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.
This statement is alitle misleading. I realize you’re summarizing what the press says, but keep in mind, since the re-birth of the hoops program (let’s say 98-99 season), Pitt hasn’t played St. John’s consistently over this span.
00-01 DNP
01-02 played once at pitt, we won
02-03 DNP
03-04 played once at pitt, we won
04-05 we lost at Saint Johns 62-65
05-06 we lost at Saint Johns 50-55
06-07 played once at pitt, we won
In all of our recent years of making the most noise in NYC (the big east tournament), St. john’s hasn’t been good enough to even make it past the first round-or even make it in the tournament.
Your statement isn’t completely wrong-just perhaps missing some key data because the opportunity to play home/away every year wasn’t there..its not like say, “Notre Dame hasn’t won a bowl game in 10 years.” -Sorry had to get that in there..
You left out that Pitt also won at home against them in 04-05
Pitt is 4-17 all-time in NYC against St. John’s. While Pitt is 3-0 at the Pete against the Red Storm, Pitt even has an overall losing record at home (11-13).
In the last 10 games, Pitt is 4-6 vs. St. John’s. 8-12 over the past 20.
You quoted what I said, but didn’t seem to understand. My point was that Pitt has historically had a bad time with the Red Storm, even in this big downturn of St. John’s fortunes. Pitt hasn’t beaten them in NYC in the past 6 tries.
You may feel that the sample size is too small, and that’s fine, but most sample sizes in even a 5 year period will be rather small in the present configuration of the Big East.
That’s my point-the sample size is too small..we played them rather consistently before “the rebirth.”
I am making the claim that during this time, if we played them both home and away, we would indeed have a winning record against them and a better record at tehir place. Also, although its technically not a home game for the johnny’s, we would whip them during the BEt if too-if they could qualify that is.
This should be an easy W tomorrow regardless..and I agree with the Blair notion-I do think he is the most important player on the team.
I am really hoping that having all these coaches with NFL experience will help with recruiting. Maybe they can convince recruits that our program is one of the best at preparing athletes for the NFL. Having a former NFL head coach, Offensive coordinator, & offensive line guy should help.
I’m really hoping that we can land Sal Sunseri for defensive coordinator. From what I’ve read, he sounds like an amazing recruiter and another die-hard Pitt guy.
The Zoo made it onto SI.com’s picture list of College Superfans for last week…
I agree it’s better to look at “recent” experience for the same reason the NCAA selection committee looks at a team’s “last 10 games” as one of their barometers. Having said that, we don’t look very good agaianst St John’s over the last 4 years. Considering the strength of our team and weakness of St John’s over that period, it’s not a good showing. None the less I will be at the Garden tomorrow night to root the Panthers to victory.
North Park Lounge might have the games on. Maybe call them. I know I have watched Pitt BB games there before, but can’t remember what station the game was on then. There’s one in Cranberry and also on Babcock Blvd. in Ross Twp.
