2011-12 Pitt Basketball Preview


October 25, 2011 | Posted By Larry Cook

Jamie Dixon and his Pittsburgh basketball team had an incredibly prosperous regular season in 2010-11. Despite playing a challenging conference schedule the team ended up having a 15-3 record in conference play.

They defeated Connecticut handily in the final regular season meeting, but lost to the Huskies by a couple of points in the conference tournament. Pitt didn’t have much success in the NCAA tourney either, losing in the second round to Butler.

This season’s version of the Pitt basketball team will have only two starters back. Still, coach Dixon has created a winning tradition and the program has shown to be able to reload when losing top talent.

Backcourt

Pitt’s guard play centers around Asthon Gibbs. Gibbs opted out of entering his name in the NBA draft, but pulled out due to the uncertain labor situation. Last year he put up almost 17 points per game on 49% 3-point shooting.

Taking the place of Brandon Wanamaker will be Travon Woodall. Woodall is a good defender who is going to have to live up to the hype of being a decent passer.

Also seeing time will be Cameron Wright, Durand Johnson, and John Johnson.

Frontcourt

Pittsburgh’s main losses occured from the front court that will be without Gilbert Brown and Gary McGhee. On the other hand, the Panthers do get some reliable players returning to go in addition to some exciting recruits.

Nasir Robinson will provide the experience to the floor. Last year he averaged 9.4 points and almost 5 rebounds per contest, but he ought to get far more minutes this year.

Khem Birch was a McDonald’s All-American and one of the most-wanted centers coming out of high school. Malcolm Gilbert was also wanted by a whole lot of universities resulting from his rebounding and shot blocking ability.

Supplying the Panthers with some added mins will probably 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 odds on their games.

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