Superficially, there is little that has changed with Pitt basketball over the past 10 years. Jamie Dixon is still the head coach. Pitt is expected to finish in the upper half of a very good conference, even if no on is sure quite how. The Pete has sold out once more. Defense will be played. The blue-collar, physical stereotype remains in place. Seniors are looked to, to lead this team and be the face of it.
Yet, this is a season with a significant shift. Beyond the move to the ACC. Beyond the way games are expected to be called throughout college basketball. Beyond alleged style of play changes. This is as much a foundation year. Not a rebuilding year, because that would imply a significantly down season. More like one that when you look at a team in a year or two, you point to this year as where it all began.
For guys like Lamar Patterson and Talib Zanna, this is their final season. Seniors looking to leave their mark. Their time at Pitt has seen the squad change and struggle more than any other senior class in a decade. Both had redshirt years, so they have been in the program for five years. They have the pressure of their own expectations and the players that have recently come before them to make this final year count.
At the same time, while they are expected to provide leadership and be the primary players on the court, they aren’t the leader of this team. This is James Robinson’s team.
That makes sense. Not simply because he is the starting point guard. You look at the make up of this team and this is primarily a team of freshmen and sophomore. The only juniors on the squad are Cam Wright and Derrick Randall, the transfer from Rutgers. Durand Johnson is still only a redshirt sophomore filled more with potential than anything else. This is a surprisingly young team, and you would have to expect him to be closer to the younger players than the seniors.
Outside of Johnson, only Chris Jones has had a redshirt year among the freshmen and sophomores. The rest have already played or are expected to contribute this year. It will make sense for the players to look more to Robinson than Zanna and Patterson. Three starters and two players off the bench are what has come back from last year.
The turnover of last year was disruptive, but the expectations are still in place.
Potential is the big word with this squad. It also means taking lumps. Those lumps may not be obvious with a relatively safe non-con and guys like Patterson and Zanna to help carry them early. But the lumps will come. They are inexperienced. Outside of the seniors and Robinson, no one else on the squad even averaged 15 minutes a game last year.
Comment by TX Panther 11.05.13 @ 8:47 am
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Meh, I bet they get another 7 or 8 seed and go home the first night.
Again.
Howver, I’m not so sure about that … Dixon’s history seems to be that his teams play much better without the marquee players … Blair being the exception (I do not consider Young a marquee player since he really didn’t becoms a star unitl he was a senior .. and Fields. Troutman and Wannamaker were really good college players but not marquee).
Fact is that nobody here can condemn his heart hustle. If he fails in a few league games this year, it will because his opponents are more skilled and/or are bigger. Still, we will be unhappy … that’s just the way it is …. what have you done for us lately?
I am feeling a little better about Basketball, although we have no stars, Zanna and Patterson are seniors with something to prove. Robinson is a solid ball handler, and Cam Wright looks much better. We won’t be great, but I am no longer worried about us being an embarrassment.
Who knows, if everyone plays their roll and the new guys exceed expectations…
But let’s not get into the Jamie not capable of a final four BS.
Just having solid PG play can take you far in college.
And has lost some games in the non-con and struggled often.
If the team doesn’t struggle, a year of his eligibility shouldn’t be wasted, so therefore he should be redshirted. Same goes for Uchebo.
Be interesting how this plays out.
If that continues in Jan, Feb & March, the team can be pretty good. If it doesn’t we will stink pretty much like 2011-2012 season.
Maybe we can be CBI champs again (or whatever that tourney was).
I’ll be much more comfortable watching that game in my man cave down here in Virginia while polishing off a turkey drumstick or two.
BTW, what did you mean by, “but let’s not get into the Jamie not capable of a final four BS” comment? Surely you can’t possibly be inferring that Jamie has some sort of Tourney track record that supports the notion that Pitt is verge of destiny to be a Final Four participant based on his prior track record?
My opinion is that he only had the players to get us there once and got beat by a last second shot.
If Adams would have stayed he would have had a shot this year.
Very happy he is our coach.