Greentree Summer League Up And Running

The annual summer basketball league has begun and Pitt players saw action last night.  Each team had two Pitt players and here's a rundown of how each player did.

You can't look to these types of games as an indication of what each player is capable of.  The games are in a fairly informal atmosphere and don't include high pressure situations.  Further, besides each other, the level of competition isn't always the greatest.

That said.

It was still encouraging to see Dante Taylor's 19 point / 13 rebound effort in the first game on Monday night.  His play this year will help determine how far Pitt is able to go.  If he doesn't improve much, the frontcourt will again be fairly weak against some bigger teams.  But if he's able to show up to the tune of 20 and 10 some nights, Pitt could really be in position to do something special.  For now, I'm picking the team to do pretty much what they did last year.  But that all changes if Taylor hits his stride and gets more aggressive.

Taylor was pleased with his effort:

"For the first time, I thought I played pretty good — rebounded, ran the floor," Taylor said. "I just tried to come out and play the game — not do too much. I tried to come in and incorporate the things that I did, the things that I worked on."

And surprisingly, in Taylor's game, Gilbert Brown managed to throw up 26 shots (only making 6).  Even Kobe's game seven effort of the NBA Finals thinks that's playing out of control.

Freshmen Cameron Wright (16 points/6 rebounds) and JJ Moore (13 points) also played pretty well.  The third member of this year's class, Isaiah Epps, wasn't there and apparently won't be enrolling until August.  It would have been nice to see him gain some experience by playing against other college players - particularly because he's a point guard and will need to get to used to his teammates.