YinzPitt

Finally!  Probably the only reason I still watch basketball is to see and enjoy the Pitt Panthers do their thing on the court.  With this year being touted as a “rebuilding” season with basically five new starters taking their place on the court.  Nasir Robinson, Gary McGhee, Travon Woodall, Ashton Gibbs, and Brad Wanamaker all are now starting while McDonalds All American standout Dante Taylor comes off the bench(for now) to provide back-up.  It’s certainly safe to ask who these guys are, as most of them were actually here last year, yet couldn’t crack the line up that had Blair, Young, and Fields manning their ground as one of the better teams in the nation.

Have no fear though if your worried about the team not being able to mesh well, Jamie Dixon is here to save the day.  Not to mention he’s

Jamie Dixon, coach of the Pitt Panthers Mens Team

been crowned as the 2009 Naismith Men’s Coach of The Year.   You can certainly look forward to him providing input and a great situational offense as he always does to his team of young players that are basically fresh meat to the NCAA elite.

Moving on with the introductions, Pitt Panthers basketball have actually already played two games to start the pre-season.  Both of them wins, the first one being a 3 point nail biter, and the second one, a blow-out win by more than 20 points that took place last night against a mish-mash of walk-ons and scholarship players from Binghamton University.  Binghamton used to be a team that was highly talked about, now though?  Not so much, unless you want to talk about criminal records, dismissed players, and fired coaches.  Either way, it sure wasn’t surprising list night how Pitt took over and got a good warm-up practice in.

Posted below is an excerpt from the Trib Live talking about last nights game….yea I know I know, how original,  fact is though, I’ve had roughly a few hours sleep in the past two days.  My thinking cap is at home on the nightstand:

The sharp-shooting staked the Panthers (2-0) a 37-17 lead, as Gibbs scored as many points by himself (17) as Binghamton scored as a team in the first half. His previous career high was 15 points.

“Gibbs hadn’t been shooting that well,” Binghamton interim coach Mark Macon said. “But man … ”

Gibbs, using his dead-eye catch-and-shoot, finished 7 of 12 from the field and 6 of 10 from 3-point range.

“I have confidence,” he said. “I know if I have an open one, I’m going to be confident enough to take it and keep shooting.”

Pitt led by at least 20 points in the second half over Binghamton, which has seven available scholarship players after six players were kicked off the team in a two-day span in September.

Gibbs’ partner in the new-look Panthers’ backcourt also had a career-best game. Redshirt freshman point guard Travon Woodall had 10 points and 13 assists for his first double-double.

Brad Wanamaker scored 14 points — one shy of his career high — and sophomore forward Nasir Robinson added seven points, a game-high 10 rebounds, along with five assists and no turnovers.

So here’s to the new Pitt season!  Even with all this nice Pittsburgh weather we’ve been having outside lately.  It’s a positive thing that our wonderful winter sports have begun!

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