The Tom Herrion media appreciation continues. Jeff Goodman at Fox Sports lists his top-20 assistants at “high-major” programs. Herrion comes in at #11.
Herrion jumped on Jamie Dixon’s staff prior to last season and was recently promoted to associate head coach. He was previously the head coach at the College of Charleston for four years and averaged 20 wins per season in his tenure. The 40-year-old also worked for Pete Gillen for eight years at Virginia and Providence.
Goodman moved Pitt to #11 in his updated early pre-season top-25 after the declarations of early entry.
The Panthers lose senior guards Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin. While both are replaceable, Jamie Dixon will need to find someone who can shoot the ball from the perimeter. Pittsburgh has point guard Levance Fields back and healthy and Sam Young and DeJuan Blair are a force up front, while guys like Gilbert Brown and Tyrell Biggs showed flashes.
From the Big East, UConn #3, Louisville #5, ND #7, G-town #13, ‘Nova #17, Marquette #18, WVU #21.
The meme that — the Big East is a loaded beast of a conference this year — has already started will only get stronger after the summer and the draft returnees. That of course will create the backlash and contrarian arguments for the ACC or Pac-10.
Rivals.com, has Pitt way up in their really early poll (#2). One of their writers has Pitt as his #1 pre-season team.
Here is what Pittsburgh has returning: one of the nation’s best point guards, one of the nation’s best forwards and one of the nation’s best centers, not to mention one of the nation’s best coaches. And that’s just for starters. The Panthers also hope to have back a fourth starter, swingman Mike Cook, who suffered a torn ACL in the 11th game last season. Cook was a senior, but he has applied for a medical redshirt.
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When Connecticut beat Pittsburgh 60-53 last season in the teams’ only meeting, in Hartford mind you, neither Fields, who was out with a broken foot, nor Cook was available. When Fields returned after a 12-game absence and regained his stamina, the Panthers ripped through the Big East tournament to claim the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. They beat Louisville, Marquette and Georgetown on consecutive days.
That’s the Pitt team I expect to see this season. From November into April.
Here’s hoping the players don’t start buying into the hype and their own press-clippings.
#@!*er.
Matchups for the Coaches vs. Cancer and CBE tournaments will be determined soon. But one juicy rematch could occur in Madison Square Garden next November.
If the four hosts advance to New York for the CVC, the likely semifinals could be Duke vs. Pitt and UCLA vs. Michigan. Duke is scheduled to play Michigan a week later, so that would detract from a Duke-Michigan semifinal and set up a likely Duke-Pitt rematch of a dandy game last December at MSG. Assuming UCLA wins, then you’d either have a classic UCLA-Duke final of the event with two of the best name programs in the game, or a UCLA-Pitt game, which pits two top 10 teams and two best friends in Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon of UCLA and Pitt, respectively.
The CBE four hosts that are due to arrive in Kansas City the week of Thanksgiving could also be set up for a potential bracket of Syracuse vs. Florida and Kansas vs. Washington. The organizer of both events is still working on the final details, but the brackets should be known soon.