Not as Bad as You Think
February 22nd, 2008 | by The Prowler |
Pitt lost to Notre Dame after being up by 10 halfway through the second half. The message boards are blowing up with comments saying everything from, “The season is over,” to, “Time to fire Jamie Dixon and hire Sean Miller.” Sometimes it sounds like Pitt fans are watching a marathon of “My So Called Life” instead of following this basketball team. The “woe is me, this team sucks” stuff is starting to get tiresome, to be honest. Anyone who thinks that Jamie Dixon needs fired because this team is only going to finish with 20 wins and 10 BE wins for the 5th straight year under Dixon (a BE record, btw), but they may not actually play for a national championship, needs to get their heads out of their rears and give this team and Jamie Dixon some credit. If it wasn’t for the expectations that Dixon himself brought through his excellence, we wouldn’t be questioning the outcome of the season. Prior to him (and a couple years of Ben Howland who couldn’t wait to find a better job), A 20 win season would have been deemed a success, even if they missed the NCAA tournament. Making the tournament 10 years ago would have sent Panther Nation into such a fervor that you would have thought they made the final four.
These days Pitt has fallen on some hard times. By hard times, I mean they aren’t going to be a final four team, but are still having a solid year and give us much to be excited about in the future. Coming into this season, Pitt was expected to possibly miss the tourney, but even if they made it, they weren’t supposed to be any kind of force. As it turns out, they are living up to exactly what the preseason expectation was. Is the reason because Dixon is a bad coach? Is the reason recruiting woes? No, the problem was the graduation of 3 starters and the need to start a true freshman as our pivotal big man. The problem was injuries that caused a significant change in lineup, game plan, practice routine, and leadership experience.
Repeatedly over the past two months I have heard people blaming Sam Young for Pitt’s troubles. Coming into the season, Sam Young was this team’s biggest question mark. Could he step in and be a strong contributor, or would he be another John DeGroat? As it turns out, he worked exceptionally hard in the offseason to become a player that none of us expected him to be. In return for his hard work and effort, he gets blamed for not doing more. He missed a dunk in the final minutes of the Notre Dame game. Rather than viewing that as the reason we lost, maybe we should view it is symbolic of the difficulties this team has faced. All season long, they have gotten some rotten unexpected breaks that can be summed up by a missed dunk. Losing Mike Cook, losing Levance Fields, facing some awful officiating, having to depend on a lineup of freshmen to win in a very difficult conference; all this has much more to do with Pitt’s current struggles than Sam Young missing a dunk.
The loss last night wasn’t as bad as we might want to think it was. Sure, they had the game in their hands and let it slip away. Sure they had another scoring drought down the stretch that ultimately cost them their upset bid. Sure, they allowed Notre Dame to steal a game they legitimately could have won. On the other hand, and what should be factored into the “woe is me the season is over fire Jamie Dixon now” equation, Notre Dame is a better team than Pitt is right now. This is a game they needed to win, but (on paper) they should have lost. It isn’t an accident that Notre Dame has a 35 game home win streak. It isn’t an accident that Luke Harangody is likely going to win Big East Player of the Year and averages 20 points and 10 rebounds per game (a ridiculous accomplishment in the Big East for a sophomore). It isn’t an accident that Notre Dame has a 10-3 conference record and is a half game out of first place in the conference. Sure, the loss stings. But Notre Dame is a better team and this win would have been a big time win precisely because they should have lost.
Beyond that, there are several positives that came out of the game. First and foremost, Pitt scored 70 points and shot 40% from the floor. While this isn’t an enormous victory in itself, 40% is a respectable number and is better than what they have done in many recent games. The positive in this is that scoring wasn’t ultimately the problem. A scoring drought late in the game hurt. But Pitt put points on the board. They didn’t only score 50 points, which is what happens in most of their losses. Second, 4 players scored in double figures, including Levance Fields. While a few Panthers struggled with shooting, it is definitely positive that the scoring was spread out over several players. Too often lately Sam Young has been the only one scoring (yet still taking all the blame oddly). To see a balanced score sheet shows signs that more players are stepping up.
Along that line, Levance Fields looked good last night. He is definitely getting closer to being the player he was before his injury. He had 10 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and had much more spring in his step than in the Marquette game. After hearing that he didn’t practice Monday or Tuesday, I was ready for him to not play much if at all. I was pleasantly surprised by his play and it gives a glimmer of what to expect when he finally is full strength.
The long and short of it is that this game could be read as a sign that the end is near. Or it could be read as a positive sign since Pitt was able to play at a faster pace, get more people involved, and got some great minutes out of Fields. It was my assessment a week ago that Pitt needed to be willing to lose to Notre Dame and Marquette in order to get Fields back into the full swing of the offense. In the Marquette game, benching Fields could have made the difference (especially in the first half). But getting our general, our leader back on the court and getting the team used to playing with him again is going to pay huge dividends.
The sky isn’t falling. Pitt is right where we should legitimately expect them to be given what they have been through. Fields is coming along nicely. Players other than Young are kicking in points. This is all going to coalesce Sunday when this team takes a big step forward, beating Louisville at the Pete.