March Madness: Dixon a leader on an inexperienced but hungry Pitt team

When Levance Fields, Sam Young, DeJuan Blair and Tyrell Biggs departed Pitt last summer, they… When Levance Fields, Sam Young, DeJuan Blair and Tyrell Biggs departed Pitt last summer, they took with them 11 NCAA Tournament games combined throughout their careers and appearances in four Big East tournaments that included one championship. The foursome took a bundle of experience, oh-so-valuable experience  — the kind that wins you games and brings postseason success.

This year, with four starters from last season graduated or NBA-employed, only Jermaine Dixon came into the season with a considerable amount of experience as a starter — to date, he’s started 57 career games, including every game from a year ago alongside the aforementioned foursome.

Prior to this 2009-2010 campaign, Gilbert Brown and Gary McGhee were the only players aside from Dixon to have started a game for the Panthers. Brown started 15 games in 2007-2008 and McGhee one game in place of Blair last year.

Experience was short entering the season. But the Panthers — who were mediocre early, great at times and ultimately exceeded everyone’s expectations this season — have emerged from postseason play feeling like they now have the experience needed to compete and be successful come tournament time. Some of that confidence stems from the residual effects of what the team’s departed stars instilled in the rest of the squad.

“Those guys are always focused going into a game,” Brad Wanamaker, who’s started every game this season, said last Monday. “Just watching them, you pick up a lot of things.”

Players like McGhee, who was on the roster when Pitt won the Big East tournament crown two seasons ago despite limited playing time as a freshman, knows what it’s like to be on a team that made a serious run when most people expected less. It was a similar experience this year, when Pitt was picked to finish in the bottom half of the conference in preseason because of their youth and supposed inexperience.

“We just tell them that some people had us out that season not making the tournament,” McGhee said. “That season we just made a run. We all came together as a team.”

Then there’s Dixon. Throughout the season, Head Coach Jamie Dixon has identified Jermaine as the team’s most prominent leader. He is the Panther’s sole significant senior player and, alongside Brown, one of the only players on this year’s squad who had important standing on last year’s NCAA Tournament depth chart.

“Our guys believe in Jermaine Dixon,” Head Coach Jamie Dixon said Feb. 21 after the Panthers defeated Villanova 70-65. “He gives us confidence, and he’s our toughest guy. This is his team.”

Last week, the Panthers missed the opportunity for the current roster to gain valuable postseason experience when they bowed out of the Big East tournament in New York to Notre Dame. Though Pitt had a double-bye as a result of finishing second in the league during the regular season, it fell to Notre Dame for the second time in its last five games.

That leaves starters Ashton Gibbs, Brad Wanamaker, Gary McGhee and Nasir Robinson a combined total of four games started in postseason play in addition to Dixon — a far cry from the experience of last year’s starting outfit.

But for all the supposed immaturity, Jamie Dixon has seen his program as readily growing throughout the year and will try to put a positive spin on the early Big East exit heading into the NCAA Tournament.

“They’ve been called young, inexperienced all year, but they haven’t played like it,” Dixon said after Pitt’s loss to Notre Dame Friday. “I think this will be a good learning lesson for us today. I think this is something we can get better for.”