Amazing how a win over a top-10 team and the rivalry team can make everyone seem happy. Well, everyone who’s a Pitt fan.

I thought Pitt fans could lose perspective at times. From the letter’s section at the Charleston Gazette:

Dave Hickman’s attempt to put a positive spin on West Virginia’ss loss to
Pittsburgh was pitiful. After building up a fine record over weaker teams, they
have folded. The Mountaineers were outplayed and outcoached by Pitt and,
thereby, embarrassed all West Virginia fans.

Can you imagine what his reaction was when the Hoopies lost to Marshall?

Coach Dixon spent his Friday night attending a high school basketball game. Oh, and it just so happened that Sophomore, and early Pitt verbal, Terrelle Pryor was playing.

A very good Q&A with Ray Fittipaldo.

Q: It seems opposing coaches may be changing their approach to defending against the Panthers. They are double-teaming Aaron Gray more frequently and forcing the Panthers to make outside shots. I think the second half of the Georgetown game showed how effective this can be. What are your thoughts on how the Panthers should respond?

Fittipaldo: That’s a good observation, Mike. I suspect John Thompson III got the Connecticut tape and watched how the Panthers shot from 3-point range in that game. The Panthers were 2 for 20 from behind the arc in that game. They were 6 for 17 against Georgetown, but two of those came in the final 30 seconds when Pitt was attempting a last-ditch come back. The Panthers had been missing a lot of open 3-pointers and mid-range jumpers throughout the second half of that game. I think you have to get the ball into Ronald Ramon’s hands more and have him shoot more 3-pointers. I also think Gray has to be more assertive in those situations and attempt to draw fouls. And if he is double-teamed, he doesn’t have to kick it outside
for shots like he did against Georgetown. Either Levon Kendall or Sam Young should be open in the paint. Gray must find a way to make teams pay for double-teaming, whether it’s by his passing or ability making free throws.
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Q: When games are close at the end, as they usually are in the Big East, I never see a press from Pitt like I do other teams. Pitt predictably retreats to a half-court defense and often has to rely on fouling to get the ball back. With a full complement of guards this season why does coach Dixon refrain from this tactic?

Fittipaldo: The press has not been a part of Jamie Dixon’s arsenal since he became head coach. The decision to rely on half-court defense is part philosophy and part personnel. Dixon and Ben Howland subscribe to the theory that tough man-to-man defense in the half-court can be effective in all situations. Most teams that use the press a lot have a big stable of athletic and quick guards who can force the opponents’ guards into mistakes. And while Pitt has a large stable of guards this season, I would not describe any of them as super athletic or super quick. In fact, when Pitt faces teams with quicker and more athletic guards, as they did against St. John’s, it presents some problems for the Panthers.

Ronald Ramon gets a puff piece for his game and being healthy.

Anyone who watched the West Virginia game knows Ramon affected that game in more ways than his shooting. Ramon drew the assignment to defend Big East player
of the year candidate Mike Gansey and held the high-scoring senior to 12 points on 3 of 7 shooting.

Gansey called Ramon “a great defender” after the game.

Shooting the basketball has been something that always has come natural to Ramon. Playing good defense is something he has picked up since coming to Pitt.

“I definitely worked on my defense,” Ramon said. “Coach Dixon came up to me in the summertime and was like, ‘Our focus is going to be on defense this year.’ When a coach tells you that you have to look into it and come back with a different mentality. I knew I had to play better defense this year.”

Dixon said Ramon is only starting to come into his own and has the potential to develop even more later in his college career.

His defense has been solid all season. Really, Ramon has quietly taken a lot of team responsibility this year and responded very well. He is running the point about half the time. He’s drawing the tough defensive assignments. And now as his shoulder and fingers have healed, he is being asked to take more shots. He’s not a team leader this year, but the example he has set will make him one next year.

Of course the team’s leader this year gets his own puff piece.

“He’s the leader of the team,” said Pitt sophomore Ronald Ramon, who scored a season-high 16 points against West Virginia. “He came back with a different attitude to make our team better. It’s working. He came back and he said, ‘If I have to pass the ball for our team to win, that’s what I’m doing.’ He’s still going out there and making plays for his team.”
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“Playing with Carl is a big help,” Ramon said. “Him coming back this year and trying to help the team, moving to the two-guard, which was big for him and was a different look, I think was a big plus for us.

“A lot of it was that people were going to come back and try to key up on him, knowing that he was going to be our primary guard trying to score. It helped us a lot. It opened up our big guy (Gray) and our other guards because he’s a driver. He’s a great player. He wants to go in there and make plays for other guys. It helps us a lot from the shooting perspective.”

Following Pitt’s 61-58 loss at No. 15 Georgetown last weekend, the animated Krauser didn’t miss a beat. He was chattering, as usual, upon departing MCI Center in Washington, talking about the importance of team unity and determination.

“I just want to keep the confidence going in the guys, relaying everything the coaches are saying, believing in myself and my teammates,” he said following the three-point setback. “It’s about just keeping everybody together.”

In a season of unanticipated success, Dixon, like all of his players, has no problem feeding off Krauser’s words of encouragement.

“All Carl has ever cared about is winning,” he said. “You can see it out there every time he plays.”

Then there is Freshman Forward Sam Young, who while thunderous at times on offense, has really improved on defense during the season. No longer picking up a couple fouls at a time. He is really starting to figure out spacing on the court and not losing his man.

Associate head coach Barry Rohrssen, had to have the patella tendon in his left knee repaired on Friday from an injury he suffered in practice on Wednesday.

Finally, I happily acknowledge what former Coach Ben Howland did for Pitt. Helping to craft the identity and philosophy of a team-first, tough, physical defense oriented team. I realize Dixon was Howland’s assistant and is his close friend. Still, there has to come a time when the credit for the way this team is now has to stay with Coach Dixon. This is his team. Howland has been gone for 3 years. It’s not like Coach Dixon changed or subordinated his own philosophy and views on how to run the team to fit the system.

I bring this up because this column, ostensibly, about Pitt’s defense sticking to man-to-man rather than playing any zone (like they did for short periods last season), can’t help but go back to the Howland well.

Pitt also is exclusively a man-to-man team again, just as they were under Ben Howland. Last year, Dixon was forced to play some 2-3 zone. His players have no intention of making him do it again.

They haven’t played a second of zone all season, Graves said.

“We definitely take pride in not wanting to go to a zone,” he added. “But we still practice a 2-3”

Certainly, Pitt is better-prepared to deal with WVU this season. The Panthers have more athletes to guard the perimeter and to disrupt passing lanes, and they don’t have to worry about covering for a lazy center like, say, Chris Taft, whose replacement, Aaron Gray, did a bang-up job on Kevin Pittsnogle.
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I asked Beilein if his team had seen fewer open looks in any game in the past year.

“No,” he said. “It’s the same rubber stamp of how Ben (Howland) played defense.”

Indeed, it was. And how fitting that the performance came on the night Howland’s UCLA Bruins held Washington State to 30 points, fewest for a Pac-10 team since the advent of the shot clock.

The surprising Panthers (18-3 overall, 7-3 in the Big East) wreck offenses without using a full-court press, without gambling for turnovers. They do it with smarts, athleticism, toughness and superb coaching – all qualities Howland brought here seven years ago.

I guess it bothers me because it seems to be denigratingng the job by Coach Dixon to this point. The first year, it seemed like many acted like he was Phil Jackson with Michael Jordan and the Bulls, rolling out the ball and letting them do it themselves. Last year was a disappointment, and the fingers were pointed at Dixon — especially from me — and the questions about whether he could really handle being the head coach. This year, he’s showing everyone what kind of job he is capable of, and the comparisons go right back to Howland. Even worse, to what he is now doing at UCLA.