9:05 pm (or so) on ESPN. Karl Ravech and Seth Greenberg have the call.
One of the nice things about Jamie Dixon being at Pitt this long, is that he has actually relaxed and come close to being comfortable with the media. He’s never going to have the charm and ease of a Rick Pitino, John Calipari or Bruce Pearl; nor is he cantankerously amusing like a Jim Boeheim.
But he is more relaxed these days. He seems to have his tongue planted firmly in his cheek for half his responses to questions.
Last week, for example when asked about the team being more uptempo than in years past, he made the point that it has as much to do with the type of players on the team as it does the style with a simple quip: “You can only tell Aaron Gray to run faster so many times.”
This week, as the Louisville game loomed, Coach Dixon set the storyline for the media.
“The grad transfer championship,” Dixon said. “That’s the story.”
It’s a factor. Significant. Four starters on both teams, though, only Louisville features theirs as star players as opposed to cogs.
Pitt wanted Damion Lee when he decided to leave Drexel, but when Lee chose Louisville, Pitt quickly moved to Sterling Smith.
That’s been the difference this past year for Pitt with recruiting and bringing in players. Being prepared for other options. Forced to wait with other schools on Chieck Diallo, when he finally went to Kansas, Dixon was able to nab Maia and Nelson-Ododa (after another grad transfer center chose Illinois).
Pitt wasn’t able to wrest Detroit star guard Cassius Winston from Michigan State, but before the same weekend was out, they had moved quickly to get a commitment from Justice Kithcart — who has been having an outstanding senior season of high school.
Now, Pitt will play the best defensive team they have seen since Purdue.
Dixon said he expects the Cardinals to be one of the best defensive teams the Panthers have faced this season, and he’s interested to see how his team responds, especially on the road. Louisville has tweaked its defense a little compared to previous seasons because of personnel, but, for Pitt, the bottom line will be how it handles the press.
Louisville came off a 1-1 ACC road trip. Getting past the ever mercurial NC State Wolfpack, but falling to Clemson — which does not look nearly so bad after the Tigers took out Duke last night.
Louisville is much better offensively than they were last year; but while still very good defensively, they are not so stifiling. Last year in this game, Pitt struggled with their shooting and Louisville just started hitting everything.
Let’s see how tonight goes.
Off topic – How did that scandal just go away??? Almost as bad as North Carolina not requiring kids to actually take classes in order to graduate. That just went away as well….
We were awful. I think the boys were frustrated by the mugging during the first half. This not the way we have seen the games called all year.
After being raped they never could get their heads back in the game.
Hopefully they learn something from it and move on.
For the life of me, I can never remember a Jamie team that could beat the press. Notre Dame killed us with it late in both halves. I think Carlow College new men’s team could press us and win.
2. as the Purdue game showed, we are helpless against a talented big man
That tree that was planted under the basket last night named Chinanu Onuaku owned the paint at both ends of the court. Those couple muscled in close spin moves of his that ended in the grand finale double handed dunks pretty much answered that question punctuated with an exclamation point. We can’t handle the big man!
Let’s just accept the obvious without the embarrassment of offering excuses for Pitt’s horrendous performance, the Panthers were simply dominated by a bigger, stronger, better coached defensive focusd team that got into Pitt’s head early and frustrated them for the entire game.
Now we find out how well Dixon can coach come Saturday. Can he get these guys to forget last night and produce a win against BC at home? We match up much better with Boston College so lets just hope that the Panthers have a short memory and weren’t too damaged mentally by last night’s beatdown. The quicker we can forget about this one the better.
Noneheless, we are bound to suffer in future game this year when we run into a talented big man. Our inability to defend at the 5 has plagued this team for the past 2 years … and even the year before when Zanna struggled against talented — the best example of that was our NCAA loss to UF where their center dominated.
Speaking of Jones, it looked like his elbow was hyperextended. Any word on that?
If everyone returns, Pitt could even be better next year but will still eventually fail if they can’t defend the 5 …. I’m not counting on Nix (hope I’m wrong.)
Speaking of grad transfers, they might as well have not made the trip. Not a one of them was worth a lick last night. Outclassed.
No shame in losing on the road to Louisville, but that was an abhorrent performance. Very disappointing.
No signature wins yet – but plenty of opportunities to come.
F’ing shit the bed Pitt….or worse.