No one, and I mean no one pretended that this was a “pretty” game. Pitt was playing a very young and inexperienced Alabama team, but Pitt looked more out of sorts in the early going.
It’s hard to read much into the very first game of the season, but this will be their hardest game until conference play begins, so it deserves a little extra scrutiny. The storylines all focused on Jamie Dixon getting his first win as head coach and the game Karl Krauser had. I’m not trying to be overly harsh, but it was really the second half Krauser had. His first half was abysmal. He scored 21 points, but only 2 in the first half. Pitt as a team shot 0-11 from beyond the 3-point line in the first half, and a pathetic 4-18 for the game. The only reason they were tied at the half, was that Alabama missed a lot of easy baskets and Chevy Troutman went 5-7 with 12 points in the first half (more on him in a moment). The rest of the Pitt team shot 5-24 in the half.
Krauser did take over in the second half after a brief spell on the bench after picking up his 4th foul about halfway through the second half.
Troutman kept the Panthers in the game in the first half, but his defense was off. Last year he was a monster on both boards (offensive and defensive). This first game he was late on his defense, committing fouls after he was beat — leading to fouling out. He was definitely looking to be more of an offensive presence. He can’t forget the defense, though, or Pitt is in trouble. Senior Torree Morris is just a big body standing around on defense — he provides nothing.
Julius Page was definitely tentative coming off his high ankle sprain, and ESPN2 play-by-play guy, Dan Shulman noted that it was keeping him from trying to drive to the basket.
The most impressive player from Pitt in this game, to me, was Freshman Guard, Chris Taft. He only played 18 minutes but had 12 rebounds and 7 points. He is going to be a great force inside, and will push Morris and Troutman for playing time — in fact, I can see by mid-season Morris’ minutes being very low.
Pitt is going to be a team, barring an upset to one of its cupcake opponents that will be in the top-15 by conference play, but no one will know whether this team is really that good.
