The passing of the draft withdrawal deadline gave college basketball writers a chance to rehash their top-25s that were way too soon with slightly less ridiculous ones.
Before getting to those, just worth confirming that Bradin Knight is not going to Rutgers to be an assistant for Mike Rice. Eventually Knight will leave for another assistant position. Simply because his career aspirations will demand it. Just glad it isn’t today.
Coach Dixon also was one of several to recommend that Robert Morris promote Andrew Toole after Mike Rice left for Rutgers.
Seven seems to be the number for Pitt. Yesterday I noted a preseason ranking that put Pitt at #7, Andy Katz at ESPN.com concurs.
7. Pittsburgh: The Panthers aren’t going to wow you with their overall talent. But what they have is a solid core of players who grew into their roles and became winners again under Jamie Dixon last season, which has become expected with this program. Pitt loses Jermaine Dixon, but it had to play without him at times last season. Ashton Gibbs has become a big-shot maker and a quality lead guard, Gilbert Brown has grown into his leadership role and Brad Wanamaker will continue to shine. Nasir Robinson emerged as a better post option than McDonald’s All-American Dante Taylor, but that could shift as Taylor matures. Pitt might not have the most talent in the Big East, but the experience should lead the Panthers to the conference title.
Luke Winn at SI.com also says lucky #7.
The Panther I’m most curious about this season is power forward Dante Taylor, the former McDonald’s All-American who came in and averaged 4.1 points and 3.7 rebounds in 13.9 minutes per game as a freshman — hardly overwhelming numbers. Taylor’s per-possession statistics, however, are intriguing. If he could keep up his offensive rebounding percentage of 16.1 over a larger chunk of playing time, he’d be considered one of the country’s best offensive rebounders and be immensely valuable to Jamie Dixon. Of all the big men that DraftExpress projects to go in the first round in June, only one — Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins — had an OR% higher than 16. Pitt’s team offensive rebounding dropped off by nearly six percent after losing DeJuan Blair, and a breakthrough year by Taylor could help the Panthers get back among the elites in that category.
Offensive rebounding was expected to and did suffer after losing Blair. Considering how it seemed that Taylor was struggling with position and getting after boards at times, Winn suggests that a more consistent effort — and more minutes — will be a big difference.
The other side of that, though, is finishing. Whether it is going up strong with putbacks or knowing to kick it out for someone else.
Mike Miller at NBC Sports, is far more bullish than anyone else to this point. Picking Pitt for #4.
There’s a drop from 3 to 4, but not as much as some might think. Considering the Panthers return seven of their top eight players from a 25-9 squad, including two star-caliber players in Gibbs and Brown and Jamie Dixon’s squad is a fair bet to make that Final Four breakthrough. There won’t be any embarrassing losses in 2010-11.
Love that optimism.
