An extended lay-off after Pitt starts the conference play 3-0. Naturally, the players really don’t mind.
“The consistent practice time we put in, getting up and down the court, scrimmaging each other, just getting to know each other more than we did was important,” said Brown, who scored a career-high 17 points against Cincinnati. “I only played four games and Jermaine seven, so it’s really helped us get together as a team.”
Brown and Dixon have changed the team dramatically. In the four games Brown and Dixon have played together, Pitt is averaging 73.8 points per game, shooting 48.8 percent from the field and 47.1 percent from 3-point range. In the 11 games when they were not in the lineup together, Pitt only averaged 65.6 points, shot 43.9 percent from the field and 33 percent from 3-point range.
Brown and Dixon are two of the better defenders on the team, and there has been a noticeable difference at the defensive end as well. Teams are shooting a lower percentage from the field. And although teams are scoring more, the caliber of competition is much different from what the Panthers faced earlier in the season.
Those statistics figure to improve as they get used to playing together more.
“You can say [the break in the schedule] came at a good time,” junior guard Brad Wanamaker said. “[Brown and Dixon] have been looking good the last couple of games. It gave us more time to get better as a team, getting more comfortable playing with those two guys.”
Not to mention allowing Coach Dixon time to work on the rotation. Figure out playing time and starters. The speculation remains that Gary McGhee and maybe Nasir Robinson’s days as starters are numbered. Of course, that speculation has been there since mid-December.
To say nothing of working on the occasional zone defense to throw teams off and protect the frontcourt.
One of the solid things about having continuity with coaches, not just having the same coach here for 7 years but it being the continuation from an assistant to the head coach, is that the past players really feel the connection to the program and to the present players. At the beginning of the season, the players talked of how the past players emphasized to them how they needed to keep things going at Pitt. One of those things to keep going — defense.
“Jaron told me, ‘You have to be able to stop the other teams from scoring and be tougher than your opponents in order to win in the Big East,’ ” Dixon said. “That’s the same thing Levance Fields talked to me about when I was a freshman, and Carl Krauser was at the game the other day, and even he was talking about taking pride in playing defense and always being tougher than your opponents.
“That’s just who we are at Pitt.”
…
“When you come in as a young guy, you have to learn that everybody here takes pride in being able to defend and nobody is going to take it easy,” Jermaine Dixon said. “This is a physical conference and you must be mentally tough enough to survive in it. But the way we look at it, that starts every day at practice.”
Finally, Chris Dokish takes a look at the possible rotations for the next couple years based on recruiting and development.
Woodall has elite speed and has had some nice moments, but some nice moments is not enough in the Big East. He will have to make major improvement if he wants to continue to see the floor because Epps is a talented player who the staff expects will be at least a solid contributor as a freshman.
At the other guard spot, if Gibbs is not playing the point, he will obviously be positioned here. The fact that he has made such huge strides so quickly is a huge event for the program. Don’t forget that he was almost an afterthought as a recruit, and the staff actually had to get Woodall’s blessing to bring Gibbs in. It was Woodall who they thought was going to be making a major contribution by this point. To Gibbs’ credit he has turned himself into a legitimate all-conference player in just his second season. To say he is a pleasant surprise is an understatement, especially since he has proven that he is more than just a standstill shooter.
I recall last year, the issue with Gibbs to many was his shooting technique. He was effective, but they were not the pretty looking shots expected from a perimeter shooter. More like line-drives that just seemed to find the bottom of the basket. Certainly not the aesthetically pleasing look of Ronald Ramon’s 3s.
I hesitate to make this comparison, because it is not fair to Gibbs, but his development does strike me a bit like Brandin Knight’s. Not particularly heavily recruited from New Jersey, from basketball families, and each with a brother that was/is more highly regarded. Both, though, seem to have that spark to make themselves better players. To minimize their weaknesses and a drive to improve.
Thomas is a consensus Top-20 recruit, a likely 2006 McDonald’s All-American. He’s a 6-foot-8 forward with athletic ability and range, and if he chooses Rutgers, he’d be the program’s best in-state recruit since Roy Hinson in 1980.
Most important, Thomas wouldn’t be coming to Rutgers by himself.
If Thomas chooses Rutgers, New Jersey recruitniks say four of the state’s top available prospects could follow: senior point guard Eugene Harvey, junior wing Corey Stokes, sophomore center Samardo Samuels and sophomore guard Ashton Gibbs. All but Harvey are potential McDonald’s All-Americans, and Thomas has played with all four of them — Harvey, Stokes and Samuels this season at St. Benedict’s, and Gibbs two years ago at Scotch Plains High.
Of course, the problem was he didn’t seem to make much progress after that junior year. Making him a 3-star player, with interest but not a lot of offers.
He was ranked #145 by Rivals.com.
I simply recall some of the complaints/criticisms about his shot — beyond the aesthetics — was that shooting flatter put a shorter guard like Gibbs more at risk to have the shot blocked by a defender coming out on him. Can you speak to the risk of that? I would hazard a guess that a flatter shot, though, could be released quicker as you don’t have to put as much energy behind the shot to get it high and long.
there is still some arc obviously. Easier to keep the elbow in (see Levance Fields and Ronald Ramon, who also drifted to his left on most shots). Most shooters drift and we teach jump shooting “in a phone booth”..straight up so to speak. A flatish arc and shot helps that tremendously.
On another note and a late breaking story…with USC hiring Kiffin …how much do we appreciate Wanny now. A stand up Pitt guy who would never ever think of a move like a mercenary Kiffin.
Really disgusting. Tennessee got exactly what they paid for!
There is an outside chance that Pitt may profit from Carroll’s departure from USC. Butler native Bryce Schwab a JuCO 4-star OT, had committed to USC and now looking elsewhere … and Pitt is on his list (with Oklahoma, Washington & Arizona.) It may well be that he stays at USC with Kiffin’s hiring but who knows?
We can dream a little, and can you imagine an OL with Pinkston, Nix, Jacobsen and Schwab? It should be a great help to either takes over at QB with Hyno blocking for Lewis and Graham. Probably the odds are thin here about Schwab but we’ll see.
Ashton Gibbs was 1st Team All-State according to Zagsblog, and Travon was 2nd Team.
In the AP poll, Ashton was 2nd team All-State and Travon was 3rd team.
They were both rated the same on Rivals, but Asthon had better offers.
So I don’t understand all this about Travon being a bigger recruit than Ashton.
Anyone who follows high school recruiting knows that they are often major discrepancies among the major services … this is pretty common. Last I looked, Pitt’s prized FB recruit, TJ Clemmings, was considered 6th best DL by one service and 5-star, yet ESPNU had him at 59th best DL and 3-star .. although this may have been updated after his senior year.
We have seen 3 coaches fired recently who has rubbed their ADs the wrong way, all 3 whom have recently been given long term agreements with large raises. The 1st guy, Mangino, is being cited for some actions tha reportedly began 5 years ago … but now that he lost his last 6 games, it seems to give the AD, who didn’t hire him, enough leverage to fire him ‘with cause.’ Leach and Leavitt have also been mavericks at programs but were renewed at programs where they have been for ten years plus. On the other hand, RichRod by talking to Bama gets a handsome raise from his alma mater, and a year later bolts the program and then burnis brdiges like someone that I have never, ever seen.
It works both ways … and it is always ugly.
On another issue, here is the latest about Pitt FB from Zeise’s blog – very interesting stuff including Kolby Gray moving to S link to community.post-gazette.com
