Hail to Pitt

Is This Their Year?

By Dan Brady

credit: AP Photo/Keith Srakocic

Trevor Huffman. Dwyane Wade. Tony Allen. Scotty Reynolds. The list goes on…All adding up to two words that describe the Ben Howland/Jamie Dixon era of Pitt Men’s Basketball frustration and heartbreak. Over the last couple of years the Panthers have taken a new approach to building a team, bringing in high profile recruits like McDonald’s All-Americans Dante Taylor and Khem Birch. Throw in promising 2012 ESPN Top 50 recruits DeMatha standout winner James Robinson and New Zealand product Steven Adams into the mix and you have a Final Four team, right? To quote the great Lee Corso, “not so fast my friend.” Taylor has never quite developed into a dominant front line player. Birch left Pitt in his first semester for rumored reasons that, quite frankly, would turn this post into a TV-MA rating equivalent. Both Robinson and Adams have showed signs of brilliance but still need some polish.

Time to hit the rewind button and go back to 2002. The Panthers, coming off what this writer remembers to be an incredible run to the Big East Tournament Championship Game in the previous season, started the season unranked. No one saw this program's string of excellence  coming. The teams were comprised of tough, hard-nosed players by Pitt fan definition and, for lack of a better term, “thugs”, by opposing fans. To put it into perspective for those who are struggling to get a mental image: these were guys that you would go out of your way, to walk on the other side of the street of, in South Oakland, at any time of day. Don’t believe it? Watch this.

The identity taken on by the teams of the 2000s was all well and good until the plane left New York City after several deep runs at Madison Square Garden. Legend has it that Big East conference games tend to be  more loosely officiated than in the rest of NCAA D-1 Men’s Basketball conferences. Blend that with the list of names mentioned above and you have got a kid who did not get to celebrate his birthday (March 26^th) by cheering for Pitt in the NCAA Tournament until he turned 18, muah. Thanks for the pain Scotty Reynolds.

credit: Espn

That was hardly a brief interlude, but a necessary background about the progression of Pitt basketball. Going back to the composition of Pitt’s current roster, there are seven other players that deserve some love:

credit: US Presswire

·         Travon Woodall- battle tested RS SR. Point Guard that has been around the program in its brightest and darkest hours. Kid can shoot the rock, is the team’s leading scorer (10.9 PPG) and has welcomed a role change in his last hurrah.

·         Talib Zanna- the “Nigerian Nightmare,” proclaimed by yours truly—Christian Okoye’s people, I am not claiming rights. The RS JR. F is one of the most efficient players in the Big East. He has disappeared at times in conference play, but is certainly a key contributor as the team’s second leading scorer at 10.6 PPG.

      Lamar Patterson- the RS JR. swing man is responsible for the majority of the hair I have pulled out this year but also for some of the exciting moments.  If not Woodall, this guy is establishing himself as Pitt’s go-to man.

        J.J. Moore- A very diverse energy man off the bench. Had he redshirted, Gilbert Brown would be the minimal comparison. J.J. is athletic enough to guard SFs and strong enough to play in the post.

      Trey Zeigler- An interesting story: a transfer from Central Michigan where he was the team’s leading scorer and was granted a waiver by the NCAA to play right away, after his father was fired as head coach of the Chippewas. At the beginning of the season, it appeared he would be no more than a Chase Adams type, and things got worse when he picked up a DUI. He has since persevered and turned into a valuable weapon off the bench.

      Don’t Sleep On- Cameron Wright and Durand Johnson. Both players have come off the bench as sparkplugs on both the offensive and defensive ends.

credit: Associated Press

I am going to give my dear friend Joe Lunardi, who does not know we are friends yet, the benefit of the doubt with the NCAA Tournament picture as of 2/12/13 only because he went a mere 67 for 68 predicting teams in the field last year. Right now Joe has the beloved Panthers as the (5 seed) in the Midwest region squaring off against the Belmont Bruins (12 seed) out of the Ohio Valley Conference in their first game—for complete bracket details go here. If I’m a betting man, who I most certainly am, I would lay the mortgage on the fact that this will not be the matchup we see on opening weekend come mid-March; however, for the purposes of this post, we will assume so. Belmont shoots the lights out and I will not sleep until game day if that matchup is set in tone, just ask Duke. 

It just so happens, I don't sleep much to begin with, and I do not think the Panthers will fall victim to an early upset courtesy of the dreaded Bruins. This year’s squad is deep and they will find a way to rally late. 

credit: Drew Hallowell/Getty Images

The next round matchup would be against the winner of Kansas State and Lehigh. 99 times out of 100 I would have more knowledge on a Power 6 school than a Mid-Major. However because Pitt beat Lehigh early on in the year, quite convincingly might I add, I know a little more about them than K-State. Based on what I saw, whether C.J. McCollum returns to the Mountain Hawks or not, I see Coach Weber getting the W for the Cats. *Lehigh Fan voice* “Dude, we beat Duke last year!” Bruce Weber has done some good things this year for K-State but by no means has he reached Wizard of Oz (Bill Snyder) status yet in the “Little Apple”. I will be a prisoner of the moment by picking the Panthers in a tight one based on what I saw in Lawrence, KS this week. If IU can get by SWAC titan Southern/NEC upstart Bryant University and VCU/BBN, then that will result in a huge showdown in Indy.

I have to leave it up to you to decide from there, as I am sure it has been a waste of time putting this much stock into a mid-February Bracketology. Tonight, I will drool over the thought of a road trip to Indianapolis and the Panthers taking on the role of the Hickory Huskers, just bear in mind that this is a different Pitt team this year. A team that has NBA talent, size, depth, guard play, and tenacity. A team that is peaking at the right time by winning seven of eight contests heading into Saturday afternoon’s rematch against Marquette at the Bradley Center. A team that can singlehandedly make four years of frustration and heartbreak go away for my fellow seniors and I with one run from mid-March into April. A team of destiny.