Well, another week of patsy basketball games in the books and more moving up in the rankings. Up one spot to #14 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, and a whopping three spots to #13 in the AP Writers Poll. All for beating the snot out of Robert Morris and Loyola-MD. This week, St. Francis-PA (Wednesday, Dec. 1) and Duquesne (Saturday, Dec. 4). That leads up to the first big challenge, Memphis on Tuesday, December 7 at MSG.
On the bright side, Pitt has used the weak foes to find out which players will be starters or earn big minutes off the bench. Even Mike DeCourcy at the Sporting News seems to approve of that:
Pittsburgh was using its soft early schedule to discover which players would best fit as replacements for SG Julius Page and SF Jaron Brown. “You don’t replace seven years of starting experience in 25 practices,” coach Jamie Dixon says.
Though he’s just 6-1, freshman Ronald Ramon has been starting at shooting guard. He’s the team’s best long-range shooter, and his skills complement junior playmaker Carl Krauser. Senior wing Yuri Demetris also has been starting. He played little before this season but is the type of player who can scrape up several extra possessions by diving for loose balls and picking up stray rebounds. The key is whether he’ll maintain his confidence on offense; Demetris frequently passed up open shots last season but was 4-of-8 on 3-point attempts in Pitt‘s first three victories. The Panthers also will use Antonio Graves and junior college recruit John DeGroat on the wing. . . .
The other good thing has been giving the set starters (Krauser, Taft and Troutman) lots of rest in these games. The better to save them until they are needed to do more. The same column noted that ND has been having trouble giving some of its key starters much of a rest because of tougher than expected games from predicted cupcakes.
The Post-Gazette has a puff piece on Senior Guard Yuri Demetrius who, early in the season, has been a defensive spark plug. Though, he has suddenly seemed to have a bit of a scoring touch this season.
