Recently retired Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Bob Smizik has a nice blog on the P-G's Web site, and one of the latest posts tackles a question many have asked this season: Is Pitt tall enough to make a Final Four run?
The answer, at first glance, is yes -- the amount of height in college hoops is exaggerated: Many teams have frontcourts that look like Pitt's -- 6-6, 6-7 and 6-8.
But the problem is, a lot of teams have guys to come off the bench and earn minutes in the paint. With Gary McGhee moving farther down the bench, as Smizik points out, Pitt doesn't have that body off the bench. And the bigger problem is that none of the wings that coach Jamie Dixon uses are great rebounders, with the exception of Nasir Robinson.
Pitt needs its other lengthy wings to get into the action, namely Gil Brown, Jermaine Dixon and Ashton Gibbs.
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Best Bud’s
15 years ago
1 comment:
As much as I hate Smizik, he does bring a good point to the table. I think Pitt is a good team, but it has problems. No team is perfect. I think the Panthers biggest problem comes when Blair gets into foul trouble. They don't have anybody to step in and get rebounds like him. Maybe that comes with height, but there are still good rebounders that are smaller. To get to the Final Four (and beyond) it's going to take discipline by Blair and, like and previous champion, luck.
Good blog, Jeff. I've been reading it a lot lately.
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