Pitt akin to Hoyas of past

When No. 9 Pittsburgh collides with No. 17 Georgetown today at MCI Center, fans will get an intriguing look at Hoyas hoops philosophy, past vs. present.

Pittsburgh is a team built around the rugged penetration skills of senior point man Carl Krauser (16.4 points, 4.5 assists), the pivot prowess of 7-foot wide body Aaron Gray (13.6 points, 10.9 rebounds) and a host of relentless athletic defenders who tend to turn the game into 40 minutes of basketbrawl.

Sound familiar?

OK, so Gray isn’t going to be confused for Ewing or Mourning. But the Panthers (17-2, 6-2 Big East) are still pure Papa John. They hound. They pound. They bump, poke, grab, bang and generally force officials either to interpret the rules loosely or wear out their whistles.

“Toughness is definitely one of the first things we look at when we’re recruiting,” said Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon, whose team commits the third-most fouls a game in the league (17.6) behind only South Florida (18.6) and Syracuse (18.5).

Like the scrappy blue and gray squads of old, Pitt shoots poorly from outside, averaging just 35.1 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. And they might notch more victories with their will than with their skill. But success trumps style points, and there isn’t a coach in the conference who doesn’t respect the Panthers.

“Nobody comes at you and competes any harder,” Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun said after his top-ranked Huskies survived against the Panthers 80-76 in Storrs earlier this week. “They are physically relentless.”

The Hoyas (15-4, 6-2) haven’t seen a team this season that truly fits that profile. Both Duke and Illinois play hard but not rough. Connecticut dwarfs every team in the nation in terms of talent and depth, but the Huskies haven’t featured a member of the league’s All-Want-To squad since Kevin Freeman left Storrs. West Virginia is the Big East’s most polished squad, not its most punishing.

And while there’s no telling how the finesse-oriented Hoyas will respond to the physical challenge presented by the Panthers, it’s tough to question a squad that has cleared every hurdle coach John Thompson III has put before them.

Since halftime of a 58-48 loss at Illinois (Dec. 8), the Hoyas have dictated pace and style in 28 of 29 halves (all but the second half of a loss at West Virginia) in which they have played. And lately, they have been imposing their will on opponents early, taking an average halftime lead of 13.5 points on their last four opponents — Duke (14), Notre Dame (8), Cincinnati (16) and DePaul (16).

“We have stressed playing with some urgency,” Thompson said when asked about the series of large halftime leads. “Maybe they’ve been mentally sharper coming into games as opposed to easing into the flow.”

The key to another solid start for the Hoyas is sophomore center Roy Hibbert (11.8 points, 6.1 rebounds), who will begin the game on Gray in the maw of the Hoyas’ extended zone. When the Hoyas upset Duke at home two weeks ago, Hibbert set the tone by altering a pair of early field goal attempts from All-American Shelden Williams, who went on to stagger through his worst game of the season (four points).

If Hibbert can slow Gray and stay out of foul trouble, Georgetown’s superior shooting and problematic matchup combo of forwards Jeff Green (11.2 points, 6.4 rebounds) and Brandon Bowman (11.6 points, 5.6 rebounds) should give Pitt fits. But if Green is forced to check Gray, the Panthers will dictate flow and have the advantage.

Perhaps the X-factor is the Hoyas’ edge in experience in big games this season. The Hoyas might not have seen a team as physical as Pittsburgh, but they have faced a higher level of competition than the Panthers, who have played only one team in the current AP Top 25 (Connecticut). The Hoyas have faced four of the top 11 (Connecticut, Duke, Illinois and West Virginia), taking out the Blue Devils in the one home game of the bunch at an MCI Center that has felt far more like home this season than in previous years.

“Whenever we hear that crowd behind us, I think you get energy you didn’t know you had,” senior swingman D.J. Owens said of the larger and more raucous crowds at MCI Center this season. “In that Duke game, the energy we had electrified us to play hard for 40 minutes. … We go only as far as our fans go.”