I was kind of amused by the theme in both papers the other day. You know, how DeJuan Blair is the most indispensable Pitt player.
The argument can be made that Pitt’s most indispensable player is not Fields, leading scorer Sam Young or any of the other upperclassmen on the team. It could be argued — and quite convincingly — that the Panthers’ most important player is a freshman.
Pitt has lost three games this season. In two of them, first-year center DeJuan Blair was mired in foul trouble and rendered ineffective.
Blair had the worst game of his college career in a 62-59 loss at Cincinnati Saturday afternoon. He scored four points and tied a season-low with three rebounds against the Bearcats. He posted such paltry statistics because he played just 22 minutes because of foul trouble.
Blair had to sit on the bench for 14 minutes in the first half after picking up two early fouls. He picked up his third a little more than a minute into the second half.
Obviously the main theme was that when he’s in foul trouble, Pitt has increased struggles.
“It’s hard to do well without him,” junior Sam Young said. “We are already short-handed.”
Young summarizes it all, in my view. If Pitt is without any of the present starting five for an extended period in the game, the team will struggle. It’s the lack of depth, stupid. The three scholarship bench players are Bradley Wanamaker, Gary McGhee and Tyrell Biggs. That should tell us everything about how vital all the starters are right now to Pitt’s chances in any game. It’s nice to make a piece on Blair, but “most important,” just overstates it.
The point they almost lose in both stories is that as a freshman starting, playing and thriving inside — Blair is going to be a focal point of any game plan by opponents. One of the main goals will be to get him in foul trouble to get him out of the game. It takes away Pitt’s leading rebounder and a vital defender and scoring threat. Plus, it further wears on Pitt’s lack of depth. Obviously he will improve and get better as he gets more experience. Not to mention as he plays longer, the refs will give him more of a break on some calls that a freshman simply won’t get.
Sticking with Blair, a big theme going into tomorrow night’s game at St. John’s is that his HS teammate and best friend D.J. Kennedy will be starting on the Red Storm.
The Panthers recruited Kennedy, but he said the style of play and the chance for playing time were better at St. John’s. At Pitt, he would have been at the same position as redshirt freshman Gilbert Brown and incoming freshman Brad Wanamaker.
“Early on, me and DeJuan talked about going to the same school,” Kennedy said. “But things happen for a reason. …I’m definitely happy at St. John’s. I love the coaching staff at Pitt. It was just the situation. I felt St. John’s gave me a better opportunity.”
Kennedy also seemed to want to get out of Pittsburgh. There has been much tragedy and violence that impacted his family and friends that he, quite reasonably, seemed to be desperate to get somewhere else.
Blair does wish that he and Kennedy were still teammates, but then I’m not sure he would have ended up at Pitt so selfishly I’m happy it didn’t.
“I wish he would have thought about it more,” Blair said. “We should have taken it more seriously to go to college together. We weren’t thinking that way. We could have gone to Pitt, West Virginia, Kansas State. I could have gone anywhere he went. We weren’t thinking ahead like we should have been.
“We could have brought what we had at Schenley to Pitt. But I guess he wanted to set a new trend. He wanted to get out of the city. That’s cool. I told him I was behind him 100 percent whatever he did. He’s starting and playing very well. I’m happy for him. He didn’t have to stay home.”
Pitt hasn’t beaten St. John’s in NYC in 12 years. No matter how bad they’ve been, Pitt has just struggled miserably against them on the road.
