I have been giving serious thought to bagging a liveblog or even open thread after Pitt’s win over Syracuse when I never had a chance to post ahead of it. Yeah, but that is a coincidence (or at least that is what I am telling myself).
Cinci is looking to do something it has never done in the Big East, start out 3-0 in conference play.
A win over the Panthers would leave Cincinnati 3-0 in conference play for the first time since the 2004-2005 season, when coach Bob Huggins’ last Bearcats team opened its Conference USA schedule with wins over DePaul at home and St. Louis and East Carolina on the road before losing at home to Louisville.
The Bearcats followed a last-minute win over UConn with a gritty (read: struggling) win over Rutgers.
For Pitt, this would be a tough road game at any point in the season. To have it happen 2 days after a big road win makes it harder as the young team has to avoid a classic letdown.
Cincinnati has perhaps its best team since the Bearcats joined the Big East five seasons ago. Coach Mick Cronin’s team is led by senior guard Deonta Vaughn and 6-5 wing Lance Stephenson, a New York City phenom who was named the Big East Preseason Rookie of the Year.
Pollsters have taken notice. The Bearcats were ranked as high as No. 19 in the AP poll in early December.
“We’ve got to be focused on Cincinnati,” Pitt guard Brad Wanamaker said.
Stephenson has started every game and has made an immediate impact as his team’s leading scorer. He is averaging 13 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists and a team-high 29.4 minutes per game.
Vaughn has struggled with his shot for a good portion of the season but in the last two games has put up 17 points in each. Really, there is no doubt that this is the best team in the Mick Cronin era. It is also the first team to have some depth since the Huggy-Bear demolition. Yancy Gates is strong inside. Rashad Bishop is still there. Cashmere Wright is healthy. Ibrahima Thomas is eligible. Plus players like Dion Dixon (cripes 3 Dixons in one game), Larry Davis and Steve Toyloy.
On top of playing in Cinci, Pitt officially gets a target (beyond the one they have earned in the Big East for being one of the dominant teams of the aughts) for being ranked #23 in the AP poll.
The good news is that while Pitt is still offensively challenged, they have an identity. They are back to stifling defense. And they have a coach that won’t let them use their inexperience as an excuse (even if it is given its own chart for the media to use in the game notes, pg 5, PDF).
“The freshmen aren’t freshmen anymore,” Dixon said Saturday after Pitt upset No. 5 Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. “I declared them sophomores over the break. I took that away from them. I advanced them a year.”
It was another subtle reminder that his young players have to perform beyond their years if the Panthers are going to compete well in Big East Conference play. And two games into the conference schedule some of the young players are heeding their coach’s advice and growing up in a hurry.
More love and attention for Ashton Gibbs who takes home Big East Player of the Week Honors, along with ESPN.com’s Weekly Watch’s POY.
Ashton Gibbs should thank UConn’s Kemba Walker for staying home instead of playing for the United States on the Under 19 national team that won gold for the first time since 1991.
Gibbs was tabbed as the starter once Walker decided against returning to the squad for a second summer. Gibbs was the lead playmaker for U-19 (and Pitt) coach Jamie Dixon, and it is paying huge dividends for the Panthers this season.
And this bit about Pitt and Coach Dixon.
…Pitt is 2-0, and if the Panthers win eight more Big East games, assuming a few are against the upper echelon, Pitt is once again an NCAA tournament team. Never doubt coach Jamie Dixon and pick him ninth again, Big East coaches. Never.
Anyways, LiveBlog is around 7pm. The game is on ESPN. I need Pitt to win this game so I can reclaim some bragging rights from my wife.
You can break out the liveblog when you Click Here.
Otherwise it will be below.
actually it does — just heard on the radio that Jaron Brown was behind the bench and in the locker room (probably came up from Lexington)
Hail to PITT!
-al-
they just took very few bad shots the whole game. wanamaker’s airball finger roll and Gibbs’ last baseline drive are the only ones that pop to mind, and that’s great for a whole game. give the coaching staff credit for that offensive discipline.
the obvious difference I notice is with Gibbs. he was playing one on one a lot in the early games and he’s just not a generate-your-own-shot type of player. he’s now letting the game come to him and of course he’s got more support now that Dixon/Brown are back.
2-0 with two wins on the road.
I didn’t see Jaron Brown behind the bench, but if so, gotta love it!
Where’s the Doomsday Express? 3 down and 7 to go. Like I said, no reason why this team cannot go .500 in BE ball with their full compliment of players. As Andy Katz said…don’t ever doubt a Jamie Dixon Coach team…ever…
Stephenson is a beast, but over the course of the game Pitt’s defense really frustrated him. He threw up some really bad shots down the stretch.
It’s strange to have a 9 day layoff at this point, but I can’t wait to see what the coaches come up with for UConn…One thing is becoming clear – this team is not going to be a pushover for anyone.
He certainly has his faults but is playing much more under control, and I assure you will be key in a more than a few upcoming games
I can live with a UConn loss. I would have been fine going 1-2 in our first three Big East games. Being 3-0 in the conference right now is a huge surprise. Jamie Dixon should get another raise and another extension. Heck, rename The Pete to The Jamie.
HAIL TO PITT!!!
on a side not it speaks volumes about this program that the syracuse game – on the road as an unranked, unnoticed team against an undefeated, top-5 team – was the first time in almost six years pitt was a double-digit dog. jamie dixon may just be the best coach in america.
HTscriptP
Gilbert Brown can write his legacy in the next two years, IMHO. I have always thought that his body and athleticism would be a matchup nightmare for most teams and would translate at the next level. Injuries, upperclassmen, willingness to play D at JD’s level, and academics have been the roadblock in realizing it.
If he can have that moment where he embraces JD’s expectations, and channels his energy in a positive direction, he really can finish up with a nice career at Pitt.
I seem to remember a certain Pitt Panther that had similar types of roadblocks who is now throwing the hammer down for the Grizzlies….
I really don’t think the game was frustrating or not pretty. In fact I thought Pitt executed very well and shot very well on the offensive end. Sure the D was suspect at times, but Cinci was hitting tough shots. Pullup J’s and turnaround jumpers by their bigs carried them in the first half. These will not and did not continue the whole game and Pitt was able to come away with the V.
Also can we talk about how big of a difference someone like Gibbs is. He can stretch the D so far with his 3pt. shot that it opens up so much for him and his teammates. I think many of us unfairly characterized him as solely a shooter. He is showing us that he has some real craftiness to his game. Whether it be curling off screens and going the whole way to the rack, pump faking and drawing fouls, drawing a second defender and dishing to wide open teammates, this kid can flat out play basketball. He is absolutely tremendous at working without the ball.
Sorry — I never plagarized for a class at any level. If that was indeed the case, it’s disappointing that Brown made such a bad decision, but I’m actually heartened to see that Pitt treated it as the serious academic offense it was and didn’t bend its academic code for a key player. Many schools have either a zero tolerance policy or an automatic F for the course plus academic probation for a 1st offense (an F could have put him under a minimum GPA requirement for eligibility). There are many software tools available to professors/TAs to detect plagarized work. It’s a lapse by Jamie Dixon to let a key player get in deep enough for this to happen without some tutoring/support, but ultimately Brown is responsible for maintaining academic eligibility and following the universtity’s academic code.
I hope it was just a lapse in judgement and he realizes his potential on the court AND graduates.
BTW, have you ever noticed on the TV commercial where the AT&T US coverage map is shown in red, that the great state of Hoopies is clear?
Couple of my friends, one a big UNC fan, the other a big Duke fan, can’t believe what Pitt is doing this year.
I agree that Div I athletes have tremendous demands on their time, but they also get support way beyond what a typical student receives. They often take the bulk of their courseload outside of their main sports season (summer/fall in Brown’s case) and take minimal credits during the season.
I know this is a young team, but all of Brown’s teammates maintained eligibility, and it’s been years since I can remember a Pitt basketball player suspended for academic reasons.
I’m glad to see Brown back in the fold and hope it’s behind him.
Going back to an ongoing discussion on this site during last season, it was mentioned that defense and rebounding is a constant based much on effort … while shooting (especially outside shooting) is not. Against the man-to-man, we may not be able to knock down the shots that we did on Saturday … and it probably a big reason why we will likely experience our share of highs and lows.
But as long as the effort is there, we should be competitive