well.
In the Q&As Fittipaldo points out a good reason for struggles in February.
Q: Coach (Jamie) Dixon always talks about continually getting better, yet Pitt seems to hit a wall every February. I was hoping this year would be different because the freshmen would improve, but they seemed to have regressed over the past few weeks. Why does this continue to happen?
FITTIPALDO: Pitt is 2-2 this February. The Panthers were 5-2 last February, 4-3 in February of 2006, 4-4 in February of ’05 and 6-2 in ’04. The only year the Panthers might have regressed at the end of the season was ’05 when they lost four of their final six games and were knocked out in the first round of the Big East and NCAA tournaments.
You might be noticing that Pitt does not win as many games in February as January, but there is a reason for that. The top teams in the Big East are desired by the television networks for marquee games with other top teams. The TV networks begin to televise most of their better games in February and March, when more people are more inclined to tune in. CBS and ESPN do not want to compete with the NFL playoffs. If you noticed, the first half of Pitt’s schedule featured many of the bottom-rung teams in the league. The second half of the schedule features teams competing for NCAA tournament berths. That’s because the networks dictated which games they wanted to televise.
Good point, but it never stops sports writers from talking about how Pitt is struggling at the end of the season.
An article on Jermaine Dixon that is at least somewhat reassuring.
A Baltimore native, Dixon is one of the leading candidates for Player of the Year in the Panhandle Conference, regarded as one of the most competitive Juco conferences in the nation.
“Basically, Jermaine is a big, athletic guard who can go from A to Z very quick,” Tallahassee CC coach Eddie Barnes said. “He’s a good kid. He’s very coachable. He loves to compete. He’s going to compete at the highest level (in the Big East). He’s a dream guard. It’s going to be hard for me to replace him.”
The left-handed Dixon averages 21.0 points and about 7.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game.
His work ethic on the court doesn’t seem to be in question and he is apparently one of those high-motor players. Anyone familiar with what the Dixon boys have overcome should want to root for his success.
There’s more Pitt recruiting stuff here.
as far as legit BE talent, sam young & rr too up and down. Blair has hit a wall, fields might have been 1st team BE, now 2nd due to injury. Gilbert Brown has the most upside among the guards, could be 1st team for 2 years, wannamaker will be a nice complimentary player (like benji) Mcgee will clog the middle 6ppg/6-7rpg. Cook was the slowest defender on the court. watching the Duke game, it was either his man or rr’s that consistently got the open look/layup on the back door. both him and young’s defense doesn’t hold up for the entire defensive possession. sooner or later they lose their man to an easy basket. if you go to games like i do, you see this repeatedly. Tell me which Panther fan wouldn’t have like to see a quality big man come in to give Blair a hand underneath? I like Dixon as a coach as he runs a squeeky clean program, and is somewhat sucessfull in a watered down BE. I predict in 2 years huggins and wvu will consistently be ranked ahead of us and go farther in post season than we do. I hope not as i hate huggins, but he plays the recruiting game and can coach the heck out of his talent.
Kurt you should root for WVU and Huggins. You obviously have a win at all costs attitude and enjoy ridiculing very talented young men. The kids you bash are outstanding basketball players who play for an elite Big East program. You don’t have to see it if you don’t want to.
Trust me, Wannamaker is going to be much more than a complimentary player. He is going to be an All-Big East performer by the time he finishes his eligibility. Blair is one of the best freshman in the country. Brown is a stud athlete with a bright future. McGhee is a legitimate Big East player giving strong minutes as a true freshman. That is four freshman with excellent talent and upside. What more do you want from Dixon? Should he recruit thugs that never graduate and are out of control so he can get to one, count it ONE, final four like Huggy bear. I wouldn’t trade what Dixon is doing for anything else in college basketball. When he finally does get to the promised land running a clean program it is going to be an excellent feeling. I, for one, can wait for it to happen.
I am very happy and proud of the teams that coach Dixon has put on the court since he took over.
I dream about our football team having the same kind of winning percentage.
Blair, Brown, and Wanamaker are solid talents. Blair is the only one who really has a shot at being an All American at any point. But all three of those players have legit talent to be All Big East. McGhee will likely always just be a role player. But if he is playing next to Blair, then all that is needed out of him is rebounding and defense. He never needs to average 10+ points in a season to be a solid contributor.
As for Thuggins, he may make the Hoopies a higher ranked team in the short term than Pitt. But remember that he had top ranked teams at Cincinnati for years and they couldn’t wait to fire him. The only problem is that WVU doesn’t actually care if you are a dirtbag. But sooner or later he will slip up and be gone. I don’t see him being the coach there for the long term.
maybe he is the missing link to postseason play. i would rather got an onterrio lett or someone big,mobile w/ hands to help blair. or dj kennedy, a guy who can attack the rim and is 6’4 with 4 years of elgibility.
# 9 Georgetown
#14 Marquette
#15 Louisville
#16 Connecticut
#18 Notre Dame
#20 Pittsburgh
#24 West Virginia
The Big East is, by far, the deepest conference in the country. It has a team, Pitt, that beat the conference leader in the ACC on a neutral court. It has a team, Pitt, that ended the non-conference home win streak of a team (Washington) that beat its conference leader (UCLA) at home recently. It has a team, Louisville, that dominated a top-5 SEC team (Kentucky). UCONN just whipped Indiana at home a few weeks ago. Shall I go on. Don’t believe the hype. UCONN, Louisville, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Marquette and even lowly Pitt have a chance to advance deep into March depending on the bracket and match-ups. We have just as many contenders as the SEC, ACC, Big 12 or Big 10.
And the argument that the Big East isn’t as good now as it was in the 80s and 90s is ludicrous. Since 1999 the Big East has won the national championship 3 times. Two for UConn and 1 for Syracuse. Both Syracuse and UConn have produced elite NBA talents, which are why they have had some down time, because their talent has left early for the NBA. The BE has put marquee talent in the NBA the last several years, and will continue to do so. Have you ever heard of a guy named Carmelo Anthony?
And D-Wade wasn’t an elite talent until he got to Miami. He was solid at Marquette, but he wasn’t highly recruited, and exceeded all expectations on him.
#5 SF 5*
#12 PF 4*
#18 PF 4*
#25 PG 3*
#35 SG 3*
#4 C 5*
#13 PG 4*
#14 SF 4*
#22 SG 4*
#25 PF 4*
The top one is a two time national champion, the bottom one is our team next year. We get the talent other teams get. Its just a matter of time before it all works out in our favor.
And the year before they won the first NC they lost to a 16-11 (7-9) Miami team at home. And they lost by 13+ twice.
Fields recovery will determine how far we go this year. We’ll be fine for next year. Now we get an upperclass 2 guard to fill in for ours that is leaving, and rounds out the rotation. I don’t see the big deal here.
And people need to stop baggin on Diggs, the kid got injured early. He’d be getting all of McGhees minutes if not for that. Way to toss an injured kid under the bus. This is like saying Mike Cook didn’t work out cause he got injured. Enough already.
Kurt you are the definition of a hater. Why root for Pitt if you are going to be negative about everything the program has accomplished? Negativity isn’t fun for you or for the rest of the fans. There are jerks like you who sit in my section. It takes every ounce of my being to not tell them to “shut the eff up” everytime they yell at a player or at Dixon. I don’t because they pay and have the right to do as they please, but I don’t understand why they even continue to attend the games. They don’t get excited when the team does something great or beats down an opponent. They’ll say something like, “…wait till Louisville or Georgetown.” It’s the same old crap with most Pitt fans and it is irritating as hell.
