Saturday afternoon, the Pitt Panthers basketball program will make history as they take on North Carolina State in the inaugural ACC game in Pitt program history.
Yet once the two team’s line up to tip things off, it will fulfill a long awaited moment for Jamie Dixon, Steve Pederson and everyone associated with Pitt athletics.
However the question remains- is Pitt ready?
On the surface, that’s not an easy question to answer as you simply don’t know.
“We got a lot of positives out of the non-conference season,” said Pitt forward Lamar Patterson. “We feel good and feel ready. We know what we have to do to be a better team. Now we just have to get to it. Coach will have us ready by the time Saturday comes along.”
One thing going in the Panthers favor is as conference play begins, the ACC doesn’t looked as stacked as many may have hoped it would be at this point in the season.
The conference boasts only four teams- Syracuse, Duke, Pitt and North Carolina- who currently rank in the top 50 in RPI. Only three other ACC programs crack the RPI top 100, while the rest of the conference has a problem topping the top 200.
Now RPI isn’t a definitive answer for how good a team is, but it is a good measuring stick. The common theory is that if you are a top 50 RPI team, you are an NCAA Tournament team. Judging by that, the out of conference performance for the ACC as a whole doesn’t look so promising.
However RPI changes daily and you expect more ACC teams to be on the rise as the conference season progresses.
Then there’s the Panthers on the court.
Through the course of a nice 12-1 start to the season, you have to like where this team is at in a lot of areas.
Offensively Pitt seems like a much more capable team than in years past.
They can score the ball in the paint, on the perimeter and have become a very good team when they speed things up.
One positive is the way Patterson and Cameron Wright have emerged as guys who can take over a game for stretches at a time. The Panthers haven’t always had that and throw in the likes of Talib Zanna, who can do some damage on the inside and you have to like where Pitt is at offensively.
However you have to take a lot of that with a grain of salt as everything we have seen from the Panthers to date has come against suspect competition.
“There’s been some stretches where we have been very good offensively,” said Dixon. “Even when we aren’t making shots I have been real happy with the ball movement.”
Defensive issues though presents the biggest issue for Dixon’s team.
Unlike years in the past, this Pitt team struggles to defend off the dribble. That could present a major problem when they face more athletic teams then they have faced so far.
However I give Dixon credit as he has been more willing to use a zone this year than he has previously. The Pitt zone has actually been very effective all year so far and could turn into a weapon for Dixon.
We saw that in the Panthers final non-conference win against Albany when Pitt held the Great Danes scoreless for a 13 minute stretch once making the switch to zone.
“I’ve been wanting to use the zone more and more,” said Dixon. “My concern has always been rebounding out of it and we have been able to do that so far. Overall though I think we are improving as a team defensively.”
The final issue is all the new bodies Dixon has to deal with.
Pitt has talent and depth, but will their lack of experience end up hurting them?
Guys like Jamel Artis, Michael Young, Josh Newkirk and Derrick Randall are going to have to contribute in a major way.
I really like the duo of Young and Artis as I feel they could form a very nice power forward combo for the next four years.
The question is are they ready now?
“They have to play some basketball,” said Dixon. “We’ve liked what we have seen through the non-conference schedule so far, but we have five new guys out of 10. They have to be ready to play.”
Unfortunately due to the soft non-conference schedule, we simply don’t know that answer yet.
The good news is that we will get some of those questions answered beginning on Saturday.
If it is any consolation, the Panthers have some people already convinced.
“They are a top four team in the ACC,” said Albany head coach Will Brown. “You can put Pitt right up there with Syracuse, Duke and North Carolina. They are tough to play against and their style of play keeps them in every game. Jamie is one of the best in the country and they will do just fine in the ACC. They are 12-1 and are a couple of missed free-throws away from being undefeated. It’s head scratching that they aren’t a Top 25 team right now.”
Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire/USA Today
