In a league rich in backcourt talent, he more than holds his own.
02/02/2003
PROVIDENCE -- At the start of this basketball season, one of the toughest choices Big East coaches had to make was selecting which backcourt players to award preseason All-Conference honors. After all, you can look up and down the league's rosters and find qualified candidates.
The winners ended up being Pittsburgh's Brandin Knight, Boston College's Troy Bell and Marcus Hatten of St. John's. The second team may be an even better group with Notre Dame's Chris Thomas, Rutgers bomber Jerome Coleman and Seton Hall waterbug point man Andre Barrett. The also-rans aren't bad either. Many college teams would love Taliek Brown (UConn), Gerry McNamara (Syracuse) and Drew Hall (Georgetown).
Names like those jump out when you scan Big East lineups. Talent like that can make you look silly and isn't for the faint of heart. Or freshmen, for that matter.
But when Providence College walks into a Big East arena, it does so with a freshman guard leading the way. Donnie McGrath has squared off against some of those big names, stared them down and lived to tell about it. Through more than two-thirds of this season, McGrath leads the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio, perhaps the best stat there is to measure strong point-guard play.
McGrath's 2.93 assist-to-turnover mark goes along with his 9.7 scoring average and 5.05 assist average to give the Friars the steady point-guard play every team requires. The Katonah, N.Y., native says he's enjoying getting ready for every Big East challenge. Pittsburgh and Knight, its All-America candidate, are up next tomorrow night.
"It's definitely challenging, but exciting, too," McGrath said. "It's one of the things I like about being at Providence and being in the Big East. There's always great guards in this conference."
PC coach Tim Welsh realizes that throwing a freshman into these shark-infested backcourt waters isn't easy, but he has little choice. With Abdul Mills out of action all season with a hip injury, McGrath and junior Sheiku Kabba are the players the Friars ask to handle most of the pressure from opposing guards.
"I think there's five All-American guards in our league with Ben Gordon, (Marcus) Hatten, (Troy) Bell, (Brandin) Knight and (Chris) Thomas. There's not a better corps of guards in the country," said Welsh. "For Donnie to be leading the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio just shows the savvy that he has and the composure he's playing with. He's not really playing with a veteran guard alongside him, so he has the ball in his hands a lot. So we look to him to do a lot, and he's done a great job for us."
When the PC coaching staff recruited McGrath out of the Westchester (N.Y.) County suburbs, they were confident he'd be able to help in his freshman season. He's averaged the second-most minutes (32) on the team and is asked to tackle a larger and larger offensive load every game. The 6-foot-4 point guard has clearly been helped by Welsh's decision to play zone defense for long stretches of some games, but he's a dogged defender who hasn't backed down from anyone.
Last week in Miami, McGrath fought through a pick, but caught a flagrant elbow smack from Hurricanes' forward James Jones right in his face. McGrath left the game so trainer Kevin Mahoney could stitch up his bloody, swollen lip, but he wasn't out long. He returned to action and played the final six minutes of the game.
Welsh said he's not surprised by McGrath's toughness. He spent the last few years running with AAU teams in the Bronx and other parts of New York City, showing he's not afraid to test his mettle against the best.
"Donnie has just been tremendous. The thing I love about him is he has a killer instinct. He hates to lose," said Welsh. "He's one of the few players I've seen where (losing) bothers him almost as it does the coach. Kids are kids, they care about winning and losing, but usually by the next day it doesn't bother them that much. But it eats us (coaches), eats our soul until we get a win. Donnie's kind of like that."
It's that type of fire that McGrath will need the rest of this season as he tests his game against the best of the Big East.