I think it is almost certain that Pitt will have a better team next year than this. Sam Young will be even better. A healthy Fields is a shot-creating Fields. Dejaun Blair with a years experience will be exciting. Gilbert Brown will step it up one more level. I have to think someone out of McGhee, Wannamaker, Biggs and co. will emerge as reliable. I think (07-08 only) Ronald Ramon's bad nights hurt us as much as his good nights helped. Keith Benjamin was OK, but we're not losing gold. If Mike Cook returns we're that much more solid. What we might lack is the depth we're so used to. I'm 95% confident in all of the above.
What I'm not sure of is this: will a more talented Pitt team stack up any better in a more talented Big East? Georgetown and Louisville shouldn't be as good, but still very solid. Syracuse will be much better. Connecticut, Thabeet or not, will be nearly the same. Notre Dame should be better. If Alexander stays WVU will be as good or better. James is coming back to Marquette, Crean is leaving. I think they'll be worse but not much. Villanova will once again be a threat. Cincinnati could make a move. Someone else will probably be surprisingly better.
IF Pitt does manage to keep up in that conference it will only help come tournament time. There are perils enough for even the best of teams on a schedule like that, though.
Outstanding post Baster. Once again, the Big East will be a threat to get 7-9 teams in the tournament, which means that if you factor in playing WVU twice, depending on who else we play twice (I haven't seen the schedule for next year, is it out yet?) we could be playing as many as 10 games out of 18 against tournament-caliber teams. However, in Pitt's favor, (again, this is all speculation, since I dont think the schedule is out, but i could be wrong here) we played ND, Marquette, UConn, and Syracuse all on the road, which means we get them at the Pete this year, and I think that bodes well for us. The schedule should work to our favor, and while the Big East will be brutally tough, it will be brutally tough for everybody, and you've gotta think Pitt will be one of the favorites to win the conference going in, along with those teams you mentioned. I guess thats a lot of "favorites"--Pitt, Gtown, Lville, WVU, 'Cuse and UConn, but it is a 16 team conference after all. In the end, the speculation is a ton of fun, but we don't--and won't--know a damn thing for quite some time, except that the Big East will be one tough conference to play in, but thats nothing new.
And yeah, that will be excellent preparation for Tourney time--assuming we dont get too worn out and then get shipped off to the thin air in Denver . . .
Nice info gentlemen. I just think it is extremely important to be rotating players next year. I think they lost to Michigan State because they lost their legs. Jamie has had his players playing way too many minutes the second half of the year and had nothing in the tank when the threes weren't falling and facing a physical team.
Michigan State was not better than any team faced in their last 6 games prior, they just didn't have anything left halfway through the second half of the game. peiople have stated that ther Panthers looked winded, gassed. affected by the high altitude and other excusese. I think Jamie just pushed too few players far too much and it showed.
I am looking forward to next year and hope that Dixon starts reducing playing times down to 15-18 minutes per game max and sharing time with the underclassmen.
I also feel he over recruited for this incoming group in 2008 and most of them will only be role players. I hope I am wrong, but this group may not be game ready and that scares me. We should have a great season again, but down to tournament time, this depth will be imporatnt. As funny as it sounds, this seams deja vu of what I said about last year at the beginning of the season. I knew that Blair was the real thing, but after him, I was hoping for Wannamaker and Brown to be large contributers with Biggs stepping up. I hope that this year will be different..
Hey connect, I had the same worry as you but I think this Jermaine Dixon they've now got coming in from Junior College might be the ticket to limit that problem. At least, he'll be an improvement over Diggs.
There is one thing I like about next year's class. It is the size of the guards. They are all (Except for Woodall) taller than 6' 2" and a little more athletic than they have been in the past. This could be a very good scoring team and Nasir Robinson will be an impressive defender with his intensity for the game. I think this year we may have another freshman starting early in the season with Nasir. He can provide some match up problems with Brown on the court at the same time.
I will also like to see Mcghee getting 13 minutes a game early in the season so he can develop. We are going to need his defesive skills, rebounding and inside scoring to reach last year's team success. Biggs looked petty good at the end of the year, but even with his size, was never a physcial presence or intimidating shot blocker. I think McGhee can be very effective inside (almost like a Troutman type) and would be difficult to block along with freeing up Blair to play the power forward position.
It would be nice to get Zeke Marshall as a project player for next year, but I am not sure we have a scholarship available anymore. I also think Diggs will be gone this season or play without a scholarship as a walk on.
