Providence Preview
March 11, 2003 02:46 PM | General
March 11, 2003
NEW YORK – With the exception of Syracuse, there is no hotter team going into the Big East tournament than Providence.
 |
||
| West Virginia coach John Beilein says there will be no secrets between his team and Providence when they meet Wednesday in the first round of the Big East tournament. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
The Friars have won five of their last six games including a 76-70 decision over rival Connecticut, and come into the first round with a 15-12 record.
That’s what is confronting West Virginia (14-14), making a return to the conference tournament after missing last year’s event with an 8-20 record.
Providence has all but locked up an NIT bid, but is looking to slip into the NCAA tournament picture if it can keep on winning.
At first glance, the Friars look like a stretch with its 15-12 mark that includes losses to South Florida, Rhode Island and Siena. But when you consider their RPI (#57 this week) and the fact that they are playing well down the stretch makes it much more believable.
“They’re an outstanding team,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein.
Igniting Providence’s turnaround is 6-foot-7, 240-pound sophomore forward Ryan Gomes, who averages 18.4 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. Gomes is one of just two Friar players to start all 27 games. The other is fabulous 6-4, 185-pound freshman point guard Donnie McGrath, who has stepped into John Linehan’s shoes and has averaged 8.6 points and 4.6 assists per game to make the Big East all-rookie team.
“He’s always had my complete admiration as a player,” said Providence coach Tim Welsh of his freshman point guard. “Donnie McGrath was a guy that was ready to step in and do things. As a freshman you’re going to have growing pains but they’ve really been few and far between with him. He’s been very consistent, he’s a winner, and a tough kid.”
Another key for the Friars has been the emergence of Sheiku (pronounced SHE-coo) Kabba at the off-guard spot. Kabba has stepped up his scoring of late and Providence is 11-1 in games when he scores 10 points or more in a game. Kabba, a 6-2, 190-pound junior, is averaging 10.1 points per game.
“Sheiku has really helped us as another scorer out there on the floor,” said Welsh.
In addition to those three, Welsh has gone with 6-10, 235-pound junior Marcus Douthit at center and 6-7, 213-pound sophomore Rod Sanders at small forward.
Douthit doesn’t provide a lot of scoring, averaging 5.1 points per game, but he has blocked 86 shots this year to rank second in the Big East behind Connecticut’s Omeka Okafor.
Sanders is averaging 6.1 points and 3.2 rebounds per game and was inserted into the lineup just as Providence was making its big season-ending run. Welsh believes this is his best defensive and rebounding lineup.
“The turnaround has been on the defensive end of the floor,” he said. “We’ve played more cohesively. We’ve rebounded the ball better and we’ve given better effort getting to shooters. It’s amazing, one win kind of turned our mindset into a hungrier bunch to go out there and not just play the game, but to play it to win.”
Providence is the nation’s top free throw shooting team making 78.8 percent of its foul shots.
The Friars will be looking to win its first Big East tournament game since 1998. The Friars have yet to advance into the second round under Welsh, who took the Providence job before the 1999 season.
West Virginia has also experienced limited success in the Big East tournament since joining the league in 1995. The Mountaineers have won just one tournament game in 1997 against Seton Hall, and come into Wednesday with a 1-6 record in Big East tournament games.
However, Welsh believes the Friars will face a very capable West Virginia team in the first round.
“They run a very good offense and they have great spacing on the floor,” said Welsh of West Virginia’s offensive system. “(Drew) Schifino is just a big-time player who is probably the most underrated player in our conference. He’s averaging 21 a game in the league.
 |
||
| Providence coach Tim Welsh called West Virginia's Drew Schifino "one of the most underrated players in the league." (AP photo) |
“(Kevin) Pittsnogle is one of the outstanding freshmen in our league that not a lot of people talk about either,” he continued. “He’s a tough match up because they run some good stuff for him. As a big guy he steps out and shoots threes. They’ve got some guys that can bother you offensively because of the system they run. You’ve got to prepare for a lot of different looks out there and you can’t relax on defense because they can burn you in a lot of different ways.”
This will be the first meeting between these cross-divisional foes. Welsh isn’t concerned about the lack of familiarity.
“We have tapes on them because of the fact that we’ve played other league opponents,” he said. “We’re not totally familiar with them but we can learn them quickly. I know John, we’ve coached against each other quite a bit in the MAAAC Conference and we’ve had some great battles. Our systems are pretty much similar from those days. Obviously you’ve just got to try and learn the personnel and try to figure out what they’re doing well and try and stop that.”
Beilein agrees: “Tim’s assist Phil Seymore was with me for seven years so I don’t think we have too many secrets to hide from each other.”
In Welsh’s eyes, John Beilein has done an unbelievable coaching job in his first season at WVU.
“I thought John Beilein has done one of the best jobs not only in our league but in the country,” he said. “He was coming into a program that had lost some kids and had been down last year. I think he has implemented his system very quickly there.”
These two teams have met 13 times on the hardwood with Providence owning an 8-5 record. In its only Big East tournament meeting in 1997, the Friars defeated West Virginia, 76-69 to advance to the tournament semifinals.
ESPN (Sean McDonough and Bill Raftery) will televise the contest set to tip off at 2 p.m.
MSNsportsNET.com’s pregame coverage will begin at 1:30 pm. Be sure to stop back after the game for complete postgame coverage.
