Amnesia best way to handle loss, move on

Rutgers beat Pitt? What?

That was the general reaction from Pitt’s players and Pitt coach… Rutgers beat Pitt? What?

That was the general reaction from Pitt’s players and Pitt coach Jamie Dixon at the Pitt basketball media opportunity on Monday at the Petersen Events Center.

The players and Dixon agreed that it was best to leave the 77-64 stunner behind them and focus on tonight’s matchup with Villanova, a team that edged Pitt, 64-63, on Jan. 6 in Philadelphia.

In that game’s final possession, Pitt guard Ronald Ramon lost his handle of the ball and turned it over, compiling his fifth turnover and the team’s 22nd.

It was the first real challenge to Ramon after he moved from shooting guard to point guard to replace injured starting point guard, Levance Fields because Villanova runs a trapping, 1-2-2 three-quarter-court press that hounds the ball handler.

In the press, the point defender forces the ball handler to one side of the court toward the second layer of defense on the wing.

When the ball handler moves forward, the point and wing defenders immediately try to trap the ball handler and force him into a turnover.

If a turnover isn’t forced, the press at least delays the offense’s setting up for a good eight to 10 seconds.

Ramon hasn’t forgotten the costly turnover or the constant ball pressure, and has worked hard to overcome turnovers since that game.

“I’m feeling a lot better [at point guard],” said Ramon, who has averaged 1.8 turnovers a game in the six games since that contest. “My teammates help me out a lot. That [Villanova loss] is behind us now.”

Dixon said Villanova’s pressure didn’t hurt his team in the first matchup, but it was Pitt’s halfcourt offense that had the most trouble.

“We had a lot of turnovers in the halfcourt that game,” Dixon said. “We’ve been really good at limiting those turnovers since that loss.”

Full practice

Pitt was finally able to practice five on five for the first time in a while on Monday.

It was a good chance for the players to return to the physical preparation that hasn’t been available lately because of injuries.

Pitt forward Gilbert Brown estimated that about 90 percent of practice on Monday was five-on-five scrimmaging with running shot and game clocks.

“We had a good practice,” Brown said. “[Five on five] helps with positioning a lot. It helps with our help defense and defending as a team.”

Poor team defense and rebounding was an important factor in Pitt’s loss to Rutgers on Saturday, Dixon said after the game.

But Dixon said the poor play concerned Pitt’s coaching staff the game prior to Saturday, Pitt’s 81-57 win over St. John’s.

“We have to do things right [on defense],” Dixon said. “St. John’s still shot relatively well percentage wise.”

Ramon added: “We can’t get away from our defense. Defensively, we have to push more.”

Diggs practices

Pitt junior center Cassin Diggs practiced for the first time in a long time on Monday. The team had Sunday off, and Diggs, who was struggling with groin and hip injuries, was able to run with the team in Monday’s practice.

Other notes

– In Saturday’s game, Keith Benjamin reopened the finger laceration on his shooting hand that he suffered in Pitt’s 80-55 loss to Dayton on Dec. 29. He had it re-stitched, Dixon said, and practiced with tape the past two days.

– Fields will have another CT scan on the broken fifth metatarsal in his foot “in the next few weeks,” Dixon said. Fields estimated that he’d be back by Feb. 14, but Dixon said there is no definitive timetable as of now.

– Dixon said on Monday that DeJuan Blair’s foul trouble is a common problem among big men and it’s nothing new. The only thing Blair can do is “learn from it,” Dixon said.

– When Pitt and Villanova played on Jan. 6, Benjamin fouled out and Pitt’s starters played 165 of the possible 200 minutes, which is an average of 33 minutes per starting player. Blair played 37 minutes, and reserves Tyrell Biggs (32 minutes) and Brad Wanamaker (23 minutes) were the only substitutes to play.