Into the Friars: Providence cometh

Pitt basketball coach Jamie Dixon hasn’t gone so far as to rule out Levance Fields, but it’s… Pitt basketball coach Jamie Dixon hasn’t gone so far as to rule out Levance Fields, but it’s unlikely Pitt’s floor general will be in uniform tonight when the Panthers (18-5, 6-4 Big East) host the Providence Friars (13-10, 4-7 Big East) at 7 p.m. in the Petersen Events Center.

“The first step is to get [Fields] to practice five-on-five with the guys, and we’ll take it from there,” Dixon said Saturday afternoon. “It’s not going to be a straight line where he’s ready all of the sudden today.”

Fields has been taking shots on the side at practice, and Dixon is leaving it up to Fields to decide when he’s ready to suit up again. For a few weeks, Fields has been targeting the Marquette game on Friday in Milwaukee as his return date. But according to Dixon, it’s still up in the air.

“Right now I think Levance is day-to-day,” Dixon said. “There is no set plan, it will be his decision. When he can go five-on-five and play he’ll let us know.”

Pitt hopes to parlay its thrilling 55-54 buzzer-beater victory against West Virginia last Thursday into back-to-back wins for the first time in more than a month. The Panthers will have to guard against a letdown when they face the Friars tonight.

Ronald Ramon, who hit the game-winning 3-pointer against West Virginia, realizes his team needs to do a better job responding to big wins.

“It was a great win,” Ramon said. “Now we have to get everybody focused. The last few games after a big game we didn’t come back as strong as we want to, so we’re trying to put it past us and get ready for Providence.”

Providence enters the contest on the Big East bubble. At 4-7 in the conference, the Friars are going to have to finish strong if they hope to make an appearance at Madison Square Garden for the Big East Tournament in March.

Like Pitt, Providence has also lost its point guard to a broken foot. Junior Sharaud Curry was supposed to be one of the league’s best guards, but he has only played in one game this season. His replacement, Jeff Xavier, who is the team’s leading scorer, is also struggling with foot problems.

It is thought that Xavier, who broke his foot last spring, might be developing a stress fracture, but Xavier will play tonight against the Panthers.

Curry’s absence and Xavier’s injury haven’t stopped the Friars from generating their offense from the perimeter. Providence leads the conference in 3-pointers made, with eight per game.

Ramon is aware that Pitt’s perimeter defense, which allowed West Virginia to shoot 9-for-19 from behind the arc, will be essential to slowing the Friars’ offense.

“It’s something we’ve been stressing,” Ramon said. “West Virginia came in and shot well from the 3-point line. We have to play a lot better defense from the outside and make sure guys don’t go by us because that’s where the good shoots come from.”

If Pitt can stop the Friars from penetrating, Providence is prone to forcing bad shots from the perimeter, which makes rebounding margin especially important for Pitt.

“We’ve got to out-rebound them,” Dixon said. “I think our rebounding needs to continue to get better, our numbers need to get higher. We only out-rebounded West Virginia by four.”

It will be tough for Pitt to control the glass against Providence, which likes to rotate a lot of players. The Friars have nine players who average double-digit minutes played, which can make them tough to plan against.

Six-foot-11 center Randall Hanke is versatile and will be a tough matchup for DeJaun Blair. Hanke led the nation in field goal percentage two years ago before sitting out last season with an injury. He currently ranks at the top of the conference in field goal percentage, but his scoring is down. Hanke’s only averaging 8.4 points per game.

Providence could use some help from Weyinmi Efejuku in picking up the scoring slack. Efejuku is perhaps the Friars’ most talented offensive player, and he leads the team with six 20-point games this year.

However, inexplicably Efejuku has seen his minutes deteriorate recently, as he’s only played 15 minutes in Providence’s last two games combined.

The one guy whose minutes Providence can’t afford to lose is junior Geoff McDermott.

At 6-foot-8 McDermott is perhaps the league’s most rounded player. He can rebound the basketball, and he excels at running the fast break and getting Providence into its half-court set as a point forward.

If there is a knock on McDermott, it’s that at times he might be too unselfish. He’s not blessed with a great jump shot, but with his size and versatility some would like to see McDermott take more shots than the 7.5 he averages per game.

With 8.3 rebounds per game and 4.87 assists per game, McDermott is the only player in the Big East who ranks in the top 10 in both categories.

Dixon knows how valuable McDermott is and feels that McDermott’s ability to run the offense and rebound the basketball often get overlooked because of his low scoring numbers (10.4 points per game).

“He’s a very good player,” Dixon said. “We recruited him, and I really like his ability to see the floor and pass. It’s a rare combination to find somebody that high in both rebounding and assists. To me I think he’s a guy that’s overlooked because of his scoring, probably.”

Defensively, Providence features a 2-3 matchup zone, so if it wants to pick up another Big East win, Pitt will most likely have to get production on the inside to stop the Providence zone from sagging down on the Panthers’ big men.