Merry Post-Christmas. Been down at the in-laws and it’s enough of a rural area that the local Starbucks was actually closed on Christmas Day. Caught me off-guard as I figured on at least having the early morning to glom on the wifi.
Obviously Pitt won before Christmas, knocking off American to give Coach Dixon his 200th win. Pitt’s offense was meh, but the defense did a good job on all but Vlad Molodveanu who had 23 of American’s 46 points. It has to be noted that Moldoveanu has done this in just about every game this season according to the announcers. Just going off in the second half, and hitting shots regardless of the defense. That’s what he did against Pitt.
Dante Taylor was aggressive on the boards, going after rebounds. He’s really embraced going for rebounds. Realizing it is the key to staying on the court and being a part of the offense. The scary was that the big guys (McGhee and Taylor) continue to be a purely random adventure at the FT line. This time 2-8. Coupled with Zanna and Robinson also being 50-60% FT shooters on most nights, and I wouldn’t be completely surprised to see a 4-guard lineup out there late in some games if Pitt is clinging to a lead.
Coach Dixon was also just named the Dapper Dan Sportsman of the Year.
Jamie Dixon won more games in other seasons. He finished higher in the Big East standings and advanced deeper into the other NCAA tournaments.
But the 2009-10 Pitt basketball season will be remembered as one of the most memorable in school history. With four first-year starters and some unsung players, Dixon guided Pitt to 25 victories and finished tied for second in the Big East in a season many believed the Panthers would struggle to finish with a winning record.
For those accomplishments, Dixon has been named the Dapper Dan Sportsman of the Year for 2010.
“I know the list of guys who have won before,” Dixon said. “I have great appreciation for the history of sports. As everyone knows, I’m a big fan of all of the Pittsburgh teams. This is quite an honor.”
The ceremony is going to be Wednesday, February 9. The game before — an ESPN Big Monday Backyard Brawl in Morgantown. The game after, a Saturday night College Gameday showcase night game at Villanova. Yeesh.
That’s getting a bit ahead, though. Tomorrow night is an unofficial “Big Monday” game with UConn coming to the Pete. Since it is still bowl season, and even the worst bowl games get better ratings than the best basketball games, this game is on ESPN2 at 8:30 (naturally, there will be a liveblog).
“It’s going to be a tough battle,” senior forward Gilbert Brown said. “But we’re definitely looking forward to it.”
Pitt has won three in a row against Connecticut, which bolted to a surprising start after coach Jim Calhoun’s youthful team was picked 10th in the Big East. Guard Kemba Walker, the nation’s leading scorer at 26.5 points per game, said he is unable to accurately describe to the freshmen what to expect in league play.
“Words can’t even explain what is going to happen,” Walker told reporters in Hartford. “They have to be mentally tough. That’s it.”
Pitt will hold a practice on Christmas Day to prepare for its only regular-season meeting with Connecticut.
“It’s a grind,” guard Brad Wanamaker said. “Yeah, we want to be home with our families. But we’ve got something to do.”
I don’t think it will be an oversimplification to say that Pitt needs to limit Kemba Walker to have the chance to win the game. There’s plenty of talent on that UConn team, but Walker is the straw that stirs the drink. He’s the guy the others feed off, and he won’t be leaving the court. In four games he played 37 or more minutes. In all but two games, he has played 33 minutes or more.
In recruiting and future Pitt players, there is this article (Insider subs.). Pitt remains one of the top-3 teams to land one of the best shooting guards in the 2012 class — Omar Calhoun. It looks to be an all-Big East battle as it is between Pitt, Villanova and WVU.
Villanova, Pittsburgh and West Virginia, at this stage, have his attention. That’s not to say others can’t move onto their turf or won’t, but that trio is working him hard. It’s always interesting to see who can hold on and ride it to the finish line. What would these schools be getting in Calhoun? For starters, a hard-playing wing with a jumper. He refers to himself as a combo guard but he’s a shooting guard with a touch of small forward in his game. He’s well spoken and comes off well during interviews and overall, we think he’d be pretty easy to coach.
There’s also some notes on 2011 commit, Malcolm Gilbert.
Gilbert (five blocks) is going to Pittsburgh and he pushes seven feet tall. Defensively he’s one of the best shot-blocking centers in the class. Offensively, he’ll need a heavy dose of Jamie Dixon seasoning.
Considering how few true impact freshmen centers there really are, the Dixon approach to finding big men still seems like the best approach. Not to mention actually having the player for more than one season.
Chas mentioned this earlier in the year that he expected us to lose a couple games because of our team FT%. I echo those comments. I'll add that we can very easily lose a second game in the tournament with a 50-55% FT performance from the line as a team.
Of all the abosulte wonderful things JD is as a coach (and person), I have never understood his inability to produce a better than 70%FT shooting team. With his system and style of play, you would think this would be a focus?
Our FT% in the Howland/Dixon era has been horrible. Not until the recent guard tandem of Gibbs/Wannamaker have we had respectable guards at the line. Knight, Page, Krauser, Fields, Dixon, and even Ramon/Benjamin were terrible from the line, IMHO.
Don't give me the "Well, they make them when the count" argument…they ALL count.
Don't give me the "We don't recruit FT shooters or our players are not built to shoot FTs"…that's a lazy cop out.
IMHO, any self-respecting DI guard that shoots below 80% from the line should be ashamed of themselves.
IMHO, any self-respecting D1 small forward that shoots below 70% from the line should be ashamed of themselves.
IMHO, any self-respecting D1 center/power forward that shoots below 60% from the line shoul be ashamed of themselves.
Foul shooting is not even one of Ken Pomeroy’s four factors. (FT rate is, which is FTA/FGA.)
“Well, it’s not one of the four factors, so it’s difficult, statistically speaking, to establish whether it was relevant to the outcome.” What a load of crap……
Is having more points than your opposition at the end of the game one of his four factors?
and missing a free throw at the end of the game has nothing to do with what transpired the previous 39 minutes? c’mon…
and, by the way, i wouldn’t blame Dixon much for bad foul shooting. tough to do much about shooting fundamentals by the time kids get to college. repetition and adjustments can only do so much; if a kid’s been shooting with sidespin (Taft, Taylor) for years, there’s not a whole helluva lot you can do except for mutter under your breath about the morons that run AAU leagues.
sorry for the sarcasm. i just get a kick out of Ken Pomeroy deciding that missing a bunch of free throws isn’t important. i’ve attended a bunch of games where it seemed like it had a bit of an effect on the outcome.
Yes, height is one of Pomeroy’s variables, but less of a factor. UConn’s effective height is +2.3 inches, ranking them 35th nationally. Pitt is +.8, rank of 135.
Offensive rebounding is one of the four factors. Pitt’s ranked 1st there, UCONN, 3rd. Should be a battle, but will UCONN’s height advantage win out? We’ll see.
BTW, Pomeroy’s got us winning tonight, 77 – 67. But since Pomeroy starts with a pre-season guess, Pitt got a boost there. I’m thinking we’ll pull it out by 5 or 6, with our boys wearing down the UCONN frosh.
Ask Jamie about Villanova’s freakish night from the line against Pitt in E8…
Ask Kansas about their putrid night on the line that prevented them from coming back against Syracuse…
Heck, ask Maryland if their FT% didn’t matter against us earlier this year…
To imply that FT’s do not matter is simply ignoring one of the critical pieces of a game and horribly short sighted.
It matters and it will cost us moving forward, IMHO if it does not improve.
One of the problems I think is that the throws are indeed free, are highly visible and stand out. We gnash our teeth when they’re missed and ho-hum when they’re made.
But I try to ficus on the other stuff, minimizing my gnashing along the way.
