Major themes in the stories today.

The turnovers in the past month have picked up a bit.

The turnovers Dixon cannot live with — the ones he is trying to eliminate — are the unforced errors. Pitt players have been called for an inordinate number of traveling calls in recent games, and it has caused the Panthers’ turnovers to climb.

“Turnovers are a big thing to me,” Dixon said yesterday after practice. “We’re pretty good. Our goal is always less than 12. That’s a tough number to shoot for, but it’s a hard number to achieve.”

Turnovers have been a persistent problem for the Panthers in Big East Conference play, especially in the past five games. Pitt is averaging 14 turnovers per game in Big East play, 16 in the past six games.
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“It’s very important,” freshman point guard Levance Fields said. “Every possession counts. We try to keep the turnovers to around 12 per game. Lately, we’ve been around 18 or 19. We’ve been getting away from it. We definitely have to keep every possession. We have to take care of the ball. We’re working at that.”

Fields said many of the turnovers can be eliminated by making smarter decisions.

“Sometimes it’s trying to make the difficult pass, trying to be fancy instead of doing the basic pass,” he said. “And sometimes it’s not being focused. Sometimes guys aren’t concentrating. It can be a good pass and the guy doesn’t catch it. We have to do a better job at it.”

Fields splits the point-guard duties with sophomore Ronald Ramon. Ramon is of the belief that the turnovers are because of free-lancing outside the confines of the offense.

“When we get away from our offense and things don’t go our way, we give away some turnovers,” he said.

The other thing the team has spent the week working on (aside from classwork) has been the defense.

Levance Fields, though, has only defense on his mind, a product of having it drilled into his head by the Pitt coaching staff. Fields realizes the importance of defense during this critical time, and that he and his teammates have been less than acceptable lately.

He insists the latter will change.

“It’s mental breakdowns. I’m letting guys get in front of me. I’m not following the rules as far as trailing shooters,” said Fields, who has often been Pitt’s first guard off the bench this season. “It’s the basics, and right now we’re trying to reinforce them.”

The defensive attitude that has garnered so much success for the Panthers in recent years is still the team’s calling card, said coach Jamie Dixon. Maybe, though, the Panthers need a quick refresher course, particularly for its guards.

And still more work with the defense.

The Panthers failed in their first attempt at win No. 21, losing Saturday at Marquette, 84-82. They have not played since then, but there has been a spirited effort this week in practices to re-establish a type of sturdy defense the team possessed earlier in the season.

“I say it every week. I’ll be the same next week and it’ll be the same the week after that,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “I try to make it a new idea, but it’s not changing. I’ll never be satisfied with (the defense).”

In preparing for Providence, I have to assume they were working at not being caught in the screens that can be expected. With Donny McGrath the primary scoring threat, you can bet Providence will be throwing lots of screens at Pitt to free him.

With this week off, the whole team is ready to play. And of course, the team wants to make a deep run this year.
“We came into this year thinking we could get 20 wins, even though a lot of people really didn’t think we could,” sophomore Keith Benjamin said. “But that’s not important to us right now. We know we could be in the NCAA tournament now, but we want a lot more wins.

“We want as many wins as we can get out of this season for this team. We’re totally coming together right now to make something special for the rest of this year. We’re a very close team and very confident in our abilities. We believe there’s a lot more for us to accomplish.”

And Coach Dixon gets a puff piece lauding the job he’s done.

Dixon deserves the credit for molding these Panthers, including mostly young and inexperienced players, into a winning unit. Along with the two seniors, Pitt uses juniors Gray, Antonio Graves and Levon Kendall, sophomores Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin, and freshmen Sam Young, Tyrell Biggs and Levance Fields in its 10-man rotation.
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“We’ve got great kids,” Dixon said, deflecting the credit. “It’s unique, I know, to play 10 guys in the rotation. But I said from the beginning that this would be the best thing for this team, and I think it certainly has come to fruition.”

Dixon deserves credit for recognizing this. And he likely has finally stepped out of the shadow of predecessor and mentor Ben Howland. The former coach guided Pitt to consecutive NCAA Sweet 16 appearances in his final seasons, but Dixon was 31-5, earned Big East coach of the year honors and a third straight Sweet 16 advancement as a rookie head coach.

In Ray Fittipaldo’s Q&A there is the question of the kind of teams that would be a problem for Pitt.

Q: What teams would be the toughest matchups for Pitt in the Big East and NCAA tournaments? I have to think Villanova would be a nightmare for Pitt. They seem to have trouble against teams with quick guards.

Fittipaldo: Based on what I have seen this season I would say Villanova, Marquette and St. John’s would be teams Pitt would like to avoid at the Big East tournament. Pitt matches up well with just about any other team in the Big East. You’re right, Jason, Pitt does have trouble against teams with athletic guards. Dominic James of Marquette could not be handled by any of Pitt’s guards in two games this season. Villanova’s guards are just as good and more experienced, so they would be big-time trouble for the Panthers. Villanova, with most of the same players on this year’s team, handled Pitt easily in the first round of the Big East tournament last season. I haven’t seen a lot of other teams outside the Big East, but any team with a guard who can break defenders down off the dribble will be difficult for the Panthers.

It’s not the “athletic” guards. It’s the kind of guards that can take a guy off the dribble. Who can penetrate and create their own shot. Those are the players who are a challenge for Pitt. Always has been.