ShareThisPITTSBURGH - Many coaches in Division I basketball would be thrilled to have an 8-2 record after 10 games. Pittsburgh men's coach Jamie Dixon is not one of them.
With six days between games during final exams week, Dixon used his three hours a day with his players to drive home the point that their performance through the first six weeks of the season was unacceptable.
When the players reported for practice Tuesday afternoon they were informed that all starting positions were up for grabs. The practices were harder and longer than usual. One player described the past three days as a "boot camp."
Another player said he wished Dixon would have done it sooner.
"The week was tough," junior guard Brad Wanamaker. "I felt as though it was something we needed. It helped us mature. It will help us make better decisions. Every little thing we did coach was on us in practice. Coach was constantly on us to see the fight in us. Maybe it was something he should have done constantly throughout all of the practices. We would be a better team now. But it was good for us."
Freshman forward Dante Taylor said when the players got to practice on Tuesday they discovered there were no gold jerseys. Gold jerseys designate the starters and represent a team hierarchy of sorts.
"When we came out for the first practice there was no gold team," Taylor said. "He told us positions were open. This was the time for you to show if you wanted to be a starter or not. He was going to start the five guys who play defense."
Indeed, one of Dixon's biggest complaints in the first six weeks of the season was the quality of his team's defensive play. The other was concern was the high number of turnovers.
Those problems stemmed from his team's lack of experience. Until Jermaine Dixon returned to the lineup two games ago, Jamie Dixon was playing a rotation of freshmen with zero college experience and sophomores and juniors who played in reserve roles last season.
"That has been the challenge," Jamie Dixon said. "You have new guys who are used to doing it one way. You don't have the guys to demonstrate it. Jermaine is our best defender, and he's not there.
"I think we've had to do more teaching and more film. New guys generally don't believe it until they see it in a game situation. And then if they continue to play minutes and not suffer the consequences then it becomes less believable. There has been improvement and there needs to be more improvement."
Jamie Dixon would not divulge any changes to the starting lineup or rotation, but he did say the week was productive for his staff and players. He noted that it was the first time that he had his full complement of 12 scholarship players available for practices.
That number will jump to 13 Sunday when Gilbert Brown returns to the team after serving an academic suspension.
With more players at his disposal, Dixon felt he could accomplish more. And he is hopeful that it will be evident when the Panthers take the floor Saturday against Mount Saint Mary's of the Northeast Conference at Petersen Events Center.
"We really tried to get that message across beforehand that we were really going to get after it," Dixon said. "These were opportunities that we didn't have in the past. This has been a good break for us. I think we were able to take advantage of it."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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