Our final regular season game against our arch-rival is tonight on ESPN at 9:00 p.m. There might be a chance we play Pitt in the post-season, that is if either of us make it far enough to be in the post-season. We’ve lost the last five of six and Pitt has lost its last two – both road games at surprisingly good USF and Seton Hall (both of whom are ahead of us in the Big East standings).
It is clear that we’re fighting for a middle of the pack Big East Tournament seed and any seed to the NCAA Tournament. Which makes me wonder if Coach Huggins will make some adjustments for the stretch run of five games. Here’s a radical thought: let’s jump in the DeLorean and go back to last year’s Darryl "Truck" Bryant.
By anyone’s standards the "Truck as Shooting Guard" experiment has been a failure. He has been streaky at best, and God-awful at worst. He is shooting an abysmal 37% from the field for the season. And that doesn’t tell the whole story. Against Louisville, Truck Bryant was 3 for 17 (17%), while the rest of the team was 22 for 39 (56%). During the five losses in this last six game stretch, Truck has gone 13 for 54 (24%).
Huggs is loyal, so Truck will stay in til’ the end. The coach will continue to point the finger at freshman mistakes or bad free throw shooting, but the casual fan can see this one for what it is. Truck is a poor shooter. ESPN’s Doris Burke can celebrate his work ethic all she wants, but Darryl needs to stop shooting the ball.
If Huggs "has" to keep Truck in the game, he needs to move him back to the point guard position. Aaron Brown should get the start at the two-guard, if for no other reason than simple three-point shooting. For the season Brown is 23-54 (.426) from three. He probably does little else as well as Truck. But right now the down side of having truck shoot so poorly and so often is costing this team a chance at the NCAA tournament.
Televised coverage of tonight's game is being provided by ESPN and ESPN3 beginning at 9 pm EST.