That has to be the attitude of Coach Dixon as he mixes and matches players to see where the chemistry is, and how the various players fit together.

Jamie Dixon appeared relaxed and quite content for a coach with so many questions to answer.

“How did you think the new players looked?”

“What was the reason for starting a freshman point guard?”

“Who will be in the lineup for the next game?”

Dixon answered them all the best he could following Pitt’s season-opening 82-71 men’s basketball victory over St. Peter’s on Saturday at Petersen Events Center.

“We’re going to play a lot of guys this year,” he said.

If Saturday’s game is any indication, Dixon will be true to his word. A total of 10 Pitt players saw at least 11 minutes of action, including all three freshmen.
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“This was the first time in a game situation for a lot of these guys,” Dixon said. “We’re going to play young kids. This is the year, and we did it some last year. You’d like to be experienced every year, but that’s just not possible.”

And no where is the team deeper than at the guard positions.

“We have a lot of guards so it is very competitive at practice,” Fields said. “Right now it is still up in the air, so I have to go do the same things in practice in order to be able to start the game on Wednesday [against Robert Morris].

“It meant a lot to start. I was happy to be out there with the first five and hear my name called, but like I said, it is up in the air because everybody has been playing good practice. It is really going to come down to who plays defense better, so I have to continue in practice and, hopefully, I’ll keep on starting.”

Fields played very well in his first game, which was encouraging. But it was still one game. The far more encouraging thing is his attitude and saying exactly the right things. No one whether they started last year, or comes in as a heralded freshman can assume he will be starting. Fields has grasped that and appears ready to lead by example until it is time for him to be the full team leader.

Next up for Pitt is Robert Morris, against whom Pitt is 24-0.