In football, no question. But in basketball, I’m not so sure.
There’s a growing concern that Pitt is going to lack a center after Gary McGhee is done. (Yes, even after last year it is still mildly strange to type that.)
After all, the present roster has no true center. Dante Taylor wants to play and his future is at the 4. Plus, at 6-8 to 6-9, there is concern about whether he is big enough (or perhaps, better phrased as whether he plays big enough). J.J. Richardson is definitely undersized to play the spot at 6-7, but did show energy and enthusiasm. Talib Zanna at 6-9, will be a redshirt freshman and is certainly a candidate to play the spot more — especially if he has bulked up a bit. But no one seems enthused by that idea.
Now, I imagine most want the center to be someone who is 6-10 or bigger. A guy in the tradition of Aaron Gray, Toree Morris or McGhee. A big guy inside to defend the paint, get rebounds and some easy putbacks. The fact is, finding a true big man is not easy.
There’s a reason why Pitt stuck it out with Gary McGhee and he actually had some decent offers despite how raw he was. There was a reason Pitt tried for quite a while to figure a way to make it happen with Maurice Walker despite the lack of scholarship — and other teams came so hard for him late — even though, everyone acknowledges he is a project.
There’s a reason the top two or three center prospects are one-and-dones almost without fail.
There aren’t that many truly big men, and more often than not, it takes a couple of years to find out if you have a good one.
According to Scout.com, these are the Center prospects Pitt is looking at for the 2011 class: Mikael Hopkins, Desmond Hubert, and Joey De La Rosa.
Want to know what jumps out at me about them?
It isn’t that Hopkins is the highest ranked prospect of them, a consensus 4-star listed as center or power forward (Insider subs.). Or that Hubert is another consensus 4-star center with lots of promise (Insider subs.). Nor is it that De La Rosa is a very raw 2-star to unranked at this time, but againwith lots of potential (Insider subs).
No, what stands out to me is that Hopkins and Hubert are both listed at 6-8 on all recruiting sites. De La Rosa is listed at 6-8 on ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc., while Rivals.com says 6-11 and Scout.com says 6-10.
In other words, the two best center prospects (and perhaps three) Pitt may be pursuing are similar in size to Zanna and Taylor. The (presumably) tallest prospect they are pursuing will be a project.
DeJuan Blair thrived at the 5 spot despite being 6-6 to 6-7 because of a freakish wingspan and a body that could bang inside, but just as importantly: desire. He outworked and outplayed bigger men. He thrived on the contact and beating them.
I’m not hung up on where the player Pitt gets with the 3d scholarship plays. There’s a pretty good balance between frontcourt and backcourt players right now.
I think Pitt and Coach Dixon will stick with getting the best player they can. Whether it is an undersized center, another wing guard or perhaps even a shooting guard that is deadly from the perimeter.
In a few years we’ll have Moore, Bond, Zanna, Taylor and Richardson on the team and at least two or three of them on the court at the same time. If that group crashes the boards and learns the art of interior passing then we’ll be + in the paint every night without a space eater.
They may very well need more inside muscle and desire to play “Pitt basketball”….. they certainly need more rebounding, but to go where they want to go, the final four, they need NBA talent. I am not sure they have any of that in the pipeline at this point.
Have to agree with Boubacar AW on the 2011 class so far. Bond may grade out as a 4-star by the time he finishes, but I’m still wondering about Johnson. Why did Pitt need yet another PG with both Woodall and Epps already in place? Maybe Jamie has a different plan for one of the three. Only time will tell.
Anyway, I believe Coach Dixon is very concerned about having a physical center who can keep a low post player away from the hoop. On the other hand, I thought the lack of an inside scoring threat this year had a big adverse effect on perimeter players like Gibbs since there was little need for the opponenents to double-down.
Pitt’s defense may be its bread and butter but I thought the lack of a Blair or Gray had a negative impact on its inside-out offense.
I think this year’s tournament proved that maybe the gap between the #1 and #100 coming out of high school is razor thin and the whole “you need elite NBA talent to make a deep run” addage is overated.
Brown, Taylor, Patterson, Epps, Moore, and possibly Bond and Johnson are pretty good quality bb players.
Thanks for the info.
Even though the Green Tree games are free, here’s some stuff I’d pay to see:
1) Woodall v. Epps – A starting spot is up for grabs, who will be the guy to go get it? Woodall looked bigger, tougher in Green Tree than he had the previous season. Can he step it up some more? Can he hold off Epps?
2) Small forward battles – which one of the young guys, if any, will be able to take it to Brad and Nas? They were the two best players in Green Tree last summer. They played HARD.
3) Development of the big guys – Last year JJ Richardson out worked Dante, Talib and Dwight. Have any of those guys added anything significant to their games?
It was clear after seeing Taylor last summer that he wasn’t going to have a big impact last year, same with Miller. Hopefully we’ll leave Green Tree saying the opposite about Epps, Moore and Wright.
Eric: Thanks for confirming Hopkins as a true 5. Again, I think Pitt needs athletic guys at that spot – not “A Grays” (sorry, wbb) – based on the offense and defense they’ve been running, so he fits perfectly. The fact that he plays a post up style still allows for an inside-outside game without clogging things up for the wings, because he’s athletic enough to get out of the way when necessary. Sorry to hear you think we’re out of the mix for him though.
