PITTSBURGH -- The future of Pitt basketball may have been unveiled Friday, and the Panthers can only hope that DeJuan Blair's accomplishments match his size.
That's big, as in XXXL big. Even if he's not as big as he was a few months ago.
When the Panthers began preseason practice Friday night, Blair weighed 275 pounds, a lot of bulk for an 18-year-old who stands 6-foot-7. But he was well down from the 303 pounds he weighed when he began working out last summer, and down even more from the unknown weight during his Schenley High senior season.
"I always look at the state championship (game tape) and say, 'That was me? I was that big?' " said Blair, who acknowledges having been above 303 last season but won't give an exact weight. "I didn't look 300 at all, I carried it great. It didn't matter if I was 300 or 200, I still played the same, still got up and down the court."
Blair's ability to post up against taller players down low, combined with his size and athleticism, is why he expects to be former Pitt star Aaron Gray's heir apparent at center. Pitt's offense revolved around Gray in the middle during the last two seasons, and it may do so around Blair very soon.
"He was a big factor on this team, and that's another reason I came here," Blair said. "They give the big man the ball."
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon always makes freshmen earn their way into the lineup, and there's no guarantee that Blair will start in the season opener Nov. 9 against Houston Baptist, or in the Big East opener Jan. 6 at Villanova.
That's fine with Blair, who grew up only minutes from Pitt's campus. He feels at home there, and is determined to prove that he should start as a freshman on merit, not the reputation he built as a rugged inside player for 2007 Pennsylvania Class AAAA champion Schenley.
"He's not going to say, 'Oh, you're coming in, I'm going to give it to you,' " Blair said. "That's what I like about him. He's not giving me nothing. He's making me earn everything I got, and I'm learning from him. And there aren't too many freshmen, I think, than can come right in and start (in the Big East)."
Obviously, Blair thinks he can be one of them on a Pitt team that may lean more than usual on freshmen.
Pitt returns six of its top nine players and two starters, guard Levance Fields and forward Mike Cook, from the team that went 29-8 last season and advanced to the NCAA round of 16 before losing to former coach Ben Howland and UCLA.
Seven players on the 15-man roster are freshmen, and Blair and guard Bradley Wanamaker will be counted on to contribute immediately as Pitt tries to reach the NCAA Tournament for a seventh consecutive season.
Wanamaker expects to join holdover guards Fields, Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin in a four-man rotation when the season starts.
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