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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. 3 Carl Krauser |
Position: Guard Games Played: 94 Year(s) under Dixon: 2003-2006 MPG: 34.5 PPG: 15.4 RPG: 4.7 APG: 5
Cardiac Hill Rankings Aron Minkoff: 3 Jim Hammett: 3 Anson Whaley: 4 Average Ranking: 3.7 Krauser was the first in a line of big-time Pitt players to make their way to Pittsburgh from the New York City area. He was certainly one of the best of them, too. With his leadership qualities, he was just what the team needed as the program blossomed.
Like Ashton Gibbs, Krauser was a rare player that averaged over 15 points a game in his final three seasons. And distributing more than five assists while grabbing nearly five rebounds during that stretch made him an all-around threat. Krauser was also a solid defender that notched 1.5 steals per game throughout his entire four-year career. He finished in the Big East's top ten in steals over his final three years and the conference's top five in assists over that stretch. His biggest issue was the 41% career shooting percentage. Krauser, though, made up for that a little through his physical play that led to him getting to the free throw line more than most. He was in the Big East's top ten in free throw attempts (and makes) from 2002-2005 and was in the top five as a sophomore and junior. Krauser was the on-court cheerleader and could score in bunches. He distributed the ball like a true point guard and even had a moderately high NBA stock after his junior season. He has built himself up a fairly decent international career and earned the spot of top guard in our rankings. |