Superficially, there is little that has changed with Pitt basketball over the past 10 years. Jamie Dixon is still the head coach. Pitt is expected to finish in the upper half of a very good conference, even if no on is sure quite how. The Pete has sold out once more. Defense will be played. The blue-collar, physical stereotype remains in place.  Seniors are looked to, to lead this team and be the face of it.

Yet, this is a season with a significant shift. Beyond the move to the ACC. Beyond the way games are expected to be called throughout college basketball. Beyond alleged style of play changes. This is as much a foundation year. Not a rebuilding year, because that would imply a significantly down season. More like one that when you look at a team in a year or two, you point to this year as where it all began.

For guys like Lamar Patterson and Talib Zanna, this is their final season. Seniors looking to leave their mark. Their time at Pitt has seen the squad change and struggle more than any other senior class in a decade. Both had redshirt years, so they have been in the program for five years. They have the pressure of their own expectations and the players that have recently come before them to make this final year count.

At the same time, while they are expected to provide leadership and be the primary players on the court, they aren’t the leader of this team. This is James Robinson’s team.

That makes sense. Not simply because he is the starting point guard. You look at the make up of this team and this is primarily a team of freshmen and sophomore. The only juniors on the squad are Cam Wright and Derrick Randall, the transfer from Rutgers. Durand Johnson is still only a redshirt sophomore filled more with potential than anything else. This is a surprisingly young team, and you would have to expect him to be closer to the younger players than the seniors.

Outside of Johnson, only Chris Jones has had a redshirt year among the freshmen and sophomores. The rest have already played or are expected to contribute this year. It will make sense for the players to look more to Robinson than Zanna and Patterson. Three starters and two players off the bench are what has come back from last year.

The turnover of last year was disruptive, but the expectations are still in place.

Potential is the big word with this squad. It also means taking lumps. Those lumps may not be obvious with a relatively safe non-con and guys like Patterson and Zanna to help carry them early. But the lumps will come. They are inexperienced. Outside of the seniors and Robinson, no one else on the squad even averaged 15 minutes a game last year.