Virginia Tech Basketball: Pittsburgh Preview Q&A

Prior to tonight's men's basketball matchup versus Pitt, I had an opportunity to exchange questions and answers with Paul Zeise of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. As you will gather from Paul's responses, Pitt's makeup sounds eerily similar to this year's Hokies squad. Paul's answers to my questions are below. You can find my answers to his questions on the Post-Gazette's sports blog.

Pitt teams have historically succeeded under Jamie Dixon as a team, or collective, rather than relying on a single star player. How does this Panthers team compare to past squads?

This team is probably Jamie's worst team in his 12 years. But remember, this is a coach that has been to the NCAA Tournament 10 times in 11 years, so saying this is his worst team is not necessarily the same as saying this is a bad team. It is just one of those years where he has the wrong combination of injury/youth and a key suspension, and not enough talent and/or size to overcome it. The Panthers are usually the bullies on the block — a tough, hard-nosed, defensive-minded team that physically pummels opponents and dominates the offensive boards. They usually win games by making them a war of attrition and toughness, and most teams aren't equipped to beat them at that game.

But this team is not good defensively, not particularly physical and not very big. Their best lineup is with a forward playing center and they have a hard time matching up with other teams that have even a little bit of size. And losing Durand Johnson at the start of the season hurt because he would give this team 15-16 points a game and a legitimate threat from beyond the 3-point line, and that would help them overcome their inability to defend consistently and/or rebound well enough to win. This team will likely win enough games to get to the NIT and may even pick off one of the top teams in the ACC, but I think an NCAA berth at this point is a long shot.

Much like the Hokies, the Panthers are an undersized team in a league filled with talented big men. How have the Panthers fared thus far in and around the paint with a smaller lineup?

They just played Louisville. They got outscored in the paint 40-18 by the Cardinals. They got outrebounded by 18 against Clemson. They were outrebounded by 10 by Georgia Tech. When they played Duke, they opted to try and double-team Jhalil Okafor and all he did was pass out of the double team to open shooters because Pitt isn't quite quick enough to rotate to shooters. In other words — it hasn't gone well.

What are the Panthers' strengths? What are their weaknesses?

I'd say their strength is they do play so well together as a team and they are still going to outwork just about every team they play. They may not have quite enough talent or firepower to win games but they are going to make you beat them as they are a low turnover team and pass it well. Mike Young is a work horse and, despite being undersized and facing bigger guys every night, he produces. And Jamel Artis has begun to emerge as a legitimate scoring threat, as he has scored 72 points in the last four games.

The team's weakness...well...they are small and not overly athletic, they don't shoot it well, don't rebound well and they aren't great defensively. But again, they overcome some of these shortcomings by just outworking their opponents and playing hard.

How has the suspension of Durand Johnson affected this team, if at all?

Well it is a big time issue for this team because he is three things they lack:

• He is an "instant offense guy" who has no fear of letting it fly. Pitt needs a guy like this and he can also light it up when he gets hot .
• He is one of their best perimeter defenders.
• He is an emotional leader, an energy guy, a guy who gets people around him motivated.

There has been a lot of discussion surrounding a lack of cohesion or chemistry within this Pitt team. Would you say this is accurate, or are they simply struggling to put it all together?

Nope, not at all. This is pretty simple — they aren't very talented, they aren't overly athletic, they are undersized and they don't have a collection of great shooters. It is a talent, experience and size issue. The team plays well together and plays for each other, they just don't have quite enough to win consistently. I think next year — when they bring in a 7-footer (junior college kid, Rozelle Nix), add another guard and get Durand Johnson back — they will be much better.

Because I'm a nice guy, I'm going to put you on the spot and ask you for a score prediction.

One thing Pitt still does is beat bad teams and Virginia Tech certainly qualifies as that this year. So in typical Pitt fashion: It won't be pretty, but I think Pitt will win something like 64-57.