Monday News and Notes From Maui

Here are some notes from the last two days of activities leading up to the EA Sports Maui Invitational. So far, it is a first-class operation and the people running the show have been extremely hospitable and have made it a great experience for the players, coaches and even us stinkin’ media types…

** First, with regards to your Pitt Panthers -- Jamie Dixon gave them the day off from practice on Saturday. Instead, they watched film. And it was lots and lots and lots of film watching. And then when there was a little more film to watch before the day was done. It apparently was an all day affair in the video room as he tried to, as he said “get them to see the things we need them to do that they aren’t doing defensively. Each team had a designated practice time at the gym but Dixon opted not to use it and again, instead had a very long and at times, unpleasant, film session. I think that is a good move – the Panthers are making far too many defensive mistakes. The Panthers season is not over because they lost to Hawaii – but they have to get better defensively and tighten things up or this could be a long week. I’d say even this game against Chaminade could be a struggle if they don’t play well defensively because the Swords are another one of these teams that will go four out, one in and can shoot and score from all five spots. They aren’t as guard-heavy as Hawaii and they are bigger than the Rainbow Warriors so the Panthers will have to guard the perimeter and stop dribble penetration better than they have or it could be a long, long night. “We’ve probably watched more film this year than any year,” Dixon said. “We have put in a lot of time, but we have to continue to improve. We have shown it some in practice, for whatever reason, we haven’t shown it in the games.”

** I talked to Dixon today about Chaminade and he said “they are skilled and they can really shoot the ball. They have good size yet at the same time they are skilled and they use a lot of different guys to score. They have a point guard who gets into the lane and can get other guys shots.” Dixon said it will be another good test of just how far the Panthers have come defensively after a long day of film and then a good practice on Sunday. He said all of these teams that can score from all five spots are tough to defend because they can spread defenses out and then attack from a lot of different angles. “We have to defend the three better than we have,” Dixon said. “Hawaii didn’t have a great percentage from the 3-point line but they made enough and they missed some open ones. We have to tighten that up, too.”

** Dixon said one other thing that is easy to see on film is the number of long offensive rebounds the Panthers have given up. He said they have had some really good defensive possessions ruined because they failed to get a rebound and the other team cashed in the second-chance possession into points. “Our guards have to do a better job of grabbing those long rebounds,” Dixon said.

** I wrote a story about Chaminade coach Eric Bovaird for Monday’s paper --- http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/Pitt/2014/11/24/Panthers-face-Chaminade-coached-by-Brockway-native-in-Maui-Invitational/stories/201411240114 -- as I got a chance to talk to him both Saturday at the Player’s Party and Sunday at the pre-tournament news conference. A very nice guy and get this – he is a Western Pennsylvania guy. How do I know this? Well, first, he told me he was from Brockway and played at Brockway High School. That was my first clue. But here is what sold me on his credentials as a ‘legitimately from Western Pa.’ kind of guy……….. “I like to go deer hunting,” he said to me when I asked him what he missed about Western Pa. Now if that doesn’t tell you the guy is from our neck of the woods [no pun intended], I’m not sure what else will. He played at West Liberty St. and then coached there for a bunch of years and he brought that same system – West Liberty averages like 300 points a game and runs that crazy system where they just run-n-gun and press and try and score every five seconds or whatever – to Chaminade so if nothing else, the Silverswords should be fun to watch.

** One other thing that should tell you the difference between high-major Division I and Division II (even high Division II like Chaminade): Bovaird told me his budget for recruiting is $5000 for the entire year. To put that into perspective – the typical ACC school spends somewhere north of $125 K per year on recruiting. Bovaird said him and his coaches get to the one big AAU event in Vegas and then have one, maybe two players in on official visits and that’s about it. He said he had only seen two players on this year’s roster -- there are 15 players on the one I’m looking at – play in person before they arrived on campus to enroll for their first semester. And he gets players from all over the world. Not exactly ideal but that is life of a small college coach.

** The BYU-San Diego State game will produce Pitt’s second opponent in this event and it is an interesting contrast in styles. San Diego State is a tough, defensive-minded team that is athletic and physical but can’t shoot a lick and thus seems to want to win games 53-49. BYU wants to get up and down the court, is very skilled and can shoot it and in Tyler Haws, the Cougars have one of the best guards in the country. BYU wants to try and win games 95-80. Regardless of which team Pitt faces, it is going to be a tough game but for different reasons.

** Saturday night there was a “Player’s Party” that included coaches, some key people from administrations and had a lot of activities for the player’s to participate in. There was a Hula contest and Josh Ko was selected as the Panthers representative, narrowly edging Josh Newkirk in a dance off. Pitt advanced to the second round in the “Corn Hole” contest as Derrick Randall and Jamel Artist beat two guys from Chaminade. But they lost in their second match to two guys from BYU but that isn’t anything to hang their heads about – BYU went on to win the championship. It was a really nice event for the players and if you follow me on Twitter - @paulzeise – you can see some of the photos I posted from it.

** Sunday morning was the press conference and charity free throw event. Not surprisingly, Sean Miller and his student partner won the event as they combined to go 6-for-6 from the line. Jamie Dixon and his partner went 3-for-6. As for the news conference here is what I gathered….. (a) Every coach is excited to be here (b) Every coach loves the history of this event (c) Every team has new players that need to mesh with the returning players and (d) every coach thinks this is a great test early in the season. But that’s to be expected – this early in the season nobody really knows much about who their team really is.

** Joe Sciambi from ESPN read off some stats about the eight teams in this field. He said the eight teams have made a total of 11 Final Four appearances, have won a total of 137 conference championships and six of the eight were in the NCAA field last year. Also, four times the winner of this event went on to win the National championship and Arizona would seem to be a team capable of becoming the fifth.

** And Finally, I’m an AP Top 25 voter again this year, here is my latest ballot (in case you care about such things)…..

1. Kentucky

2. Duke

3. Wisconsin

4. Arizona

5. Louisville

6. North Carolina

7. Texas

8. Wichita St

9. Virginia

10. Kansas

11. Villanova

12. Gonzaga

13. Iowa St

14. San Diego State

15. Ohio State

16. Miami

17. Florida

18. VCU

19. WVU

20. Michigan

21. UCLA

22. Michigan State

23. UConn

24. Creighton

25. Arkansas