This is Rutgers Coach Gary Waters 5th season. Pitt is the only Big East (pre-bloating) team against whom he has yet to notch a win. Overall, Pitt has won 7 straight against Rutgers, the last loss coming in 2001 at the RAC.
While starting Guard Anthony Farmer, a Freshman and the second leading scorer, did not start against DePaul because of a sore wrist on his shooting hand, he did play 27 minutes. He is not expected to miss the Pitt, game, though, he may come off the bench. Farmer is also Rutgers’ leader in assists with around 3.7/game.
Rutgers is playing much better this year, despite losing Ricky Shields. The discussion of Rutgers has to begin and focus on Sophomore Quincy Douby.
Junior guard Quincy Douby has been the catalyst. A 6-foot-3 junior, Douby leads the Big East in scoring with 23.3 points per game. No other player in the conference is more a focal point of his offense than Douby, who takes 31 percent of the Scarlet Knights’ shots from the field.
Douby averages more than 16 shots per game and is shooting 46.6 percent from the field, a high percentage for a guard. The only other player in the league who comes close to Douby’s production is Randy Foye of Villanova, who takes 26.8 percent of his team’s shots. Foye takes 15.3 shots per game, shoots 45.5 percent from the field and averages 20.6 points per game.
“You’re not going to shut him down,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “He’s going to get shots. He’s going to take shots. He’s got range. We’ve done a good job on a lot of guards this year, keeping them below their averages. You can’t let him get going. He’s been very dangerous this year.”
How dominant has Douby been? Rutgers has played 16 games this season, and he has led the Scarlet Knights in scoring in 15 of those games. And he hasn’t just racked up his points against suspect competition.
Douby scored 21 points in a loss to Illinois, 27 in a victory against Temple and 28 in an overtime loss to Villanova, the only blemish on the Knights’ league record. The fewest points he has scored in a game this season is 18 against Maryland Eastern Shore, but he played only 27 minutes in that game because the game was a blowout.
Douby is also hitting around 38% from outside the arc. His Effective Field Goal Percentage is 55.3%. I think you can expect Krauser and Ramon to take turns working on him.
If Pitt doesn’t show some better perimeter defense, this could prove to be a bad night. Rutgers shoots.
As expected, Rutgers main defensive guy Marquis Webb will be dealing with Krauser.
Webb’s defensive assignment may change from game to game, but he usually doesn’t have to look at Rutgers’ scouting report to find out who he’s going to guard. All he has to do is look at the opposing team’s stat sheet and discover the name of the other team’s leading scorer.
One night Webb may be asked to defend an All-America guard like Temple’s Mardy Collins (11 points, 1-for-9 shooting), the next he may be assigned an NBA prospect like DePaul swingman Sammy Mejia (11 points, 3-for-9 shooting).
“Normally the guy you guard plays the same position, but Marquis can really guard almost anybody,” Waters said. “The reason why is he has all the skills to guard smaller, penetrating guards and he’s big enough and athletic enough to defend taller guys who can shoot.”
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The matchup against Krauser represents a completely different challenge for Webb, who is four inches taller but not as quick. The scouting report on Krauser is that the 6-1, 200-pound senior has a good first step and is adept at beating his opponent off the dribble. He’ll draw defenders and either spot up for a 3-pointer (a career-high 42.2 percent this season) or find an open teammate for an assist (4.4). His midrange game is solid, but he loves driving to the basket and is a good finisher.“(Krauser) is a guy I’ve been preparing for,” Webb said, “but whoever coach Waters puts me on I’ll do my best to contain him.”
Webb isn’t giving anything away, but it’s a safe bet he’ll watch plenty of last year’s game against Pittsburgh as he explores Krauser’s weaknesses. Pittsburgh beat Rutgers 66-63 in overtime, but Krauser finished with more turnovers (nine) than points (seven) in his worst performance of the season. Three of those turnovers were offensive fouls against Webb as Krauser was hounded all night, making just two of his six shots overall.
Webb, apparently, prepares for the games by breaking down game tape of the opponent he expects to go one-on-one against.
While Rutgers has improved, the team is still seeking to recapture the true home-court advantage that made the RAC one of the more fearsome places for visiting teams to play.
A win tonight also would signal the return of the RAC wrath. It’s been two years since a ranked team left Rutgers a loser, three years since the Scarlet Knights tagged four ranked teams losers. The fans had the floor shaking last week against Villanova. Junior sharpshooter Quincy Douby said the energy was what he remembered from two years ago — when Rutgers rode a 16-2 home record to the NIT title game — and Waters said, “We have to show we’re going to hold serve.”
Waters tried saying it is too early to start worrying about quality wins and possible postseason appeal, joking, “We have to crawl before we can walk.” And yet, Rutgers will have to get off its knees eventually. The Scarlet Knights have played Pitt tight recently, dropping an overtime decision last year and threatening to upend the then-No. 5 team up until the game’s final couple of minutes in 2003.
“We need to show people we are a good team, we can play against the best teams in the country and we can win,” Webb said. “We have to seize these opportunities.”
Playing teams tough is one thing, winning is the important thing.
Last year when Ramon was having his big game against Rutgers, one of the things that stuck in RU’s craw was the fact that he was nearly a Scarlet Knight. This time, it could be Aaron Gray.
Gray’s emergence as an impact player comes as no surprise to Rutgers coach Gary Waters, who still has trouble believing Gray didn’t wind up in Piscataway.
“I thought it was a done deal. I thought he was coming here,” Waters said. “I knew he was going to be a player.”
Gray said his last two schools were Rutgers and Pittsburgh, and says “it’s very possible I could be in a Rutgers uniform right now. It was that close.”
“I think he’s a presence,” Waters said.
In a piece ostensibly about the 3 Pitt freshmen, there is a good deal of talking about the toughness and way Pitt plays.
It is possible to classify this Pitt team among the toughest, if you judge the decision on Louisville coach Rick Pitino’s comments after Sunday’s loss to the Panthers when he made reference to playing football on a basketball court.
Pitt’s size and strength wore down Louisville in the second half, when the Panthers rallied from a seven-point deficit to take a six-point lead on a driving layup by Antonio Graves, another in Pitt’s impressive reserve-guard pool, with 3:19 remaining.
“It’s how we play in practice, so it’s how we’re going to play in the game,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “A strength of this team is our depth. We’ve said it from the start of the season. It’s a good rotation we have.”
Dixon further agreed with the assessment that teams that want to be successful in the Big East must play with an attitude.
“Any good team has got to have a chip on their shoulder,” he said. “Anybody playing in this league has to have that. You’ve got to go out and prove yourself every night. That’s a common thread in this league. The teams are so good.”
Rutgers actually plays a lot of guys. They have 8 guys averaging more than 10 minutes a game. One more at 9 minutes and another at 7.5. They will have the bodies to throw at Pitt.
