Men’s Basketball: Panthers look to end losing streak

The Pitt men’s basketball team will look to pick up its first Big East win of the season… The Pitt men’s basketball team will look to pick up its first Big East win of the season tonight and end the Panthers’ first four-game losing streak under head coach Jamie Dixon.

Pitt (11-5, 0-3 Big East) has seemed capable of beating its opponents for stretches — the Panthers held leads of at least seven points in all four losses — but the team hasn’t been able to sustain a high level of play.

Pitt hopes to do just that against a tough Rutgers team (9-7, 1-2 Big East) — who has big wins over top-10 teams in Florida and Connecticut — at the Petersen Events Center Wednesday night.

Junior Lamar Patterson, who has taken on a major role this season by playing more than 27 minutes per game, said he knows Pitt’s intensity is there, but it needs to be maintained for a full 40 minutes.

The Panthers are still the national leader in rebounding margin, grabbing 13.3 more boards than their opponents.

“We just have to be able to sustain it,” Patterson said. “We know exactly what we have to do. We’re starting to do some different things, and we’re going to get it changed around.”

Dixon said that the Panthers’ faults don’t include his team’s effort.

“You can’t outrebound people by the number that we are and not be playing hard,” Dixon said. “The effort is there. We’ve just got to perform better.”

Dixon is limited in the lineup adjustments he can make. With starting point guard Travon Woodall still nursing an injury and freshman center Khem Birch gone from the program, the Panthers’ head coach will work with the same rotation against the Scarlet Knights.

“There aren’t really a lot of other options that we have,” Dixon said. “Whether someone starts or not m=ight be important to some but overall isn’t important.”

Freshman guard John Johnson and redshirt sophomore forward Talib Zanna replaced Cameron Wright and Dante Taylor, respectively, in the starting lineup in Pitt’s last game against DePaul.

Much of Pitt’s success in recent years stems from a deep bench and being able to spread minutes around. With a shorter rotation, fatigue could be a factor in the troubles for the Panthers.

Senior Ashton Gibbs, chosen as Big East Player of the Year in the preseason, has struggled this season. He’s shooting just 39 percent from the field and 36 percent from 3-point range. Gibbs is still battling an ankle injury, but with Woodall out of the lineup, he is forced to play more minutes.

“We’re not able to balance minutes with our players at this point,” Dixon said. “[Gibbs] may be playing more minutes than he could with his ankle, but it is getting better. He’s obviously not 100 percent.”

Gibbs didn’t attribute any of his struggles to an injury or fatigue.

“I’ve always been in shape, so I don’t think it’s hurting me as much as people think it is,” Gibbs said. “I got to start making shots. It’s tougher, but at the end of the day, that’s the way it is.”

As a senior and a leader on offense, Gibbs has been asked to carry Pitt through a tough spot, and he is embracing that role.

“I’m trying to step up to the challenges the best that I can,” Gibbs said. “I just got to step it up. It’s a big part of me that I have to do my job and have everyone step up to my lead.”

The Panthers will look to fall back on solid defense to defeat Rutgers.

“We’ve got to guard the ball,” Dixon said. “We have to do a better job against penetration. I think some of our turnovers have led to more baskets in transition. That’s a part of why our field-goal percentage on defense is high.”

Dixon’s staple man-to-man defense has been replaced by a zone defense often this season, but the Panthers are still struggling to get stops.

“We’ve worked on the zone,” Dixon said. “We’ve tried different things, and it hasn’t worked too well in the games that we have used it. It’s something that we work on every day.”

This year’s Panthers have worked on the zone more so than previous teams, and they are comfortable running it in the game.

“We’re effective in practice when we use it,” Gibbs said. “We’ve been doing it every single day. We’re used to it, so if we play it in a game it won’t be anything.”

Former Pitt assistant Mike Rice leads the Scarlet Knights. He coached under Jamie Dixon during the 2006-2007 season and then moved on to become the head coach of Robert Morris from 2007 to 2010.

Rutgers fell on its home court to then-No. 2 Pitt 65-62 last season and has lost three straight games in the series, as well as 11 of the last 12.

The Scarlet Knights are coming off a 67-60 win over No. 8 Connecticut during which they held the Huskies to 37.7 percent shooting and forced 20 turnovers — a strength they could take advantage of against the Panthers.

Freshman guard Eli Carter leads Rutgers with 14.2 points per game. Carter, the Big East Rookie of the Week last week, scored 19 points in the win over the Huskies. Sophomore forward Gilvydas Biruta also averages double figures with 10.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.

A loss to Rutgers would extend Dixon’s losing streak to five games, and that’s something that none of the players want to be known for. Patterson said he uses the errors to grow as a player.

“It’s tough. No one wants to lose that many games in a row — or a game period,” Patterson said. “It’s just something that we can grow off and learn from our mistakes.”