Failing the boards
Undersized Panthers struggling to rebound and defend the post
The Pitt Panthers are finding out the hard way this season that size does matter, especially in a power conference such as the ACC. Pitt went to its smaller lineup earlier in the season out of necessity and it sparked a six-game winning streak at the end of the non-conference season in December, but many wondered if the lineup would be able to survive the nightly battles with bigger, more athletic teams in conference games. So far, the answer has been a resounding no as the Panthers (11-5, 1-2) have been outrebounded in two of three ACC games. If Boston College center Dennis Clifford doesn’t miss a wide-open putback at the buzzer Tuesday, Pitt would be on a three-game losing streak. Clemson beat Pitt, 71-62, Saturday at Petersen Events Center and laid out a pretty clear blueprint against the Panthers. The Tigers continually threw the ball into the post to take advantage of size mismatches and score easy baskets. Clemson also outrebounded the Panthers, 39-22, the largest margin a Jamie Dixon-coached Pitt team has been outrebounded by and the largest rebounding deficit by a Pitt team since January 1999. And much like North Carolina State, which blew out the Panthers in their ACC opener, Clemson seemed to have no problem scoring inside or converting offensive rebounds into points. But Dixon insists a lack of size isn’t a problem for Pitt and wasn’t the issue with Clemson; he believes rebounding comes down to effort and players getting in position and wanting the ball more than their opponent. And he believes the Panthers’ inability to get offensive rebounds — they were outrebounded on the offensive glass, 14-6 — had more to do with their failure to execute and take good shots. He said offensive rebounds are a product of running good offense and thus having players in proper position to grab them. “I don’t know that [Clemson is] that much bigger,” Dixon said. “They’ve got maybe an inch on us at a couple of spots. We’re bigger at some spots, as well. It shouldn’t be [size], certainly not that big of a difference. … We didn’t get it done, and then they beat us to some long ones. They beat us to two free-throw rebounds, too, which is not a good indicator.” Whatever the reason, it is clear the Panthers have some work to do in order to become a better rebounding team. Tuesday against Boston College, Dixon used 6-foot10 center Joseph Uchebo for 20 minutes, but Uchebo only played eight minutes Saturday. But Uchebo’s availability for big minutes varies game to game because of knee issues that seemingly flare up and make it difficult for him to run and keep up with the pace of the game. Uchebo is Pitt’s only player 6-10 or bigger, and without him in the game, the Panthers are forced to use forwards — mostly Michael Young — at center. Dixon has also said Ryan Luther is Pitt’s best post defender, but he is a freshman and only played three minutes Saturday, which Dixon said was probably a mistake. He said there is no question he has to rethink the rotation and lineup because the Panthers cannot continue to get outrebounded and outmuscled. “It’s interesting [figuring out a rotation of post players],” Dixon said. “We tried Sheldon [Jeter] at that spot a little bit. We played Jamel [Artis]. It’s probably something that we have to look at, though Jamel was our leading rebounder, at the same time. We think Jamel is good against the zone. “We think Ryan [Luther] is good against the zone, too. We’ve got to look at something, because what we did didn’t work. I’ll take responsibility for that because I thought we had the right guys to go, but the zone made us do some things a little differently, I think. It just caught up to us.” Pitt has two days to figure it out, as its next game is Wednesday against Florida State (9-6, 1-1) and the Seminoles have three players listed at 7 feet or taller.