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January 14, 2010

Final Stuff

Filed under: Basketball,Media,Opponent(s) — Chas @ 10:11 pm

Okay, not much left.

You don’t eff with a streak. Pitt hasn’t lost since Gilbert Brown came back — and came off the bench. No reason to mess with that.

Plus Gilbert Brown doesn’t seem to have a problem with it. Instead giving love to Nasir Robinson as a gritty/glue guy.

“Nas brings all the intangibles,” Brown said. “He’ll scrap every minute of the game that he’s in there. He boxes out. He rebounds. He makes tough plays. When he checked into the game we said, ‘Make something happen.’ And he went out there and made a play. He makes that play every day in practice. He’s great around the basket, and he made a big-time play for us.”

In addition to the earlier mentioned “out-toughing” UConn, both sides acknowledged that Pitt wanted it more.

Pitt outscored Connecticut, 19-8, in the final 5:48 of the game.

“We wanted it more down the stretch,” Pitt junior guard Brad Wanamaker said.

Pitt has beaten Connecticut (11-5, 2-3) three in a row and four out of five meetings, including last season’s sweep of the then-No. 1 Huskies. It is Pitt’s first three-game winning streak against Connecticut since 1996-97.

“They wanted to win,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun said. “They didn’t talk about it. They showed it with great effort.”

UConn is trying to figure out why they are so inconsistent. Speculation is growing that because Calhoun has no faith in his bench, the starters are wearing down in the game.

In the second half Wednesday night, Calhoun used one bench player, Ater Majok, for six minutes. All other minutes went to Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson, Kemba Walker, Alex Oriakhi and Gavin Edwards, as has been the case most of the season. Before Wednesday’s game, they had played 81.3 percent of all the team’s minutes. They played between 32 and 39 minutes Wednesday, numbers that will keep Robinson, Dyson and Walker among the Big East’s top 10 players in minutes played.

I worry about Dixon and Gibbs — especially Gibbs — playing too many minutes each game, but compared to UConn, Pitt is in good shape.





I don’t think it was mentioned here, but Brian Bennett has Greg Romeus returning to Pitt next year.
link to sports.espn.go.com

Fantastic news for Yinz.

Comment by ChrisA 01.14.10 @ 10:21 pm

ESPN’s Joe Schad, rather.

Comment by ChrisA 01.14.10 @ 10:23 pm

That is big news.

Comment by SilverPanther in NYC 01.15.10 @ 6:59 am

Still very pumped about the start. I’m concerned about the Gibbs and Dixon minutes as well. Dixon’s shooting woes can be attributed to his layoff but also to the increased minutes over last year…especially given his effort required with the D. He started slow last year as well with his shot….hopefully he’ll come around or his brother will pull him aside for another tutorial. Similarly…Brad Wanny is really struggling with any shot jump shot as his points all came from the stripe and drives. We need both of these guys to turn their shot around to keep this rolling.

Comment by Final Four 01.15.10 @ 8:11 am

First off, Wanny spoke to the local (Pgh) media the other day and confirmed that Romeus was returning. A few other interesting things too like Kolby Gray moving to safety, E Fields to OLB, S Harris transferring but not C Burns, some 5th year guys who are graduating will not return, etc.

I can care less who starts, as we know it is who who finishes and gets most of the minutes. For example, the previous two games, Taylor played more than McGhee and playec in the final minutes. But of course against UConn, Jamie stayed with McGhee who was dominating the boards.

There does seem to be a history of Pitt players breaking down a little bit come February so Chas’ concern about Gibbs playing too many minutes is well founded. I believe that a major part of this though is scaling down these spirited practices Pitt is known for is even more important. I can see practicing hard for a 9 day layoff but now they will pretty much play 2 or 3 times a week for the final 2 months.

Comment by wbb 01.15.10 @ 8:39 am

QB to safety is wacky, but the staff must feel confident in the other QB candidates and still like Gray’s atheleticism. I kind of wondered why no one from Texas looked at him…

But agree the starting line up doesn’t matter that much. Agree with Fittapaldo- whatever you might feel about Robinson starting and Brown off the bench, we are winning. And if things start to get rough, Dixon can shake things up by moving Brown in as a starter. I agree with the above, someone needs to step up as another decent outside threat for when we spell Gibbs. No one needs to be as lethal, but has to be able to provide an injection of points.

And I don’t know man, offering analysis on how Pitt practices? That’s kind of wacky.
Who has broken down in February in the past? Dixon plays 8 deep and has pretty much done that his entire tenure. There are many coaches who won’t/can’t go that deep. We are one of the winningest programs in the last ten years and I’ve never heard or seen our late season condition play a factor in our fate.

Comment by SilverPanther in NYC 01.15.10 @ 9:49 am

Who starts at the four and how many minutes Gibbs and Dixon are playing are non-issues. Does anyone really think that playing 5 minutes less two or three times a week is going make any difference to a 19-22 year old?

What is important is that they have had to play that many minutes because the other guards have not been reliable enough yet for Jamie to trust them in critical minutes. Adams hasn’t really had much of an opportunity to show anything in the games and Woodall has been equal parts brilliant and frustrating. For every steal, there is a defensive lapse. For every quick move to the basket, there is an ill-advised pass or a quick shot.

With Brown and Dixon back, the top five (won’t use the word “starting”) is very solid. The key to the season will be how quickly the next three young guys(Robinson, Woodall, and Taylor) can become solid contributers. Each one of those guys brings something very valuable to the team. But their games need to mature for Pitt to have a realistic chance to continue the kind of success we’re all NOW EXPECTING!!!

On that note, is it just me or does the Big East seem to be down a little bit this year? Been underwhelmed so far by the likes of ‘nova, uconn, louisville (although I am worried about saturday), WVU, no real dominant team.

Comment by Boubacar Aw 01.15.10 @ 11:36 am

Concur that minutes aren’t a factor over the course of a season per se. I’m more concerned with the in game fatigue. I don’t think it was the pressure that caused Gibbs or Dixon to miss the front ends of those 1-1s late in the game. Fatigue kills shooting form and concentration…both of which those two cats need to do their thing.

Comment by Final Four 01.15.10 @ 12:32 pm

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