Despite the lack of quality competition, it has been a nice start to the 2013-14 season for Jamie Dixon’s Pitt Panthers.
Through three games Dixon has done a good job of getting all his youngsters valuable playing experience as almost everyone on the roster has played a role in Pitt’s three wins.
The scoring has been fairly balanced with nine different players averaging five or more points per game and six different players averaging at least 8.7 per contest.
However when the competition gets tougher and ACC play begins for the Panthers, they are going to need a go to guy. They need a guy to create his own shot and a guy who must have the ball in his hands late in close games.
That guy has to be Lamar Patterson.
As a senior, Patterson has seen it all. He is a leader of the team and needs to be the guy who demands the ball during crunch time.
He’s also the most talented Pitt player on the offensive end of the floor.
He’s a rare forward that handles the ball like a guard, which is big for the Panthers as it not only gives Dixon another ball handler on the floor, but Patterson is capable of running the offense as well as a point guard.
Patterson is a scorer, but also is showing he can be a facilitator as well. He set a career-high with seven assists during Pitt’s opening win against Savannah State and matched that total in Pitt’s second game against Fresno State.
“It all starts with Lamar,” said Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon. “He’s been around and he’s a guy we trust to make things happen in a variety of ways. He gives us an extra ball handler on the floor and he is unselfish and willing to get his teammates involved.”
However while Patterson excelled early at getting his teammates involved, he struggled with his shot, making only 5-of-17 attempts from the floor and missing on all five of his attempts from behind the arc.
That all changed Sunday against Howard though.
Patterson showed the scoring touch we have become accustomed to when he dropped 20 points on the Howard Bison on 7-of-11 shooting, including making all four of his three-point attempts in the first half.
“That’s something I work on every day,” said Patterson. “Last game, we just couldn’t find the touch; today we found it. That’s how it is. Some games you have it, some games you don’t. I just saw it was going in, so I wanted to keep shooting. I kept getting open shots.”
Looking for his shot is something Patterson is going to have to do more often as the season moves along, but he still has to excel in his role as a facilitator in the Pitt offense.
Through three games Patterson has a solid stat line that reads: 12.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists while shooting 42.9 percent from the floor, 40 percent from behind the arc and 83.3 percent from the charity stripe.
As the competition gets tougher, Patterson is going to have produce similar results. The competition shouldn’t be an issue as the Panthers are going from the best basketball conference in the nation in the Big East to the best basketball conference in the nation in the ACC.
The one issue for the fifth-year senior remains consistency.
Take last year’s career-high 22 points he dropped against Marquette for instance. He followed that performance with only a five point effort against Villanova.
One thing that Patterson has shown throughout his career is that he is a true triple threat that can impact the game by scoring, passing or rebounding.
“Yeah, I’m a versatile player,” Patterson said. “I like to show different aspects of my game every time out.”
But while he is a patient player who likes to see the floor, it can be frustrating when Patterson passes up open looks on the perimeter to drive the basketball or continue to move it. Patterson is unselfish as it comes, but eventually he has to become the legitimate top-notch scorer that he has the ability to become.
When Pitt is in big games in the winter months and need big baskets, Patterson is going to be the guy that is going to have to step up and deliver. That’s something guard Cameron Wright feels he is more than capable of doing.
“He can score the ball,” said Wright. “Lamar Patterson can score the ball. Lamar’s a great player. He works hard. He deserves it. The ball was going in today. He wasn’t shooting great the first couple games, but he can score the ball.”
If Patterson can do exactly that, it could mean the difference between winning and losing close games in the ACC.
Photo Credit: Associated Press
