Greentree Basketball Summer League Wraps Up

With the Greentree Basketball Summer League wrapping up this past week, I thought it was a good time to take a look back.  During the mid-point of the season, I took a look at some statistics that were out there courtesy of Rivals and Scout.  Before I provide some year-end stats, I'll again throw out the same disclaimer.  These numbers were gathered by both sites.  I've used Rivals' numbers and filled in blanks with Scout's.  However, be aware that the two sites even differed on stats for the same games.  So everything isn't completely accurate.  That said, I've filled these in the best I could and this is what I came up with:

Gil Brown - 23.6 ppg

J.J. Richardson - 10.8 ppg / 8.6 rpg

Ashton Gibbs - 22.5 ppg

J.J. Moore - 17 ppg / 5.4 rpg

Travon Woodall - 16.1 ppg / 5.0 apg

Cameron Wright - 10.9 ppg

Brad Wanamaker - 15.6 ppg / 5.7 rpg

Nasir Robinson - 11.9 ppg / 4.9 rpg (these may be incomplete)

Gary McGhee - 17.4 ppg / 10.9 rpg

Dante Taylor - 16.7 ppg / 10.9 rpg

Lamar Patterson - 15.1 ppg

Talib Zanna - 13.5 ppg / 10.8 rpg

Ashton Gibbs took home league MVP honors and he joined McGhee, Brown, and Richardson on the first team. Patterson, Moore, and Zanna landed on the second team.

You may be thinking the same thing I am - how in the heck did Taylor not land on the first or second team?  Beats me.  I'm sure they want to try to spread out the school and maybe even position representation around a bit, but I'm surprised they couldn't find a spot for him over even Zanna or Patterson.  But as I said, these numbers are almost assuredly not completely accurate, so who knows.

I'm really excited to see what Jamie Dixon does with J.J. Moore this year.  Pitt is a veteran team this season and has lots of guys that could see minutes.  But based on his summer league performance, it looks like it may be difficult to redshirt him...especially because he's a scorer - and Pitt sorely needs some of those at various points in the season.

Inside The Numbers

If you've been anywhere online over the past couple of weeks, you know that stat totals for some players have been out there and readily available through Scout and Rivals.  Both sites have done an amazing job providing quality, and more importantly, free, recaps for each game.  What I hadn't seen (at least without paying a subscription fee) is averages for players through all the games.  With that said, I spent a little bit of time compiling the numbers and figuring out averages for the Pitt players from the information out there (Nerd chants begin in 3...2...).

At any rate, what I quickly found out is that the numbers between the two sites differ.  Even in points.  For example, Rivals lists Gary McGhee with 25 points in his most recent game this past Wednesday, while Scout has him at 24.  So for the sake of argument, I've simply used Scout's numbers while filling in any missing holes with Rivals'.  Take these numbers with an unusually large grain of salt.

Here's what I came up with:

J.J. Richardson - 12.5 ppg / 7.3 rpg

Ashton Gibbs - 20.8 ppg

Dante Taylor - 15.5 ppg / 8.5 rpg

Travon Woodall - 15.3 ppg

Gilbert Brown - 23.8 ppg

Talib Zanna - 12.8 ppg / 9.8 rpg

Cameron Wright - 10.5 ppg

J.J. Moore - 14.0 ppg

Nasir Robinson - 14.8 ppg / 5.8 rpg

Gary McGhee - 19.8 ppg / 8.5 rpg

Lamar Patterson - 15.5

Brad Wanamaker - INCOMPLETE (Could not find stats from all games)

The first thing you notice is that everyone seemingly has been doing well.  Keep in mind that I don't have shooting percentages.  The other thing to remember is that the players were split up among four teams and in some cases, even some of our bench players were the best players on their respective teams.  Thus, they got more shots - far more than some might get in the regular season.

So with that said, let's look at some of the more intriguing stats:

1. Gary McGhee has been an absolute monster.  As I pointed out, though, in an earlier post about Dante Taylor, the frontcourt competition is considerably lesser than that the team will face in Big East play.  Like most, I don't see any way McGhee puts up these numbers in the regular season.  Still, his play has been encouraging.

2. Talib Zanna leads the team in rebounds with nearly ten per game.  To me, one of the underlying story lines will be to see who will step in and get quality minutes out of Zanna and Lamar Patterson.  Both were fairly good recruits and I think it's a lock that at least one of them will come in and contribute this year.

3. Along those same lines, will Nasir Robinson see fewer minutes in the regular season?  Someone's got to lose minutes in the frontcourt if Dante Taylor is to play more and if Zanna/Patterson are to contribute.  I wonder if it might be Nasir since his offense is not all that great.  If Zanna or Patterson can rebound as well, they may get the nod if they can score a little more.  Nasir may still start, but he might lose some minutes.

4. Gil leads the team in scoring.  True, this is due in large part due to a huge 37 point effort he had in the last game.  But even taking out that game and he still averaged about 19.0 points per game.  His shooting hasn't always been great (including a 6-24 effort), but it's encouraging to see his lowest point total so far has been 16.

5. Both rookies appear to be fitting right in.  J.J. Moore and Cameron Wright have stepped right in and been able to score some points.  Again, since we don't have numbers for turnovers, shooting percentage, rebounds, assists, etc. on all the games, you can't make a good determination on how well they've actually played.  But they've at least been able to score against D-1 players and both have had at least one great game in terms of scoring, reaching 20 points.

Lots of interesting stuff and still some more games to play. 

The "Preseason" Continues

Yeah, I know - it's not really the preseason. Still, it kind of feels that way...even if Pitt struggles a bit at times.

Pitt was able to pull out a 71-60 win against Eastern Kentucky. The home team looked good in the first half, opening up a 15 point lead, then seemed to take it easy in the second. They came out really sluggish looking and only scored one basket in the first six minutes while getting outhustled by EKU. Not good, but I guess they'll learn and I wouldn't be surprised if slacking off cost them a game down the road.

While EKU closed the gap late, I never really got the feeling that they could pose a serious threat - mostly because our defense really stepped up when they wanted to and while their shooting was okay (40% from the field), it was by no means lights out. Still, overall, EKU played reasonably well and didn't back down.

Wisely, I think Jamie Dixon is playing down the inexperience factor:

“Most of our guys have been playing the most minutes that they’ve ever played at this level. I don’t think we’re inexperienced. There are teams that think they are and they continue to stress the fact that they are inexperienced. For us, I think we’ll play as experienced as we went to be. It’s just a term and it doesn’t define you unless you allow it to.”

It's an excellent point and while there will be growing pains with this team, by the time the Big East schedule rolls around, they should have a good feel for the college game. Plus (and I keep mentioning this), Jermaine Dixon and Gil Brown will help in a big way with leadership and playing down the stretch in close games.

Oh, and one of the most meaningless statistics in all of sports reared its ugly head:

Pitt tied a school record with 12 blocks in the game. Freshman center Dante Taylor and junior center Gary McGhee each had four blocks apiece.

Plenty of bright spots in the game including:

1. Rebounding - True, EKU's tallest player was 6'7". But a dominating 47-25 edge on the boards is the type of performance Pitt fans are used to.

2. Lamar Patterson looks like he could contend for minutes - 10 points / 4 boards in 19 minutes of action including hitting a few threes.

3. Nasir Robinson looks like the real deal and should be a very solid player for this year and beyond. With 15 points tonight, he's averaging 10+ points and 6 rebounds per game. One thing that worries me a little is that he looks really uncomfortable playing on the perimeter. He's going to eventually need to develop an outside shot as he had several wide open looks tonight and didn't take advantage. I may be dating myself a bit, but he kind of reminds me of a better rebounding version of Cedric Ceballos. Ceballos would get the garbage buckets and even averaged about 20+ ppg a couple of years with the Lakers in the 90s. Nearly all (if not all) of Nasir's buckets came right around the basket. Nothing wrong with that, though. Chevy Troutman had a pretty good Pitt career doing much of the same thing.

4. Ashton Gibbs may be Pitt's best player. He works well around the screens, hits shots, and doesn't play outside of the flow of the game. He doesn't force bad shots and is extremely patient. He had 20 more tonight and is averaging about 17 per game.

5. Travon Woodall shot horribly (1-8), but had six rebounds and seven assists. He was generally all over the court and played pretty well other than the shooting woes. I feel pretty comfortable with him running the team, but it will be interesting to see how he responds to better competition.

Before we get too carried away, there were some lowlights as well:

1. Free throw shooting at 58% - some things never change. One thing that puzzled me a bit was near the end of the game when EKU was trying to make things interesting. Down about 10 with two minutes left, they should have been probably trying to foul Pitt, forcing them to hit free throws. Instead, they let Pitt run the clock down twice and didn't go for the foul until about 40 seconds left.

2. Chase Adams again got about 20 minutes of PT, but only had five points. He doesn't look terrible out there, just not real aggressive offensively. Curtis Aiken had some sort of nonsensical comment along the lines of that anything he provides them offensively is a bonus because he's such a great defender. Well, he averaged nearly 15 points a game last year as a junior, so I'd be lying if I said I didn't expect more offense out of him - especially in these early non-conference games.

3. Dante Taylor really is going to need to assert himself a little more offensively. He really showed up on the boards (13) and was a huge presencec defensively (4 blocks), but didn't even get his first shot until about 12 minutes left in the game. I know it's going to take him a while to get adjusted, but I'd like to see him be a little more dominant against these lesser foes. Otherwise, the Big East frontcourts might give him a lot of trouble. I think he'll be fine, though.

All in all, it's hard to complain too much. The most encouraging thing for me was seeing the way they rebounded after Jamie Dixon seemed to put an emphasis on that.

Wichita State on Monday will really be their first road test. Even though it's technically a neutral site, it's in their home state and should probably be basically a home game for them. I could easily see Pitt dropping this one, but either way, we'll know much more about the team after that game.

Couldn't This Have Happened Last Year

After a mini-vacation, I get back only to hear that Gil Brown apparently thought it was a good idea to get suspended. Had this happened last year, it wouldn't have been welcome news, but with a young team in need of veteran players, it's borderline disastrous. The only 'manageable' aspect is that he has a chance to be back by December 20th - before the Big East schedule begins. But while the schedule may not help them move up the RPI quickly, it's not a complete walkover. Games vs. Wichita State and then against Iowa or Texas at neutral sites could prove to be big tasks. Pitt then follows that up with the game against Indiana at MSG.

It seems like this guy is just always a step behind...with injuries, sometimes streaky play, and now this. He was really being counted on this year with such a young team and most assuredly would have been starting.

So who is going to get the start? Heck, the entire starting lineup is up for grabs. It looks like Nasir Robinson could benefit the most out of this. And yeah, it's early, but if I had to guess a starting lineup for the first game of the season? Well....

PG - Chase Adams
SG - Jermaine Dixon
SF - Nasir Robinson
PF - Dante Taylor
PF#2/C - Dwight Miller / Talib Zanna / JJ Richardson...it's anybody's guess

I'd also look for Pitt to go small (as if they're not already small enough) with a three-guard lineup at times.

I think Ashton Gibbs could end up getting more minutes than either Adams or Dixon, but Jamie Dixon's penchant for starting seniors may not get him the starting role. I expect Adams to start because I think the coaches will want to get Gibbs to SG. I also think Wanamaker and Lamar Patterson (at least until Gil gets back) will see plenty of minutes.

The front line is also completely unsolved with so many young players. I don't think Gary McGhee, the only player with ANY experience, will see much time.

And you thought football camp was interesting.

Odd Man Out

I briefly discussed this in the previous post about Chase Adams - a somewhat crowded backcourt becomes even more crowded. But in looking over the roster from last year, I got another thought:

Where does Brad Wanamaker fit?

Wanamaker had a solid sophomore year, but that was with Woodall injured/struggling and without the new guy, Adams. Here's how I see it shaping out:

Jermaine and Ashton split time at SG. Not sure who will get more minutes, but I'd say Jermaine will start. Gibbs will almost certainly get more minutes than he did last year and both are quite capable of handling the SG spot for an entire game.

That leaves PG where Adams will have to play, you figure. It's hard to imagine him coming here for one year without any shot of getting on the court. Assuming he plays well, I think he'll get the bulk of the minutes. Woodall will probably get some time as well. Sure Wanamaker could play here, but that's really not his position. I'm not crazy about his ball handling, so I'd really rather not see him at PG.

You look down to SF and, again, sure he COULD play there. But you've already got Gilbert Brown, who if he can stay healthy (assuredly, a big if), you'd like to see on the court for 25-30 minutes a game. You've also got Nasir Robinson who played well in spurts last year and incoming F Lamar Patterson who is supposed to be pretty good. If Patterson is redshirted, Wanamaker will probably spend some time here.

If Patterson isn't redshirted, I'd say Wanamaker's best bet to play this year will come as part of three-guard rotations. Either way, Pitt is sure to have a deep team with lots of guys getting minutes.