A treat, even.  Arguably, one of the developments of increased parity in college sports is the decrease in depth. Few teams really go too deep in rotations. You see it in preseason rankings. After the obvious talent on a team and the coach, the two factors most commonly relied on to rank a team higher involves experience level and depth.

Pitt came into the season with some questions about the depth. Mainly, how would it be used and could it be relied. Generally it has come through this season. In his chat, Ray Fittipaldo noted that it didn’t quite come up strong against Louisville.

PrimeTime: I keep hearing you say that Pitt is not that deep, I have been paying attention to the last 3-4 games Especially Louisville and Syracuse and it seems those teams only played 6 and maybe 7 and Pitt is playing 7-8 guys, I think this gives Pitt a big advantage going into the Big East Tourney and the NCAA, what is your thoughts

Ray Fittipaldo: Pitt’s depth one through seven is a strength. Brad Wanamaker and Gilbert Brown are really good bench players. That being said, they only contributed five points in the Louisville game when they were really needed. I guess I’d like to see more consistency out of them. Also, I’d like to see Gary McGhee progress as a backup center to Blair. Gibbs is fine for three or four minutes a game as long as he doesn’t have to handle pressure. Fields had to play 39 minutes vs. Louisville because there was no one else to handle the ball. The result was he and the rest of team were worn down at the end of the game.

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Minnesota_Pittman: I hear what you’re saying about Pitt’s bench needing to score more. However, if these guys can come in, play defense, score a couple of points, keep the other team at bay and most importantly give our starters some rest, then IMHO they’ve done a good job.

Ray Fittipaldo: I agree with you for the most part. My observation from the Louisville game was that they needed to score and did not because everyone else was in foul trouble. Wanamaker and Brown are solid players, but they did not step up in that game. If there is another scenario like that down the road, I think they’ll have to find ways to score and help out the starters. The starters scored all but five of the team’s points in that game. Sometimes you need some help from unexpected sources.

I guess. In one game the bench didn’t score and the starters were in foul trouble. I’m a bit more optimistic, since we have seen the bench come through in the scoring part in prior games this season. Rutgers immediately springs to mind.

So the first man off Pitt’s bench is almost always Gilbert Brown. Naturally that makes it easy to lead with his puff piece from his local paper.

“Usually around the five-minute mark, [Brown] is the first guy in,” the six-year head coach said. “Defense is first, along with rebounding and decision making. In some games he will score some points for us.

“Brown has a great understanding of what we do offensively and defensively. He’s a smart player who takes great pride in being a student of the game. When we recruited him his athleticism jumped out at me. He is a good student with a good family background.”

And he’s contributing significantly to one of the country’s top teams, averaging 19.6 minutes, 5.9 points and 3.9 rebounds. He also has recorded 12 steals.

Brown’s season this year, sort of reminds me of Sam Young’s sophomore year. Nagging injuries. So much potential that showed the prior year. Yet, the progress was slowed by the physical injuries. Flashes of it. Hopefully it will keep re-emerging through the season.

When Nasir Robinson was recruited and gave his verbal to Pitt, the common refrain was that he was gritty, tough but not always pretty. Especially with his offense. We’ve seen that in limited doses this year. When on the court, he plays tough defense. He’s got the athleticism and can get to the basket and be in position. His touch, however, gives new meaning to muscling the ball. Just as it seemed like he was going to get buried on the bench this year, he’s started to get more playing time.

“He’s good against the zone and that was something we were looking at,” Dixon said. “They went small. So we really felt good about it and it felt like the right thing to do at the time. He’s active and that was something he didn’t do against Louisville.”

Robinson – a two-time PIAA all-state first team selection – made his only shot, a layup off an excellent feed from DeJuan Blair. He also grabbed one rebound, had one assist and saved a ball from going out of bounds in his limited action.

Pitt, which plays at West Virginia on Sunday, saw its lead grow to 11 by the time Tyrell Biggs entered the game for Robinson with 3:32 left.

“(Nasir) came in fresh and he gave us a big boost,” guard Levance Fields said.

Robinson’s boost in playing time comes at the expense of Gary McGhee. There’s no doubt that McGhee is still struggling, but I really don’t think he’s going to get run out of Pitt or transfer. I see it as a great thing about Pitt’s depth and talent. There are a lot of programs where McGhee would be playing a lot of minutes simply because of his size and the lack of talent in front of him.

At this point he’s not looking like he’ll ever be a starter. I’m not convinced he doesn’t have an important role, though. A player that can fill the lane and provide some help inside. If he wants it, he will have every opportunity in 2009-10 with Biggs and Young are gone. Yes there is talent coming in (and redshirting) that will push him. That’s good.

I think as much as anything, the “transfer or push” talk is more from following recruiting. Pitt, like nearly every other program, is still staying involved with players even as they have their allotment of scholarships for the recruiting class filled. So, that fuels the speculation as to where another scholarship could potentially emerge. McGhee seems like the most apparent on the roster.