Plenty of people e-mailing, tweeting and commenting about Ken Pomeroy deflating some rather lazy analysis from college basketball writers and Pitt’s offense.

Of course, that team was Duke, and we can debate forever whether they were truly the best team in the nation but it’s unreasonable to deny that its offense was one of the most prolific last season.

This season, we appear headed down the same road. To say Pitt’s offense could hinder a tournament run is like saying Kemba Walker’s ability to hit late jump shots will hinder UConn’s chances of success. Sure, eventually Walker will come up empty on a final game-deciding possession, just as someday Pitt’s offense will have a bad game. But that misses the point.

The Panthers’ offense is very similar to Duke’s last season. They make three-point shots, they don’t commit many turnovers, and they get to the free throw line a fair amount. And as the Panthers have done in every season under Jamie Dixon, they also crash the boards relentlessly.

That Pitt’s offense has been so good, even when they have stretches of offensive silence.

(more…)

A little bit of tab clearance and related items.

Gary McGhee has slowly earned a lot of respect. Not just from Pitt fans. To some degree, I think Pitt fans can be almost dismissive of the way he developed because it was chalked up to McGhee being 6-10, 6-11 and Coach Jamie Dixon and Pat Sandle having had so much success developing project big men further than any expected.

The day of the Syracuse game, Seth Davis at SI.com made this comment in his notes story.

I’ll say it again: Pitt center Gary McGhee needs more love. He had a team-high 13 points and 10 boards in the Panthers’ win over Seton Hall on Saturday. It’s easy to dismiss McGhee because he seems to do everything in super-slow-motion, but not many teams are that big, strong and experienced at the center position.

Gary Parrish at CBS Sports points out that few “projects” work out, and it has a lot to do with the player as much as the coaching.

(more…)