Pecyna: Pitt’s loss to Duke shows different types of talent, not levels

With his arms folded and his shoulders huddled over the microphone, Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon flooded his news conference with a message after a loss Monday against Duke.

Dixon said some iteration of “I didn’t get the message across” 12 times in his nearly 11-minute news conference, harping on his inability to prepare the Panthers’ defense and rebounding.

“Again,” he said, preparing reporters for another refrain to come from his pulpit, “I’ve been pointing to myself this whole time because that’s how I do it here.”

That is, in fact, how Dixon carries himself. He dishes respect and credit to his players and opponents when it’s due and absorbs blame after losses — even if he shouldn’t.

But the blame shouldn’t fall on Dixon, nor should it fall on Pitt’s players, who were ensnared by the stat sheets that lay before them in their news conference. There isn’t anyone to blame. Instead, the Panthers’ 80-65 loss to the Blue Devils was a fate that followed a script five years in the making about two of the country’s finest programs and their different paths to success.

Although the Panthers were blown out by the end of the contest   a 15-point defeat says as much   that shouldn’t belie that this was, in fact, a contest. Whether it’s a freshman or a fifth-year senior playing the role of his team’s star, talent is talent.

Look at how the game Monday —  the most-attended to date at the Petersen Events Center —  opened, when the game was back-and-forth. Freshman forward Michael Young — a four-star and ESPN’s 86th-ranked recruit and the pre-season prize of Pitt’s 2013 class — hit two free throws. 

Freshman forward Jabari Parker — a five-star recruit, a headliner for one of the most-hyped classes ever and likely the future prize of whichever NBA team takes him with a lottery pick in June — answered, exploding from the corner of the court to the outside of the paint, launching and stealing the crowd’s breath with a two-handed dunk.

Fifth-year senior Lamar Patterson then came around a screen, caught a pass, buried a jumper and reminded fans that, hey, an old guy can put up two points, too. Just not as memorably. Both teams got the points; they just did it in different fashions.

After dazzling his way to 16 first-half points, Parker cooled off in the second half, but still finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Patterson, who finished with 14 points on 4-of-14 shooting, struggled throughout the remainder of the game.

Patterson’s sluggish outing wasn’t the result of Parker, though. It was another wunderkind in the stable of future stars who Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski attributed with canceling out Pitt’s top scorer.

“[Patterson is] one of the premier players in the country. Rodney [Hood, a redshirt sophomore] is a heck of a player, too,” Krzyzewski said. “So basically you had a wash there … They’re kind of equal players. They’re two of the best players, and they kind of canceled each other out. Both those kids have to be exhausted.” 

Throughout each premier recruiting class, each one-and-done freshman, each future lottery pick and each veteran star (there have been plenty of those too), Krzyzewski remains the face of the legendary program.

With two glimmering pins on each lapel of his sport coat and a finger to hold one of his championship rings  — NCAA or Olympic? —   Krzyzewski continued about Hood and Patterson.

“Thank goodness we have a player of Rod’s caliber to guard him,” he said. “[Patterson] had a great year, a player-of-the-year type of year, but tonight we were able to kinda hold him down a little bit, and Rodney was the main reason for that.”

Of course, it helps to have Rasheed Sulaimon, Amile Jefferson, Marshall Plumlee, Quinn Cook and Tyler Thornton,  all of whom received at least a 92 grade from ESPN at the time of their commitment.

That Pitt could only momentarily keep pace with the young Blue Devils shouldn’t be a concern. Both teams are packed with talent  — just at different stages of their careers —   and Duke played with composure to offset Pitt’s experience.

“These guys, this is one of our youngest teams, and so they’ve had to learn under fire,” Krzyzewski said Monday. “We played very well tonight. We played with a lot of poise tonight because [Pitt’s] really good. We play them again. We may not beat them, but tonight we did because we had that poise.”