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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.
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No. 5 Lamar Patterson |
Position: Forward Games Played: 149 Year(s) under Dixon: 2009-2014 MPG: 24.3 PPG: 9.5 RPG: 3.9 APG: 2.9
Cardiac Hill Rankings Aron Minkoff: 5 Jim Hammett: 6 Anson Whaley: 4 Average Ranking: 5 Patterson took a giant step between his junior and senior season, taking a mediocre, young Pitt team and taking them to the semifinals of the ACC tournament in their inaugural season in the tournament.
Patterson was sensational in that senior season in which he averaged 17.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg and 4.3 apg. He was a true point-forward and allowed the offense to move effortlessly through him. One of his biggest assets was the way he distributed the ball, often making spectacular passes. As he heated up, so did the Panthers and he was the driving force in a team that got into the NCAA tournament.
Averaging nearly five rebounds and more than three assists per game, he was one of those do-everything players. In that regard, Patterson was in the mold of a Brad Wanamaker, only a much better scorer.
His void was largely felt last season when the Panthers lacked a pure go-to scorer. He was drafted with the 48th overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks but was stashed overseas to develop for the year. |