Duquesne coach Ron Everhart predicted before the season that city rival Pittsburgh could win its first national championship, and he’s not backing off now that the NCAA round of 16 awaits.
To Everhart, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way for Atlantic 10 regular season champion Xavier to frustrate the Panthers, lure them into a game they don’t want to play and beat what may be the best team in Pitt history during the East regional semifinals Thursday night in Boston.
Difficult? Perhaps. Impossible? No.
“If they can make it an up-and-down game and force Pitt to constantly play transition defense, it’s the only time (Pitt center DeJuan) Blair and any of their guys are vulnerable,” Everhart said Tuesday. “The more possessions they have, there will be more fouls called, more trips to the line, more action – more chance to get a team that relies heavily on four to five guys into foul trouble.”
aches to oppose both teams this season and the only one of that group to beat either, is convinced Xavier’s size, shot-blocking ability and outside shooting could prove troublesome to Pitt.
Xavier made 14 3-pointers while beating Portland State and Florida State, and had 12 blocked shots against Dayton. Musketeers 6-foot-6 guard B.J. Raymond (16.8 points per game average over last 16 games) and 6-8 Derrick Brown (13.7 points) are difficult matchup problems because both can go outside.
The Musketeers also start three players taller than Pitt’s tallest regular, the 6-7 Blair.
Blair, however, plays much taller than his size and is the nation’s leading offensive rebounder. That’s why Everhart, who said nearly two years ago that Blair would be an elite player, is surprised Blair occasionally gets overlooked when the nation’s best players are mentioned.
“I voted for him for the Naismith player of the year – to me, DeJuan Blair does more for his team than anybody else in college basketball, Blake Griffin of Oklahoma or anybody,” Everhart said. “DeJuan’s probably the best rebounder I’ve ever seen. He has a unique ability, like a Dennis Rodman, to put his body between the ball and the other guys trying to get it. He can score inside against anybody and runs the floor well for a big guy, and he creates such a presence inside that it opens things up for (Levance) Fields and (Sam) Young.
difficult matchup in NCAA basketball.”
Fields presents numerous problems for Xavier, which has reached the NCAA regional finals twice in the last five years but lost five of 10 games going into this year’s NCAA tournament. Among those defeats was an upset loss at Duquesne, the A-10 tournament runner-up, when the Musketeers were ranked ninth.
“Xavier might have an edge in depth on Pitt, but it doesn’t have an experienced senior point guard who has played through four NCAA tournaments like Levance Fields,” Everhart said. “He distributes the ball and gets guys shots, and teams that traditionally win national championships are built like Pitt. They have multiple seniors, one of whom is a point guard, and they know how to win close games.”
Pitt also is relatively well-rested after losing in the first round of the Big East tournament. The Panthers have played only two games in two weeks following the relentless grind of the Big East season. A record five Big East teams made the Sweet 16.
To Everhart, the X factor in this intriguing matchup is Xavier coach Sean Miller’s determination to beat the team he once played for. Miller, the son of prominent Pittsburgh area high school coach John Miller, was a standout point guard for Pitt in the late 1980s after being recruited by John Calipari, then a Pitt assistant and now the Memphis coach.
Tech, in the NIT, and he believes there is something about going against your own school that can’t be quantified or analyzed.
“Maybe you prepare with a little more intensity, you’re sharper and more organized – you want your guys to be prepared to play your alma mater,” Everhart said. “For whatever reason, it does mean something. But Jamie (Dixon, Pitt’s coach) always has his guys ready to play, and I’m sure he’ll coach this week with a little bit of an edge, too.”
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