I know, this should be nothing but football coverage at this point. But…
In the space of his two years at Pitt, Josh Newkirk went from speedy sparkplug, to the guy some wanted to supplant James Robinson at point guard, to the guy who became lost on the court, to one of the players many expected/wanted to transfer because his play had fallen so far, to “oh, he had an injury, that explains it.”
In May, we finally learned how bad his injury really was. He needed microfracture surgery on his left knee.
Microfracture surgery is still such an emerging surgical technique for athletes after an injury. In some ways it is akin to UCL (Tommy John) surgery in the 80s. It works, but the recovery rates and level of recovery from where the player was, vary greatly.
Some players never quite recover — Joseph Uchebo should immediately spring to mind — and Newkirk was looking at at least a year of rehab.
Faced with the ongoing rehab, the almost certainty of redshirting this year, and questions of his role on the team when he came back; Newkirk is opting to transfer.
“Josh is looking to get closer to home while he recovers from knee surgery, and we are in full support of his decision,” Dixon said in a statement.
Newkirk selected Pitt over Georgia Tech, Memphis, Missouri, Arizona, Indiana, N.C. State, Oklahoma State and Tennessee. N.C. State is located in Raleigh. He appeared in all 34 games with four starts last season.
Newkirk’s transfer leaves Pitt a little thin at point guard.
Senior James Robinson, who started every game at point guard last season, had foot surgery in June. He, too, is expected to recover in time for the start of the season. However, freshman Damon Wilson is the only other true point guard on the roster.
Junior shooting guard Chris Jones and graduate transfer Sterling Smith, who plays shooting guard, also are recovering from offseason surgeries.
Heck of a summer for surgeries for Pitt.
The depth at point guard isn’t terrible — provided Damon Wilson gets his academics cleared by the NCAA. Pitt had already cleared him, but the NCAA is investigating his high school, Our Savior New American. He and his former teammate, Kansas-bound Chiek Diallo are still in limbo, while Davon Dillard has apparently been cleared to play at Oklahoma State.
ACC rules prohibit transfers within the conference, so he isn’t going to end up at one of the Tobacco Road schools. Newkirk is more likely to consider East Carolina, Charlotte or even South Carolina.
Actually, since they are so much better, I guess we should expect 45-55 pts a game??
Sounds good!!! lmao
My hesitation with this year is simple history:
1. Last year defense was terrible
2. Last year rebounding was terrible
You can win, and win big in slogball…I have no issues with slogball, those who complain I find ridiclous…this is Pittsburgh afterall, we have been pround of countless teams in all sports that score low and win with defense…but slogball requres the above two things in droves. Maybe one of the new centers totally pushes the needle on both things. And it is possible. Or not.
Bottom line, none of the three new bigs is really a proven entity in high level D-1 BBall…so I will have to wait and see whether you are correct. But make no mistake…Young, Artis, Jeter, JR, etc. etc…none of these kids have played Pitt-level defense in the past two years and it is really hard to think they will all of a sudden figure it out…if Dixon couldn’t teach them/change them in the past two years, hard to imagine he will this year. And Young is great…but just does not have the knack for rebounding at any position…and again I do not see him magically finding the knack.
But as always…it will be fun to find out!!!
HTP.
Those were both games we shot an incredible shooting %.
Against UNC we shot 65% FG.
Against ND we shot almost 60% FG.
Those were anomalies.
As over the course of the season we shot 45% Fg
The game after ND we nearly lost to a D2 team in Bryant. (72-67)
Quite possibly the worst or 2nd worse team in that time period.
I’ve said you still won’t be happy. I’m just pointing out that they’ll be good enough to keep Dixon off the hot seat … to your chagrin.
I’ll hold them to higher standards and demand more like I am with the football team but Dixon has earned a little more trust from me.
If only Dixon had had a crystal ball and saw this all coming.
Think about all the development opportunity that Newkirk would have in 2017 or 2018. Just like Joe Ochebo for whom Dixon was beaten up for having him transfer in after microfracture surgery.
Holy crap! If you have an axe to grind on Dixon this is the place to be.
@Tossing you wasting your time with Emel.
link to blog.triblive.com