The normal box scores are here and of course the advanced numbers.
Pitt
Poss 71.9 Pace Moderate
O-Rating 118.3 D-Rating 107.1 (Eff. Margin +11.1)
eFG% 59.8 PPWS 1.25
A/TO 1.3 TO Rate 18.1% A/B 56.7%
Floor Pct 56.5% FT Prod 32.1Providence
Poss 68.9 Pace Moderate
O-Rating 111.8 D-Rating 123.4 (Eff. Margin -11.6)
eFG% 53.7 PPWS 1.17
A/TO 0.6 TO Rate 23.2% A/B 36.0%
Floor Pct 54.3% FT Prod 35.2
Both teams were scoring, but Pitt more efficient. Especially in the second half when Providence had 10 turnovers. Pitt was less sloppy with the ball.
3-point shooting recovered a bit in the second half for Pitt (3-9 1st, 4-9 2nd). It was nowhere near as pathetic as it was against UConn, St. John’s or Rutgers. Still it was noticeably lower than when Pitt is at home. Ramon, who was precise the last two home games was only 2-6 last night. Krauser struggled as well. In fact the guards were only 4-14. It was at the forward position where the 3s were falling — 3-4 from Benjamin, DeGroat and Kendall — to bail out the overall numbers.
Aaron Gray had one of the prettiest lines you could hope to see from the big man
--------------------- FG 3pt FT Reb
Min M-A M-A M-A O-T A F S TO BLK Pts Aaron Gray 30 9-9 0-0 4-5 3-9 1 2 1 2 2 22
Keith Benjamin not only got it done on the offense with his 15 points on 6-8 shooting, but on the other end of the floor as well. He was very aggressive on defense — leading to 4 fouls — with 2 steals. He grabbed 4 rebounds (2 at each end). He was out there for 23 minutes.
Pitt in fact favored the forwards as far as playing time over the guards. Pitt decided to exploit the size and strength advantage in the second half, by going with two guards. Graves and Fields played 12 and 16 minutes in the game, but only a total of 8 minutes in the second half. John DeGroat actually played more minutes in the second half (6) than either guard. Tyrell Biggs actually saw a couple minutes of action in the second half.
The big mystery to me is Aaron Gray’s free throw shooting. Gray is 86-133 (.647) at the line on the year. Once more Gray shot free throws well on the road. I’ve been noting to myself recently that Gray seems to shoot his FTs better away from the Pete. That’s not entirely true.
——– FTM – FTA — FT%
Overall (23) 86 — 133 — .647
Home – (15) 52 — 80 — .650
Road — (8) 34 — 53 — .642
So I’m wrong. Not entirely. It turns out if you go to BE Conference games only, the numbers are quite different.
——– FTM – FTA — FT%
Overall (12) 50 — 79 — .633
Home — (6) 20 — 36 — .556
Road — (6) 30 — 43 — .698
In the non-con, Gray shot .667 overall (36-54) and .727 at home (32-44). With only 2 non-con away games, he shot only 4-10 (.400).
I’m not sure what happened. His first 3 road games (which includes Louisville) he went 8-19. His last 3 road games showed an excellent 16-18. At home in the last 3 games, he went 8-17.
The simple explanation is that he is still learning his stroke and he is just inconsistent. It’s just been very strange since the start of January and got even weirder since the end of the month.
