Pittsburgh News, Ray Mernagh

PITT LOOKS TO KEEP ROLLING IN 2009-10 UNDER JAMIE DIXON

“We don’t play the games on paper we play them on the court” – Jamie Dixon 10-15-09

by RAY MERNAGH

As I ran into the Petersen Events Center — cursing my inability to remember umbrellas are only productive tools against getting soaked if you actually have them handy when it’s raining — I was curious to take the pulse of Pittsburgh basketball. I’ve written a few times already that the Panthers, in my humble (and some might say uninformed) opinion, will find a way to be in the thick of the Big East race once the grind-it-out month of February comes around.

The opinion comes from watching the Pitt program intently over the last twelve years, including the previous six as a writer. It also takes into consideration the four freshmen in the program. I’ve seen each of them a few times since they’ve been on campus, and have seen three of the four play in the past. The last, but not the least factor in forming my opinion comes from a natural tendency to rebel against most “talk” about sports in the city, as it tends to be at best shortsighted, at worst completely ignorant (that’s often double when it comes to basketball).

Example one: I still remember Joe Fan in the Squirrell Hill Giant Eagle saying Pitt would never get anywhere with a 6’7″ guy from Schenley High School playing center. This was immediately following the Pitt/Duquesne game 22 months ago. “He can’t play in the Big East,” said Joe to his buddy Pittsburgh Guy, “he might’ve been good in the City League but come on, they almost lost to Duquesne for crying out loud!” My verbatim response to Joe Fan and Pittsburgh Guy was “that kid’s a pro and Everhart has brought in more talent to Duquesne than they’ve had in the last twenty years.” I believe both those opinions have been proven valid thus far.

Example number two: This is Pittsburgh Guy.

So maybe my opinion is nuts. It’s possible.

It’s also possible the Oakland Raiders are going to reel off eleven straight wins, get into the playoffs, and win the Super Bowl behind the accurate arm of JaMarcus Russell. Shoot, it’s possible Tim Tebow, when he’s done playing football, transforms into a porn star named “Hoochie Crusha” — shocking CBS’ Verne Lundquist into a permanent state of silence.

Possible… but far from likely.

Somewhere back in the first paragraph before this thing turned into an abomination, I used the word program to describe Pitt basketball — I think that word is key in understanding that this beast wasn’t built in a day.

It’s been almost eleven years since Jamie Dixon arrived in Oakland with Ben Howland. Almost eleven years since a freshman point guard named Brandin Knight laced up his ADIDAS in Fitzgerald Field House. Eight regular seasons have now ended with NCAA tournament berths (the longest streak, by three years, in the Big East). Seven years since the “Pete” was built and six since Dixon was named head coach (this will be his seventh season as head man).

The main point I’m trying to make is that Pitt has been rolling for almost a decade now — and don’t be surprised if the speed bump many expect this year to be turns into a smooth on-ramp to future success. But I’ll let you be the judge. Below is the entire Q&A session with the media from this afternoon, including NBE’s question about the program. I also spoke with several players and an assistant coach. We’ll keep it to just Jamie Dixon’s words today, because I think over 3,700 words is enough!

Enjoy…

Dixon held up a picture of all his players when he sat down to face the press and joked, “Greg’s (Basketball SID Greg Hotchkiss, who was later presented with a cake by the players for his birthday) got the pictures here for the new guys so I can know who they are again with all the new guys right? Hey, we’re ready to go Friday, we’ve had a couple workouts the last few days, we get that two hours a week so we broke it down to an hour each day the last two days as we’ve done in the past and looking forward to Friday. I’m excited about the guys I mean it’s a challenge in that we have the new guys, six freshmen, two that red shirted, I think the hope is that they’ll play a little bit more experienced than the other freshmen but I think it was a good red shirt year for both Dwight (Miller) and Travon (Woodall) and we have the four other freshmen. We’re really focusing on the guys that are going to be out there, obviously Jermaine will be back soon and Gilbert won’t be practicing as we all know and have discussed so our guys are really focused on the guys that are gonna be there, the 13 guys that will be able to practice with us starting tomorrow and that’s what we can control right now. Those guys will be back, Jermaine some time in November don’t know exactly when and Gilbert will be back in December 20th as we’ve said and until that time we have these 13 guys and so we’re looking forward to it and they’re working hard they’ve had good workouts and we’re pretty healthy otherwise and I’m real excited about the year.”

A Q&A followed with the assembled media.

Q: You’ve replaced production before, Is this the most challenging replacement job you’ve had?

JD: I would hate to underestimate the challenges in the past, if I’d known they weren’t challenges I would’ve slept a lot better. I wish you guys would’ve told me back then. I think it’s the same thing I mean yeah maybe we’ll have another freshman in there or something because we are younger. On paper I know what it looks like. I mean I know what it is and I understand we’ll be picked lower but we’ve always been picked lower and finished higher I think that’s something we’ve done pretty consistently. So I know what it looks like on paper but fortunately for us we’ve never really looked at that, we’ve always had guys elevate their games, we’ve always had guys surprise people, I anticipate the same thing happening again, I can’t tell you specifically who it will be but I’m sure it will be a couple of guys I have some ideas and I think they’re ready for that opportunity and we’ve been getting ‘em ready too. So it’s a good time, it’s exciting, and I think they’re ready. We’ve had challenges in the past, two starters, three starters, this year it’s four starters (to replace) but you know we’ve got GOOD PLAYERS in the program and they’re ready to go.
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Q: For the most part over the last decade or so you’ve had a point guard that’s played 30-35 minutes a game, do you envision maybe splitting those minutes up this year or maybe eventually say come January trying to have a guy that might be the guy playing a majority of the minutes?

JD: We never go in thinking a guy’s going to play 30-35 minutes. Obviously Jermaine’s situation brings some changes and adjustments but we’ll see how it is, I mean no lineups are made no minutes have been decided and I think that’s what’s exciting every year at this time, this year especially. It’s unique we lost a very good point guard there’s no question about it in Levance Fields, just like we lost Brandin Knight and everyone wondered how we would play when we lost him, when we lost Carl (Krauser), Ronald Ramon. We’ve always had a couple of point guards in the program and that’s what we’ve prepared for, we recruited Ashton Gibbs and Travon Woodall for this situation right here. Levance was leaving and we knew that was coming and we took two very good point guards in the same class, two guys that could play together too for this very reason you know you lose a guy, a very good player a great player really but we couldn’t be in a better situation than we are with these two guys. I mean if you have a guy that plays 30 that means there’s only so many other minutes to be played. We couldn’t be in a better position than what we are with these two guys.
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Q: Do you see Travon as primarily a 1?

JD: They can play both. What we’ll do, and we’ve done this in the past, with Travon and Ashton and Chase as well plus Jermaine when he’s out there is they’re gonna be interchangeable at the two guard spots and we’ve done that in the past with Ronald and Levance. I’ve looked at film and seen we’ve had three point guards on the floor at times I mean we’ve done that so I like the versatility that they bring, I like the ball handling they bring, usually the quickness and skill that usually comes with that position so I think it’s going to be something we practice. Now obviously Jermaine being out is gonna change that around a little bit but eventually we’re gonna have all those guys be interchangeable at the 1 and 2 spots. It’s what we’ve done often and I just think it makes them better players and it makes us a better team having them practice it as well as playing that way in games.
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Q: How disappointing was it to lose Gilbert and who’s gonna fill the leadership role for you while he and Jermaine are out?

JD: Well you know Jermaine’s there every day. The guys that are out there are the guys that are gonna lead and that’s what it is. Obviously you’d want all your guys to be ready right now but their not. Jermaines not and Gilberts not, obviously Gilbert’s a different situation. Gilberts been punished severely, it’s obvious, but he’ll be back and he’ll be better for it and Jermaine will be back and he’ll be better for it. They’re both part of the program and part of the team and nothing changes in that regard but the leadership usually comes out of the point guards so the guys I mentioned earlier will do that. I think Ashton and Travon have been tremendous in the fall season and in the workouts they’ve been really good and I’ve seen a lot of growth in Travon especially. I saw it more with Ashton in the summer with the USA team but I think also with Travon I’ve seen it. I’ve been really impressed with Travon and how he’s improved these seven weeks since we got started again.
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Q: What kind of expectations do you have for Jermaine this year as the only returning starter and senior on the team?

JD: Get healthy first, lets start there, obviously it’s a set back but I think in some ways it’s going to allow his body to be rested you know I always try to find a positive in anything that happens even with an injury — it’s tough and difficult but you know he doesn’t have the body type that’s gonna put on weight. He’s experienced, he’s there every single day, he’s leading on the sideline right now and often times that can be better for guys to watch and to lead that way. We have guys work camp and coach you know you learn more sometimes by watching and I think that can be an opportunity for him as well.
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Q: What are your expectations for Dante Taylor considering how high the public expectations are?

JD: Dante’s a great kid. You know we recruited him because he was a great kid and a great player, the ranking wasn’t even a factor and it never is. I just think he’s a very positive person, a nice person and going to be a very good player. He works very hard, he’s not afraid of putting in the extra work and extra time similar to the rest of the freshmen. We’ve got three really good freshmen big kids. We knew that when we recruited them, some of them were ranked a little higher and some of them weren’t ranked as high but all three are going to be very good players for us. All tough, JJ (Richardson) and Talib (NBE favorite Zanna) as well. They work hard they’ve improved in seven weeks and ranking or not they’ll all be very good players.
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Q: Follow-up on Taylor — Is he close to being ready to see significant time?

JD: We haven’t practiced yet so let’s see how that goes. Obviously they’re all gonna play, just look at the numbers and look at the guys we have and they’re gonna play. Some freshman is going to play a lot of minutes this year on the front line like we’ve had in the past with certain guys because of the opportunity. I think that might be partly why we were able to get three good guys in one class because they knew the opportunity was gonna be there. This will be the best four guys we’ve ever brought in together in the same class. I said that before with Tyrell, Sam and Levance and I think they lived up to that but I think this foursome is probably as good as we’ve had I really think they’re gonna be that good and all great kids. Barring injuries and things that occur you know we recruited them and explained to them that we didn’t think DeJuan would be back so that was what we told them and often times guys say that but we really believed it and that’s how it did turn out. So that’s why I think we were able to get three guys as good as they were.
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Q: You talked about the flexibility of your guard position isn’t it perhaps true that with this roster top to bottom there’s maybe more flexibility than you’ve ever had as a head coach?

JD: I like our depth, once we get everybody out there I think we can have 13 pretty good players on scholarship and two pretty good walk ons that have had a lot of experience so in a lot of ways we could have a lot of flexibility as you said and a lot of depth. We could probably play small we could also play big, I would anticipate our experience is more with our perimeter guys, with our smaller guys so often times that has a big factor. We’re going to have guys play some different spots as I mentioned with the guards, our wings will play different spots and we’ve done that in the past and practiced it and in certain situations we may do that more this year during games.
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Q: And could this lengthen your rotation potentially from 7 or 8 to 9-10?

JD: You know it’s easy to say now but as we’ve seen in the past things can change. The one year we had probably the deepest team ever and then two guys went down for nearly the year so it looks good on paper. You just gotta see how things go, we always seem to adjust, we always find guys that surprise and step up and play roles that maybe we diodn’t even anticipate happening but had to because of injuries.
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NBE Q: Jamie you use the word program a lot and I’m wondering if you can talk about the importance of this being a program now where when you have to adjust or you have to find guys to step up it’s not as tough because they’re used to how things work and they’re comfortable, maybe just talk about the word and what it means in terms of what you’ve built here?

JD: Everybody wants to use the word program, I don’t know what year that happens I think in the past you’ve seen teams do it for a few years, a couple of years, two-three years and usually it’s because a player was just really good or a couple of players. When you start replacing them that’s the sign of a program and I think we’ve obviously got to that point. I feel we have very good players in our program again this year, I’ll stop using that word maybe I’m saying it too much, but I think we just have very good players, yeah they’re a little bit younger than we’ve had in the past. We have six freshmen but two of them red shirted, I think we’ve got some guys ready to go. We have some young kids that are going to play a little quicker than maybe we’ve played some in the past but we recruited them expecting that. This is a very good group and yeah, I’ve said from the beginning you know we’ve been here eleven years now and we’re not looking for a one year hit but just to continue to build and make people proud of our program and proud of our players and keep the seats filled. Keep the waiting list going. Our waiting list is now 3,000 which is 3 tickets I guess for each person so 9,000 tickets is what they tell me is on the waiting list. So we’ve got to keep them happy, Keep selling it out.
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Q: Jamie it sounds like the goals and expectations for this year will be the same as ever, what are they?

JD: To be the best team we can be and improve as the year goes on probably even moreso with this team’s youth so we never limit ourselves by just saying a conference championship or an NCAA tournament berth or win this many games — this team can be as good as any team we’ve had. I’ve told our guys that. Yeah no one thinks it, no one thinks it outside of here, I know what everybody’s writing because they look at it on paper but we don’t play the games on paper we play them on the court. Where we are now is not where we’re gonna be in January or February or March. That has to be our belief and that has to be our driving force and our motivation because if our freshmen play like freshmen in January or February and March we won’t be as good as we want to be or should be.
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Q: Does coming off the team that you took to a world title or I guess it was an international title does that experience help you coming into this season?

JD: I think it does, obviously Ashton’s experience was very good. I think it will help, I hope every experience helps you get better everyday. Coaching in the summer and coaching against the different styles is going to help you. I think we’re going to do some things that we did there here, things we haven’t done in the past, especially offensively. I don’t think our defensive principles change too much but our offensive attack changes pretty much every year. You know we won’t be running every play for Sam and DeJuan which is what we did last year. We’ll have different guys at different spots. That’s why I went there to become a better coach and hopefully learn. Everything we do in our program we try to learn from. I think Ashton learned a lot and I think he got better. I think you’ll see a different player when you guys see him in the Blue/Gold game he’s going to look like a different player, he’s much quicker as a lot of these guys are. Travon’s stronger, Nasir’s quicker — they’re working hard.
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Q: Is Gil checking in with you guys every so often and are you worried about conditioning?

JD: Certain kids you worry about it more but with him it’s not as much of an issue. It’s not ideal but I’m not going to worry about it because I can’t do much about it, I can’t coach him I can’t run him I can’t do those things so it’s going to be up to him to take care of it. Every experience you have is an opportunity and he’s got to be better for it so he’s got to make those decisions and I think he will. I really think he will. I have a lot of confidence in him, he’s always been a good player and maybe this makes him take another step in the right direction.
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Q: Does he get to play basketball in some organized league while he’s off?

JD: No he can’t play in any league, not allowed to do that, nothing organized and you know he doesn’t need to do that he just needs to work on his game individually. That would be the best thing for all.
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Q: Can you talk about Chase Adams, what kind of player he is and what he’ll bring to the team?

JD: Yeah it’s unique we have six freshmen like we’ve talked about and we have two seniors that have one year of playing experience between them so that’s probably a first but they’re going to be counted on to be very productive for us and I think Chase came in with a great attitude and was very open-minded. Not easy to come into a program after you’ve been somewhere else for three years and then also being eligible to play right away so he needs to pick things up quickly. I’ve told him we’re going to coach him to understand the way we do things and not to get frustrated with that because he’s an older guy that might tend to fixed or set in his ways and he’s done that. He’s understood that these are just little things, little defensive drills or fundamentals we may be emphasizing, those are just little things. Take the time to get them right but at the end of the day you have to just play hard and do what you do. That’s why I’m excited about him, he’s a great kid and he’s doing well in the classroom, he’ll graduate in one year with summer school and he’s just been a great addition with his personality. Playing-wise we’ll find out more as we go here because I haven’t seen him except for the individual workouts so once you get 5 on 5 you see a lot more.
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We’ll have more tomorrow from some of the players.

And look for an interview with Brandin Knight in the near future.
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