Well, hopefully not that bad. Still, you know you are expected to be a major player in the season when the news of a player’s slow recovery from an injury is getting play and the AP story is picked up everywhere.
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said Thursday it is uncertain how long Fields will be out. Pitt, which is likely to be a preseason Top 10 team, begins play Nov. 14 against Fairleigh Dickinson.
“I don’t think we can make any predictions on that,” Dixon said. “Who would have thought he’d be playing on it for two months (this summer) and not have one problem with it, and then have the injury re-occur? It’s unexplainable.”
Dixon called the injury a setback.
“There’s nothing positive about him not being able to go (and) losing conditioning,” he said.
Yesterday was Pitt’s media day, so there was no way to keep this relatively quiet. And despite the angst in the story getting reported, Fields is still downplaying things as not that big of a deal.
“It’s good. I’m up to date as far as where I should be with it,” Fields said. “I’m rehabbing it and doing the right things out there but its is frustrating. How could it not be?”
Fields, who participated in the Steve Nash Skills Camp over the summer, said he still feels pain in the foot but he is shooting a basketball and he expects to be ready when Pitt opens its season Nov. 14 with a home game against Fairleigh Dickinson.
“We’re taking our time right now. Taking a few days off here and there,” Fields said. “It’s the best surgery I could have and it’s what the doctors wanted to do when I broke it in the first place. I’ll be fine.”
That means while Fields is recovering, it’s freshman Travon Woodall at the point.
Woodall suffered a mild concussion and had some teeth knocked loose when he collided with another Pitt player during a workout yesterday. But he’s ready to fill in for Fields, who has become his mentor.
Woodall said he’s learning from the best, just as Brandin Knight taught Carl Krauser, who taught Fields.
“I’ve got the best point guard in the country on my team,” Woodall said. “He doesn’t score 30 points, but he makes sure he gets the win. He doesn’t turn the ball over. … What better person to learn from than Levance? I don’t have to watch old film of Isaiah Thomas or anybody like that. I’ve got the best general right here, right now.”
Oh, it was Wednesday night and Sam Young did it.
Woodall, at 195 pounds, is thin, but he already has gained 10 pounds under the tutelage of strength and conditioning coach Tim Beltz.
If there is one aspect where he might struggle as a freshman, it is with his ability to endure the rigors of the Big East.
Woodall has yet to take part in an official Pitt practice, but he already has learned how physical they can be. In a scrimmage Wednesday night, Woodall stepped in front of Sam Young to take a charge. Young’s elbow caught Woodall in the mouth, cut the inside of his gums and gave him a slight concussion.
“I found out real quick that it’s the Big East,” Woodall said. “I woke up real fast and recognized how physical it is. I actually had a mouth guard in. The mouth guard split, so that tells you strong [forward] Sam is.”
I guess the concussion must have been mild. Otherwise, it might not be the best plan to put a freshman with a concussion before the media, not to mention a whole lot of camera flashes going off around him.
Also on the injury list for freshmen, forward Dwight Miller has a heel injury that has held him out for six weeks. There’s nothing saying when he will be able to participate in regular practices that will start tomorrow. If he doesn’t get back soon, he’s almost assured of redshirting and not getting in the rotation when the season gets underway (he can ask Gilbert Brown about that). Hopefully not, because most accounts had him as a very pleasant surprise in the summer league and his practices.
And Gilbert Brown is having some ankle issues to slow him down.
As for those big expectations in the preseason rankings. Naturally Coach Jamie Dixon downplays it a bit — even while acknowledging why.
Coach Jamie Dixon felt his team was underrated going into last season, so how about this year? How about the folks who pick his team as high as No. 2?
“Maybe I don’t agree with it,” Dixon said, “but I understand it.”
Dixon wants to see how some of his inexperienced perimeter players perform before he believes his team belongs in anybody’s top five.
But he knows why people are bullish on Pitt. It’s because of The Big Three — senior forward Sam Young, sophomore center DeJuan Blair and senior point guard Levance Fields.
Here’s Hoopsworld.com, for example putting Pitt #3.
The expectations haven’t been this high for the Panthers since Chris Taft was considered a lottery pick. Unlike back then though, this team is legit and is certainly capable of being the last team standing after all the madness. Levance Fields established himself as one of the best lead guards in the country last night, and more importantly a clutch player who you can give the ball with the game on the line.
Inside the Panthers have two of the nation’s most talented frontcourt players in Sam Young and DeJuan Blair. Young is among the nation’s most versatile players and few freshmen big men have come in and made as big of an impact as Blair did in his first season. Expect the duo to have a big year as they begin to put establish their NBA draft stock. The most important thing for the Panthers is to stay healthy. Last year at times they were decimated by injuries and it definitely contributed to their early exit from the tournament.
Pitt has a press release listing the various preseason rankings and honors/rankings for the various players and coaches. It also has a link to watch Coach Dixon’s opening day press conference, and audio interviews with Sam Young, Levance Fields, DeJuan Blair, Gilbert Brown and Bradley Wannamaker.
With many schools — but not Pitt — doing a Midnight Madness event to kick off the beginning of practice, ESPN-U will kick off its coverage of college basketball tonight from 9pm to 1am. Coach Jamie Dixon will be one of the coaches interviewed in the course of the evening.
