This topic contains 2 replies, has 2 voices, and was last updated by 
LBJKD 12 years, 9 months ago.
providencefriars1Here is the Pitt Panthers preview written by LaRue Cook of ESPN insider. I think its obvious that the success of Pitt mainly relies on Ashton Gibbs with some help from Robinson offensively and Birch defensively.
When the tweet went out during the NBA playoffs that the Oklahoma City Thunder’s top four starters had the same average age (21.75) as Pitt’s top four, no one fell over in shock on Cardiac Hill.
The Panthers have a history of Sam Youngs who stick around for four seasons and multiple NCAA tournament runs.
Here’s what stung: The reminder that Pitt’s veteran Big East champion squad squandered its No. 1 seed, losing to Butler by a free throw in the third round.
For most coaches, even at elite programs like Pitt, overcoming the departure of three of your top five scorers (Brad Wanamaker, Gilbert Brown and Gary McGhee) and both your assists (Wanamaker) and rebounds (McGhee) leaders can be a two-year project. Or, if you’re Kentucky coach John Calipari, simply the start of the next one-year cycle of freshmen phenoms.
But neither scenario applies to Jamie Dixon.
"We don’t allow the loss of players to be a setback," says the ninth-year Panthers coach, who has brought in a top-25 recruiting class four of the past five seasons yet hasn’t had a one-and-done freshman. "We’re balanced. Not too many guys come in or too many leave. It’s overlooked how consistent we are."
This season nine letter-winners return, including leading scorer Ashton Gibbs (16.8 ppg), who tested his draft stock and is back as the program's second all-time 3-point shooter (44.1 percent). But the only other holdovers to average 20-plus minutes per game are senior forward Nasir Robinson and junior guard Tray Woodall.
A lack of experienced facilitators puts a new kind of pressure on Gibbs -- the 6-foot-2 guard must carry last season's fifth-most efficient offense (119.8 points per 100 possessions) not only as a scorer but as a more consistent passer. His transition to a complete guard is cause for concern, though, considering Gibbs has fed primarily off the dishes and kickouts he'll now be partly responsible for making.
According to Synergy Sports, more than half of Gibbs' plays last season were spot-ups or screens, and nearly 50 percent of his jumpers were of the catch-and-shoot variety. In other words, Gibbs wasn't generating a ton of points for himself or for others on his own. So Big East teams would be foolish not to double every time he crosses half court, meaning those reserves and blue-chip recruits Dixon keeps stocked better be ready to produce. If not, Pitt won't have an easy march to its 11th consecutive Dance.
Welcome to Campus
Khem Birch, 6-foot-9, PF
(No. 11 overall ESPNU 100)Malcolm Gilbert, 6-foot-11, C
(No. 57 overall ESPNU 100)The second-most efficient offensive rebounding team (42.7 percent) in the country may have actually gotten better. Pitt fans were pleased to land Gilbert, a Pennsylvania prep and the first true incoming center since McGhee in 2007. But when Dixon secured Birch, the No. 1 big in the country, a month later, well, let's just say fans were more than pleased.
Birch, a Canadian who attended Notre Dame Prep (Mass.), would've been the No. 2 overall prospect in next year's class had he not reclassified. Dixon's plans for the pair are vague ("Let's get them on the court before naming them starters," Dixon says) but the consensus is Birch will be out there early, or the McDonald's All-American wouldn't have left prep school or picked the Panthers.
John Johnson, 6-foot-1, PG
Johnson was the least-discussed of the four recruits (four-star SF Durand Johnson is the other) in Pitt's 15th-ranked class, but his introduction in the pro-am Greentree Summer League has the three-star point from Philly in line for PT. Odds are the bulk of the bench minutes at guard will go to redshirt freshmen Isaiah Epps and Cameron Wright, though Johnson is an energy guy who could contribute on defense and spell Woodall in short stints.Hole to Fill: Perimeter Depth
The Panthers' rotation in the paint is relatively set at five deep -- Robinson, junior Dante Taylor and redshirt sophomore Talib Zanna, plus Birch and Gilbert. The same can't be said, however, for the backcourt. With the departure of Wanamaker, Pitt loses the fourth-highest assist rate (32.4) in the conference. Woodall (second-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the Big East) will be a solid replacement, but Epps and Wright haven't played a single minute of college basketball.
New Role: J.J. Moore
Gibbs said early last season that the best was yet to come from the only true freshman Panther to play. Unfortunately, it never came, and redshirt soph Lamar Patterson supplanted Moore as the go-to reserve on the wing. At 6-foot-6, Moore is an ideal fit for the 3 spot left vacant by Brown. Moore was solid offensively in limited action -- he scored on 40 percent of his plays yet logged just 13 percent of available minutes -- but he'll have to stop his man before Dixon gives him more court time.
"It's tough to get used to the speed and physical play of the Big East," says Gibbs. "But seeing him this summer in the Greentree, he's scoring with ease and has really improved his strength and quickness. I still think the best is yet to come."
Summer School
This summer Gibbs has been focused as much on course work as court work. But a trip to the Deron Williams Skills Academy provided him a lesson in what aspects of his game need to improve for a spot in the first round of the 2012 draft. "I can be a combo guard, and I'm ready to make the transition," says Gibbs, whose ballhandling and court vision were major question marks to scouts who graded him as a small 2 in the NBA.
Of course, Gibbs' Big East rival last season, Kemba Walker, received the same undersized knocks before leading Connecticut to a national championship. Then scouts called Kemba a winner -- and a lottery pick. If Gibbs takes Pitt to its first Final Four since 1941, a re-evaluation will certainly be in order.
0
LBJKD
LBJKD
| You must be logged in to reply to this topic. | Login |