Okay, spare stuff.
I’ve said it before, seeding will take care of itself. That doesn’t stop the conversation, and wondering whether Pitt’s personnel issues will be considered to swing it upward.
Maybe the one factor that’s missing is an unknown to most: how the selection committee will take the absence of Jermaine Dixon and Gilbert Brown into consideration.
Dixon missed the season’s first eight games rehabbing a knee injury and sat out the Panthers’ loss at South Florida with an ankle injury. Brown missed the first 11 games under academic suspension.
With Dixon, the Panthers’ shutdown defender, in the lineup, Pitt is 15-5 (.750) against a schedule that included 15 games against the RPI top 100. Against the RPI top 50, the Panthers are 6-2 with Dixon, a number better than Pitt’s overall mark vs. the top 50 (7-3). The numbers are similar against the top 100.
It’s a nice point, but I’m guessing it won’t get much weight considering the whole team improved into the season. Pitt’s run in the Big East will give it plenty of weight — assuming they take care of the next couple of games.
Lots of Coach Dixon love as the Horizon League player in the year, Gordon Hayward, is still giving love to his U-19 coach.
Hayward is fourth in the league in scoring (15.8) and third in rebounding (8.5). He credited Butler strength coach Jim Peal and USA coach Jamie Dixon of Pittsburgh for improving and expanding his game.
Dixon was “on me from day one” to rebound, Hayward said. “He was exactly right. Sometimes I would just sit on the perimeter and get ready to go back on defense.”
Then there is this interview with Coach Dixon.
SNY.tv: What sold Jermaine, and so many other young athletes, on Pittsburgh?
JD:: When we talk to a player and player’s family, we make them a promise: you’re going to improve as a player, as a student, and as an individual. That’s what a coach’s job is. That’s what we put our efforts and our energy into. It’s about helping young people improve. When their time as a student is finished, I want them to be a better player, but ultimately, I want them to have their degree and to have become a better human being.
Speaking of interviews. Here’s his interview from yesterday with Jim Rome.
Lot of good stuff including wanting to be at a place where the fans aren’t satisfied (boy, is he at the right place). Plus he stated (at least for public consumption) that he felt the ND game was just one of those games where ND wasn’t going to lose to anyone. I can somewhat agree. The fact that it was a blowout loss, though, was on Pitt playing a step slow.
For the record, nothing undermines complaints about not playing zone when the example is against a ND team drilling 3s.
Speaking of defense, Providence does not seem to be playing any. Their coach is frustrated.
Up at PC, it is Spring Break, so the Friars’ campus is quiet. The one exception is inside Mullaney Gym, where Davis is still stinging from the 99-93 loss to South Florida. In the heated moments after that game, Davis could be heard from behind closed doors laying into his team. After pleading with his players all season for defensive basics such as closing out on shooters, getting back after made baskets, and halting penetration, the coach now seems to be swallowing hard, shrugging his shoulders and thinking a better defense won’t appear until next November.
“We need our returning guys to improve defensively or they won’t play as much or at all,” Davis said Monday in the toughest remarks he’s made all season about a defense that is allowing 81.2 points, the third-worst total in the nation. “Some of our players have offense as their strength and their weakness is on defense. That’s going to change or they won’t be playing.”
Davis insists he knows how to teach defense. He considers it a priority, although this team seems to regard it as an afterthought. He’d like to hold his weakest defenders more accountable for their misdeeds, but says a lack of depth has prevented him from making those moves.
“There’s a point where guys make mistakes, and as a coach you can sit them, but are you ruining your chances of winning a game?” Davis said. “I’m always about winning each game. Accountability comes down to flexibility. With our top six or seven (players), you have to fight through their faults.”
It will be interesting to see if they respond to having a national game and absolutely being embarrassed. Last night, during the Georgetown-WVU game Jay Bilas called Providence the “Worst defensive team I’ve ever seen in the Big East.” Yow.
1. Pitt is mentioned as part of a study of whether taking 5 teams would be profitable for the Big Ten (the conclusion was that it would be). This doesn’t mean Pitt is a top choice, but rather, that they may be among the top choices if the Big Ten goes to 16 teams.
2. Barry Alvarez appeared to be quoted that the conference would charge an entrance fee to any Big East team of $5 million (he called it a “loyalty fee”). Personally, I find it offensive that a university would have to pay that kind of money to join an enterprise that is being driven by an attempt to make even more money.
3. If only one Big East team were to leave, and that team were Rutgers (based on the current rumors du jour), I’d be very happy with Pitt staying in the Big East. If more teams leave the Big East, Pitt needs to be one of them or be caught on the outside looking in.
Also, I am not sure if I’d like Pitt to go or not. Yes good for football, but hoops, I am afraid Dixon would leave.
However, I think Rutgers is not going to be a good add. The school will never be competitive enough to get many TV sets tuned in if they enter the Big Ten. People there just don’t care about RU. They tuned in the one good year because it was a surprise, a good story. They have been on a good little streak but I feel they have peaked.
“You just don’t jump into the league and get a full share of what everyone else in this league has established over time. I think someone has to buy their way into the league.”
That made me think the $5 million was an “entrance fee” but it may be that ESPN was referring to two separate expenditures without really distinguishing them.
My point is that it is too early to get worked up over, because the Big 1x is still clueless on what they’re going to do. And, the Big East for the most part, is sitting on their thumbs waiting for the Big 1x to make a move.
I have my opinions too, but I’d rather talk about playing in the best basketball conference in history. That’s the one we’re in right now, and that’s the season we’re in right now. Let’s worry about the Big 1x expansion when it actually is a known factor, or in that lull between Spring ball and the start of camp. That’s all I’m sayin’.
Since the various polls and power rankings have Pitt no better than 17th, it seems like the bracket experts expect the committee to consider the factors you mention in addition to Pitt’s RPI and SOS.
Of course, Pitt has to keep winning and have a good showing in the BE tourney, because as Chas keeps pointing out, this stuff is all very fluid right now. Lose tonight or on Saturday, and we could tumble 2 spots.
