It’s a safe bet that with a 4-man recruiting class that is one of Pitt’s best in 20+ years, and 2 players that redshirted last year, that Pitt will be playing a lot of freshmen.
- Travon Woodall (redshirt freshman guard)
- Dwight Miller (redshirt freshman forward/center)
- Dante Taylor (freshman forward/center)
- Talib Zanna (freshman forward/center)
- J.J. Richardson (freshman forward)
- Lamar Patterson (freshman forward/guard)
Whether they start or are in the bench rotation, the freshmen will see a lot of action. Pitt has 6 freshmen (redshirt and true) and 6 other scholarship players:
- Jermaine Dixon (senior guard),
- Gilbert Brown (redshirts junior guard/forward),
- Gary McGhee (junior center),
- Brad Wanamaker (junior guard),
- Ashton Gibbs (sophomore guard) and
- Nasir Robinson (sophomore forward).
No matter how you slice it, this is a young and inexperienced team heading for the 2009-10 season.
I mean, good lord, this is inexperienced and young. Until I just put it down on the computer, I don’t think it truly hit me. This Pitt team is going to take some lumps.
Jermaine Dixon is the senior, but this is only his second year with Pitt. Brown will be in his 4th season, but he has had no luck staying healthy for a season which has limited his minutes and tantalized with his athletic potential. Gary McGhee, you just somehow hope the big lug can get to serviceable and not averge a foul every other minute. Gary Wanamaker has shown big improvement from his freshman to sophomore year, but seemed to wear down late in the season. Ashton Gibbs hopefully will get a lot out of extra coaching and high competition in the U-19 games — not to mention maybe realizing the team will need him to be one of the leaders. Hopefully Nasir Robinson will have a jump like Wanamaker did from freshman to sophomore year.
So, summer league takes on even more importance for building chemistry and getting the players ready for this year.
“We have to come in and be ready to play,” said Taylor, Pitt’s highest-rated recruit of the Dixon era. “That’s not asking too much. We all knew what we were coming into. We all knew who was leaving. Now we just have to prove what we have to do on the court.”
Taylor, a 6-foot-9 forward/center, is Pitt’s first McDonald’s All-American since Brian Shorter and Bobby Martin in 1987. He is a candidate to step into the starting center position that DeJuan Blair vacated when he decided to turn professional after his sophomore season.
At 6-9, Taylor is not the ideal size to play center in the Big East, but he and Zanna are the tallest players on the roster after 6-10 junior Gary McGhee, who is the only Panther with experience in the frontcourt.
“I think my best position will be [power forward],” Taylor said. “But right now we’re in the weight room, so by the beginning of the season I’ll put on a little weight and get stronger, so I’ll probably play [center].”
Taylor’s reputation took a small hit when he was cut from the USA Basketball under-19 team that Dixon is coaching this summer. Taylor admitted he was out of shape for the tryout but said that was the result of being inactive for two weeks while he tended to his sick mother.
Taylor, who labored through summer league games last week, said he is now focused on getting in shape for the start of the season.
In a way, the challenge of getting this team ready for the upcoming year makes Coach Dixon’s decision to take the U-19 responsibilities something of a gamble. Under most seasons, that would be spreading a coach thin. This level of inexperience makes it a real challenge. Of course, with NCAA rules prohibiting much work with the players in the offseason, it isn’t that bad. Still, while this team may have the most potential in a year or two of any team under Coach Dixon, there is no questioning that it is also his most inexperienced.
Then there is that still available scholarship. Everything says Pitt is just holding it for the 2010 recruiting class, rather than just tossing it to another player that may not be talented enough.
But what if he is. And he is a likely one-and-done? Cue the return of Lance Stephenson rumors.
Lance Stephenson is currently on a visit to the University of Cincinnati, a program that up until this point has not been involved in his recruiting process.
“He got here yesterday [Friday],” said a player on the team. “We just got through playing open gym. [He played] with the whole team and a couple old players.”
…
Memphis and Arizona may still be involved, but no visits have been set, as far as we know.
Other potential schools in the mix include Missouri, Pittsburgh and UNC-Charlotte, according to a source.
Stephenson briefly expresed an interest in Pitt but neither side seemed serious.
Stephenson is a McDonald’s All-American guard. The most talented kid not signed. He’s also got a boatload of baggage and question marks. Some writers have referred to him as a potential “cancer” and “coach-killer.”
My feeling has been that he would not work for Pitt. For Pitt’s system and the culture that has been established at Pitt. Stephenson is a pure one-and-done player. He would have declared for the draft if he could have. It is where he wants to be. College is a way-station for him.
And yet, I find that I can rationalize/talk myself into it. It would only be for one year… Coach Dixon is in a position now, where he can come down on the kid if he can’t play nice with others… Pitt is in a good shape with its APR so the program could stand the hit when Stephenson never even finishes his second semester… The NCAA investigation that comes with Stephenson is for stuff before he gets to school, and if he never gets to suit up it is not a big deal…
Nahh. This would still be a mistake and just ugly.
