Some Saturday Night Thoughts on Pitt Hoops & Other Dribbles ...
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Hurt most of that year. Ashton had an ankle problem late, too.
Just looked it up a bit....we lost 8 straight, Wagner + 7 BE games. Tray played only in the eighth, and was scoreless. Put us in a hole we never escaped. Gibbs didn't suit up for the CBI final vs. Wazzou. That squad had Johnson & Epps as backup guards + Birch. Ouch.
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Regarding the lack of buzz about the program, I think that comes from having a very good coach who has been around for over a decade and will probably be around for another decade or so but has had a couple of average years in the last four. They were average seasons, not the disasters that they felt like to us. I really don't think Dixon is even close to being on the hot seat unless he has several more consecutive seasons that were no better than last year.
I doubt that happens, however. With all the sophomores on the team last year maturing, the next two years should be better. I'm hoping Wilson and Cam Johnson turn out to be a solid future backcourt, along with whoever else they may add. I don't worry about getting a big time scoring SG as much as most of you, I'm fairly content with good defenders that can neutralize the other teams backcourt. That's what disappointed me the most about last season. I guess Wright's foot injury had something to do with his defense, but what happened to Robinson? I thought he was a good defender his first two years but not last year. With the transfers providing better rebounding and a better shooter at SG, perimeter defense is the thing I'm still most concerned about for this season.
I doubt that happens, however. With all the sophomores on the team last year maturing, the next two years should be better. I'm hoping Wilson and Cam Johnson turn out to be a solid future backcourt, along with whoever else they may add. I don't worry about getting a big time scoring SG as much as most of you, I'm fairly content with good defenders that can neutralize the other teams backcourt. That's what disappointed me the most about last season. I guess Wright's foot injury had something to do with his defense, but what happened to Robinson? I thought he was a good defender his first two years but not last year. With the transfers providing better rebounding and a better shooter at SG, perimeter defense is the thing I'm still most concerned about for this season.
Tell me Del, where was the ACC tournament played the last two years? And how many games have we played against teams in the North-East since going to the ACC?
Regards...
Regards...
So you believe that visibility in the NE hinges on where you play the conference tournament? There was no shortage of media coverage of the ACC tournament in any major eastern media market-not a one. In today's media world I contend that they and every other ACC team get as much exposure as any team in any other conference. Including the new BE. ACC teams have always recruited well on the east coast and that includes getting players from Philly and NY. Syracuse isn't whining about losing eastern exposure. It's all about this coaching staff. They are simply lame recruiters. No one in the east misses Pitt playing Seton Hall, Providence, DePaul and Rutgers.
I agree. Prior to leaving the Premium Board until the season begins, I was pretty adamant in saying the true test of the program will be 2017-2018. That's when I'll make my evaluation.
For better or worse, this program's immediate fortunes are tied up in this class of rising juniors. If Pitt is officially "back", the indicator will be what this roster looks like once these guys all graduate.
To me, if Pitt is "back" to being Pitt, they should have a solid core of underclassmen ready to step up in 2017-2018. That's what this program was built on. It's next man up. You replace your graduating seniors with juniors and redshirt sophomores/juniors who had bench player roles previously.
They shot themselves in the foot, IMO, by chasing talent and taking on the philosophy of accumulating as much talent as possible and then trying to figure things out once they got that talent on campus. A school like Pitt, in my view, cannot operate like that. It was like Wannstedt trying to just out talent teams in football. Getting good talent by Pitt standards isn't the same as getting good talent. They need to get guys that fit.
I still think they're chasing guys that may not be worth the time or resources to an extent, but their commits at least seem to be more in the mold that the 2003-2008 guys were instead of what they brought in from 2009-2012. I don't think it's a coincidence that Lamar Patterson and Talib Zanna were their biggest success stories from those classes.
Right now the 2017-18 upperclassmen are Luther, Slim, and Wilson, right? Am I missing anyone? So in that case, we might be in for a really rough year once Young and co are gone even if we see solid classes in the upcoming recruiting classes.
If this coming year is a good one, I think they can patch the 2017-18 gap with a transfer or two--possibly more talented transfers than the current set. Also, assuming Nix redshirts (which assumes Maia makes it, I suppose) then you can add him to the Luther, Slim and Wilson crew in 2017-18. That can help as well.
Here's my thoughts. This year....should be a top 6 ACC finish, 23-25 wins, and hopefully at least a 6 seed in the NCAA's. Next year, if everyone returns, there will be a lot of unknowns, especially at the guard spots.
I think this is important year for the "juice", meaning excitement, enthusiasm and momentum within this program. Right now, there is none. But we have seen that before and Jamie or Ben has taken them through the regular season and had a big year.
IF....we miss the NCAA's or is a late seed, one and done type, well I think the program is in serious disarray and trouble.
I think this is important year for the "juice", meaning excitement, enthusiasm and momentum within this program. Right now, there is none. But we have seen that before and Jamie or Ben has taken them through the regular season and had a big year.
IF....we miss the NCAA's or is a late seed, one and done type, well I think the program is in serious disarray and trouble.
People are thinking that 16/17 will be a good year, what with Young, Artis, Jeter, Jones and Newkirk all being seniors.
But, after this coming year we will be losing Robinson, Maia, ANO, and Smith, and that is four regular rotation players.
I imagine Nix can step into Maia's shoes and Luther can step into ANO's shoes, but IMO that will be a downgrade in both cases from Maia and ANO.
But, with Robinson, we don't have any 'heir apparent' at PG, and Newkirk looked terrible last year and Wilson is a freshman and thus an unknown commodity, and is considered a combo guard not a pure PG.
Then their is Smith. Dixon fixed the hole at SG that has been there since Gibbs graduated, for one year with bringing Smith in... but Smith is gone after this year. Jones, will probably move into the starting slot at SG but, if so who fills the role Jones was playing (2/3 player off the bench)?
So, after this year Dixon will still have some holes to fill and the PG slot is *MAJOR*. Hey, right now we are not even sure who is gonna spell Robinson (Newkirk, Wilson, Smith, Slim?) and without Robinson, big hole.
He may indeed be able to fill some holes in a stop-gap way by bringing in some more grad transfers.. but what he REALLY needs to do... is get back to being competitive at the level we used to be at... and thus attract more higher rated recruits coming out of HS.
But, after this coming year we will be losing Robinson, Maia, ANO, and Smith, and that is four regular rotation players.
I imagine Nix can step into Maia's shoes and Luther can step into ANO's shoes, but IMO that will be a downgrade in both cases from Maia and ANO.
But, with Robinson, we don't have any 'heir apparent' at PG, and Newkirk looked terrible last year and Wilson is a freshman and thus an unknown commodity, and is considered a combo guard not a pure PG.
Then their is Smith. Dixon fixed the hole at SG that has been there since Gibbs graduated, for one year with bringing Smith in... but Smith is gone after this year. Jones, will probably move into the starting slot at SG but, if so who fills the role Jones was playing (2/3 player off the bench)?
So, after this year Dixon will still have some holes to fill and the PG slot is *MAJOR*. Hey, right now we are not even sure who is gonna spell Robinson (Newkirk, Wilson, Smith, Slim?) and without Robinson, big hole.
He may indeed be able to fill some holes in a stop-gap way by bringing in some more grad transfers.. but what he REALLY needs to do... is get back to being competitive at the level we used to be at... and thus attract more higher rated recruits coming out of HS.
Are you sure on this??
I can't imagine any academic concerns here... what with Brown being one of the top rated schools in the country.
The *only* concern that I can think of would be having to deal with a team that Maia played with over the summer in Brazil... and I have no information to suggest that is the case.
Dixon just mentioned that there were 'issues'... and the one issue that WAS there, was the fact that the other new players, Nix, Wilson, Smith and ANO, were all on campus and registered while Rafael, was in Brazil. With him now also on campus and registered, THAT concern is no longer there.
Yeah, there could be something that I am not aware of or... could be another case of 'insider confusion'.
Whatever... I just hope to see Rafael on the court come the start of this coming season.
As long as Dixon gets two solid players -- aka top 50-125 types -- with his last three 2016 scholarship (and I can certainly understand doubts why we won't), we should be OK for 2017-2018. This is entirely critical to the future of the program.
That would give us seven returning players going into 2017-2018. Add to that three ready to play newcomers (from a combination of either freshman, JUCO or and a firth year transfer), and the ship could be on course.
But I cannot emphasize enough how critical this 2016 class is. Corey is a very solid start, and someone like Lamar would be perfect. Throw someone like Carr in there, and we would be in pretty good shape.
I just took a big jump there, though. There's obviously a long way to go.
I don't think it matters how much MEDIA coverage there is for the ACC Tournament or for ACC games in the Northeast. There is a difference between what people CAN watch and what they WILL watch. What people WILL watch are the games played by their home teams and the teams they are familiar with - teams from the same conference their own home team is a part of. There are - after all - limits to the time people have available for watching B-Ball.
I used to watch a lot of Boston College games, for example. But when they left the Big East conference I quickly got out of that habit. And with Pitt now in the ACC, I found very little time for the UConn and Georgetown games I used to watch. The first year Pitt was in the ACC, I didn't even watch Louisville - and I like them (except when they play against Pitt).
As for the Syracuse fans' whining, most of my neighbors - I have lived up here over 15 years now - are Syracuse fans and there WAS a bit of concern about the ACC move's impact on recruiting. But not anymore. Now they have bigger issues to whine about.
'Cuse
Yea, this is nothing more than a myth. If Pitt has lost visibility in the NE, then what are people in the NE watching? Its certainly not the Big East. Recruiting has become more national than ever. Everybody recruits everywhere because all the recruits are all in one place at the AAU events. Its so much different than football where you need to have access to high schools.
Lets be honest, even in the days of Knight, JP, Krauser, Gibbs, etc, NYC wasnt shutting down to watch the Panthers. That was way overblown. If Pitt lost any visibility, its because our teams havent been very good. And the reason they havent been good is not because of lost visibility in the ACC. Its because we've lacked a "recruitinator" to land us some bigger fish and some bad luck in landing big fish (Taylor, Birch, Robinson, etc).
Outside of Slice, I really don't think we have had that regarded recruiter. I do think though we have had good recruiters (and coaches) on staff. I don't think we have any now, and am really disappointed with Brandin Knight. Let's face it, Brandin never was that gregarious of a personality, and it seems to translate to recruiting.
Hmmmm... putting Robinson in the same boat as Taylor and Birch???.... Goldy should have at you for that one (lol).
Also, loss of visibility in the NE *IS* a big problem. Knight, JP, Krauser, etc, may well have never come here if we were looking at the schedule we have now. For a NYC metro kid, nice to play in MSG every year (well, as long as you are not playing against the likes of Texas Tech or Davidson) as well as other games in the NYC area that their friends and family can see on the tube or go to. On the other hand, going to Timbuktu U and their games against Wake and the like... is not all that appealing... for a NYC area kid.
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Hmmmm... thinking about this one a bit... what Barnes should do.. is get with Cuse and agree to play one of our two ACC games against them, at MSG, every year. This would mean we would lose one home game every other year but I would think Cuse would like this idea... they recruit a lot in NYC also... and it would help both teams as far as their visibility there.
Yeah, if you wanted to get really creative have UConn and Georgetown play on the same ticket and have the winners play the following night for the OBE championship. The losers would get a consolation game.
A great time to do this would be over the holidays when there are not many zoo members around. They could watch the game on the tube from their parents home.
Yeah, if you wanted to get really creative have UConn and Georgetown play on the same ticket and have the winners play the following night for the OBE championship. The losers would get a consolation game.
A great time to do this would be over the holidays when there are not many zoo members around. They could watch the game on the tube from their parents home.
I agree with you on this one almost entirely. Just making the NCAA tournament is not gonna cut it as far as getting the program back on track. Top 25 and a sweet-16 appearance would be more along the lines of what we can do.
And, with the year of experience and the grad transfers in, it is doable and is just a function of how well Dixon puts these players together as a team and if we can start playing D again.
As far as the ACC is concerned... I would say top 4 (even though the ACC will be better this year), except for getting the double bye in the ACCT which has not been kind to us (in the OBE). So, a 5 seed would be nice but we should still go for winning the ACC regular season.
Last year, Durand suspended, Haughton a zero, Uchebo and Randall playing but not really cutting it. Dixon was not playing with a full deck. Shouldn't have these problems this year. Maia and ANO are both good, EXPERIENCED players and know what they are doing out there. Was not that way with Uchebo and Randall. The one open question seems to be who spells Robinson... and there are a number of possibilities there so hopefully one of them pans out.
Speaking of who spells Robinson... when Dixon signed Smith, he mentioned he might be playing Smith some at PG. LOL, some posters thought that just meant playing PG on defense but... the problem with that is there is no PG position on defense... you are just assigned a player to cover and that is who you cover... and our guards tend to switch off a lot so... there is no PG position on D. So, what Dixon WAS talking about, is the possibility of going with a 3 man rotation at guard... Robinson, Smith and Jones (or Slim). That is the only reason you would play Sterling at PG... so Dixon must be considering this and... you can't blame him for sure given Newkirk's play last year.
I'm pretty sure. What I'm saying is that I understand that there are no academic concerns as far as Pitt is concerned. And I'm almost certain (but not totally certain) that he's graduated from Brown. I believe the issue is whether he actually has eligibility left as far as the NCAA is concerned. My guess, and this is a guess, is that he "should" have eligibility left but there is a step or two (or more) that has to take place with the NCAA to make that happen.
But again, what this means is that he could actually be an enrolled Pitt grad student right now, but that doesn't mean the NCAA has allowed him to be an eligible player.
SMF -- I agree that it's probably MOSTLY a myth. But there may be at least a little something to it.
What we can all agree to is that something has certainly seemed to have changed with our recruiting. Up through the fall of 2011, we didn't seem to be having any significant recruiting problems. Heck, the 2011 class was our highest ranked ever. The following year is when it got a little interesting. Sure, we had Adams, but didn't need to beat anyone to get him. Robinson was a solid get, but Jones was a bit of a reach after we missed on others. The following year, Mike Young was a fine recruit, but we had a head start with him being from Duquesne (an advantage I wish we had more often). But it was right around the spring of 2013 when it started to seem to become difficult to get guys to come here.
I know many will point to the assistants that came into play at the time, and this certainly cannot be ignored as some causation. We could probably come up with a list of other issues as well, and probably all of them have some sort of causation too. And with that, I wouldn't completely rule out our move to the ACC.
I think the quality of the assistants IS definitely THE #1 problem in this program.
On Robinson, he's an "ok" PG but my point was he was thought to be a possible superstar (Top 50, Team USA, etc). He's just a complimentary player when most of us thought he'd be more than that.
On Knight, JP, Krauser, etc, you can't tell me that those players would have rather played in a much weakened Big East. Maybe they would have but the ACC is the best bball league. Those players could well have decided to play in a league with Duke, UNC, Lou, and Syr.
This is for DT:
I think another big reason for the downturn in Pitt recruiting are: Ed Cooley, Steve Lavin, and Kevin Willard. These guys have landed many talented players. PC, SJU, and SHU couldnt compete with us before but in recent years, they've brought in good classes. What if we got 2 or 3 good players off of those rosters. There are only enough players to go around. Their rise (in recruiting, not necessarily on the court because they are terrible coaches) has meant there are less players for Pitt to get.
Also, as has been well documented, NYC HS basketball has been historically low on talent recently.
All I know is we had better add some ball handlers and backcourt scorers to that mix, and a real 5 man would be nice as well.
You don't? Are you satisfied with the quality of the assistants instead of making snarky comments? Care to comment?
This from the crown prince of snark. Now, do I have to repeat this 7,914 times, like you?? Dixon chooses his staff, not me. So, I have no choice. Nobody's perfect.
You have an opinion. These are message discussion boards. We give our opinions. Right, wrong or indifferent. So in your opinion, are you happy with this coaching staff as a whole, and if so, why?
The record is PDG, so I'm OK with this group. We do need a connected recruiter....Smoke is only on board one year. The recruiting class this coming year will tell us if he's good enough. Brandin's been key in quite a few guys, but the NY/NJ connection seems about gone. Barton hasn't delivered from his prep connections. Richards will be a star in the future. Lett's an unknown.
More to the point, if the feeling is the team is under performing..
blaming assistants is stupid.
Assistants answer to the HC. Focus on their manager.
If your company is performing badly, do you replace the CEO or the regional manager?
I like this idea a lot. What would make it even better would be if Pitt scheduled a home and home series with someone like UConn, Nova or Georgetown, with Pitt's home game occurring the seasons when they lose a home game with Syracuse.
Why would those schools want to let us into their back yard? We've done quite well recruiting there in the past.....how many W.PA kids have ended up at those schools?? Kenny Durrett went to LaSalle, not Nova. Anyone?? Better for those schools to schedule other schools in the ACC.
Not saying it could definitely be done, just saying it would be nice. I don't know anything other than what I read here, but it seems UConn may be possible, GTown a slight chance, and Jay Wright wants no part of it.
Well, Dixon & Wright are friends, so I'm sure the topic's been discussed, probably with JT3, too. Jamie wasn't happy about the ACC move, but never threw a public hissy-fit like Boeheim did. I'd love to play ANY of the old BE teams....except the Deliverance squad.
Hey... Nova applied to the ACC and... got REJECTED! (Just like WVU.)
Also, IMO they were a major reason, along with some of the other non-football schools, that the OBE fell apart. Probably voted to keep PSU out when PSU applied for entry into the OBE.
IMO, Nova is a LOSER and we should stay away from them. If we want to play a school from the Philly area, it should be Temple.
Also, IMO they were a major reason, along with some of the other non-football schools, that the OBE fell apart. Probably voted to keep PSU out when PSU applied for entry into the OBE.
IMO, Nova is a LOSER and we should stay away from them. If we want to play a school from the Philly area, it should be Temple.
Bo Ryan got there, but he bitched and moaned about the deck you are talking about. Anything can happen in a one game playoff. Ask Jimmy V, Rolly, Kevin Ollie, Izzo.
This is a really good idea. Thinking outside the box. I like it. Jim Delaney has been very creative in finding ways to play games in NYC and there are certainly worse ideas out there than this. Syracuse would sign up for this, no doubt. Losing the Pitt home game every other year would have little impact on the cost of their season ticket package. It would have a bigger impact for Pitt as it would have a larger impact on the value of our season ticket package every other year and we'd be playing 2 road games against them every other year since our "home game" at MSG against them will surely feel like a road game. They could maybe prevent some of this by making Pitt fans pick up their tickets at the team hotel or something like that to eliminate brokers buying Pitt's alottment.
I really think the ACC needs to find a way to play a few conference games there every year as I said in another post.
Nova didn't have a vote on psu...if my memory is correct. Paterno was rejected, THEN Gavitt solicited Pitt. Nova was just joining, but not yet a member. Wright's a classy guy, but Rollie blocked Temple from BE hoops, and essentially neutered the Big5 in Philly by refusing to play at the Palestra. Fat little bastige is despicable.
Of course it is up to the head coach. The buck stops there because he hires these guys. But I am just focusing on them because I believe they have underperformed. Even yourself have thrown out questions on Brandin Knight. So not sure what is "stupid" about the questions.
It is just like you have say a QB problem in football. You focus on the QB, but it is the coach (and in the NFL) the GM who drafts or signs the QB. Still, it doesn't eliminate the fact that it is a QB issue. Capiche?
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