Apparently on the Big East Coaches teleconference, much of the talk was about Pitt.
“The DNA in that program is, “We do whatever it takes to win.’ The kids that sign on there sign on for that,” Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. “When Jamie gets in their face in practice and says, “We don’t turn the ball over, we defend people, that’s our formula for success,’ that’s not questioned. The names change, but the winning doesn’t because they have that formula.”
Part of the formula is role players taking the next step. Playing time is earned over time there, perhaps more than at any other place in the league. Scotch Plains native Ashton Gibbs is this year’s posted boy.
The sophomore guard, who averaged 4.3 points in spot duty last winter, is averaging 17.6 points and 2.5 assists while connecting on 41.9 percent of his 3-point attempts.
“People didn’t know how good Gibbs was. Gibbs is as good as any player in the league in the backcourt,” Boeheim said. “I liked (Levance) Fields. I thought Fields was a really good player, but I’d rather play against him than Gibbs because Gibbs can make six 3s against you.”
Since Coach Dixon has very publicly said that expectations remained high, naturally he did not bite on whether he was surprised. Instead it was about watching the team improve.
Dixon said yesterday he is not surprised by his team’s fast start in conference play, but he said he was pleased at how the Panthers have shown steady improvement.
“I get satisfaction out of coaching any team,” Dixon said. “This team has been interesting in that it has improved so much from the start of the year. Some guys have gotten better. Others are getting healthy. As any coach, you want to see your team improve. Anyone who saw us at the start of the year and now can speak to our constant improvement throughout. That has been gratifying. But we didn’t lower our expectations so I’m not surprised. Our demands were the same. Our players and staff understood that. We made that very clear from the beginning.”
Part of the new-found respect for Pitt and especially Coach Dixon comes from looking over the past decade and realized how well the team has continually adjusted.
We all know how this team looks different from last year’s team. Sam Young, DeJuan Blair, Levance Fields and Tyrell Biggs have all departed and with them the core of last season’s Elite Eight and No. 1-seeded team.
The one thing Jamie Dixon’s teams have always done is adjust to personnel losses. Chevron Troutman, Chris Taft, Carl Krauser, Aaron Gray, Levon Kendall, Ron Ramon, Antonio Graves and Mike Cook come and go, and Pitt continues to win. But with the early-season poor performances in wins against Wofford and Duquesne and losses to Texas and Indiana, it looked like this would be the year when the Panthers would finally fall to the Big East’s second division. Pittsburgh wasn’t shooting well, was turning the ball over and lacked the dominance on the offensive glass, something one might expect from a team that had suffered such heavy losses.
To be fair, the team that lost to Indiana wasn’t the team that defeated Syracuse on Jan. 2 and Connecticut Wednesday night. That was Jermaine Dixon’s first game back from a foot injury. Moreover, Gilbert Brown was still not academically eligible. On Wednesday, Dixon and Brown played 63 minutes, and while the numbers won’t jump out at you — 17 points on 7-of-21 shooting — the two veterans are soaking up minutes that had went to more inexperienced players, who were more likely to fumble away their opportunities than to make a productive play.
Or maybe the surprise comes from the fact that this is the first time Pitt has replaced talent that was not underrated.
The only reason people are more amazed at Pitt’s unbeaten start in Big East play than in previous seasons since the Panthers began their reign as a conference power is they finally had some elite talent to replace.
There is nothing else different. Whether the program is replacing future NBAers DeJuan Blair and Sam Young or Jaron Brown and Julius Page, though, it still has to have capable players willing to execute what coach Jamie Dixon designs.
The development of C Gary McGhee from practice body to integral starter is the same course followed previously by Tyrell Biggs and Keith Benjamin, among others. In other programs, such players generally transfer out if they haven’t made an impact as freshmen or sophomores. At Pitt, they wait their turn.
Not much of a chance to bask in the win over UConn. Tomorrow is a nooner with Louisville. Even if it is finally back at the Pete, Louisville is a terrifying game. As well as Pitt has been playing. As fantastic as these road wins have been. As sluggish as Louisville has played most of the season.
This game has me worried. Louisville presses all the time. They have length all over the court and quickness. They have depth. They are the kind of team that could absolutely disrupt Pitt.
On Saturday, they’ll face a Louisville team (12-5, 3-1) that is 2-0 at the Petersen Event Center, where the Panthers have won 30 straight since the Cardinals dealt them a 75-73 defeat on Feb. 24, 2008.
“They (Cardinals) have had our number because they do a good job of pressuring us, which makes it difficult to get into our offense,” said center Gary McGhee, who in 28 minutes tallied eight points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots against Connecticut. “We pride ourselves on protecting the home court, so this is a very big game for us.”
Part of the reason — at least according to Cards Coach Pitino — for the team struggling is that the team is not sharing which is leading to bad shots.
The Cards face the Big East’s top scoring defense on the heels of their worst shooting performance of the season. UofL, which has eclipsed 40 percent shooting just once in its past four games, shot 31.7 percent and squandered a 17-point lead in a loss to Villanova.
Against Kentucky, 5-of-29 shooting in the first half dragged their field-goal percentage down to 32.2 percent. But against Villanova they stayed around the same mark the entire game.
Pitino said he has pointed out during tape sessions and at practices where the Cards could have made extra passes to get better shots.
“We were an average-to-good passing team (two years ago); we became a great passing team last year,” he said. “I think young teams need to keep working on it and develop that mentality.”
Louisville has averaged under 12 assists/game over the past 5. Down from around 16. Of course, when a team is shooting around 32%, the assists are going to be lower because the team simply isn’t making a lot of shots. It is a bit of a chicken-egg thing.
