This year’s Pittsburgh Panthers team is a throwback.
I don’t mean a grass chewin’, lazy Sunday afternoon throwback in the vein of: “Hey, these guys play defense like they used to, when you used to have to go get the ball out of the peach basket yourself. Now the dang thing does it for ya!”
True, the ninth ranked Panthers came into Monday’s Big East battle at number four UConn ranked sixth in the country in scoring defense, allowing just 55.9 points per game. Thus, they certainly know how to dig in on the less glorious end of the floor, where good weakside rotation brings SportsCenter Top Ten Nominations that are few and far between.
But I’m talking about something else. I’m talking about a throwback to your high school team, where being a “big guy” didn’t mean having to shop at a drapery store to be fitted for warmup pants.
Pittsburgh’s most effective offensive weapon down low in this game was 6’4, 229 pound Jaron Brown. Brown finished with twelve points on 6-14 shooting, as Pittsburgh dropped its first game of the season, 68-65.
But regardless of the result, seeing Brown bully his way inside seems like an oddity, at least for me, considering I’ve broadcast an Indiana high school game this year where the shooting guard through center were all at least 6’ 5.
True, the Panthers do have some bigger bodies to bang, most notably 6’10 freshman Chris Taft, who averages just over ten points per game. Despite being six inches taller than Brown, however, he only outweighs him by a pound, and you get the feeling that how this team goes will depend in large part on the seasoned Brown’s ability to make space amongst trees.
Brown’s work down low probably stands as a testament to two things: his skill in using his body and the much ballyhooed early exodus of all talented, and some untalented, big men to the NBA.
A notable exception to this rule is the Huskies 6’10 junior center Emeka Okafor, an academic All-American you’ve actually heard of. Okafor, too, could be considered a throwback, but one along the peach basket lines.
He ranks second in the country, grabbing 11.7 rebounds per game, and blocks an average of 5.1 shots per night, tops in the land.
Someone can whisper “Okafor” into an opposing player’s ear, and he’ll consult Mapquest as to an alternate route to the basket.
That alone has been plenty to set NBA scouts hearts a flutter. But his offense is on the rise, as well.
Going into the Pittsburgh game, Okafor had scored twenty or more in ten of the fifteen games in which he had played, and seven of the last eight. He’s made 62.1% of his field goal attempts this season and, if Monday night is any indication, is working on developing a turnaround jumper.
The battle with the Panthers was not one of his better games, as he scored eleven points and snatched seven boards. Okafor did, however, manage to block five shots, the last of which showed his true gift at doing so.
With Pittsburgh trailing 68-65 with fourteen seconds to go, Panther guard Carl Krauser, who scored a game high 24 , drove to the left side to try and get a quick two. He had hit a similar shot over Okafor about two and a half minutes before.
This time, Okafor not only beat him to the spot, provided the help defense, and got just enough of the ball to redirect its path, but was also able to deflect it to a teammate to secure the rebound.
Tatooting the ball into the fifth row might be the way to garner a “Boo-Ya!”, but it still gives the ball back to the offense with a lot of time on the clock.
Okafor’s highlight reel moment did come just minutes before on a tip dunk that would have brought down the whole peach tree, let alone the basket.
All things considered, Pitt may have been left with that feeling you got back in high school when your team had the 6’ 4 guy and you played the squad with the four guys over 6’5. You did a good job on the glass (Pitt outrebounded the Huskies 32-29). You held the team’s leading scorer, Okafor, to almost nine below his average. And yet in the end, you just couldn’t scrap enough.
I haven’t watched enough college basketball this year to offer an educated opinion on who should be number one. And apparently, being the top dog carries about as much clout as being labeled a “Team of Destiny” in the NFL. Look where recent failures Green Bay and Philadelphia ended up; it must REALLY mean the Panthers (of Carolina, that is) are destined to go all the way.
UConn has twice sat atop the polls, and has been knocked off that perch both times, most recently this past weekend when they lost to North Carolina. In ten weeks of the coaches poll, there have been five different number ones, the Huskies spending the most consecutive weeks, three, at the top during their second go round.
Unlike college football, though, it really doesn’t matter. While the selection committee may not make much more sense than the BCS, you usually don’t have to worry about teams with a legitimate title shot not getting an invitation to the dance.
Both Pittsburgh and Connecticut will represent the Big East in the field of sixty-four plus one, and both will get there with defense. The Panthers’ variety will be that of an entire team that is scrappy and in your face for forty minutes. The Huskies will be keyed by an amazing individual defensive talent who commands the paint so well, he just might make the Dutch Boy file for unemployment.
As long as the Huskies don’t forget about his stabilizing presence on offense, they should carry the conference banner deeper into the bracket.
After all, you always respected the way that smaller guy worked his butt off up and down the floor.
But you always wondered what it was like to play with the big guy who did the same as he hoisted the trophy.
A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Ted Fox delivered play-by-play of Irish football and men's basketball for three years as a student. He wrote a weekly sports column for the Notre Dame student newspaper for over three years and has been a contributing writer to "The Wolverine", the official publication of University of Michigan athletics. Ted recently finished working in production at ESPN and is currently pursuing an on-air and writing career.
