Sportsfrog.com

Is Dexter Pittman.

Pittman was purportedly 400 pounds when he enrolled at Texas as a freshman and is now listed at 290. And if you’ve seen a Big XII basketball game, you already knew that anyway. (His 6-10 listing is a bit generous as well. I saw him pretty closely Wednesday night and there’s no way he’s 6-10. More like 6-8)

And, if you weren’t following the Big XII that closely, you’d think that besides (once) being the size of a monster, Pittman was a monster on the court.

Not so.

Thanks to a five game stretch at the end of last season, Pittman got saddled with a reputation for being a great post player. Yeah, those five games were nice–except the three rebounds against Kansas–but they came because Pittman was finally able to consistently play over 20 minutes a game. Even though he’s lost all the weight, his conditioning has never been anything better than “poor.” (Last year he averaged 16.6 MPG, while this year he’s averaging 19.3)

While his MPG still reflect that his conditioning needs a lot of work–he had his hands on his knees by the third possession every time he was on the court Wednesday against Missouri–and while his stats have increased slightly, it hasn’t been the jump that some were expecting. (He’s also averaging 0.5 more turnovers per game)

Texas’s high preseason ranking was based partially on Pittman’s continued improvement, so it’s no surprise that since Pittman has struggled, Texas has struggled. In fact, they may be at their best when Gary Johnson is on the floor instead of Pittman.