Pittsburgh Basketball: 3 takeaways from exhibition win over Clarion

Pittsburgh Basketball doubled up Clarion in a preseason matchup in its first-season competition. Here are some takeaways from the game.

Pittsburgh Basketball entered its exhibition matchup with Clarion on Saturday with just nine scholarship players available. Dior Johnson remains indefinitely suspended while returning leading scorer John Hugley and forward William Jeffress were out with injuries.

It ultimately didn’t matter, as the Panthers raced out to a big early lead and were never in doubt, winning 103-51. Iowa State transfer Blake Hinson led all scorers with 20 points on 6/9 shooting, now of four Pittsburgh players with at least 16 points. It was a game filled with positives but some things to work on as well. Here are my key takeaways from the game.

1. Cummings/Burton backcourt is effective

With Johnson out for the foreseeable future, it’ll be the Colgate transfer Cummings and returning lead guard Burton to have all of the ball-handling duties. Clarion’s guards were no match for them but it was still a good scoring performance, with the duo combining to score 34 points on 12/18 shooting, 3/4 from deep. They also had seven assists and five turnovers but cleaned up on that end in the second half.

It’s clear that the surrounding pieces being much better shooters helps the guards but these two are capable of scoring. And their lives will be made easier once Hugley returns inside for them. The offense will depend on how effective they are, either together or with one running the offense, and at least in this game, it looked okay.

2. Progress from Fede and the twins

With the star big man out, that provided more opportunities for the rest of the frontcourt to showcase why they should be in the rotation. 7’0 big man Guillermo Díaz Graham got the start at center, with his twin Jorge coming off the bench at the four-spot. JUCO center Federico Federico came off the bench and after a quiet first half, finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds that included several dunks.

As for the twins, they produced 10 points and eight rebounds combined. Positives for them included their passing ability and length that affected the shots for Clarion inside. The offense was fluid with they were on the court and there was plenty of spacing available. The problem was that they both were lost on defense at times, giving up open shots on the other end. But that’s going to be a learning lesson for them throughout their freshmen seasons. None of these guys are at the level of Hugley but there’s definitely an upgrade of frontcourt talent from a year ago.

3. Panthers can actually score this season

One of the biggest questions for Pittsburgh Basketball is simply “how good is the offense going to be”? And it’s a fair question considering how bad they were last season. As a team, the Panthers scored 70+ points seven times and were bad at both three-point shooting and from the free throw line. And until Ithiel Horton returned, the team only had four players that could score more than five points in a game.

The hope this offseason was that the team added more pure scorers and it looks like there are three double-digit scorers besides Hugley (Cummings, Burton, and Hinson), as well as Greg Elliott giving them consistent shooting production. Nike Sibande returned to action after missing all of last season with an injury, scoring five points on 2/6 shooting off the bench. Once he gets into form and there’s no rust, that’s another capable contributor. And even sophomore Nate Santos scored 12 points and could slide into the rotation if Pittsburgh needs added shooting.

Scoring 101 points against a D-II program should be taken with a grain of salt but after struggling to score 60 points against mid-majors a year ago, it’s clear that Pittsburgh’s offense will be better than the 2021-22 version. Whether it’s good enough to be competitive in ACC is still a question.