Nothing really noteworthy. While Oregon might come after Coach Jamie Dixon, assuming Gonzaga’s Mark Few rejects them once more, there is not much belief Dixon would seriously consider it.

Multiple sources have also told me that Oregon will target Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon — as USC and Arizona did a year ago — in an attempt to get the West Coast native to return back closer to home.

However, I’d be shocked if Dixon — who has done one of the top coaching jobs in the country this year and in his tenure at Pittsburgh — would agree to take an Oregon job that isn’t all that attractive except for its ties to Nike.

The Nike ties. It seems that with Phil Knight on hand, the coach had better be in the Nike stable.

Mike Bellotti’s decision to step down as athletic director makes it even more clear that former AD and influential Oregon booster Pat Kilkenny will make the hire with the nod from Nike’s Phil Knight, who has invested in Oregon as much as any high-profile alumnus at any other school. Don’t be surprised to see the next Oregon coach coming from the family of coaches who work with Nike.

The resignation of Bellotti is a huge strike against someone like Dixon taking the job — or really many top coaches. There’s no sense at who is in charge there in the future. And at a program where football is much more important, even a “name” coach has to worry about getting involved in a situation where the next AD will be hired after he is.

I think Oregon might already be aware that the chances of getting  Dixon and certain other coaches probably won’t happen. Witness this bit from a beat writer indicating a sudden concern by Oregon over the style of play by the coach they hire.

Oregon isn’t necessarily looking for style over substance in its new basketball coach. The Ducks want a whole lot of both.

We’re not talking uniform colors here, but playing style. Fast is good. Fast and smart is better. Fast, smart and defensive-minded? Sign here.

Oregon is ready to throw a lot of money at the right coach, a coach who can fill a big new arena. A coach can do that three ways: He must have a resume that inspires excitement, he must bring an entertaining style of play and – oh yeah – he must win.

…

Pittsburgh, under Oregon coaching candidate Jamie Dixon, is far from speedy — his Panthers play at a pace almost equal to that of Oregon State. Duck fans may be smarting over the Beavers’ sweep of their team this season, but they probably aren’t eager to adopt OSU’s style.

You would think, given the offseason that Oregon football is having, that getting players that won’t be arrested would make the list. But no, the article has quotes from (Ommygodthey) Kilkenny talking about how important the style is.

There is also the fact that it is not nearly as simple as shoveling buckets of Nike money at someone.

Oregon is shooting large by going after Gonzaga’s Mark Few, Pitt’s Jamie Dixon and Florida’s Billy Donovan. I’d be surprised if any of them were to take the bait. The money isn’t as grand as what apparently is being bandied about. The facilities are expected to be beautiful, but Nike czar Phil Knight has always been about improving the infrastructure at Oregon more so than supplementing a coaching salary.

That’s somewhat silly. When Phil Knight is footing the bill for infrastructure costs, then more money is freed to pay the coach. It may not be directly from Nike, but it impacts.

The fact that style of play suddenly has become a factor indicates that both Jamie Dixon and Mark Turgeon of Texas A&M showed little interest in the predictable feelers that have been put out there. You don’t make statements that effectively limit your pool unless you want to cover yourself from claims that you were rebuffed. That or they doing whatever it takes to get Mark Few from Gonzaga.

While Ernie Kent’s time at Oregon is almost over — just a matter of seeing if the NIT bothers — the obvious next step is getting his replacement. Unlike Arizona and USC fans and media, there seems more realism that getting a new coach won’t be a simple matter of throwing bushels of Nike green at someone.

This one might be a most pessimistic take.

In the Pac-10, I’d put it about seventh.

UCLA and Arizona are the best gigs — don’t worry, we’re getting to Arizona. USC is about to get hammered by the NCAA, but at some point, well, there’s a reason (beyond the alleged payments) O.J. Mayo thought he could raise his Q score by playing in L.A.

Washington’s a better job because of the decent recruiting ground in the Huskies’ backyard. Ditto for Stanford and Cal. Arizona State sits in a big-time pro market.

Argue if you’d like, and slide Oregon ahead of one of the above, or maybe two; it’s how I got to seventh. But if you’re looking for consensus, the gig ranks for sure ahead of only Oregon State and Washington State.

I think he is overvaluing Stanford and Cal, but he is not far off. As far as attractiveness, the Oregon job is middle-of-the-pack for the Pac-10. He makes an even better point, that even the “name-brand” basketball powers don’t have the easiest time filling the gig — using Arizona as an example. That buckets of cash alone are not enough.

Surprisingly enough, despite the Nike bucks and the sucess of the football program. Guess what? Oregon’s athletic department struggles to make ends meet. Actually posting a small loss.

Still, there are the claims of interest from Coach Dixon.

I’m told that University of Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon is interested in the job, and that there’s some mutual interest coming from Camp Swoosh. Remember, this decision will be run through the Beaverton sneaker company. Dixon’s contract runs through 2012-2013 at Pitt and he’s taken the Panthers (24-7, 13-5 Big East) to an Elite 8 already so I’m not sure if he’s posturing here to get some leverage (Read: extension) or if he believes he’s done all he can do at Pitt.

And even that seems tepid in belief. With good reason. I’m impressed with some rather clear thinking from those writing about Oregon basketball.

There is no real downside to Jamie Dixon except that there’s almost no chance he’d leave Pittsburgh, that I know of, for Oregon. Really? Why would he come to Oregon? He’s set financially. He’s successful in a much tougher basketball conference. Doesn’t need the challenge of building something back up.

Add in the fact that he rejected both USC (twice) and Arizona with offers of more money and better longterm situations than Oregon. To say nothing of the fact that he had seniors leaving and Pitt was supposed to be rebuilding this year.  I can’t see anything happening with this other than maybe another extension.

I have no fear of Auburn coming calling.

The only job Coach Dixon seems to have taken an interest in, is where he was once an assistant and met his wife.

Word buzzing around M?noa is that Jamie Dixon, head coach of 16th-ranked Pittsburgh, called the University of Hawai’i to discuss the Rainbow Warriors’ head basketball coaching job.

Well, relax. He called to recommended Hawaii look into hiring St. Mary’s assistant Kyle Smith.

Sometimes I think gimmee games make me more nervous than the big, tough ones. I am finding myself getting increasingly edgy the more I think about Pitt playing Providence. You would think that Pitt players would want revenge and  still have the memories stuck in their heads from last year at the Dunk.

“We’re just going to move the ball,” Panthers guard Ashton Gibbs said. “We’ll continue to be unselfish and penetrate and dish and look for open teammates. That’s what we’ve been doing, and we’re going to continue to do it.”

Twenty-nine players have scored at least 20 points against the Friars this season.

South Florida’s Dominique Jones scored 46 points against Providence — the second-highest point total in Big East history — and Georgetown’s Greg Monroe became the first Big East center to record at least 10 assists in a game when he had 12 against Providence.

The Friars can turn ho-hum players into high-scoring stars.

DePaul’s Mike Stovall, who averages 6.6 points, scored 30 against Providence. Cincinnati’s Cashmere Wright, averaging 5.7 points per game, netted 24.

Still, Pitt can’t take the Friars lightly. The No. 1 Panthers started out “lackadaisical” at Providence last season and lost, 81-73.

“We came out really lazy, and they took advantage of it,” Gibbs said. “Before you knew it, we were down 20.”

What has me worried is that Providence plays such bad defense. Expending all its energy on scoring. It is a hard temptation for players to resist the urge to just try and match the scoring and slip on the defensive end.

Consider this: Marquette Providence is riding an eight game losing streak. In four of the games they had a halftime lead (USF, G-town, Syracuse and Marquette). One game was tied (Cinci), and in three games where they trailed at the half (WVU, Nova, Cuse) two of them had the Friars within 5 points. Only WVU blew them out of the water in the first half and shut down their offense.

It took for most of these teams a halftime of their coach getting in their faces to remember to play defense and not let Providence dictate the tempo. Considering the offensive funks Pitt can fall into, it does have me a bit concerned.

You add in just the level of public humiliation Providence is taking over their defense. Plus second year coach Keno Davis seems to be losing his honeymoon grace period with the play.

But they aren’t, and there are no repercussions coming from Keno.

“There’s a point where guys make mistakes,” he said the other day, “and as a coach you can sit them, but are you ruining your chances of winning a game?”

Last time I looked, the Friars had lost eight straight conference games, and 10 of their last 11.

Because Keno is soft on his players, they play soft defense.

Can you picture Jim Calhoun or Jim Boeheim, Jay Wright or Jamie Dixon, Bob Huggins or John Thompson III, putting up with efforts they felt were insufficient and unacceptable?

Keno Davis’ quote came from his discussion of lack of depth on the squad that benching the guys won’t help the team win. It’s a tough line. Will the players actually respond to the benching? Just quit?

I know the broader point being that they were going to lose anyways so at least do so witha  message. As I pointed out with their first half, they were actually leading or still very close. Only one game was a blowout from the start. That’s what has to make it so hard. For at least a half, they were in these games.

Well, at least we know Jermaine Dixon will do what he can on defense and to keep the team in line. He has a goal.

Dixon, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound guard who came to Pitt from Tallahassee Community College last year, can complete his two-year career at Pitt with a 36-1 home record if the Panthers can win their final two games Thursday against Providence and Saturday against Rutgers.

“That would be big,” Dixon said Tuesday after practice. “I told them I never wanted to lose in the Pete. But we took one loss this year. Not losing [another] game in this building would be great. It’s something I want to do.”

The team from a year ago became the fourth in school history to complete a season with a perfect home record. The current team can join select company by finishing the season with only one loss at home.

Since the Petersen Events Center opened in 2002, four teams finished undefeated or with one loss. The 2008-09 and the 2002-03 teams did not lose at home. Coach Jaime Dixon’s first team in 2003-04 and the 2005-06 group finished with one loss.

Not that he’s actually seen the court much — and now the presumed odd guy out to make room on the next recruiting class — Dwight Miller has reinjured his heel that was the official reason for his redshirt last year.

In other stuff, Gary Parrish lists his top-eight candidates for National Coach of the year. Tough group.

In a dubious distinction for Coach Dixon, he gets mentioned as the “best coach never to make the Final Four.”

Coach Dixon has been doing the media rounds and on the Dan Patrick show he engaged in hyper-conference partisanship.

“I think we’ve got like 11 teams that are NCAA tournament teams,” Dixon told Tony Bruno, a fill-in host for Patrick.

“I think this conference is actually stronger this year from top to bottom, I really do,” Dixon said. “I don’t think we’re as top heavy this year, but top to bottom there is just better teams.”

But Dixon acknowledged that the league likely won’t actually get that many bids to the Big Dance.

“Now I know that many aren’t going to get in. It’s just pure numbers, plus beating each other up,” he said.

Dixon also remained lukewarm on conference expansion.

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.

Jermaine Dixon may have gotten a trans-Atlantic peptalk at 3 am, but that lack of sleep might have had something to do with 3-15 shooting.

Dixon still draws a lot of his motivation from Fields, who is currently playing in Russia. The two speak regularly on the computer. Dixon, in fact, called Fields at 3 a.m. yesterday morning to get some last-minute inspiration.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Dixon said. “And it’s the middle of the morning over there. I asked him how he was going over there and he told me make sure we get the victory and make sure we play hard and our goal should be to win the Big East.”

Isn’t Skype great? On a personal level for Jermaine Dixon, it was a measure of revenge. He doesn’t pretend otherwise.

“This one feels pretty good,” Dixon said with just about the biggest grin you’ll ever see on a college kid’s face.

Dixon enjoyed frustrating Scottie Reynolds for most of the game. Reynolds for his part was frustrated that he couldn’t penetrate with ease.

Brace yourself for this, but Doug Gottlieb had a good breakdown of what Pitt did to stop Reynolds in the game in College GameDay Final Sunday night/Monday morning. He showed how Pitt made sure someone always stayed between Reynolds and the basket to force him to give it up or pass out rather than go to the hoop and/or draw the foul on a big guy inside. Even when Pitt switched up on the perimeter a Pitt player would actually slide in front and risk leaving a ‘Nova player open in the corners to keep Reynolds from the basket.

(more…)

The meme grows. There was the extended praise from Andy Katz at ESPN.com for Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan and Coach Dixon.

A memo to the Big Ten and the Big East from this point forward: Do not pick a Bo Ryan or Jamie Dixon-coached team ninth again.

Resist the temptation. Forget about what has occurred on the roster. Finishing in the lower level of a conference for these two coaches from two different generations is not an option.

…

But what you can’t teach is the toughness that both teams play with throughout the season. Pitt showed no issues in going to Syracuse, Cincinnati and Connecticut to win three-straight road games for a 4-0 Big East start heading into a game against Louisville on Saturday.

The Badgers aren’t the most talented team in the Big Ten. Pitt doesn’t have that honor in the Big East. Yet, by mid-January, they are both virtual locks for the NCAA tournament, barring a collapse and serious threats to win their respective conferences.

Coincidentally, both coaches were the head coaches last summer for USA Basketball’s junior national teams. Ryan coached the World University Games team that won bronze in Serbia. Dixon coached the gold-medal winning U.S. team at the Under-19 World Championships in New Zealand — the first time the U.S. won gold in the event since 1991.

Their successes in coaching this summer shouldn’t be tossed aside as a coincidence. Players coached by them are also having significant seasons. Ryan coached Clemson’s Trevor Booker, Mississippi State’s Jarvis Varnado, West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler and Purdue’s Robbie Hummel on the older squad, while Dixon coached Pitt point guard Ashton Gibbs, Butler’s Matt Howard and Shelvin Mack, Ole Miss’ Terrico White and Kansas’ Tyshawn Taylor. I’m not handing the successful seasons of these players to the coaching staffs. But I’m just simply adding that Ryan and Dixon have been on a good run of late.

Both coaches have shown poise, patience and the ability to tinker with their respective teams to accommodate injuries or attrition. Dixon had to find ways for his team to score without Brown and Jermaine Dixon, and it showed at times in close, agonizing wins over New Hampshire and Duquesne. But the Panthers still won the games as Dixon’s controlled intensity rubbed off on his crew.

Tom Lucci at the New Jersy Star Ledger.

Q. Isn’t it about time that Pitt’s Jamie Dixon was recognized as one of the country’s best coaches?

The Panthers lost four starters who combined for 4,714 points from a team that was a Scottie Reynolds buzzer-beater away from making the Final Four a year ago. Picked ninth in the coaches’ pre-season poll, you can make the case that Pitt — 15-2 overall, 5-0 Big East — is the league’s best team right now. Since guard Jermaine Dixon (foot) and swingman Gilbert Brown (academic suspension) returned, the Panthers are 6-0 — with wins at Syracuse, at Cincinnati and at UConn.

And the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

And how about those Pitt Panthers? Makes you realize why one of the first coaches called every spring for just about any major-conference coaching opening is to Jamie Dixon.

And the meme keeps rolling.

Quote sheet from the game. Strangely nothing from Louisville right now.

Quoting Pitt Head Coach Jamie Dixon, On Nasir Robinson:

“I love that kid. I remember recruiting him. You find things wrong with him but he plays so hard and just keeps getting better. He brings energy, is positive, and works hard. He played well against UConn. His numbers weren’t big, but his energy and his positive attitude were. He’s finding his role on the team. He’s a good kid and I’m proud of him.”
…
On the atmosphere:

“It was tremendous. I always say don’t take crowds for granted. It’s easy to root for an unselfish team like ours. They are tremendous and always are. We have a special place at the Peterson Events Center.
…
Quoting Pitt’s Nasir Robinson, On his play:

“Once I got my first bucket, I got into a grove and just kept rolling. I’ve been working on my free throws and I was able to concentrate more and make more of them.”

Quoting Pitt’s Brad Wanamaker, On his final free throws of regulation:

“By far, those were the hardest free throws I’ve had to make. The guys just told me to relax and imagine it was practice and there was no one around. I did and I hit both of them.”

On his key three point shot:

“Coach designed a play during the time out and it worked. They thought Ashton was the shooter and they followed him and left me open. Jermaine got me the ball and I made the shot.”

31 straight at home.

At the start of conference play, most of us hoped Pitt could go 3-3 over the first 6 games. Now, when the time comes that Pitt loses it will feel like a disappointment. Awesome.

Apparently on the Big East Coaches teleconference, much of the talk was about Pitt.

“The DNA in that program is, “We do whatever it takes to win.’ The kids that sign on there sign on for that,” Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. “When Jamie gets in their face in practice and says, “We don’t turn the ball over, we defend people, that’s our formula for success,’ that’s not questioned. The names change, but the winning doesn’t because they have that formula.”

Part of the formula is role players taking the next step. Playing time is earned over time there, perhaps more than at any other place in the league. Scotch Plains native Ashton Gibbs is this year’s posted boy.

The sophomore guard, who averaged 4.3 points in spot duty last winter, is averaging 17.6 points and 2.5 assists while connecting on 41.9 percent of his 3-point attempts.

“People didn’t know how good Gibbs was. Gibbs is as good as any player in the league in the backcourt,” Boeheim said. “I liked (Levance) Fields. I thought Fields was a really good player, but I’d rather play against him than Gibbs because Gibbs can make six 3s against you.”

Since Coach Dixon has very publicly said that expectations remained high, naturally he did not bite on whether he was surprised. Instead it was about watching the team improve.

Dixon said yesterday he is not surprised by his team’s fast start in conference play, but he said he was pleased at how the Panthers have shown steady improvement.

“I get satisfaction out of coaching any team,” Dixon said. “This team has been interesting in that it has improved so much from the start of the year. Some guys have gotten better. Others are getting healthy. As any coach, you want to see your team improve. Anyone who saw us at the start of the year and now can speak to our constant improvement throughout. That has been gratifying. But we didn’t lower our expectations so I’m not surprised. Our demands were the same. Our players and staff understood that. We made that very clear from the beginning.”

Part of the new-found respect for Pitt and especially Coach Dixon comes from looking over the past decade and realized how well the team has continually adjusted.

We all know how this team looks different from last year’s team. Sam Young, DeJuan Blair, Levance Fields and Tyrell Biggs have all departed and with them the core of last season’s Elite Eight and No. 1-seeded team.

The one thing Jamie Dixon’s teams have always done is adjust to personnel losses. Chevron Troutman, Chris Taft, Carl Krauser, Aaron Gray, Levon Kendall, Ron Ramon, Antonio Graves and Mike Cook come and go, and Pitt continues to win. But with the early-season poor performances in wins against Wofford and Duquesne and losses to Texas and Indiana, it looked like this would be the year when the Panthers would finally fall to the Big East’s second division. Pittsburgh wasn’t shooting well, was turning the ball over and lacked the dominance on the offensive glass, something one might expect from a team that had suffered such heavy losses.

To be fair, the team that lost to Indiana wasn’t the team that defeated Syracuse on Jan. 2 and Connecticut Wednesday night. That was Jermaine Dixon’s first game back from a foot injury. Moreover, Gilbert Brown was still not academically eligible. On Wednesday, Dixon and Brown played 63 minutes, and while the numbers won’t jump out at you — 17 points on 7-of-21 shooting — the two veterans are soaking up minutes that had went to more inexperienced players, who were more likely to fumble away their opportunities than to make a productive play.

Or maybe the surprise comes from the fact that this is the first time Pitt has replaced talent that was not underrated.

The only reason people are more amazed at Pitt’s unbeaten start in Big East play than in previous seasons since the Panthers began their reign as a conference power is they finally had some elite talent to replace.

There is nothing else different. Whether the program is replacing future NBAers DeJuan Blair and Sam Young or Jaron Brown and Julius Page, though, it still has to have capable players willing to execute what coach Jamie Dixon designs.

The development of C Gary McGhee from practice body to integral starter is the same course followed previously by Tyrell Biggs and Keith Benjamin, among others. In other programs, such players generally transfer out if they haven’t made an impact as freshmen or sophomores. At Pitt, they wait their turn.

Not much of a chance to bask in the win over UConn. Tomorrow is a nooner with Louisville. Even if it is finally back at the Pete, Louisville is a terrifying game. As well as Pitt has been playing. As fantastic as these road wins have been. As sluggish as Louisville has played most of the season.

This game has me worried. Louisville presses all the time. They have length all over the court and quickness. They have depth. They are the kind of team that could absolutely disrupt Pitt.

On Saturday, they’ll face a Louisville team (12-5, 3-1) that is 2-0 at the Petersen Event Center, where the Panthers have won 30 straight since the Cardinals dealt them a 75-73 defeat on Feb. 24, 2008.

“They (Cardinals) have had our number because they do a good job of pressuring us, which makes it difficult to get into our offense,” said center Gary McGhee, who in 28 minutes tallied eight points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots against Connecticut. “We pride ourselves on protecting the home court, so this is a very big game for us.”

Part of the reason — at least according to Cards Coach Pitino — for the team struggling is that the team is not sharing which is leading to bad shots.

The Cards face the Big East’s top scoring defense on the heels of their worst shooting performance of the season. UofL, which has eclipsed 40 percent shooting just once in its past four games, shot 31.7 percent and squandered a 17-point lead in a loss to Villanova.

Against Kentucky, 5-of-29 shooting in the first half dragged their field-goal percentage down to 32.2 percent. But against Villanova they stayed around the same mark the entire game.

Pitino said he has pointed out during tape sessions and at practices where the Cards could have made extra passes to get better shots.

“We were an average-to-good passing team (two years ago); we became a great passing team last year,” he said. “I think young teams need to keep working on it and develop that mentality.”

Louisville has averaged under 12 assists/game over the past 5. Down from around 16. Of course, when a team is shooting around 32%, the assists are going to be lower because the team simply isn’t making a lot of shots. It is a bit of a chicken-egg thing.

“Prime numbers, Virgo and the Calendar Girl… I can say it now… I had my doubts.” — Kevin Kline (2:30 mark) as Det. Nick Starkey in The January Man.

That’s how I’m feeling. Wins at Syracuse, at Cinci and at UConn. Come on. In eleven previous tries Pitt has never won three straight conference road games. Heck only once in the past 5 years has it happened in the Big East, period.

Add in UConn coming off blowing a big lead at Georgetown and knowing they would have to play the half-court. Pitt having won the last two and … and.. just everything.  I admit, I didn’t think Pitt could get this game. It just seemed like the kind of game UConn had to and would get.

Happily, I am dead wrong. A 67-57 win. A win where Pitt only shot 4-12 on 3s. Jermaine Dixon was a horrid 3-14 shooting. Ashton Gibbs missed the front-end of a 1-and-1 in the final minute of a tight game.

Instead, Brad Wanamaker went for 19 points — including 9-10 at the FT line because his driving and penetration had the Huskies beat. Gibbs, despite being well defended all game still hit 3-5 on 3s and scored 19 points as well. Gilbert Brown takes his moments and makes teams pay. Gary McGhee finished his shots and even sank both FTs.

The story, though, was the defense. McGhee, especially, deserves praise. He held his ground so well. He played straight-up on defense. Keeping Edwards, Oriakhi and Majok in check.

Robinson in the first half and Dyson in the second were both looking like they would kill Pitt. Yet, Pitt was able to use their supposed disadvantage in size to their own advantage. Forcing Robinson and the other big men outside to defend Gilbert Brown.

Unlike the first two road games, Pitt came out with some energy and hitting shots. It was UConn that looked sluggish and the fans in Hartford seemed very muted. The Husky fans really didn’t get into the game until roughly midway through the second half. When UConn had finally spent more than a couple minutes playing defense and taken their first lead. I’m not saying UConn fans are frontrunners, but they sure seemed like a spoiled bunch that sat on their hands until the UConn team got their very brief lead.

I loved having John Saunders and Fran Fraschilla do the game. Saunders is a solid play-by-play guy and Fraschilla brings some good knowledge. He is the first analyst to make the point about how the U-19 game worked for Pitt because Kemba Walker backed out — granted he went with the positive aspect with Gibbs learning and getting confident — but this game really drove home to me that Walker cost himself by passing on being able to learn to play half-court.

Two Fraschilla quotes on Pitt: “They don’t just run plays, they execute them.”

“There is a legacy of success built under Jamie Dixon.”

The latter really struck me because there was no qualifier of Howland and Dixon or even “started by Ben Howland.” This is Coach Dixon’s program. He has done more than maintain from Howland. He has exceeded and made this era of Pitt basketball his.

It may seem like a small thing, but it is significant to me. It says that nationally, there is an acknowledgment that Pitt is past rebuilding/resurrection. They are a program under Dixon.

Pitt is now 4-0 in the Big East and 14-2 overall. 15 games (14 BE plus Robert Morris) remaining in the season, with 9 of those games coming at home. Barring a catostrophe and a slew of injuries, the expectations for Pitt is now looking to win at least 21-23 games and go at least 11-7 in the Big East.

From where the expectations were — even at the start of conference play — just is astounding.

The Coach Dixon Radio Show kicks off tonight. I really wish they would put them out as podcasts — then I might actually listen. I am guessing that it will be streamed — either via the flagship 970 or one of the affiliates (listed in the press release). The show, though, airs from 6-7 and there is little chance at that time to go sit by the computer to listen. I suppose I could use a stream-ripper but that would mean remembering and still having to be home to start the recording. Seems like way too much work. If anyone has a good suggestion to time-shift that is free or if there are podcasts, let me know.

Bob Smizik is now declaring Coach Dixon the best coach in the ‘Burgh, while taking swipes at the talent levels and recuiting. Really, do you think there would be a Smizik column/post without the glass at least somewhat half-empty?

That’s what sets Dixon apart. He can win with lesser talent. Some might call that a knock on his recruiting ability, and there’s an element of truth to that. But the fact remains: Dixon regularly wins with less talent.

That is the mark of a great coach.

Nobody gets their players to play harder, no one gets a greater commitment to defense and team.

He takes the ordinary and makes them excellent. There’s no better example of that on the current team than Ashton Gibbs, the leading scorer. He was an mid-level recruit who is turning into an outstanding player. That’s a typical Dixon story. Gibbs is playing at an all-Big East level. No one had the right to expect that. But Dixon, with plenty of help from Gibbs, got him to that point.

Gibbs finally snapped his consecutive FTs made streak at 46. He has missed only 4 FTs all season. As if in counterpoint, Nasir Robinson has missed 13 straight going back to the beginning of December.

As usual, though, free throw shooting remains a consistent worry. Last year, Pitt shot 67.6% on free throws. Presently they aren’t too far away at 66.4%. Wanamaker is shooting 67% down from nearly 75% last year, though Dixon is hitting 76% which is up from 66%. Woodall is under 62%. Dante Taylor is tolerable at 62.5%. Gilbert Brown’s sample size is still too small to judge fairly. I don’t think I want to even discuss Gary McGhee (51.3), Nasir Robinson (30) and even Lamar Patterson (54.5).

Still, a 3-0 start in the Big East has raised expectations. Seriously, though, Elite Eight — based on this plan? That would only happen if there was a confluence of incredible leaps in development, several souls being sold and flat-out freaky luck.

Gilbert Brown has come out of his suspension looking like he has played most of the season. This despite not practicing or conditioning with the team or coaches since his suspension. Despite playing more of a power forward than a small forward. And still coming off the bench. He did have time to learn the last couple years what Sam Young was doing and prepared for it after last season ended.

“I’ve talked to Gilbert about it,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “We kind of want to use him similar to Sam. We ran a lot of sets for him that we ran for Sam. He finished strong, and he made some plays.”

Brown, who missed the first 11 games while on academic suspension, scored a career-high 17 points — 13 in the second half — in a 74-71 victory at Cincinnati. The redshirt junior forward scored nine consecutive points for No. 23 Pitt in a critical second-half surge, capped by a soaring, attack-the-rim, baseline dunk that harkened some of Young’s memorable slams.

The complaint about Coach Dixon’s approach has been that he is playing too many guys out of position. That he is not taking advantage of their natural ability at the right spot.

The flip side to that is how much it increases the versatility of the players and gives the team much more flexibility. It is part of the reason for the long-term success at Pitt under Dixon. The team can survive injuries better and not have to change the system as much.

To take the Sam Young example. Young fought and pouted about being forced into playing power forward when his size and ability suggested keeping him exclusively at the small forward spot. Instead, he learned to play inside better, play more defense and develop a more rounded game. It not only helped Pitt better when Blair had foul trouble. It helped his overall development as a player.

Brown returning clearly helped by increasing the team’s ability to score and improved their intensity. It also takes some pressure off of other players to produce and minutes needed. The other factor was in terms of practicing. With playing defense and immediately buying into what Dixon has taught about playing out of position. The team has more energy and intensity as it gets through to them.

While the addition of his two veterans has been a big part of the team’s improvement the rest of the players deserve a lot of credit, as well, the coach said. For one thing, some players lost some minutes they were getting early in the season to make room in the lineup for Jermaine Dixon and Brown; for another, the other players have all improved and most because they have responded to the challenges given to them by the coaching staff.

“We’ve challenged these guys to improve. They’re taking the responsibility,” Jamie Dixon said. “And I think they’re enjoying improving. Some guys don’t want to change, they want to stay the same. But these guys want to get better and they are. I think there’s a real understanding our mentality was we’re not going to be the same team in January as we were in November.

“[Brown] is getting better defensively and he’s getting more comfortable, especially on defense. Even though he’s been here three years, it really is like starting over for him, but he is continuing to improve — as they all are.”

Oh, good. Snow in the Cleveland area. The kid has an extra day of vacation and I get little productivity and extra shoveling. Yay?

Pitt-Cinci stuff later. Safe to say, though, that if the Bearcats even considered looking past Pitt (which I really, really doubt) they are not after Saturday.

Pitt upsetting Syracuse was probably bigger for Pitt than devastating for Syracuse. It was a much-needed confidence win and drove home to the players how important the defense has to be.

“We’ve been improving,” said coach Jamie Dixon, who improved to 8-2 against teams ranked in the top five of The Associated Press poll. “We’re not the team we were early in the year. We’re a different team. We’ve improved every game out. We had a lot of great performances, but I really loved how hard we played. I can’t say enough about our effort. We have to continue to do that every single game.”

…

“We’re a team that has gotten much better as the year has gone on defensively,” Jamie Dixon said. “You can’t give them transition baskets. We didn’t do that, especially in the second half. We guarded on the perimeter well. We didn’t want to give them opens 3s. And maybe we just caught them on the right day. Maybe it was just our day.”

Coach Dixon has been on the team about the defense, and this game really saw it come together.

Brad Wanamaker attributes his team’s tenacity to its head coach. Or more precisely, Wanamaker believes Pittsburgh plays with such heart and such determination because Jamie Dixon refuses to accept anything else.

“He’s constantly on us. He’s in our ear all the time – how we’re not working hard enough and things like that,” Wanamaker said. “After awhile you get tired of hearing that, so we go out there and do that.”

“That” is what unhinged Syracuse Saturday afternoon in the Carrier Dome. “That” is what disrupted the Orange men’s perfect string of games.

That game was also where Pitt finally showed they could handle the 2-3 zone. Against the team that probably does it more and better than any other team.

That’s the best anyone has shot the ball against the Orange this season and the most points any team has put up against SU in one half.

“You know, we practice it and work on it every day against the 2-3,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said, “but you still didn’t simulate it because of their size. I think our attack wasn’t as good early on, but as we got going, we got better as the game went on, which is what you want. We got better penetration, we got better shots. We got some drives, we got some kick-outs. And we passed the ball better.”

“We just got more comfortable,” said Pitt forward Brad Wanamaker. “Early on, we were out there getting a feel for how they were playing their zone. Second half, we knew what was going on. We knew the open spots and we got there and finished and made plays.”

Sometimes it is weird how things can work out. Davidson’s Bob McKillop pulls out from coaching the U-19 kids. Coach Dixon gets elevated from assistant on the squad to the top spot. There are a slew of top college kids who do not even accept offers to play on the squad. That leads to Ashton Gibbs getting a tryout mainly because, he was the coach’s player and knew the system.

“He became the point guard because we had so many people pull out,” Dixon said. “He became a leader on that team because obviously he knew our system better than the other guys and he knew what I was looking for.”

The unexpected summer experience prepared Gibbs for the bigger role that awaited him this season at Pittsburgh.

…

“Last summer really helped boost my confidence coming into this season,” Gibbs said Wednesday. “I knew if I could play with best payers in the world, I could play with the best players in the Big East.”

And…

“I think we got closer,” Gibbs said of playing for Dixon last summer. “It just helped me understand his system even better. I knew what he wanted out of players even more because I got to see it as someone who had played for him. He’s a great coach.”

Now, imagine if Gibbs didn’t get that time and experience. He wouldn’t have learned as much and spent any time with Coach Dixon. Yes, he would have spent more time with his Pitt teammates but that would not have prepared him for the role as a team leader that he had to assume. Gibbs found out he could be more than a cog or a role player on a team.  That confidence has continued all over his game and practice including at the free throw line where he continues to hit his free throws and get his name in the Pitt record books with 37 straight made free throws and counting.

Gibbs had no choice but to assume more of a leadership role with Jermaine Dixon out for most of the non-con. Now that Dixon is back, his defense has been intense as Syracuse — and specifically Wesley Johnson —  found out.

“I tried to stay in front of him,” Dixon said. “He’s the best player I’ve played against in my two years here. He goes to the offensive rebound hard. I gave up a few inches. He could shoot over the top of me. I tried to play him as tough as I could.”

Johnson tried to take Dixon down low, a move that resulted in some success. But Dixon never stopped pushing, holding and harassing Johnson.

“He wouldn’t let me breathe at all today,” Johnson said. “He was right in my jersey. He played tough defense today.”

Johnson still scored 19 points, but they were not easy baskets and his teammates struggled to find him in the game. Yeah, I remember when Johnson transferred from Iowa State. Pitt was on his list, but he never got past Syracuse. Damn shame.

But having Dixon lead on defense has been big. And along with Gilbert Brown back, allows Coach Dixon to drive home the point that defense first gets playing time.

“He (Dixon) emphasizes it each and every day in practice,” said Gibbs, a sophomore from Scotch Plains, N.J. “Defense and rebounding and not backing down from anyone.”

And the players take it to heart.

“You’ve got to buy into it if you want to play,” Gibbs said. “If you don’t rebound and play defense, he’s going to say something, and it’s not going to be good.”

You have to imagine that Pitt is somewhat in the heads of Syracuse players. They had the big edge on experience, but it has been uniformly bad. No player on the ‘Cuse roster had beaten Pitt in the Carrier Dome. Pitt is on a 12-3 run against the Orange dating back to the Big East Tournament in 2001 — though to keep things in a larger perspective Pitt is still only 37-61 all-time vs. Syracuse.

The Syracuse perspective/spin is that this was the “wake-up call” or simply, it’s the Big East, baby.

“We’re going to see a lot more of these teams,” said coach Jim Boeheim, whose team will try to rebound at home Wednesday in a non-league matchup with Memphis (9-3). “We’re going to have to get tougher and more physical if we’re going to be successful.”

“Learning experience” seems to be the theme that Syracuse went with.

As for Pitt and Coach Dixon, he is now second on the all-time coaching wins list at Pitt in just 6 1/2 years. Nothing would be better than to have him move to #1 sometime in year 13+.

Binghamton acting head coach Mike Macon is just trying to make sure his team’s psyche isn’t further damaged after the game.

“You kind of try to see their psyche going into a game like this,” Macon said. “A lot of guys never played a team like Pitt in their careers. We had three guys returning who played Duke last year, but they didn’t get a high measure of minutes. It was a quantum leap (from the opener against Bloomsburg).

“This is where we want to be. How do we get there? Accept the challenge. Go out and be tough. Go out and let people know you’re here.”

Little side note, the story above from the Binghamton paper was written by the P-G Pitt beat writer, Ray Fittipaldo. Outstanding to pump out two different stories for the same game. That’s working smarter.

His P-G story focused on the backcourt performance of Gibbs and Woodall. Mainly Gibbs since he was drilling the 3s.

“I knew it was going to come sooner or later, so I wanted to be patient with it,” Gibbs said. “I wanted to be unselfish and take the open shot. I have confidence in myself. If I have an open one, I’m going to be confident enough to make it and keep shooting.”

That is exactly what he did in the first half when he almost single-handedly beat the Bearcats on the scoreboard. Gibbs had as many points at halftime as Binghamton (17). He made five of his six 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes, including three in a span of 1:45 midway through the half. All five 3-pointers came in a little more than nine minutes.

Woodall, though, very quietly notched a double-double with 10 points and 13 assists. The assists totals were helped by the fact that Pitt made 50% of the shots. Not as many loose balls and plays that weren’t set.

Plus when you pass to Gibbs and he drills 3s, it really helps pad the stats.

Gibbs made six 3-pointers on the way to a career-high 22 points, highlighted by a searing first-half run in which he made five 3-pointers in a 9-minute, 6-second span.

“I knew it was going to come sooner or later,” he said. “I just wanted to be patient with it.”

It was the most 3-pointers by a Pitt player since Levance Fields made six at Cincinnati on Jan. 24, 2007. No Pitt player has ever made more 3s in a game at the Pete.

Woodall, though, is playing humble and giving credit to watching Fields.

Woodall’s assist total — which ties the seventh-best ever by a Pitt player — came in his second career start. By contrast, Fields, the player Woodall is trying to replace, didn’t get his first double-digit assist game until his 66th start (as a senior against Miami, Ohio), and surpassed Woodall’s 13 assists only once in 100 career starts at Pitt.

Woodall said watching Fields last season while taking a redshirt is the reason for his progress.

“That’s him helping me,” Woodall said. “It’s almost like me cheating to get 13 assists, because he helped me out a lot.”

Pitt outrebounded Binghamton by only 6. It wasn’t because of the frontcourt. Robinson grabbed 10 and McGhee and Taylor combined for 10 boards. Coach Dixon was bothered by the guards not getting after the long ones.

“We’re concerned for obvious reasons,” Dixon said. “We have to get our guards to rebound more, especially on the long 3s. The guards have to get those.”

Coach Dixon was also named 2009 USA Basketball Coach of the Year thanks to coaching the U-19 team to a gold medal.

“Jamie Dixon has established himself as one of the finest collegiate coaches there is in the game today and this past summer he proved himself on the international court too,” said USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo. “In leading the USA Men’s U19 Team to the World Championship, he not only accomplished something that the U.S. had not done since 1991, but to do so he had to quickly form a team from 12 individual players and earn their respect and confidence. He obviously did so and his team responded by winning it’s nine games in an impressive team manner.”

Butler’s Shelvin Mack was the quote from a player lauding Dixon.

“(Coach Dixon) helped my game out a lot,” Mack said in a news release from USA Basketball. “He stressed that I should be more of a leader and more vocal. Since I was a point guard, I was more in control in making sure everyone got the ball in the right position, and he helped me accept that role. He made it clear that my job was to get everyone involved, stay positive and not worry about individual goals.

“His practices were very intense,” Mack continued. “Everything was full speed, so you had to pick up things quickly. But he emphasized the right things, the things you need to do to be successful.”

A few more things regarding the basketball team.

The season-opener is next Friday against Wofford. It will start late, but if you have tickets go early.

The start time has been moved to 8:10 from 7 pm, but the athletic department wants people in their seats by 7:45 for a banner raising ceremony in honor of Pitt’s Elite Eight appearance.

While it was Pitt’s second Elite Eight showing in its history, it was the first time Pitt has made it past the first three rounds of NCAA Tournament games.

Chris Dokish had a short Q&A earlier this week on Pitt b-ball recruiting and the team this coming year.

Q: Is there reason to worry about the team struggling against Slippery Rock?

A: It makes me laugh how so many fans were raving for months about the job that Jamie Dixon will do with this team, then after one preseason game they are already talking about NIT. There will be growing pains with this team. They will surprise with huge wins and they will surprise with a few bad losses. But as the season progresses, they fully expect to find a few pretty good players develop along the way and battle for an NCAA spot.

There is no question that Pitt will find itself in the now unfamiliar spot of being a bubble team come February. Going from wondering about seeding to wondering whether the RPI is good enough, enough quality wins, comparing to other teams’ resumes will take a little adjusting.

Here’s a piece on Travon Woodall and how he should be the team’s point guard, despite growing pains.

Woodall has a decent enough shooting touch, and plays above average defense. To usurp the other two guards, Travon must bring his own special skills to the table.

What are those skills?

In limited action for Pitt, Woodall has revealed startling quickness. The aspiring PG scurries around the court like a pinball.

The transition from foul line to foul line should be Scottie Reynolds fast. With Gilbert Brown, Nasir Robinson, and Brad Wannamaker out on the wings, Pitt has the potential to be more uptempo. Woodall introduces that element to a traditionally halfcourt team.

Speed kills. The hope of coaches is that the speed kills opponents. Some speedy guards commit frequent turnovers. With Woodall’s jets he still efficiently distributes the ball.

The issue is doing it while maintaining a low turnover ratio. Coach Dixon is practically Wannstedtian when it comes to the issue of turnovers. But early comments from the first scrimmage is that Woodall seems the most comfortable to get the ball low and inside. Something vital for Pitt. Even in this more guard oriented roster.

If you missed the stories about the NABC (National Association of Basketball Coaches) getting the NCAA to pass some significant (if somewhat selfserving) recruiting reforms, well hopefully I can detail it more in a week or two. Here’s the cliffs notes of what passed.

• Banning package deals to try and get a player.

• Banning purchase of  “recruiting service and info” that happen to be run by the AAU coaches or hanger-ons of prospective players.

• Banning payments to AAU teams and nonprofits related to summer teams.

• No hiring outsiders to work the coaches summer camps.

The punishment (which might still get watered down) is potentially strict. Coach Dixon had a role in shaping the new rules through the NABC.

Head or assistant coaches could be suspended from participation from regular-season games as well as the NCAA tournament, and the penalties would follow him to subsequent jobs.

Also, basketball players caught in the web could be rendered permanently ineligible at a school found guilty of one of these infractions.

“These are potential career-killers,” Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon said. “I’m not saying that it’s too strong, but I just expressed that the punishment to a person’s career will be much greater than the single game we’re talking about.”

Which these days might be the only way to get the attention.

It’s a testament to the success of the program and faith in Coach Dixon that there is a lot of optimism and enthusiasm for the upcoming season. This despite losing 2 NBA level talents along with 2 other seniors now playing overseas. This despite the football team performing well for a second straight season.

Coach Dixon is not afraid to say he expects this squad to measure up to past groups. Not just in a year or two, but this year as well.

“This team can be as good as any team we’ve had,” Dixon said Thursday afternoon at Petersen Events Center. “Where we are now is not going to be where we are in January or February or March. That has to be our belief, because if our freshmen play like freshmen in January, February and March, we won’t be as good as we want to be.”

The Panthers added a senior point guard in Centenary transfer Chase Adams, redshirt freshmen in forward Dwight Miller and point guard Travon Woodall and true freshmen forwards that Dixon calls “the best four guys we’ve ever brought in” as a recruiting class: Dante Taylor, Lamar Patterson, J.J. Richardson and Talib Zanna.

The Panthers lost their starting frontcourt when Blair left early for the NBA, and Young and Tyrell Biggs graduated. Pitt also returns 6-10 junior center Gary McGhee and 6-5 sophomore Nasir Robinson – both of whom appear much leaner – and the 6-8 Miller along with the four freshmen.

“They’re going to play,” Dixon said. “Just look at the numbers. Some freshman is going to play a lot of minutes this year on the front line. It’s a great opportunity.”

Heck Dixon really sounds like he expects things to go much better than it seems possible with such a young team.

The assistant Brandin Knight said: “With some guys, it just clicks. You never know how a guy’s going to be when there’s 12,000, 13,000 in the stands. Some guys come out and it’s like, What do I do? Other guys relish the moment.”

Pittsburgh is the only Big East team to win at least 20 games over all and 10 conference games and play in the N.C.A.A. tournament each of the last eight seasons.

“We always seem to adjust, find guys who surprise and play roles we didn’t anticipate,” Jamie Dixon said. “We’ve got a 3,000-person waiting list for season tickets. We’ve got to keep them happy.”

There seems to be some attempts to try and divine the subtext of what Coach Dixon is doing by being this positive and enthusiastic about the young players. Especially since he has often down-played and shown reluctance to use/rely too heavily on the underclassmen.

Here’s my view. Yes, he is mostly being honest about the talent. More importantly, though, he is sending the players a message. No excuses. They should know that he will help them. He will have their back in the season, but they are not going to be allowed to rely on the excuse of being young and learning. They want the playing time and the chances, then they have to know and be ready to meet the expectations

It’s partially a reflection of how he has grown as a coach. He is more comfortable and confident expressing things in public beyond mere coachspeak. He is actually using the media and public statements to let the players know that he really has meant the things he has told them in meetings and practices.

Dante Taylor is widely expected to have an impact right away in the starting line-up. From high school accolades and recruiting sites, he is Pitt’s biggest recruit since Paul Evans had John Calipari as his assistant in the 80s. It was news to Taylor.

“I wasn’t aware that they hadn’t had a big name in a long time, but I was excited to come here because I like the team and like the coaching staff,” Taylor said. “I like my teammates, the whole environment, I like the city and the school , I didn’t want to go to a school just because of its name.”

Knight likes that Taylor didn’t arrive with the attitude that he’ll be around only until he can turn pro.

“He works hard and he’s trying to learn like everybody else,” Knight said. “He doesn’t carry himself like he’s better than everybody else. His expectation isn’t, ‘I deserve this. I’m going to show up and I’m going to be that guy.'”

In case the other freshmen are somehow unaware, there is one nearly foolproof way to be one of the kids getting lots of minutes and perhaps even start. Play defense.

“That’s the first thing coach Dixon talked to us about,” senior guard Jermaine Dixon said. “We’re going to be better defensively. None of us are high-profile players like Sam [Young], DeJuan [Blair] and Levance [Fields]. We’re definitely going to get ours on the defensive end more.”

…

“They’re buying in,” Jermaine Dixon said of the freshmen. “We’re already having sessions together. We’ll go to my house or Brad [Wanamaker’s] house. We’ll talk over the defense. They’re definitely listening and they’re picking things up.”

And even though the vast majority of the players on the roster only know typical Pitt defense by reputation and not by experience, they are embracing what their coach is preaching.

“This year we’re trying to be at the top of the country in defense and rebounding,” sophomore forward Nasir Robinson said. “Defense brings offense, so we’re out there trying to lock down, play together and play hard. We have size, athleticism, guys who can jump and rebound. I think we’ll go back to that Pitt defense that it used to be.”

That will also mean some stretches of frustrating offensive ineptitude and cringe-inducing shhoting. In other words, the growing pains of a young team.

What is positive, is that the players who were on and playing last year are saying the right things about putting the defensive effort first.

Well, here’s one cliche you can almost certainly count on hearing and reading this year about Coach Jamie Dixon: “This may be Jamie Dixon’s best job of coaching a team, ever.”

The odds of this sort of cliched comment in a telecast or entire puff piece will increase exponentially starting at about 16 wins.

It fits. You have three starters in Fields, Young and Blair gone. The top reserve player, Biggs gone. Gilbert Brown suspended until late December. Lots of youth on the team. Now Jermaine Dixon has a setback that keeps him from rejoining the team until at least mid-November.

The latest was Dixon, who will miss a minimum of eight weeks after undergoing foot surgery Wednesday morning at UPMC South Side Hospital.

Dixon, the team’s lone returning starter, reinjured the same fifth metatarsal bone he initially broke in July. He had been back playing for about a week and was reinjured Tuesday night during a pickup game with other Pitt players.

Coach Jamie Dixon said Jermaine Dixon was jumping when another player landed on the foot “with heavy, major force.”

Pitt opens practice Oct. 16. Its first regular-season game is Nov. 13 against Wofford. Eight weeks would put Jermaine Dixon’s return in the middle of November.

I would dispute the cliche, though. If Pitt has a season that still manages to finish .500 or better in the Big East it would be his best job as a teacher.  Preparing the kids. Working them in the practices. Teaching them. Not as a coach in the games themselves.

It all leads to a less than serious question as to whether forces beyond the those of mortal men have aligned against Pitt.

3. It seems as if Pitt has been snakebit since Scottie Reynolds beat the Panthers at the buzzer in the Elite Eight. Should Jamie Dixon be worried?

DeCourcy: In the bad karma department, you really need to take it back a bit farther, to when the Panthers held a 67-63 lead and the ball with 3:05 left. The Panthers advanced the ball against a Wildcats press, Levance Fields gave it up too soon and guard Jermaine Dixon dribbled into a midcourt trap. Instead of calling an immediate timeout, he surrendered the ball. That’s where the bad news began for Pitt.

Since Reynolds’ shot went down, though, there’s been at least as much good news.

It’ll be tougher for them to reach their potential with Dixon missing most or all of the preseason with a broken foot and Gilbert Brown suspended for the fall term. But with the United States U-19 team, Jamie Dixon demonstrated once again that he’s an outstanding coach by leading the Americans to the gold medal. And Ashton Gibbs, recruited essentially to be a backup guard at Pitt, started at point for that team and played exceedingly well.

The Panthers will begin the season with their most coveted recruit in two decades: 6-9 power forward Dante Taylor, a McDonald’s All-American. They’ve got three excellent commitments for 2010 and 2011.

It’ll be a struggle to extend the string of NCAA Tournament appearances to nine, but the future at Pitt remains promising.

It’s admittedly been a bad few weeks. I suppose there could be a bigger case made with both Young and Blair slipping on draft night about things, but I think most Pitt fans were happy with the offseason. The USA U-19 squad coached by Jamie Dixon took gold. Not to mention that Dixon rebuffed overtures from Arizona and USC to stay at Pitt. Plus the transfer and immediate playing time for Chase Adams to help at point guard.

And Dante Taylor made Andy Katz’s list of freshmen who need to have an impact.

Panthers coach Jamie Dixon knew DeJuan Blair was likely headed to the NBA after his sophomore season.

Sure, there could have been a meltdown, an injury, something that would have kept him in Pittsburgh. But Dixon went hard after Taylor, and Taylor committed, knowing full well he could come in and make an impact. The difference between Blair and the new guy is this: No one expected Blair to be a star and off to the NBA in two seasons. Taylor? He comes in as a McDonald’s All-American with a lot of hype.

“Nobody was writing about DeJuan as an impact freshman,” Dixon said. The Panthers will likely pump up Taylor in the preseason, and they should, but Dixon isn’t going to put too much pressure on him. He arrived at the USA Basketball trials in Colorado Springs last June for the team that Dixon ultimately coached to the gold medal at the Under-19 World Championships in New Zealand. Playing a few days there was a good experience, but Taylor wasn’t ready to make the squad and was not in the best shape possible. “He was a little heavy then at 250, but he’s lost about 15 pounds,” Dixon said. The Panthers did receive some bad news this week when their one returning starter, senior guard Jermaine Dixon, broke his right foot again; he will be out for the next eight weeks. Pitt was already down a wing after Gilbert Brown was deemed academically ineligible by the school for the first semester. Still, the experience Ashton Gibbs had on the gold-medal team this summer and the return of scorer Brad Wanamaker still make the Panthers a threat on the perimeter. But if they’re going to make it back to the NCAA tournament for a ninth straight year, Taylor will have to produce in the post. “He needs to rebound,” Dixon said of his prized recruit. If Taylor rebounds, he’ll score. This is a good year to come into the Big East as a freshman big man. The league suffered a big-man vacuum in the offseason as forwards Hasheem Thabeet and Jeff Adrien of Connecticut, Dante Cunningham of Villanova, Blair and Sam Young of Pitt, and Earl Clark and Terrence Williams of Louisville all left for the pros. There are still plenty to deal with, such as Gates, Georgetown’s Greg Monroe, Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody, Marquette’s Lazar Hayward, St. John’s Anthony Mason Jr., and Syracuse’s Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson. But Taylor has the body to compete with all of them. “He’s got good hands, he runs well, his post-moves are developing, and he’s a great kid,” Dixon said. If he can handle the hype and board — score on plenty of putbacks — he’ll be even more celebrated by March.

As for further in the future, John Johnson (noted back in late August as being a likely commit) made it an official verbal for 2011. Expect a lot of talk about his grit — like Wanamaker and Robinson — other recent Philly area recruits.

But in Philadelphia circles, he is considered the second-best player in his class behind Rakeem Christmas of Philadelphia North Catholic. He averaged 21 points, 5 assists and 3 steals per game as a sophomore last season. He scored 30 in the PIAA Class A championship game victory against Kennedy Catholic.

“His heart is his biggest asset,” said Jonathan Stewart, an assistant coach at Girard. “When he steps onto the floor he’s going to bring it 150 percent. He has that constant aggression.”

Johnson chose Pitt over Saint Joseph’s, Virginia Tech, Penn State and Georgia Tech. All had offered scholarships.

This is the quote that makes me really want to see Johnson at Pitt and succeed.

Johnson made his decision yesterday, a day after Pitt assistants attended a Girard College open gym.

“When Pitt started [recruiting him], you just saw his whole personality change,” [Girard College coach Tyrone] Morris said.

The 16-year-old is a good long-range shooter and has a great burst off the dribble. His quickness and playmaking ability make him a good fit.

The two-time Associated Press Class A all-state performer led the Cavaliers to their first PIAA Class A state title last season. Johnson averaged 21.3 points, 5.5 assists, and 3.4 steals en route to garnering third-team all-Southeastern Pennsylvania.

“I felt like I was already on the team,” Johnson said of Pitt. “They didn’t fill my head up with dreams like you are going to be this and that. They told me I have to work for what I want. That’s what I wanted to hear.”

[Emphasis added.]

Pitt will also be part of ESPN’s November 17 college hoop marathon with the game against Binghamton (my old law school roommate’s alma mater) on ESPN2 at 5:30 pm.