Jamie Dixon’s 4-0 Pitt Panthers get their first real test of the season Wednesday night when they hook up with No. 4 Michigan in the semifinals of the Preseason NIT in Madison Square Garden.
The Panthers executed well at both ends of the floor in the early going, but doing so against the likes of Mount St. Mary’s, Fordham, Lehigh and Oakland is one thing, but doing so against the Wolverines could be a different story altogether.
Pitt has won their four games in different ways, but mostly has relied on their size and depth. But to beat Michigan tonight, the Panthers’ backcourt will have to be very good, especially on the defensive end of the floor.
The Wolverines have one of the best backcourts in the country in Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. and will be a handful for the Pitt guards to deal with.
Burke leads Michigan in scoring (18.3 PPG) and assists (8.0 APG) while Hardaway, the son of former NBA guard Tim Hardaway, leads the Wolverines in rebounds (7.7 RPG) and is second in scoring (PPG).
That’s not it though. Michigan ranks eighth in the nation in scoring at 89.3 PPG and also possesses a talented frontcourt that features Glenn Robinson III, the son of former NBA player Glenn Robinson, who averages 13.3 points and seven rebounds per game.
To say that the Panthers will have their hands full with the talent on this Michigan team is an understatement.
However their defense has been their strength through four games, allowing a mere 53.5 points per game.
A major part of slowing down the Michigan offense will be put on the shoulders of freshman James Robinson, who drew the assignment of slowing down Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum and fared very well.
The freshman will certainly be tested at Madison Square Garden, but judging by his performances early on, Robinson is not your typical freshman.
Then there is Dixon’s familiarity with the Michigan system, which could play a role as well.
Pitt has not played Michigan since 1996, but Dixon is familiar with Wolverines’ head coach John Beilein, who coached at West Virginia from 2002-07. Beilein doesn’t use the 1-3-1 that he used with the Mountaineers, as his team is now one that plays more man-to-man, but offensively they will try and push the tempo.
If the Pitt guards can pressure the ball and force turnovers and get out and run, then the Panthers can win this game. However if the Panthers shoot the ball as poorly as they did for the first 30 minutes against Oakland, then it really won’t matter much.
Either way, there is really only one thing certain about this matchup.
When it is all said and done, we will know a lot more about how good this Pitt team really is right now.
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