While a lot of individual players got focused pieces after the Louisville game, there were also a few others that got stories. They’ve been in the tabs waiting to be put in the right place.

From last week, Gilbert Brown comes about as close as he can to talking about his suspension.

“I had to own up to it,” Brown said. “The big thing was that I was known as a good student, but this gave it a negative perception that I was a bad student. I made some bad decisions, and it was a tough process.”

It is the consequence. All achievements are questioned. Fairly or not.

The piece also discusses the position switch and importance/difficulty in Pitt’s system.

Brown’s new position is famously the toughest in Pitt’s rotation to learn and embrace. It combines strong inside and outside play. It demands equal parts penetration and perimeter prowess. It asks the player to get offensive rebounds, but at the same time stretch defenses so teammates can get opportunities.

The four is such a position that Young, who led the Panthers in scoring the past two seasons, was dragged screaming into learning it.

But in advance of filling that spot, in addition to keenly watching Robinson in this year’s games, Brown viewed game films of Young, who finally embraced his role and eventually flourished in it.

“I fully understand what he had to go through,” Brown said of Young.

And with Pitt’s success, it would seem the cries to mess with the rotation are dying. Though it seems hard to let go of the impulse to cry, “move Taylor to the Four now.”

Filed under questionable timing (and questionable factually) is a small feature on Travon Woodall from the New York Post (I’m sure for many, there is another joke here).

Woodall, a 5-foot-11, 190-pound redshirt freshman, leads the Panthers in assists (4.4). And, after being forced to sit out last season with a knee injury, the Brooklyn native has developed an identity on the team.

He has started 10 games. He is averaging 24.4 minutes. And he is distributing the ball, well, like the guards of Panthers past.

“Last year, it was frustrating to watch. But I had the chance to see some great players,” Woodall said. “I wanted to be out there. But I learned that I needed to use that to my advantage. Take those feelings and let that improve your play. I believe, in the end, that it’s added to my game now.”

His coach concurs.

“Another thing that I’m very pleased about Travon is his rebounding,” Dixon said. “We typically have guards who have excelled at rebounding: Brandin Knight, Carl Krauser and Levance Fields. His rebounding has been outstanding.”

Of course, Woodall’s stats have been plummeting. He has averaged 12.3 min/game since Big East play started. He has 13 assists and 9 turnovers in those 6 games.  The Louisville game, which was big for many had Woodall play a season low 8 minutes and commit 3 turnovers.

Woodall’s minutes have taken a big hit with Dixon and Brown’s return. He is, simply put, being outplayed by them and it is keeping him from getting out there. When he does get out there, it is very clear that he is pressing. Trying to play too fast.

I would call it the  “early Keith Benjamin phase.” In his first couple of years, Benjamin would come out with so much energy, so eager to prove how good he was, and that he belonged out there. He would end up more than negating the energy he brought by jacking up shots and trying to make ridiculous passes. More often than not, it just accelerated how quickly he would get yanked out of the game, because he wasn’t playing the same game as the other four.

Gary McGhee got big love, not just for the Louisville game, but just for the way he was playing.

McGhee is hardly a star, but Pitt would not be 15-2 and knocking on the door of the top 10 without him. He had the difficult challenge this season of taking over in the post for All-American DeJuan Blair, who, you might have heard, is showing off his game quite nicely in the NBA. He hasn’t backed down from it, giving Pitt a big body and a better-than-expected physical presence inside as a defender and rebounder. He has come a long way from the guy who picked up three fouls in one second at Connecticut last season and promptly became known to his playful teammates as “Guinness Book Of World Records.” He was huge — literally and figuratively — with 8 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocked shots in Pitt’s stunning 67-57 victory in its return trip to Connecticut Wednesday night.

“It didn’t intimidate me replacing DeJuan because I played against him every day in practice and I knew my game was right up there,” McGhee said after Pitt’s throbbing 82-77 overtime victory Saturday against Louisville. “He was one of the best rebounders in college basketball history and I held my own with him. I knew if I could rebound against him, I could rebound against anyone in the country. I knew I was ready to play in the Big East.”

McGhee’s game is hardly pretty. He has much work to do to become even a competent offensive force. “I’m trying to finish better when the ball’s dumped off to me,” he said. Blair’s hands are so much better than his, although McGhee had no trouble grabbing a rebound after a missed shot by Wanamaker in overtime Saturday and laying it in the basket to give Pitt a 76-72 lead.

Those two critical points were nice, but that’s not what Pitt counts on getting from McGhee. Clearly, he knows his role. “Defense and rebounding are what win championships,” he said. “Getting a stop for me on defense is just as good as a dunk.”

McGhee isn’t just trying to follow Blair. He is following Gray, Taft and guys like Lett who holds dear places in Pitt fans hearts for helping to launch this golden age of Pitt basketball. (And while it is increasingly looking like McGhee will end up as good as Lett (9.1 pts and 4.8 rbds/game), I wonder how many will look as kindly on him considering the players McGhee followed and the present expectations.

When Pitt was at Cinci a couple weeks ago, at one point Bill Raftery exclaimed, “I’ll tell you what Jay [Bilas], this kid McGhee is a very serviceable center!” It was a backhanded compliment that made me laugh, in part because while Rafs said it with such genuine surprise, it was never intended as an insult. It was also accurate. Through the coaches and his own work McGhee has become an integral and solid player. He has worked himself into so much better shape. He is not a star, but he is doing the job at that position.

Then there is McGhee’s teammate Brad Wanamaker. After a solid game, Wanamaker went from potential goat to hero in the final minutes of regulation. A couple of turnovers late (shocking factoid, he only had one up until that point) that kept Pitt from trimming the lead, followed by a perfect 3 in the corner on the inbound play and sinking clutch free throws to send the game to OT.

“We had many conversations, many talks,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said, 30 minutes after the Panthers’ stunning, back-from-the-dead 82-77 overtime win against Louisville, the delirious noise still ringing in his ears from a Petersen Events Center crowd that couldn’t quite believe what it was watching and Wanamaker’s starring role in it.

You think Dixon is a pretty terrific game coach? You have no idea how good he is at what he does when the gym is empty. Great coaching is about so much more than just designing a play or orchestrating the defense.

“People make a big deal when a kid isn’t happy with his playing time,” Dixon said. “I think it’s good. I want that kind of player on our team. I never want a kid to lose that desire. But, at the same time, I don’t want his disappointment to get in the way of his development. [Wanamaker] and I talked about it a lot. He never stopped working to get better. He cares so much.”

Wanamaker is second on the team in scoring, third in rebounding, second in assists, second in minutes played, second in free throw % (but first in FTA and FTM), first in steals, and yes first in turnovers. He can frustrate at times, but is there should be no question Pitt isn’t where they are right now without him.