East Regions Top Seed - Is this the Year for Pitt
by Ian
The Pitt Panthers are coming into the dance with all kinds of confidence and a number 1 seed to boot. The put together a strong season record wise and for their betting faithful (28-4 SU, 16-9-1 ATS). This is the first time in their school's history heads that they have received a top seed, and they absolutely deserved it. They were fantastic all season, so good in fact that they held the No. 1 ranking in the nation which was also the first time in school history they accomplished that.
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When they weren’t busy being the best team in the country, they were taking them out. They took out two No. 1 teams, went a perfect 19-0 at home and set a school record with 15 Big East wins. They are making their eighth straight NCAA Tournament appearance and this should be their best shot at going all the way.
Pitt’s charm is that they aren’t that pretty. They are a hard working group led by a talented senior class. They can put the ball in the basket but have a very stifling defense; only seven opponents have scored more than 70 points on the Panthers this season. Pitt will simply smother most opponents and force bad shots and turnovers.
That defense is the calling card of Coach Jamie Dixon, who took dutiful notes when he was an assistant to Ben Howland, who handed the baton to Dixon six seasons ago. This is Dixon's best defense at Pitt, which goes hand in hand with having the deepest, most athletic team he has had. That extra dose of quickness means Pitt can further disrupt foes by extending its double teams while covering the backside in its rotating man-to-man defense.
The Panthers ran off 16 consecutive victories to start the season, reaching No. 1 before losing at Louisville in mid-January. Mostly, though, Pitt has things covered every which way -- from savvy 5'10" point guard Levance Fields to high-flying wing Sam Young to burly post DeJuan Blair. Yeah, Blair is a bit undersized in the middle at 6'7", but that's one of the reasons Dixon started to compare him to former NBA great Wes Unseld. Blair's response: Who's that? He learned quickly enough, though, and Blair has the passing touch to replicate Unseld with brilliant outlet passes to key fast breaks.
If you wanted to nitpick the Panthers, one thing Dixon wanted to see during the season was a more aggressive offense to match the effort on defense. Pitt wasn't great at getting to the free-throw line ... which really might not have been the worst thing because if you wanted to nitpick the Panthers some more, they are a team that shoots their freebies at just about 65 percent.
On offense, Pitt won't hang its hat on its 3-point shooting, but does it well enough to create spacing for the high-percentage frontline of Blair, opportunistic senior Tyrell Biggs, and Young. When the shots aren't falling, Pitt can always fall back on that defense and win ugly.
The final thing is, Dixon hasn't taken Pitt past the Sweet 16 in five tries. This should be the year it happens. No doubt, the Panthers are good enough to make it to the final weekend.
