In case you missed it, dealing with and stopping Greg Monroe will be the big task for Pitt.
“Different players, completely different,” Dixon said. “Monroe is playing more on the perimeter and [Julian] Vaughn is their inside guy. We were going to leave Samuels isolated and contain the 3-pointers. We could have done a better job defensively. But he made some tough shots looking back on it. A number of those he made we felt comfortable with him taking at the time. He just made them. He’s a very good player, one of the best low-post guys.
“But Monroe is a different matchup. He’ll play two different spots for them, but mostly he’s a face-up guy with an unbelievable skill set for a guy his size.”
Normally, the tallest player, especially at 6’11” would be playing center and draw Gary McGhee as the defensive match-up. Pitt, though, as already said that it won’t just be McGhee given how Monroe plays as much at the power forward spot, and does not play exclusively inside.
McGhee won’t be asked to chase Monroe all over the floor. Pitt will switch to forwards Nasir Robinson (6-5) and Gilbert Brown (6-6). But McGhee is ready for the task.
“We will probably switch it up, depending on what the situation it is,” McGhee said. “I am going to have to defend him well at the perimeter.”
Given Monroe’s size and skill set, there is always speculation as to whether he goes pro after this season (heck, there was speculation last year as well). He’s not saying, and while he has been a beast in some games — especially Sunday’s loss to ‘Nova — he can look a little too passive and unassertive.
As for his on-court skills, Monroe shares the assessment of Coach John Thompson III, who believes his center is “far, far away” from reaching his potential.
Says Monroe, who’s averaging 14.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game: “I definitely think I’ve made strides on the court and off, but I think I can get a lot better still. There are a lot of things I have to work on, physically and [in terms of] learning more about the game. I don’t think I’m close to being as good as I can be.”
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Monroe carries 247 pounds on his 6-11 frame. For a big man, he’s agile racing up and down the court. And with his length (Monroe boasts an 86-inch wingspan), he can be an effective shot-blocker.
What intrigues NBA scouts most, insiders say, is the talent he possesses at such a relatively young age: his skill as a passer and his overall basketball smarts.
Monroe is also developing greater range as a shooter under Thompson’s system, which is predicated on movement.
Monroe isn’t going to light it up from beyond the arc (he’s taken 15 shots in 16 games and made only 4). Monroe, as Casual Hoya noted for the entire G-town team, does seem to play up or down to the competition. So I’m expecting Monroe to be a force tonight.
The guy who gets missed in Georgetown with all the attention on Monroe is Austin Freeman. The latest wing player that is thriving in Georgetown’s offense. Freeman has become more assertive this year and has been the go-to guy on offense.
Senior guard Jermaine Dixon will be the next Big East defender who tries to slow down Austin Freeman of Georgetown. Freeman, a 6-foot-3 junior guard, is averaging 20.5 points in Big East play, highlighted by his 28-point, second-half outburst in the comeback win over Connecticut on Jan. 9.
“Freeman is playing about as well as anybody in the conference,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “He has gotten better off the dribble and without the ball. He’s always been an unbelievable shooter.”
Freeman is shooting 57.7 percent from 3-point range in the Big East, but is only 4 for 15 from behind the arc in three career games against Pitt.
Freeman has only been held to single digit scoring in 2 games this season.
The guy that G-town will be looking to stop will be the same guy everyone in the Big East has been trying to keep from getting clean looks from the perimeter — Ashton Gibbs.
It’s not like he won’t be out there — almost the entire time.
After each game Pitt’s coaches will study the box score and look at the number of minutes that each of the players logged. It is becoming a running joke among the coaches about the unusually high number of minutes that sophomore guard Ashton Gibbs has been playing.
“A couple of times I’ll look and say he played 39 minutes,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “And I’ll say, ‘I didn’t hear any of you guys tell me to take him out.’ ”
Translation: Gibbs is playing too well for the coaching staff to want to take him out of a game.
Gibbs, who is averaging 17.5 points per game in his breakout season, has not played fewer than 35 minutes in any of the first five Big East Conference games. He played all but one minute of a thrilling 82-77 overtime victory Saturday against Louisville.
Gibbs has been too important to take out of the game — especially on offense. His presence means that the defense has to stay after him and make sure there is no collapsing inside to clog and make penetration from the other guards and wing players. Plus, he has become more than a set shooter. He can come off of screens and curls and even drive and pull-up. The final factor is that Gibbs is one of the most players least likely to turn the ball over.
It has meant that Travon Woodall and Chase Adams are having a hard time getting on the court. Arguably, both are as good if not — in the case of Woodall — a little better on defense than Gibbs. But neither can match the offense and taking care of the ball.
With Gibbs’s defense, substantially improved from last year he isn’t a liability at that end. It’s one of the things he has worked hard at from last year to this.
Along the way, Gibbs improved his defense — “He was a bad defender last year,” Dixon said — and his rebounding (he had eight at Syracuse) and off-the-ball movement.
“You talk about the work,” Dixon said. “Some people will work on the same things over and over again and not work on their weaknesses. Ashton has addressed things that we’ve talked with him about.”
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“Ashton is one of those guys that likes to be by himself and shoot,” Dixon said. “That’s a comfort zone for him. Some guys need a guy to work out with them. He doesn’t. That’s the type of guy he is.”
Dixon said Gibbs’ work ethic compares to Sam Young’s, the legendary gym rat who is Pitt’s No. 4 all-time scorer and a rookie forward with the Memphis Grizzlies.
“(Gibbs) works just as hard as Sam,” Dixon said. “He came with it. With Sam, it developed.”
That work ethic and willingness to do whatever is needed to help a team is arguably part of what has made him a vocal team leader. Coach Dixon spoke of how Gibbs became a team leader on the U-19 team over the summer because he knew what Dixon wanted and no one else on the team was speaking up. That has carried over to the Pitt team.
