In case you hadn’t heard, Dick Vitale will be out of action until at least February. Once, many years ago, before he became a caricature, Vitale was one of the best color analysts for college basketball. I don’t like listening to him any longer, but I still wish him a speedy recovery. That means Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas will have the call that night.
If you were watching ESPN stations ast night and tonight, you know that the game is getting full ESPN promotion. Including the in-game discussion while other games were happening.
Both Pitt and Duke have game notes (PDFs).
I’m not particularly bothered that Pitt isn’t going too deep on the bench right now. I think Wanamaker is struggling a bit to pick up the increased level. It will come in time, and for the past couple of years, a complaint has been that Dixon hasn’t had a good rotation and thrown too many guys out there.
Ray Fittipaldo is right because he agrees with me about the importance of Levance Fields.
…The second thing was Levance Fields picking up his third foul four minutes into the second half. Pitt is a very ordinary team without Fields on the floor. As soon as the lead got trimmed to seven, Jamie Dixon put Fields back in the game, and the Panthers resumed control.
Pitt played without Sam Young for 10 minutes in the first half against Washington and still only trailed by three at halftime. The Panthers have played without DeJuan Blair for long stretches because of foul trouble and still been successful. It became obvious to me Saturday that the player they can least afford to lose is Fields.
Basic rule, when the reporter or columnist agrees with your viewpoint, he is obviously right.
Duke had no problem on Monday with the Great Danes of Albany. They too, seem to be looking forward to the next game.
“This game was good to keep us sharp and give us a little something going into Pitt,” swing-man Gerald Henderson said.
By the way, Duke has won 36 straight games in Decembers. Almost makes me wish the game had been in November when Pitt hasn’t lost under Dixon.
Duke may be without New Jersey Sophomore Forward Lance Thomas who missed the Monday game with a high ankle sprain. The Blue Devils don’t have that much depth in the front court, so that could be a big issue.
DeJuan Blair apparently has a chip on his shoulder about Duke.
Blair is motivated for a couple of reasons. He said the Blue Devils didn’t pursue him at all coming out of Schenley High School. Instead, they focused their efforts at forward on Singler, who was named the ACC Pre-season Rookie of the Year, and 6-6 Taylor King, another McDonald’s All-American.
“They didn’t recruit me at all,” Blair said. “That’s another reason why I’m going hard on them. They have an excellent program. I wish I could have been recruited by them. But they looked the other way and got who they wanted. Pitt got who they wanted.”
I’m going to choose to view this as a competitive player looking to use any perceived slight as extra motivation.
Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski thinks the focus should be on the older players.
Krzyzewski brings his Blue Devils (10-0) to the Garden Thursday for a showdown against Pitt (10-0), and both teams have terrific freshmen in Kyle Singler and Taylor King for Duke and DeJuan Blair for Pitt. But I’ll heed Coach K’s words and keep on an Duke senior DeMarcus Nelson, who’s finally healthy and Pitt’s junior Sam Young.
While the players are clearly juiced for the game (almost as much as we, the fans), and I prefer them to concede the excitement. I just hope they get their emotions reined in for the game itself.
Finally, Dixon gets a puffer by Ron Cook.
This team has athleticism plain and simple. They have the ability to run, press, and also run their O sets. Add to that that still play good D!
Big first halves have been our key so far, and I fear we won’t have one tomorrow because of the ‘shock and awe’ effect of Duke. So I don’t expect a win, but it wouldn’t shock me by any means.
1) Make the Duke bigs run to set up on D
2) If the shot is not there Pitt can fall back on its half-court O.
In the past Pitt would play their style of both O/D, and for the most part were successful with it. But against the teams who were more athletic, they struggled.
Pitt will need to score every point they can and that includes fast break points. Having said that it by no way means they should not revert back to their old style of play during this game. It just means they need to use every tool available to them to score more points than Duke
.
Three out of five starters, Ramon, Fields, and Cook do not have athleticism.
Mike Cook is 6’4″ and can barely dunk.
Ramon is slow, but Cook is a decent athlete. Sam and DeJaun will probably be the most athletic kids on the floor. Henderson and Nelson are athletes for Duke, but the rest of their starters are not superior athletes. In addition to Sam and DeJuan we have Benjamin and Brown coming off the bench and they are two of the better athletes on the team. To suggest Pitt is not an athletic team is stupid and not factual.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who loves the fact that we seem to be upgrading our non-con schedule every year, but obviously this Thursday is the crown-jewel. While I doubt we can upset Duke, have their coach quit and take the top recruit in the country with him, and sign a haul of solid recruits in the process, it should still be a good chance to make an impact in a way that tangling with Houston Baptist doesn’t really afford us. Here are my thoughts:
* Assuming he stays hot, and he’s looked damn tough in the last two games, I can’t wait to see Levance Fields on Paulus. Obviously Duke players are highly hyped, but to me Paulus in particular has not lived up to his hype. Singler has looked very good, Henderson and Scheyer are coming along, Paulus seems to lack that next-level. I love the way Fields’ role has evolved, to the point that when we’re in a good offensive flow he doesn’t *have* to have the ball, because everybody seems to be on the same page when he’s out there. Wouldn’t have thought this two years ago, but I think Paulus is the shakier of the two, and hopefully we exploit that Thursday.
* Blair on the national stage. This Duke team, like all Duke teams, has enough size and depth to at least put some pressure on the young Freshman, but they fortunately lack the signature inside presence of a Shelden Williams-type. I agree with one of the other posts on this site somewhere that said Duke could make things tough on Blair by getting him in early foul trouble. No doubt about that. Particularly with the way Coach K works the officials — and frankly there’s no one better at it, whether you believe its because he’s legitimately persuasive and obviously a legend in the game or for some reason related to some Duke-themed conspiracy, its definitely a fact — we could be in for a long day. But that doesn’t mean I’m not psyched to see what Blair can do, and if he can continue to spread the word about a Freshman not named Mayo, Love, Beasley or Singler.
* Sam Young. A lot of recent attention has been on Blair and Fields, but I still think for this team to succeed in March, Sam Young has got to be a star. And we’ve seen early this year that he’s capable of it, so this is not necessarily bad news. Particularly if Blair is attacked and the tough Duke D limits our guard play, its Young (and to a lesser extent Mike Cook) that will be the keys. The ability to score from anywhere on the floor and the athleticism Young is blessed with make him an X-factor against even the toughest teams. If Sam Young can establish himself at some point in the first half, even if its late like in the OK State game, its going to make things hard on Duke. I’m also looking forward to seeing Singler’s game when he’s got to put forth maximum effort on both ends. Not to say he’s not capable, but it should be a test for him.
* Jamie v Krzyzewski! No question Coach K is one of the greatest coaches in history. He’s reloaded with Duke, and they’re again a legitimate national title threat. This is Jamie’s best Pitt team. As a coach, these are the matchups you live for. They’re also the ones where you earn your paycheck. Pitt has the opportunity to take a big step forward as a program, and I think it starts and ends with Jamie. I said last year when we lost @ OK City to OKSU that a loss like that could be valuable in March, because there were a lot of lessons there. We’ve started 10-0 or better five years in a row. That’s great, but I worry about how our team deals with tougher stretches, and some of our play down the stretch (like losing the Big East title game to Syracuse) has confirmed those concerns over the years. Free throw shooting, perimeter defense (Chris Quinn anyone?) and other breakdowns late (though fortunately no inbound-pass problems since the Khalid El-Amin game) have played a part in keeping us out of the later rounds of the tournament (whether through contributing to earlier exits, or hurting seeding with losses like St. John’s during the regular season). We seem to have played a lot of meaningful games with this basic cast of characters (Blair being the obvious exception). Jamie knows, more or less, what he’s got. Can he manage this game, in a (probably) hostile environment, against a legendary team, and a Hall of Fame coach, to put us in a position to win? I think he can, but its going to be exciting to find out.
And for anyone thinking playing them close is a moral victory, I submit to you that winning games like this not only gives you a stronger RPI, possible recruiting bounce, and oodles of confidence, it raises the profile of your program. We’ve failed to reach #1 despite being #2 a handful of times over the past 6 years. Last year we were #2, #1 lost, and we got jumped. While it obviously turned out to be correct (UCLA jumped us, and then later in the year proved they were the better team), that doesn’t change the fact that I’d like to open the paper just once and see “Top-Ranked Panthers Crush Seton Hall†or something like that. I can’t say for sure we’re going to win, but I feel like we’re capable of playing with Duke, and that in itself is a pretty big statement. This game is the type of game that can get us where we want to go as a program. Buckle up.
Comment by Maz 12.17.07 @ 12:03 pm
I’ll add that Stuart and I followed this up with a brief exchange where he pointed out our RPI bounce even with a loss will be nice. I agreed, and mentioned that what I meant was more the type of hype that comes from a signature win like the ones we’ve *almost* gotten over UConn over the years and the few chances we had to move up to #1. I think this game is in that class of importance, especially because even though the Stillers are on — which will hurt Pitt ratings locally — for most of us around the nation who don’t have the NFL Network, the Pitt-Duke game will be the featured dish on tonight’s sports menu.
——
I also agree that Fields is one of the best pure point guards in the country, but think that people are underestimating Singler’s athleticism. To not even list him as one of their athletes?
link to collegebasketball.rivals.com
I suppose you don’t have to be athletically gifted to have such a great 3.6-1 assist-to-turnover ratio…….
Also I am sick and tried of hearing about how great Coach K is. Coach K has won 3 national championships and yet he’s compared to John Wooden (Wooden has 10)? Please the guy has been there since 1980 and has his pick of the best kids in the country and has 3 championships? Oh yeah he gets all the calls that are close as well.
Hail Pitt & F Duke!
People talk bad about Cook because they expected him to come from ECU and still score 20 points a game. It is a little different when you actually have a team surrounding you like he does at PITT. He dropped 20 a game because he was the team. His assists are more valuable than his points.
As for Ramon, most shooters like him are not the most athletic people (i.e. Reddick, Korver, etc.) They are on the court because they can shoot and shoot well. We all know how much the 3 point shot has changed the game of basketball.
There is no question that PITT’s team is going to be able to contend with any team in college basketball this year and that all starting 5 players could start at almost any school in the country. We just need to be able to overcome the Sweet 16 hump.
HTP
Fans in general are too hard on their team’s players. He** I’m hard on Cook for his lapses of judgment, but that does not mean he is not a gifted athlete. These guys do what we can dream of doing.
Found a puff piece on D. Blair:
“10. DeJuan Blair, Pittsburgh – Quite simply, DeJuan Blair is a man. He’s not the most athletic guy or the most polished player, but he is, in my opinion, undefeated Pittsburgh’s best player. Pitt has had a pretty easy schedule thus far but Blair hasn’t fattened his stats on cupcakes (I believe large quantities of cattle can provide enough nourishment for DeJuan). He had 20 and 14 in the opener against Houston, 16 and 14 against Jon Brockman and Washington and 20 and 10 against Oklahoma State. In a three-game stretch of blowouts against MVSU, Buffalo and Boston he played sparingly and scored just 15 points combined so his near double-double average should probably be better. I’ve only seen him play once and was astonished to see his steals per game number. For a bruising post player to be tied for 28th in the nation in steals is an indication of how surprisingly athletic the (listed) 250-pound Blair really is. All that being said, let’s see if he can make a thin Duke frontcourt pay on Thursday.
Stats- 11.8 ppg, 9.1 rpg, 1.6 bpg, 2.4 spg, 57.6 FG%, 76.9 FT%”
Blair is athletic…for a center. Compared to othe positions, no he is not. He’s not allowed to dribble the ball up the floor, even though he wasnts to. He’s just too slow for that. But compared to centers? Very athletic.
Ramon – he’s slow on D. Always chasing his man around. I think he limits his game a lot – he’s much more agressive in the summer league, and looks a lot faster and athletic on O. Who knows if that’s because of the competition.
Fields – not the fastest poing guard in the world, but i’d still say he’s athletic. Is “athleticism” the most important thing in a PG? Does he have to dunk like the kid from Memphis? Seems to be doing a very good job to me, whether he’s athletic or not. I think he’ll play good D against whomever he’s matched up on Duke.
Cook – the kid just has a brain problem. Half the time you’re happy with him, because he does some really good thing, takes and makes some really good shots. Then other times, you’re like, WTF are you doing moron? He seems to have brain farts (for lack of a better term) too often. If he’s just cut that out, we’d be happy. Who knows if he’s going to keep his man in front of him against Duke though…i’m worried about that.
So, i’m most concerned about Cooks D and Ramon’s D. Problems there, and we could be in for a long game.
I think we need to mix our two styles up – if the shots not there, pull it out – Duke is athletic enough to cause problems if we’re pushing the tempo. We may have to just grind it out, get back on D. The key is shooting a high percentage, so we can get back and don’t have to deal with their transition. And when we’re back, not allowing 30 shots from 3.
Duke extends their halfcourt D farther than Pitt is used to playing against and that will pose problems for Pitt because of the shortcomings of their secondary ballhandlers. Ramon struggles against pressure and Cook can penetrate and make things happen, but only when he starts his drives much closer to the hoop than he’ll be able to against Duke.
Duke has added speed in the backcourt with Nolan Smith getting major minutes and they’ll pressure Pitt all night long. The only advantage Pitt has is Blair inside and exploiting that all depends on being able to get to places on the floor where our guards can feed the post.
I hope Pitt surprises me, but I think they’ll struggle against a team that has penetrators (Nelson, Smith, Henderson), shooters (King) and tough all-around players (Singler, McClure, Scheyer). I hope we can pound it inside, but I doubt we’ll be able to get into a slower-paced game that features Blair.
Enjoy the game tomorrow!! LET’S GO PITT!!!!!!!!
Billy – i’m going to disagree about Fields – i think he’s much more athletic this year – and combined with his handle, i think he is one of the top PGs in the nation – #10 in assist to turnovers, #32 in APG…maybe he doesn’t score 14 pts a game and get 5 boards like Rose from memphis (11/4 instead) – but he also doesn’t have his 1.3 to 1 assist turnover ratio…they each average just over 1 steal a game…
Name 10 PGs better than him…
…speaking of, i want to see some real signs in the crowd:
“tickets to the game: $400
stripper afterwards: $500
bail for dui: $1000
losing to Pitt on national TV: Priceless”
I missed that part of your post Stuart. I agree that he is athletic for the position (4 or 5). You will not be able to name 10 point guards better than Fields. You probably will be hard pressed to name 5. I can think of Collison and Lawson are the only two I would definitely take over Levance and not by much.
Im with you.
Blair is very athletic for his position.
You do not have to be very fast to play basketball. You must be quick. Fields is extremely quick. That is what makes him. To say fields isnt athletic is a joke. when pitt cant score everyone sits back and fields gets an isolation and with a combinations of quickness and unbelievable ball handling he beats his guy and dishes it off to an open player after he draws the help defense. Fields is the go to guy for the team this year.
Ramon on the other hand… He just doesnt have that same athleticism and quickness. He makes up for it by being a great shooter and makes other teams guard the perimeter.
The thing that scares me with this years team is they are streaky from what i have seen. They are either all firing away and hitting or they struggle to hit for long periods of time and no one steps up to get them through. i believe it was fields that said when they couldnt hit they played good defense, and that is all good, but they played okst. we had meltdowns against washington and Duquesne when we couldnt score. This team needs to work on being more consistent with their scoring.
If pitt is on they can easily beat duke… If pitt is off i see duke winning by at most around 10 or so. Duke can shoot lights out from the three point line. It could be a live by the three die by the three game
Im more worried about a georgetown. I dont care what anyone says we need more height. atleast a 6 foot 10 guy or something. Pitt is just too small
Naming 10 PGs better than Fields is easy. I’d take Collison, Lawson, Sherrod Collins (and Russell Robinson), Bayless, James, Harvey, Augustin, Singletary, Vasquez (he’ll get pub by the end of the year), Curry, Ruffin. The list could go on and on, but you get the point. I’m not even going to mention Rose or Flynn yet, but they’ll be there soon, too.
This game is up to the refs. Duke is soft as hell. If they call alot pitt loses. If they let stuff go the dukies are going to lose.
Whatever you want to call it, PG or lead guard or whatever, the guys I mentioned play PG for their teams (with the possible exception of Bayless, who is mostly playing SG with Wise handling), and I’d take all of them over Fields.
Did I ever say Fields wasn’t a solid player? No, I didn’t. He is solid; he’s just not a game-changing player. Whoever said Pitt wouldn’t win 10 games without him is correct, but that doesn’t make him an elite PG, it only makes him valuable to a team that doesn’t have other options.
Being a Pitt hoops fan doesn’t mean you have to lose all objectivity. We went through the same crap last year when Pitt started strong and we had to hear how they were headed for the Final 4. I’d rather not experience all that hype again. Let’s live in the real world.
Elite PG’s:
D.J. Augustin Texas
Darren Collison UCLA
Ty Lawson N. Carolina
Sean Singletary Virginia
Derrick Rose Memphis
Dominic James Marquette
Great PG’s:
Levance Fields Pitt
Greg Paulus Duke
Eric Maynor Virginia Com.
Jonny Flynn Syracuse
Eugene Harvey Seton Hall
Don’t believe all the NC and UCLA ESPN hype. There are plenty of lead guards out there who can play with Lawson and Collison. And none of this has anything to do with who can play in the NBA. That game requires size and man-on-man defensive skills that can be covered up in college.
And thanks for the Maynor mention Oakland Zoo — I forgot he came back to school and left him off my list.
Have you guys invented a position with “lead guard”? What the hell is that? And the player that brings the ball up the floor is certainly not always the pg.
What about assists? Let me think about that – you get an assist because you gave the man the ball at the right time to get your team 2 points. I like how you automatically discount that and want your PG to be a major scoring threat. Fields gets us points in other ways.
Plus, fields is intelligent enough and disciplined enough to play in the system – i’m sure on some other less disciplined team he’d go all out and take more shots, and score more. I watched him go one on one this summer against kids like brown and wannamaker (unless those kids aren’t fast or athletic either) and take them to school. Just because he doesn’t do that every game doesn’t me he isn’t capable.
I’ll keep my 3.6:1 ATR kid and you can have your flashy ball hog low assist high TO machine…
There isn’t a set-in-stone way to play the position. So, obviously you don’t understand it. When tourney time comes, Pitt needs a guard who can take over a game.
Thank god he’s not a 1950s point guard who’s limited to whatever you guys think is the ideal way to play the position. That would shackle Levance (and play to his weaknesses) and hurt Pitt.
Levance is content scoring or not scoring. Many games go by where he doesn’t shoot more than 3 shots. He is not a gunner at all nor a “playground” player, whatever the hell that is. The kid knows when he needs to score and when he doesn’t. How does he rack up all of the assists if he never gets into the lane? Does he just feed Ramon for three? You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. None.
