Kevin Stallings, Pitt players discuss 2016-17 season as practice opens

College basketball season won’t actually begin for another five-or-so weeks, but after a long, trying and excruciating week the season has, technically speaking, started.

Pitt and other Division I programs across the country held their first practices in advance of the 2016-17 season Friday. With a bevvy of topics to discuss — from a new coach to a probable unconventional starting lineup — we got the opportunity to chat with several Panthers players and coach Kevin Stallings Friday, serving as a preview of sorts for the upcoming season.

Since you all, rightly, care much more about what they had to say than what I do, I’ve got some quotes and scattered quotes from Friday’s practice, as well as from Tuesday’s open workout. Keep in mind these are highlights, not an exhaustive transcript. You probably don’t need to read endlessly about how every player on the team is in the best shape of his life, anyway. They all say that.

KEVIN STALLINGS

“I literally haven’t watched a minute from a game last season. I don’t know how they played. I just know how we want to play. Players like it fast, fans like it fast and the only group that leaves is the coaches. We’re all too controlling anyway. We need to let loose and let the players have some fun.”

“I like that our team, most of them, are 6-4 to 6-8. We’re pretty interchangeable offensively and defensively. There’s a great deal of flexibility there. We’ll work to maximize that in any way we can. I’m not too worried about our lack of height. In my opinion, we can do things to neutralize some things other people do that have more size than us. If they’re a lot bigger than us, someone still has to guard Mike Young. That’s not going to be easy for some 6-10 guy unless he’s really, really mobile. Sometimes you can take that size thing and make it work to your advantage if you’re the smaller team or the smaller guy. We’ll work with our pace, we’ll work with the flexibility in our offense and we’ll work with our players to try and utilize that.”

** Early on, he has noticed that Pitt doesn’t have a lot of rim protectors, which is true; only one returning player, Sheldon Jeter, had a block percentage higher than 2.2 last season, nor did anyone other than Jeter average more than 0.4 blocks per game. Stallings’ final Vanderbilt team, with the help of 7-0 Damian Jones and 7-1 Luke Kornet, finished 15th in Division I in total blocks last season.

On what he has learned about the team: “I didn’t know they liked each other as much as they do. I really like that. I didn’t know about the depth. I’ve learned about that. I didn’t know how talented a couple of these guys are. Gosh, I learned a lot of things about them I didn’t know. I really enjoyed Chris Jones’ transformation this summer. About the middle of the summer, I started calling him ‘Pillsbury’ for the Pillsbury Doughboy. Chris, with [strength coach] Garry [Christopher]’s, is not the Pillsbury Doughboy anymore. He looks like a sculpted college athlete.”

On what he first noticed about Pitt as far as the speed in which they were accustomed to operating in practice: “In our first probably six or eight workouts, all I told them was ‘Do what you know, do what you’ve been taught.’ I noticed they were very big on defending the arc and the paint, just defending inside. It was a defense built from the basket out as opposed to trying to pressure guys on the outside, which is fine. That’s primarily how we’ve played. The pace was…I have to yell ‘Run, run, run’ a lot. It wasn’t uncommon for the ball to bounce three of four times after it went through the net before somebody took it out. Now, if it bounces, I’ll say something. I like it to be gotten right as it’s going through the net. We’ve just had to change to fit what I want. Whenever I say anything like that, I’m always worried that I’m going to sound like I’m saying something negative about the people that were here before me. I’m not. My way is not better; it’s just my way, it’s how we play. We’ve tried to freshen up the pace and pick it up. I’ve got guys who think they can still shoot their way on to the court. I try to tell them you’re not going to shoot your way on to the court. One day, I looked around at the four seniors and I said ‘Okay, these are the guys that will be taking all of the shots. Him, him, him and him.’ I looked at everybody else and they were all thinking ‘I’m not going to get to shoot?’ I didn’t mean that in a literal sense. The point is that, okay, Cam Johnson and Ryan Luther, they’ve played their way into the rotation and lineup with the four seniors. We’ve got some other guys who are jockeying for position. Some of the guys think the way to get there is to shoot their way in there. Honestly, that just puts them further down the line. It’s just trying to educate them on what we’re looking for, what we want and what’s best going to serve them. That’s the whole thing – what’s best going to serve them to help our whole team.”

“Our guys have been very responsive and very good in terms of their efforts and doing what we want them to get done. They’ve embraced the changes, they’ve embraced the newness of the culture and they’ve embraced me. We’re ready to get going.”

On his adjustment to Pitt, coming from Vanderbilt: “There were times at Vanderbilt that those players didn’t really need help in their life, if that makes sense. They came from homes and backgrounds where both parents were college educated and they were going to be doing things similar to what they were doing, whether I showed up in their lives or not. I might be able to impact some of these guys a little more and in a better way than I’ve been able to for a while. That’s kind of exciting for me. At the end of the day, this is about these guys and their success.”

“The buy-in was fairly immediate. They accepted me pretty quickly.”

On balancing playing at a faster speed with not fostering carelessness: “Over the course of time, one of two things happen – they either learn to trust you or they learn not to trust you. For the six months I’ve been here, I think there’s a pretty good level of trust. They know they can count on what I say and can count on what I do. I back up the things I tell them, both good and bad. From that standpoint, they trust that I am who I say I am. That’s a guy who’s here to help them succeed.”

On the biggest growing pains or points of adjustment that remain: “The biggest one I see right now is ‘How do I play really fast running up and down the court but yet play under control?’ That’s the biggest thing they have to get their minds and games and their attitudes wrapped around. Yes, we want to play fast, but we don’t want to be stupid. I always tell them there are two kinds of turnovers – there are careless turnovers and selfish turnovers. All turnovers fall into one category or another for me.”

** Of Pitt’s three newcomers, freshman point guard Justice Kithcart has stood out the most, partially because, according to Stallings, he has been the most consistent of the trio.

“The biggest thing in terms of the physical reaction is how we play at a faster pace while still playing under control. From a mental standpoint, I think they’re all bought in. They like the idea of playing fast. They like the idea of me being a guy that gives them a lot of offensive freedom. That’s just my nature.”

On granting his players more freedom on offense: “As a player, it’s easier to play if you’re not in fear of making a mistake or missing a shot. I don’t want those guys to miss a shot and think ‘Oh no, coach is going to take me out.’ I don’t want them to make a turnover and say ‘Oh no, coach is going to take me out.’ Eventually, that negatively impacts their playing psyche. I want to do it the other way, to know their coach has confidence in them. Then I think they’ll play better. If there’s a guy out there making selfish turnovers because he’s being selfish, then the next horn will be for him because I’ll take him out. Or if a guy takes a couple of bad shots that look like selfish shots to me, that’s not something I’m good with. As long as we play for each other and play for the team and have that kind of mindset, then I want them to play with as much freedom as they can.”

JAMEL ARTIS

On having more offensive freedom with Stallings: “That’s what coach wants. This is a team that’s going to have more freedom than in past years I’ve been here. I like that a lot because I don’t really think I could show my talents [previously]. Teams in this offense, a lot of them run the point guard and push the ball up the floor. That’s a good thing because I can make the plays and make scouts see me as versatile. I don’t think I had that in the past few years here and I’m happy coach Stallings is here.”

“Guys are more comfortable out there. With Jamie Dixon, I think guys were a little scared to make a play. Coach Stallings put the trust in these guys that you can go out there and make a play and have more freedom. But don’t get too overcome and comfortable with the freedom. Play within the system and make a play.”

“We had a rotation of nine guys last year I don’t think we should have had. Guys would come in for two minutes and get pulled out. That’s not how I want to play. You can’t get comfortable like that. We don’t have that much depth right now, but with coach Stallings, there’s freedom.”

On the move to point guard: “Last year, I couldn’t bring the ball up the court like I wanted to.”

** I asked Jamel if he had any experience playing point guard prior to arriving at Pitt; he had, in prep school.

On what Sheldon Jeter told Pitt players about Stallings after the hire was made: “Sheldon talked about him. He said he lets guys have that freedom and lets guys play their game and isn’t too hard on them when they make a play or miss a shot. I know I can trust him. I feel that trust right now.”

** Artis added Pitt will be more of a fast-break-oriented team this season than it has been previously.

On the adjustment to a new coach: “He [Jamie Dixon] is a good coach. He won a lot of games. But sometimes you have to let guys play to their skills and show their skills and have a little more freedom. That makes a guy more confident, not being yelled at all the time. Not saying coach Stallings doesn’t yell, but he puts it in a different way.”

CHRIS JONES

On if he has ever played in a starting lineup that will potentially (edit: probably) have as much size/length as Pitt’s this season: “No, never. But it’s something different.”

On Stallings’ offense: “His offense has a lot of flow to it. So when something happens, something else happens right away.”

** Jones said he, in addition to Artis, will be handling the ball some this season, though Artis will primarily be responsible for doing so.

On Pitt’s lineup: “We can create mismatches at the one and two and, honestly, offensively, we’ll still have mismatches and the five and four. Mike’s a really mobile guy and so is Sheldon. If we can get up and down and score the ball like we really want to, we’ll have a bunch of mismatches.”

On the biggest difference between where Pitt is now and where it was this time last season: “We’re in a lot better shape because of getting up and down. We do a lot more running in practice than we normally would. I don’t mean running like sprints. I just mean transition wise, we get up and down a lot. Guys are slimmer, guys are faster.”

On why nobody left, even with the coaching change: “He gives off a sense of trust. That’s something he talked to us about the first day, about being honest and things like that. We all liked what he had to say.”

On what Pitt is capable of this season: “We’re capable of something great. Getting an ACC championship is what I think we’re capable of.”

SHELDON JETER

On if he harbors any negative feelings against Stallings: ”No. None to speak of.”

On how he would characterize Stallings’ coaching style: “On the court, I would call it structured freedom. We’re put in place and he just says ‘Go’ and we go make plays. Off the court, everyone’s accountable. We’re held to like a professional standard now. You’ve got to be on time for everything, you’ve got to go to all your classes, you’ve got to turn in all of your work. The culture is kind of rapidly changing to how it was at Vanderbilt. That’s what I was used to when I got up here. He’s very demanding off the court. He wants you to be a great ambassador for our program.”

** Jeter said Pitt is ”about 85 percent” of the way to completely emulating how Vanderbilt looked, based on the year he spent there as a freshman.

On the adjustment to a new coach for much of his team: “It’s like any time you have a new parent. There’s going to be resistance at some point. But I think, as a team, we met about it and we’re fully trusting him. We fully trust what he’s saying.”

Craig Meyer: cmeyer@post-gazette.com and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG