Pitt Panther Prowl

Solid Game, Nice Win for Hoops

First of all, I have to thank Altitude, a Denver based tv station, for recognizing that Big 12 basketball is worthless and carrying the Big East in stead.  As one who lives about five miles from Denver, I have that city to thank for getting to see two Pitt games live last season, and for getting to see multiple football and now basketball games on tv.

So Pitt won big tonight against Miami of Ohio.  Big surprise.  No one saw this coming.  I don’t mean to downplay the talent of mid-majors such as Miami, but there was so much concern coming into this game that you would think they were a sleeper Sweet 16 team.  Sure they only lost to UCLA by 5; but it isn’t always best to base our expectations off of a team by what they did against another team at the very beginning of the season.  Anyway, Pitt won, and won big.

82-53 was the final of this beat down.  However it wasn’t always clear that it would be such a lopsided game.  Pitt opened the game with a big lead, looking at one point (9-0) like they wanted to pitch a shutout.  By halftime the game was 35-30.  With the game that close, even though Pitt still seemed in control, the announcers seemed to think that Miami may have even been in control of the game.  They kept commenting on how Miami was outrebounding Pitt in the first half and how they had closed the gap on the score.

True enough statements by the announcers, though they weren’t really put in context.  For a significant portion of the first half, Pitt played with Gary McGhee and multiple true freshmen while having only Sam Young or Levance Fields on the floor to provide leadership.  It was during that time that the lead was cut down.  And even then, Pitt was still outplaying Miami in most respects.  They let Miami cut the lead to four with around seven minutes to go in the half, but then held strong the rest of the way and didn’t let Miami ever get any closer.  Gary McGhee’s confusion on the offensive side slowed our scoring and his overall mental lapses led to Pitt being out-rebounded.

I don’t want to sound like I am coming down on Gary McGhee.  He looks like a new man from last year.  He is much less oafish looking and has a toned and strong body.  It is clear that he has worked hard in the offseason.  He is really looking like a man out there.  And some aspects of his game have gotten better, especially the two nice blocks he had showing an improved defensive presence.  It is the smarts or knowledge that he still seems to struggle with.  That may or may not come along in the future, but he has definitely improved in his physical game.

The second half was different.  DeJuan Blair wasn’t in foul trouble and the starters (or the bulk of them) stayed on the floor most of the time until the score was out of hand.  It really didn’t take long for Pitt to make clear that they weren’t going to let Miami hang around.  Part of making that statement was Jermaine Dixon.  Dixon looks like he will be a perfect fit as a JUCO transfer, hitting 2-4 three pointers, scoring 14 points and adding two assists and two steals.  If Dixon remains a deep threat, it will add a great dimension to this team.

Blair and Young also looked good, neither forcing anything but just taking what was given on offense.  This is really what makes this team dangerous.  If Fields and Dixon are going to be deep threats, and even Tyrell Biggs hit two three pointers, then Pitt has so many offensive weapons that unless they play a great ball-man defense, a team is going to have to choose which player to shut down, opening up opportunities for another legitimate offensive threat.

Fields was a beast with 12 points and 12 assists.  His speed is there despite the injury to his foot.  His court vision seems even better, where he seemed to get the ball inside when it seemed like the pass might be impossible.  The concern, however, was the number of step-back threes that Fields shot from five feet behind the three point line.  Even though he made one of those deep ones (and another from just at the arc) some of the threes came without any real offensive set being run, and certainly weren’t the best option that Pitt could have gone with on the possession.  Overall, Fields played great, so I don’t want to dwell too long on the negative.

A major positive that should get us all excited was the play of our new recruits.  Jermaine Dixon looks like a perfect fit, and may well end up keeping this position, leaving Gilbert Brown on the bench for a while after he comes back from his injury.  The three true freshmen, Ashton Gibbs, Travon Woodall, and Nasir Robinson all showed their inexperience, but all showed some flashes of brilliance.  In particular, all four of these highly touted recruits showed great hustle and court presence.  Nasir Robinson, after getting tripped up on a fast break, threaded a beautiful interior pass to Blair the next trip down the floor.  Jermaine Dixon patiently took a charge on a fast break in the first half.  Woodall took a nice charge in the second half after Gibbs threw the ball away while trapped in the corner.  On that defensive possession, It began with a great hustle by Gibbs to chase down a rebound, and neither of them gave up on the play, even after the turnover.

Sadly, the one area that is a disappointment thus far is that Brad Wannamaker doesn’t seem to have (yet) made the strides we might have hoped.  He still reminds me of Carl Krauser, which isn’t a bad thing in itself.  But we definitely had more success with the Brandin Knight, Levance Fields point guards than with Krauser.  Wannamaker continues to show signs of being a good passer.  He just plays at high speed even when the game is moving at a snails pace, and it he often moves faster than he thinks, creating what amounts to sloppy mental errors.

All in all, this was a great game.  The young players look good, and based on how the look in just their second college game, I think we can feel confident that Pitt is going to have a solid lineup not just this year, but for at least the next two years.  But the success of this Pitt team will be based mostly on Fields, Young, and Blair.  This team will go as far as those three take it.