Long, long day. Only settling in to watch the game and get the basketball stories rounded up at the same time. Weak.
How far under the radar does the BU program operate in Boston? Well, their loss to Marshall was the lead capsule in a round-up of “other” college basketball games in one of the local papers. Putting it this way, Robert Morris gets more coverage in the ‘Burgh. I don’t care if the Terriers are favored in the American East, they don’t have a point to compete. Fields is looking to take another step (so to speak) in his game.
Fields dropped 15 pounds during the offseason, down to 190. He is noticably quicker on both sides of the floor. Fields wore down his teammates during summer games.
“It’s real difficult to stay in front of him,” senior forward Mike Cook said. “He lost weight and he’s a lot quicker. You combine that with the ball-handling and the way he shoots the ball, and it’s real hard to check him.”
Keith Benjamin got the love the last couple days as he was made available for the media.
“A couple of times, when I come here late at night and I think nobody’s in here,” Young said, “I’ll walk in, and Keith is already here working on his ball-handling drills.”
On Friday night, about 10,596 fans walked into Petersen Events Center and saw Benjamin perfect his game some more.
Benjamin has carried over a breakthrough summer and his nocturnal visits to the gym into his senior season for the No. 17 Panthers (5-0), who play host to Boston (1-3) on Tuesday.
Outside of Sam Young, Benjamin has to be the biggest beneficiary and most enthusiastic supporter of playing up-tempo. Often the last couple years., it seemed as if Benjamin would forget the team tempo and rush things.
But now that the Panthers are playing at a higher tempo, Benjamin’s level of play has risen as well. He is excelling when the Panthers play the transition game and get into high-scoring affairs. He set a career high with 17 points in the 92-45 victory against the University of Buffalo Friday. When Pitt thumped Houston Baptist in the season opener in another high-scoring, up-tempo contest, Benjamin scored 16 points.
Benjamin credits Pitt’s change in philosophy for allowing him to showcase his skills.
“In the past we were more of a patient team,” said Benjamin, a 6-foot-2 shooting guard from Mount Vernon, N.Y. “But now coach [Jamie] Dixon is putting onus on the guards to get out there and make the game better. That benefits me more, the things I like to do.”
Dixon is using Benjamin as his sixth man. He is usually the first reserve off the bench for starting shooting guard Ronald Ramon and is making the most of his opportunity.
Speed and playing faster — but smaller — is something of a necessity as the big players are just not ready for prime time.
It became obvious that Pitt would be playing smaller this season because of the wealth of guards and lack of true centers in the program. But five games into the season it is looking more and more as if the Panthers will be playing even smaller than anticipated.
It looks like Pitt will play most of its games without a player taller than 6-8 in the regular rotation.
Coach Jamie Dixon recruited 6-10 junior-college transfer Cassin Diggs and 6-10 freshman Gary McGhee to play center, but they do not appear ready to take on significant minutes. Diggs is averaging 9.2 minutes per game, but most of his minutes recently have come in the second halves of blowout victories. He played one minute against Saint Louis, the one game that was close in the second half. McGhee has played even more sparingly.
As noted in yesterday’s Q&A Pitt’s luck with JUCO’s has been missing since Ontario Lett.
It’s worth noting, Diggs is getting some time in this game with the Terriers. A good time to give him some work. Pitt is a bit ragged out of the gate overall. Despite that, slightly more than halfway through the first half, Pitt is up 19-5.
