When Ashton Gibbs came back for his senior season, this probably isn't what he envisioned. Pitt's sitting at 7-1 and after an early loss to Long Beach State, has started playing much better. But for some reason, Ashton Gibbs has been struggling. Badly.
It's not that he's not contributing. He's averaging more than 19 points a game, but he's doing it on more than four more shots per game than he took last season. Over the past six games, Gibbs is shooting only 36%. That's not even a good percentage for a bad shooting guard.
Gibbs is anything but bad, obviously, but he should be doing much better. So what's the problem?
I can't say I've been paying enough attention to know for sure. Pitt's only been on TV once in those six games (twice if you count the game against Duquesne on CBS College Sports) and trying to pay close attention to a game on ESPN3 only goes so far. But one thing that I think has affected him is the workload he's carrying. He's averaging about 36 minutes a game and played 38 against Tennessee on Saturday.At some point Dixon's got to give him a bit more rest.
Need further evidence that Gibbs probably would fare better with more time off? Last year, he played more than 35 minutes only seven times in the entire season. The result was that he hit nearly 47% of his shots on the season.
This year? He's already topped 35 minutes six times. The result? He's shooting under 39%.
I'm not fully convinced that the only reason Gibbs is struggling is because of a few extra minutes a game. But I do think that it's part of it.