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Today, we begin to rank the careers of all of the 67 basketball players ever to suit up for Jamie Dixon. As a reminder, here's the drill. Editor Anson Whaley, contributor Jim Hammett, and myself ranked each player and our composite results are displayed.
Before we get started, we employed a few main rules here:
1. Only the Pitt portion of a player's career counted - Khem Birch played less than a season with Pitt. While he was a productive college player elsewhere, the fact that he spent so little time with the Panthers showed in our rankings.
2. Only the time a player spent under Dixon counted - A player like Julius Page, for example, would rank higher, but he spent only his senior year under Dixon.
3. Best career, not best player - This isn't about determining the best player under Dixon. It's more about who had the best career at Pitt under Dixon. Steven Adams may be a better basketball player than several of the guys on the list but he only played at Pitt for a year and has certainly developed more in the NBA since then.
As we go through this list, we want to hear from you about players slotted too high, too low, or even the ones you think we got right. I've organized the rankings and would love to hear from you on Twitter as well @AronMinkoff.
| 67. Sean Brown |
Position: Guard Games Appeared: 4 Year(s) under Dixon: 2008-2009 MPG: 1 PPG: 0 RPG: 0 APG: 0
Cardiac Hill Rankings: Aron Minkoff: 67 Jim Hammett: 66 Anson Whaley: 67 Average Ranking: 66.67
If we counted him, Tyrone Haughton would surely go here since he didn't play a single minute for the Panthers. We left Haughton off the board, however, sticking to players who saw actual game time. Brown appeared in just four games in his lone season with the Panthers. How many of you actually remember who that he was on the roster? His brief career checks in at dead last on our list. |
| 66. Ryan Tiesi |
Position: Guard Games Played: 10 Year(s) under Dixon: 2008-2009 MPG: 1.2 PPG: 0 RPG: 0 APG: 0
Cardiac Hill Rankings: Aron Minkoff: 66 Jim Hammett: 67 Anson Whaley: 66 Average Ranking: 66.3 The only reason why he is ranked higher than Brown is because he appeared in a little more than double the amount of games. Not much more to write home about from his short-lived career. |
| 65. Austin Wallace |
Position: Center Games Played: 4 Year(s) under Dixon: 2007-2008 MPG: 3 PPG: 0.5 RPG: 0.8 APG: 0
Cardiac Hill Rankings: Aron Minkoff: 65 Jim Hammett: 67 Anson Whaley: 64 Average Ranking: 65.33
Wallace looked to have a lot of potential for the Panthers, with great size and playing sparingly as a freshman. He got hurt a little more than a month into his first season, and the injury to his knee was so severe that it ultimately ended his playing career. He stayed with the team as a team manager for a couple of years and even led the pre-game huddle dance while serving at that capacity. |
| 64. Geoff Rizk |
Position: Guard Games Played: 11 Year(s) under Dixon: 2006-2007 MPG: 1.2 PPG: 0.3 RPG: 0.1 APG: 0
Cardiac Hill Rankings: Aron Minkoff: 64 Jim Hammett: 65 Anson Whaley: 65 Average Ranking: 64.6
What separates Rizk from Tiesi and Brown? He scored, well, a couple of times. |
| 63. Charles Small |
Position: Guard Games Played: 18 Year(s) under Dixon: 2003-2006 MPG: XXXX PPG: 0.1 RPG: 0.1 APG: 0
Cardiac Hill Rankings: Aron Minkoff: 60 Jim Hammett: 64 Anson Whaley: 59 Average Ranking: 61
Small was only 5-foot-7 and while he played 18 games, he recorded just one point as a Panther. He was a rock at the end of the bench and served as an inspiration for shorter basketball players any way. |
| 62. Maurice Polen |
Position: Forward Games Played: 21 Year(s) under Dixon: 2006-2008 MPG: 1.4 PPG: 0.5 RPG: 0.7 APG: 0.3
Cardiac Hill Rankings: Aron Minkoff: 63 Jim Hammett: 61 Anson Whaley: 57 Average Ranking: 60.3
Polen lasted for two seasons at Pitt before transferring to IUP. He had a decent frame, but was slightly undersized at the Division I level and never did much at Pitt. |
| 61. Mike Lecak |
Position: Guard Games Played: 20 Year(s) under Dixon: 2013-2015 MPG: 1.8 PPG: 0.2 RPG: 0.2 APG: 0.1
Cardiac Hill Rankings Aron Minkoff: 62 Jim Hammett: 60 Anson Whaley: 55 Average Ranking: 59
Lecak is good guy from all accounts and even got non-mop up work earlier this season. Still, he does not really contribute much, and I don’t expect that change over the next two seasons. |
Tomorrow, we'll have #56-#60 as we continue the countdown.