Onus on Artis, Newkirk to step up after Johnson’s injury

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Over the past decade, Pitt basketball head coach Jamie Dixon has relied on senior play and leadership year-in and year-out to guide his teams to the third-best winning percentage of any current team in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

This year is no different, with redshirt senior forward Lamar Patterson leading the team in scoring and ball distribution, posting 17.9 points and 4.5 assists per game, while redshirt senior center Talib Zanna anchors the paint with 12.4 points and a team-best eight rebounds per game.

But veteran leadership isn’t the Panthers’ only claim to fame. Over the years, they have gained a reputation for having a deep bench that wasn’t going to change this year, with redshirt sophomore swingman Durand Johnson and freshman point guard Josh Newkirk leading the reserves.

“Both of them are spark plugs off the bench,” Patterson said, adding that opposing teams need to, “be ready for Durand and Josh — it’s just a different feel.”

After tearing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus in his right knee against Wake Forest, Johnson is lost for the rest of the 2013-2014 season.

Johnson was the leader of the reserves, playing 19.8 minutes and scoring 8.8 points per game.

Newkirk, a freshman, helped assuage concerns about Pitt’s backcourt depth, playing 14.8 minutes per game in relief of sophomore starting point guard James Robinson. With Johnson’s injury, the onus is on freshmen Newkirk and Jamel Artis to sustain the bench’s high level of play.

In last Monday’s 79-59 win against Maryland, Johnson scored a career-high 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting, and Newkirk provided a valuable 18 minutes off the bench that included eight points and a pair of assists. Dixon said Johnson’s performance was a “great sign of growth and maturity” after Johnson was limited to eight minutes against North Carolina State because of the flu.

“He plays hard, and yes, he is going to make some mistakes,” Dixon said. “He brings intensity every day when he’s out there, and that is why he has gotten better. I’m proud of him and Josh.”

Johnson has been a hit-or-miss player early for the Panthers, but his development as an all-around player has helped mask stretches when he shot 2-of-17 from 3-point range.

“He’s a different player than he was two years ago,” Dixon said. “I actually said to him the other day, ‘Right now, I think that you’re a rebounder.’”

Dixon also told Johnson about how he can do other things to help the team besides scoring, and it appears the Baltimore, Md., product has embraced that ideology.

“Coming off the bench, I just try to play hard, bring my energy,” Johnson said. “I know the guys kind of look at me to bring that energy, to be the energy man.”

And despite Dixon’s perceptions, Johnson isn’t gun-shy when it comes to taking looks at the basket from 3-point range — which may partially explain his below-average 33.8 percent clip from beyond the arc.

“As a shooter, it’s just confidence,” Johnson said. “You’ve always got to know the next shot is going in no matter if you miss. I just try to stay confident, and my teammates found me, and I was able to make shots tonight.”

Johnson’s confidence should be his most valuable asset as he rehabilitates his knee over the next 9 to 12 months.

As for Dixon’s confidence in Newkirk, it seems to grow with each game. In turn, Newkirk’s own confidence in himself grows, as well.

“It means a lot, it gives me a big confidence boost,”Newkirk said. “I like being able to bring that energy.”

With Johnson out, Newkirk’s level of play must boost with his confidence.

What has convinced Dixon to play Newkirk nearly 15 minutes per game is the emergence of his shooting ability, which surprised not only his coach but also Dixon’s former boss.

“He was here early, and he shot the ball well from the start. Probably a better shooter than I anticipated coming,” Dixon said. “[Former Pitt head basketball coach] Ben Howland was here, and he was surprised at how good a shooter he was.”

Newkirk showed off his shot, which he says has “definitely” improved, in the season’s first game Nov. 8, 2013, when he made three of three 3-pointers against Savannah State.

“[I’ve] just been in the gym working, getting better,” Newkirk said.

Newkirk’s shooting must continue to improve over the rest of the season. He and Robinson are tied for third on the team with eight 3-pointers made this season. Ahead of them sit Johnson with 22 3-pointers made and Patterson with a team-high 31 triples.

“He’s a great kid,” Dixon said of Newkirk. “He listens and wants to get better.”

Artis came to Pitt as an unheralded recruit from Baltimore, Md., and was snagged by Dixon in springtime recruiting. Less than a year later, Artis is playing almost 15 minutes per game — a number that is sure to increase after Johnson’s injury.

Artis was perceived as a jack-of-all-trades — comfortably operating on the perimeter and playing physically in the post. Not to mention his attitude, which many say brings back shades of some of the Pitt teams of the mid-2000s.

Exhibit ‘A’ comes from his honest assessment of Pitt’s slow start at NC State, when the Panthers fell to an early 17-2 deficit before ultimately winning by 12 points.

“I think when we’re away, we take it lackadaisical,” Artis said. “We come out very slow, we don’t start as strong as we do when we play at home.”

Artis generally comes off the bench to spell fellow freshman Michael Young, but the two will now find themselves playing more minutes together with Artis needed to fill the minutes at the small forward position made available by Johnson’s injury. But for the player who says he “doesn’t even look at stats,” positional labels are just as inconsequential.

“I just play basketball,” Artis said. “Whatever’s open for me, I try to get my teammates open. I try to get an offensive rebound, or it’s shooting the ball. I just play basketball.”