On paper, an early season tilt between a perennial Big East Conference power in Pitt and a Lehigh out of the Patriot League screams mismatch.
But that won’t exactly be true when the Panthers and Mountain Hawks meet Tuesday night in the second round of the Preseason NIT at the Petersen Events Center.
The reason why is fairly simple- Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum.
Lehigh returns 82 percent of their scoring and 80 percent of their rebounding from a team that upset Duke in last year’s NCAA Tournament. But the headliner is McCollum, who would have been a first round pick in June’s NBA Draft had he not elected to come back to school and honor the promise he made to his mother.
McCollum is one of the rare good stories in sports as he passed up the potential to make millions of dollars in the NBA to get his college degree in four years.
However, the NBA will certainly still be there for McCollum, if he continues to play the way he has already this season.
The senior guard averaged 19.1 points per game as a freshman and upped that to 21.8 and 21.9 during his sophomore and junior seasons. Through two games this season, he dropped 38 in a season opening loss against Baylor and 19 last night in Lehigh’s first round victory over Robert Morris. McCollum traditionally plays off the ball, but has logged some more minutes at the point this season to show NBA scouts that he is capable of playing either guard spot.
Speaking of NBA scout, there were representatives of 20 teams in the building yesterday to get a look at not only McCollum, but Pitt freshman Steven Adams as well.
Draft Express currently ranks McCollum as the No. 16 prospect in the 2013 draft class and the No. 1 ranked senior overall.
He is exactly the type of player who can give the Panthers some problems.
Dixon’s team has made it a point to apply more pressure on the ball and force more turnovers, something they have been great at through two games. But they haven’t faced a talent like McCollum yet, nor have they faced a style that the Mountain Hawks will throw at them.
Pitt’s size is an advantage against almost any team they will play early on, but if there is one thing that can get them beat, it will be against a team that lives on the perimeter and can knock down three’s in bunches. If you have watched Lehigh play it the past, that’s their M.O.
They won’t be intimidated by the Panthers reputation, having gone head-to-head and outplaying Austin Rivers and Seth Curry just a year ago.
With three seniors in McCollum, Gabe Knutson and Holden Greiner- all 1,000 point scorers in their career- Pitt must make sure it rotates out on shooters, something they haven’t been great at so far. With Lehigh had coach Brett Reed likely to use a lot of three guard looks against Pitt, the Mountain Hawks have a great chance to stay in this game.
The pressure will be on the likes of Tray Woodall, James Robinson, Trey Zeigler, Cameron Wright and others to attempt to hold McCollum in check. If they are successful, the Panthers will be making plans to head to Madison Square Garden for the rest of the Preseason NIT.
The Panthers host Lehigh at 9.p.m. EST and the game can be seen on ESPNU.
Prior to that, Robert Morris will take on Fordham as each team looks for their first win of the season.
Photo Credit: Sporting News
