How to Look at PITT Basketball This Season
After an 82-78 OT victory over Mt. St Mary’s on Tuesday improved PITT’s record to 5-4 and with a date with rival West Virginia in a renewal of the basketball version of the Backyard Brawl, How should we be looking at this basketball season for the Panthers?
Honestly, the easiest and least frustrating way to look at it is to look for progress in each and every game. The little things from strong defense, to strong rebounding, to hot shooting, etc will mean a lot for this team. And just getting and stacking up the wins will do wonders for this team this season because of how young it is.
Starting with the season opener at Navy this year, yes it was a loss, but there were positive signs in that game that you liked. For a young team, they were able to keep pace with a very hot shooting Navy team for the 1st half of that game and kept it close throughout until PITT went ice cold in the 2nd half and couldn’t finish off the game and lost 71-62.
But, in this game was the emergence of the 1st player that I wouldn’t necessarily build around because he is a Junior and that is Jared Wilson-Frame, but you want him to be a leader over the next 2 years and help this team through the growing pains of this and next season. Wilson-Frame from what I’ve seen from him is someone who is not afraid to go to the hoop and draw contact, will battle for every rebound (and should get most) and is not afraid to take the big shot in big moments. Wilson-Frame has recorded double-digit points in all, but 2 games this season.
The next 4 games after Navy in the Legends Classic were hard to watch because the youth of this team started to show a lot. Starting with the OT loss to Montana at The Pete, but they were able to follow that up with a win over UC Santa-Barbara which normally you shouldn’t probably celebrate a win like that, but it was the 1st victory for this totally rebuilt team and they need all the confidence and positive vibes that they can get.
And that leads to my second point I want to make about some observations through a month and a half of this season. The attendance at The Pete for home games has been dreadful, even from The Oakland Zoo. When the student section is only half full for a game and I think there was one game when the The Panther PITT at the Miami game over Thanksgiving Break had more students in it than at a basketball game is not good. Obviously I went to PITT and being in the Oakland Zoo was so much fun and it is one of the top student sections in the nation when it is full and even the overflow section is full as well. So, students lets go, show up and support you fellow classmates and give them all the positive vibes, encouragement and support because this year they need as the program is in a complete rebuild season.
Now, that takes care of the students, but not the alumni and just fans of basketball who aren’t showing up this year. When you are only getting between 2,000 and 4,000 fans in attendance for a home game at a Division I school in a Power 5 conference, that’s not good. And I think Penn State gets more fans to their basketball games this season and WVU as well. Just got to throw the rivalries in there to get the juices flowing in the fan/alumni base. The Pete holds just over 12,000 people, PITT should have a sellout or close to a sellout every game, every season. This team may be almost completely new from the past two years, but it’s not like the program is on a streak of missing the NCAA Tournament, last year was one year of missing it. Just like with the students, the alumni and general basketball fan base needs to show up and support this team this year because they need to see that the fan/alumni base is behind the students even if they don’t agree with how the coaching search went down, but with that said I am still willing to give Kevin Stallings a chance.
Looking at ticket prices to the next few home games (via Stubhub), tickets start at $59 for WVU on Saturday, $6 for McNeese State on December 16, $6 for Delaware State on December 19, $7 for Towson on December 22 and $20 for Miami on December 30. So, tickets are very affordable to get into these games.
Back to recapping the season so far, after the victory over UC Santa -Barbara the Panthers proceeded to drop two contests in a row to Penn State and Oklahoma State. The Penn State game was ugly and there was absolutely nothing positive I could get out of that game, but many people believed Oklahoma State would blow them out as well, but they kept the game close, but the Cowboys made their free throws down the stretch and held on to hand PITT their second loss in a row.
Starting with Lehigh on November 25 and to Mt. St. Mary’s on Tuesday, the Panthers are on a 4-game winning streak that has them over .500 for the 1st time this season. And in this 4-game stretch, PITT got The City Game trophy back in Oakland with a 76-64 victory over Duquesne at PPG Paints Arena after that dismal display last season that saw the Dukes win the City Game for the 1st time in a long time.
Also, over the past few weeks, PITT fans have seen the emergence of Freshman Point Guard Marcus Carr who has become a play-maker and just someone who makes this team go. It is going to be fun for Panthers fans to watch Carr grow and develop as a basketball player over his college career. Earlier I said Wilson-Frame isn’t afraid to take the big shot in key situations, but I want Marcus Carr to have the ball in his hands in all key situations because I already trust him to make the wise decision with the basketball, whether it be shoot or get the ball into the hands of the open guy. Yes, we will still see some Freshman mistakes throughout this year, but during this winning streak Carr has been in double figure points the past three games, has made all but 1 free throw (and only has missed 2 all year) and has 14 assists.
A couple of other players to watch this season are Senior Ryan Luther who has been a force in every game, except the last one against The Mount. What you want to see out of Luther this season is strong leadership on and off the court as well as showing the young guys what it takes to be successful at this level. Another player to watch is Freshman Shamiel Stevenson who has shown his talent at times, but just needs to learn to play with control more consistently in games and keeping the brain lapses down to a minimum.
Adding to Wilson-Frame, Carr, Luther and Stevenson, another one of the role players to watch this year is Freshman Parker Stewart, who looks like when he is on he can just be lethal from 3-point range, but also isn’t afraid to mix it up inside. Khameron Davis, Peach Ilegomah and Kene Chukwuka are three players that I am intrigued to watch this season, but it’s still to early to see how they will be best used in Kevin Stallings’ system.
At 5-4 at this point in non-conference play, PITT currently sits in 13th place in the ACC standings, but we just need to remember as PITT fans, expectations were not high this year, not even close. And if you were a fan who had high expectations this year, what Kool Aid were you drinking? Because I want some as a PITT fan who normally has championship visions no matter what, but even I said if they win 1-2 games in the ACC Tournament that will be something to celebrate. And if by some chance they get into the NCAA Tournament, throw a party because that would be a huge win for the program in the beginning of the Kevin Stallings era.
The season continues tomorrow night against West Virginia at The Pete with the renewal of the basketball Backyard Brawl at 7 pm. Show up, support and cheer this team to victory because we have seen stranger things happen against WVU, aka 13-9 and that upset and upset may be too weak of a word to describe that game. And a belated Happy 10th Anniversary to the 2007 PITT Football team for that rivalry game victory.
What are you looking for out of this year’s PITT basketball team? Tweet me @MattyIcePGH or tweet @IntoPITT.
