It’s only a week and a half before Pitt’s first exhibition game for basketball. How the time flies. Fan Fest and a scrimmage was held yesterday afternoon. I wouldn’t put tremendous stock in the stats of the scrimmage, but here they are.
The theme for the day, apparently was, “here come the kids.”
Freshman DeJuan Blair and redshirt freshman Gilbert Brown were impressive in the Blue-Gold scrimmage that the Blue team won, 74-69.
Blair had a double-double with 17 points and 17 rebounds, and Brown had 15 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists with no turnovers.
Both players looked like they could contribute right away for the Panthers, whose first game is less than three weeks away.
Blair, though, is saying confident, bordering on cocky things, but does say the right things regarding starting and playing.
“I have no idea what’s going through coach Dixon’s mind,” Blair said. “I’ve been running the floor, rebounding. If you get the ball in my hands, I do great things with it. It’s up to him. He makes all the calls. I’m not worried about starting. I’m just worried about winning.”
Darnell Dodson may end up redshirting. He has yet to get approval from the NCAA Clearinghouse, so it wouldn’t surprise me. If Dodson can’t practice with the team, he’ll be too far behind in learning the system to get into the rotation. Gilbert Brown had the same problem due to injuries last season. It may not be that bad of a thing since it will give Dodson more time to work on the academic side, and there won’t — barring injuries — be a crying need for him at small forward with Cook and Brown.
Freshman Bradley Wanamaker will likely see limited minutes at the start of the season that will grow as he learns to play more at the point guard, and is given some experience and provide additional depth.
On the other side, Wanamaker, a 6-4 guard, had 14 points, eight assists and five rebounds in 30 minutes for the Blue team, which won 74-69.
“He’s tough,” Dixon said of the Philadelphia native. “He has a great feel. He sees the floor. He’s becoming a better shooter every day.”
Big East Basketball blog has a solid preview of Pitt up. He predicts a conference record of 11-7. Something that I think is probably right within +/-2.
