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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.
| No. 20 Julius Page |
Position: Guard Games Played: 36 Year(s) under Dixon: 2003-2004 MPG: 35.6 PPG: 11 RPG: 2.9 APG: 1.8 Aron Minkoff: 20 Jim Hammett: 14 Anson Whaley: 23 Average Ranking: 19 Page, just like players like Jaron Brown and Brandin Knight, was largely responsible for putting Pitt back on the map as a basketball powerhouse. Page was absolutely electrifying, defying gravity at times. If we took all of his seasons into consideration, he would rank higher on our list. But with only one year under Dixon, he falls quite a bit. Interestingly enough, he actually struggled a bit in the final season. In his previous two seasons, under Ben Howland, he averaged 12.2 ppg each year. He took a small step back in his last year, averaging 11 points per contest and also averaged fewer rebounds and assists as well in addition to a poor 37& FG clip.
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| No. 19 James Robinson |
Position: Guard Games Played: 103 Year(s) under Dixon: 2012-2015 MPG: 30.6 PPG: 7.6 RPG: 2.9 APG: 4.3
Cardiac Hill Rankings Aron Minkoff: 16 Jim Hammett: 21 Anson Whaley: 19 Average Ranking: 18.7 Robinson has started his entire career with the team and has either led or been in the top-five in the nation for assist-turnover ratio in each season. The thing that people do not like with him is he is not a natural scorer, but he is a pass-first point guard by nature. Robinson facilitates the offense and has not really had that many weapons around him. Just as vital as a quarterback is to the offense in football, Robinson has been that for Pitt. He is an extremely talented passer and rarely makes mistakes.
He can play any tempo, although he seems to work best in a slow-paced game and is a solid defender. Robinson, like so many players on this list, is great at what he does and is expected to do by the coaches. However, the issue arrives when he cannot meet the lofty expectations set upon him by fans. With one more year left, Robinson will play a vital part in leading this team and his impact on the team is noticed in the minutes that he is not on the court. |
| No. 18 Ronald Ramon |
Position: Guard Games Played: 135 Year(s) under Dixon: 2004-2008 MPG: 26.7 PPG: 8.1 RPG: 1.9 APG: 2.5
Cardiac Hill Rankings Aron Minkoff: 14 Jim Hammett: 24 Anson Whaley: 17 Average Ranking: 18.3
Ramon was a fairly one-dimensional player as largely a three-point specialist but his range was a great thing for the Panthers. He shot 39.5 percent from three-point range in his career and was never afraid of the big moment. And the buzzer beater against West Virginia to give Pitt a 55-54 win was one of his biggest shots. Ramon was prolific from long distance and while his sub 40% mark wasn't great, he was a solid four-year contributor under Dixon averaging 6.5 points per game as a freshman up to a career-best 8.8 as a junior. In that third season, Ramon made the sixth-most triples in the Big East that year. |