Tonight Pitt will go for their 12th win of the season and close out the non-con part of basketball season. It’s against American, and no one is expecting much of a problem.
That, of course, isn’t what makes this game kind of big. The expected win, will be Coach Jamie Dixon’s 200th win as head coach at Pitt.
With the firing and hiring on the football side, Dixon’s hire has gotten a bit of a second look. It has paid off in a way I know I never expected.
Dixon started off with a great first year, but there were still questions since it was a veteran team. The claims were that all Dixon had to do was roll the ball out there with senior leaders like Julius Page and Jaron Brown keeping everyone in line. Those doubts grew in year two when Pitt really struggled deeper into the Big East schedule and bowed out quickly in both the Big East Tournament and NCAA.
Still, Coach Dixon has kept building the program and the ties with Pitt. I love this part of today’s P-G puffer on Dixon.
Dixon has enjoyed watching his former players return to campus every summer to help give back to the program. As he conducted an interview on the Petersen Events Center court Monday, former point guard Carl Krauser was shooting baskets. Krauser is one of many former players who makes his home in Pittsburgh when he is not pursuing his professional basketball career.
“The last couple of summers I really reflected on the players and how they come back,” Dixon said. “All of the guys in the NBA were back this summer. Chevy [Troutman] comes back every year and gives me a jersey of the team he plays with overseas. Almost all of our guys come from different areas, but they’ve made this their home or their second home. Even players I haven’t coached are coming back and are becoming a part of our program. That’s been the most satisfying thing to me.”
This is a big thing. Partially because Pitt has not had a sustained period of quality basketball like it is in the present day and partially because of a lack of coaching continuity, Pitt’s basketball program has never been big on reinforcing the ties to past players. You look at programs like Syracuse, UNC, Duke, Kentucky, and even newer basketball powers like UConn. They all have strong ties to past alum that come back to the program and reinforce things to the present players. Pitt has never had that. Under Dixon that has happened.
Along with as much support as he has been permitted (under NCAA rules) for the summer basketball in Pittsburgh. He’s quietly been a force to improve Pit basketball. Both in terms of winning on the court and the culture.
The game is on ESPN3.com starting at 7pm. Open thread only, tonight.
Here’s why….I never miss when Bobby Knight is announcing a game as he touches on the small things that coaches do to bring their teams victory. I enjoy watching Jamie’s teams away from the ball. This team, this year, makes the best adjustments I have seen in the back court and BK would be thrilled. I am telling all of you that the Tennessee game was an abberation…they played out of their minds and Pitt played flat. It happens. My sources tell me that Jamie has been working hard to try to run the offense through the post (specifically Taylor). Watch tonight…I think you will start to see the difference. Jamie is in the top 10 of all BBall coaches. We are blessed to have him.
I’m not saying we need a JoePa, but a Niehlen (20 yrs) would be nice
I love our team rebounding. I love our coach. And, I love the spurts of tenactiy our depth brings. But the reality is– we can very easily lose in the 2nd game of the tournament if we have the types of lapses seen in the UT game. Reality is– we are a solid team, but the players are–for the most part– playing out of position and/or lack the ability to create offense off of the dribble. Aside from Wanny driving and kicking…and having Gibbs or Brown hitting set shots…this is a pretty mediocre offensive team individually. And under tournament conditions where you have better athletes that actually play defense, we can be minimized quite easily. Throw in the fact defenses key on Gibbs and allow Wanny to WTF his way to the bench with Fouls/TOs…our flow on offense can get really limited, real quick. And that’s a recipe for disaster…
Don’t get me wrong, the sky is NOT falling…I’m just tempering my own enthusiasm at this point in the year.
If we’re going to go far in March, and we most certainly CAN, we’re going to need to play our game at the highest level… tough team defense, low turnovers, high percentage shots, and get to the line and effin make ’em!
Or more specifically…
1) > 70% FT team shooting
2) Some assemblance of a offense at the 4 or 5 beyond tip ins; Taylor is the only shot to make the jump
3) Same team rebounding passion
4) Low turnovers (Yes, you Wanny)
5) Brown and Gibbs hitting their 3’s
6) and a little luck (fluke performance like Villanova shooting 28-32 FTs)
Could you foresee Dixon retiring here? What are the odds of that?