Pitt looks to avoid Friar pan

Two vital home wins over No. 11 West Virginia and Cincinnati last week leave the Pitt men’s… Two vital home wins over No. 11 West Virginia and Cincinnati last week leave the Pitt men’s basketball team ranked No. 9 in both polls.

The Panthers know, however, that if they are to solidify that spot, they have to break a three-game road losing streak with a win tonight at Providence, the first of two meetings between the two squads this season.

“We’ve just got to take it one game at a time. We’ve got to take Providence first, make sure we go with the mentality that they’re going to play us tough,” guard Ronald Ramon said. “Every single game is a tough game in the Big East.”

Pitt is riding high into the matchup with the Friars, especially after a convincing win on Sunday. That 89-69 demolition of Cincinnati marked Pitt coach Jamie Dixon’s 70th win as the Panthers’ coach, making him the fastest coach in program history to reach that mark.

“He’s really coming into his own, and he’s making his own decisions. He’s got the type of players that he wants and obviously, a 10-man rotation,” junior center Aaron Gray said. “Everybody’s playing hard and happy. Not every coach can do that. The thing he does best is he knows how to get the best out of his players. He knows how to get people to play and as long as he keeps doing that, Pittsburgh’s going to be a successful program for as long as he stays here.”

If Pitt is going to break the slide tonight and move to 9-3 in the conference, the team’s balance figures to be its selling point.

Along with strong scoring from Carl Krauser (15.9 points per game), Pitt has been boosted by the increasingly solid play of Gray and the sophomore backcourt tandem of Ramon and Keith Benjamin. Ramon averaged 15 points and shot 7-for-10 from 3-point range in those two victories, and Gray averaged 15.5 points and nine boards during that span. Benjamin is coming off a career-high 16 points versus Cincinnati on Sunday, which included a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc.

Benjamin’s performance means that much more when contrasted with Thursday’s scoreless game against West Virginia in which he played only five minutes. Dixon feels that the 6-foot-2 guard’s steadiness will come soon enough.

“We knew when we were going to play three guys at [small forward] that there was going to be a common theme,” Dixon told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of Benjamin. “When you sit down and look at it, his game [Sunday] really wasn’t a whole lot different from some of his others this season. His 3-pointers just went in. Sometimes your shots fall, sometimes they don’t. He’s got the ability to score. He gets open, there’s no doubt about that. And he’s becoming a better shooter. He just has to get more consistent with his form.”

Consistency is something that Providence is seeking as well.

The Friars (11-10, 4-6), under eighth-year coach Tim Welsh, have been hovering around the .500 mark all season and would be the 10th seed if the Big East Tournament were to start today. At the beginning of the month, though, the Friars beat St. John’s, who had earlier knocked Pitt from the unbeaten ranks, 81-73.

Though Providence doesn’t have an official go-to guy, Dixon will specifically keep an eye on senior guard Donnie McGrath, who is averaging 14.8 points per game. Gray will have to contend with 6-foot-11 sophomore center Randall Hanke, who goes for an average of 13.3 points and 2.1 blocks a night. Point guard Sharaud Curry also comes in with a strong scoring average, pumping in just around 11 points per night.

Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be televised by Fox Sports Net.