
When Pitt opens the season tomorrow night against Wofford, the starting five might need a road map to find their way to center court for the opening tip. For most of them, it has been a long time since they were in a starting lineup.
For the first time in his head coaching career, Jamie Dixon will have a completely new starting five for a season opener. Four of his starters from last season graduated or went to the NBA early and Jermaine Dixon, the only returning starter, will not play because of a foot injury.
The only players on the roster with starting experience are senior Chase Adams, who was a three-year starter at Centenary in the Summit League before coming to Pitt this summer, and junior Gary McGhee, who started one game last season when DeJuan Blair was injured.
Dixon will use the same starting five that he used in both exhibition games. McGhee will start at center with Nasir Robinson at power forward, Brad Wanamaker at small forward and Travon Woodall and Ashton Gibbs at point and shooting guard.
The rest of Dixon's rotation will be filled out by Adams and Dixon's highly touted freshman class.
The players who will be in uniform tomorrow were responsible for only 22 percent of the team's minutes played last season, 17 percent of the team's points and 19 percent of the rebounds.
"I don't want it to be used as an excuse," Dixon said. "I don't want it to be used as a crutch. They can be as good as they want to be. We've set no limitations. Just because we don't have any returning starters doesn't mean we can't play hard, doesn't mean we can't execute and can't defend. If you make excuses before you go out there sometimes those things come to fruition."
The player with the most experience is Wanamaker, who averaged 5.8 points and 19 minutes per game last season. Gibbs averaged 4.3 points in 11 minutes per game and Robinson, McGhee and Woodall each saw fewer than seven minutes a game.
"It's going to be different, but we kind of want it that way," Wanamaker said. "We've been talking about how we've been waiting for this moment when we can be that guy on the college team. We can be that leader, that starting point guard, that starting shooting guard. The moment is here."
But don't get used to the starting lineup that will be used tomorrow. When Jermaine Dixon returns he will move back into his starting shooting guard spot, which could have a domino effect with who is playing the point -- Gibbs or Woodall. And when Gilbert Brown returns from his academic suspension in mid-December he could earn a starting role again. Brown started 15 games as a redshirt freshman.
It's certainly going to be different from last season when Dixon used the same starting lineup in 35 of the 36 games.
"You can't say we're fully there because we're going to add Jermaine and Gil in a little bit and the chemistry questions will come again," Dixon said. "It's going to be a time where we get to see where each guy is."
NOTES -- J.J. Moore, a 6-foot-6, 190-pound small forward from South Kent Prep in Connecticut, committed to the Panthers and is expected to sign a letter of intent today. Pitt's two earlier verbal commitments -- point guard Isiah Epps and shooting guard Cameron Wright -- signed their letters of intent yesterday. Moore chose Pitt over Louisville. He is the No. 107 recruit in the country and the No. 23 small forward according to rivals.com. ... Jermaine Dixon is out of his walking boot and has been shooting jumpers on his own for the past three days, but it is not yet known when he will be available. He had surgery for a fractured bone in his right foot in September. "I kind of thought he might be ready to go [tomorrow] when it happened," Jaime Dixon said. "Now it's not going to happen, and we may have some time. We're not going to rush it. We're going to be conservative with it."
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