Foul play: Panthers deal with issues

One negative penchant of the Pitt men’s basketball team during its eight-year run of success has… One negative penchant of the Pitt men’s basketball team during its eight-year run of success has been its inability to knock down free throws consistently. This season, another trend has developed at the heart of Pitt’s two losses: foul trouble. The casual observer could predict the ending of each defeat’s story like a script written by a member of Pitt’s theater department. The main conflict? The clanking sound of the rim on about half of the Panthers’ foul shots and whistles blaring against frontcourt protagonist DeJuan Blair. The criterion is simple. When both of these annoyances show up, Pitt loses. When they stay behind the curtain, the Panthers are 20-0. But is the evidence that clear? Pitt coach Jamie Dixon doesn’t think so. ‘It’s important for anybody to stay out of foul trouble,’ said Dixon. ‘In games we’ve won, [Blair’s] been in foul trouble, the two games we’ve lost, he’s been in foul trouble. But we’ve had other guys in foul trouble, and that’s probably more important.’ The statistics back up Dixon’s claim. While Blair only played in 20 minutes in both of Pitt’s setbacks ‘- including fouling out of the team’s first loss at Louisville Jan. 17 ‘- his teammates sent their fair share of opponents to the charity stripe. In the 69-63 defeat to Louisville, the Panthers committed 26 fouls, with five players finishing with three or more. Blair and senior forward Tyrell Biggs fouled out, while Sam Young, Gilbert Brown and Brad Wanamaker all had three. Pitt’s presence under the basket was zapped in its 67-57 loss to Villanova Jan. 28. Biggs spent only 17 minutes on the floor after picking up a third foul early in the second half, and with Blair’s issues, the Panthers were forced to play with a very small lineup for most of the game. ‘We don’t [want to] have two guys in foul trouble or three guys in foul trouble,’ said Dixon. ‘That would be more of a factor. It’s going to happen though. You play through it.’ Keeping Blair in the game is certainly a top priority for Dixon. But the sophomore center’s style of play attracts the occasional whistle when he attacks the offensive glass. ‘He gets [fouls] in different ways,’ said Dixon. ‘What do we tell him, not to go offensive rebound? We can’t tell him not to rebound, and that’s how he gets most of his fouls.’ At the opposite spectrum, foul shooting continues to pester the Panthers. They are shooting only 65 percent from the line through Pitt’s first 22 games. That mark rates 12th out of 16 Big East squads, with the only NCAA Tournament contender under them being Syracuse. Wanamaker leads the team from the line, knocking down 74 percent of his attempts. Young and senior guard Levance Fields barely reach the 70-percent clip. In the Panthers’ loss to Louisville, they went only 9 for 16 from the foul line. They weren’t much better against Villanova, finishing 10-of-17. ‘We’re who we are,’ said Dixon. ‘We’re not going to lead the country in free-throw shooting. Eighty percent or 65 percent, you’re talking about two, three points on 20 shots.’ Despite the poor numbers, Pitt’s players say they spend a lot of time working on succeeding on foul shooting, and they think that will show in the future. ‘When I work out with coach [Brandin] Knight, me and Levance have to make 18 of 20 [free throws] before anything we’ve done,’ said junior shooting guard Jermaine Dixon, a 61 percent free-throw shooter. Blair ranks as the worst foul shooter among the Panthers who get regular playing time at nearly 59 percent. But he has excelled in some games at the line, especially in a 9-of-11 effort against St. John’s on Jan. 11. Blair realizes the importance of making down free throws in the clutch, especially when the Big East and NCAA tournaments roll around. ‘That’s what we’re going to need down the stretch,’ said Blair. ‘If you watched Memphis last year, they missed free throws and didn’t get it done in the National Championship.’ ‘The team we’ve got, and the depth we’ve got, I think we’re going to get fouled a lot because of the way we rebound and crash the boards. Free throws are going to come in handy.’