It’s very interesting. I think a lot of the media really like Pitt’s team and do see them going to the Final Four this year.
The reason Pittsburgh is a serious Final Four threat is that the Panthers have three All-American-caliber players who excel in different ways. For proof, check out Saturday’s 80-51 victory over Vermont and realize that Pitt had one player score 28 points, another player grab 16 rebounds, and another player get eight assists. The points belonged to Sam Young, the rebounds to DeJuan Blair and assists to Levance Fields. And as long as that trio is operating at that level you can bet whatever you own that the Panthers are about to improve to 10-0 under Jamie Dixon for the sixth consecutive season.
At the same time, the reliance on the trio is why some are nervous along with another reason.
Pittsburgh has as much toughness out of its top three players — Levance Fields, Sam Young and DeJuan Blair — as anyone in the country. But this season is still reliant on Fields working his way back into shape — and staying injury-free. The Panthers also need to find someone who can make shots from the perimeter, even if it’s done by committee.
The perimeter. I’m not so concerned about it. I don’t expect Pitt will be a particularly strong or consistent team from the perimeter. I’m hopeful that Gibbs and/or Woodall might become a consistent threat from outside, but I doubt the coaching staff is relying on that.
Jermaine Dixon is not a 3-point threat. He wasn’t at the JUCO level and that hasn’t changed. Dixon has been getting a lot of praise for his defensive intensity — and deservedly so. I think he should also get praise for mostly playing within the system and being a real team player. As a shooting guard up until he got to Pitt, he has always been the best player on his team and the one hoisting a ton of shots. He has mostly kept it in check so far and been all about the team.
…As for Jermaine Dixon, he does have a tendency to take some shots early in the shot clock and I have noticed that coach Jamie Dixon has been somewhat frustrated by that. However, Jermaine is taking only about seven shots a game, which is fourth on the team behind Sam Young, DeJuan Blair and Levance Fields. Jermaine is the starting shooting guard, so he is going to ample opportunity to shoot. I’m sure every Pitt fan would like to see him a better percentage of his 3-pointers, but other than that he has played pretty well. His worth to the team cannot be measured in his 3-point percentage. He is probably the team’s best on-ball defender and he has the ability to pentrate and get in the lane, which is important because Fields has not demonstrated the same penetrating ability since his foot injury last season.
He is also 5th on the team in average minutes played (30 seconds per behind Tyrell Biggs) and has only taken 5 more shots in the season than Biggs. So considering the amount of time he is seeing, he may occasionally shoot a bit early, but he is not taking shots from other players on the court.
Ray Fittipaldo sees only minimal growth in McGhee’s game this year. IÂ don’t disagree, but I wasn’t expecting a leap this year. McGhee’s a project and anyone who expected a lot from him from freshman to sophomore was being very optimistic. What I have seen is that his physique is definitely improving from conditioning and diet from last year to this year — strongly indicating how much he is willing to work. He’s still learning about being more than just being 6-11. Like Aaron Gray, you can see the wheels turning as he tries to remember his lessons in positioning and footwork. It’s not instinctive for him at this point. He will have a very up-and-down year. Some games it will almost look like it is clicking, and then others he will just be a stiff out there.
A nice piece lauding Sam Young.
He’s the smoothest operator since Big Daddy Kane (youtube it young bucks) and quite possibly the most overlooked/under-appreciated superstar in college basketball. Young is giving Pitt a guaranteed 20-plus a night while almost never getting 30 minutes of playing time, playing with the skill and production of a first team All American (Young was first team all Big East last year).
Even better, like Bernard King circa 1984-85, Young is starting to impose his will on opponents. He started showing signs of this trait in the aforementioned Big East tournament at the end of last season. He seemed to be a man possessed and that’s carried over to this season. It’s as if Young surveys the pulse of games before deciding the perfect time to dominate. He might go about it quietly, in a business-like fashion, but at some point he insists that everyone on the floor recognize he’s the man in charge. He did it last weekend against Texas Tech when the Red Raiders seemed to be making a statement that they weren’t going to go away quietly. Young hit a three from the corner, absorbed some contact while finishing at the rim with a violent banger, and hit a pair of free throws. Texas Tech went away.
And Coach Dixon is recognizing what Young can do, and taking advantage of it.
Through the first nine games, Young is averaging 20.8 points per game. No one at Pitt has averaged more than 20 points in a season since Brian Shorter (20.6) in 1989-90, and only five players have averaged more points in a season.
“We’re running a lot more plays for him than we’ve ever run for a guy,” Dixon said. “That’s fairly obvious. It’s by design.”
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Having a prolific scorer at his disposal has triggered a change in philosophy for Dixon, who won a school-record 31 games in his first season as head coach without a player who averaged 16 points per game. Carl Krauser averaged 15.4 points per game that season and took 19.6 percent of the team’s shots.
Young is taking 25 percent of Pitt’s shots this season. He took 23 percent of the team’s shot last season.
“It fits what we’re doing,” Dixon said. “We play him in different spots. We run a lot of different plays for him. It’s something that works for us. It’s the best way it works for us this year. And it worked last year. You could see it coming. I anticipated that before the injuries last year.”
And for those who believe Young’s scoring average will dip once the competition gets tougher in Big East play, that won’t necessarily be the case. Young raised his game in Big East play last season, averaging 18.3 points per game in conference contests.
It’s one of the things you can see in Coach Dixon as the still improving coach. He has the principles of his game and how he wants things to run, but he is more willing to be more flexible based on the talent and ability of the players. Showcasing and utilizing Young can only help in recruiting. Coming to Pitt and playing for Dixon won’t mean sacrificing numbers and just playing defense. It will get you lots of attention and to the NBA.
“You have to have a defensive mindset here,” Woodall said. “You have to be gritty, and scrappy. Get yourself ready to play big games every time you step on the floor. But that playing style suits everyone on our team. No one’s going to get 40 points from night to night. Someone different will step up. It’s really spread out, and that keeps everyone happy.”
I think that perception will limit us in the pursuit of coveted Top-25 recruits. I do think, however, that we’re likely to attract more high character guys with this approach. I think I prefer Dixon’s approach. But that might change if we can’t advance past the Sweet 16.
In previous NCAA tournaments–like against Michigan St. last year, they couldn’t match the points of Neitzel. Their offense goes flat when they need it the most.
any news on dominic cheek?
link to footballrecruiting.rivals.com
Looks like Phil Bennett just made a visit
i’m all for mobile QBs………in fact, that’s one of my main complaints about Stull (he has so little mobility around the pocket), but I want a good thrower who can buy time in the pocket and take off for an occasional first down if nobody’s open, not a guy who’s looking to run.
Dixon’s teams have displayed the patience in past years to pick the tight zones apart by going inside, but I’m not sure their interior passing is going to be as good this year with Blair and Biggs and Young, none of whom is a great “disher” of the ball.
Interior passing is what Lett and Troutman and Brown were so good at and that helped Pitt win a lot even when they had a sub-par perimeter game.
So I guess we have to hope that Fields and Young shoot a better percentage from the outside this year, which could happen. I doubt Gibbs will see much time in the Big East and Gilbert Brown’s shooting is suspect. Woodall’s missed the rim entirely and hit the board a few times in the early going, so his perimeter game looks like a project.
So let’s hope Sam and Levance bust up some zones because they’re going to see a bunch!!!!!!
But here is a much bigger proof of ACC bias — I saw a scroll of top 25 women’s team during PTI (don’t know what poll) but Maryland with 2 losses including a 29 point loss to Pitt is ranked 16th and Pitt is 20th. Pitt’s only loss was a single digit, neutral court loss to 3rd ranked Texas A&M.
I’m not really concerned about bb rankings but the problem is that the Big East doesn’t seem to get big market media support in the Northeast. This was proven when Larry Fitz finished 2nd in the Heisman voting to Oklahoma QB White in both the national poll AND THE NORTHEAST SECTOR.
Heisman Voting by Region
Player NE MA S SW MW FW
Jason White, Oklahoma 227 247 236 316 193 262
Larry Fitzgerald, Pittsburgh 229 296 196 221 198 213
Eli Manning, Mississippi 109 112 200 115 76 98
Chris Perry, Michigan 53 47 46 37 99 59
Larry won the NE, MA and MW.
(link to sportsillustrated.cnn.com)
White won the award for one simple reason: too many people voted before the Big XII Championship game, when White was exposed.
sad thing about larry’s year, is both pittsburgh writers did not vote for him..ercks me to this day!
link to youtube.com
back to bb — Villanova looked pretty undisiciplined on both ends. You can see defensive lapses as well as low percentage shots, although in fairness, much could be contributed to Texas’ defense. Maybe we are spoiled since Pitt seems to play with much more discipline especially on defense.
I think Jay Wright would like to have Corey Fisher handle the ball more because he’s way quicker than Reynolds, but so far Fisher hasn’t lived up to his hype.
I’d love it if Pitt had a PG who could pressure Reynolds, but that’s not Levance’s strong suit. Pitt will beat them with better team D and disciplined offense and they’ll have to figure out who’s going to cover Cunningham……..because he’s much improved and can play inside and out. Biggs (if that’s the choice) will have a ton of trouble with him.
I disagree. Bennett is probably visiting him b/c he was the coach at SMU in Dallas and probably has some good ties in the Lone Star State. Each coach is responsible for recruiting a certain area of the country, my guess is Bennett is responsible for Texas since he has spent some significant time there.
Did you guys watch his highlights? He looks pretty mobile which would be a nice change up.
have you always been so positive? maybe coach decides to put jermaine dixon on scottie reynolds to apply the pressure? you ever think of that?
By the way, I think Blair or Young would both have trouble with Cunningham. Dixon wouldn’t risk Blair coming out to cover him and getting fouls 18 ft from the hoop and Young would have some trouble with Cunningham’s size/power underneath. He’s a nice, vastly improved player — admitting that doesn’t make me negative.
And you have a good point. Nova has nobody to match up with Blair. They have some good athletes who can/will give Young a battle……but Pena has no business banging with DeJuan.
Nova’s probably a middle-of-the-pack Big East team and they did look bad at times last night……but I mostly attribute that to how tough and deep Texas is.
Get real. Your inability to give other teams their due is funny; Texas is obviously very good.
My guess is there are really good teams all around the country, maybe with stud players that you don’t know about, and we’ll find about all those players in Feb/March. All the hype (including Pitt) is BS. Let’s see who lives up to the hype. Right now it’s all BS!!!!!!!
Aside from them, I think Pitt is just as good as or better than any team in the land.
I do disagree on one point with some of the comments above and that is Texas. I’ve seen them play probably about 5 times this year now and I think they are incredibly athletic, big and play with great intensity. Additionally, they’ve played a pretty tough schedule so far and have come out with some nice wins. I think they deserve more credit. Abrams is very, very good and capable of carrying that team. While I don’t think J. Dixon would necessarily “put him to sleep” I like to think that if Pitt were to matchup with Texas we could do a better job on him than any defense has to date. You can’t deny he can stroke it though.
I like where Pitt is right now. Stay healthy and stay out of foul trouble and we’ll be in good shape come March.
It’s early…..teams are finding their rotations and so many young players contribute nowadays that it’s pretty tough to forecast from Nov/Dec to March/April. Half of the teams you mentioned depend substantially on freshmen and sophomores, and the way those kids play will change appreciably between now and tournament time.
Dixon won’t let Pitt play anybody in the non-conf, so we don’t even know how Pitt would fare against a Top 25 type team, much less a Top 5 type team.
And this Texas team is way better than Durant’s squad. They’ve got size and depth inside, Mason is dependable and Omar is right about how good James is.
I am glad Pitt is an upperclassman-dominated team, so at least we pretty much know what we’re getting and won’t have to wait much into the conference season to see what we’ve got like a lot of these teams will.
This is a different Pitt team then the ones you are used to. Watch them play a few more times and you will see.
It doesn’t really matter much because the BE season will be plenty tough to battle-test Dixon’s squad. It would be nice to see how they measure up in the pre-conf season, but I’m actually not too worried about that, mostly because we pretty much know how Pitt will play because of the reasons I’ve already mentioned. I only feel bad for the season tkt holders (I hear it from all my buddies) who have to go to the Vermont-type games. Everybody’s psyched to see UMBC this weekend.
Nobody said Pitt doesn’t play underclassmen……that would be impossible in today’s college hoops. They will still get their leadership (and most of their big hoops) from Fields and Young.
On Texas……..college hoops isn’t always about big names and NBA draft positions. Chemistry, balance and ego matter. Durant’s team was ugly to watch — Augustine dribbled around most of the time and Durant took plenty of questionable shots. This year’s team, so far, looks more balanced. Let’s just wait and let the results answer the question. Or I guess we could just take your word for it and not play the games………what the heck, let’s play the season out.
I forgot to mention that Damian James was on that Texas squad too. Don’t give me this bull about chemistry and cohesion. If Barnes was even a mediocre coach, then Texas should have been in the sweet 16. That team was far better than the Texas team you are fawning over now. We will let the season play out, and unless Texas somehow gets a #1 seed, then it says here that they aren’t getting out of the first weekend.
I didn’t mention anything about no NBA talent and Pitt. You might want to read a bit closer or figure out who said what before posting.
And I mentioned upperclassmen as a positive.
It was fun arguing when I thought you were lucid. I’m not even sure you’re able to follow the logic in the threads at this point.
In my opinion it takes 2 things to get to that point. 1. success in the tournament, either winning national championships or making the final 4 and 2. tradition.
Unfortunately, we haven’t had great success in the tournament, let’s hope things are different this year. As far as tradition goes, Howland and mostly Dixon have done an amazing job building a real basketball program. The tradition will come.
ricky I have enjoyed your argument as well, but it has gotten a little ridiculous. Texas is a nice team, but they are not even in a coversation with UNC or UCONN for that matter. Watch the games and you will see.
“Pittsburgh guard Jermaine Dixon may not be as good an offensive player as his older brother Juan, but he is absolutely sublime on the defensive end. Juan was great at getting into the passing lanes and making steals off the ball, but Jermaine is great both on and off the ball. Vintage glue guy.”
Andy Katz also fielded a few questions about Pitt in his chat today. link to proxy.espn.go.com