Remember what I said the last day or so about bias and DC Paul Rhoads not getting any benefit of the doubt from me. Well, this article about tackling and technique nearly killed me. It’s a good article that has a lot of different coaches offering perspectives. Considering for the last 4-5 years the common mantra I’ve been screaming at the Pitt defense is along the lines of “tackle, don’t just hit,” reading any comment from Rhoads was going to set me off.

Pitt defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads emphasizes the need to finish plays with your feet, with the concept being a defender should come close enough to step on a ball-carrier’s feet.

“Pretty much the thing we emphasize is take the extra step,” Pitt senior safety Mike Phillips said. “They want you to step on his toes. People think they’re there, but they’re not and they have to arm tackle. The great running backs like (Rutgers running back) Ray Rice and (West Virginia’s) Steve Slaton break those arm tackles.”

Rhoads also preaches to keep those feet moving once a defender has made contact, in order to gain leverage and drive the ball-carrier back. His mantra is for defenders to make the hit with your head high and eyes to the sky.

“If you think you’ve got him and your feet stop, you’re not going to make that tackle because you’ve just got him with your arms and hands,” Rhoads said. “You can’t tackle that way. If your eyes drop and you don’t see your target, you’re not going to tackle him.”

Then, clearly, Paul Rhoads is a lousy effin’ teacher. The final quote of the article sums up the issue.

“I think tackling is a skill that’s taught,” said Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, an Upper St. Clair native. “Certainly, intangibles can help you. But tackling’s like blocking, you don’t just fall out of bed and do it. You have to work at it.”

In the time that Rhoads has been DC, the fundamentals of tackling have just never been there. He may be conveying all the passion and energy to the players. But how to tackle hasn’t been there.

Not hearing much in the recruiting.

Pitt has finally finished with hiring staff. Brian Regan will take over as Program Assistant/Video Coordinator as Brandin Knight moved up to Director of Basketball Operations.

Regan, a Pittsburgh native, had been a top assistant at Colgate for the past 5 years. (Geez, does anything point to the difference in programs and pay scale than going from a top assistant at a D-1 Patriot League team to lowest paid rung on a top Big East program?)

Regan actually began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Pitt under Paul Evans from 1988-1990.

Andy Katz at ESPN.com notes some of the non-com scheduling and notes Pitt playing Duke thanks to an assist from Dayton.

Pitt wanted to play Duke and got the Blue Devils in their second home court at Madison Square Garden. But for this to occur, Dayton had to agree to move a game at home against Pitt even though it wasn’t on the same date (two days later). So, the credit goes to Brian Gregory of Dayton for doing; he didn’t have to accommodate Pitt.

It’s appreciated. Though, I’m guessing Dayton wouldn’t mind another home-and-home at some point in the future as part of the consideration.

Coach Dixon was in California this past week. Presumably to see his family, but while he was there he joined a slew of top coaches in attending the Harold Pump Foundation Celebrity Dinner. The charity event which also included a golf outing and coaching clinic is sponsored by the Pump Brothers who are backed by Adidas in their summer basketball activities. Of course the Pumps are also (sometimes notoriously) involved in ticket brokering, coach searches, and coaching clinics.

“They’ve brought everything together under one roof like a good corporation would do,” said Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon. “What they’ve done is used their contacts in one area to help them in other areas.”

Consequently, the Pumps now run one of the premier summer teams (the Pump ‘n Run Elite), one of the best search firms (Champ Search), one of the largest gatherings for coaches and athletic directors (the Collegiate Business Conference) and a charity aiding cancer research that hosted a dinner last Thursday night in the same room where the Golden Globes are annually held.

(Harold Pump, Dana and David’s father, died of cancer in 2000.)

Among those attending the $400 per plate event emceed by Rich Eisen were college basketball figures like UCLA’s Ben Howland, Georgia Tech’s Paul Hewitt, Kentucky’s Billy Gillispie, Southern Illinois’ Chris Lowery and Nevada’s Mark Fox. That was to be expected.

But others floating around were Joe Montana, Mike Tyson, Penny Marshall, Tommy Hearns, Bill Russell, Bill Walton, Magic Johnson, Chris Mullin, Paul Pierce, Baron Davis and countless additional stars who, on the surface, benefited professionally in no obvious way with their presence.

During the events, Billy Gillispie was one of the clinic speakers. One of his issues of discussion was using more of your bench to keep all the players still involved and think a little like football coaches.

Toward the end of his session, Gillispie talked about how in his early years as a head coach at UTEP he really only played seven players because he believed he only had seven good players. But what he realized going forward was that regardless of how much the talent level increased on his roster — first at UTEP and then at Texas A&M — his instincts were still to play no more than seven or eight guys.

“So the problem wasn’t the players,” he said. “The problem was me.”

Gillispie noted that if you’re only playing seven guys, nearly half your roster isn’t playing. Over time that group becomes disenchanted and ceases to feel like a part of the team.

His solution: Create special teams for basketball, things like a team that specializes in blocking out during crucial free throw situations or a team that specializes in defending inbounds plays under its own goal with less than eight seconds on the shot clock — the idea being a group of players that might otherwise have no chance to get on the court will suddenly take pride in a particular aspect of the game the same way a fourth-string tailback takes pride in covering kickoffs or a third-string quarterback takes pride in holding for field goals.

“You just make up reasons for people to be a part of the team,” Gillispie said. “I think it helps team chemistry.”

Considering the number of player who will be vying for playing time on Pitt’s roster this year, this kind of  idea might be one Coach Dixon might feel like considering.

Even with the loss of Steve Buches, our group of tight ends is possibly the deepest position on the team. Senior Darrell Strong and sophomores Nate Byham and John Pelusi are all going to see playing time — it just depends who will see the most.

Right now the depth chart looks like it is going to be Byham as the starter with Strong and Pelusi each seeing some time on the field.

“Nate came in as the No. 1 guy in the rotation, but we’re going to use all the tight ends,” tight ends coach Brian Angelichio said.

“They all do things a little bit differently. We’re going to use all of their strengths wherever they can help us win football games.”

Pelusi is generally considered the best blocker of the bunch, and Strong, who led Pitt’s TE’s with 15 receptions, 171 yards and three touchdowns in 2006, is thought of as the best pass catcher and route runner. So what is Byham? Darrell Strong has that answer:

Nate is a mixture of me and Pelusi, just a little lighter.

It looks like most of the times that Pelusi and Strong see action will be in two tight end sets.

“I don’t see Nate coming off the field very often,” Wannstedt said. “I don’t see any scenario, unless we go no tight-end, where Nate will be standing next to me [on the sidelines].”

We rarely hear such a straightforward sentence from Wannstedt, but it’s a welcome change. Byham is their man right now, and he says he is feeling some pressure. As long as he can contain it and turn it into productivity then the pressure isn’t all bad. He says even if he were to be dropped to the 2 spot on the depth chart, he’ll still “feel comfortable in [his] role.”

Strong, who the article is mainly focused on, is trying to move forward and forget past actions. You might recall him throwing up his middle finger after a TD at South Florida.

“I’m past [those incidents] right now,” Strong said. “I’m trying to go out this season and surprise myself and everybody that’s around me. I’m definitely looking forward to this season, especially since it’s my senior season.”

He missed two games because of the incident. Meanwhile, sophomore John Pelusi was redshirted last year because of a knee injury, which he says feels fine now. In 2005 as a true freshman he played in 11 games.

Overall, the TE corps looks like it’ll be a solid group — not only this year but with two sophomores, the future looks good too.

“You can put any three of us out there, and we’ll get the job done,” Strong said.

“Having all three of us is not only good for the team, but it gives the coaching staff a lot of options,” Pelusi said.

Awesome.

I have to concede to having doubts about how much Coach Dixon will actually let the offense speed up. There’s just human nature to fall back on what has worked. Especially, if the offense costs the team too frequently with defenses lapses.

Then I read that he’ll be working at the camp put together by Memphis Coach John Calipari (July 23 entry).

The latter, naturally, was the preferred route, and that’s what led to the creation of the first annual Adidas Midsouth Coaches Clinic that’ll be held just outside Memphis on Sept. 14-16. The set-up is for Walberg and Calipari to discuss and explain the ballyhooed dribble-drive motion offense that Memphis has used to earn back-to-back trips to the Elite Eight and a No. 1 ranking in CBS SportsLine.com’s preseason rankings. Among the other coaches scheduled to appear and instruct are Bob Knight, Larry Brown, Del Harris, Rick Barnes, John Pelphrey, Jamie Dixon and Stan Heath.

It doesn’t hurt, of course, that Pitt is an Adidas school and the sponsor of the camp is Adidas.

Still, Coach Dixon will be spending part of his dead recruiting period speaking and learning about an offensive style that is more much up-tempo.

Last week the NCAA Rules Committee approved moving the 3-point line back 1 foot starting in the 2008 season. The women’s line will remain at 19’9″, so there will be the unaesthetic sight of two arcs running parallel. That should confuse refs and players periodically. Another early observation was that the moving the line back, would be a hit to the mid-majors that rely more on shooters than players going inside.

The overall consensus in the media and most fans, though, has been overwhelmingly positive. Myself included. It shouldn’t be a shot where teams average over 33%. It should be a much tougher shot, and taken less frequently. Mike DeCourcy gives a good breakdown of what is hoped to be accomplished with it.

Empirical: Of every 10 shots taken in the 2006-07 season, 3.4 were launched from 3-point range, up from about 1.5 of every 10 in 1986-87, the first year of the 3-pointer. Over the past 11 seasons, 3-point accuracy improved from 34.1 percent to 35.0 percent.

Anecdotal: “You’ve got bad shooters taking it — you’ve also got bad shooters making it,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey says.

Teams that set their perimeter players behind the 3-point line on offense will have to move them back. Teams that try to drop from the perimeter to double-team the ball in the post on defense will have more ground to cover. With less congestion in the key area, it likely will be easier for officials to identify the bumping, clutching and grabbing that defenders employ to disrupt offensive flow.

All this is expected to enhance the value of player movement, with and without the basketball. It’s a more beautiful game when the players are in motion.

When the local Pittsburgh college coaches were surveyed on the issue, it seems to reflect the view of major/mid-major biases. Coach Dixon was happy about it.

Pitt’s Jamie Dixon, whose Panthers rank among the nation’s elite programs, takes a different viewpoint than his counterparts at Duquesne and Robert Morris.

“I don’t think it will make too much of a difference,” Dixon said. “It was just a matter of time. We all knew this was coming. When I sent in my survey, I knew it [the line] was getting changed. I thought if they were going to move it, they should take it back to the international line.”

Mike Rice at Robert Morris isn’t a fan of moving it back; and Ron Everhart at Duquesne seems tepid at best. The one thing Dixon and Everhart did agree was that the lane should have been widened as well. Maybe they will take that up later.

There are always unintended consequences of a rule change. Syracuse and teams that play zone, look to be beneficiaries of the move.

One is how the move might encourage more teams to play a zone defense because if a zone is designed to force opponents to shoot 3-pointers, it’s reasonable to think more teams will become favorable of zones considering 3-pointers should now by definition be more difficult to make. Meanwhile, the schools that already predominantly play zone will likely enjoy a larger degree of success.

Advantage: Syracuse.

“Jim Boeheim, right now, is very happy,” UCLA coach Ben Howland told CBS SportsLine.com on Thursday afternoon. “In college basketball, you don’t have the same skill level as you do in the NBA, so you’re going to see a lot more zone.”

Things could really come together for the ‘Cuse in ’08 when you factor in that their ’07 recruiting class is huge in terms of ranking (top-5) and numbers (6 new players). They have a year to learn the zone and get comfortable with each other before the new rule. I’m just making note of that now.

DeCourcy also identified the type of players that will benefit from the move after next season: “The Bomber (Chris Lofton, Tennessee); Mid-range shooters (Jerel McNeal, Marquette); Aggressive wing players (Chris Douglas-Roberts, Memphis); Point guards who can run the fast break (Darren Collison, UCLA); and the Strong low-post players (Darrell Arthur, Kansas).

In the final group he includes DeJuan Blair as a player that will be dominating in the low-post, and will benefit from the change.

Paul Zeise revealed something very interesting in his Q&A this past week.

Q: Last year a lot of fans wondered about why Pitt didn’t blitz more and we read that Paul Rhoads and Dave Wannstedt didn’t want to. Now I read that the Panthers are adding the safety blitz. I’m just wondering, if it was so obvious to me and so many other fans last year that the Panthers needed to blitz more, why didn’t Wannstedt and Rhoads make the adjustment during the season, why did they wait until now?

Chris Tabay, Hamilton, N.J.

ZEISE: Oh no, not this again. I knew that as soon as Wannstedt talked about doing some blitzes with the safeties this spring all of the second-guessers who think the blitz is a cure-all would come out of the woodwork again.

Give me a break with this, please.

I’ll give you the short version one more time as to why Pitt didn’t — and couldn’t — blitz very much.

Pitt’s safeties STUNK last year. Period. They weren’t good enough to make the plays, they weren’t fast enough to get to the point of attack and the evidence was that just about every time the Panthers tried to blitz, they got burned.

They didn’t blitz because they weren’t good enough and they didn’t have much faith in about nine of the 11 guys on the field, particularly by midseason when they were hit with some injuries.

And it was worse when they’d blitz a linebacker because not only were Pitt’s safeties not quick enough to get to a point where they could make a play on the ball, the linebackers who blitzed — the outside ones — didn’t usually make the play either, which was a double disaster.

Further, the defensive line didn’t dominate anyone and there wasn’t one lineman who the other team had to worry about double-teaming, which meant the other team always had plenty of free blockers to pick up the blitzers.

That’s a fact. I asked Dave Wannstedt about blitzing several times because I wondered some of the same things that some fans were wondering but rather than get defensive — like many coaches would — he took me into the film room late in the season and showed me on film what happened on the plays that Pitt did blitz — and it wasn’t usually a very good outcome. The film does not lie.

Pitt did not have enough good players at the right positions to take many chances or to be very successful stopping anyone. Their defense needed better players, not better schemes.

And to compare that situation, to the situation right now when the Panthers appear to have much better players at safety, when it looks like Gus Mustakas and Joe Clermond have progressed to the point where teams will have to focus on stopping them, is trying to compare apples to oranges.

Eric Thatcher is healthy now. Mike Phillips is healthy now. Elijah Fields has more upside and athletic ability than anyone they’ve had in a long, long time. When they blitz, they made things happen.

Coaches feel far more comfortable taking a few chances with this group than they did last year. Good coaches know their personnel and also know their limitations and try to put them in the best position to make plays.

Rutgers, Louisville, West Virginia — they all had the right personnel, the right kind of athletes and the one or two studs up front to pull off a lot of blitzes that the Panthers couldn’t even have dreamed of trying. They all had at least one and in the case of Rutgers and Louisville, two, defensive linemen that required double teaming, which helped create mismatches for the extra attacker be it a safety or a linebacker.

You must put in a system that fits your personnel and Pitt’s coaches finally feel like they are starting to get the right kind of personnel to take a few chances. Last year, they didn’t.

I haven’t always agreed with Paul Rhoads philosophy on defense and there are times I think he could be a little more creative and times when I think criticism of him was fair. On this one, this whole blitzing thing, however, I have no problem at all with how they approached it last year given what they had to work with.

[Emphasis added.]

That would have been very interesting to learn — last year!!!

Here you have the Pitt beat writer getting really interesting stuff about why Pitt wasn’t capable of blitzing. Knowledge gained thanks to the access to the Head Coach and being part of the media. Something many of the fans were dying to know/understand.

When do we read about it? In an online Q&A? In April? Why?

There are only two reasonable explanations. The first is that Coach Wannstedt didn’t want to make it known — even late in the year — that the team was incapable of  pulling off a safety blitz. I could almost excuse that, except he gave the information and even broke it down for a beat writer.

The other reason is that Zeise didn’t want to humiliate some of the players like Sam Bryant. After all, if he made it known that players on the team simply couldn’t get the job done, Bryant and other safeties might be a little ticked. Then other members of the team might rally to them and some of the precious access to the players could be diminished.

Which of course begs the question of what is the purpose of the access? Zeise can feel good about knowing the reason, but  what was the point of holding onto to the info past it’s useful point? He admits he was wondering about the lack of blitzing before talking to Wannstedt. Apparently it wasn’t as obvious as he contends until he sat down with Wannstedt and had game tape broken down for him.

Look, I think Zeise is a good beat writer. I like reading him. His biggest problem, though, is protecting his access to the detriment of actually reporting.

When Kevin Gorman asked for e-mail responses to the question “What position is of greatest concern to you?” on his blog, I wrote him the following.

Dennis from Pittsburgh: I think it’s, by far, the offensive line, and especially at center. It sounds like Mike McGlynn is the answer there because of some of the experience he’s had as well as the problems the other potential centers have seen. We’ll need him and the entire line to be solid to get anything going on offense.

KG: McGlynn just might solve that riddle and, if so, it potentially gives the Panthers their best offensive line in years. McGlynn and left guard C.J. Davis have two seasons as starters in offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh’s system, while left tackle Jeff Otah and right guard Joe Thomas both have one. Jason Pinkston appears to be a fixture at right tackle, and saw spot duty last season.

If McGlynn moves to center, which is becoming a strong possibility, it would allow the Panthers to have solid backups at every position: Chris Vangas at center, Dom Williams at guard and John Bachman, who can now play all three spots.

McGlynn, however, is recovering from surgery for a torn labrum and might not be ready by the season opener against Eastern Michigan Sept. 1. That would leave another Bachman/Vangas battle and could stunt the development of the quarterback competition.

Considering that the center touches the ball on every play, that the starting quarterback is going to inexperienced and the difficulty Bachman had making clean exchanges, it might just be the position of most pressing concern to the Panthers.

Just one of many things to think about for this upcoming season. Other responses included punter, linebacker, and leadership.

Yes, I had taken note of the story that Pitt is looking to use the safeties more in run support and dare we say, blitzing.

That prompted Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt and defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads to re-evaluate everything from their defensive scheme to personnel in the off-season. Midway through spring drills, the Panthers added a new wrinkle by moving a safety closer to the line of scrimmage to help in run support and occasionally blitz the passer.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Wannstedt said, only half-kidding. “We’ve really been looking at a lot of ways to help our run defense. Getting the safety involved with blitzing is one way we haven’t done much of and is something we’re taking a look at this spring.”

I take it fully serious.

Honestly, I had to hold off on posting this until I could beat down the urge to make it all about DC Rhoads’ new-found responsibility for the linebackers and realization that his job (should) could be on the line if Pitt doesn’t start stopping the run. All of the sudden, there is value in bringing the safeties up. Especially as things are completely unsettled and no matter how much potential there may be at the Linebacker spots, it’s a huge question mark.

This has struck me something of a classic groupthink issue. The article points out that Coach Wannstedt hates bringing up the safeties as well because of the risk of giving up the big play. Well, that’s been nothing but reinforced with DC Rhoads’ similar approach. That means no dissenting voices (aside from screaming, pleading fans) to change the view. At least new secondary coach Chris Ball is willing and supportive of using the safeties up closer to support the overall defense.

Eric Thatcher is perfectly willing to contribute.

“If bringing the safeties up in the box is going to help this defense stop the run – and that’s the problem we’ve had since I’ve been here – I’ll be as physical as I have to be,” Thatcher said. “I think it’s going to help us out big-time. The way it’s run this year is definitely a lot better than last year.”

At this point, I’m not even concerned as much about the blitzing as it is about stopping the freaking run. If this is what it takes to finally get Pitt to start stuffing the box against teams — like Rutgers and Ray Rice — so be it.

The other point is that for all the happy and hopeful talk about how the D-line will be better and positive surprise this year, the planning to use the safeties in run support and blitzing reflects one of two possibilities:

1. That maybe all that talk of a stronger D-line is just a lot of smoke being blown-up the collective behind of Pitt fans, and the coaches are much more cognizant of the reality; or
2. This is some advanced planning because while the D-line might be better, the depth isn’t there at this point and it is better to start planning now for what needs to be done when things go lower on the depth chart.

I hope for #2, but suspect #1.

Local Pittsburgh product  Lance Jeter has left the Cinci Bearcats football team because he wants to play basketball. Jeter had been the Post-Gazette’s HS Male Athlete of the Year for 2005-06 for his 2-sport play. He didn’t get major attention in basketball. He’s since added some size and weight in his redshirt year at Cinci — 6’3″, 225. He’s looking into playing at Akron. Even if he wanted and Pitt wanted him — and I don’t think they do — the Big East prohibits transfers to other Big East schools. I suppose if he wanted to pay his own way and come in as a walk-on he could. It appears, though, that he will be looking into schools like Akron.

Andy Katz at ESPN.com slightly revises his way too early top-25 projections in light of early draft entries with little nuggets of info.

The Panthers moved up based on not losing anyone this week and the departures at Texas and Kansas State. Pitt coach Jamie Dixon is high on this squad already, acknowledging its work ethic. He believes he has a squad that may not throw it into the post as often but will be just as tough on defense and may be more up-tempo.

We’ll have to see about more up-tempo. I expect that Pitt will try to get out in transition a lot faster. I also expect their pace to be faster, mainly because it would have been hard pressed to be slower. I’m not sure it will be that much faster, as the offensive efficiency has remained so high.

There are plenty of similarities and differences between UCLA and Pitt. So stories declaring one or the other should be taken lightly. There are basic similarites.

Brandin Knight is Pittsburgh’s video coordinator. When he began splicing the UCLA tapes, he was in his home theater.

“They’d run a play and I’d say, ‘We used to run that,”’ Knight said Wednesday. “And we run the same stuff they do. The play calls are the same, too. The two teams are mirror images. We’re not going to suddenly become this full-court pressing team, and they’re not going to start playing different defenses. It’s just going to come down to who makes shots.”

How few shots will it take?

“Anybody who thinks this is going to be a high-scoring game,” Knight said, “is a fool.”

Yes, the practices, the drills the basics in how the teams run things are similar. The key is the players.

“We have different personnel,” UCLA wing Josh Shipp said. “They emphasize defense just like we do. I can see where people get the similarities from, but it’s different personnel that is used differently.”

Pittsburgh point guard Levance Fields said he often watched UCLA on television and said “you can call out the plays,” but rarely does a Bruins’ possession end with its center scoring on a low-post move.

“We are striving to become a better inside team, but our guards have really dominated our scoring,” Afflalo said. “We are a little different.”

I’d also hesitate to say they are so different simply because of the superficial things of the teams different histories and players.

Both teams are man-to-man defense. Pitt will throw out the zone when it seems necessary, while UCLA just won’t. Because of the strength of the team at the guard position, UCLA will play much tighter on the perimeter and be aggressive at trying to force steals. They don’t do it by employing full-court, but by the quickness of their players and being tight.

If you look at the Pomeroy Scouting Reports for both Pitt and UCLA,  you will see that they are very close in tempo/pace. Pitt has a bit of an edge in the offensive efficiency while UCLA is stronger in defensive efficiency. A lot of the defensive efficiency difference comes from the fact that UCLA creates more turnovers on defense then Pitt.

Bruin Basketball Report has a nice scouting report on the game, and expects a UCLA win. Bruins Nation expects a tough, physical defensive game.

If Pitt is going to win this game, obviously the defense will have to be there. Just as important — probably more so because I have little doubt about the defensive effort — Pitt is going to have to shoot very well. I fully expect Pitt will get forced into more turnovers. Just looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the teams, UCLA will get some more turnovers than Pitt. This is no knock on Pitt, they do well on controlling the ball, but against quick, aggressive guards like UCLA, Pitt does struggle with turnovers. You almost have to expect it.
That means, Pitt needs to be more efficient in scoring opportunities. Pitt will need to have the higher shooting percentage. If both teams struggle with shooting and scoring, the advantage goes to UCLA because of their ability to generate more opportunities off of turnovers.

UCLA’s decided advantage is on the perimeter with Point Guard Darren Collison and Shooting Guard Aaron Afflalo. The pieces focus on only one of them, but the problem is really that they are on the same team. While Pitt and especially Antonio Graves have helped shut down the stud guard on the last two opponents, the key was there was only one guard. In this case, UCLA presents the difficulty of having two stud guards. Either of whom would be a star player for another team. This is the part of the Pitt-UCLA match-up that presents the greatest difficulty.

Allflalo is the leading scorer for the Bruins, but Collison is their speediest player and the point guard that sets things up. It would appear that Graves will be on Afflalo — at least initially.

The Panthers might own the edge in size, but UCLA has a decided edge in quickness. Levance Fields likely will draw the defensive assignment on Collison, because Antonio Graves will be busy will the Bruins’ leading scorer, Arron Afflalo.

“It’s definitely a challenge,” Fields said. “But he’s going to lace his sneakers up like I do, so I’m not really worried about it. I’m just going to guard him like I normally guard anybody.”

Fields hasn’t guarded anybody this fast. Collison’s mother, June, competed in the 400 meters at the 1984 Olympics for Guyana. His father, Dennis, competed for Guyana in the Pan American Games in the 200-meter sprint.

Collison prefers the 94-foot sprint — think Tyus Edney — but he’s good in the slow-down game, too.

“The thing with Collison, he has a little height (6 feet) and has those long arms,” Pitt forward Mike Cook said. “So, I mean, he’s fast with an athletic body, probably something we haven’t seen from the point guard spot this year.”

I’m very torn on this.  Collison is listed at 6′ 3″ and Afflalo is at 6′ 5″.

It would be problematic size-wise for Fields or Ramon to have to guard Afflalo too often with the height advantage they’d be given up. Afflalo is fully capable of driving and pulling up. He could be shooting over them all night. Graves would only be giving up a couple inches and could stay with Afflalo rather well.
On the other hand, Collison is great at driving to the basket. He can also dish and get past slower players like Fields and Ramon. Graves is probably the best defender from the perimeter and could keep Collison in front of him on drives. Creating more problems and denying the dribble-drive.

I think Graves is going to be switching up on them throughout the night. He won’t be keyed on just one player. I suspect Dixon will use him on both at various points in the game to hopefully frustrate and keep UCLA from getting too comfortable on offense.

I know, I wanted to believe it when I first read that UCLA wasn’t planning to bring the double on Aaron Gray. There was some logic. Rather than try and keep the ball out of his hands that way, why not just play the guards tight on defense and make it that much harder for the guards to even see the lane to make the pass.

No one believed it, though, least of all Gray.

“I don’t anticipate seeing the ball without having two guys on me,” Gray said. “Especially against UCLA.”

And he’s right to expect it. The Bruins did it against Indiana with D.J. White, and their inside guys have already tipped their hand.

“We’ve been out-sized all year,” Bruins forward Josh Shipp said. “It hasn’t really bothered us too much. We do a lot of double-teaming and rotating. We’re just going to stick to what we do, and hopefully, that works.”

And not just one player saying that.

UCLA’s double teaming of Gray will be different than what UCLA employed against Indiana’s big man D.J. White, who wasn’t double-teamed until he dribbled and turned his shoulder toward the basket.

“(Gray) has to be double-teamed,” UCLA reserve power forward/center Alfred Aboya said.

“He’s big. We will have to double team, and it will be tough to double team him because he’s a great passer.

“We have to be aggressive. We can’t give him any room to dribble, or throw the ball.

“He’s very quick. With D.J. we had to wait. But with him, we have to double as soon as he catches the ball.”

As for Shipp’s comment that being out-sized all year hasn’t really bothered them. Well, not exactly.

Stanford had Brook and Robin Lopez, Washington had Spencer Hawes and Jon Brockman, and going back to last year’s championship game, Florida had Joakim Noah and Al Horford.

Each game resulted in a UCLA loss.

So it makes sense UCLA coach Ben Howland is concerned about Pittsburgh’s twobig guys – senior center Aaron Gray and redshirt senior power forward Levon Kendall – and the anxiety doesn’t abate because Howland recruited both to Pittsburgh.

This game, also expect them to use bodies on Gray just to foul.

Pine guys needed: UCLA backup center Ryan Wright has played nine minutes, committed three fouls, has one rebound and is yet to score a point the NCAA Tournament. Backup power forward James Keefe has played 12 minutes, committed four fouls, has four rebounds and scored two points.

With Pittsburgh’s size and strength and the propensity of Bruins top reserve Alfred Aboya to get into foul trouble, Howland said he expected Wright and Keefe to play a role against the Panthers.

So, yes, the guys inside provide a real match-up problem. The thing to note — Levon Kendall has to have another good game on offense.  Gray has to find him as well as passing back out. Kendall is the guy inside who can help keep UCLA from bringing the double-team too early. If Kendall can finish he forces more of a rotation rather then straight double-teaming. Kendall is also a much better free throw shooter so if he gets the ball and they come late. He gets to the line. And we all know which of the two — Gray or Kendall — that Pitt wants to be shooting free throws.

Howland and Dixon have a lot of similar traits. That isn’t surprising. It’s just amusing. Whether it is style of play or how they treat time outs.

Ben Howland consumes timeouts like bottles of water. The difference is that he – or one of his aides – can always get more water.

When Luc Mbah a Moute sprawled into a loose ball pit Saturday, he called time to keep from traveling or being set upon by Indiana Hoosiers. That was UCLA’s final TO of the game. It came with 5:11 left and with the Bruins leading by 12. Howland didn’t raise an eyebrow. He prized the possession more than the timeout.

Then came a series of dominoes that, had UCLA lost, would have sent the Bruins “faithful” into full riot. At the least it would have subjected Howland to some how-comes for the first time in his four years in Westwood.

Indiana decided to quit firing blanks and began a rally that tied the Bruins with a minute left.

…

The typical coach would rather surrender his spleen than call timeout in the first 15 minutes of a half.

Phil Jackson is famous for watching his players flail around and learn to escape the messes they’ve made. Of course, Jackson coaches 82 games in the regular season, and his playoffs aren’t single elimination.

Howland is different. It’s a difference that’s consistent with everything else he does. He’s a “now” guy. He is not going to go down with bullets in his chamber or timeouts in his hands.

I know I’ve seen it enough this season with comments freaking out about how Dixon uses and sometimes burns through timeouts. Generally, I’m okay with how Dixon handles the timeouts. I do find myself startled frequently late in games to see that Pitt is only down to 1 or 2 left, and I don’t even realize how many they used.

This article was one I wanted to post on back in the Big East Tournament when I saw it, but it got swallowed in the ether. Unfortunately it is now behind the stupid NY Times paid firewall. Here’s the summary. It talks about how Ben Howland spends so much time breaking down tapes of opponents in preparation. Trying to find out about everything they do and plan for it.

What struck me about it, was how similar — no surprise — it is to what Coach Dixon does in preparing. Watching tons of video. Trying to figure out everything the opponent will do. Consider this:  in the 7 losses Pitt had this year, only 3 occurred when the winning team did what was expected and the players performed as expected — Oklahoma State and Georgetown twice. In the other losses there were variables of players suddenly doing what they hadn’t.

Wisconsin — Bryan Butch suddenly finding a deep shot.
Marquette (at the Pete) — Dan Fitzgerald hitting shots and Marquette making FTs.

Louisville — Derrick Caracter playing well and the whole Cardinal team finally playing to its potential.

Marquette (at the Bradley Center) — Kinsella dropping the first 3s of his career and David Cubillan stepping up huge in place of an injured Jerel McNeal.

The Wisconsin game especially was what I thought of because of Dixon’s comments afterwards.

“(Butch) was the guy that, I think, kind of stretched us out defensively,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “Him making those shots really gave them a little different (look), another advantage in that area and helped them out.”

The key is the “different look.” Butch came into the game shooting rarely and poorly from outside. Everything else from Wisconsin was expected. It was Butch that threw things off

The good news about teams at this time of the year, especially in the post-season and definitely with UCLA. It is highly improbable that there will be any new wrinkles or player who comes out of nowhere.

I looked around a Wright State message board that we got a few hits from (one of their fans found us and pointed it out) and here are some things being said.

My main concern is Gray — how do we stop somebody like that given our limited “big” men? get him into foul trouble? Deny him the ball? Control the tempo? Anyone with a better basketball sense than me can offer some insight here?

If the “What will Wright State do about Gray?” question isn’t the main storyline/focus for this game then I don’t know what is.

I personally like the match up with Pitt. Aaron Gray is prone to foul problems.

Gray in foul trouble aginst guards driving right at him will probably be their main plan. He sometimes fails to move his feet (and when he does it’s very slow) and instead he fouls to compensate.

Will Brad go small against Pitt? I think he should. Take the 7 footer out of the equation as much as possible. Let our shooters control the game and leave it in their hands. I think that is our best shot.

My response to this is, “Go ahead, let our seven-foot double-double machine have a 6′ 6” defender on him. Please, be my guest. No way Wright State shoots lights out enough to cancel out the 20+ points Gray would put up if WSU goes with a small lineup.

Man, I love ‘big’ schools. This is entertaining stuff. If you can’t go here and laugh, then life just isn’t fun.

I might as well be going to comedycentral.com. lol

If I were in this guy’s shoes I’d probably say the same thing. There’s always going to be some guy on a message board under some fake name like PittExpert12345 who says we’re tops in the nation when we play well and puts us out of the Top 25 after a loss.

There’s a thread that discusses the start time on Saturday, hoping that it’s not too early. Not one fan warning the others to not overlook us. Keep it up, Pitt.

Probably true enough.

With all of this NCAA tourney talk, let me take this time to remind you to sign up for the Pitt Blather Bracket Challenge.

(By the way, the title only took me about 2 hours to come up with.)

Marquette head coach Tom Crean had an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A few things were pertaining to Pitt and are of some interest.

Has the series with Pittsburgh become a rivalry? Absolutely. I think we’ve had more games turn into that in the Big East. You want that. You get two programs that respect each other and have really solid traditions in a great league that have had great games. There’s no great rivalry if there’s not great games, and we’ve had great games with them. Every game has been that way and I don’t anticipate anything less this time.

I’m undecided on this one. We’ve definitely had a great series thus far but I feel like it’s kind of hard to pull a “rivalry” out of our butts every time we have a good stretch of games between two teams.

Is shoring up the interior defense a focus especially important? Oh my goodness, yeah. That’s an understatement, it really is. We’ve got to get better, whether it’s our positioning inside or the way we get down and dig on the ball. We just gave up too much room. These games where we’ve struggled we’ve given up too much room.

Obviously as he says this, he’s picturing Aaron Gray in his mind scoring all kinds of points by dominating them down low if they have trouble in the post.

There’s a lot of talk about Aaron Gray but is Levance Fields the guy that makes Pittsburgh go? I think they’re too good to put it on one person. Gray is certainly a unique matchup because of what he does inside but no, Ronald Ramon is an outstanding guard, Antonio Graves, Levon Kendall. Sam Young since we’ve played them has had 21 against West Virginia a few weeks ago. Tyrell Biggs came off the bench (Tuesday) night and played really well. They’re really good. They’re really deep. They’ve got a lot of guys that could start on a lot of teams. Fields is outstanding; he runs the show. But he’s far from being the main wheel. They’ve got a lot of good players.

And that is exactly why we’re a good program. You can also argue the lack of that go-to guy is what keeps us from being an elite team.

Pitt got Ramon open a lot in the first game. Does that play into you guys having better pressure on the ball? We’ve got to do a better job of getting around screens and making sure we stay connected to him. It’s a physical game. There’s going to be moving screens. We’ve got to get around them. We may have to, every once in a while, run into them. But we’ve got to do a great job of staying connected to him. He’s so quick. He’s one of the quickest shooters in the game of college basketball.

There better be screens that they can’t get around because Ramon won’t be able to shake a guy off one-on-one to create a shot.