Question: You've always described Jermaine Dixon as maybe the toughest guy on the team and someone with great mental toughness. He just mentioned that you have the team that can go to the championship and win things. He just mentioned that you have the team to go to the championship and win it.
JD: Every team has that feeling. You have to at this point. You have to have that mentality, I think. But again our focus has been on Game 1 and that's solely Oakland. We know how good they are. We've watched them play. I guess when you get asked those things, you gotta express your confidence and belief in your players and your teammates.
But I think every team has that belief. And I think we've been pretty focused and know that Oakland is the first game and the only game right now for us, and that's what we've been talking about since Sunday night.
Question: Greg Kampe mentioned that the goal for his team is to get to the Sweet 16, and we talked about what the goals for you are. Can you talk about how different the pressure is for you and your program than it is for he and his program coming into the NCAA tournament?
JD: Our goal right now is to win this next game on Friday, and that's really all we've been focusing on. So I can't speak for them or any other teams in the tournament. But that's our goal. I don't think you can get caught in the thinking six games ahead or four games ahead or two weekends ahead.
It's what you control is now, the present, and the present for us is our practice today and tomorrow's game, Friday. So I think everybody has the same amount of pressure, to use that word. Anybody who loses is disappointed. I know that for a fact. And that's how I think every team thinks.
Question: Oakland's played a lot of really good teams this year. Does that help them even though they haven't maybe played them as close as they would have liked to?
JD: You know, I think you always wonder about that, how games in November and December affect March 18th, 19th, 20th. I've always wondered about that. I know they're good and they've got good size and they've got good players. And I don't know if a game in November or December is going to change that or make that any different.
So they're very good. They're old. They're experienced. I think that's going to have more factor than what they did in November. That's always been my thinking, and I think always those games get talked about. And four months ago, I think what you've done since then usually has more impact. At the end of the day they have a lot of seniors. Their juniors are fourth-year guys.
They're an experienced team. And it's often the case with teams that win their conference and advance to the tournament.
Question: Even as we speak, Robert Morris is giving Villanova everything it can handle. Does that unsettle you, or does that give you a teaching moment for your players?
JD: You know, you're going to have -- if you're going to use a teaching moment, you know you're going to have one or two because it's going to happen. I mean, it happens every year in the tournament. And there's always going to be that opportunity.
So, you know, I guess it's different for each kid. We've got some freshmen, a lot of freshmen in the past, and we've got seniors who -- one senior that's been here for a couple of years. We've got some juniors who have been through it.
So I think we know how good this team is, Oakland, and our players are well aware of that. And they've been focusing solely on it. You heard Jermaine. He knows their personnel very well. He knows what their strengths and weaknesses are, and described them pretty well up here, as I heard them earlier.
So I think you always know that every team out here is good, and our guys are well aware of that.
Q. And the second question, your team has been very good for very long now, but you've not won a championship. You play in a pro city, a pro environment, do you think you have to win the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup before people get excited about the Panthers basketball team?
JD: Well, I mean, they're pretty excited about us now. We're sold out every game. We have a waiting list of like 9,000, so that's pretty good excitement.
But I think there's only -- the Super Bowl is the biggest event in the world, sporting event, at least in the country, so that is a high level to reach. And we are a Steeler city, we understand that. But they love our team, and their support has been there throughout, whether it be Pittsburgh people, University of Pittsburgh people, or just people who like college basketball.
But I think our support is about as good as it can be in the country. But at the same time we're doing it in a pro city, which makes it a little unique. And we've somehow -- and it's very difficult -- we've somehow really gained their interest and captivated them with our team and our success and our consistency over the years.
So it's very rare to happen in a pro city, a college team to be taken on like ours has, but it has happened.
Question: In Chicago, DePaul, there have been reports DePaul's targeting you to be the No. 1 choice. In the past, in this instance, how do you handle that distraction? And could you describe your relationship with DePaul that may have been the source of that speculation?
JD: What I've always done in the past is we don't talk about other jobs and just the easiest way to handle it. And that's how we do it. So it's just -- I don't think it's really fair to anybody involved. So that's just what we do.
Question: Coach, for us that don't follow Pitt basketball around the country and we just catch you on 36-inch HD, could you describe what your team's about, what makes your motor run?
JD: This team right here, this team we have this year? I think the biggest thing this year what stood out is this group has shown how much they've improved since the beginning of the year.
I don't know if you saw us earlier in the year, but we had some struggles. We obviously had a couple of guys out. We were young. I think somebody just reminded me we lost 80 percent of our scoring, I guess, from last year.
So I think we didn't get a lot of coverage early on because people expected us to struggle and thought it would continue all year. But this team kept believing in themselves. They kept working, and I think the story about this team, if anybody's seen us, is how much we've improved from November to March now.
And I've been focusing on this week as another opportunity to improve, to be a better team than we were last week, a better team than we were in February.
And that's what our players have really focused on. So we've had a very good week of practice and hoping to improve. And I think we did. Our defense continues to improve as the year went on. And I believe our offense is just -- it's just there. It's just a step away from being very efficient, as efficient as we'd like it to be.
Q. People talk about, in terms of scoring, how Ashton and Gilbert can be two guys that are difficult to match up with. When you have Ashton scoring, you don't necessarily need Gilbert to do that. But you've kind of seen the inconsistency in terms of his point production. How important is it when Ashton is not on that Gilbert is on, and vice versa?
JD: You know, I think every guy you're going to talk about is how they can't score the same amount of points every game, we know that. And they're going to have some games where they don't score as much, and others guys do. And then you have games where the score is low and there's less possessions. You're going to have games where there's more possessions and there's more scoring, as we know.
But the main thing is to be as efficient offensively, each possession. That means getting a good shot. That means putting it in a basket. That means getting second-chance opportunities. That means not turning it over.
It's not a one-guy thing. It's not even a two-guy thing. It's your entire team. And our entire time, as far as consistently playing, is eight players, and I think that's what's made us good. I think we can -- if they're focusing on one guy, we can get it to other guys and other guys can make a play or make a shot, and I think that's what we've been doing.
The main thing is you want to get good shots, and that's what we've been doing pretty consistently. I think we want to be in a position where we're taking good ones. And you want them to fall at the same time. If they don't fall, you want to be there for the offensive rebounds. And that's where your offensive rebound opportunities come when you take good shots.
So, again, Ashton and Gilbert are a big part of it. But Brad, Jermaine, we've got four guys in double figures. That speaks to not one or two guys being it. And then we've got a number of other guys that are putting up points, pretty good point production for the minutes that they play.
JD: There were a couple of things. I think obviously, adding the two players Jermaine and Gilbert who were out, our two most experienced players. I don't think anybody's ever gone through that, lose the scoring we had and then have your two most-experienced players out. I mean, it was a unique situation.
I think a couple of things, these guys got better. Our freshmen got better. We had seven new players on our roster out of your 13 scholarships. Two of them were not playing.
So you had four guys actually playing for you that had actually played. I mean, it's almost hard to believe at this point now. But I think couple things. I had to figure out where our strengths lie. And I think they had to figure out where their strengths lie. We've adapted, we changed what we do as the year has gone on.
Just a couple of weeks ago we changed, made a significant change in what we were doing offensively in both our motion and the clock plays, and it's been very beneficial for us.
It's about making adjustments. It's about knowing that you're going to evolve as the year goes on and being willing to make those adjustments. And it's about guys just continuing to work.
This team has worked unbelievably hard throughout the year and consistent, which is ultimately so key. And then we've stayed healthy, too. I think that's been important for us, too. We've been able to practice and get a lot of things done in practice and make us better in practice.
Question: Do you expect Oakland to slow it down on you guys, and if so, how do you think you'll handle it?
JD: I don't think so. It's something I've thought about. But I don't think they will. All the games we've seen, their strength is that they can put the ball in the basket and the confidence in which they play. So I don't see them doing that. Could. Teams -- there are certain times when they seem to use more clock and become a little bit more patient.
But I think that their strength is their balance inside and out offensively. Their ability to score in transition is, I think, another strength that they have. And so I may be proven wrong here, but I think that's what they're going to look at. And we're preparing for that, too, as well. So we're preparing for a lot of things here. That's one good thing I feel about our team, we've been through a lot of different styles of play. More so this year than other years, I think, in the Big East. So I think that's good for us.
But we really look forward to the opportunity to see what they're going to do.
Question: What have you become comfortable with in terms of a routine when you get to a sub-regional site? Do you practice or do you just shoot or what do you do?
JD: What we usually do, we go practice at another place beforehand, really get the stuff we want to do when we go through their stuff, our stuff, execution, things we want to do. Then when we get to the arena, we'll just do shooting, skill work, and get some free throws in, too, so you get a look at the arena.
Fortunately, we were here in Milwaukee and we feel comfortable. We played here just a couple of weeks ago. This is where we wanted to be. Even the place we practice at we've practiced at beforehand. So it's really worked out well for us. We were excited when we were placed in Milwaukee for those reasons. And I think we're really happy to be here and glad that we're at this site. And it's been a beautiful day and our guys had a good workout today and we're looking forward to getting some shots up here in a little bit.
Question: For all the attention you guys got for losing, what you lost from last year player-wise, what's something you like about this year's group that maybe last year's team didn't have or couldn't get to?
JD: It's interesting. We were probably the most talked-about team in the country about what we lost. A lot of teams lose players, but I guess also add in we had surprised some people with what we did. I guess that became the story. We lost very good players, and I said all along I'd rather -- these guys that I had a lot of confidence in, these guys coming back, because they were playing behind good players. And if they've been playing behind bad players I would have had a lot more concerns.
But what I think I've liked about this team the most is really their willingness to get better and to improve, and I think that's the biggest thing. I think it's really helped us defensively, and I think it's really given us -- we've seen the results, too. I think that's something. I think individually and as a team they've seen themselves get better. And that's enabled us to grow more, I think. And I think that's kept them open to more coaching and more work and more development, whether it be weight room on the floor, off the floor, film. They've been very committed to the focus of improvement.
