At least Pitt won. I mean, losing to Le Moyne? That hurts worse than the average loss to a D-2 program which does happen. Michigan State and Ohio State both lost to such a couple years back. The problem for ‘Cuse is that Le Moyne is located right in Syracuse. That would be like Pitt losing to Point Park College.

So, Pitt struggled a bit with Sippery Rock as the team experimented with combinations and where to play people. This was not completely unexpected.

Dixon’s biggest concern after the game was the decision-making of the guards. Travon Woodall, who got the start at point guard, committed four turnovers. Starting small forward Brad Wanamaker had three.

“Our penetration and decision-making had been good in practice, but we really took a step back today,” Dixon said. “That was something we could have done better. Fifteen turnovers aren’t a huge number, but it seemed like a lot more. I thought we forced up some shots on our penetration. We played in a crowd too often.”

Dixon also was disappointed that his team didn’t secure the victory earlier. Pitt had an 18-point lead with 10 minutes remaining, but allowed Slippery Rock to cut the margin to seven with 1:31 remaining.

“We got it up to 18 or 20 and had an opportunity to pull away and just didn’t do what we needed to do,” he said. “That was what I addressed mostly after the game. The main thing is we’ll be a much better team our next exhibition game. We wanted to see where we’re at. We need to see where we are at next Sunday. This thing will be all about improvement.”

The game showed a solid debut by Dante Taylor who got in there and looks like when the games go, he will live up to some of the hype.

A good article explaining why faith in this team and the coaches is not misplaced.

His [Travon Woodall’s] confidence will grow the more he plays and he’ll cut down on the mistakes the more Dixon yells about them. But he’s the only one that’s going to thread the needle to Taylor and Miller when they’re running and Pitt needs them running.

Taylor will be fine. He’s very, very talented physically and he has the desire needed to maximize that talent. It will be a roller coaster, but it will be fun.

That’s where, if you’re a Pitt fan, you have to have faith in the process. The schedule is such that they might lose a game or two (or three) before they get Dixon and Brown back.

Yet the improvement in one week was remarkable (especially in Taylor). Wanamaker, Gibbs and Nas Robinson are going to be steady — if not spectacular — game in and game out. The foundation for molding a team that’s maybe 9-1 or 11-2 when they start to reintroduce Dixon and Brown should make things interesting.

Is it possible that there will be more angst over the basketball team and development than the football team this year?