2011 Pittsburgh Panthers NCAA Basketball Preview
October 25, 2011
Jamie Dixon and his Pittsburgh Panthers experienced an incredibly effective regular season in 2010-11. Despite taking part in a tough conference schedule the team ended up having a 15-3 record in Big East action.
They beat UConn handily in the last regular season game, but were beat by the Huskies by a couple of points in the Big East tourney. Pitt didn’t have much luck in the NCAA tournament either, getting beat in the second round to Butler.
This year’s edition of the Pitt Panthers will have only two starters returning. However, coach Dixon has established a winning foundation and the program has shown to be able to reload when losing superb players.
Backcourt
Pitt’s backcourt play centers around Asthon Gibbs. Gibbs was thinking about declaring for the NBA draft, but pulled out due to the uncertain labor situation. Last year he put up almost 17 points per game on nearly 50% 3-point shooting.
Taking the place of Brandon Wanamaker will be Travon Woodall. Woodall is an excellent defender who is going to have to live up to the hype of being a decent distributor.
Providing depth will be Cameron Wright, Durand Johnson, and John Johnson.
Frontcourt
The Panther’s largest losses came in the post that is going to be devoid of Gilbert Brown and Gary McGhee. Having said that, the Panthers do get some reliable players back to go along with some top-level recruits.
Nasir Robinson will deliver the expertise to the court. Last season he averaged 9.4 points and 4.9 rebounds for each game, but he should get additional minutes this year.
Khem Birch was a McDonald’s All-American and one of the most-wanted big men coming out of high school. Malcolm Gilbert was also desired by a good deal of colleges on account of his rebounding and shot blocking capabilities.
Giving the team with some extra minutes will likely be Dante Taylor, JJ Moore, and Talib Zanna.
Each year we offer our Pitt Panthers basketball preview so you can get yourself ready to beat the college basketball spreads on their games.
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