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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE OPERATION BASKETBALLOctober 16, 2013Jamie DixonCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA JEFF FISCHEL: We have Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon. Have you accidentally said Big East instead of ACC at some point today? COACH DIXON: It's been a long day. I might have used the Big West, Big Sky back in the day. We've been talking about it for so long, two years, it's finally here. So we are excited. But, no, I think we're well aware who we're playing against this year. JEFF FISCHEL: We can take questions. Q. After coaching in the Big East, what have you been told about ACC conference play? What are you expecting? COACH DIXON: What have we been told? First of all, we're excited. We think it's great. We found our home. We've been talking about for so many years where we were going to be, what conference we were going to be in. That's been going on for about 10 years for us, given our location, given our situation with the Big East. We're just excited. It's good to be asked, What's it like to be in the ACC, rather than what conference you're in. Who are we going to play? We're going to play the best teams in the country. That's what we were doing before. That's what we're doing now. I went down to the Duke football game a couple weeks ago. We had a lot of Pitt people there at the game. I think people are going to find, we have a lot of fans that have ties to Pitt that live in this area, in this region. That's exciting. I saw that with the Duke game we saw down here. A lot of fans that live down here, whenever the steel industry closed down. There's a lot of ties with Pitt fans down here. I think it's great. I think it's a great tie‑in. I think it's something that we'll show with the following that we get from Pitt people. Q. You come in with Syracuse and Notre Dame. When you get together with those teams, is it going to be back to the Big East rough and tough days or are you going to change a little bit? COACH DIXON: Yeah, we're going to change Coach Boeheim, how he does everything, change him overnight (smiling). I think Coach Brey, he's changed over the years. Coach Boeheim has changed in slight ways with his zone, little things that he does with it. But we're always trying to tinker and improve as coaches. But we just had the three of us together for a little sit‑down. Good friends, great respect for both of the programs. I think maybe there's some familiarity with those guys and the coaches due to playing against each other, being on committees together. There's 15 really good teams. We're going to be all fighting for a spot. Q. The Big East had the reputation of being a very physical league. Do you anticipate a big change coming to the ACC? COACH DIXON: I think what's going to happen here is you've gone from eight teams now to 15 teams over the years. You're going to see a lot of different styles in the ACC. You're going to bring in teams that play a lot of zone in both Notre Dame and Syracuse obviously. You got teams that are going to come in and press some with Louisville. What I found in the Big East, because we found it, too, we were nine teams, ten teams, I was there 15 years, we saw changes in the membership, we saw changes in the style of play. I think that's what happens. I think you're going to see more styles of play just because there's more teams, first off, and you're not playing each team twice, you're going to play them once. You're going to see pressing teams, zone teams, matchup zone teams, switching teams. You're going to see different things. I think it's going to make it better for us as programs, too, because you're going to see all different types. I think the ACC has been basically man‑to‑man. With our league, you've seen everything. It's going to be hard to label it. It's going to be labeled because that's what people got to do. They got to have a headline, got to have something to attach to it. The reality is there's a lot of diversity, a lot of different styles in the Big East. Oftentimes we've been labeled and we've been far from what that label has been. We've been one of the best teams offensively in the country. The numbers surely indicate it. The people that do the analysis of it all show how good we have been offensively. Yet if we're labeled, they'll say we're the physical defensive team. The numbers would prove something completely different. I think you're going to see a lot more style. I think at the end of the day that's going to make us better teams, especially when going to the NCAA tournament. We'll be better prepared because of playing against more teams obviously, because there's 15, but more styles that are going to develop because of the different teams coming in. JEFF FISCHEL: You mentioned stats. Do you look at those? COACH DIXON: We definitely do. To me that's always been important than points per game, but the pace of the game can change based on who you're playing against. Points per possession is very important. We always look at that, look at what we do each time we have the ball, how we're guarding it or attacking with it. We've always looked at that and been really good at both ends. With our record, you have to be pretty good on both sides of the court, offense and defense. We've done that consistently year in, year out. We're trying to get better, improve in that. We're trying to win national championships. We haven't done that. That's been our failure. That's what we're trying to do. JEFF FISCHEL: You lose Trey and Steven. You have three big returning starters back. Talk about where you are. COACH DIXON: Last year we were an inexperienced team on the perimeter. Then we got pretty much everybody back except Trey on the perimeter. One year to the next, you're probably an experienced team on the perimeter. That's how it works now in college basketball. One year makes you young to old. That's the situation we're in. Yet our post guys I'd say are new, don't have the experience. We lost a guy, went as a lottery pick freshman year, one‑and‑done guy. We have to fill that hole. I think we'll do it by committee. We don't have a 7‑footer in there, but we'll have some good size. I like our perimeters. I like our guards. I think we have some experienced guards, versatile guards, and good athletes all the way through. JEFF FISCHEL: Give me your take on the one‑and‑done rule. COACH DIXON: It is what it is. We have no say in it. It's the NBA's rule. That's what we play with. We can say all we want, at the end of the day they're going to have to change it. I think everyone is different. You get a guy like Steve Adams who was a kid that played one year, continued to go to classes, took online courses once he left Pitt. Was a 3.5 student, a very good kid. He was there with the intention of going to school all the way through. At the end of the day, we recognized it. His family recognized it. He's a 7‑footer that's 19 years old. Your best time to go in the draft is now. That's what we felt, that's what he felt, his family felt. When you're a freshman, they draft on potential. When you're 7‑foot, 19, potential is now. That's why he made that decision, why we supported it. He's in a good position. I think there's a lot of talk about it. There's very few that are doing it. All would like to do it, go one‑and‑done, but only a very few can do it. JEFF FISCHEL: If you were in charge of college basketball, what would be the rule you'd like to see? COACH DIXON: For guys coming in? Getting two years out of them would be good. Now, go after a high school, similar to like the baseball rule, maybe make it two years instead of three. To me, I think you've come up with a solution. At least there's some give‑and‑take on both ends of it there. I think that's probably the best way. NBA doesn't want that. They don't want to take high school kids in. I don't know if they'll ever go to that situation. Again, I think that's the best on both sides. That's a little bit of compromise, which is what we all need a little bit of right now. JEFF FISCHEL: Jamie, thank you. COACH DIXON: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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