Justin Minaya's elite-level defense has been on display this week for Providence
There would be no letdown in Chicago after Providence picked up a pair of wins against ranked opponents in Connecticut on Dec. 18 and Seton Hall this past Wednesday.
The Friars smothered a DePaul team that came into this game with a 9-2 record, including wins over ACC (Louisville) and Big Ten (Rutgers) clubs this year.
The Blue Demons came into this game averaging just shy of 80 points per game behind the second and third leading scorers in the Big East in Javon Freeman-Liberty and David Jones.
They had 17 points at the halftime break against PC, trailing by 25 at the intermission. DePaul never recovered in their 70-53 loss to Providence on Saturday.
It was a first half that saw DePaul make just 6-26 from the field with just one assist, while being out-scored 20-4 in the paint. They looked inept offensively, but to hang that on “same old DePaul” is to ignore how they had played through the season’s first two months, and to overlook a Providence team that defended almost angrily over the game’s opening 20 minutes.
When DePaul got to the rim they were met by a sea of Friars, a sea of Friars that then owned every rebound in the first half.
The defensive catalyst, unsurprisingly, was Justin Minaya.
David Jones missed the Butler game due to Covid protocols, and was harassed mainly by Minaya in what was a 1-9 shooting day (his only make was a banked-in 3-pointer before the halftime buzzer sounded).
Five of his eight misses were closely contested by Minaya, the South Carolina transfer who Ed Cooley said after the game was one of the best defensive players he has ever coached — not only at Providence, but dating back to his days as an assistant coach in the late 1990s.
Cooley said after the win that he thought Minaya has been the best defender in the Big East this season.
Hyperbole? Not so much.
We have been writing about Minaya’s defensive numbers all season, but they just continue to improve.
After the win over DePaul, Minaya is now in the 94th percentile in the country in points per possession against.
Opponents are shooting 15-71 (21.1%) when being guarded by him this year.
Pick and roll ball handlers are three of 14 from the floor when being guarded by Minaya.
Opponents are 0-5 when trying to post him up.
Taking him in isolation? Not so much — Minaya has limited those opponents to 1-7 from the field.
This doesn’t account for Minaya’s work on the glass. He grabbed 11 rebounds on Saturday against DePaul, with a team-high nine of them coming on the defensive end. He added 12 points on a pair of 3-pointers, but it was Minaya’s defense that, once again, made a big difference for the Friars.
That Providence was able to win so easily on a day in which Nate Watson shot 1-9 from the field and AJ Reeves played only eight minutes (after hurting his fingers) is a testament to the depth, experience, and defensive identity being built in Providence this season.
It wasn’t just Minaya flying to the ball on Saturday. Nearly everything was contested at the rim, and as a result, DePaul was held to 53 points — 26 below their season average.
For the second time this week, Minaya helped to slow one of the league’s top scorers. On Wednesday, Seton Hall’s Jared Rhoden shot just 4-12 against the Friars. Jones has the third highest scoring mark in the league entering Saturday, Rhoden the fourth.
Defensively, Minaya has been a stark contrast to the players he replaced from a season ago, and he’s quietly been an important reason why Providence is off to a 13-1 start to the season.
Agree, guys. He was really versatile at South Carolina last year, covering really athletic bigs and then scoring wings.
Best defender we’ve had since Dunn. Minaya is an absolute game changer