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Today, we continue 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.
| 30. Tyrell Biggs |
Position: Forward Games Played: 141 Year(s) under Dixon: 2005-2009 MPG: 16.1 PPG: 4.3 RPG: 2.9 APG: 0.5
Cardiac Hill Rankings Aron Minkoff: 30 Jim Hammett: 27 Anson Whaley: 31 Average Ranking: 29.3 Biggs was a quality player and another one of those glue guys for Dixon that played his entire career for the head coach. There were certainly better players and he wasn't a star but he also developed into a quality scorer and rebounder off the bench as well as a solid defender. He even later got a sniff of the NBA life when he suited up in the summer league. |
| 29. Antonio Graves |
Position: Guard Games Played: 130 Year(s) under Dixon: 2003-2007 MPG: 21.1 PPG: 6 RPG: 1.7 APG: 1.7
Cardiac Hill Rankings Aron Minkoff: 28 Jim Hammett: 30 Anson Whaley: 26 Average Ranking: 28 Graves was a talented, athletic wing and could hit shots with some consistency. On top of that, he was known for playing stellar defense and was a very good guard to have in the physical Big East. By the time he left, he was averaging 9.2 points per game as a senior and also knocking down 40% of his three-pointers. |
| 28. Levon Kendall |
Position: Forward Games Played: 105 Year(s) under Dixon: 2003-2007 MPG: 20.1 PPG: 5 RPG: 4.2 APG: 1.3
Cardiac Hill Rankings Aron Minkoff: 24 Jim Hammett: 29 Anson Whaley: 29 Average Ranking: 27.3
Quick, what famous talent Levon Kendall is known for besides basketball? If you were a Pitt fan tuning into ESPN broadcasts when he was on the team, you know it was his piano playing. In a tiring segment that seemed to hit the broadcast during every single game, we were treated to brutal re-runs of Kendall displaying his talent during stoppages in play (not to mention all the pun-like titled articles that graced the internet. Musical abilities aside, Kendall developed into a solid player on offense and defense for the Panthers. Playing alongside Aaron Gray, he often benefited from defenders that doubled the star center which freed him up a bit. Used primarily to help flow the offense and set screens, Kendall was a steady player for all four seasons that he played under Dixon. |
| 27. Dante Taylor |
Position: Forward Games Played: 136 Year(s) under Dixon: 2009-2013 MPG: 16 PPG: 5 RPG: 4.3 APG: 0.4
Cardiac Hill Rankings Aron Minkoff: 26 Jim Hammett: 26 Anson Whaley: 27 Average Ranking: 26.3 There was much hype surrounding Taylor, who was Dixon’s first McDonald’s All American recruit. Unfortunately for Pitt, he never lived up to the expectations that quickly met him upon his arrival in Oakland. To label Taylor a complete bust is not fair since he played significant minutes in all four of his seasons with the Panthers. The biggest problem, however, was that he never really progressed all that much and despite earning more playing time after his freshman year, his production didn't grow much. He finished his career with averages of 5.0 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, which is close to what he averaged during his freshman year (4.1 points and 3.7 rebounds). Taylor did good work around the rim, as his nearly 60% career FG% will attest, but he didn't develop into anything close to a star. |
| 26. J.J. Moore |
Position: Forward Games Played: 94 Year(s) under Dixon: 2010-2013 MPG: 16 PPG: 6.8 RPG: 2.5 APG: 0.5
Cardiac Hill Rankings Aron Minkoff: 27 Jim Hammett: 28 Anson Whaley: 21 Average Ranking: 25.33
Moore was electrifying as a player and to many, a carbon copy of Gilbert Brown. When on the court, he slashed with the best of athletic wings, played solid defense, and was a fixture in the rotation for Dixon from the minute he arrived on campus. With an ability to drive to the basketball for athletic dunks or connect from long-range, his offensive game had a lot of diversity. Like Taylor, Moore didn't completely live up to expectations and after three years on the team, transferred to Rutgers for his senior year to be closer to his family and his ailing grandfather. |