I know, football game in a little more than 24 hours. But I’ve been neglecting the basketball for way too long. Besides, Pitt has their only exhibition game tonight.
Pitt ditched the usual two exhibitions for doing a closed scrimmage with Georgetown last week and tonight’s exhibition game against Division II Gannon. Pitt should be fine against Gannon, but struggle early. As long as they don’t end up like St. John’s and lose by 32 points (Durand Johnson shot 0-7) in their exhibition.
Then the season starts next Friday, October 13 in Japan. Facing Gonzaga in what will certainly be their biggest season opening game in what? Decades? Anyone recall the last time Pitt opened the season against a top-ten team?
There’s a couple reasons that the basketball coverage has been light.
The most obvious is that football has taken most of the attention this year. As much as our own fans have cracked on Pitt being a “basketball school, now” that was more about the frustration with the football program for most of the last 10 years. Now that Pitt is having a stronger season, and optimism for the future is much higher than it has been since the start of the Wannstedt era, we are reminded that Pitt is still a football school.
The other reasons are a bit more varied.
This is a fully retooled team. A slew of graduate transfers, a couple JUCOs, plus a very talented freshman point guard joining the team this year, makes this a team with a lot more unknowns. The core of Jamal Artis, Michael Young and James Robinson are still here, but everything around them feels like a big question mark. As such, it is hard to know this team. What is their ceiling? What is their floor? So many questions, but nothing to really suggest answers.
There shouldn’t be any question that the team will struggle a bit in the non-con. With so many new pieces — and god willing, something approaching serviceable at the center position — it is hard to expect this team to come out fully formed from the opening tip-off.
The other part is the seeming relentless negativity towards Jamie Dixon by some that has emerged in the last year. Almost as if, for some Pitt fans, without Steve Pederson to blame the ire goes to Dixon. It becomes a bit tiresome to try and have rational discussions when it quickly descends into having to pro- or anti-Dixon arguments. EVERY. TIME.
The thing is, there is no reason not to think this won’t be a pretty good team. As bad as this team finished last year — and it was a miserable collapse in the final two weeks — the team was in a position to at least make the NCAA Tournament. The team showed how good it could be in some brief stretches. And that was with next to zero defense, subpar three-point shooting, and only two consistent offensive players.
The team has better depth, more experience — both from the players returning and the graduate transfers — and won’t have players playing out of position for most of the year.
James Robinson hit 3 of 3 from behind the arc and made the other two he took even though they didn’t count due to fouls. Was also impressed with Jonathan Milligan, has complete command of the floor and was guiding/helping other players with where to be and how to move. Rafael Maia, probably the biggest disappointment. Basically a space/minute eater. Don’t really see him seeing the floor much.
Rozelle Nix is redshirting. Guy can barely make it 10 feet to the huddle during timeouts.
Overall, impressed how a bunch of kids who haven’t played together much looked so fluid (even though there were trouble spots). It’s early November. #H2P. Off to Heinz Field in six hours.
You wrote about the announced plans to redshirt Nix: “looks like another Pitt wasted scholarship.”
I disagree. Dixon is saving Nix for next year and the year after.
Nix is going to have a year of learning from ANO and Maia and from graduate assistant Ontario Lett (who came with him from Pensacola).
He’s being groomed to play a big role during the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons.
Thanks for the first hand game report. The Pitt defense is back!
Check out Harris’s article about the game in the Trib-Review:
Neither Artis nor Jeter started. Dixon is delivering a message to the team:
“We’ve been preaching all year long, all offseason, all fall, the best defensive players, the best rebounders, those are the guys that are going to play. Those are the guys we went with.”
Wow, this would be great, if this becomes the norm for the season. As I’ve been preaching for a more aggressive turnover producing defense for a long time. So you can get those easy transition points.
When you don’t have a great shooting team, and you struggle to score in the half court, you just have to get some easy baskets. Georgetown under Big John Thompson did this for years with great success.
If you remember he was ‘signed’ BEFORE Dixon was able to pickup Adoda & Maia.
Troubling that a kid would be so out of shape he’d have a tough time walking 10 feet. You’d think he would have wanted to be in the best shape, so as to make Ontario Lett look good. Has to be disappointing for Lett as well.
