The regular season begins tomorrow evening and the school has announced the season has been sold-out. The important thing, though, is to have people show up for the game. Especially the students. A loud, continually sold-out joint is the key to Pitt maintaining the dominating home-court advantage it has had — even during some stumbles last year.
Pitt is not ranked. Expectations are modest, and the fans have a lot of questions. If Pitt has some early stumbles or even simply looks shaky, how quickly will the arena empty?
The opening night foe will be St. Peter’s of the MAAC. There is absolutely no past history between Pitt and the Peacocks. Pitt has its, game notes (PDF). (As an administrative, note, I see that Pitt appears to be shifting to the blog/link unfriendly policy of putting the PDF game notes under a “weekly release” heading. This means it will shift every game, rather than a true permanent link. Other CollegeSports based sites do this then later shift the notes into a “Game Notes” file I find it annoying because then the link I leave on this post will quickly become inaccurate.)
St. Peter’s is already off to an 0-2 start, but does feature the NCAA leading scorer for the previous 2 seasons in Keydren Clark.
Some of the Pitt players sat out practice with minor aches, but are expected to play Saturday (or at least be suited up and available).
Junior guard Antonio Graves (knee), sophomore guard Keith Benjamin (groin) and freshman forward Tyrell Biggs (knee) sat out practice at Petersen Events Center.
The players and coach are saying the right things heading into the start of the season.
Dixon said neither he nor any of his players will use youth and inexperience as a crutch this season. Dixon has four first-year players he is assimilating, including three freshmen who are expected to play significant roles.
“Our youth keeps being brought up,” Dixon said.
“We’re not going to use youth as an excuse. We’ve had to replace guys before. We can’t use it as an excuse. We have to embrace it and be excited about it.”
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Pitt is unranked to begin a season for the first time in four years, and the Panthers are itching to prove the preseason prognosticators wrong.“It’s definitely a different feeling,” center Aaron Gray said.
“Last year, we had a lot of hype. This year, maybe people are overlooking us.
“We’ll use that to our advantage. As the season goes on, I think people will stop overlooking us.”
Here’s a brief argument in support of Pitt getting the better deal over WVU in players who dipped a toe into the NBA draft but came back for their senior year.
Pittsnogle, on the other hand, isn’t expected to replace Tyrone Sally as West Virginia’s leader; the Mountaineers lean on Mike Gansey for that. Without Sally and D’or Fisher, Pittsnogle may be asked to rebound more, but he’s never shown he could consistently. Last season, he averaged a paltry 3.7 per game – a number hard to believe for someone who can dunk without jumping.
Pittsnogle is merely a 3-point shooter who got hot at the right time, namely the Big East and NCAA tournaments last year. He’s an excellent marksman, but he’s a dog with only one trick. Krauser, on the other hand, is a good shooter, a good passer, tenacious and mentally sound. He may not be the epitome of a college point guard, but he’s near the top at that position in the Big East.
Pittsnogle may have the better upside – the NBA loves big shooters because they provide match-up problems – but I’ll take Krauser for my college team.
For the record, Krauser averaged 4.8 rebounds/game.
Freshman Sam Young gets a puff piece.
Young, the prized player in Pitt’s top 25 recruiting class, is expected to play a major role on the team in his first season on campus. Young probably won’t start early in the season, but he will play 20 to 25 minutes a game off the bench. He scored a game-high 16 points in Pitt’s final exhibition game against IUP, most of which came via highlight-reel dunks.
Armed with a 35-inch vertical leap, a powerful inside game and a newly developed midrange game, Young has a unique mix of athleticism, tenacity and touch. Dixon yesterday compared him to Villanova forward Curtis Sumpter, a preseason Big East all-star who will miss the season with a knee injury.
“He’s got a long way to go to be Curtis Sumpter,” Dixon said. “Sam was more under the radar than Sumpter. But I see the same development. I’ve talked to Sam about Curtis being a guy he can strive for.”
When Young signed with Pitt last November, he was not one of the top 100 recruits in the country. But as his prep season went on at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia — he was named a first-team Prep School All-America — his stock rose. By the time, the final recruiting rankings were published earlier this year he was one of the top 70 players in his class.
What made Young soar in the rankings was the midrange game he developed at Hargrave, where he helped the team to a 28-1 record and No. 2 national ranking.
Last year, the big thing Pitt lacked were players who could go inside and out. If Young develops into that kind of player, Pitt can become not only a better team in the next couple of years, but a team more capable of going deeper in the tournament.
