Not sure what the point of a recap is other than to record the misery. So, here are the local stories.
Then there’s the Dayton stories. Foul trouble for Blair. Brian Roberts was so hot, they didn’t even miss Chris Wright. Roberts had a night to shine.
Pittsburgh’s Sam Young spoke for everyone — the sell-out UD Arena crowd, the national TV audience, the NBA scouts sitting courtside, the players and coaches on both teams — when he sought Brian Roberts out after Saturday night’s game.
The Panthers’ junior forward reached down and hugged the Dayton Flyers guard in the hand-shake line afterward and whispered: “You’re one helluva player.”
He sure was Saturday night.
The loss of Fields was the bigger story not just for Pitt fans.
Metatarsal injuries occur frequently with soccer players, perhaps most famously when England forward Wayne Rooney broke his fourth metatarsal playing for Manchester United not long before the 2006 World Cup. Rooney was able to make a quick recovery and played in a Cup game just six weeks after his foot was broken.
On the other hand, the NBAʼs Pau Gasol fractured his fifth metatarsal playing for Spain in the semifinals of the 2006 FIBA World Championships. He did not play his first game of the 2006-07 season for the Memphis Grizzlies until three months later.
Pitt’s goals and hopes for this season, have obviously been downsized.
“We’ll be OK,” Dixon said. “We’ve got guys to replace them.”
That may be true, but now Pittsburgh goes from a team that could compete for the Big East championship to a team that more realistically can hope to finish above the .500 mark in conference play.
Before the extent of the Fields injury was known Pitt was still in flux, Mike DeCourcy noted the way Pitt was going to have to change with Brown in place of Cook.
The Panthers can’t help but be a radically different team, though, because the two players have such disparate skills. Cook was a fifth-year senior who brought a point guard’s creativity to the small forward spot. His lack of athleticism kept him from being a great defender, but he understood how to make himself a nuisance.
Brown demonstrated how much different a player he is with a flying tip-slam of a missed turnaround jumper by Young — one of the few Panthers highlights. But Brown managed to take seven other shots in the game without providing any hint of what sort of shots he might make. He now is hitting 41 percent from the field, 26 percent from 3-point range.
Dixon said Brown should prove to be a fine replacement, despite his uncertain play Saturday. The coach admitted there might be some different plays called in the short term but insisted major changes would not be necessary because “the other nine guys are still the same.”
With Brown in the lineup, Pitt goes from a team lacking quickness at the point guard, shooting guard and small forward spots to one that is exceptionally dynamic at small forward (Brown), power forward (Young) and center (Blair). That eventually should improve the Panthers’ defense. But until the offense regains its equilibrium, they’ll be an imperfect team.
