Either way, enough talk about PSU.

HAIL TO PITT!!

I would have liked to see the front court be a bit more aggressive but our guards don’t mind getting dirty for those rebounds.

Top stars:

1-Woodall
2-Gibbs
3-Johnson

I went with Johnson because he is a presence out there already. He could turn out to be a Wanamaker type of player.

He’s going to develop a mean streak and when it happens then he will take minutes away from Zanna, who was aggressive out there today. Too early to tell really.

This is embarrassing…and lame. No wonder our football team is so soft in the 4th quarter.

With the 2 guards scoring 46, not many chances for frontcourt especially in a game with a lot of substituting. Long time to go before getting a true assessment but good to see Tray play well

the only thing I really took from it was that Dixon was willing to play J.Johnson, which is refreshing, and not willing to play Gilbert (I don’t think he got in), which is also telling.

i’m hoping that means Dixon realizes that he needs Johnson’s defense and offensive spark in the backcourt this year. on Gilbert, i guess he thinks he has enough frontcourt depth to let Malcolm wait a year. i think i disagree with that, but i’m willing to wait and see how Taylor, Robinson, Birch and Zanna do.

also, PG mentions that Gilbert fractured a finger in practice.

Johnson should be (and eventually will be) the first guard off the bench. He is more talented than Wright and he can play both point and the two.

Dixon was somewhat critical of Johnson in the post game interview, saying he needed to have better shot selection and that he took a couple “guarded shots”. He praised Woodall for showing great patience and taking good shots.

Woodall is going to see a lot of open shots in this offense. Patterson and Robinson both pass the ball well and teams are going to key on Gibbs. If Woodall can knock down a high percentage of the easy shots he gets, Pitt will tough to stop. Now granted the shots against Big East teams won’t be as uncontested as the one’s he got last night.

I didn’t notice a splint on Gilbert’s hand. Forgive me if I am skeptical. Too often freshmen that Jamie wants to redshirt come up with convenient injuries. Gilbert gives them a couple things this team is SORELY lacking; 1) A mean streak – he is big and plays with an edge. The rest of this team is too nice. 2) Some size – this pitt team is undersized at nearly every position.

The other guy that gives Pitt some edge is Johnson. He strikes me as a dude who would step on your throat once he had you down. Not too many of those guys on this team. Every team needs a few. I like that Dixon is hard on him, means he is expecting a lot, which he should be. Johnson is tough enough to handle it.

RIGHT NOW (and I know it is really early) I would rather have Gilbert as the back up center and Zanna as the back up power forward. On 11-11-11, Birch brings very little to the party. His talent is obvious, but he did NOTHING with it last night and had plenty of opportunities. He didn’t block any shots, despite a couple opportunities, he didn’t set hard screens, he wasn’t a factor on the glass and his offense was non-existent. I was glad that he wasn’t playing the 5. I agree that Jamie needs to invest minutes in him now, even though they may not be deserved. The investment know should pay dividends in the future. But right now, uggh.

Gibbs could have scored 50 last night if he needed to. He looks a lot quicker than last year and could have gotten a good shot whenever he wanted to.

So from that perspective, it makes sense to play to Zanna and Birch (and not Gilbert), who are both extremely fast up and down the court.

Taylor did play well last night. He looks much stronger and quicker than he did last year. He will give Pitt much more of a scoring threat in the post than McGhee ever could.

I wouldn’t be shocked if Taylor is the second best player on this team by the time January rolls around. Woodall was also encouraging. Those two guys are critical to Pitt’s success.

In general, I like what Jamie has done to mold the offense to the talent.

Even those crappy guards from Albany got them five lay ups in the first half with dribble penetration. Woodall admitted in the post game interview that Dixon wasn’t going to be happy.

I think this bears watching and could be a problem all year.

ONE MORE REASON TO GIVE JJOHNSON some pt now. He is quick enough and tough enough to stay in front of people. He just needs the experience and coaching. He’ll get the coaching.

Starting 5 were

PG Tray Woodall

SG Ashton Biggs

SF Lamar Patterson

PF Nasir Robinson

C Dante Taylor

Let’s start with these guys

Tray Woodall. Had an awesome game last night. 9-13 shooting (5-7 from 3pt) with for 25 pts. He also quietly had 10 assists. I say quietly b/c with all that scoring didn’t notice his passing. He seems pretty comfortable running the point. Most of his shots were via spot up shooting, but that will seem to be his role in this offense. His days of going at rapid speed but being out of control are long gone. He also had 6 rebounds.

He probably will contend for Big East most improved player.

Ashton Gibbs. Gibbs was his usual self, hitting 8-17 (3-7 from 3pt land). He seemed pretty comfortable going back to the shooting guard position, his more natural position.

Nothing unusual about his play, seen him play once and you got the same tonight- hitting from all spots on the floor.

He also filled in as the backup point guard when Jaime rested Woodall.

Lamar Paterson- starting in place of JJ Moore who was suspended for 1 game due to participating in an unauthorized charity game this summer.

Lamar played a very Wannamaker like game, 6 pts, 7 rebs and 6 assists. He has some of the better all-around basketball skills I have seen from a Pitt player, very smooth on his shooting and ball handling. Can easily play the 2, 3 or 4 position although 3 is his natural position. We will probably look to consistently get 8-12 pts average a night from him, along with 4-6 rebs avg and 4-7 assists average.

Nasir Robinson. As with Gibbs, played his usual game. Got most, if not all of his points on the inside (4-8 shooting, 8pts). He only had 2 rebounds, a little concerning for a PF, but considering Patterson and Taylor’s numbers, to be understood. Nasir will be counted on for senior leadership and his gritty play.

Dante Taylor. Looks improved as well, but still some way to go. Had a decent game with 7 pts, 8 rebs and 1 block. His points game on a nice follow dunk and two hook shots. It seem the hook will be his preferred move in the post-which is fine with me. More big men should utilize this tool for their inside shooting. He could contend with Woodall for most improved by years end. Will be curious to see how he does against the tall trees of the Big East.

Overall the first unit played pretty well. Good cohesion on offense; these guys have played with each other enough to know where they are going to be is something breaks down, etc. Arguably one of the better starting fives in the Big east and the backcourt of Woodall and Gibbs could end up being one of the best in the nation.

Now the bench play.

Moore didn’t play, but from what I saw of him last year and what I read of him from summer league his play will be similar to a Gilbert Brown, but better shooting and consistent play.

First subs off the bench

Talib Zanna for Taylor

Cameron Wright for Paterson

Zanna is struggling. After a fast start last year, he cooled off when opponent play got better. He hasn’t seemed to get back to that point yet. Struggling especially on defense tonight. He slowed flashed of talent last year, so hopefully things will start clicking for him.

His points were on lay-ups.

Wright is usually a 2 guard, but b/c of Moore’s suspension he had to play out of position at the 3 spot. He only had 2 points, a nice jumper from the wing, but only took 1 shot all night. Not much else to say about him, had a quiet night.

Khem Birch for Robinson

John Johnson for Gibbs

Birch had 2 pts on FT. His lone FG attempt was a 10 footer that looked out of his range. He didn’t impress me tonight, looks like he needs to bulk up as well. But, he is a true freshman and Dixon is giving him minutes so that says something about what he is doing in practice; Birch had 2 good exhibition games, so maybe this was a bump in the road. He is supposed to have a lot of potential, so let’s wait and see on this one.

Johnson really impressed me among the young/new guys. 3-5 from the floor, 2-2 from3pt range. Good looking shot, very similar shooting form and style to Ronald Ramon. This guy could have a similar, if not better career. Should be starting next year when Gibbs has graduated.

Other sub was Isaiah Epps in the 2nd half for Gibbs. He got 6 mins and had 1 FG. Epps came in with a lot of high praise-that he would be the next great Pitt PG, but something not clicking for him. Perhaps with our guard heavy team, he might just get spot minutes this year and next year take a more prominent role.

Nick Rivers and Aron Nwankwo got their usual garbage minutes.

Freshmen Durand Johnson and Malcom Gilbert did not play. I am guessing Jaime is going to redhshirt them both, or at least Gilbert.

Some team observations

While the first unit looked good, the 2nd unit/bench players looked out of sorts at times. To be fair, this is going to be a young team, especially the 2nd unit. Most of them are redshirt freshmen or true freshmen, so we will have to watch them develop during the games, which may be painful at times. When they were mixed in with the upperclassmen, their play was much better. When Jaime had them on the floor by themselves, some problems were apparent.

Also, in the 2nd half the offense had several possessions where they were putting up shots at the end of the 24 second shot clock. Not sure if this was by design (Jaime putting this in to practice it during a real game situation) or they were out of sorts. They made most of their shots at the buzzers, so if it was a test I would say they passed.

The defense was somewhat sloppy. They did have a lot of steals (6 on the night) and were very active in that aspect of the defense, but let too many shots go up uncontested due to picks (not switching) and they let this one guy Suero just penetrate the lane as he wanted, throw up a wild shot, and get his FT’s.

Albany shot 43% on the night; but again this is a young team and learning the Pitt defense will be an ongoing process.

Pitt has had problems with guys like this in the past (see Scottie Reynolds, Gerry McNamara, the little guard from Marquette who’s name escapes me) so hopefully we can make adjustments in the future.

Overall, this looks to be another great year for Pitt hoops, but it could be a different year. A lot of young talent, so Pitt’s better days might be ahead of them (the next 2 years especially) instead of now. They will contend for the Big East title and should make the big dance in March once again.

The keys will be keeping the starting 5 on the floor as much as needed and keeping them healthy, along with the gradual progress of the young players so come Feb and March- they are contributing with strong play.

Pitt’s one weakness may be their big men- Taylor should be ok but Zanna has got to get it together. I worry about Nasir only being 6”5 but every year he proves me wrong with gritty inside play amongst the tall trees. Birch or Gilbert may be the key-can they provide strong minutes as we know Taylor and/or Robinson will be in foul trouble at some points this year.

That being said, Pitt’s strong point will be their guard play. Woodall, Gibbs, Patterson, Moore, John Johnson and Wright will provide depth and consistency this year. Outside of Wright, any of these guys could have a hot night and lead the team in scoring for that night.