Men’s basketball: Panthers showing depth heading into Saturday’s game

The Panthers will have another opportunity to showcase their depth against North Florida… The Panthers will have another opportunity to showcase their depth against North Florida tomorrow afternoon at the Petersen Events Center.

On Wednesday, Pitt found a way to get all 12 players who were dressed for the game on the floor against Illinois-Chicago, giving several bench players significant minutes.  Meanwhile, North Florida is facing a very difficult stretch. The Ospreys open their regular season schedule in Tallahassee against Florida State tonight. They’ll have their second tip-off only 24 hours later at 4 p.m. tomorrow against Pitt.

The Ospreys were picked to finish seventh by the coaches in the Atlantic Sun and will serve as Pitt’s final early tune-up before the Panthers head to Madison Square Garden to play Maryland on Thursday.

“We have the chance to battle some of the top high-major programs in the country including three teams that are consensus Top 10 squads (Pitt, Kansas State, Purdue) in the preseason discussions,” North Florida head coach Matthew Driscoll said. “This makes for great exposure for our program as well as an exciting opportunity to play against some quality opponents.”

Pitt had four players score in double figures in the 97-54 win on Wednesday, with two more scoring nine points.

Ashton Gibbs led the team in scoring with 24 points, while freshman J.J. Moore, making his season debut, chipped in with nine points and three rebounds.

Pitt dominated the Flames down low, grabbing 45 rebounds as compared to their opponent’s 25. Gary McGhee and Dante Taylor led the Panthers with eight rebounds each.

Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon was pleased with his big men and said he believes their success will continue. “When they’re rebounding it helps us, and it shows that our team is just not a guard-oriented team. We have big men down underneath, doing it well and getting the job done,” he said.

Though they are ranked No. 4 in the country, the Panthers are still growing — and Wednesday’s game showed that. “I’m happy with the way we played, especially in the second half,” Dixon said. “We were able to sustain our play and improve as the game went on, and that’s an encouraging thing to see.”

Dixon is clearly excited about the improvement of his team, but he will be the first one to tell you that Pitt has much to improve on before it is ready for Big East play. This can be seen just by looking at the calendar.

“We’ve got a long way to go, but there was improvement in the last five days,” he said. “This is early. There isn’t anyone else that has two quality wins.”