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January 4, 2010

Oh, good. Snow in the Cleveland area. The kid has an extra day of vacation and I get little productivity and extra shoveling. Yay?

Pitt-Cinci stuff later. Safe to say, though, that if the Bearcats even considered looking past Pitt (which I really, really doubt) they are not after Saturday.

Pitt upsetting Syracuse was probably bigger for Pitt than devastating for Syracuse. It was a much-needed confidence win and drove home to the players how important the defense has to be.

“We’ve been improving,” said coach Jamie Dixon, who improved to 8-2 against teams ranked in the top five of The Associated Press poll. “We’re not the team we were early in the year. We’re a different team. We’ve improved every game out. We had a lot of great performances, but I really loved how hard we played. I can’t say enough about our effort. We have to continue to do that every single game.”

“We’re a team that has gotten much better as the year has gone on defensively,” Jamie Dixon said. “You can’t give them transition baskets. We didn’t do that, especially in the second half. We guarded on the perimeter well. We didn’t want to give them opens 3s. And maybe we just caught them on the right day. Maybe it was just our day.”

Coach Dixon has been on the team about the defense, and this game really saw it come together.

Brad Wanamaker attributes his team’s tenacity to its head coach. Or more precisely, Wanamaker believes Pittsburgh plays with such heart and such determination because Jamie Dixon refuses to accept anything else.

“He’s constantly on us. He’s in our ear all the time – how we’re not working hard enough and things like that,” Wanamaker said. “After awhile you get tired of hearing that, so we go out there and do that.”

“That” is what unhinged Syracuse Saturday afternoon in the Carrier Dome. “That” is what disrupted the Orange men’s perfect string of games.

That game was also where Pitt finally showed they could handle the 2-3 zone. Against the team that probably does it more and better than any other team.

That’s the best anyone has shot the ball against the Orange this season and the most points any team has put up against SU in one half.

“You know, we practice it and work on it every day against the 2-3,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said, “but you still didn’t simulate it because of their size. I think our attack wasn’t as good early on, but as we got going, we got better as the game went on, which is what you want. We got better penetration, we got better shots. We got some drives, we got some kick-outs. And we passed the ball better.”

“We just got more comfortable,” said Pitt forward Brad Wanamaker. “Early on, we were out there getting a feel for how they were playing their zone. Second half, we knew what was going on. We knew the open spots and we got there and finished and made plays.”

Sometimes it is weird how things can work out. Davidson’s Bob McKillop pulls out from coaching the U-19 kids. Coach Dixon gets elevated from assistant on the squad to the top spot. There are a slew of top college kids who do not even accept offers to play on the squad. That leads to Ashton Gibbs getting a tryout mainly because, he was the coach’s player and knew the system.

“He became the point guard because we had so many people pull out,” Dixon said. “He became a leader on that team because obviously he knew our system better than the other guys and he knew what I was looking for.”

The unexpected summer experience prepared Gibbs for the bigger role that awaited him this season at Pittsburgh.

“Last summer really helped boost my confidence coming into this season,” Gibbs said Wednesday. “I knew if I could play with best payers in the world, I could play with the best players in the Big East.”

And…

“I think we got closer,” Gibbs said of playing for Dixon last summer. “It just helped me understand his system even better. I knew what he wanted out of players even more because I got to see it as someone who had played for him. He’s a great coach.”

Now, imagine if Gibbs didn’t get that time and experience. He wouldn’t have learned as much and spent any time with Coach Dixon. Yes, he would have spent more time with his Pitt teammates but that would not have prepared him for the role as a team leader that he had to assume. Gibbs found out he could be more than a cog or a role player on a team.  That confidence has continued all over his game and practice including at the free throw line where he continues to hit his free throws and get his name in the Pitt record books with 37 straight made free throws and counting.

Gibbs had no choice but to assume more of a leadership role with Jermaine Dixon out for most of the non-con. Now that Dixon is back, his defense has been intense as Syracuse — and specifically Wesley Johnson —  found out.

“I tried to stay in front of him,” Dixon said. “He’s the best player I’ve played against in my two years here. He goes to the offensive rebound hard. I gave up a few inches. He could shoot over the top of me. I tried to play him as tough as I could.”

Johnson tried to take Dixon down low, a move that resulted in some success. But Dixon never stopped pushing, holding and harassing Johnson.

“He wouldn’t let me breathe at all today,” Johnson said. “He was right in my jersey. He played tough defense today.”

Johnson still scored 19 points, but they were not easy baskets and his teammates struggled to find him in the game. Yeah, I remember when Johnson transferred from Iowa State. Pitt was on his list, but he never got past Syracuse. Damn shame.

But having Dixon lead on defense has been big. And along with Gilbert Brown back, allows Coach Dixon to drive home the point that defense first gets playing time.

“He (Dixon) emphasizes it each and every day in practice,” said Gibbs, a sophomore from Scotch Plains, N.J. “Defense and rebounding and not backing down from anyone.”

And the players take it to heart.

“You’ve got to buy into it if you want to play,” Gibbs said. “If you don’t rebound and play defense, he’s going to say something, and it’s not going to be good.”

You have to imagine that Pitt is somewhat in the heads of Syracuse players. They had the big edge on experience, but it has been uniformly bad. No player on the ‘Cuse roster had beaten Pitt in the Carrier Dome. Pitt is on a 12-3 run against the Orange dating back to the Big East Tournament in 2001 — though to keep things in a larger perspective Pitt is still only 37-61 all-time vs. Syracuse.

The Syracuse perspective/spin is that this was the “wake-up call” or simply, it’s the Big East, baby.

“We’re going to see a lot more of these teams,” said coach Jim Boeheim, whose team will try to rebound at home Wednesday in a non-league matchup with Memphis (9-3). “We’re going to have to get tougher and more physical if we’re going to be successful.”

Learning experience” seems to be the theme that Syracuse went with.

As for Pitt and Coach Dixon, he is now second on the all-time coaching wins list at Pitt in just 6 1/2 years. Nothing would be better than to have him move to #1 sometime in year 13+.





if pitt beats cincy tonight, jamie will really have earned it. getting the boys ready to play tonight is exceedingly difficult. all the excuses for a bad performance(understandably) are lined up:

* coming off a big emotional upset win on the road
* only 2 days to prepare
* road game
* sense of complacency after beating cuse
* everyone is telling them how great they are

win or lose, if pitt gives another great effort, that would be a terrific sign that these guys ‘get it’ and would should be just fine this year in the BE.

Comment by wilk 01.04.10 @ 10:56 am

1) there is no question that Gibbs is much better and complete player than a year ago, and that his experience last summer was very worthwhile

2) I saw both Boeheim and a couple SU players stating that Pitt’s defense was the deciding factor, and they hadn’t played a team which put so much focus in that area

3) no matter who starts, I think that from now on you will see both Robinson and McGhee both relegated to a back-up role in PT. While both Brown and Taylor may be out of position, they will be getting more minutes (and getting better) as the season goes on

Comment by wbb 01.04.10 @ 12:01 pm

Nice pub from Andy Katz and POW honors for Ashton..

link to espn.go.com

Comment by Pauly P 01.04.10 @ 12:36 pm

Pitt makes its first appearance in the rankings, coming in at #23 in the AP, and just outside the top 25 for the coaches poll (#26). Amazingly, Cincy is not ranked in either poll, despite knocking off UConn last week.

This is another tough matchup for Pitt, as Cincy is a very talented team. Again, what I am most interested in seeing is whether Pitt can maintain their effort and focus, and control the tempo. If they can accomplish that, it will bode well for the remainder of the season (even if they fall short in this game).

Comment by Pantherman13 01.04.10 @ 12:48 pm

Rankings covered, PITT a 7 seed, but was a 6 seed when he originally did it but bumped them to a 7 seed because of procedure.

Comment by Luke 01.04.10 @ 2:06 pm

Pitt +4.5 tonight. It will be interesting to see how Pitt comes out tonight. Cincinnati always plays Pitt tough, and I don’t think either team has a decided edge talent wise. Both teams play a few experienced players (Vaughn and Gates; Dixon and Wannamaker) and have highly ranked freshman (Taylor and Stephenson). Should be a competitive game decided late. Wouldn’t be surprised if Pitt lost a close game or won a close game. It would be a surprise if either team got blown out.

Comment by Omar 01.04.10 @ 2:23 pm

Luke – I assume you are referring to Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology: link to sports.espn.go.com

Lunardi always seems to like Pitt a little more than the committee, but right now, Pitt’s RPI numbers actually have them at the level of a 5 seed (RPI of 17). Obviously, RPI is not the only thing that matters (but it does seem to be more important than the committee ever wants to admit), and does not mean a whole lot early in the year, but it does give us fans a chance to have more fun with numbers.

It will be interesting to see how Pitt matches up with Cincy on defense. I would guess that Dixon would guard Vaughn, but Stephenson can be a very dangerous offensive player, so they might want to move Dixon over to him at times. On the other hand, maybe they just assign Wannamaker to Stephenson and see how the freshman reacts to getting beat up a bit.

I agree with Omar that the matchup does not clearly favor either team. Still, I think most people underestimate Cincinnati’s talent, and Pitt will have to maintain a superior defensive effort and focus to win.

DVR is set, but hopefully I’m home in time for tipoff…

Comment by Pantherman13 01.04.10 @ 2:41 pm

interesting comment from a cuse fan.. but I agree with it…

This is the least physical Pitt team in several years. They are not near as big or strong as in past years. They won by showing uncharacteristic offensive efficiency with 19 assists for 23 baskets, really attacked the zone in the second half, and shot 43% from behind the arc, while holding a very good SU team to 1 for 11 behind the arc. I heard the SU post game show–announcer he said the view he kept seeing was Su players bending at the waist to get a loose ball, with all of the Pitt kids diving on the floor. Pitt just wanted this game more, and SU hates games where they have to grind it out. I think that when Pitt plays, the review is written before tipoff–tough, Physical, Pitt outmuscles (add name here)_–lwithout paying respect to the fact that Ashton Gibbs can flat out shoot the rock, and this was a great effort by a seriously undermanned Pitt team.
S

Comment by Snala the Panther 01.04.10 @ 2:51 pm

i just don’t think pitt is “seriously” undermanned. that was the case before we had all of our players. however, with dixon and brown i just don’t see a team that is “seriously” lacking talent. there might be a few spots where you want more (the 4), but other than that i think pitt has big east level talent. gibbs would play on any team (he is averaging 17 a game), dixon is a stud on defense, wanny might not be as important as he is to our team but he would play big minutes on any team in the conference, and mcgee/taylor is an above average pair at center. then you have robinson, woodall, and brown who all bring something to the table. that isn’t “seriously” lacking talent. it just isn’t as good as last year’s talent. blair and brown were wooden all-americans. none of the guys on this team are that good, but not too many players in the whole country are that good.

Comment by Omar 01.04.10 @ 4:58 pm

blair and young i meant to say.

Comment by Omar 01.04.10 @ 5:01 pm

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