Well, it happened. It finally happened. Down at the half, nothing going our way, and Providence’s second half comeback resulted in a 69-66 win instead of a moral victory. And, not to mention, Providence won in the scrappiest way possible. I mean, 55 total fouls for the game? Each team had two players foul out of the game? What was that?
This, more or less, was the defensive flow between the two teams.
But hey, we’ll get into that after the jump! Continue Reading…
The Friars (9-7, 1-3) visit the Nation’s capital tonight to take on the Georgetown Hoyas (11-3, 1-2). It should be a good one as both teams are looking to build momentum after snapping losing streaks with convincing road victories and log their first Big East wins. To whet your appetite for tonight’s contest, the Casual Hoya and I exchanged some questions.
Below are the questions I posed to the Casual Hoya along with his responses. Follow @CasualHoya and let him know what you think of his responses as well as tonight’s game.
You can find my answers to Casual’s questions on their site.
After five terrible, souring losses the Friars had to take to the road again, this time starting off their two game road trip to Newark to face off against Seton Hall. To say there were concerns about this game would be an understatement. Coming into the game…
But, looking back on those five games something was changing with the Friars. Each game showed improvement. Whether it be through team chemistry, defensive efforts, or general competitiveness, the wall the Friars hit from BC forward seems to have crumbled down to a managable-sized hurdle.
Pictured: How the Friars managed their schedule hurdles
The bad news? The Friars aren’t there yet. The good news? We FINALLY got a conference road win against a team not called DePaul. (Note: this isn’t a knock on DePaul, I just don’t want to be a team that’s not able to win on the road unless against certain teams). Interesting side note: the Friars are now 9-1 in the season whenever they keep their opponent under 30 at the half.
With that said, let’s dive into the win!
Hey Friar Fans!
Tonight myself, Chris Torello, and Danny MacNamara are going to be recording the latest episode of FriarPod! The episode will be available tomorrow evening, and we want to field some questions about PC basketball from you. Some of the topics we have tonight include:
Got a question you want to have answered? Feel you make a compelling argument and your voice needs to be heard (as spoken by yours truly)? Leave a comment or send me a tweet (@TheWarriorFriar) with the hashtag #FriarPod and have your voice heard!
Well…that certainly didn’t go as planned.
Shit.
Starting with Boston College and going up until now something has been going on with this Friars team. We’ve added a McDonald’s AA, a top 100 frontcourt transfer, and a senior preseason All Big East point guard to the roster, and somehow we’ve regressed in all areas. Defensively we’re slower and struggling to keep up with the opposing team in man-to-man, or getting shredded like swiss in a 2-3 zone. Offensively we’re taking more shot attempts and not increasing our conversion rate. Adding more talent to the depth chart usually means you’d be more successful in these areas, so what the hell gives?
After a three game road trip the Friars came to the Dunk to open their Big East home play against DePaul, a team picked to finish a slot ahead of the Friars in the preseason Big East polls. For the past few years both teams have battled to keep out of last place, and after losing to DePaul at home two years ago the Friars got revenge on the road thanks to a last second shot by LaDontae Henton. Coming in as the 7.5 favorites many expected this game to go in the way of the Friars, but just the opposite happened.
Let’s get into it.
Happy New Year everyone. 2013 will unfortunately have a lot less Friarblog in it. For personal reasons, I won’t be running the blog here going forward for an undetermined amount of time.
Although there will be no posts here, I’ll still be active on Twitter @friarblog. Please check there for updates on the Friars.
Go Friars!
Last night’s performance brought a lot of words to a lot of people. Some were blown away by the performance on court, others were touched by the support shown for Newtown with the green jerseys. I myself sat in my chair for a moment after the game, processing the night’s performance in my mind like a highlight reel, and could only come up with two words:
HOLY SHIT!
The Friars were picked dead last in the Big East this year, essentially everyone writing them off at the time with Dunn injured, Ledo ineligible, and a bench about as deep as a puddle. Cooley has made sure nobody has forgotten that this is what they’re perceived as – putting the projected standings up for his players to see. And, while they haven’t won anything yet, the matchup against Colgate was a step in the direction that Cooley wants to see his team move in.
And they’re looking damn good walking there too.
Time to re-examine this team.
Guess who?
Much like Soundgarden, I’ve been away for too long. After meeting so many readers at Brad’s/RiRa’s (and thank you to all of you for the hospitality, can’t even tell you how much that meant to me!) I figured now is as good a time as any to make a comeback. The team is 7-2 and, more importantly, we’re about to have our full roster back. The wait is over – Sidiki Johnson, Kris Dunn, and Vincent Council are finally here!
Pictured: My level of excitement
Okay, so depending on the source Vincent Council may not be back for Colgate, but if not Colgate then soon. Very soon. And there’s a lot to consider with three major talents such as these taking the court for the Friars. After a semester of literally no depth at times, we’re going to add a ton. What’s this all mean for the Friars? Like couples therapy, let’s talk about it!
You know what would clear this up? A sequel.
Well, the nightmare is over. Like a vacation from hell the Friars escape PR with a few injuries but the team intact, and leaving you wondering if Robert DeNiro is still alive.
The Friars left Puerto Rico with a 1-2 record, all three games coming to the wire by a possession or less (except for the last one, which technically was two possessions thanks to some last second free throws). Let’s take a look at some of the key things to take away.
Depth: The Friars came into PR with the depth of a kiddie pool, but played like they weren’t going to see a basketball court again. With Council out the Friars only had 7 players including walk-on Ted Bancroft for UMass. However, Cotton injured his ankle against the Minutemen and the Friars were reduced even further to 6 players for the following night’s matchup against Penn State. Cotton regained health and was able to play against UNC Ashville (thank God) and was the key difference maker, but the depth hurt us in more ways than simply rest alone. Providence had to get creative with positions, especially against Penn State, putting freshman Josh Fortune in the point guard position.
Offense: The offense is something Providence struggled with, especially the second night against Penn State, where nobody could seem to find their groove shooting wise. In a 55-52 loss that went into overtime Providence shot 15-44, good for 34%. Not the worst shooting percentage for a team, but certainly not something you want to see from an offensively talented team.
Where’s the consistency fellas!?
(photo by Kevin Reilly)
As noted in my preview by-the-numbers on ScoutFriars.com, last season’s offense was better than average in the Big East, but it was also highly inconsistent, scoring at least 1.09 points per possession in seven conference games but less than 0.85 in six, including the Big East Tournament debacle vs. Seton Hall. The previous year’s team only went under 0.85 twice and over 1.09 three times.
The offense’s effectiveness was tied directly to its ability to make shots, and so Cooley often went with small lineups to get the best shooters on the floor, which included Bryce Cotton as a small 2 and LaDontae Henton as a small 4. This created more room for Vincent Council to penetrate and score or dish and for Gerald Coleman to get inside the defense. When either of those two shooters was off the floor, Providence was playing a non-scorer (Ron Giplaye or Brice Kofane) or a lane-clogger (Bilal Dixon) as well as Kadeem Batts, who had a very poor offensive season (more on that later). The big lineup might have been marginally better defensively, but it also compressed the offense and made it harder for Council to get his teammates good looks. Cooley sacrificed the defense in favor of the small lineup because his offense was simply not functional without all four of the key guys on the floor together.
The 2012-13 squad figures to have a lot of the same problems as last year’s team — lack of length, lack of depth, but maybe not quite the shortage of shooters. When looking at this squad’s offense, I want to focus briefly on the seven-man rotation that Providence figures to have for the first handful of games and then focus more extensively on the nine-man rotation we’re hoping it has for conference play.
