Tonight is the Blue-Gold scrimmage for the basketball team.
Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon uses the scrimmage to simulate a typical game day schedule. The 14-player team will be split into two squads. Pitt will play two 16-minute halves with normal media timeouts and a five-minute halftime break.
Assistant AD Greg Hotchkiss has tweated the Gold team:
Gold Team: Ashton Gibbs, Nick Rivers, Brad Wanamaker, Nasir Robinson, Dante Taylor, J.J. Richardson
And the Blue:
Blue Team: Travon Woodall, Chase Adams, Lamar Patterson, Talib Zanna, Gary McGhee (big men will rotate)
There will be lots of curiosity about the freshmen, especially the much heralded Dante Taylor — who was picked by the Big East media as preseason rookie of the year. The guy I will be most curious about how he looks will be senior transfer Chase Adams. The man who would be starting point guard.
NBE: What can you add to the mix that this team might not have had without you?
CA: I feel like I bring a lot of energy and passion for defense, not saying their defense has been bad in the past, but I really care a lot about getting stops and battling and fighting for loose balls. I think this group has a ton of toughness already and I think I add to that with my toughness and I bring a veteran presence to a team with a lot of young guys on it along with Jermaine, Brad and Nas.
Look forward to reports on the team.
Game over
Blue 56 Gold 53
Chase Adams led all scorers with 21 points. Brad Wanamaker had 19, Ashton Gibbs 17, Travon Woodall 11, Nasir Robinson 11 and Lamar Patterson 10.
Halftime update
It’s 29-29 at halftime. Chase Adams leads with 13 points. This guy appears to be the real deal. I reported on media day that one program insider thought he might be a better shooter than Ashton Gibbs. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but he has a nice stroke.
Brad Wanamaker had a nice half as well. He has nine points. Gibbs is doing a nice job of running the point for his team.
The freshmen haven’t had many opportunities to shine. Dante Taylor has had some trouble finishing around the basket. He has two points. Zanna has two points. Lamar patterson made a 3-pointer. JJ Richardson is scoreless.
The biggest theme from the night was that experience is king. It was clear who had played serious college minutes before and who had not. Of the freshmen, Patterson played the best. Richardson seemed to play the worst, committing 4 fouls in the first 10 minutes or so.
Taylor had a nice post up move to score his two points, but otherwise a very quiet night for so many expectations.
Gary McGee looked like he lost weight and looked much more like true Big East center. I am cautiously optimistic about him this season.
I was hoping to see more of Dwight Miller. He seems to have all the tools to be a quality 4, but I haven’t seen him play very much at all.
Based on my VERY small sampling size, I would project our starting five to be:
1. Adams
2. Gibbs
3. Wannamaker
4. Taylor (maybe Robinson?)
5. McGee
Interested to hear what others thought. I will now proceed to devour my 09-10 media guide!
From what I have read, Adams can shoot. If he can protect the rock then our backcourt will be more than fine this season. Dixon and Adams appear to be our defensive duo back there. Gibbs is the perimeter threat and Wannamaker our slasher. The positive thing I see about Woodall is that he is still a freshman and will be here for 4 years. He has plenty of time to crack some more teeth.
Did Patterson play at the 2 at all today? Some were saying that he could dabble a bit back there but it doesn’t seem like something I want to see much of. I think this class coming in will be fun to watch when they are sophomores and that includes Miller and Woodall.
If this team finishes in the top 5 of the Big East, give Jamie Dixon a Jaguar. No, not the car, the animal. He should go and recruit Pitino’s prospects with one just to prove a point. Wrap the gold medal around the jaguar’s neck for added effects.
The bigs really had little chance to do much. They seemed to be getting decent position at times, but feeding the post was not something any of the guards looked comfortable doing.
Taylor had the one decent finish. Haveing now seen him twice, and while neither the summer league or this scrimmage is a great way to evaluate anybody, I am completely unimpressed. He needs to get stronger and learn how to get better position on the defensive boards. I’ve seen no evidence yet that he will have much of an impact this season.
Miller did not play. Did not realize he was injured. Robinson looked lost at times on offense, but he is a strong finisher around the hoop.
There were very few “wow” moments, but overall the biggest positive I saw was Adams. He and Gibbs at the 1-2 will be a very nice combo, and if they can stroke it from outside may be able to open up the inside for some of our bigger men to provide some offense. If not, it could be a long season.
Also note that the Trib referred to Woodall’s stats (11 pts, 8 assists, 0 turnovers) as ‘Fields-like.’
While we are mostly used to an inside-out offense, with the lack of inside experience, we may well see much more perimeter play/shooting this year with 3 guards on the court much of the time.
Chase Adams looked outstanding. He is the best guard on the team already. Travon looked like he was forcing 3-pointers to try and keep up with Chase. Other than that he played alright.
However Ashton looked smooth and comfortable and I think he is clearly the 2nd guard at the moment.
Lineup:
1 Chase
2 Ashton
3 Brad
4 Nas
5 Gary or Dante
This is a solid Big East lineup but they will take their lumps with so little experience.
However when Jermaine and Gil are back, we have some actual depth, and things will get interesting.
panthoor great comments about getting jamie dixon a jaguar. that’s hilarious.
I am really disappointed in Taylor. Saw him twice and it is clear he is weak physically and has no desire to assert himself either, especially with his back to the basket. Given what I’ve seen with him at center, I think he’d be a better four because he is athletic and runs well for his size. But if Dixon has him at the 5, he has a long way to go.
Talib Zanna looked like a freak athletically. He has absolutely no basketball knowledge and looks uncomfortable, but he moves like a six foot guard, not a 6’9″ forward. I see him having a chance to be special if he can really develop his skills and BBall IQ.
Lineup by Big East Time:
PG- Adams, but he plays the 2 when Woodall is in
SG- Gibbs, his only position I think, though I could potentially see Adams and him switching, and J Dix rotating between 2 and 3
SF- Brad, with Gilbert rotating in at 3 when J Dix is at 2
PF- Nas, perhaps Gilbert if Taylor can hold down the 5 and we go small depending on opponent
C- I honestly can’t see Taylor starting, I have McGhee here but I’m sure Taylor gets the majority of the minutes
I can’t see Zanna playing this year, and I intentionally left Dwight Miller off the list because he is a mystery to me, I’ve never seen him play. After writing all this, I realized it is WIDE open at a lot of spots! Go Pitt
I was very surprised to read Woodell’s stat line this morning. It didn’t seem like he was doing a whole lot out there, but then again, both Adams and Gibbs played terrific, so maybe it was solely by comparison that he looked “just ok” to me. I’ve always been a big fan of Travon and I really hoped he could win the PG position outright this season, but I think it is Adams’ to lose with Gibbs out at 2 for the moment.
Also, after last night I was SHOCKED to read Coach Dixon’s comment about Dante playing the 5. In my humble opinion, the 4 spot is our biggest hole as of right now. If Taylor was at the 4, McGee could start at 5 and we could have some height under the basket. I am very concerned about starting Robinson at the 4 – he lacks ideal height and (like most of our team) experience. Gary might not be the second coming of Roy Hibbert, but he at least knows how to jockey for position underneath.
I guess my argument is this: when it comes down to it, I would rather have Taylor and McGhee down low than Taylor and anyone else I saw last night.
Didn’t mean to sound this negative – I think this team might surprise some people.
