Looks like no liveblog tonight. Wife has some things late, so I’m with the kids until an undetermined time. So, despite the 9pm start time, I probably won’t be able to start watching until at least 9:30 so I’m just going DVR delay and will set up an open thread then some post-game comments after I watch.
I’m increasingly working my way into a crazy fantasy that the berating of how Providence can’t/won’t/are unable to comprehend the concept of defense has been so batted around that Providence will actually put an effort into it and completely stun Pitt because no one saw it coming.
What they’re saying is true, of course. PC is allowing 85.7 points through 16 Big East games. Unless something changes quickly, that will be the worst defensive showing in conference history, eclipsing the 83.5 given up by the Friars’ 1990 team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament in Rick Barnes’ first season as coach.
In all games, PC’s defense ranks 332nd among 334 Division I teams, at 81.2 ppg.
The evolution of the defensive woes stems from when Keno Davis was hired from Drake in April of 2008. The newly minted national coach of the year came to town with a run-and-gun style that relied heavily on the 3-point shot and firing many more attempts than the opponent. But it’s not as if Drake played no defense in its run to the Missouri Valley championship. That team allowed just 62.1 points a game.
Davis says he’s far from a proponent of run-and-gun, Loyola-Marymount-type basketball. It’s just that mixing his new recruits with the leftovers from the Tim Welsh regime hasn’t worked, at least on defense.
Last year’s team allowed a hefty 76.7 points a game. This year’s is averaging 82 points a game, second in the Big East and in the top 10 in the country. But defense is another matter.
As you would expect with a team like this, they like to push the tempo and run. They do a surprisingly good job at getting offensive rebounds — but do a horrible job at the defensive end with rebounding — allowing a lot of offensive rebounds and second chance points. Which isn’t surprising with their defense in general. Half the team seems to be sprinting the other way even before a rebound is secured when having to play defense.
Players like Ashton Gibbs are saying the right things about remembering being smacked in the mouth by the Friars last year, and the team is talking about having to play defense.
“We just have to play our game,” Pitt senior Jermaine Dixon said. “They’re a good team, even though they have struggled. They have stayed in there with some of the big-name teams. They get up for the competition. We’re at the top of the Big East, so they’ll have their A game. We have to control their 3-point shooting and rebound.”
Providence attempts almost 25 3-pointers per game, the most of any team in the conference. The Friars make 33 percent of those and lead the conference in 3-point field goals made per game (8.2).
The top 3-point shooter is senior guard Sharaud Curry, who has made 42.2 percent of his 3-point attempts in conference play.
“They really shoot the ball from 3,” Jamie Dixon said. “That’s the thing you have to be concerned about. They seem to be in every game. They seem to go through runs where they give up points, but, sometimes, they score in bunches, too.
The major force on the Friars is redshirt sophomore forward Jamine “Greedy” Peterson.
Peterson has come out of relative obscurity to average a team-high 19.3 points and 9.9 rebounds. The 6-foot-6, 230-pound forward has notched a Big East-leading 14 double-doubles this season — four more than Pitt has as a team — as well as a bunch of highlight-reel dunks.
“He’s a tough matchup,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “He’s strong enough to play inside and versatile enough to play on the outside.”
But that hasn’t been enough lately. Providence went 0-for-February and has dropped eight in a row since beating Connecticut, 81-66, on Jan. 27. With a win, Pitt will assure itself of a top-four finish in the Big East and earn a double-bye at next week’s Big East Tournament.
Peterson, who averaged 4.7 points and 2.9 rebounds as a freshman in 2007-08 and redshirted last season for the senior-heavy Friars, won a starting job and made an immediate impact this season. He grabbed 22 rebounds against Mercer in his third career start and posted 27 points and 14 rebounds against Alabama five days later.
He owns the only 20-20 game by a Big East player this season (29 points, 20 rebounds against Rutgers). He has 48 3-pointers and averages a Big East-leading 4.2 offensive rebounds per game.
The story says they call him “Greedy” for the way he grabs offensive rebounds. Providence fans, quietly acknowledge that Greedy also fits his offensive game in that he has 444 shot attempts and is not much for ball sharing — only 31 assists to 47 turnovers.
So if he grabs a board, odds are he’s going back up with it. How Pitt contends with that will be interesting. Can Nasir Robinson handle him inside? McGhee will be contending with their forward-center Bilal Dixon (6-8) and a leaper like Greedy would get McGhee in foul trouble.
The Friars are not a particularly big team so there are no big match-up probles for Pitt, but as we saw last week against ND teams that can drive and shoot from outside can be more of a problem for Pitt. Regardless of their overall size.
