That’s right basketball practices start to get underway. On Friday, it’s the annual Oakland Zoo Scrimmage. It actually appears to be a really fun thing for the students (and fans that can make it).
Pitt fans and the Oakland Zoo student cheering section will get their first glimpse of the 2014-15 Pitt Basketball team when the program hosts its annual Oakland Zoo Scrimmage on Friday, Oct. 3 at the Petersen Events Center. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the scrimmage begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public. Parking is available for $5.00 in the OC Lot.
All Oakland Zoo members are encouraged to arrive early due to pre-scrimmage festivities. Oakland Zoo tee-shirts with the new logo will be on sale in the Team Store. All students in the arena by 6 p.m. will have the opportunity to take a photo with the Pitt Basketball team for the 2014-15 team poster and pre-game intro video. Zoo members must have their tee-shirts on and be in their seats at 6 p.m. Oakland Zoo members will receive loyalty points for attendance and will have the opportunity to be a guest coach on the benches with the team.
The scrimmage will tipoff at 7 p.m. The Panthers will likely play two 16 minute halves.
Immediately following the scrimmage, the Pitt Basketball team will hold its annual pizza party and meet and greet for the Oakland Zoo on the floor.
Pitt’s media day is the day before. Thursday. The full schedule is now complete — including times and TV/Internet broadcast schedule. I’m a little relieved that the there is no internet or TV broadcast for the Hawaii game. Midnight (East Coast) start time on Thursday/Friday would be rough to stay awake and watch. Let alone function at work that day.
As usual lots of questions about the team, but at the same time everyone expects this team to be one of the better ones in the nation. USA Today has been running the rankings and puts Pitt at 30th before the season begins. A bit on the generic side and predictable with the whole “grinding defense” thing. Hasn’t been true for a while, but you know, narrative. One that Coach Jamie Dixon doesn’t mind feeding.
“I believe we’re going to be a great defensive team this year,” Dixon said. “In the past, we’ve been really good defensively and then offense was a different story. It was the other way around last year. We want to get better defensively.”
The front court will be the biggest question mark. Mike Young is definitely starting, but his companion up front is unknown. Derrick Randall may have a shot. There’s the ever healing Joseph Uchebo. Now that he is cleared academically, Tyrone Haughton is available.
I can see Jamel Artis playing both forward spots. He is versatile enough and is one of those players who is a great spark coming off the bench.
With Cameron Wright injured and out for the first several weeks of the season, there is no better opportunity for Durand Johnson as he returns from a torn ACL.
Dixon said Durand Johnson still has some work to do in order to get back into shape and also to regain his quickness and explosiveness but he is getting closer every week and by the time the season begins, Dixon expects him to be pretty close to 100 percent. He said that if the season started today, Johnson could play. He wouldn’t be 100 percent but the knee has healed completely so there is no risk of re-injuring it from coming back to soon. Johnson should play a big role this year and likely will be a starter at the small forward spot (Lamar Patterson’s position) so it is good for Pitt’s sake that he is well on the road to recovery.
I know that Wright and Durand Johnson do not play the same position, but with Wright out, a player like Chris Jones will get more of a chance to slide over to the two-guard. The same holds true if Cameron Johnson is not redshirted. He is a guard-forward, but being a freshman he would be paired with a more veteran backcourt. Without Cam Wright, that would be more likely to mean playing two-guard.
Speaking of Cam Wright, his absence is also an opportunity for Josh Newkirk, but it still sucks for the senior to get started late on the season. Especially since he was one of the stronger players all summer (Insider subs)
Dixon said he got more out of the practices [in the Bahamas], and that Cameron Wright was the best player for the last five practices. Dixon said this team will be a little different than traditional Pittsburgh teams with just two seniors — Wright and Derrick Randall — on the roster.
And there is actually a chance that Ryan Luther or Cam Johnson could avoid the redshirt. With all the extra practices and the tour of the Bahamas, they are much further along than most incoming freshmen.
Dixon said the tour gave him an opportunity to see freshmen Ryan Luther and Cameron Johnson and transfer Sheldon Jeter. But it also enabled the three to continue to adapt to Dixon’s system, which they had started to learn in formal practices. NCAA rules permit a few hours of organized practice per week in the summer.
“The thing I like now, because some of the rules have changed in the past few years, we have them for 47 weeks of the year,” Dixon said. “And that’s a good thing because I believe players, student-athletes, need some structure.
“And they do work out on their own, but what they call working out and what we call working out are, well, let’s just say not usually the same thing.”
As for the future, Jamie Dixon is working to leverage some recent success.
Kiwi schoolboy basketball sensation Tai Wynyard will today audition for Steven Adams’ college coach in Auckland as powerhouse American hoops institutions begin what’s likely to be a year-long jostle for his prized signature.
Interest is already off the charts for the 2.03m 16-year-old who in the past few months has made his debut for the Tall Blacks and the Breakers, and earned rave reviews for a series of standout performances. Calls and emails are flooding in from coaches keen to begin scholarship discussions and already the more switched-on have made the long trip to New Zealand to personalise the whole experience.
He has already been visited by coaches from St Mary’s University and the University of Hawaii, and today Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon, who helped shape Adams into the No 12 overall pick in the NBA draft, will attend Wynyard’s final school practice for the year to check him out first-hand.
Mum Karmyn, who was good enough to play college hoops herself, has also heard from legendary Kentucky head coach John Calipari as well as representatives from Kevin Durant’s old school Texas, Wake Forest, Utah, Villanova and a host of others she can’t quite remember off the top of her head.
This kid is not staying under the radar like Adams did. Not sure what the chances are of landing him, but it is one more reason to root for Steven Adams to get better and better — and keep working on that stache.
And who was saying Pitt low-balls the recruiting budget? Fail.
Ty’s specialty is shot blocking. I found this quote from an article about his last game of the 2012-2013 season:
“Ty Haughton, who saved the Reivers the previous game with his timely blocks and boards, dislocated his shoulder after his school record 112th and final block of the season.”
Not shabby for a guy who typically has us off the radar.
I saw a group of the players hanging out at the game. It looked to me like Robinson has lost weight, although I haven’t seen him up close before. A little more speed may help him get to the net.
Hmmm… If both Robinson and Young lost weight… Maybe they were planning something….
Last year’s team might have just been the transition to the fast moving, hedge-trapping, and running team that we will see this year.
Howard
Dicky V has 4 ACC teams in the top 10!
9. Durand Johnson, Pittsburgh Panthers
A season-ending knee injury in January ruined a strong campaign last season. But Johnson (8.8 PPG before the injury) will be ready to help Jamie Dixon’s squad from the wing as a top reserve in the ACC once he’s healthy this season.
And not someone like Syracuse or Michigan (who he has at #26 & #27) ranked ahead of us.
SHOCKING !!!
(Note to self, email DV and ask him to refer to us as PITT)
If DW didn’t nothing else, at least he ended that non-sense and got the Groundhog-dinocat off the helmets.
And won 27 games in 3 years and avg. of 9 wins per season.
That thing pops it’s head out every once in awhile, and I howl.
Someone got paid big money to come up with that concept and design.
Really funny thing, is picturing them all around the table saying “we’ll go with this one”, and the designer/designers and the Pitt people thinking how wonderful they all were for this new Pittsburgh and Dinocat thing.
*Haughton is a mystery. In my opinion, neither Uchebo
(Health) nor Randall (skill) are ACC quality starters. Both could provide quality depth, but would be a liability as a starter. Haughton, represents the best hope. None of us have ever seen him play at all! let alone against top competition. Might be worth going to the Zoo scrimmage just to get a look at him. I’m picturing Birch as a freshman. Tall, lanky, thin, quick leaping shot blocker, defender, rebounder with very limited offensive ability. Only buckets will be put backs.
They were exactly the same back then. Carolina has since added some more definition to it since then.
And that would make perfect sense if they just copied it from Carolina, as Cornhole would have saved a few buck$ from hiring any design team.
Anyway he knew better.
Haven’t been able to find any info on what exactly were Cornhole’s qualifications for the job of AD at PITT.
Or was this another, ‘on the job’ nepotistic training program ala House as the DC.
And all these other old timers/friends/relatives/ that are liberally sprinkled all over the Pitt football program.
This kind of stuff is not good.
Ludicrous and imo OUTRAGEOUS !!!
Good jobs aren’t like exactly falling from the sky these days.
Perfect!!!
Pitt Script and On campus stadium.
If we’re gonna be mediocre, at least give me the Pitt script and a 30K stadium on campus.
I’ve never put that caveat in my thoughts all these years, but that is really what I’ve meant.
If we’re gonna stink, at least give me a baloney sandwich and a bag of chips!!
LOL
Seriously, that stuff is never brought up after a win. Look back on it, it doesn’t appear.
So, really, it’s up to the Pitt team!!!
Let me talk x’s and o’s all next week, re-pumped up about Pitt football and looking forward to the game against VA TECH at 4-2.
I’d love nothing more.
What is the status of Cameron Wright’s broken foot?? I’ve heard miss a few weeks of the season, to someone at work saying half the season.
In most D1 schools the job of an AD is to 1) Fundraise for the school, the athletic department by smoozing wealthy alums 2) implement a big improvement project, sell the vision, raise the money and make it happen. And the 3) Manage/administer the athletic department, manage and hire/fire coaches, sell tickets, schedule games, do press releases, etc.
By most accounts, he is good at 1 and 2. He clearly can kiss alumni ass and get them to cough up cash. Under his regime, Pitt has improved facilities (Cost Center, baseball field and the Pete). Pitt dodged a bullet when the ACC came calling after it was clear the Big East was going under. I am not sure how much he had to do with it, but it happened on his watch.
Clearly, his biggest weakness comes in hiring/firing coaches. The firing of DW was poorly handled. I think he should have kept DW and helped him get better assistants. Many of you believed DW needed to go, I get that. And even with help DW was only going to take Pitt so far. But if you fire DW, you damn well better have a plan to get someone much better. Steve didn’t. First he hired an unproven, MAC coach who ended up getting into a beef with his baby mama. Then Fraud Graham. And now PC. Are we really convinced he can take Pitt any farther than DW?
Pederson lucked out with Dixon. Pederson didn’t want to hire Jamie, but the other candidates all turned him down when Howland left. And then he signed Jamie to a mega extension when he really didn’t need to.
Pederson is a politician. As long as continues to stay in favor with the influential alums ($$$$) and the chancellor, he can make a bunch of bad coaching decisions and he’ll stay employed.
Yea I thought after I posted that I should have included, what did Cornhole do prior to 1996 ?
Since I know all to well what he’s done since 1996.
And the Pete is ONLY there because of Erie Insurance CEO, Mr.John Peterson (class of ’51).
Cornhole like everything else was just damn fortunate to have a last name similar to Mr. Peterson.
So you’re saying we basically hired some schmoe that worked in the SID at Nebraska.
When we should hired an AD who actually didn’t have to learn on the job and would have recognized the value of either remodeling PITT stadium or replacing it with one in it’s footprint.
They could have found room somewhere else on campus, say where Trees & Fitzgerald are for a new hoop arena.
A terrible decision and one that many of us will never forget. A PITT man would have never made that decision.
And he played a very small role in PITT getting in the ACC, as we all learned the ACC wanted UConn instead of PITT, only BC’s veto of that prevented it.
Uconn’s bball program is far superior to ours and football is about a wash. (seemed like they pretty much owned us in the bigleast football)
Cornhole is not well liked at all with our former pre 2000 players at all. As none other than Tony Dorsett ever show up for a game.
And how could they….he tossed their uniforms, their script logo, their history and had their stadium blownup and demolished.
That is his legacy, as well as the Post Wanny fiasco which made PITT a national laughing stock.
Seriously? “Pitt” is isn’t Pittsburgh enough so you create a logo so off base that Picasso couldn’t figure out what it is. Genius, Steve.
1. My math agrees with yours. I see Durand Johnson starting at small forward, He’s one of our best defenders and one of our best shooters.
2. I disagree about Uchebo. He looked pretty good in summer league and in the Bahamas. I think he starts at center.
5. Uchebo
4. Young
3. Durand Johnson
2. Newkirk
1. Robinson
First off the bench: Sheldon Jeter
The Uchebo I saw in Montour didn’t have the stability, strength and explosion in his legs. He grabbed a bunch of rebounds against sub par competition without ever leaving the ground. On two good legs, Big Joe would easily be the starter. Hopefully, he’s stronger and 4 months farther into his recovery.
In the pictures I saw from yesterday, Haughton LOOKS like the real deal. He is almost as tall as Uchebo and looks stronger than I imagined.
With the usual disappointments from fball, I HAVE to be optimistic about Jamie & The Guys! Can’t wait!
1) Pitt did not and will not have the resources nor the land to
build an on-campus stadium. Tearing down Trees and the Fieldhouse or Magee Hospital for a sports stadium have zero chance of happening in this reality.
In retrospect, replacing Pitt Stadium with a 45,000 seat multi-purpose facility like the Carrier Dome might have been a better choice, but the infrastructure (access, parking, etc) is still lacking. Maybe Pitt could have used the land vacated along the Mon for parking, with shuttles like Cuse does, but nobody (or very few) would have settled for 45K capacity at that time.
Today, acquiring land, razing and construction would require a half-billion dollars. Pitt simply can’t afford that.
2) Boubacar said Pitt unnecessarily gave Dixon an excessive extension. It was necessary. They simply matched the 10-year, 3-million offer USC put on the table.
3) Pitt didn’t get an offer to the ACC solely because BC black-balled UConn. At the time the decision was made, UConn was going on probation for low APR and facing probation for recruiting violations as well as Jim Calhoun’s pending retirement.
While recent on the field football performance was pretty even, the Pit name still attracts TV viewers. Pitt also fits the ACC academic and research profile. UConn does not.
Nordenberg gives Pederson a lot of credit for making the invitation happen. Nordenberg knows more about it than anyone on here does.
4) I have no idea where the recent expression that an AD’s main job is as a fund-raiser started. That has never been the case here and is not at many other institutions. The Athletic Director is an administrator first.
5)I don’t disagree that Steve Pederson’s time here should end soon. He has become a wildly divisive force. But, his tenure has been no worse than any other AD in my memory, at least since Cas Mylinsky.
Bozik demolished the football program. Oval Jaynes did nothing. Long was a sanctimonious prig who openly lied to fans resulting in what I believe was the first suit by our own season ticket holders against Pitt, certainly not a fan-friendly accomplishment. He also let Walt Harris dangle in rhe wind, which in retrospect was probably a mistake. Harris was arguably as successful as his replacements have been and cheaper.
Pederson has proven horrid at hiring football coaches. It also seems obvious that he did not act in a vacuum. Decisions were made above his pay grade and budgetary constraints contributed to the problems. Still, the bottom line was it was an embarassing, nearly historical fiasco, after a poor precedent at Nebraska.
On the other hand, our facilities have made a quantum leap improvement and we are safely embedded in a P-5 conference that pays most of the bills. We sold more student football tickets than ever before. Heinz is a better facility for football than a crumbling Pitt Stadium was, even if the die-hards will never admit it.
History will regard Pederson’s tenure as very mixed. There were succcess and failures. But, if we had not been invited into the ACC, we would be much worse off.
6)Those who clamour for a Pitt man in Athletic Department positions should perhaps first look at a) what “Pitt men ” did when they were in key positions here before pushing that approach. It has not been pretty.
The future of Pitt football is unfortunately, probably more of the same. It is unlikely Gallagher acts that much differently than Nordenberg. Pederson will be gone soon, whether he rides out his contract or is bought out. But, few successful urban college programs exist and demographics are not encouraging. The O’Bannon injunctions and the similar lawsuits working their way through the courts could place ALL major college football in peril.
If we ever build an on-campus stadium it will likely be for a D-2 or D-3 type program. Continuing debates on the on-campus subject are fantasy.
if we can put a man on the moon and the egyptians can build huge pyramids thousands of years ago, i believe the knowledge and technology we have today would enable someone to figure it out.
Welcome to a new poster (?).
While I agree with some of your post, I disagree with some of it as well.
Mainly the point reference comparing old Pitt Stadium with New Heinz Field.
Nobody is saying that the way Pitt Stadium had been left to decline could aesthetically compete with a modern NFL stadium built in 2000.
It’s what PITT stadium COULD HAVE BEEN if refurbished, or what COULD HAVE BEEN BUILT in it’s footprint. Many many older college stadiums have been refurbished just like Cal’s Memorial Stadium, which is a concrete bowl and built in the same era as PITT stadium.
I repeat myself, NOBDOY IS TEARING DOWN CAMPUS STADIUMS ACROSS AMERICA WITHOUT PLANS TO REPLACE THEM. If they can’t be refurbished.
ONLY US !
I know…Cornhole knows better .
* Uchebo had a double-double. He’s making a strong case that he should start at center.
* Chris Jones was 4 of 6 from three-point land! Maybe we’re starting to see how well he can shoot when he has a good thumb.
* Newkirk dished out 9 assists! Maybe he’s picking up where Patterson left off.
Anybody have any first hand impressions?
Zeise gives a good report. Looks like Uchebo is much improved. But it sounds like the knee will be an issue for the rest of his career. And it will be an issue all season. Lots of questions. How many minutes can he play a night? Can he last a whole season?
Haughton is going to need to learn fast. It sounds like he’s way behind. Glad Jones looked good, they’re going to need him to fill some minutes until Johnson and Wright get healthy.
I’ve posted a few times here. Usually just prefer to read.
Obviously, we COULD have rebuilt Pitt Stadium. The problem is resources and demand. We didn’t have the money to rennovate it, let alone replace it.
I doubt there are many major college football stadiyms so closeky built between hospitals and with so little parking or road access either.
A Carrier Dome type facility seems like it would have been viable in retrospect. There was a plan to dome Pitt Stadium but it was rejected as physically impractical.
Really, the chances of getting the money to build any facility AFTER J Dennis O’Conner had already been given funding once and p*ssed it away into the General Fund were so poor as to make any building program unlikely.
Without the political manuvering that accompanied the deal to make a football facility more viable by sharing Heinz and the Southside with the Steelers, we could very easily been left with a crumbling outdated Pitt Stadium and an obsolete Fieldhouse.
Miami has functioned pretty well on the field the last few decades using a municipally owned off campus stadium. Our attendence is not so different from theirs.
A program with those facilities would be in the American Conference at best. Today, that is long term suicide. If there IS a long term.
I’m not sure major college spirts will exist in 20 years and with football, maybe less. Between concussions and players’s pay lawsuits, the whole system may just crash.
Let’s worry about what we can change, not what we can’t.
Lots of good stuff on the video. One thing that surprised me was that Artis lost a lot of weight over the offseason and is being taught a second position (small forward?).
You ask good questions based upon the Zeiss column: How many minutes can Uchebo play? Can he last all season?
In his press conference (see 1:15 mark for the start of Dixon in link above), Dixon sort-of addressed that question. He talked about playing Young a lot at center. He said Young was his best defender at the post last year, though not a great rebounder. He talked about Young being, perhaps, the player with the most skills that he has ever played at center.
He said that Young is a greatly improved player since high school. He also said that Young is working extremely hard this year. He is coming into the gym for workouts at all hours of the day and bringing others with him. Which others? My guess is that these others include Jeter who Young helped lure here with promises of working toward a national championship if he came. I wouldn’t be surprised if Slim (Cam Young) is in the mix. The three once played AAU ball together.
Dixon also talked about Uchebo. He said that Uchebo sometimes runs up the floor as if he is the fastest player on the court — perhaps doing so to energize the team. He also said that Uchebo sometimes limps so obviously that Dixon wonders why he even put him in the game.
Here’s what I take away from all of this: Dixon is going to start Uchebo. But he’s not going to expect Uchebo to play the whole game. Young is going to play a lot at center. And don’t forget, Randall is a proven backup and will get minutes there also.
As a result of this press conference, I have elevated my opinion about how well this year’s team is going to do. And if they stay together, next year’s team will be even better.
I am not thrilled about Young playing center. While I think he can play adequate defense, he’s grossly undersized and not nearly strong enough to bang with some of the ACC big men. Plus, it is a wate of his talents, which are mostly on the perimeter.
Young’s game is so much different than the other three centers, that Pitt would really have to change the offense to adjust for Young.
Dixon has said at other times that he’ll use Young on a LIMITED, situational basis at center. He has said he’ll use him at end of games for free throws and when the offense needs a jump start. That makes sense, a steady diet of Young at center doesn’t.
“I am hopeful…” And “I am certainly not counting on it.”
Young will play at center a lot more minutes than Haughton. Haughton is likely odd man out. Uchebo will start but Young is better offensively and defensively. Uchebo csn really rebound though.
The problem with playing Young at center isn’t so much Young as it is we’re left with a choice of two 6-6/6-7 kids at 4, Jeter and Artis.
I’m not worried about Jeter-Young when they are in together at the 4-5. In fact, I am already looking forward to it. They already work out together and they are good friends.
They will trap well together. They will rebound well together. They will set each other up for good shots. And they both can shoot!
Other teams we’ll be forced to play small to defend them.
There hasn’t been much publicly reported about Haughton, other than he just started practicing with the team, missed some practices and is way behind in learning the offense. He only played 6 minutes in the Blue Gold scrimmage. While that certainly isn’t good news, it doesn’t seem like enough to conclude he’s the odd man out already.
While Young and Jefferson my be the same height, they do not have the same length. Jefferson has a 7ft wingspan, Young does not.
Young’s rebounding numbers last year weren’t great (3.6 per game in conference in 23 mins). I know he had back issues that slowed him. But he will really need to improve his productivity on the boards, especially if he’s going to be in the middle.
Despite similarities in size, Zanna and Young had vastly different rebounding numbers. Even two years ago, when Zanna played mostly the 4, with Adams at the 5, he had much better rebounding numbers than did Young last year.
Certainly, Dixon knows infinitely more about what’s best for the team than any of us. But it is worth considering that college basketball coaches are not under oath when the talk to the media. We rarely get to hear their true thoughts.
So any inside information is greatly appreciated by those of us who read this blog.
Due to Uchebo’s progress and Houghton’s late arrival, I’m expecting Dixon will redshirt Houghton this year. He will definitely be needed next year and would be a likely starter in two years.
p.s., I got this idea from a comment by Zaratougda.
Haughton was VERY close to being released and not coming here this summer. My personal opinion (and, I could be wrong) is that Jamie may have soured on most of Slice’s recruits, but he certainly WAS unhappy Haughton had to make up a class and missed summer practices.
They wouldn’t have still pursued Jamison last year and offered three juco centers this Fall if they were high on Haughton’s future.
I think Haughton was over-hyped by Slice and thus overated by many Pitt fans. He is athletic and plays hard but very one- dimensional and modestly skilled.. I think he’s more likely to be sent off to his life’s work after one season than redshirted. I don’t mean to dis a player, but unless he really surprises and earns playing time, he’s probably not worth tying up a scholarship for three years. Had they known last Spring that Uchebo would recover enough to be serviceable as a back-up and even probably start, they might not have brought Haughton in. You can never say never but that seems to be what I’m hearing.
It has been talked about around the program that Young would play a lot of center since last year. Dixon has been trending towards playing smaller, more mobile centers since moving Dante Taylor there.
I’m worried about Young’s rebounding too, whether at 4 or 5. Who knew Uchebo would average about a rebound every other minute? That is his ticket to playing time.
Yes. He decommitted. Louisville is trying to land him now:
Artis is playing the “3” now, not the “4”. He says he now understands what the coaches want him to do on defense. He thinks the team will be hard to beat this year:
“I feel we’ll be very hard to beat. If we play defense the way coach [Dixon] wants us to and be aggressive, we’ll be very hard to beat. We’ll be a faster team than last year, so we’re going to score a lot of points. The ball is not going to be in the hands of one person like it was last year. We’ve got a lot of guys that can play multiple positions, so on the floor we can play little or big and can outrun the guys because we’re faster, bigger and quicker.”
“Dixon’s brand is consistency: simply winning, with players who simply outwork opponents.
It’s a work ethic that plays as well in this blue-collar city as it has in the standings. Among BCS schools over the past 12 years, Pitt has the third-best record, behind only Duke and Kansas. The Panthers might not be the highest-scoring, fastest-paced team in the nation – after all, those statistical measurements are too sexy for Pitt basketball – but the Panthers are always among the most efficient teams in the country, second to only Duke in offensive efficiency in the ACC last season.”
“Dixon was shouting at his players about their defensive stance as they worked on footwork for on-ball defense: “Wider! Wider! Wider!” Virtually the entire workout was dedicated to fine-tuning perimeter defense. Dixon preached fundamentally sound closeouts: early hands, long hands, contesting every shot.”
Slouching is the optimum word.