Well, basketball practice starts at the end of the week if you can believe it. The preview guides have been trickling out. Pitt is predicted to be firmly on the bubble for the NCAA. No top-25 predictions for the team this year. Greg Doyel at Sportsline.com lists the best point guards in the NCAA. He puts Krauser at #16: “Tough guy is reckless but a winner.”
Krauser who has heard the comments about him all spring and summer is finally firing back.
“I’ve been the leader on this team ever since Brandin Knight left. I’m going to fit in fine this year,” said Krauser, who decided to return to Pitt for his final college season after a failed attempt at the NBA draft.
The demonstrative point guard, who succeeded Knight at the position at the start of the 2003-04 season, isn’t about to change his direct approach as the Panthers prepare to begin formal practices later this month.
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Krauser, a second-team all-Big East Conference selection last season, is the leading returning career assists man in the conference with 226. It is a selling point in his sales pitch to Pitt fans everywhere as he attempts to convince his critics that he is more than just a scorer.
“You are not going to see another point guard like me in Pittsburgh, who plays through injuries, who is a vocal leader, who puts his body on the line,” Krauser said. “If it was about the money with me, I’d be overseas right now. I didn’t come back for anything else but to help this team with a (Big East) championship.”
I really wish there was a full transcript of the interview available. I don’t disagree with any of that statement above from him. Where he’s going to get in trouble is this part.
“When people say, ‘Carl is going to hog the ball,’ I’m saying, ‘Without Carl, what type of leadership and experience are we going to have?'” Krauser said. “Right now, I’m in the present. It’s about a winning program. When I came here in 2000, I picked it up and challenged Brandin Knight in practice. I pushed him hard, and we started winning games.”
[Emphasis added.]
Like I said, I really would like to see a transcript of the interview. He not only takes credit for Knight’s improvement, but the change in the team’s fortune. That is not going to sit well with a lot of people. Knight is still considered the ideal point guard, and one of the best ever at Pitt.
He has the date wrong, though. Krauser got to Pitt for the 2001-02 season, which he redshirted. Still, does he have a point? However badly it came out.
Brandin Knight’s numbers in 2000-2001 (the second row are conference games only, 19-14 season for Pitt).
|---TOTAL---| |---3-PTS---| |----REBOUNDS----| GP-GS MIN--AVG FG-FGA PCT FG-FGA PCT FT-FTA PCT OFF-DEF TOT--AVG PF-FO A TO BLK ST PTS - AVG ----- --------- ------------- ------------- ------------ ----------------- ----- -------------- --------- 31-26 999 32.2 91-235 .387 33-128 .258 70-115 .609 21 81 102 3.3 81 1 171 95 16 69 285 9.2 16-13 517 32.3 50-121 .413 19-68 .279 32-46 .696 9 40 49 3.1 42 1 78 56 6 38 151 9.4
This was the 2001-02 season (29-6 record)
35-35 1284 36.7 194-454 .427 93-261 .356 65-147 .442 27 140 167 4.8 87 1 251 112 16 82 546 15.6 16-16 616 38.5 87-210 .414 43-120 .358 36-88 .409 15 68 83 5.2 40 0 112 52 8 47 253 15.8
And according to the online bio Pitt has for Krauser, under the 2001-02 season it reads:
Redshirted the 2001-02 campaign…Practiced with team in 2001-02…Credited with helping Brandin Knight have an outstanding 2001-02 season with his play in practice…Knight was named both the Big East Conference co-Most Valuable Player and Most Improved Player.
So if he is being arrogant and taking credit for it, the Athletic Department isn’t exactly undercutting him. I wonder, though, if he has to take the blame for Knight’s bad free throw shooting?
“It’s a different personality we have on this team. It’s going to be very important for me to teach these guys the feel of winning in college,” he said. “A lot of it is being well-conditioned. We’re already tough. A lot of the new guys coming in are very tough, very strong.”
With Krauser and forward John DeGroat being the only seniors on the Panthers, the youth includes four new players, including three freshmen. But there are still others with experience. Center Aaron Gray, forward Levon Kendall and guards Ronald Ramon, Antonio Graves and Keith Benjamin join Krauser and DeGroat as veteran players.
But Krauser is the unquestioned leader, and he has already begun to send that message to the team.
“This definitely is a good opportunity for me to go out there and just show that this game of basketball is really a lot of hard work,” he said. “A lot of people think we’re given a free ride, but we work hard on and off the court.
“We’re student-athletes first. We’re role models for kids. We are here to win basketball games and bring joy to the city of Pittsburgh.”
The areas not addressed: making the players around him better on the court and playing in control (which includes turnovers).
This is going to be a very interesting season.
