That’s the easy answer when you ask who needs to step up for Pitt to win games in the BET. In the Seton Hall loss, Krauser didn’t score much, but neither did the bench. The bench only came up with 11 points, 9 rebounds and 4 turnovers.
3/5th of Pitt’s bench are the freshman, and so they will be counted on.
Even if Dixon uses more players in the upcoming Big East and NCAA tournaments, it’s a good bet the Panthers’ freshmen will play a key role.
Point guard Levance Fields, power forward Sam Young and center Tyrell Biggs have all had their moments this season and their contributions during the ensuing weeks could determine Pitt’s fate.
“The sky’s the limit for us,” Young said. “People are saying that the freshmen are going to fold, but I don’t even see myself as a freshman anymore. I just see myself as a competitor.”
Pitt’s talented trio average 15 to 16 minutes combined, but they have scored about 16 points per game as well. Fields spells fifth-year senior Carl Krauser and sophomore Ronald Ramon at point guard, and his high-speed game infuses energy into the offense.
Young, who made the Big East’s all-freshman team, is a finalist for rookie of the year honors as well. He should move into the starting lineup for senior John DeGroat, who has continued to open games down the stretch even though his minutes and contributions have been shrinking.
“I think I’ve done a pretty good job so far this season, but I still have a lot of room for improvement,” Fields said. “I’m looking forward to taking my game to another level in the tournaments and then working hard in the offseason to take it up another notch next year.”
There’s a slight error in the story. The three of them average 15 to 16 minutes each not combined. Fields and Young are right around 20 minutes/game and Biggs is around 8 or 9 minutes.
In another story, Krauser is one who Pitt needs to snap out of his slump/funk/whatever has been affecting his production.
“He is our leader,” teammate Levon Kendall said Monday, following a workout at Petersen Events Center.
And so, even though their senior leader has been struggling of late, the rest of the Panthers players and coaches are hopeful that Krauser can find his form and rekindle a spark as the team enters the Big East Conference tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York as a sixth seed and will face 11th-seeded Louisville in the first round on Wednesday night (9 p.m., ESPN).
“I have a lot of confidence in Carl,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “You get asked the same question about a guy who has an off-game, like a J.J. Redick (of Duke) or a Kevin Pittsnogle (of West Virginia). These guys come back and have good games. Guys don’t shoot the same percentage every game. They don’t have their best game every night. That’s why they’re competitors.”
…
“It doesn’t have to be scoring,” Dixon said, searching for positives in his senior guard’s play. “I’ve said all along that one of the best games of his career was the Rutgers game (six points, six assists, three rebounds and five turnovers during a 76-68 road victory Jan. 18) and how well he did with decisions and finding guys. I thought he played very well, offensively.“The scoring, with the number of guys we have, we’re going to have some games where he doesn’t need to score as much and other games where he will.”
Pitt does need him to lead, though. They need him to pass to the open man. Show he has confidence in them during the game — especially in MSG. He has to show he isn’t trying to do it all himself.
The key regardless, is how the whole team plays. When Pitt has thrived has been when you could see the extra pass. When everyone took defensive responsibility for their guy, with a “none shall pass,” attitude.
For Louisville, they are worried about this game.
The Cards may miss starting center David Padgett more than they have in any other game since they lost the 6-foot-11 sophomore to an aggravation of his knee injury with four games to play in the regular season. Padgett, the team’s leading rebounder when he went down, had successful arthroscopic surgery in New York yesterday and is expected to make a full recovery.
In his place, freshman Brian Johnson and sophomore Terrance Farley will have some work to do to handle Pittsburgh center Aaron Gray, a 7-foot 270-pounder. The Panthers ranked second only to Connecticut in rebounding margin in the Big East, outrebounding opponents by more than seven a game.
Since Padgett went down, they went 2-2. Those two losses were both 4-point road losses to WVU and UConn. They have been playing much better.
They still remember, though, a physical Pitt team that out-toughed them on their home court. It was a defensive match with neither team shooting 40%. Tomorrow night’s game will likely be very different.
