Monday, August 31, 2009

Pitt Suspends Gilbert Brown For Fall Semester

Yet another starter from a BCS program goes down for the fall semester. The reason for Gilbert Brown's suspension is the ever vague "academic reasons." No matter the reason, this is a big problem for Pitt. Brown may have been overshadowed by the stars from last season's Pitt team, but I expected him to start this coming season. He played in more than 30 games in each of the last two seasons, averaging close to 20 minutes, 6 points and 3 rebounds on 45% shooting.

I sometimes say that players missing much/all of the fall semester are no big deal, or even possibly beneficial to the team (such as in the case of 'Nova's Reggie Redding this season, or Tyler Hansbrough last season). But those cases were teams that I expected to compete for a Final Four. When a team is worried about positioning itself for a Final Four run, they end up being judged most on what they do during their conference regular season, and they just need to be sure to peak at the right time in the season. Pitt, on the other hand, is a bubble team. I've got them as the 7th best team in the Big East, with a 12 seed in my most recent BP65. They really need a big win or two in the fall to go along with a solid Big East record in order to earn a Tournament bid.

If the loss of Gilbert Brown keeps Pitt from having a good out-of-conference resume then they're going to have to win a minimum of 10 games in a weakened Big East to make the 2010 Tournament.

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