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Right Combination. Defense is really Mullaney's brand of basketball. He developed the "combination," one of the most complicated defenses in modern basketball. Mullaney calls it "a man-to-man defense with zone principles." The Friars start out playing in a normal man-to-man fashion, but when rival players drive toward the basket, the shorter front men trade them off to the taller deep men—instead of following them in. The idea basically is to nullify a size disadvantage by forcing the other team to shoot from the outside, where height is relatively valueless. "We aren't a big team," says Mullaney, "so we have to try different things"—and lately he has been alternating his combination with a zone press, in which the Providence defenders pounce on the attackers as soon as they reach midcourt, trying to force wild throws that can be intercepted.
"Every team we play is loose. They know that all they have to do is beat us to get their names in the papers," Mullaney says, and he is so exhausted by tension that he has trouble staying awake. His boys do not seem to be worried at all. In the locker room before a game, they lounge around listening to rock 'n' roll on Billy Blair's tape recorder. Finally Mullaney stands up, snaps off the recorder. "Let's go," he says. "We've got some work to do."