** Allow me that chance to purge myself of a conversation about Pitt Basketball I had with a friend this summer. When asked about the prospects of the team, I proclaimed there were reasons to be encouraged because of the addition of Dior Johnson.
** My logic at the time was that Dior could be the team’s best player, which would have a critical cascading impact on our overall talent. With Dior at the top, Big John becomes your number two player and from there, all of the rest fit better into supporting roles for which they are better accustomed.
** I suspect my friend will never put any stock into my pre-season prognostications ever again. And after this confession, coupled with my proclamation that “We’re Back!” two years ago, and my declaration in the game thread at the 9 minute mark of the second half shouting “this one is OVER,” I doubt any of my fellow posters will either.
** But please indulge me for a little while as we focus on the game’s first 32 minutes and the five players who I believed would be supporting players behind two guys who didn’t even see the court tonight.
** Nelly, Jamarius, Blake, Greg and Fede have all proven well enough that they are formidable fivesome who can win in this league. In fact, at the moment, they are at the top of the league.
** Until those ugly final minutes, this group played some of the best offensive team basketball I’ve seen the Panthers play since … well … it’s been a while. Maybe since the last time we started an ACC season 2-0.
** While it’s always more fun to watch a ball fall through a basket, often it’s almost as pleasing to watch perfect passing for really good shots. That’s what we watched for four fifths of this game. We got 28 buckets and assisted on 20 of them. That’s an especially impressive number against the Cuse zone which can draw a team into a slog.
** The Panthers never experienced such a slog this night. Sure, they started getting too pleased with their ability to shoot threes with 20 seconds left on a shot clock when up by 18. But it wasn’t because the shots weren’t open.
** In fact, what’s interesting now is the reason we need Dior and John is to provide some better quality depth beyond of our first five. Maybe something lost behind the visual of falling threes was the reality that the staring five played all but 24 minutes of this game. And almost all of that was a function of Fede’s foul problems.
** Now certainly, Jorge filled in wonderfully, but I still think it’s asking a lot of him to play and produce in ACC games with where he is as a young player. And perhaps Nike could have played more than the half dozen minutes he got, but unfortunately the staff doesn’t feel confidence in him at the moment.
** But I can’t help but to think that some of those treacherous final minutes could have been soothed by a little extra help along the way, or the chance to sit for a moment and think about the game a bit.
** Nonetheless, for most of the game tonight, our players looked like they were having a great deal of fun, and accordingly they played basketball that was a great deal of fun to watch. I’ll try to focus on that fact instead of wondering how sustainable a team of five can be over the course an ACC season. After all, it almost wasn’t sustainable for 40 minutes of an ACC game.
** Yet for now, we are indeed 2-0 in this League. The last time we started 2-0 in the ACC was the last time we made the NCAA Tournament. And not only have we started 2-0, we started 2-0 with two wins on the road against at least seemingly decent teams. Or at least not teams suspected to be among the worst in the League.
** Looking at the rest of schedule, it’s almost easy to see 8 more wins, maybe 10, maybe more. Although PLEASE don't consider these to be "predictions!" After all, my track record is poor.
** But maybe we can see the kind of season some people were encouraged to talk about with their friends in the summer … only for different reasons, or more correctly … different players.
