I hate that watching Pitt basketball games feel like a chore. Especially in mid-January. But it really feels that way at the moment. And not simply because I’m getting old and the game doesn’t start until 9pm.
For the most part, Pitt teams under Jamie Dixon have been — and I hate to go cliche here — “better than the sum of their parts.” They have been teams that overachieve. No one player is so much better than everyone else. Think about all those teams over the last 10+ years and how few individual players made 1st team Big East. They went out there and were so cohesive. They fed off of each other. The execution was so consistent.
This is not that kind of team. If anything, since the new year, this group has been worse than they should.
We know about the obvious problems. Durand Johnson suspended for the year hurt the depth and skill at the three spot. Forcing much more minutes on Chris Jones than he can handle (or deserves). The center position has been a wreck with Derrick Randall and Tyrone Haughton not even seeing the floor at this point, and Joe Uchebo not able to do much with those knees of his. The three-point shooting needed to at least be average to give the undersized front court a chance, and has been horrible and inconsistent. The inability to rebound consistently, and even when they do to generate points out of them.
Those are all major reasons why Pitt isn’t very good this year.
But there is more than that going on when they are playing on the court.
I hate going nebulous, but the chemistry on this team is just not good. There are players that flat out don’t play/mesh with other players on the court. Whether it is style or personality. You can see them struggling to be on the floor at the same time. To trust each other to do what they are supposed to do.
You see that with teams from time to time. Teams that have talent. That have expectations, but things are lacking. Off the top of my head I can think of teams in recent years with that problem. Teams with good talent, but struggle to put it together. West Virginia last year, Villanova in 2011-12, Michigan and Florida this year. That horrible brew where the recruiting didn’t pan out and the players didn’t mesh.
Anyways, the game is a 9pm on various RSNs (Root, NESN, FoxSports South, Carolinas, Florida, etc.).
Florida State hasn’t been very good, as expected. They do, however, have size and that has bothered Pitt.
They are not a particularly good three point shooting team. I know, neither was Clemson coming into the game on Saturday. Clemson, though, does take a lot of 3s (over 35% of their FGAs are 3s). FSU does not hoist nearly as many from outside (26.5% of their shots).
Brace yourself and be sure to have the appropriate adult beverage to get you through the game.
Why did Luther not play? Injury? Ineffectiveness?
I’m thinking that whatever injury Robinson went to the locker room for had to be the reason for his iffy free throws. Or maybe exhaustion – it was a very physical, rough Big East game.
Good to see the adjustments on defense throughout the game, showed that Dixon does have some flexibility, and it worked. Good win!
I’ll repeat the questions from above, what happened to Luther?
If given a little space, our best outside/3pt shooter (most games) seems to be… Artis, followed by Newkirk, followed by…??
Good for Nwanko, excellent story.
Anybody aware of possibilities of adding another Center (or PF) next year besides Nix?
Artis had 16 points last year vs UVa and then went scoreless the nest 2 games. Luther had that one really good game in Hawaii but nothing to shout about since. On most Pitt teams, he would be redshirting). Jones had a handful of good games early in the season but very sporadic since.
Young is probablythe most consistent but he has disappeared a few games also.
I hope that this will be rectified with experience.
It seems on this team that Young is the only one who blocks out with any consistency … this is where people like Blair, Lett and McGhee really contributed
The obvious lack of elite talent, lack of experience, lack of a center and lack of consistent three point shooting aside, there has been an inexcusable lack of effort at times. The effort level seemed to have been better last night.
Nwanko did provide some needed energy off the bench. But to even consider that a 6’7″ walk on could be the answer at center speaks volumes.
Pitt needs some shooting/scoring from the four. It was nice to see Artis hit some shots. It looks like Dixon is going with the hot hand, whether Luther, Jeter or Artis.
Robinson has to stop taking 18/19 foot jumpers. Either take a step back, drive or pass it. That shot is horrible, and he misses much more than he makes. Dixon needs to yank him like he does with the young guys. And those free throws at the end of the game, yeeeesh. He is the only 4 star upperclassman on the team, he needs to step it up.
I hate to say it, but Pitt wins when the other team misses easy shots. FSU missed a ton of bunnies.
Young did a nice job of exploiting the mismatch he had at center. He used his quickness to get good shots.
If you think back…he is further along than Lamar was when he was a sophomore. Should he continue to improve at a similar rate then he could be an excellent player the next 2 years. You can’t teach size and Jones is as big (6’6″ 215), strong a guard as you will find.
Also, Robinson had a nice box out at one point of a 7-footer, the guy engulfed Robinson but James still got the ball.
I myself just saw it is ‘A’ instead of ‘O’.
Too bad, I was going to start using Wonk.
Wank ??
We can still go with that then.
Aron Phillips-Nwankwo (pronounced Nah-WONK-woah) begins his fourth season on the Pitt Basketball team as a walk-on.
He should get at least 20-25 minutes against Bryant for sure.
“Aron Phillips-Nwankwo is a little-used walk-on center for the Pitt Panthers”
“A lot of great performances for us [Wednesday night], obviously Aaron was terrific,” Dixon said.
No coincidence MY had his best game in a while with a double/double. 16 & 12.
MY at the 4 also allows Artis to play the 3. And I think that his better position as well.
We tried to give it away with poor free throw shooting at the end. Was it me or do we shoot really bad from beyond 12 feet? Congrats on number 300 to the Coach.
Jones and Nuke are probably the best outside shooters but are ‘off’ much more than ‘on’. Nuke didn’t have his best game last night
Well, I called for Jamie to play his centers, Tossing Thabeets was right Wonk is strong, big shoulders, obviously smart. Still think Ochebo and Randall should play more.
Hard to complain about a win, but Newkirk only played 19 minutes, partly cause Jones was having a game, and he was stripped of the ball and benched. But again, Robinson was 1/6, 0/2 and 4/8 ft’s. He played 31 minutes, even with going to the locker room for a while. Jeter played 4 minutes. All of this was OK because Young, Artis and Jones did the heavy lifting offensively.
But Nwankwo was the difference maker, just amazing.
Winning is much more fun at the Pete and for a nine o’clock crowd, they were pretty good, the zoo was noticeably louder than the last game.
By the way both Gallagher and Nordenberg have been in attendance for the last two games.
Well there’s no denying most of that article.
Although he did miss quite a few more distinguished players that came out of Western Pa in the 60’s & 70’s. Like the best ones….Maurice Lucas, and Norm Van Lier who were both NBA stars. Not so much the ones he mentioned. In fact of the 4 he mentioned only 2 played pro, Karl in the ABA and Durrett had a very short pro career. Never forgave him for going to LaSalle.
The question with Jamie is; has the programmed peaked, then plateaued and now trending downward ?
I don’t think it should be that different getting kids that want to play for Pitt against Duke, UNC, Louisville, Syracuse, Notre Dame, UVA, etc. than it was when we were in the BigEast.
It’s still the premier basketball league.
“Before Dixon was put in charge, Pitt appeared in the 64-team NCAA Tournament nine(9) times in 19 seasons. That’s 47.3 percent. ”
Pitt did have some success in basketball BEFORE Howland/Dixon.
And that was without a $200 million dollar investment. Playing in rickety Fitzgerald and probably a shoestring budget.
If anyone could load up Jones dunk, I would like to see it. It looked like he started his jump to early, but he got up and stayed up. If he can start having more nights like last night, it will make a big difference. I noticed that he needs time for his shot, not a quick release. Artis with a hot hand was really nice to see as well.
Those were some great games/great crowds.
Their 2nd half rim, was not kind to them.
As me & alcofan said last nite.
Thank You Rim !
With him being hurt, I’m surprised Jamie wasn’t more cautionary. As he didn’t really add to much anyway.
Color guy last night had me laughing my crack off: “Ohboy. oooOhboy”.
I’ll be at the GT game… Excited!
I can now watch the last 10 minutes or so of game after falling asleep last night.
Good article wbb. Wish my other team had a coach like Jamie over the same time period.
Randall- A total waste of a scholarship and the poorest contributor of any player graduating during Dixon’s tenure. He came from a troubled background and got in trouble and has added nothing. I will be glad to see him go.
Uchebo- Has yet to play a quality 5 consecutive minutes since arriving, and probably never will. He was a desperate pick up that hasn’t worked out.
Dr No- In his only opportunity this year to play quality minutes he came off the bench to start and sustain a rally at a critical point in the game. That isn’t much of a resume but it dwarfs anything done by scholarship lumps playing ahead of him.
All we need is someone of size to come off the bench and play good D, box out, and not embarrass the offense while the frontline guys get a breather. I think Dr. No earned that spot last night and my guess is Dixon thinks so too.
Pricks… but they got a pic of the George Looney look-a-like.
Yep agree, Randall only is good against D2 undersized teams like for example, Chaminade.
Unless he was just on a high from being in Hawaii.
You know Maui Wowie ! haha
Dr. No….lol….i like it.
Just win baby, WIN. That alone clears away many an ugly blemish!
Hail to Pitt!
Welcome back. Glad you are better! I missed your posts.
I’ve been thinking of you every time Chris Jones plays well. You were the one last year who predicted that he could one day be the next Patterson.
Glad to have you back ! Hope you’re feeling better !
Had one of the more emphatic dunks of the season.
He absolutely deserves NO EXTRA CREDIT FOR DOING IT WITH LESSER TALENT. It isn’t like Jamie was given these players and told to do the best he could. He brought all of these players to Pitt. Recruiting is the number one, two and three priority for college basketball coaches.
Decourcey wants to give Dixon a pass for crappy recruiting because the move to the ACC messed up his NYC pipeline. Seriously? Losing Slice, years ago, was what dried up the NYC pipe.
There is no excuse for not brining in more talent, especially with the success he and the program have had. There are no external reasons or excuses. The buck stops with him.
Talented players win games. Putting the right talented motivated players into the right system wins championships. Every college coach knows X’s and O’s. Coaches can be a force multiplier, but it has to start with good players. Dixon has not consistently brought in the talented needed to win BIG.
He shouldn’t get praised for doing more with less. I would much rather have him do more, with more. It is his job to get more.
You can see from the start that Young was intent on grabbing rebounds. The whole team msut stay aggressive.