Men’s hoops has tall order up front

Expectations are high for the Pitt basketball team this season. Good thing the Panthers have… Expectations are high for the Pitt basketball team this season. Good thing the Panthers have players tall enough to look them in the eye.

Jamie Dixon’s squad figures to lean heavily on its gigantic frontcourt, headlined by senior Aaron Gray. The seven-footer passed up early entry into the NBA Draft so that he could lead a another team that many are putting in their preseason top 10s.

“Whether they rank us 20 or not ranked at all [doesn’t matter],” Gray said. “What matters to us is what we’re ranked at the end of the season. We’ve got a great bunch of guys, maybe not a lot of guys that were highly recruited out of high school, but we have a lot of guys that work hard every day.”

Gray knows about working hard. He slimmed down before last season and improved his offensive game and averaged 13.9 points and 10.5 rebounds a game in his first season as a starter. He led the Big East in double-doubles and registered six 20-point games.

Despite leading the team to an overachieving 25-8 season, Gray still wants to improve upon the team’s second-round exit from the NCAA Tournament last spring, a 72-66 loss to 13-seed Bradley. He insists that he isn’t back just to raise his NBA stock and improve his game, but to lead this team to victory.

“Just getting better every day,” he said on what he needs to do with his game. “Obviously there’s a lot of things I still need to work on. Just trying to keep the distractions to a minimum. After every game, everyone is going to sit around and talk about how I need to help myself. The only thing I need to be worried about is this team winning.”

He won’t have to lead the Panthers alone, though. Dixon expects his other senior, Levon Kendall, to play a larger role in the offense this year. Kendall gave the Panthers consistency last year, even if his numbers weren’t awe-inspiring, averaging 7 points and 5.4 rebounds a game.

“I think the coaching staff and the guys on the team have looked to get me more shots and myself as well looking to be more aggressive,” Kendall said. “Losing Carl [Krauser], that’s 15 to 16 points per game that needs to be replaced. I think I’m definitely going to look to score more and find more places where I can make an impact offensively.”

“We’ve talked [more offensive involvement] with him. We want him to be more aggressive in looking to shoot the ball,” Dixon said. “If he doesn’t, he’s still probably our best player. He passes, he screens, he rebounds and makes open shots. Does everything so well. He’s too good a shooter to not be more aggressive and not looking for shots.”

The 6-foot-9 Kendall also registered his first career double-double in a January win at Rutgers, pulling down 13 rebounds to go along with his 14 points. Dixon praised the senior all last season, always pointing out that Kendall had “another day at the office,” with his steady numbers.

The duo also proved to form a formidable defensive tandem – Kendall and Gray combined to block 83 shots on the season. Those they couldn’t swat were altered when the opposition had to think twice before entering the paint.

Although not as tall as Gray or Kendall, Sam Young brings a more dynamic aspect to the frontcourt. The athletic, 6-6 sophomore came on midway through last season, finishing with a 7.9 points-per-game average. His jaw-dropping dunks and ankle-breaking moves froze defenders and gave Pitt fans reasons to believe that he will be a big part of Pitt’s offense this season.

Both he and Dixon know that he still has things to work on if he wants to avoid a sophomore slump, and none of them involve any signs of offensive shortcomings.

“Defense is the key to our success in the past couple years,” Young said of his defense, an area where Dixon wants improvement. “Even if I go play pickup games, I still try to maintain the things we normally do here. Defense is more effort than anything.”

“He seems to have shown an understanding of what we’re trying to do defensively. He’s a hard worker, always has been. An understanding and familiarity is the biggest thing,” Dixon said of his super sophomore. “He’s really focusing on it. We’ve made it very clear that he can’t be a detriment to us on the defensive end. He can’t hold us back defensively. That’s the same with everybody, but we made that very clear with him.”

While Young, Gray and Kendall will have a strong backcourt returning to help open things up inside, Pitt is known around the Big East for playing tough inside. Kendall proves to be one of the best interior post defenders in the conference while Gray’s passing out of the high post improved as the season progressed.

“If this team wins, I’ll be happy,” Gray said. “If this team loses, I’ll be mad. Everything else will take care of itself.”