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The fictional movie character Forrest Gump famously said "My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get."
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon must feel like he is dipping into a Whitman's Sampler every time he inserts Gilbert Brown into a game.
A gifted 6-foot-6 junior, Brown can tease with his potential. One day he looks like an All-American and takes games over with his superior skill set. And the next he can do his best Harry Houdini and disappear.
PDFsThere might not be another player in the country that has been as inconsistent as Brown this season. His scoring has fluctuated like the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Since returning from an academic suspension that had him miss the first 11 games of the season, Brown has been Pitt's leading scorer five times. He also has been held scoreless three times.
Some players get hot for stretches and then go cold for a period. What makes Brown's inconsistency so strange is that you can set your watch by him. He plays well every other game.
• Five weeks ago, Brown scored a career-high 25 points against South Florida and followed up that performance by not scoring the next game against West Virginia.
• In the next game against Seton Hall, Brown scored 23 points. The next against Robert Morris? Six.
It has gone on like that all season. Most recently, Brown was shut out by Providence Thursday night. So, of course, in the regular-season finale against Rutgers, he scored a team-high 19 points.
"I don't know what it is," Brown said. "I've been trying to figure it out. I swear it's coincidence, but it's not. It's not pressure, me thinking about it, 'OK I had a good game now I have to put another one together.' It just happens. We have other players step up and play so well. Like against Providence, Brad [Wanamaker] and Ashton [Gibbs] put the bookbag on and carried the whole team on their backs. [Saturday night against Rutgers] was a different night when everyone got involved."
Brown, who is a candidate for the sixth man of the year award in the Big East, has been representative of the way Pitt's bench has played this season. Reserve center Dante Taylor and backup point guard Travon Woodall have also had their share of highs and lows.
The good news for Pitt is that Taylor and Woodall have been playing much better and more consistently as of late. Brown said it is imperative for he and the other reserves to play well every game.
"Especially now, from here on out, the consistency of the bench and everyone's play is real important," he said. "It's one-and-done in these tournaments. We have to bring it every night. We can't go from game to game like we've been doing."
Pitt has won eight of nine entering its Thursday night Big East quarterfinal game, but the Panthers have not exhibited consistency as a team, either. They beat one of the best teams in the country when they defeated Villanova two weeks ago and then lost the next game by 15 points at Notre Dame. They needed a buzzer-beater shot from Gibbs to beat Providence and then came back to defeat Rutgers by 29 points, the largest margin of victory this season.
That's why the Panthers can be categorized as a dangerous and vulnerable team in the postseason.
"I think we still we have a lot to prove," Brown said. "That is the last issue, the last thing we have to get in order. If we play with consistency night in and night out, we can be in contention for a Final Four and national championship run. That's the way we think. I really think that it's important that we put it all together."
Check out Ray Fittipaldo's Pitt B-Ball blog and Paul Zeise's Pitt Stop videos about football exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.
