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November 14, 2008

Jerry Carino sums up my feelings.

It hurts to say this, especially as a certified hoop-head, but college basketball season starts to early. For decades the schedule tipped off Dec. 1, after college football’s regular season. Then it was Thanksgiving week for special tournaments, like the Preseason NIT and the Great Alaska Shootout. Now, for the last couple of years, it’s been mid-November. Does any major sport start its season with so little fanfare? You can’t put the genie back in the bottle, but hopefully it won’t spill over into October.

It really seems that starting the season this week is incredibly stupid. It’s hard enough for college basketball to get any attention at the start of the season with the sheer volume of meaningless games, the NFL, NBA and NHL seasons underway. But to start now, as college football has all the college fans attention in most places? It makes it near impossible to be promoted.

ESPN is the 800-pound gorilla in this, but it has college football games right now that still get far better ratings — even a MAC battle. So any college basketball game gets relegated to ESPN-U and mostly ignored on SportsCenter. I can’t blame them for it.

On the one positive, by getting a slew of warm-up/patsy games that no one really cares about cleared now, by the time the beginning of December rolls around some actual good games are available and can be promoted when there’s an opening.

Still, the haphazard way the season is launched really prevents a lot of initial excitement over the season.

This week is also the early signing period that concludes on November 19. While not announced by the school yet, Chris Dokish says all four of the verbals to Pitt have signed and it’s just a matter of finishing the paperwork.

Dante Taylor, 6’9″ forward from National Christian Academy in Fort Washington, MD, 6’4 wing Lamar Patterson of St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, NJ, 6’7″ forward J.J. Richardson of Hightower HS in Missouri City, TX, and 6’9″ Talib Zanna of Bishop McNamara HS in Forestville, MD have all signed their National Letter of Intent, but only Richardson also has the required signature of his parents. The other three prospects will become official tomorrow when their parents sign the document.

What stands out is that none of these players are actually from the NY/NJ area. Patterson is from Central PA and is attending St. Benedict’s for this season — after he had already verballed to Pitt. Pitt has built on its success and continued to expand its recruiting region.

Mike DeCourcy has some lists as this weeks action starts the season. There’s certain team categories. Pitt didn’t rank at the top in offense or defense, but he does like this about Pitt.

Best chemistry

1. Pitt. No program does a better job of keeping agendas out of the locker room.

Which plays right into the Tyrell Biggs puff piece as the senior gets ready to start the season as a starter.

The unselfish, do-it-all reserve power forward is assuming a bigger piece of the action for his senior season at nationally ranked Pitt.

“I feel like my role is the same,” Biggs said, “it’s just a lot more time on the floor.”

Biggs will join small forward Sam Young and center DeJuan Blair in what is considered one of the top five frontcourts in the nation by multiple preseason publications.

For at least the first few games, there is no reason not to start Biggs. As the article notes, it would continue the trend of a somewhat maligned reserve player (Keith Benjamin and Antonio Graves) stepping up in his senior year to be a reliable and occasional sparkplug player.

The primary senior in the frontcourt — Sam Young — had the first of what will hopefully many puff pieces for this season.

He also made DeCourcy’s list of top small forwards.

A half-century has passed since Pitt produced a consensus first-team All-America selection: guard Don Hennon, who averaged 26 points a game. Panthers basketball hasn’t been empty since. There’ve been some exceptional players — Billy Knight, Charles Smith, Brandin Knight among them — and, lately, some extraordinary teams that were based more on mutual commitment than individual skill.

What if the Panthers have both this season? What if they’ve got the best small forward in the country and still the same devotion to team play?

This could become the year the Sweet 16 is not a destination, but a checkpoint.

1. Sam Young, Pitt. It’s possible Young is the most underrated player in the country, and it is time for that to change. How much more quietly can a guy average 18.1 points? On a championship team, no less. Young carried the Panthers to the Big East Tournament title with a 20-point average in four victories over four days. This is a slight positional move for Young, from power forward on an undersized team to small forward in a bigger frontcourt. He has built for three years toward this, however. He has grown in his understanding of the game and his confidence level. He shoots well from 3-point range and uses his extraordinary athleticism to finish plays at the rim. It’s time the basketball world remembers his name.

Speaking of optimism, Smizik gives some of his own.

Dixon is proud of what the Pitt program has accomplished the past seven years. He was an assistant for the first two and head coach for the past five. During that span, Pitt has the fourth-best winning percentage in college basketball, behind only Memphis, Kansas and Duke.

Dixon’s winning percentage of .767 is fourth among active coaches. He’s behind Roy Williams, Mark Few and Bo Ryan and ahead of Mike Krzyzewski and Rick Pitino.

But he understands major success in the NCAA tournament, the ultimate test, is missing.

“I don’t feel we’ve accomplished all we can,” he said.

This is the season they can do it.

Injuries, have been a big storyline all preseason. So, the issue is adaptability.

But for the Pitt Panthers, the traditional roles on the team are less clearly defined. Coach Jamie Dixon has compiled a team of players who have the potential to create mismatch problems for opponents because of the variety of positions they can play.

Almost every player on Pitt’s team can handle two positions and a few can manage three. Pitt has had versatile teams under Dixon before, but this team has so much flexibility that it stands apart.

“Now we have guys who can play different positions because of their versatility, their height, their size, things like that,” senior Sam Young said. “Once we are comfortable with each position that we can play we’ll be a much better team than in the past.”

Playing multiple positions has been something Coach Dixon has been working towards since being the head coach. Remember that a couple years prior, Pitt was already trying to get Sam Young at small forward. He’s (hopefully) reached that point now. But, other players are in that spot as well. Blair will play the 4 or the 5. Gilbert Brown can play in the front or backcourt and as a versatile wing player. Just a lot more flexibility.

Of course, talking about players everyone has seen is old hat. The big obsession is with all the freshmen and a JUCO.

“If we do start,” freshman point guard Ashton Gibbs said, “it’s a tremendous honor.”

Gibbs, out of Seton Hall (N.J.) Prep, is listed as the probable starter at point guard, and junior college transfer Jermaine Dixon is the likely shooting guard in a backcourt possibly still without Levance Fields.

“I’m definitely excited,” said Dixon, who played the past two seasons at Tallahassee (Fla.) Junior College. “I’ve been waiting for this my whole career. I’m definitely ready.”

Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said he probably won’t know Fields’ status until Friday’s shootaround. The senior point guard, rehabbing after foot surgery, practiced Tuesday and Wednesday and will sit out today’s workout, as scheduled.

And indeed, Gibbs will get the start tonight.

Finally freshman forward Nasir Robinson gets his first puff piece.

“I watched Pitt games for a long time,” Robinson said. “When they recruited me, I liked the style of play. Coming out of Chester I was used to playing in front of big crowds every night, the competition. I’m used to the atmosphere. The difference is the physical play. There are bigger and better players.”

Dixon is not counting on Robinson to be a major contributor this season because he has a number of veteran forwards on his depth chart, but Robinson will get more of an opportunity in the short-term because Gilbert Brown is out of the lineup for another week with a stress fracture in his left foot.

With seniors Sam Young and Tyrell Biggs holding down the starting small forward and power forward positions, Robinson will be the first forward off the bench in place of Brown when the Panthers play La Roche today in the final exhibition game before Friday’s season opener against Fairleigh Dickinson.

Dixon said he will use Robinson mostly at power forward this season, but he sees him developing into a small forward as his skill level rises.

The game tonight will feature a banner raising of Pitt’s Big East Tournament Championship.

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