I wrote this last week when I was having issues and couldn't post it. But I saved it.
People need to chill out and realize this team and these players (those who will be contributing over the next few years) are far, far from a finished product. I have to go back to Ben Howland's first season. We finished 13-15. We were 5-11 in the Big East, finishing 11th. We had Brandin and Donatas as Freshmen. We also had Ricky Greer. Then flash forward to 2000-01 season.
That year we finished 19-14, and we made that improbable run to the BET Title game.
That team also had Ricky Greer as a Sr. Isaac Hawkins as a Sr. Brandin was a Soph. DZ was a soph. Julius Page and JB were Freshman (JB a redshirt Fr.) Brandon and Julius both averaged 9 ppg, DZ avgd 8. Torree Morris and Mark McCarroll also were on that team. So you had some rebounding and muscle inside, you had a scorer, and you had the young trio of guards.
My point here, is Brandin's freshman year, you had Greer as a Sr scorer, you still had some rebounding with DZ, and Chris Seabrooks but the team struggled as this team has. When they got more troops, the team approved appreciably in year 2 with the BET run which set the stage for what was to come.
Here are some numbers from players freshman years:
Brandin 8.5 PPG
DZ 4.8 PPG and 4.5 RPG
Julius 9.1 PPG
JB 4.8 PPG 2.4 RPG
Chevy 5.3 PPG 3.5 RPG
Carl 6.0 PPG 2.8 RPG 2.9 APG
Chris Taft 10.9 PPG 7.5 RPG
Aaron Gray 1.7 PPG 1.5 RPG
Sam 7.7 PPG 4.4 RPG
Levance 6.8 PPG 2.1 RPG 2.5 APG
Brad W 2.2, 1.4, 1.2
Gil Brown 6.5 3.5
Ashton 4.3 ppg
Talib 3.4 ppg 3.5 ppg
Lamar 2.6 2.3 1.2
Steve Adams 7.2ppg 6.3 rpg
JRob 6.3 ppg 2.1 rpg 3.5 apg
Xavier Johnson 16.6 ppg, 3.9 rpg 4.5 apg
Trey McGowens 12.2 ppg 3.2 rpg 1.8 apg
Au'diese Toney 8.5 ppg 5.8 rpg
The point here...is outside of Dejuan Blair, you can see these 3 freshmen we have this year has been as productive as any of the freshman in the whole Howland/Dixon era. And they all got better, and we would have to think this group will get better, maybe a lot better.
While I would love to have Zion Williamson or a RJ Barrett or 1 and done lottery pick, I think for where this program fell, this slow rebuild of guys who are going to likely be in the program 3-4 years and getting better is the best route to get back to national respectability and NCAA rankings and tournaments. I really do.
We tend to forget where even the best of previous Panthers started their careers (far from finished products). And the guys we are adding or going to add are more of the same. They aren't top 50, NBA draft ready kids. Maybe come 2020 we get a couple. But this program is building foundational blocks. We can discuss the attack against the zone, but this team just lacks the pieces, to attack it properly, and lacks the shooting to scare teams away from it.
But they are coming. We also forget, a lot of the Pitt freshmen of the past either were redshirted, or their freshmen years were mostly spent watching, so they were going against guys in practice. Think Brandin and Carl. Carl and Levance. Levance and Brad and Ashton. Chris and Aaron. Right now, these guys, bless his heart but Terrell Brown has really no one to practice against that simulates anything of an ACC quality player.
Also, XJ is really a combo guard learning to be a point guard. He is more of a Carl Krauser than a Levance Fields and Carl spent a RS year and a FR year understudying to Brandin. XJ has to be "the man". Remember in year's past Pitt was home to the 20-21 year old Freshman. Trey's 18. XJ and Audiese just turned 19. So they are young. They will get better, stronger, fill out, maybe still grow a bit.
Again, it is frustrating, and the ACC schedule started out with promise, but when I saw the schedule, not just because it was front loaded, I didn't like seeing Duke and UNC at home, and teams like Wake, BC and GT on the road. We weren't going to beat Duke and UNC anyways, so best take the road loss. But for a young team, any road game is tough, and we got teams we could beat, but on the road, so that has worked against us this year.
So.....patience. The future is bright and ahead of us. It is frustrating for sure. Last night's telecast was amongst the most frustrating (and annoying) games I have watched with they Ky Bowman show. Pitt was the Washington Generals to that show I guess for ESPN. But again, when you look back at the best players who came through this program over the last 25 years, these Freshman are tracking either with or even ahead of them
People need to chill out and realize this team and these players (those who will be contributing over the next few years) are far, far from a finished product. I have to go back to Ben Howland's first season. We finished 13-15. We were 5-11 in the Big East, finishing 11th. We had Brandin and Donatas as Freshmen. We also had Ricky Greer. Then flash forward to 2000-01 season.
That year we finished 19-14, and we made that improbable run to the BET Title game.
That team also had Ricky Greer as a Sr. Isaac Hawkins as a Sr. Brandin was a Soph. DZ was a soph. Julius Page and JB were Freshman (JB a redshirt Fr.) Brandon and Julius both averaged 9 ppg, DZ avgd 8. Torree Morris and Mark McCarroll also were on that team. So you had some rebounding and muscle inside, you had a scorer, and you had the young trio of guards.
My point here, is Brandin's freshman year, you had Greer as a Sr scorer, you still had some rebounding with DZ, and Chris Seabrooks but the team struggled as this team has. When they got more troops, the team approved appreciably in year 2 with the BET run which set the stage for what was to come.
Here are some numbers from players freshman years:
Brandin 8.5 PPG
DZ 4.8 PPG and 4.5 RPG
Julius 9.1 PPG
JB 4.8 PPG 2.4 RPG
Chevy 5.3 PPG 3.5 RPG
Carl 6.0 PPG 2.8 RPG 2.9 APG
Chris Taft 10.9 PPG 7.5 RPG
Aaron Gray 1.7 PPG 1.5 RPG
Sam 7.7 PPG 4.4 RPG
Levance 6.8 PPG 2.1 RPG 2.5 APG
Brad W 2.2, 1.4, 1.2
Gil Brown 6.5 3.5
Ashton 4.3 ppg
Talib 3.4 ppg 3.5 ppg
Lamar 2.6 2.3 1.2
Steve Adams 7.2ppg 6.3 rpg
JRob 6.3 ppg 2.1 rpg 3.5 apg
Xavier Johnson 16.6 ppg, 3.9 rpg 4.5 apg
Trey McGowens 12.2 ppg 3.2 rpg 1.8 apg
Au'diese Toney 8.5 ppg 5.8 rpg
The point here...is outside of Dejuan Blair, you can see these 3 freshmen we have this year has been as productive as any of the freshman in the whole Howland/Dixon era. And they all got better, and we would have to think this group will get better, maybe a lot better.
While I would love to have Zion Williamson or a RJ Barrett or 1 and done lottery pick, I think for where this program fell, this slow rebuild of guys who are going to likely be in the program 3-4 years and getting better is the best route to get back to national respectability and NCAA rankings and tournaments. I really do.
We tend to forget where even the best of previous Panthers started their careers (far from finished products). And the guys we are adding or going to add are more of the same. They aren't top 50, NBA draft ready kids. Maybe come 2020 we get a couple. But this program is building foundational blocks. We can discuss the attack against the zone, but this team just lacks the pieces, to attack it properly, and lacks the shooting to scare teams away from it.
But they are coming. We also forget, a lot of the Pitt freshmen of the past either were redshirted, or their freshmen years were mostly spent watching, so they were going against guys in practice. Think Brandin and Carl. Carl and Levance. Levance and Brad and Ashton. Chris and Aaron. Right now, these guys, bless his heart but Terrell Brown has really no one to practice against that simulates anything of an ACC quality player.
Also, XJ is really a combo guard learning to be a point guard. He is more of a Carl Krauser than a Levance Fields and Carl spent a RS year and a FR year understudying to Brandin. XJ has to be "the man". Remember in year's past Pitt was home to the 20-21 year old Freshman. Trey's 18. XJ and Audiese just turned 19. So they are young. They will get better, stronger, fill out, maybe still grow a bit.
Again, it is frustrating, and the ACC schedule started out with promise, but when I saw the schedule, not just because it was front loaded, I didn't like seeing Duke and UNC at home, and teams like Wake, BC and GT on the road. We weren't going to beat Duke and UNC anyways, so best take the road loss. But for a young team, any road game is tough, and we got teams we could beat, but on the road, so that has worked against us this year.
So.....patience. The future is bright and ahead of us. It is frustrating for sure. Last night's telecast was amongst the most frustrating (and annoying) games I have watched with they Ky Bowman show. Pitt was the Washington Generals to that show I guess for ESPN. But again, when you look back at the best players who came through this program over the last 25 years, these Freshman are tracking either with or even ahead of them
