Will Pitt be able to get away with hideous 3-point shooting against better teams even when the inside game is going, the defense is fine and the team is still passing the ball? Not likely. Can they get away with it against average teams in the Big East? Well, they have before but you don’t want to make it a habit. Can they get away with it against RMU? Obviously.

Just can’t get too wound about the first bad night of 3-point shooting. Consider that Pitt was 40-85 from the 3 before this game. That just wasn’t going to continue.

At one point, the Panthers missed 12 consecutive 3-pointers spanning nearly 24 minutes. Most of the misses were wide-open looks by Pitt, which entered the game shooting a Big East-leading 47.1 percent from behind the arc this season. It was the worst effort since going 2 for 20 at Connecticut last year.

Antonio Graves, Levance Fields and Keith Benjamin combined to go 0 for 9 from 3-point range. Ramon, who entered the game No. 3 in the Big East in 3-point shooting at 66.7 percent, was 2 for 7.

“We just weren’t shooting the ball well,” Ramon said, “the whole game.”

Pitt was much better from inside the arc, hitting 25 of 36 shots.

While a little more drastic than most would like, consider the RMU game something like a market correction. Coach Dixon still found the good.

“We built this program on defense and rebounding,” Dixon said. “Shooting isn’t there every night. … We took very good shots throughout the game. To win by 15 when you shoot the way we did, that says a lot about the other areas of our game.”

Pitt was sharp in other areas. The Panthers played strong defensively and won the rebounding battle. Forwards Levon Kendall and Tyrell Biggs held A.J. Jackson, Robert Morris’ leading scorer, to six points, 18 below his season average. Robert Morris was held to 22 points below its season average.

The Colonials played a tough game. Maybe they really are better than in years past. It seems likely they will turn out to have been a bigger challenge than the Duquesne Dukes will.

If you want more positives, consider that Aaron Gray really asserted himself when the team was sagging.

With Pitt shooting cold from the floor, Aaron Gray led the final charge as the Panthers took over the game with a 25-11 run in the final 13 minutes. Gray scored seven points, pulled down seven rebounds, and blocked one shot in that span.

“Coach Dixon pulled us back together and we got back to playing Pittsburgh basketball. That’s when we took over the game,” Gray said. “We stayed patient. Coach told us to slow things down and take our time and save the good shot for an even-better shot.”

Gray led all scorers with 21 points and rebounders with 15.

“This was a very good Robert Morris team who played real hard and came out flying with all their ammo and we just kept answering,” Gray said. “We came into the huddle and I told everybody I’m not mad you’re missing the shots. When you keep getting open shots and don’t take them, that’s when I’ll get mad.”

Gray did it on 10-13 shooting, and so far this season is near .700 on shooting. That’s very, very promising — not to mention very good for his NBA draft positioning.

Pitt also purposefully got the ball inside with good passes for the scores. 11 of Pitt’s 13 second half baskets were accompanied by an assist.

Let’s give credit to Pitt Wide Receivers Coach Aubrey Hill. I’ve been thinking about this as I start to consider all the things that went wrong and right for Pitt this year. The brightest spot and biggest surprise (in a good way) has been the emergence of a solid young receiving corp.

Think about it. After spring practice, Derek Kinder was the default #1 WR who no one was sure was really more than a possession guy. Joe DelSardo was the default #2 guy. Oderick Turner, Marcel Pestano and Cedric McGee had all done nothing to really separate themselves from one another. They all looked shaky and unsure.

By the first game of the season, that all changed. Kinder showed he was more than just a possession guy. He was a complete receiver who was willing to go over the middle and could handle getting under the deep ball. And, of course, his downfield blocking. Well, even in the bad loss to WVU, his taking out 2 Hoopies to spring Revis on the punt return was a season highlight.
Turner, Pestano and McGee all made tremendous progress and continued to be solid all year long. They were running great routes, making the catches and just doing everything you want from receivers. Turner and Pestano got more time and opportunities at a suddenly crowded WR spot. Turner and Pestano were 2nd and 3d on the team for receptions (44 and 28) and yards (660 and 424). They combined for 10 TDs and had a virtually identical yards/catch average (15 and 15.1).

It’s part of the reason Freshmen like T.J. Porter saw so little action and Dorin Dickerson wasn’t seeing any time at WR. Not to mention a factor in DelSardo spending most of the games with his helmet by his side sitting alone or with the injured players.
The players obviously did the work and its a credit to them for really stepping up this year. But Aubrey Hill deserves a ton of credit. Watching the WRs this year has been an area to enjoy. All the receivers were catching the ball with their hands up. They ran good routes and they were doing the downfield blocking as they were supposed to. Doing all the fundamentals and doing them right. He has developed the kids and got them playing WR using their natural skills but not relying on them to make the play.

It is also clear that Hill has earned more responsibilities and challenges in recruiting.

Wannstedt said Pitt will place a greater emphasis on recruiting in Maryland and Northern Virginia, a region that will be handled by receivers coach Aubrey Hill, and concentrate less on recruiting Florida.

The talent in that area has been rising the last few years, so it makes sense to mine it. It’s part of what Pitt’s basketball team is trying to do.

Let’s face it, this team has so many possibilities for perfectly legit man-crushes, it’s hard to choose one. Levance Fields and Ronald Ramon for fans of the guards. Aaron Gray centering it all. Levon Kendall of the frozen hair for the ladies and for doing all the little things. Sam Young for the potential and his explosiveness (as soon as that knee is 100%). And then there is Mike Cook.

Cook has quickly risen to man-crush stature because he is Pitt’s first legit small forward in a few years. He has size and can play on the perimeter or drive to the hoop. Pitt has missed that.

Gene Collier has chosen Cook as his man-crush for the team this year. So he’s concerned about how he’s fitting in to the Pitt system.

Cook is a remarkably more elegant player than any of the more fire-tested components in Jamie Dixon’s machine. The Panthers, you may have heard, whether they’re No. 3 or No. 2 or even No. 1 in the little known perhaps because it’s purely fictional Pitt Alumni poll, do not exactly generate the athletic spectacle you might associate with one of America’s greatest college basketball teams.

The Pitt paw print on any reliable win — as it was again last night against a determined and talented Robert Morris team — is anything and everything but a series of opulent transition baskets and rim rattling theatrics.

Pitt comes to work you to death, and exactly where a fluid X-factor such as Cook fits into Pitt’s blunt basketball personality still isn’t terribly clear, particularly on a defense Dixon’s team delivers with almost monastic resolve.

Twenty-four hours before Pitt’s seventh consecutive season-opening win, Dixon described Cook’s defense aptitudes as “not there yet, in our book.”

But what is there looks like a load of talent and floor-savvy, the very thing Pitt can use on much colder nights, maybe when its no-frills style isn’t matching up terribly well with another Big East bully.

I’m not particularly worried. As the column points out, even Mike Cook acknowledges he needs to work on his defense. As much from a mental/concentration side as to the actual sets and play. Coach Dixon has already had Cook around him for a year. He has a sense of what the kid can take as far as criticism and being talked about publicly — and how Cook responds.

My guess is Cook actually responds well to some public criticism of part of his game. He is aware of what he has to do and there is no reason not to believe he will get there.